A peak into Madara's confrontation with Onoki / Mu
Ask Prompt:Â If you are still answering some questions, I was wondering how you understand Madara's behavior in that manga scene where he is in front of Onoki (flashback scene) and him telling others not to mention Hashirama?
[I'm resposting this as, unfortunately, I've lost more than half of my metas, this one included - please consider reblogging to give it a boost! ]
So here's the specific chapter you're referring to - obviously, what immediately strikes as emblematic is Madara's iconic declaration of hostility:
"You bow to the might of Konoha!"
and then, naturally, his following admonishment:
"Never mention that shinobi's name in my presence!"
I think it's crucial to point out three interesting details, the first being that Madara is depicted wearing a hitai-ate with the symbol of the Leaf clearly engraved upon it. It's a rarity to see him donning Konoha's symbolism. Based on this alone, I think we can safely assume that this disastrous encounter transpires well after the treaty, the founding of the village and the nomination of the Hokage role, though the specific time-lapse is unknown (I'll go back to this further along the post).
The second detail which caught my eye is that Madara distinctly mentions 'Konoha's might'.
Not 'My might' and neither 'The Uchiha's might'. It's a curious shift in the manner in which he expresses himself, quite uncharacteristic judging by what we've seen of him in Hashirama's reminiscent vision - it would appear that Madara's role here is to render himself manifest as an instantiation of Konoha's overwhelming power, not as an ambassador with pacific intentions.
The final detail to note is that battle has not yet commenced between the two opposing parties: the building which appears in the background is initially intact whereas in the successive chapters pertaining to Onoki's flashback, it's shown that all seems to be in a ruinous state of disarray, the temple crumbling, utterly destroyed as demonstrated in the successive panels of Onoki's memory:
I'd argue this is important when considering how Madara initially presents himself. Madara doesn't waste time in pointless semantics, he makes a point of emphasising his intentions - bearing down upon them in a very dominant pose, he states that they are to bow to the might of Konoha, implying that :
1) The hidden village is already a tangible reality with a concise identity. In fact, not only is the appearance of his headband with the symbol of the Leaf is telling, Onoki too also dons a hitai-ate relative to his village, further substantiating my point: we can infer that other clans, pertaining to other lands and under the rule of different daimyos, have mimicked the Leaf and created their own versions of these shinobi settlements. Again, I'd rule out that Madara was sent here as an envoy to recruit more exponents.
2) At this historical point in time, Konoha is a power to be reckoned with. The hidden village that Madara and Hashirama gave life to is no longer in its primordial phases but has progressed and evolved into something that encompasses multiple clans and most probably has a defined gubernatorial internal structure - it is an affirmed entity, not something still treading in its unsure baby steps.
This inevitably implies that the confrontation between Madara and the Iwagakure shinobi occurs not only after Hashirama has been appointed hokage, like I said earlier, but after Madara overheard the conversation held between the Senju brothers.
I'm sure that Madara here is operating as the Hokage's right hand man, though it's difficult to assess whether or not the duel that ensues was a result of Madara's poor diplomatic skills or if perhaps subduing the opponents and forcing them into prostration to the Leaf, be it through persuasive discourse or brute force, was indeed the main mission (I headcanon the latter).
It's curious that Hashirama is often depicted as a lovable fool, because he was anything but - he was both a very charismatic, confident leader and a supreme fighter who was well versed in strategics; neither was he a complete idiot, after all, he kept the nine tails for himself, a bijuu that was notoriously more powerful than the others, assuring the village's upper-hand in terms of raw military power.
The thing is, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Hashirama had utilised Madara as a delegate, who's also shown to travel solo for this specific mission, safe in the knowledge that the Uchiha would be more than capable of handling things with his own devices. Again, the fact that he is apparently unaccompanied and wearing armor would lead me believe that the reason behind such a mission had nothing to do with discrete, tactful conciliatory politics. He wasn't visiting them for afternoon tea and a pleasant chat, that's for sure.
Finally, the battle culminates with the defeat of both Onoki and Mu as Madara shatters Onoki's will to, figuratively, 'keep dancing' :
Madara is a very expressive character, his emotions often transpire through his facial features more than through his words as he often doesn't explain himself to others (with the exception of Hashirama). When he experiences severe distress, we're shown and again not necessarily through words - he communicates through subtle gestures and glances. When he feels the thrill of a fight, it's very obvious; his love of battle, particularly one-on-one clashes, is a well known fact and he manifests this fervent passion with some of most outrageous and near-deranged expressions we've seen in the manga [insert that gif where Madara's eyes expand beyond human capability, similarly to how a cat's does when hunting], coupled with unbridled war cries.
So I think that his downcast gaze is quite indicative of his inner, roiling emotions - naturally, this could be me misinterpreting, but I think the last frame is still very evocative, especially if we compare his characteristic glare displayed in the upper panel(s).
