I dont think Obito was the only candidate to be tobi. Its a bit confusing really. Obito never got mentioned except during the kakashi chronicles. After that still no mention. Tobi could have been a completely random person and it would have still worked. using Madara's name would have helped his purpose of perhaps avenging the uchihas (he survived the massacre somehow). I believe the hype surrounding Tobi's identity was so big and all the speculation behind who he was made kishi pick obito. A lot of people thought it was obito and kishi maybe saw the chance of using him. Lets be honest, there is a lot to swallow with Obito: his surviving half his body being crushed, his sharingan kicking in at such a high level, how quickly he advanced without even madara's training (zetsu withstanding), the reason for his anger(rin?...how about finding out y he killed her knowing HE made Kakashi value comrades). But hey, its an anime and even kishi is not perfect, it cant be easy to write a 600+ manga. The manga is so good and people are letting it get a mind of its own and want their own visions for the manga. Lets just see where he goes.
Agreed. Kishi's a very clever guy, his character development and use of misdirection is precisely what drew me into the series from the get go.
Another example of a plausible Tobi identity in the past was Donzo. (For the record I don't believe it necessarily should have been him I'm just going along with the thread and offering conversation)
- He had a bandage over his right eye, (so you had no idea what was under there).
- He was implanted with Senju DNA so he was able to use the Sharingan better then the original owner.
- It turned out his right arm was augmented.
- His hair/height was similar.
- He was knowledgable of the Leaf Village's defensive perimiter. (9 tails attack)
- He would have known about the seals vulnerability during the birthing process.
- He would have been aware of Kushina's whereabouts (Because Anbu were stationed outside)
- He was willing to do what HE thought was best for the village, and as demonstrated in the past was willing to take questionable moral stances to achieve it. (Become Hokage, call into question the loyalty of the Uchiha/eliminate a potential future power struggle)
- He remained in the underbelly of Konoha, so no one really knew what he was up to.
- Yes he's old, but lets face it, he was pretty spry when he went up against Tobi and Sasuke.
- When Tobi confronted Minato, his composure and overall demeanor was "Calm", "Collected", "Calculating", like Donzo. (I continue to struggle to believe that a 16-17 year old would act like that during all that chaos, especially after that very same character exhibited such polar opposite behavioral traits prior to the attack)
Once again, for the record I don't believe it necessarily should have been him, I'm just going along with the thread and offering conversation.