[MANGA] Itachi - Hero or Villain? (poll)

[Arkham]

Originally Posted by solidguy

OMFG!!!

Spoiler for reply-no beef :D:

While Sasuke charges chidori and smokes some grass

Spoiler for 8D:

Hmm I actually believe that the Uchihas are heavy grass smoker's.
I mean, how else can you get a sharingan?
I'm still trying to activate my mangekyou

[Miles54321]

I will always remember Itatchi as a kind of villian in a way but we all know hes good know anyway ¬_¬

[Marvx360x]

Itachi is really a hero in my eyes.

His story was truly fascinating.. All the shit he went through to save his little brother. The Itachi/Sasuke story is the best of Naruto in my opinion. I don't think I have ever been so suprised about the turn of events in an anime.
I'm not talking about the Uchicha/Sharingan I Wantz your eyes story here btw!

[MeroBAKA]

There is a little detail about what Itachi said that intrigues me. He said he could not use Shisui's technique on Sasuke, because it was stll not activated. What happened 10 years ago to use Koto Amatsukami? It should correspond more or less to the Uchiha massacre, so maybe the truth about the Uchiha massacre is still not revealed.
Maybe the use of Koto Amatsukami is not relevant to the plot, but if it is the case that could mean that Itachi used it to break the genjutsu of Tobi on the Uchiha clan. Since Tobi did not have the control on the clan anymore, he decided to slaughter them.
Being unable to kill Tobi himself the rest of his story is actually many actions, so that Sasuke is powerful enough to kill Tobi.

[Seventh-Path-of-Pain]

i think itachi is a villian and hes awesome and he killed his whole familly he has to be a villian

[HasuMasu]

Well, Kishi deliberately made it unclear anyway...

[iBeast]

Itachi is probably the most feared man in Narutoverse, even after death.

[HasuMasu]

I don't think so, people from the First Hokage's generation would probably take that title.

[Kyero Fox]

I hope i wasn't the only one who knew he was a good guy from the start.

[Shiryuu]

Originally Posted by MeroBAKA

There is a little detail about what Itachi said that intrigues me. He said he could not use Shisui's technique on Sasuke, because it was stll not activated. What happened 10 years ago to use Koto Amatsukami? It should correspond more or less to the Uchiha massacre, so maybe the truth about the Uchiha massacre is still not revealed.
Maybe the use of Koto Amatsukami is not relevant to the plot, but if it is the case that could mean that Itachi used it to break the genjutsu of Tobi on the Uchiha clan. Since Tobi did not have the control on the clan anymore, he decided to slaughter them.
Being unable to kill Tobi himself the rest of his story is actually many actions, so that Sasuke is powerful enough to kill Tobi.

He probably used it on Danzo to fool him into taking only one eye. It's pretty odd that he only took one eye, that would piss off the Uchiha and made them act quicker if they found out. Shisui is probably like Itachi and didn't want war, so he gave his eye to Itachi and let him do the rest.

[User190323]

definitely a hero

[minatolufy]

I think Itachi is not bad enough for a villain, but what he did is because his royalty or his uncorrect believe maybe. Anyway, his killing the whole family of Uchiha is not a right thing. But I guess all his behavior is not followed by any bad willing. Maybe what he believed is something similar to that of ex-Pein who was not moved by Naruto.
Afterall, I do think Itachi could be a villain, but still not count as a hero, so....anti-villain is my choice.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

I don't think Itachi is evil enough to be a true villian, nor is he good enough to be a true hero. If anything, he might be an anti-villian OR anti-hero, depending if you see him as more evil or more good.

You have to keep in mind he did kill his entire family, rebellion or no rebellion. Fratricide isn't exactly what I would call a trait becoming of a hero, no matter Itachi's "noble" intentions. His decision to keep Sasuke alive was selfish, anyway, probably to salve his conscience. If you look at it from Sasuke's perspective, it was much more cruel for him to survive his entire family and clan than to die.

On the other hand, to make himself out to be a missing-nin villian was very admirable, and took a lot of sacrifice and dedication to his duty as a shinobi.

