Naruto: In Defense of the Uchiha Clan

The Uchiha Clan before the alliance with the Senju.

At the risk of facing significant backlash from followers of the Naruto manga/anime, I come forward to openly state that I am a fan of the Uchiha Clan. I love their character designs, empathize with some of the views espoused by its more vocal members, and enjoy the lore surrounding them and the powers they wield. I could go on and on about what I love about individual members Madara and Itachi, but you’ll want to contact me privately if you want that dissertation. Here, I wish to analyze the Uchiha along with their perceptions among the fanbase and their place in the realm of philosophical discourse. Ultimately, I hope to make the case that the Uchiha Clan gets a worse rap than it deserves.

For those not in the know, Naruto is a widely-acclaimed shounen manga by Masashi Kishimoto that has spawned an anime adaptation along with several movies and games of varying popularity. The titular character is a young ninja with a penchant for mischief and grand dreams of leading his village of ninja into an era of peace and understanding. With over 600 chapters and 300 episodes, there’s far more to it than can be described here, but the curious can find more information conveniently compiled on the Naruto wiki, Narutopedia.

The Uchiha Clan survivors.
The Uchiha survivors, ever at odds.

Many “clans” (read: families) exist within the realm of Naruto, but none more infamous than the Uchiha Clan, who boast a long history of producing many of the Naruto world’s most feared and powerful ninja. The Uchiha are revered for their powerful chakra (essentially the “chi,” the “ki,” or the “magic fuel” of Naruto), their natural aptitude for martial pursuits, and above all, their Sharingan, an ocular power that grants them access to a host of abilities: copying enemy techniques/skills, hypnotizing foes, and more. By the time the series starts, the Uchiha have been rendered near-extinct, slaughtered wholesale by one of their own. Only the killer and his younger brother remain (at first), and the stated mission of the latter is to kill the former and “restore the clan.”

Ask any random sample of Naruto fans how they feel about the Uchiha Clan, and you’re likely to find the majority opinion to be on the negative side; whether because of their smug dispositions, their “undeserved” prominence in the plot, or their plethora of powers, Naruto viewers/readers are generally quick to express their disdain for the clan and its most prominent members, and it is not difficult for them to find their opinion validated in canon; after all, the Uchiha are painted as villainous within the world of Naruto as well.

Through their ancestor and founder Ōtsutsuki Indra, the Uchiha are directly descended from the legendary originator of the chakra that characters in Naruto use to do battle (long story). They have this in common with the Senju Clan, a similarly-defunct family of shinobi descended from Indra’s brother Asura. Indra and Asura had something of a Cain and Abel relationship, the former attempting to kill the latter over issues of favoritism, and this relationship is carried on by their descendants; each clan became recognized as the only one that could challenge the other.

It is here when protagonist-centered morality begins to show itself in the world of Naruto. The Uchiha, believing like their ancestor that power is the key to bringing about peace, became a warrior clan unrivaled by any other, routinely defeating enemies and forcibly integrating them to increase their numbers and power. The Senju, believing like their ancestor that love is the key to bringing about peace…became a warrior clan unrivaled by any other, routinely defeating enemies and forcibly integrating them to increase their numbers and power. Yeah. You can probably see where this is going by now.

The Uchiha are sure of themselves, but only because they consistently prove themselves to be the best of the best. They are cold and aloof, but only because they live in a world where emotional displays can prove to be a liability. They want what all clans want: peace and safety for the people they hold dear. They are willing to fight to get it, to dirty their hands in pursuit of their ideal of peace. They differ from the Senju only in that they openly acknowledge and embrace their search for power, refusing to stand on the pretense of moral superiority in favor of seeking more tangible victories, and for that, they are vilified.

The Uchiha serve as an effective allegory for one of America’s own historically-oppressed minorities, the Native Americans, with the Senju standing in for the European settlers. In both cases, you have two groups of people who set aside their differences in order to build a society: the Uchiha and the Senju eventually came together to found the “hidden village” where the tale of Naruto begins, and Native Americans helped the Europeans survive and build their colonies in North America. In both cases, one side began to mistrust and manipulate the other, and any protest on the part of the victim was touted as a manifestation of inherent greed and savagery by the oppressor.

That these people had dreams, families, needs, and rights stopped mattering as soon as those things conflicted with the desires of the “victors.” To the Europeans who became the Americans, “Manifest Destiny” was more important than the rights of the Native Americans. To the Senju, the “Will of Fire” was more important than the rights of the Uchiha.

