Magatsu Izanagi
Jōnin Strategist 🧠
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Itachi Uchiha | Capacity | Truth | Deity
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Introduction
Itachi Uchiha is a character that is often misjudged or misinterpreted, both power-wise and as a character.
There have been countless threads/posts made in the past by people who claim that Itachi is the strongest in the entire NV, for various reasons. And they're not all by trolls.
Additionally, many tend to overrate him, praising him as being flawless.
This thread will attempt to clarify and resolve the above topics:
Part I: Clarifying Itachi's powers, and explaining his limitations.
Part II: Establishing what exactly Itachi represents, and help understand him as a character.
There will be a summary at the end, to recap the major points discussed.
Keep in mind, this is a long thread, comprised of may different points/ideas.
Some ideas may seem unrelated to each other.
There have been countless threads/posts made in the past by people who claim that Itachi is the strongest in the entire NV, for various reasons. And they're not all by trolls.
Additionally, many tend to overrate him, praising him as being flawless.
This thread will attempt to clarify and resolve the above topics:
Part I: Clarifying Itachi's powers, and explaining his limitations.
Part II: Establishing what exactly Itachi represents, and help understand him as a character.
There will be a summary at the end, to recap the major points discussed.
Keep in mind, this is a long thread, comprised of may different points/ideas.
Some ideas may seem unrelated to each other.
Part I: Measuring the Vessel | Itachi's Power
Power
Itachi's capacity is often greatly overestimated. Many tend to forget that what would otherwise be possible for him is limited by:
1) His sickness
2) Going blind from overusing MS
Both these points will be adressed here.
Itachi's power is often taken out of context, mostly due to his possesion of the Totsuka Blade and the Yata Mirror.
Totsuka is said to seal any enemy:
Yata Mirror is said to turn back any attack, whether physical or astral:
With both these weapons, Itachi was said to be completely invincible. Is this true?
Not exactly.
First of all, Itachi needs to be in his V4 Susano'o to use these weapons. That means that he'll only be able to have the weapons out for a few minutes at most in a fight, before dying.
Why? Because of his sickness.
Itachi had an unknown terminal illness, which greatly hampered his stamina, as shown by his 2.5 in the databook under said category.
Should a versus matchup come down to Itachi needing Totsuka/Yata, if the opponent...:
1)Is fast enough to dodge Totsuka, otherwise known as the infamous “Totsuka Blitz”
2)Can avoid Totsuka through means such as Kamui, for example
...then they can outlast Itachi until his sickness gets the better of him, and win the fight.
Just to clarify on his other powers a bit:
Aside from these weapons, Itachi's other main "1-shot" techs are Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu. However, it's already known that some shinobi posess the requirements to counter and/or avoid them, such as:
Ay dodging Amaterasu in his V2 Raiton armour:
Perfect Jinchuuriki such as Naruto being immune to Genjutsu:
Aside from his illness, he will also naturally go blind after repeated use of MS techs:
This means that in a 1v1-style versus matchup, arguments such as “Itachi wins by using Amaterasu, then Tsukuyomi to get him off guard, then another Amaterasu” (just an example, not saying this is a common belief) are illogical, as he will go blind after very little use of MS techs.
Summarizing the above points, Itachi's illness greatly limits his power. A shinobi with sufficient counters can outlast him. Not to mention having to resort to MS techs too often will lead him to blindness.
Itachi is by no means capable of “soloing” top 10 material shinobi with ease. Most top 10 candidates he will either lose to, or beat with high difficulty.
1) His sickness
2) Going blind from overusing MS
Both these points will be adressed here.
Itachi's power is often taken out of context, mostly due to his possesion of the Totsuka Blade and the Yata Mirror.
Totsuka is said to seal any enemy:
You must be registered for see images
Yata Mirror is said to turn back any attack, whether physical or astral:
You must be registered for see images
With both these weapons, Itachi was said to be completely invincible. Is this true?
Not exactly.
