Yamato has the saddest story in all of Naruto. From early childhood to adulthood, in canon, he is never TRULY accepted and included, and he is CONSTANTLY exploited, by everyone, including the heroes, and never appreciated. I love Kakashi, but one of the reasons why I don’t personally ship Kaka//Yama (even though I’m fine with translating etc for it) is that Kakashi’s behavior to Yamato actually really bothers me considering that there is no pay off. Yamato is constantly doing so so so much trying to get approval and he never gets it. He just gets dicked around over and over. One at a time, how Kakashi teases and manipulates Yamato is funny, but as a pattern it’s not funny at all. I just can’t stand the idea of Kakashi letting Yamato sit alone on guard duty like that for years, retiring, and Naruto being basically oblivious, to the point that Naruto, the fucking Hokage, seems almost surprised to see Yamato there in Scarlet Spring.
Yamato just wants to BELONG, he wants BONDS, which once upon a time was the goddamn theme of Naruto. All the other sad orphan boys get to have this (Gaara, Sasuke, Kakashi, Naruto himself). Yamato? LMAO Yamato we’ll call you if we need wood release or a bill paid. Otherwise nobody cares about you, nobody notices the pain you’re in, and nobody wants to spend time with you.
Orochimaru, the guy who had a finger in probably 50% of the atrocities in the series, gets all his dreams come true (eternal youth and the ability to study anything and anyone he wants without any pesky morality stopping him), Yamato gets worse than nothing, and that’s fucked up for a supposed happy ending.
AU where everything is the same but all the men of Konoha 12 retire instead of the women.
Oh, don’t be absurd, Barbie! There’s no evidence that they’re retired at all, you silly billy. They’re totally not retired! It’s just that we spend 95% of the airtime and panel time showing the female ninjas working, and whenever we cut to a male ninja usually they’re washing dishes or mowing the lawn or cooking! And of course dad always makes the meals for his family while they eat without waiting for him to join them, lol. And all the children use their mothers’ jutsus, none of them learn from their fathers. But I mean there’s nothing SEXIST about that! LOL you’re so projecting. Don’t be ridiculous!
I think I’ve finally realized what bugs me the most about how a lot of the fandom characterizes Obito.
Not to say that other people are wrong – seeing characters differently is part of the fun with fandom. But personally, I don’t agree with the view that Obito did what he did because he was in love with Rin.
Maybe it’s a reflection of all my problems with how crushes are treated in the story, but I’ve always been of the opinion that Obito went off the rails because his only friend was killed, rather than because she was the girl he had a crush on. It’s an idea that’s played out in canon, too – Obito only comes back to reality when he realizes that he still has friends, can have friends, and when he and Kakashi start to mend bridges. Love is his driving force in his madness, but it feels more like it’s the platonic kind than the romantic kind. After all, Obito is thirteen when Rin dies; no matter how strong the emotions behind his crush, it was unrequited. She was his friend first and foremost. And Obito accepted that. He wasn’t precisely resigned to her crush on Kakashi, but he also wasn’t up in arms about it. He accepted it.
When people only show what was between Obito and Rin as some great tragic romance, I feel like it takes a lot away from Obito’s character and motivations. Rin was his only friend. Kakashi was a teammate, but they weren’t close before Kannabi Bridge. It can be argued to what extent Obito was rejected by his clan, but he grew up alone, with Rin his only point of focus, the only one who believed he could make something of himself. This was also mostly in wartime, when the village was likely short on adults due to them fighting on the front lines. Obito had Rin and no one else that he felt he could rely on. She didn’t return his feelings, but I don’t think that matters nearly as much as the fact that she did love him as a friend. And when Obito lost that, at the hands of the boy he died to save –
Well. The mental instability isn’t excusable, but it’s certainly understandable.
I’m gonna get a bit death of the author here also because, based on the ending, I’m not a huge fan of how Kishimoto apparently intends romantic attachments to begin, develop, and end (or never end as is more often the case).
What I want to see in Obito’s great face-heel-turn after Rin’s death is that his subsequent actions aren’t primarily about Rin, that it’s not “I want to put myself into a permanent hallucination of happiness with my dead crush and I’m willing to kill anyone and everyone in the entire world to make that happen.” Rather, Rin’s death is so pointless, so harsh, so cruel, such a waste, that it confirms what Madara had been pouring into his ears for the past year: that the shinobi world is incorrigible.
Rin did nothing wrong, within the context of her upbringing and culture, and beyond that, she was as kind and genuine as it is possible for a shinobi to be. And yet she was killed, by her own love’s hand, after having been turned into a container for a demon, as part of a war that was completely out of her control. And yet neither her death nor her life ultimately would have made that much of a difference in that war.
Rin’s death is a critical example of utter systemic depravity. Obito comes, in that catastrophic moment, to agree with Madara that the only answer is to force people to be happy separately, in their own individual delusions, where they can’t hurt each other.
(Now I hasten to add this is what I want to see, what I think would have been more powerful, more logical, better written, etc. The ending abandons the idea of systematic reform and has Obito revert to a “pure” 13 year old boy in the afterlife and rewards him with a version of Rin that is endlessly validating and adoring, essentially making the afterlife almost like the Infinite Tsukuyomi…)
Mitsuki Gaiden is being adapted for the anime which means everyone will get to see Orochimaru being a child abusing fuck in glorious moving colour. While literally no one moves a finger to save his victims.
Me, a genius of hard work: out of Orochimaru’s lab, into Danzo’s training program, into Team Disaster 7, into Kabuto’s lab, literally into a Zetsu, into the Infinite Tsukuyomi where he dreamed of being a valued and respected member of the team…….. into the “happy ending” where he gets to stand alone and basically forgotten watching his very first abuser having the time of his snakey life. for over a goddamn decade what the fuck is this
Orochimaru: “People would be surprised to see me freely waltzing around Konoha doing whatever the hell I want.”
I WONDER WHY
I hate how Naruto just handwaves Orochimaru’s past away. His whole justification is “It’s in the past, but we’re cooperating now.” Apparently Orochimaru is analyzing Danzo’s old research, which is quickening Sasuke’s investigation. Which makes zero sense. Danzo didn’t do that much research on Kaguya and her alien brood. Is he analyzing Sumire’s seals? What was he doing all the years before Sumire showed up? Nobody cares. He can do as many clone experiments as he wants so long as he continues helping Konoha.
Even if Orochimaru is merely reading old reports, the situation is still sketchy. Poor Anko has her childhood abuser in her workplace and she has no clue. I strongly believe that Shino doesn’t recognize Orochimaru in the conference: it’s implied that Orochimaru is disguising his face, and Shino seems more confused/suspicious than shocked. If Naruto hasn’t told Anko or Iruka about Orochimaru’s identity, he definitely wouldn’t tell Shino.
Regardless, there is so much wasted potential with Anko. If she’d been Mitsuki’s teacher, we could have had some delicious drama and maybe even some karma.
Cheloneuniverse 