.... Not being able to use any jutsu other than Kamui rules out all the other candidates when we stick to what is known and logical. :shrug:
And yeah there's the age issue and other things, but if one believes Kishi could be trolling Obito theorist, I don't know why they refuse to believe that they are the ones being trolled by following such logic in a manga when logic has already been disproved.
first of, sorry for editing your post, just wanted to make it a bit smaller for practical reasons.
as far as the above two quotes are concerned it seems that you are contradicting yourself a little bit. in the first part when you are trying to rule out all the possible candidates, you claim there is some sort of logic in the manga based on what we know and can understand, but in the second quote you go on and claim that logic has been disproved many times in the manga... which one is it?
And actually, it's pretty obvious Kishi planned from the beginning on relating Tobi to Obito in some way. It's just that all the pieces are now falling into place as he had planned.
He most likely already had it set in stone that Tobi's eye=Obito's, and Obito theorist was saying this as well; but was still laughed at with remarks such as "Kishi is obviously trolling".
And even now, Kishi is not really hinting at Tobi=Obito, but more so Tobi has Obito's eye (This is what he's trying to make it look like).
it's pretty obvious he is using Obito's eye, but Kishi had also gone to great lengths to present Tobi as Madara and he hasn't disproved that either. though, i do agree that he is heavily hinting at Tobi got Obito's eye. imo Kishi will not risk badly trolling, permanently dividing and possibly losing part of his fanbase over a character's ID. so, I am not expecting anything radical for Tobi.
It is no good using the "too old" argument to take down the theory of who Tobi is. "Too young" is ok. But too old is not.
really, why...? there is a pretty firm timeline about Tobi and he seems to have been around for some time to be 'too old' to be some people and 'too young' to be other people.
People can be ressurected. I hate it when I read "But Izuna died!" so what? We haven't seen him being edo-tenseied and so he is a likely candidate. Same goes for Obito but I think in his case the "too young" applies. The ones where "too old" can't apply are also the SO6P and the Uchiha ancestor. They are also possible candidates for Tobi. We have not seen them ressurected and afterwards sealed into the death god. Ressurected either through the Tobirama technique or through the rinnegan technique. Age in the sense that somebody is too old just makes no sense. We have Madara on the battlefield and he is not old. Same way we can have Izuna (the most likely candidate), Kagami, SO6P (it would be cool. The guy lost his faith. Was good at first but then just lost it. However, I do know that Tobi's "I am the third" kinda knocks that one down) or his elder son all fit nicely. Obito was too young during the fox attack and the first appearence of Tobi. The eye proves nothing. They switch and trade them like cards.
There is also the mystery of Tobi's Zetsu limbs. My theory is that Izuna was revived by Madara through the Rinnegan and continued in his name. During that time he continued getting old because unlike the edo tensei, when the samsara (or whatever, that rinnegan revival technique is used) the person might get too old. But it is strange that if we think that the fox attack was the first appearence of Tobi, then why did he already have the Zetsu limb(s)?
Another question is: why didn't Tobi (if Izuna or whoever, if working together with Madara) resurrect Madara? Why wait? Was the plan to have Madara resurrected by Nagato after the Jubbi is reconstructed? And why involve Nagato? So much to still be found out...
The only thing I basically want to say is that people need to stop with two things: The "his eye(s)" argument and the "too old"/"dead" argument. Eyes can be traded, and dead people (who would be old if just continued living without interrupting) can be resurrected in two ways and so the timeline is fine.
dude, even though it appears otherwise due to Kabuto's brilliant idea... nobody actually spams edo tensei and even more so rinne tensei in the manga. apart from Orochimaru and Kabuto, I can't recall anyone else shown using that technique (we know of Tobirama, but he was not shown in the manga) and only Nagato used ONCE rinne tensei. advanced techniques are not often used and usually not a lot of people know how to perform them.
another thing to keep in mind is that according to Nagato rinne tensei has to be performed within a time limit after the person died, not just any time. that regarding the Izuna theory. in order for Madara to bring his brother back via rinne tensei he would have to have the VERY least a living part of Izuna and as Madara awoke the rinnegan after his final battle against Hashirama and shortly before he died, the time frame moves very far away from a living Izuna or living parts of his chakra or anything that could have preserved him. Madara even admitted about his brother's death and was very pissed about it, even almost a century later!
we also know that Kabuto brought back Madara as he was in his prime and even stronger, meaning Kabuto did a few twiches here and there. Madara is not a good edo tensei example as he is not your typical edo tensei.
as far as why wait for Nagato to grow and all of that, most likely Nagato was a good candidate and he had the chakra necessary to both preserve the eyes and use them. Tobi might not have as much chakra. and imo he doesn't. said it before, but why not repeat it: Tobi could simply be a 'nobody' an artificial person, like Zetsu, made from Madara's chakra and Hashirama's DNA hence his compatibility with the tree grown from Hashirama's DNA... it's rather hard to imagine that anyone who loses an arm can just waltz right in and grow and take a new limb.
but i do agree that people trade eyes like cards, as you said.