Itachi is not a character...

Char Aznable

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Itachi is a plot no jutsu.

Seriously, the way Kishi uses Itachi is more akin to a plot device, rather than an independent character.

Specifics:

His relationship with Sasuke. Sasuke's entire character is defined by something Itachi has done to him, said to him or inspired to do.

Sasuke wanted to seek power by any means necessary because of Itachi.

Sasuke wanted to kill Danzo and destroy the Leaf Village, because of what happened to Itachi.

Sasuke decides to revive Orochimaru, who revives the Edo Hokage and elects to go join the Shinobi Alliance. Because of the truth Itachi showed him before he passed away a 2nd time.

Sasuke announces he wants to be Hokage to the K11, and thinks of Itachi after Madara stabs him in the chest. Saying he can't die yet.

Sasuke announces that he will execute the Gokage, Naruto and all the tailed beasts and appoint himself as Hokage. He tells Naruto that Itachi was the "True Hokage" and that Sasuke's revolution will change the Shinobi World.

Shin Jr and Shin Sr both wanted to kill Sasuke because he killed Itachi. Apparently, Shin was an admirer of Itachi and wants revenge on Sasuke.




Then there are the things Itachi does, which function more as plot executed through the writer, than as logical conclusions a character in Itachi's position would make.

Example:

The Sasuke vs Itachi fight.

A. Specifically Itachi sealing Orochimaru and removing the curse mark from Sasuke.
Two things.

1. How did Itachi know Orochimaru was absorbed by Sasuke? The only people who knew exactly what happened were Oro, Kabuto (via genjutsu from Sasuke) and Sasuke himself. This is knowledge a character in Itachi's position could not have had. But Kishi uses specific language to indicate that Itachi was, somehow aware of this happening, and was waiting for it.


2. Itachi wanted to remove the curse mark from Sasuke. Obito says that was his intention during their (Sasuke and ItachI), but again, how could Itachi know the curse mark was dangerous? There are any survivors from the curse mark who weren't presently living with Orochimaru or at one of his bases. This means there was no one to tell Itachi about the corrosive and damaging effects of using the seal; as relayed to Sasuke and to us by Sakon.



Both of these seem more like Kishi wanting to kill two birds with one stone via Itachi. He was done with the curse mark and Orochimaru for the time being and wanted them out of the way. Which Itachi (plot) facilitated via the totsuka blade.

However, that opens up another can of worms, with regards to the totsuka blade itself.



B. We are told anything the totsuka blade pierces is sealed inside the sake jar of Itachi's susanno, which is also equipped with the yata mirror; an item said to repel all attacks. So with weapons that powerful, why does Itachi only use it when plot requires him too? E.g. against Oro and against Edo Nagato. Why didn't he use his spirit weapons and susanno to fight the Akatsuki?

If we accept that Itachi was in the dark about Obito's true goal, or reviving the Juubi and carrying out the Moon's Eye plan. We can't ignore that Pein/Nagato was very clear about what he wanted the tailed beasts for. War. Nagato's plan if you recall, was to gather all 9 tailed beasts and unleash them on every village in the NV. Causing massive damage and high casualties. After awhile, when Nagato believed that people had suffered enough, he would cage the beasts and make the world in his own image.


Now, Itachi is a pacifist and slaughtered his own clan just to avoid a civil war between Konoha and the Uchiha, and yet he silently goes along with Nagato's mad plan for a world war? If the hype around Yata and Totsuka are to believed, Itachi could've made a fight with the Akatsuki to prevent this, but he doesn't. Totsuka is only used when the plot demanded it and Itachi wasn't well enough to make a difference. Had Naruto not pulled a surprise victory against Pein and talk no jutsu'd Nagato to suicide, things would've been worse to the NV.




C. The last thing Itachi does, that facilitates more of a plot role than a character role, is his use of Izanami on Kabuto in order to end the Edo Tensei. It's just too perfect that there would be ANOTHER OP sharingan genjutsu that can affect a person regardless if their 5 senses are activated or not. And it's just too perfect that Itachi, not only knows what this jutsu is but how to use it and explains it to Sasuke how it works. This despite, Itachi never using the jutsu before.


It's like Kishi didn't know how to end the Edo Tensei without killing Kabuto or writing a way for Sasuke to survive the fight with Kabuto, so he uses Itachi (plot) as a way to facilitate what he wants to happen. Again!!!
 

Torche

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/sigh....

Naruto became Hokage because of plot.
Kaguya was revived because of plot.
Minato died because of plot.
Obito became a deranged madman because of plot.
Naruto was an orphan because of plot.
Akatsuki was formed because of plot.

Do you get it..? :|

Every character does things for the plot, and I'm sure anyone could write several paragraphs as to why X character = plot. Simply pointless. :|
 

AGoodBoy

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A. This entire section is based undo your sole assumption that this information couldn't be acquired somehow. Itachi is a genjutsu master, there is plenty of time over his course of years where he could've genjutsu'd persons to acquire the information and they'd be none the wiser since he can mimic reality.