First of all, Itachi needs to be in his V4 Susano'o to use these weapons. That means that he'll only be able to have the weapons out for a few minutes at most in a fight, before dying.
Why? Because of his sickness.
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
Itachi had an unknown terminal illness, which greatly hampered his stamina, as shown by his 2.5 in the databook under said category.
You must be registered for see images
I know this isn't a pic straight from the databook, but I don't have one handy ATM.Should a versus matchup come down to Itachi needing Totsuka/Yata, if the opponent...:
1)Is fast enough to dodge Totsuka, otherwise known as the infamous “Totsuka Blitz”
2)Can avoid Totsuka through means such as Kamui, for example
...then they can outlast Itachi until his sickness gets the better of him, and win the fight.
Just to clarify on his other powers a bit:
Aside from these weapons, Itachi's other main "1-shot" techs are Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu. However, it's already known that some shinobi posess the requirements to counter and/or avoid them, such as:
Ay dodging Amaterasu in his V2 Raiton armour:
You must be registered for see images
Perfect Jinchuuriki such as Naruto being immune to Genjutsu:
You must be registered for see images
Aside from his illness, he will also naturally go blind after repeated use of MS techs:
You must be registered for see images
This means that in a 1v1-style versus matchup, arguments such as “Itachi wins by using Amaterasu, then Tsukuyomi to get him off guard, then another Amaterasu” (just an example, not saying this is a common belief) are illogical, as he will go blind after very little use of MS techs.
Summarizing the above points, Itachi's illness greatly limits his power. A shinobi with sufficient counters can outlast him. Not to mention having to resort to MS techs too often will lead him to blindness.
Itachi is by no means capable of “soloing” top 10 material shinobi with ease. Most top 10 candidates he will either lose to, or beat with high difficulty.
Misconception
There are two (of many) instances I would like to address concerning overrating Itachi.
The first is the infamous “Tobi was afraid of Itachi” argument:
Well, that was actually a weak argument built off mistranslation. Here is the actual VIZ scan:
It can be interpreted now that Obito wasn't gonna attack Konoha while Itachi was alive due to his PROMISE to him, not due to Itachi being 100% able to stop him, as interpreted from the other scan.
Was Obito afraid of Itachi? Maybe. But Itachi was just as “afraid” of Obito as he was of him. It's safe to assume that in a fight, they would both be “afraid” of each other, because they both considered each other to be strong.
The second instance I wish to address is this panel:
This panel DOES NOT prove Itachi>Nagato.
It proves that if Nagato is hit with Totsuka, he loses.
Now, in this fight, Itachi was an Edo, unnafected by sickness. He also had Naruto and Bee to help him counter Chibaku Tensei, which he cannot counter on his own. Nagato was also taken by surprise.
However, it's safe to say that in a 1v1 fight where both of them are alive, Itachi would never be able to place Nagato in this situation.
In sumarry, one must reflect on what would otherwise be “manga facts” of Itachi being > another character, as these “facts” were disproven with just a little logical reasoning.
The first is the infamous “Tobi was afraid of Itachi” argument:
You must be registered for see images
Well, that was actually a weak argument built off mistranslation. Here is the actual VIZ scan:
You must be registered for see images
It can be interpreted now that Obito wasn't gonna attack Konoha while Itachi was alive due to his PROMISE to him, not due to Itachi being 100% able to stop him, as interpreted from the other scan.
Was Obito afraid of Itachi? Maybe. But Itachi was just as “afraid” of Obito as he was of him. It's safe to assume that in a fight, they would both be “afraid” of each other, because they both considered each other to be strong.
The second instance I wish to address is this panel:
You must be registered for see images
This panel DOES NOT prove Itachi>Nagato.
It proves that if Nagato is hit with Totsuka, he loses.
Now, in this fight, Itachi was an Edo, unnafected by sickness. He also had Naruto and Bee to help him counter Chibaku Tensei, which he cannot counter on his own. Nagato was also taken by surprise.