The Uchiha and Senju Clans, united.
Peace between the Uchiha and the Senju led to the ruin of the former.

The natural rebuttal is that the Uchiha, visibly violent as they are (or were), are unworthy of the comparison, but as I have pointed out, they differ from their equal and opposite the Senju only in ideology. Their leader aside, the Senju at large were every bit as violent and power-hungry as the Uchiha are claimed to be. Despite their sweet words, they and their ilk eventually fulfilled the fears of the Uchiha Clan, steadily decreasing the Uchiha’s role in governing the village and having them slaughtered when they would no longer take the mistreatment lying down. Regardless, the Senju are remembered by and large as the noblest of heroes, just as the near-genocidal settlers and colonists of old. As the old adage goes, “history is written by the winners.”

Viewed through a philosophical lens, the ideals of the Uchiha can be construed as an examination of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy of the “will to power”. Nietzsche did not take stock of perceptions of good and evil, but instead theorized that it was a natural part of man’s nature (and, indeed, the nature of all living things) to seek to possess the greatest amount of power over one’s self and one’s surroundings so as to minimize and, ultimately, eliminate suffering. Believing that power is the key to peace, the Uchiha act in accordance with this philosophy, with their once leader and most legendary member, Naruto antagonist Uchiha Madara, seeking to utilize a technique that will grant him complete power over all living minds in the world so that he might create a dream world free of pain and suffering: “a world without losers.”

“The ends justify the means,” one might say, but to the protagonist of Naruto and his allies, who hold to the ideals of the Senju (the Senju themselves are inexplicably absent from the setting of the story), this is an unacceptable dictum; if the means are “evil,” then so, too, is the outcome. This is the key factor in Kantian ethics (named for 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant): that there are certain acts which are evil unto themselves regardless of the positive effects one might achieve by performing them. The Senjulings (my new word for adherents to Senju philosophy; trademark pending!) have no answer to the question of how peace might be achieved. How can they? All of their greatest representatives died without seeing peace achieved no matter how strongly they believed in it, and is highly unlikely that no new conflicts will ever arise after Naruto himself has passed. All they do know is that Madara’s answer is inherently immoral even if it might technically work, and that is all they need to know to fight tooth and nail to keep it from coming to fruition.

All this to say that there is far more to the Uchiha-Senjulings conflict than is commonly acknowledged, though the manga itself, true to the nature of shounen, has not and likely will not address such complexities at length. We can all freely sit and watch as the Uchiha are demonized and the Senjulings exalted, the flourishing society of the latter rising up atop a foundation comprised of the corpses and tears of the former; however, I, for one, find that course of action unsatisfying.

The allegory is one that repeats itself throughout human history, even into the present day: how often do the rich accuse the poor of being self-entitled leeches? How often do we see one racial group accusing another of being universally more violent or inherently cruel? How often do we see those who have achieved success make the implication that anyone who has not simply does not work hard enough?

Each case stands as an example of the ultimate attribution error, a type of cognitive bias wherein entire groups of people–whether a race, a culture, or an economic class–are stereotyped under any number of negative perceptions by members of an alternate group, who see themselves in a much more positive light. It is a prejudice that rears its ugly head again and again in modern discourse, and it even accounts for those who prove it inaccurate: they are simply written off as “exceptions.” They worked harder than the others, they distanced themselves from the others, or were simply luckier than the others. The possibility that “the others” are as they are due to generational wounds and/or oppressive circumstances is ignored, as is the possibility that the prejudiced are as they are due to being free of those wounds and circumstances.

The last of the Uchiha.
Regardless of individual trials and tribulations, members of the Uchiha are commonly regarded as power-hungry and selfish.

The occurrence of the ultimate attribution error in Naruto is no clearer than when applied to the Uchiha survivors Itachi and Sasuke. Those familiar with the characters know that Itachi, inspired by his cousin and idol, developed an ideal of peace more in line with the Senju’s Will of Fire, and in defense of that ideal, he slaughtered his entire clan, save his younger brother Sasuke, when he feared that they might threaten it. Sasuke suffered all the resulting losses and traumas before he was old enough to even properly formulate an ideal of peace, and as a result, he grew up cold, distant, and above all, vengeful. Each of them understandably carries a great emotional weight, but in-story and among the fanbase, the one who sacrificed his family to protect his allies is remembered as a self-sacrificing hero while the one who sacrificed his bonds with his allies to avenge his family is considered “a typical Uchiha.” It is telling that this perception holds true until Sasuke ultimately decides not to avenge his family, at which point he is considered to have risen above his clan’s “curse.”

