Character Roundups Round 7: Itachi Uchiha

Lord in heaven above it's time for a big one because I have a lot of fucking thoughts about Itachi.

Itachi as written and framed by Kishimoto: When Kishimoto decided Itachi's real backstory will always be one of the great mysteries of the world. On the one hand, I think Itachi retraumatizing Sasuke and putting him into a genjutsu after they meet for the first time since the massacre is over the line if Itachi was supposed to secretly care this whole time. On the other hand, Kishimoto has proven before he doesn't know where the line is with Naruto "I will break all of Sasuke's bones if he doesn't come back to Konoha with me" Uzumaki. And then there's the first full flashback where everything is, if I had to describe it in one word: suspicious. Like okay Itachi just wants to rise above his limits and the clan...or does he??? Is this really Itachi under pressure from his clan and Konoha and he ends up lashing out at the clan one time before he does the deed. You could read it either way. No hint there on when Kishimoto decided Itachi's ultimate backstory.

Speaking of confusion, how are we intended to view Itachi? Because Itachi himself says he messed up, but literally every other character talks about how great and smart he is. If we are supposed to think Itachi was a genius and did his best then it's kind of bad story-telling for reasons I will get into. If we are supposed to agree with Itachi that he fucked up then it's not very successful because so many characters say otherwise and it seems like a lot of the fandom also thinks otherwise.

There's a lot of confusion throughout Itachi's story because I'm pretty sure Kishimoto's intention changed during writing, but I'm pretty confident what we are meant to believe by the end. I'm sure people will disagree with me so I will explain after I say what I think we are ultimately pushed into thinking about Itachi. I think we are supposed to think of Itachi as someone noble and good who did his best and his only flaw was trying to do everything himself. Who Kishimoto thought would help Itachi in this situation I don't know. If that one line from Itachi about Sasuke being able to change the clan if he told him what was going is the answer then what the fuck Kishimoto how is a seven year old going to help here. But anyway I don't think Kishimoto wants us to think Itachi killing his clan was wrong and I don't think he wants us to think Konoha was wrong for pushing him into it. I also think no matter how hard it was on him Itachi still thought ultimately it was the Uchiha who should have changed to stop the massacre from happening rather than the other way around.

I think this because as I always have, and as I keep shouting to everyone to no avail, this is because Kishimoto clearly does not give a shit what happened to the Uchiha clan. The one person who cared, Sasuke, just stops caring after hearing Hashirama recount Romeo & Juliet and then he never talks about it again and it's just vaguely implied that Sasuke agrees with Itachi so he's over the whole dead parents and clan thing and now wants to change the world or something. If we were supposed to view Itachi as someone other than noble for what he did then there would be SOMETHING said about how it was wrong that the Uchiha clan is all dead but that doesn't happen. I know other people have their ideas about Itachi DID think what he did was wrong or he DID resent Konoha for making him kill his clan because of xyz. Of course anyone's headcanons are fine, but I'm just saying no one can say that as fact because if it was then at the very least there should be a hint somewhere in the narrative that we as readers should be sad that Itachi won't admit Konoha was wrong. Otherwise what's the point? Saying "Itachi did resent Konoha but he couldn't say it because he was under the protect Konoha genjutsu" only effects how the reader might feel about Itachi and serves nothing for the story since clearly the narrative doesn't care. Once again, it's fine to read it that way but you can't demand that every reader do the same because there's nothing to indicate that is how it should be read.

How it should have gone: I know about half or maybe even more of all Sasuke fans hate Itachi but let me be real. I think Itachi is a great character. I have some nitpicks but really overall the only thing I would change is I would take the fucking framing of Itachi and move it to the left. Because the problem with Itachi isn't the character, it's that Kishimoto missed the point.

The POINT of Itachi's character should have been: Itachi is a fuck up. Itachi spent his life getting called a genius, but whether it was something in his control or not nothing he did worked out for him. And it's really funny to me that Kishimoto flew right over that when he writes like he hates geniuses. There's Itachi sitting there with the whole problem with the idea of "a genius" right in front of him and Kishimoto doesn't take it. The problem being that being a genius at ninja-ing means being a genius at espionage and violence and strategy and not at a lot of other useful things like emotional intelligence or historical context.