B. This should be obvious to anyone. Itachi can't fight the entire akatsuki on his own. There's at best 5 people in the entire series who can, and each one of those have a chakra pool that can last hours of fighting. Defeating akatsuki isn't a simple matter of popping up a susano'o and stab. Itachi won't be able to Slash all 10 akatsuki in one go, not when there are members who are good at underground, deep ocean and high altitude combat.
Ontop of that, Itachi only has an MS, he can't sustain Susano'o for too long due to; Extreme chakra drain and Extreme physical pain. Assuming a healthy itachi with perfect eyes, who some how still had his susano'o maxed out, he'd be able to hold that susano'o for an Hour at the very maximum. Sasuke could only hold his up for a few minutes while fighting the gokage, and half that fight was with a ribcage susano'o which his orders of magnitude less taxing than the higher levels...

C. It's obvious itachi would have never used the jutsu before. It requires the sacrifice of the eye to do, but that doesn't mean he couldn't know how to do it. Deidara never used C0 before, yet he knew how to use it; Madara never used Izanagi before yet he knew how to use it. To practice these jutsu, you need to sacrifice something, therefore they would learn the jutsu by reading scrolls on them, learniing the signs and mechanisms of the jutsu and memorizing these facts for when the right time came. That's easy to do once you've mastered chakra control, hand signs and the like. The jutsu's aren't overly complicated in either case.
 

RasenUchihaChaos

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Like the last one on how stupid you are

Because let's see the Uchiha clan has two forbidden abilities known as izanagi and izanami but no there is no way itachi could know about an ability his clan used no way at all
 

Zlad

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Itachi deserved to be Hokage even though he was an Uchiha. It's kinda like two clans in one;

Madara's will (Obito etc)

Kagami's will (Itachi etc)

Sasuke choose Itachi's way and you see how he became now. He deserve to be Hokage as well
 
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Char Aznable

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/sigh....

Naruto became Hokage because of plot.
Kaguya was revived because of plot.
Minato died because of plot.
Obito became a deranged madman because of plot.
Naruto was an orphan because of plot.
Akatsuki was formed because of plot.

Do you get it..? :|

Every character does things for the plot, and I'm sure anyone could write several paragraphs as to why X character = plot. Simply pointless. :|
There is a difference between plot and story.


A story involves themes, motifs and ideas working with the plot and coming to a resolution in the end.

e.g. Naruto is about a boy who dreams of becoming the strongest in his village, receiving acknowledgment from those around him, and experiences a series of adventures and life lessons on his journey toward his goal and finally achieving all he set out to accomplish and more.


The plot is a series of actions or events that take place in a story.

e.g.: A young boy aspires to be the strongest and has adventures and combats evil to make it happen.
Now, am I talking about Naruto, Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter?



The plot of Naruto, with regards to Sasuke is to get power by any means and use it against his enemies. Who those enemies are, changes with Sasuke's mood. Remove Itachi from Sasuke's story, and does Sasuke still have a character? I don't think so. That's why i find it problematic.
 

Praydara

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Itachi is a side-character... of course he's there to help build the plot? Considering how you just listed Itachi's actions without any attempt at putting context into them, I'll try to explain. Itachi's character is an enormously important character in Sasuke's arc. Without him, Sasuke would have no initial motivation to start with. Without Itachi, there would be no revenge quest in the first place, so without Itachi there would be no plot.

The first half of this post is basically just "Itachi is important to Sasuke, and thus Sasuke thinks of him often". So, is Minato a plot device because Naruto thinks of him often? Is Naruto a plot device in Gaiden/Boruto the Movie because he's important to Boruto's character? A character being central to another character doesn't make said character a plot device. Moving on.

Itachi during the Orochimaru fight. It's easy to get how he saw Orochimaru's chakra. Itachi has the Sharingan, a dojutsu that allows him to see the chakra system. He's seen Oro's chakra before, so he clearly sees Oro's chakra manifesting in Sasuke, and thus wants to get rid of it because Orochimaru is a big scary snake ****er who could mess with things. Having an OP power (Totsuka Blade) doesn't make him a plot device either, it just means he's powerful in a shonen manga. Because he served the purpose of getting rid of Orochimaru doesn't make him a plot device. It makes perfect sense why he'd want to get rid of Orochimaru, given whats revealed about him later.

He didn't want to fight Akatsuki. By the time he killed his clan, Itachi gave up on using his own power to save the world. At that point, he was a criminal, and he wanted to use Akatsuki to make Sasuke into a hero. If he weren't in Akatsuki, he would just be another criminal on the run. Being part of Akatsuki gave him more notoriety, thus when Sasuke kills him it'll be all the more notable that he did. He didn't "go along" with Nagato's plan.