To think of the central conflict of Naruto as “one side is good, the other side is evil” is to oversimplify it; as in the real world, a person’s actions cannot be viewed as the sole determinants as how they might like the world to be. Upbringing and experiences have as much to do with determining a person’s will as do inherent personality traits, and in Naruto, the world has shown time and time again that the methods the Uchiha choose are the methods most likely to yield tangible results. I do not claim to know whether the Uchiha or the Senjulings are “right.” But, if I had to guess which clan might succeed in creating an actual, lasting peace, my money would be on the Uchiha. Which clan would you choose?

What do you think? Leave a comment.

Posted on by
Novelist, screenwriter, game designer, and would-be philosopher living in sunny Central Florida. I'll actually finish writing a whole story one o' these days xP .

Want to write about Anime or other art forms?

Create writer account

47 Comments

  1. Jemarc Axinto

    I love the article. I find it interesting that you strongly believe that the Uchiha could create ever-lasting peace so I suppose my next question is, do you think it’d be peace that is rightfully gained? After all Madara manipulated Obito into chasing “peace” with the infinite tsukiyomi, and that is not quite correct. Just wondering, wonderful article 😀

    • ScorpiusNox

      I appreciate the compliments! To answer your question, I do not believe that the peace created by Madara would be “rightfully gained” if the question concerns the morality of his efforts; he’s definitely caused a lot of death and pain with his actions. That said, once the peace was established, I doubt that anyone would care about that. In the Dream World, Rin would be alive, Naruto’s parents would be alive, Tsunade’s brother would be alive, and more, and the only thing that would make it less real than the real world is semantics.

      I could go on, but suffice it to say that no, I don’t think Madara makes use of moral means, but his plan, if not disturbed, would deliver on its promise (unless the promise itself is a lie, but that’s a whole other ball game xP).

      Thanks for commenting!

  2. Itachi is by far the best and my most favourite anime character.

  3. I LOVE THE MANGA, in the manga, naruto meets rikido senin and he says that naruto is the reincarnation of his son and he says he wants to entrust naruto with something –rikido most likely rennengan.

  4. Senju – clan that gains power with hard training and love. Uchiha – clan that gains power by killing it’s members and stealing their eyes.

    • ScorpiusNox

      I would point out that we only have two confirmed cases of one Uchiha taking the eyes of another: Izuna–>Madara (consensual) and Itachi–>Sasuke (posthumous). What with Danzo’s “Sharingarm,” it seems that Uchiha have more to fear from non-Uchiha taking their eyes than they do from their own family =P . A lot of things about Uchiha killing Uchiha were said by Itachi when he was still upholding the masquerade, as it were. That calls the reliability of such statements into question, no?

      Thanks for commenting!

      • Technically, Itachi’s eyes were not entirely his own. Shisui gives his mangekyo (sp?) eyes to Itachi before committing suicide. Shisui knew what was going to happen, and that he alone did not have the power Itachi had to fight back. He was also mortally wounded anyways, so he willingly gave his eyes to Itachi which were then taken by Sasuke. Other than that, I can’t really think of any other Uchiha-Uchiha eye transfers.

        • Incorrect. Itachi did not use Shisui’s eyes as his own. He put one into his crow and the other was stolen by Danzo.

  5. Donnetta Mesa
    1

    The uchiha is way stronger cause they posses the sharingan and rinnegan…and not to mention their high status is chakra…hashirama won cause madara was too focused on killing vengeance instead was worrying about survival..

    • I think Uchiha Clan is the strongest clan because it has Madara, Obito, Sasuke, Shisui and Itachi in it.

  6. i dont like madara only because he came back to life the first hokage didnt do that everyone is starting to cheat their way back into naruto not fair if that was the case rin should come back so obito can be on the good side(kakashi fault) and minato and kushina should come back because their boss and didnt deserve to die and the hokages oppenents were easy like the third hokage orochimaru is garbage and he wasted his life using the forbidden justu see everybody on the good side is starting to suck always dying and killing themselves but on the other side oh i died can i come back sure but the side effects turn pale and gray and your eyes change. 

    • Kum Foss
      0

      the 1st didn’t? obviously u dnt read the manga & they’re not “cheating” their way bck, if u keep watching it was his plan all along. Jus stick because more then u could imagine is in store for you.