His expressions here are stern. His body language seems strangely guarded as he's keened at a slight angle. Not only does his mouth not bend in an illusive smile of victory as we'd expect, it's only barely visible and it's very much the opposite, a sort of despondent frown. He does not look satisfied with the outcome of their altercation.
To me, he looks like a man who is utterly disillusioned.
The words accompanying this frame seem to add some weight to my claim:
"... make excuses for it and even replace it with hatred."
I don't think this is said with random casualness, the mention of the concept of "hate" coming to supersede that of "will" held a profound meaning to Madara specifically so I wonder if these words, spoken by Onoki's master, are perhaps an illusion to Madara, as if he were speaking them himself (probably) - after all, his relationship with Hashirama was shown to be quite fragile and we all know how it gradually declined until it finally shattered.
If we think about it, Madara did make many an exception for Hashirama and continuously suffered disappointment after disappointment (or barrier) because of his nakama's incapability in seeing his promises through - by this point it's like that he had come to a terrible realisation, that he had internalised a damning sentiment : that the village, this shinobi system, this shared dream he once believed, had not at all turned out to be what he had desired, hence his fierce words:
"Never mention that shinobi's name in my presence!"
I see it as a phrase rife with resentment and bitterness - why else would he feel such hostility towards the person who embodies the closest thing to a brother?
Madara here is a man who's dream is breaking and it'll be his downfall.
War is war, and war never changes and neither do the men who are born and bred to perpetuate it. To think Hashirama was an endearing little mushroom who could do no wrong is such a simplistic vision of his character and it attributes an excessive naivety to him - he was a war chief. Tobirama was a war chief. So was Madara. They all were. Their primary language of communication was through a clash of swords. Sure, Hashirama was lenient towards Madara, but he made certain exceptions only with him, in specific scenarios, and only because a deep-rooted kinship existed between them - I doubt he was truly all that indulgent towards hostile villages that threatened the Leaf's stability and/or existence. Hashirama's compassion ends when Madara refutes the village - because the village is everything to Hashirama: it is above and beyond the love for his brother, the love for his friend, the love for his own child (and yes, if we take a peek at the timeline, Hashi was already a father therefor this child he references is not hypothetical - either that, or Kishi fucked something up). The Will of Fire and its passing down from generation to generation is greater even than himself and it's certainly greater than Madara. Hashirama believes in it above all else.
I'm not saying that Madara was reluctant or disproved of these means and demands to render Iwagakure subservient in regards to Konohagakure, that would be blind, wishful thinking on my behalf - what I'm saying is that Hashirama most probably saw eye to eye on this front. Much like Hiruzen would utilise Danzo to handle ethically abhorrent State affairs, I don't see why Hashirama wouldn't do the same with Madara.
The thing is, we tend to purify our favorite characters and fabricate excuses for them (I know I do the very same with Madara), but it's important to take a step back and acknowledge their limits; after all, these characters are (fictionally) human and abide by the laws of mortal, fallible man.
Conversely, the same goes for how people generally perceive Madara; I feel he's excessively demonised, especially when he's compared in counterpoint to the magnanimous effigy they've created of Hashirama.
We tend to forget that humans are walking contradictions, multifaceted and quite literally a linear combination of antithetical aspects and qualities. Hashirama was not a saint and Madara was not the embodiment of wickedness.
Even if Madara had taken things into his own hands, are we sure that Hashirama wouldn't have approved of his approach? I'm convinced he would not have insisted Madara continue to fill his role as the Hokage's main advisor, or shadow if you will, if he didn't believe in his competence and stratagems.
I've also often seen people blame Madara's incendiary brashness as the prime catalyst that triggered the beginning of the great war between the five nations, so I'd like to talk about that as well.
What we do know however, was that said war was a result of major imbalances between countries and their respective hidden villages, some resorting to taking resources from others (harvest, forbidden scrolls etc) - There is almost always an economically-driven purpose underlying most armed conflicts, even if the stated aim of the war is presented as something more noble (we call that propaganda in this house hold). It's important to remember that all shinobi villages abide by the daimyos whims; subtracting wealth from neighbouring countries by incursion was a thing. Poor countries, countries like the land of wind that were barren and basically consisted in endless depleted landscapes, relied on military incursions and the use of their bijuu to provide for the nation.
Madara as the main cause for war? Nah, it's farfetched.
As far as timelines go, the first Kage summit occurred successively to Madara's defection and demise by the blade of his nakama. Considering that peace was established between the five nations, albeit for a limited time and during which the bijuu were supposedly 'equally' distributed between nations, I doubt that Madara's irruption into Iwagakure could have represented a genuine cause for the First Shinobi World War.
So was that Madara's attempt at showing some brand of mercy? Considering his sheer destructive power, he could have easily have smited both ninjas with unparalleled force, obliterating their bodies and their wills... Yet, for some reason, he chose not to.
