But before his death, when he was weakened, he still had the will/power to split the juubi and also he chose his younger son (who seemed kinder) to be the next leader. Those aren't traits of an evil man.
Nice observation. People who lead lives of evil sometimes look back and make these kinds of radically different decisions and actions at the end when confronted with the finality of their inevitable death, as if they were a different person, in one last act of cathartic release. That's a possible argument against this statement.
However, I agree, even his actions in life don't seem to me to portray him as evil and it's more people about interpreting them that way. His entire mission of teaching the world ninjutsu was to try to bring about peace and a better way of life to people around him, which is consistent with why he broke tradition and chose his younger son to succeed him (who believed in peace), in addition to his accomplishments (Juubi, the moon, 9 Bijou, etc).
With Kishi, you can never rule anything out (He did drop the Itachi is good bomb on us out of no where), but I think it's highly unlikely depending on how you look at his life from his teachings through his final acts on his death bed. :shrug:
Peace
@natssuu
Well Sage had the same ideals as his younger son, who said that love brings peace to the world. Sage wasn't evil, but Jubi was IMO.
Good points. That would be an interesting twist if he couldn't handle the malice of the 10-tails, and if it influenced him, that he couldn't design a seal and/or his chakra wasn't strong enough, yet people expect someone like Naruto to be able to possibly take on such a burden. The more I think about the Juubi, the more disturbing I find it due to its power and malice. Naruto is the main character with supposedly the sage's chakra as well as his own powers of persuasion and all, but I wonder since he has yet to get the Kyuubi to turn the corner, albeit it's been a short and busy time.
P.S. I'm just throwing this out there as
pure speculation because I don't think that Madara will be able to control the Juubi for a substantial period of time as a Jinchuuriki, and I wonder if Juubi host has to be pure hearted like Naruto in order for this to work or otherwise the Juubi will take over. I know it's corny, but it seems like such a story no jutsu hax Kishi is famous for.
Peace.