  7. The thing many people don’t understand, is the Uchiha were basically going to start a civil war with the coup d’état, Itachi and Shisui didn’t want it to come to that and Danzo took Shisui’s eye which stopped the 1st attempt to stop the coup d’état, do Itachi had no choice BUT to kill every Uchiha. Give Shisui the same situation he would have done it too

    • ScorpiusNox

      I actually did get that much from reading the manga, but personally, I felt like it was just conjecture; how could they really know that the Uchiha’s action would start a whole war? We only have the opinion of the elders (including Danzo) to go on, and one has to figure that they were interested in maintaining the status quo for more reasons than fear of war.

      People in power often justify their positions by claiming that catastrophe would quickly follow if they were removed. It’s a tactic to keep the less fortunate from rising up. We’ve seen it enough in the real world that I wouldn’t think it unreasonable to imagine that it might have been the case here.

      Thanks for commenting!

      • Well maybe the Uchiha family was planning a war but the fact remains that just based on such assumption everyone was okey with the entire Clan getting slaughtered… That is just too wrong … after all the Uchiha did their best to endure the unfairness of the leaf village and how they were kept out of it everything… I totally understand the Uchuhas and I do believe that Naruto manga so far was so unfair with the Uchihas … there is not even one hokage from the Uchiha clan for example and on top of that we didn’t hear any opinion from the point of view of an Uchiha clan’s leader !
        anyway I really like the Uchiha’s …

  8. Itachi is more powerful than Madara.

  9. Alice Carter
    0

    I love Itachi, and know how hard it must’ve felt for him to do what he did to keep the peace in konoha and save his little brother. However, from a moral point of view I still don’t understand why wipe out the whole clan including women and children?

    • ScorpiusNox

      The popular retelling is that ever single member of the Uchiha Clan–from the lowly senbei shop owners to the leader himself–was in on the coup. Sasuke was apparently the only Uchiha young enough to be excluded from the planning, which says unfortunate things about their numbers at the time.

      In any case, there were no other children, and any surviving women probably would have fallen prey to the “Curse of Hatred” (read: the desire for justice after the slaughter of their loved ones). That’s if the women weren’t in on it, but the only female Uchiha we know of, Mikoto, was certainly involved.

    • Quintero
      0

      It was stated by Itachi and Obito that Sasuke was the only innocent one. When Sasuke asked why he was spared, Itachi said it was because Sasuke was just a kid and innocent, he had no place in the coup. That means Sasuke was the only innocent one and the only kid. Also, there were no other kids at the Academy prior massacre and the Uchiha are expected to go there because they are elite. Any other kids would have to be 12 or older, but when you’re that age, you are treated as a shinobi, they don’t diffentiate like that and have their own system of morals. It’s alot harsher than the real world and fiction.

      Women (kunoichi) were going to participate in the coup as well, they are capable of the same feats as men.

      The Uchiha didn’t want to accept peace negotiations from Hiruzen, Hiruzen let Danzo do as he wished, and Danzo messed things up even more. Both sides are at fault here. Then Shisui/Itachi got dragged into it, but they shouldn’t be blamed because they couldn’t do anything due to both sides being so stubborn. It’s is sad that it had to get this far though, considering that the Uchiha could have just accepted one of Hiruzen’s offers, and then they could have continued working from there to get more power in a peaceful manner, not doing things by force with a coup.

  10. Its funny how the game is better animated than the anime itself. You can see a serious decline in the Naruto animation over the years. It used to be so full, it now feels so empty and windows paint at times. I wish that the anime could look like the cutscenes of the game. 

  11. Melvin Cho
    0

    Uchiha the legendary clan.

  12. Sunni Ago

    Kishimoto’s writing does them no favors. In this series all of the Uchiha are made out to be hyper competent and intelligent to Bleach-esque levels. This fosters a lot of the Uchiha resentment. They get to be the strongest and perfect pretty snowflakes who never do anything wrong with out cause. That’s how he writes them.

    • ScorpiusNox

      Hm. I do see that concern expressed fairly frequently, and I can somewhat understand why one would feel this way; however, I am not sure that I agree with it. While they are all no doubt talented combatants, the only Uchiha who near “Mary Sue” status, as it were, are Itachi and Madara. Madara couldn’t succeed at much of anything until his rival, Hashirama Senju, was no longer a factor. Itachi failed at at everything he was really trying to achieve in his life, a fact that many people tend to overlook due to his admittedly excessive planning capabilities.

      The Uchiha that gets this accusation most often is Sasuke, of course, but I don’t feel that it applies to him at all. Despite his combat prowess, he tends to be kept on the defensive every time he fights, and his only clear victories throughout the entire series (Part I included) have been against Naruto, Orochimaru (whom he acknowledge was greatly weakened), and Danzo. He certainly isn’t on the level of characters like Bleach’s Aizen or Ulquiorra, who can pretty much just sneeze and win their battles xD .

