if sasuke was the main character then he probably would've been a LOT more sympathised with than he is now (which is to say rarely). like the narrative wouldn't even need to change to show his pains or 'his side of the story', bc it does that plenty. it's just that he is not the main character. and idk what it is about our human minds but we tend to sympathise with main characters automatically (unless ofc you go off the rockers insane and do something like obliterate almost everyone from the planet *cough* eren yeager *cough*)

an instance that comes to my mind where this does happen is with lelouch from code geass. while i don't agree with his character motivations, people generally do sympathise with him as he is the mc and as viewers we know he isn't inherently evil. sasuke's goal towards the end is slightly similar but ofc people love to hate him so they don't even try to understand where he is coming from.

my point is, most people while engaging with the naruto story don't read between the lines and so don't see how traumatised and in pain sasuke is and hence don't understand his character motivations. heck, they don't understand a single bit about him and so they automatically hate him, as he is supposedly going against the main character's goals.

which is really sad given all that he has been through.

People portraying me like a vicious murderer, accusing me of "wanting to kill innocents" (or falsely claiming I did), seriously, what the hell do you want from me? I refused to kill innocents even when instructed to, I released Orochimaru's prisoners (who your heroes in Konoha never gave a fuck about), I literately said I only had quarrel with the elders (even if all genocidal kage bootlickers very well deserved to die), I even summoned the fascist oppressors of my family to calmly hear their side of the story, I FREAKING HELPED THAT DISGUSTING GOOD FOR NOTHING VILLAGE WIN A WAR. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FOR ME, YOU DISGRACEFUL DUMBASSESS, WHAAT

It's funny that we see Konoha get absolutely wrecked like 2 times in the series and no other villages take advantage of that defensive weakness to start a 4th war. Kiri literally had a civil war and even that didn't blow up into an international conflict. Like, realistically, if the Uchiha coup actually happened Konoha would've been fine. The clan wasn't even trying to take over the village, they just wanted to put pressure on Konoha's leadership to stop persecuting them and maybe stop the fucking segregation and surveillance. So like,,, other than some internal restructuring there wouldn't have been much damage done to the village as an entity and the populace would've been largely unaffected. If the Uchiha did decide to kill anyone, they'd probably just target the council members and the village would've been better off anyway because Danzo and his lackeys were doing some truly wack ass shit behind closed doors.

All that to say,,, the idea that Itachi ‘saved the village’ by agreeing to the genocide of his clan is so stupid. Like Danzo probably knew that he and the rest of the council would be the only ones in any actual trouble when the Uchiha finally got sick of their treatment in the village, and he was so scared shitless of the clan his only resolution was to eliminate them entirely to save his ass from the consequences of his own actions. The only people who were ever in any real danger from the Uchiha were the people in power who were directly perpetuating their oppression and subjugation. Plus, I mean if another village did attack Konoha while this was going on, the Uchiha were by far the strongest clan there anyway; people used to literally just run away from them so they wouldn't have to fight against the Sharingan like they would've defended the place fine it's unlikely another war would've broken out from that.

Omg!!! How evil of kiri to let their children fight each other to death to graduate ninja academy!!!! Anyway, in the next arc, the chunin exams arc,

"Do you possess the Will of Fire, Itachi?"

I think it's more like the Will of Fire possessed him, but...

“Save Sasuke from the dark path he was going down” sounds so deep and romantic or whatever until you remember that the “dark path ” being referred to was the search for answers and closure made necessary by systematic oppression, a corrupt political system, surviving a massacre, and constantly being invalidated.

sasuke really did nothing wrong. "oh, he killed people-" THEY ARE SHINOBI!!! "oh, he wanted to enact revenge-" HE IS THE SOLE SURVIVOR OF A GENOCIDE!!! "oh, he ran away-" KONOHA IS TRASH!!! and so on and so forth

Interesting how Konoha possesses a tombstone with the names of all the “heroes” (as that’s the term they’re given after passing) who sacrificed their lives to “save” Konoha (which it’s a concept that encapsulates people who defended it from invasions and enemies and people that likely died looking to bring profit to the realm) as a postmortem recognition; yet the Uchiha, those innocents that were “sacrificed” to guarantee peace (as Danzo states):

Have no memorial of their own, no mention of the clan as a whole nor stone or wall with the names of all the members. Their identities are buried alongside their bodies, never to be mentioned or remembered again by anyone but Sasuke, who likely did not know many of them. Once Sasuke passes away, the Uchiha “sacrifice”, their identity as individuals and as part of a clan, will be completely forgotten, even if their deaths were in the service of Konoha.

It’s so damn weird 💀

incredible how kishimoto repeatedly asserts that naruto and itachi chose sasuke over the village, when in fact the exact opposite is true. itachi tortured him, took away his entire commmunity, tried to brainwash him. naruto's grand solution was murder-suicide and even after learning the truth about the massacre, he still wanted to be hokage and was confused by sasuke's refusal to forgive and return. they both aligned themselves with the village, but the simple act of performative love for sasuke is enough (according to kishimoto and konoha) for them to be considered exceptionally pacifistic, self-sacrificing characters who defied the village. it's such a fucked moral standard that offers zero compassion to the real victim of the situation: sasuke

sasuke: genocide survivor, made it very clear the only reason he's in the village is to get stronger and kill itachi. very angry, self-deprecating, and being influenced by the curse mark

kakashi: yeah i'm not really gonna help you catch itachi. you should just give up on your revenge and become a slave to the state like me

sasuke: leaves the village

kakashi:

Tobirama be like: "The Uchiha are so unstable, you kill them a brother and they go wildly mad, unbelievable. Nothing like me, I am completely sane. See, here I am experimenting with dead bodies so I can create a jutsu that summons a zombie army. Not an inch of crazy in me."

this is so so so disgusting...

so basically, that was Itachi's plan: force Sasuke down on the path of vengeance to gain power, own eternal mangekyo, then he would put him under genjutsu to keep him forever as Konoha's slave, perfect weapon.

how can a character be so disgusting? like Sasuke didn't even want mangekyo, originally he didn't want to kill anyone, the vengeance against Itachi was forced on him by Itachi himself, through torture and endless trauma, even with Orochimaru, he didn't want to kill people

honestly, how does he dare to say he loved Sasuke. He never cared for Sasuke as a person, he viewed him as a tool and planned out how to control his whole life. Who cares what Sasuke wants, make him avenger, then make him protect Konoha

seriously so disgusting

Naruto fans develop empathy challenge go !!!!

Have we forgotten this panel too soon? “Remember that it’s Sasuke who defeated Orochimaru and freed us all. When you’re out I want you to spread the word, tell everyone you meet... A man is now among us who will bring stability and peace. You got that?”