That being said, his current role is starting to become more of a reformed anti-villian than anything else. I'll never accept him being a true hero, but I will accept the idea that he's trying to do right by his village and his brother by fighting on the side of good now.

[Lancelot of the Lake]

Anti-hero.

He did good thing but he also did bad thing.

[El_Negro]

I'd say Anti-Hero but to me it more or less depicts his actions as a villianous

[itachi-san314]

I went with hero but i'm fine with anti-hero as well. there's really 2 types of ninjas. real ones like the ninjas danzo describes as self sacrificing and willing to obey any order for the greater good and then there are the majority of the narutoverse ninjas who actually care about life and thinking for themselves. in danzo's world of harsh judgments and killing machines, itachi is a hero. in naruto's world he's an anti-hero. either way, itachi saw the good in konoha and wanted to preserve it. killing the uchiha was the way he and the leaders deemed best. i dont fully agree with it but a war between konoha and uchiha may have killed everyone.

there's still the whole "save the kids and non-ninja uchiha argument" though which paints him more of an anti-hero I suppose. but we also never really saw the bad wars of the past that they wanted to avoid. the current war is very different since all the good guys teamed up. in the past they were brutal and worth avoiding at any cost.

itachi was conflicted for sure, but since he did such awful things and gave up everything he had for the good of others I'd go with hero.

[El_Negro]

I say Anti-hero because Itachi never stopped the 4th ninja war he helped to create it. A war that involved the whole ninja world and not just one or two villages. It means alot more people are dying in the war he made, than the possible internal konoha war he stopped. He guided Sasuke to the path of hatred that he is now at. Itachi worked for Tobi and the Akatsuki, he fought wars for them, made them money to fund the materials for war, he helped recruit other members like Deidra, he helped get the sharingan eyes needed for Tobi's izangi's (as well as Danzo's) prolonging their life from death/powering up his somewhat invincible jinchuriki paths of pain, he helped hunt down the jinchuriki to complete the Moon's eye plan, he helped to seal the bijuu in the Gedo Maza, he was a fool to believe Tobi would keep his promise and not go after Sasuke, he was foolish enough to think a suprise ameratsu attack would kill Tobi, he was foolish to believe if Sasuke went back to the leaf village that he would be a hero and not Danzo's number one target (Sasuke without CS/MS/EMS). Danzo had Sai try to assasinate Sasuke despite Itachi's pact and supposed instilation of fear by showing up in the leaf village (Itachi thought Danzo would keep his word through intimidation, foolish). Itachi took CS away and without the truth Sasuke would not feel the pain of itachi's death for MS, or ever want itachi's eyes for EMS.

See my original post in http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=109164

[itachi-san314]

Originally Posted by El_Negro

I say Anti-hero because Itachi never stopped the 4th ninja war he helped to create it. A war that involved the whole ninja world and not just one or two villages. It means alot more people are dying in the war he made, than the possible internal konoha war he stopped.

its arguable though, since if these villages were left as enemies a lot of people would have continued to die in smaller skirmishes which would add up. this war has actually united all the villages and offers the first sign of true peace they each have ever had. also, itachi was never in a position to stop this war. and given what we know now, maybe stopping it wasnt even a good idea

He guided Sasuke to the path of hatred that he is now at.

but he made sure that sasuke's hatred was directed entirely at him while he was alive. tobi did play on this though so you're right about that. I guess the question is what itachi's intentions were. being a hero doesnt necessarily mean someone is right all the time and never gets taken advantage of by bad people. your points about itachi's mistakes are pretty accurate but I think it's like putting the cart before the horse. his intentions with akatsuki were actually admiral because even though he was helping them in small ways, he was also holding them back and protecting much larger things like konoha and naruto. of course things didnt turn out as itachi hoped and he was duped, but I still think his intentions were heroic.

to me an anti-hero is more like someone who kills bad and/or necessary people or does bad things for a greater cause and enjoys it. itachi didnt enjoy any of this and felt great pain. like vegeta in dbz after he turned somewhat good.