      Thanks for commenting!

  13. Delacruz
    0

    I would be a uchiha instead of a senju

    • Wingate
      0

      Senju clan is better than Uchiha clan.

    • farfora
      0

      Same here … Uchiha are cool !I would love to be an uchiha and bring them some happiness !

    • I have been really saddened by all the unfairness toward the Uchiha clan for along time… and That many Naruto fan take pleasure in hating them even more because of how the manga so far portrayed them without hearing their point of view !!
      Killing the entire clan just because they wanted to take back what its right for them after enduring the unfair treatment from the senju clan since the first hokage … they gave up their right for a peaceful life and not even one hokage was from the Uchiha clan ! that’s so unfair … and then killing them all just because they may start a war ?! will what about if the senjus just step down for once and let the Uchihas lead the village for once ! would’nt that be enough to make the Uchihas happy ?! after all I think madara uchiha is the one who had the biggest rule in starting the peace in the first place since he let go of his angry for losing the brother he loved even more than itachi loved his brother ! and stopped hashirama senju from killing himself …. so they are not a clan that is driven by blind hatred … their feelings are pretty normal in my opinion from what I have seen from the Manga ! … biggest prove is that sasuke never truly hated his brother after what his brother did to him by forcing him to hate and lying to him …. he as any natural boy cried his heart out … even while he fought Itachi he kept asking him for the truth ! he wanted him to explain it … he never wanted to hate his brother … isn’t that enough of prove that the Uchiha’s feelings of hatred is not evil they are good … I think the Senju clan had more hatred like tobirama and danzo ! … although the manga didn’t waste time to prove their goodness which didn’t convince me at all !!

      as for Uchiha being the most powerful … seriously ?! just give me one page in the manga where the Uchihas were the one with the upper hand ?! except for that once time when sasuke somehow won against naruto in the part1 !
      the Uchiha clan were losing every battle ! so how that make them powerful ?! Senju clan were the most powerful since the start !

      As for the Uchiha need no training to be powerful !? GIVE ME A BREAK !

      The Uchihas are obsessed with power ?! as if the Sanju aren’t ?! who has these academies that teaches kids jutsu since childhood !? they dont even know much about history or anything else except of how to be powerful and kick each-other ?! and seems like the chunnen exam teaches them nothing but to fight and get powerful and come victorious ?!
      well for start Sasuke who is now supposed to be more powerful than Madara went through hell since childhood to be as good as his brother, while naruto was just pulling stupid but funny pranks here and there instead of training and studying and all of sudden he was so powerful and beating everyone and winning most of the battles ! seriously ?! he only started improving after he teamed up with Sasuke ! .. so can anyone tell me how do the uchihas gain power ?!
      I can say that the Senjus just sweet talk their way to power not the Uchihas !

      anyway; in the last manga when Sasuke challenged Naruto to a fight I was happy because it couldn’t just end like that … sasuke has been quite clam during the entire ‘world war or whatever’ against the goddess ! he seemed to be analyzing everything. Making up his mind about why Itachi said… and now in the upcoming releases I am waiting for sasuke’s approach to the whole situation … he is a smart good boy .. one of the only characters that made sense to me …

      anyway ! very sorry for my bad English !

      Thank you for writing the article ! it sure did put my mind at ease that someone else has the same thoughts about the Uchihas…. I dont like them just because they are cool or because sasuke is hot 🙂 but because they need some justice seriously !

  14. Darren Williams
    0

    Itachi is dangerous as hell, but Madara is simply in a class of his own.

  15. Wow. I kinda want to root for the Uchiha now. Too bad that Madara seems to be going through the whole “evil mind control” phase. That said, the Infinite Tsukyomi Plan only gives an illusion of peace. In some sense, it is now different than continually getting the world high on heroin and some hallucinogens and having them live out delusions. They might have a kind of “peace”, but is it really living?

    • ScorpiusNox

      Heh heh, have I made a believer out of you =P ? I’m glad to hear that my perspective was thought out well enough to inspire a few people to consider looking at the Uchiha in a different light. A lot of the things said about them were said either by people with a vendetta against them or people who had something to gain by slandering them, and as we’ve seen in our own world, assertions from such people are rarely the unadulterated truth.