However, it's safe to say that in a 1v1 fight where both of them are alive, Itachi would never be able to place Nagato in this situation.
In sumarry, one must reflect on what would otherwise be “manga facts” of Itachi being > another character, as these “facts” were disproven with just a little logical reasoning.
Part II: The Truth | Itachi's Portrayal as a Character
Flaws
By no means is Itachi perfect. Like any good character should, he has flaws.
His main mistake in life what that he wasn't able to trust anyone. He put all the weight on his shoulders, bearing every burden alone.
He admits his flaws to Sasuke and Kabuto during their fight, and admits that he was wrong.
That's enough to show he had flaws.
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His main mistake in life what that he wasn't able to trust anyone. He put all the weight on his shoulders, bearing every burden alone.
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That's enough to show he had flaws.
Evil
Some seem to think that Itachi was crazy to massacre his clan.
Itachi had two choices (it's possible he would've had more if he was able to trust someone else).
1) Stop the Coup d'Etat, preventing the next shinobi world war from starting, by slaughtering his entire clan,
2) OR side with his clan, avoiding having to murder them, but letting many, many more deaths occur, resulting from the next world war.
From these two choices, he took the lesser of two evils. He burdened himself with killing his clan to avoid an exponential amount more of deaths.
Itachi had two choices (it's possible he would've had more if he was able to trust someone else).
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1) Stop the Coup d'Etat, preventing the next shinobi world war from starting, by slaughtering his entire clan,
2) OR side with his clan, avoiding having to murder them, but letting many, many more deaths occur, resulting from the next world war.
From these two choices, he took the lesser of two evils. He burdened himself with killing his clan to avoid an exponential amount more of deaths.
Representation
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Itachi can be seen as a representation of the Shinto God, Susanoo.
-From Wikipedia
Starting to sound familiar? Itachi has Amaterasu in his left eye, and Tsukuyomi in his right. He has the Totsuka Blade.
Knowing this, it can be safely concluded that Itachi is representing the Japanese God Susanoo.
But wait, there's more.
In the mythology, Susanoo is said to have slayed the eight-headed snake, Yamata-no-Orochi. Doesn't that remind you of a certain something?
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Additionally, the Yata-no-Kagami (Yata Mirror) is also from Shintoism. While bearing no relation to the deity Susanoo, it was given to Ninigi-no-Mikoto, the grandson of Amaterasu, as part of three celestial gifts, the other two being the Kusanagi sword and the Yasakani no Magatama jewel.
The Totsuka-no-Tsurugi is actually a variant of the Kusanagi sword.
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And Yasakani-no-Magatama is awfully simillar to the attack Yasaka-no-Magatama (look at the shapes)...
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These three tools were given to him when he was going to PACIFY Japan.
This can be interpreted as putting emphasis on Itachi's pacifist nature, disliking fighting, etc.
These connections aren't a coincidence. Kishi is inspired by mythology and/or Japanese folklore very often in the series.
For example, Kaguya is inspired from the folktale “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter”. If you're not familiar with this, check out a thread explaining it here:
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-Summary/Conclusion-
-Itachi's sickness hampers his ability
-Due to various limitations, Itachi isn't as powerful as often made out to be
-Itachi can't 1-shot Nagato
-Tobi was not actually afraid of Itachi, and if he was, Itachi was just as afraid.
-Itachi had flaws, he wasn't perfect
-Choosing to massacre the Uchiha was a lesser of two evils
-Itachi is a representation of the Shinto God, Susanoo
-Itachi's sickness hampers his ability
-Due to various limitations, Itachi isn't as powerful as often made out to be
-Itachi can't 1-shot Nagato
-Tobi was not actually afraid of Itachi, and if he was, Itachi was just as afraid.
-Itachi had flaws, he wasn't perfect
-Choosing to massacre the Uchiha was a lesser of two evils
-Itachi is a representation of the Shinto God, Susanoo
Special thanks to Vega for helping me gather scans.
Thanks for reading,
Magatsu
This was a very nice thread.=D