[El_Negro]

Originally Posted by itachi-san314

its arguable though, since if these villages were left as enemies a lot of people would have continued to die in smaller skirmishes which would add up. this war has actually united all the villages and offers the first sign of true peace they each have ever had. also, itachi was never in a position to stop this war. and given what we know now, maybe stopping it wasnt even a good idea

but he made sure that sasuke's hatred was directed entirely at him while he was alive. tobi did play on this though so you're right about that. I guess the question is what itachi's intentions were. being a hero doesnt necessarily mean someone is right all the time and never gets taken advantage of by bad people. your points about itachi's mistakes are pretty accurate but I think it's like putting the cart before the horse. his intentions with akatsuki were actually admiral because even though he was helping them in small ways, he was also holding them back and protecting much larger things like konoha and naruto. of course things didnt turn out as itachi hoped and he was duped, but I still think his intentions were heroic.

to me an anti-hero is more like someone who kills bad and/or necessary people or does bad things for a greater cause and enjoys it. itachi didnt enjoy any of this and felt great pain. like vegeta in dbz after he turned somewhat good.

I seriously wonder what his intentions were , but in all sense itachi did screw up badly, the thing is that he's getting praised for something heinous (genocide) and many ppl try to sugar coat it by saying it's for the greater good and all that, when there were clearly there other ways he could've gone about it.

Here he decides to kill (both elderly,women, children who were probably unware & innocent of the Uchiha coup de tat) of his clansmen NOT the ones responsible and sides with the main villian who started all this shit to keep him in "check" (failed to do so) and he's hailed a true hero.

He and Shisui who were the elite Uchiha clansmen could've challenged his Dad for rite of Clan leadership and suppress the rebellion and who knows Danzo would've had them running the clan to keep the clan in check set up a puppet leader (Itachi & or Shisui) much like how the US sets up puppet governments throughout the middle east to maintain the strife. Besides Itachi does have the makings of a Clan leader. That's just one means to stop the internal warfare.

Feeling and doing are two vastly different things, just because I feel to do the right thing and don't take action in doing the right thing does not justify me being a good person. It's like saying you have faith in something yet you move contrary to your beliefs, your works justify how you feel or your creed or belief. Itachi did felt great pain that's why he wanted Sasuke to end his life and kill his pain because he believed it was wrong and in the end justice needed to be done for it.

Danzo gave him the suicide/genocide mission he could've gone rogue, he took it upon himself to follow through with the order knowing it would kill him inside and here we now see that he wants Naruto to clean up his mess, lol

[Akashin]

Originally Posted by El_Negro

He and Shisui who were the elite Uchiha clansmen could've challenged his Dad for rite of Clan leadership and suppress the rebellion and who knows Danzo would've had them running the clan to keep the clan in check set up a puppet leader (Itachi & or Shisui) much like how the US sets up puppet governments throughout the middle east to maintain the strife. Besides Itachi does have the makings of a Clan leader. That's just one means to stop the internal warfare.

Feeling and doing are two vastly different things, just because I feel to do the right thing and don't take action in doing the right thing does not justify me being a good person. It's like saying you have faith in something yet you move contrary to your beliefs, your works justify how you feel or your creed or belief. Itachi did felt great pain that's why he wanted Sasuke to end his life and kill his pain because he believed it was wrong and in the end justice needed to be done for it.

Danzo gave him the suicide/genocide mission he could've gone rogue, he took it upon himself to follow through with the order knowing it would kill him inside and here we now see that he wants Naruto to clean up his mess, lol

Up until this point you had a good point and I agreed with you, in that people make light of Itachi's role in the massacre too much and paint it as something done for the greater good (since, you know, the Elders authorized the massacre "for the greater good" but they don't get that lenient treatment), but here you lost me. We know nothing of how succession works in the Uchiha Clan, so by default that's mere assumption. More importantly though, what seemed to be the vast majority of the Uchiha Clan supported the massacre; it is unlikely that Itachi overthrowing Fugaku would be nearly enough to change that.

The main reason people call Itachi heroic, I think, isn't because he slaughtered his clan. It's because he knew it was wrong and knew he was condemning himself by doing so, yet chose to do so anyway because it was the only way he saw (and perhaps the only way at all) to avoid greater bloodshed. I don't condone the action itself, but willingly giving up his life for Konoha's peace like that is indeed heroic, even if the action he performed to go about it isn't.