      To answer your question, I think, based on what little we really know about the Infinite Tsukuyomi, that it would indeed be living as far as anyone knew. When you consider Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Descartes musings in his Discours, it comes to light that it’s never wholly possible to know that the “real” world isn’t an elaborate simulation, but we assume it’s real because 1) it’s in our nature, and 2) it’s all we know. Indeed, a number of religious traditions are based on the notion that life is a test/illusion that we must pass/escape to enter into whatever version of paradise prevails in the given faith.

      At this point, I’m really just eager to actually see into the Dream World. If it’s actually the paradise Madara makes it out to be, where Gaara can grow up with his mother and Orochimaru can see his parents alive, I’ll be surprised (and a little disappointed) if they’re totally satisfied when Naruto inevitably breaks them out. I doubt if anyone who’s ever suffered severe trauma due to loss would happily give up the lost thing a second time after getting it back.

  16. I totally agree with you. I am a big Uchiha clan fan. As a fellow ninja I repsect their ocular powers as well as their bond with the Senju clan

  17. agentnyx345

    I too am troubled by the whole good vs. evil dynamic, though I can’t help but feel that this story isn’t as black and white as you say, considering all the flashbacks they use. Seriously, every “villain” that Naruto comes up against gets a little flashback to tell that person’s real story, which seems to consistently start with an innocent with good intentions and end up suffering. To me, it’s almost like the writers are telling us that Naruto is a lot like these people, and that if things had gone more awry for him, and he didn’t have the support of his friends, then he very well could have ended up like the “villains”. Though, yes, the story is pretty black and white, but I believe there is a significant amount of grey in the middle of that.

    • ScorpiusNox

      On the contrary, I did not at all intend to portray the conflict as black and white, and if I was unclear on that, I apologize. While I do express that the Uchiha Clan are a largely misrepresented bunch, I also acknowledge that the methods their most prominent members have used to achieve their ends are often morally dubious at best. I only mean to claim that the philosophies of their enemies–the “heroes”–are no less harmful in a world torn by war.

      Whether either side is truly right or just is something I can’t claim to know for sure. I agree that it’s very gray, and one could reasonably go either way. I just hoped to speak for a viewpoint that is seldom taken for what it is.

      Thanks for commenting!

  18. Adnan Bey

    It is indeed the typical conflict. Attain pace through power whatever the means or to achieve peace the rightful and honorable, more ethical and moralistic way. I am personally a Senju idealist. Not to say the Uchiha were not mistreated. They were. Problem was, they did not exactly make things better for themselves.

    • ScorpiusNox

      Being a rather peaceful individual myself, I would certainly side with the Senju in theory. Where they lose me is at the point when it becomes apparent than they don’t really have a plan that differs from that of the Uchiha. To quote Madara, “Thinking of peace whilst spilling blood is something only humans can do.” The Senju’s message of love and understanding is cheapened by their prolific wartime activities. It’d be like Gandhi preaching his philosophies while leading a militia.

      Maybe I’m the most naive of all for thinking it should be all or nothing, that one cannot honestly expect to be taken seriously as a proponent for peace when that one is one consistently engages in violence. If your methods are the same as those of the people you call evil or hateful, do you really have a leg to stand on?

      I wouldn’t say so, but I’ve already made that argument, haven’t it? Thanks for reading and commenting =) !

      • The best argument is to accept that true peace is but an ideal and that patriotism is the only tonic for the ills of the world

  19. The Uchiha are Mary Sues. No way around it. It’s confirmed by Tobirama that their minds are inherently evil as the sharingan is a biological reaction to trauma that affects their emotions and “turns their love into hatred” so to speak. Their hateful actions lead them to being destructive and antagonistic towards the whoever or whatever caused their trauma.

    Their unique bloodline grants them ability to use some of the strongest techniques in the entire series such as nigh-impregnable warrior spirit demon things, rewriting reality, and mind control among other things.

    Which leads me to where you relate the Uchiha and their ways to Nietzsche and his philosophy. I wouldn’t say that Uchiha would be adherents to that brand of thought. The Uchiha don’t seek power because it’s natural, they GAIN power because it’s natural. Trauma=Power ups for an Uchiha and in a time of turmoil and bloodshed, there was much trauma and therefore, many power ups. Also, Nietzsche proposed that we EMBRACE suffering, not seek to avoid or eliminate it. Uchiha however seem pretty opposed to any sort of suffering. Madara’s Moon Plan to make everyone a winner is pretty anti-will to power, don’t you think? There’d be no suffering and no one would grow stronger.

    Kishimoto attempts to portray the Uchiha in a sympathetic light, trying to make it seem that because of the immense emotional pain they went through, they had no choice but to act out in malice, or trying to peg the blame on someone who acted against the Uchiha, but the way things are, it’s more like Kishimoto is avoiding holding the Uchiha responsible for their actions.