Does it have holes in it? Yes, obviously. Naruto has plot holes all over the place. But just because Itachi was used to get rid of Kabuto doesn't make him an interesting character, rather than a simple plot device.
 
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Chie

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This story was basically about Naruto's and Sasuke's intense friendship (NaruSasu/SasuNaru ayeeeee) so every character besides them was a plot device at some point. Itachi still had some depth and character development- he's a character.

Then there are the things Itachi does, which function more as plot executed through the writer, than as logical conclusions a character in Itachi's position would make.

Example:

The Sasuke vs Itachi fight.

A. Specifically Itachi sealing Orochimaru and removing the curse mark from Sasuke.
Two things.

1. How did Itachi know Orochimaru was absorbed by Sasuke? The only people who knew exactly what happened were Oro, Kabuto (via genjutsu from Sasuke) and Sasuke himself. This is knowledge a character in Itachi's position could not have had. But Kishi uses specific language to indicate that Itachi was, somehow aware of this happening, and was waiting for it.
Akatsuki meetings. At the end of part one, Zetsu told the group that Sasuke had joined Orochimaru. Then, in Shippuden he told them that Sasuke was fighting Deidara, meaning he had left Orochimaru. He wouldn't have been able to leave unless he defeated him. And they also knew given it was public news.

Who didn't know that Sasuke had defeated Orochimaru at that point? It'd actually be more surprising had Itachi not known.

2. Itachi wanted to remove the curse mark from Sasuke. Obito says that was his intention during their (Sasuke and ItachI), but again, how could Itachi know the curse mark was dangerous? There are any survivors from the curse mark who weren't presently living with Orochimaru or at one of his bases. This means there was no one to tell Itachi about the corrosive and damaging effects of using the seal; as relayed to Sasuke and to us by Sakon.
Since when is anything from Orochimaru good? Everyone knows that those are just left to test the strength of the body Orochimaru is interested in before he can take them over. That would need to go. No one needs to blatantly say it.

Both of these seem more like Kishi wanting to kill two birds with one stone via Itachi. He was done with the curse mark and Orochimaru for the time being and wanted them out of the way. Which Itachi (plot) facilitated via the totsuka blade.

However, that opens up another can of worms, with regards to the totsuka blade itself.



B. We are told anything the totsuka blade pierces is sealed inside the sake jar of Itachi's susanno, which is also equipped with the yata mirror; an item said to repel all attacks. So with weapons that powerful, why does Itachi only use it when plot requires him too? E.g. against Oro and against Edo Nagato. Why didn't he use his spirit weapons and susanno to fight the Akatsuki?
Every time an Akatsuki member was killed pre-story... they were replaced. Kakuzu went through three partners. It'd only help to eliminate every single one. Even with his weapons, I don't see this as a plausible feat for Itachi. I also don't see Zetsu failing to alert other members to his presence if Itachi attempted this. Itachi just lacks the raw firepower Pein always had and the ridiculously hax MS jutsu like kamui that Obito had.

If we accept that Itachi was in the dark about Obito's true goal, or reviving the Juubi and carrying out the Moon's Eye plan. We can't ignore that Pein/Nagato was very clear about what he wanted the tailed beasts for. War. Nagato's plan if you recall, was to gather all 9 tailed beasts and unleash them on every village in the NV. Causing massive damage and high casualties. After awhile, when Nagato believed that people had suffered enough, he would cage the beasts and make the world in his own image.


Now, Itachi is a pacifist and slaughtered his own clan just to avoid a civil war between Konoha and the Uchiha, and yet he silently goes along with Nagato's mad plan for a world war? If the hype around Yata and Totsuka are to believed, Itachi could've made a fight with the Akatsuki to prevent this, but he doesn't. Totsuka is only used when the plot demanded it and Itachi wasn't well enough to make a difference. Had Naruto not pulled a surprise victory against Pein and talk no jutsu'd Nagato to suicide, things would've been worse to the NV.
His Susano'o is a trump card alone and those weapons were only used in conjunction with it. I think it's just empty hype though. The character himself even said that everything has a weakness.

C. The last thing Itachi does, that facilitates more of a plot role than a character role, is his use of Izanami on Kabuto in order to end the Edo Tensei. It's just too perfect that there would be ANOTHER OP sharingan genjutsu that can affect a person regardless if their 5 senses are activated or not. And it's just too perfect that Itachi, not only knows what this jutsu is but how to use it and explains it to Sasuke how it works. This despite, Itachi never using the jutsu before.


It's like Kishi didn't know how to end the Edo Tensei without killing Kabuto or writing a way for Sasuke to survive the fight with Kabuto, so he uses Itachi (plot) as a way to facilitate what he wants to happen. Again!!!
We discussed this before. ~ But yes, it was very convenient. It makes sense in the context that Izanagi existed prior in the story and would need a counter. Though, the story would be better off without both.
 
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