I'm not going to complain that Itachi it overall shitty to Sasuke nor will I pretend he isn't. When I'm reading fiction I don't need characters to be good people or make good choices, I need them to make sense as a character. Itachi for me makes sense. You can deeply love someone, but be too traumatized and misguided to be any good at it or even know how to show love to another person. What I love about Itachi is that he was really shit at loving his brother which led to Sasuke going down the exact path Itachi desperately tried to get him not to go down. And it's through that failure that Itachi finally was able to give Sasuke the one thing he should have been giving him this entire time and what no one else will: unconditional love. I got no problems with that. The issue for me is that Konoha is never framed as wrong. If Itachi won't/can't admit it himself I think it would be a great idea to not frame Sasuke as being bad for saying what Konoha did was wrong. It would be a good way to develop Sasuke away from his hero-worship of Itachi. I don't have a problem that Sasuke is like that because it makes sense for his character, but I think it would be an interesting way to develop Sasuke's character. Sasuke could see that Itachi can't admit that what Konoha made him do was wrong and unnecessary and could be sad for Itachi as well as see that as a fault of Itachi's. Sasuke could come to see his brother as he was, a flawed man who made a lot of mistakes and didn't know everything (just like the narrative should see him). Which by the way I'm not necessarily saying Itachi is too stupid to realize Konoha was wrong, more like what if Itachi refuses to see that because it would be mentally and emotionally too devastating to confront the fact that he was completely in the wrong for killing his clan. I don't even think Itachi had a choice at that point since Danzo was threatening to come at Sasuke like he was a drunk Canadian and Sasuke was a baby seal, but I think psychologically Itachi's overwhelming guilt would override in his mind the fact that he had very limited options.

So yeah, Itachi. Very complicated character, but overall not much I would change that isn't framing. Itachi was always wrong and most decisions he had to make were out of his control but the decisions he did make were also bad.

🌈🕯️💌🤲

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

A lot of my fics put me through the fucking wringer. safe travels was one. I rewrote the final conversation between BJ and Hawkeye a couple of times and I rewrote the BJ-Charles scene even more times. It languished at like 80% done for months. I had such a vivid image in my head of that Hawkeye-BJ conversation and I'm still not sure the final version totally conveyed it, but it got enough.

But the best answer here is The Emergency Room. I wrote a long, in-depth, self-indulgent post about writing this fic once and I'm glad I did because I forget what a hell writing it was. One of my anchor scenes was the one between Josh and Dr. Williams. It was one of those scenes I was so looking forward to writing! And when I got there I just couldn't. It took weeks. Maybe months. And then there was the ending. I had no idea how to end it. I mean, I really, really struggled with this. It was horrible. And then I just... hit upon it. And I've gotten comments about how much people loved the last line so I don't think anyone would guess that felt like a lucky break after days of torture. It's now one of my favorite last lines I've ever written, too.

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

I sort of answered this above, but The Emergency Room. I knew the general beats of it. I started writing it impulsively on Christmas 2020, when I'd recently gotten back into The West Wing and was trying to write a different Christmas fic I've tried unsuccessfully to write for seven or eight Christmases now. So I kind of thought it would be easy. It was not. I don't think the story went any place unexpected, but not one single step of the journey was expected.

I should also mention Campfire! The first half of Campfire was supposed to be about Josh's camp counselor being an asshole and Josh was supposed to stay a social outcast for the entire summer. And then some part of my brain was like, what if he had friends? And it ended up being a lot more about that. The loneliness is still there, because he doesn't share his grief and doesn't expect them to understand, but he has friends. It made the story a lot better, because it added a sort of parallel to CJ, Toby, and Sam.

Like I said above, safe travels gave me hell, but it didn't surprise me. It's always the fics where I know where they're going that give me trouble. The ones that surprise me are the ones that come easy.

One fic that took me somewhere I didn't expect was the play's the thing. Gloria's role ended up being much bigger than I originally imagined! She was just supposed to be the cute girl he used as an excuse for auditioning for the play. But I really love how she turned out!

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

I don't know when you're going to see it but I am so excited about everyone seeing chapter 2 of Ghost AU. This isn't a spoiler because it's the premise of the fic; chapter 1 sets up the conditions for Hawkeye's death and he dies at the very end of the chapter. So chapter 2 is everyone's immediate reactions. I'll share that it happens in the O.R. If you want more details you can ask... I may or may not answer (I'll totally answer if you DM me I'm shit at keeping secrets).

🤲what do YOU get out of writing?

Writing is a hobby and I love it! I don't know how not to do it. In terms of fic, it's really a way for me to process how I feel about events and characters. It's not that different from meta, really. When a concept is driving me crazy I write a fic about it and then it usually keeps driving me crazy forever anyway. It's an expression of passions.