  20. I am posting this again since I intended to post my comment in general and not as a replay to someone else, but something went wrong.. anyway bare with me please:

    I have been really saddened by all the unfairness toward the Uchiha clan for along time… and That many Naruto fan take pleasure in hating them even more because of how the manga so far portrayed them without hearing their point of view !!
    Killing the entire clan just because they wanted to take back what its right for them after enduring the unfair treatment from the senju clan since the first hokage or more precisely the second hokage “while the 3rd and the 4th didn’t do much to improve it”… they gave up the war for their deep desire for a peaceful life that was a mutual feeling from both clans , But in return not even one hokage was from the Uchiha clan ! that’s so unfair … and then going as far as killing them all just because they may start a war ?!and killing the kids and women to because they were powerful ?! isn’t it the same for the women and kids in the senju clan ?!
    Well what about if the senjus just step down for a while and let the Uchihas lead the village for once ! wouldn’t that be enough to make the Uchihas stop their plans for retaliation ?! after all I think madara uchiha is the one who had the biggest rule in starting the peace in the first place, since he let go of his anger for losing the brother he loved the most ! even more than itachi loved his brother ! and stopped hashirama senju from killing himself …. what if hashirama was the one who lost his brother ?! can we imagine how different things might be…. although I like hashimara…. so they are not a clan that is driven by blind hatred … their feelings are pretty normal in my opinion from what I have seen in the Manga so far! …
    The biggest prove is; sasuke never truly hated his brother after what his brother did to him by forcing him to hate, lying to him and so on …. He as any other boy cried his heart out when he found out the truth… even while he fought Itachi he kept seeking the truth from him ! he wanted him to explain it … he never wanted to hate itachi … isn’t that enough of prove that the Uchiha’s feelings of hatred is not evil and that they are good clan … I think the Senju clan had more hatred like tobirama and danzo ! … although the manga didn’t waste time to prove their goodness which didn’t convince me at all !!

    as for Uchiha being the most powerful … seriously ?! just give me one page in the manga where the Uchihas were the one with the upper hand ?! except for that once time when sasuke somehow ‘won?’ against naruto in part 1 !
    the Uchiha clan were losing every battle ! so how that make them powerful ?! Senju clan were the most powerful since the start !

    As for the Uchiha need no training to be powerful !? GIVE ME A BREAK !

    well for star, Sasuke who is now supposed to be more powerful than Madara, went through hell since childhood to be as good as his brother, while naruto was just pulling stupid but funny pranks here and there instead of training and studying and all of sudden he was so powerful and beating everyone and winning most of the battles ! seriously ?! he only started improving after he teamed up with Sasuke ! .. so can anyone tell me how do the uchihas gain power without training or gowing through extreme trauma ?!
    I can easily say that the Senjus are the ones who just sweet talk their way to power not the Uchihas !

    -The Uchihas are obsessed with power ?! as if the Sanju aren’t ?! who has these academies that teaches kids jutsu since childhood !? they dont even know much about history or anything else except of how to be powerful and kick each-other ?! and seems like the chunin exam teaches them nothing but to fight and get powerful and come victorious ?!

    anyway; in the last manga when Sasuke challenged Naruto to a fight I was happy because it couldn’t just end like that … sasuke has been quite clam during the entire ‘world war or whatever’ against the goddess ! he seemed to be analyzing everything. Making up his mind about why Itachi said… and now in the upcoming releases I am waiting for sasuke’s approach to the whole situation … he is a smart good boy .. one of the only characters that made sense to me …

    I have to admit; I know this is just fiction but I don’t know why I am so grieved for the Uchihas ! maybe because most of Naruto’s fans whom are real people from our world are so okey with hating them so easily and not seeing the injustice in the manga ! its the same in our world ! most of us are driven by hatred that is feed to us by media to hate particular sectors in our society or other countries !

    anyway ! very sorry for my bad English !

    Thank you for writing the article ! it sure did put my mind at ease that someone else has the same thoughts about the Uchihas…. I dont like them just because they are cool or because sasuke is hot 🙂 but because they need some justice seriously !

  21. Ty Ngachira
    1

    The main reason why the Uchiha are not liked is because battle prowess comes so naturally to them (every uchiha highlighted was a genius from day one. Senju clan often have to work really hard to get there. So committed to peace, Hashirama was ready to die for it. The only self sacfrifice Uchiha do is when they embrace the Senju’s will of fire (itachi and shisui). We are naturally attracted to people who fight hard to get what they have (rock lee and guy) as compared to people who are naturally talented

  22. Thank you for posting this. The Uchiha certainly were placed in a bad light and you understand this pretty well. I do not see any resolution to this in the ending, but simply a perpetration of bias against the Uchiha to the point Sarada will probably be a Haruno for her own protection.

    What did you think of the ending?

  23. Could u please tell me what was the madara uchiha reaction when he came to know his beloved uchiha clan in almost extinct ???

  24. I’ve always been fascinated by the different clans with the Uchiha and Hyuga being my main interests due to known lore. Even if the Hyuga clan more or less vanished from true importance half way through.

    In many ways I agree with you on your post and comparisons. It’s a rare fraction of the fan base that looks beyong their Creator’s Pet status and sees them for what they were in their original environment: soldiers who did anything to protect those allied with them and didn’t back away from unpleasant things or give the job a gentle tone.

    Which drives me up the wall about the Senju Will of Fire crap. Then again I firmly believe that ‘Nations crumble and cities fall. That is destined to happen to all things. It is the people who hang on to such places as disputed property and heritage that matter. It is the people who will survive and rebuild that is truly important.’

    Suffice to say, I would be labeled an outcast in any village.

    Regarding the original intention of Madara’s Inifinite Tsukuyomi (disregarding the reveal of Kaguya/Deus ex Machina and all that crap entirely…) I had theories on the illusionary world. The main one was about how it was modified to allow them to live and have new generations be born and die off in this world then once things have calmed down a lot, slowly release them from the illusion.

    That ties into how reality and illusion depends on one’s perception but the sheer processing power (for lack of a better term) is staggering.

    If at all possible, is it alright if I contact you? I would love to hear more of your opinions on the Uchiha clan and especially Madara and Itachi.

    I’ve been working on a semi-realisitc fanfiction heavily involving the Uchiha clan during the Warring Clans Era (and a bit into the Naruto timeline proper) so it would be good to hear from someone else about the clan.

  25. Boss Isaac
    3

    The Itachitards lack any basic sense of morality whenit comes to their defense of Itachi’s disgusting and horrific actions. They claim that had the Uchiha gone through with the coup, it would have led to civil war, which would have weakened Konohagakure to an extent. My problem is when they claim that the other villages – Kiri, Suna, Kumo, and Iwagakure – would have taken advantage of Konoha’s weakened state to come in an attempt to gain supremacy over Konoha, leading to another global conflict, EVEN THOUGH this is not evidenced at all in the narrative of the series. There was NO INSTANCE of the other villages doing so after Pein’s invasion, in which the Tendou Path annihilated Konohagakure through the use of Shinra Tensei. Kumogakure’s Team Samui only went to Konoha in order to confront the situation of Sasuke’s apparent joining of Akatsuki, in which he kidnapping Killer Bee, the Eight-Tailed Beast’s jinchuuriki. They weren’t trying to start shit. Even when you ignore that, and you still think so, then:

    Where were the other villages when the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox – arguably the most powerful entity in the world at the time – was led on a direct assault on the village, which resulted in their leader dead?

    Where were they when Orochimaru led Suna and Otogakure in a joint invasion of Konohagakure, which once again resulted in their leader dead?

    Where were they when one of their most powerful clans was wiped out in a single night? NO WHERE TO BE FOUND. This was just a bullshit excuse used in a foolish attempt to justify the horrific and disgusting slaughter of the Uchiha.

  26. Hmm.I have never considered Naruto to be a morality tale. It is at its best a rejection of dogma.I admire the Uchihas as well as the Senjus, yet all of those tragedies are inevitable… Danzo’s massacre of the Uchiha may have been unnecessary in your opinion and I agree that the wholesale slaughter of the clan wasnt right, yet even Danzo did that in the interest of the Leaf Village.He took upon himself the dirty deeds necessary for Internal Security since Hiruzen was more obsessed with his quest for peace.Ultimately true peace is not desirable “You can either have peace or you can have freedom.You can’t have both ‘-Robert Heinlein

  27. both the uchihas and sinju clans were great clans and both of them played and important roll in the leaf village and how the story of naruto played out im a fan of the uchiha clans and believe they were a misunderstand clan and as the show went on and on near too the end it help to show and express that to all the viewers but in every story someone has too be the good and bad guy. each clan fighing for survival and for the chance too be number one and every person beliveing they are the good guy and they are in their own world.

Leave a Reply to Noora Cancel reply