There are two types of Antagonists, ones that are evil from their heart and ones that have or at least had a good heart but eventually ended up choosing the wrong side. Itachi Uchiha falls under the second category. Even though it is later revealed that he is not a villain, he did live most of his time on screen as a villain so he is considered as an antagonist. Even before the truth is revealed, people were in love with him for some reason. And after it is revealed that he was a hero all along, his death hurt people like a nail to the chest. When it comes to the strength he is one of the strongest characters in Naruto franchise. When I say strength it’s not just brute force, it includes, strong resolve, intelligence or handling the surroundings etc. It is said that he was thinking like a Hokage even at the age of seven.
Itachi is easily one of the most complicated characters of Naruto. At an early age, he saw two disasters, one being third shinobi war and the other being Nine tails attack on the leaf. Both the times he saw many dead bodies of shinobi and at that stage he wondered what death means to life. He instantly became a pacifist. He told himself many times that he’d do anything to avoid a war. This very thing was used by Danzo to make Itachi kill his clan.
We’re here to analyze, so let’s see his strengths and weaknesses in battles. Itachi, as I said before is one of the strongest characters of Naruto. Even at a weakened state, he was equally strong if not stronger than Jiraiya. He is pretty intelligent and he evidently can breakdown any Jutsu to know it’s secret and can instantly come up with a counter. Fans usually claim that Itachi is stronger than Pain or even Madara. I am a fan of Itachi too, however, I certainly know that Madara will be the last man standing if he fights Itachi. Itachi is impressively strong at Genjutsu which doesn’t have much effect on Madara, and Madara can battle almost for 72 hours without needing a break. On the other hand, Itachi's biggest weakness would be his physical strength and durability. If a battle prolongs, Itachi is more likely to lose. All these hypothetical calculations also depend on other factors like, when he is fighting Madara, what form Madara is fighting with, etc. So according to the anime, after all the 720 episodes, I would place Itachi in top 10, above Kakashi and below Pain, which is pretty strong for a person who died at 21 and lived most of his life with a terminal disease.
His strengths are Genjutsu ( so strong that he can put people under Genjutsu just by pointing a finger at them), Fire style especially Amaterasu, exclusive knowledge about Jutsu and ability to breakdown any Jutsu, Susano with sealing
techniques, usage of Sharingan. His weaknesses include durability, health, physical strength. At the end of his life, he became so weak that he vomited blood after using some of his chakra.
Itachi is one of the characters from the show that went through so much pain. His initial years were ruined by post-war scenario, his later stages were spent in suffocation, constantly having to choose between the village and his clan. If you ask me he is the most loyal shinobi of Hidden leaf Village. He was treated as a prodigy of the village and was compared to the likes of Minato. At 6 he passed academy, at 7 awakened his Sharingan, at 11 joined Anbu, he became Captain of Anbu at 13. At 14 he saw his friend commit suicide which awakened his Mangyekyo Sharingan, his clan people planning an attack on the village he loved so much and was eventually given an order wipe of his entire clan including his parents, friends and even his love interest. This massacre even included kids of his age, kids who are younger than him. And then he had to leave Hidden Leaf village, being called a rogue ninja, and S rank criminal for killing his clan. All this is just months after he turned 14. And the latter part of his life he had to live with S rank criminals protecting his village from shadows. The very village that hates him. This explains his resolve and loyalty toward his village. He was losing his sight by 20, at 21 fought his brother and died due to his illness in midst of the battle with his brother. Even in death he was loyal to his village and didn’t say a word to Sasuke, the person who meant worlds to him.
He wanted to die a villain so that his brother could be hailed as a hero. That is his love for Sasuke. It is somewhat controversial if he is a good brother or not. Well, he’s not an ideal one and eventually leads Sasuke to hate the village, and always lied and kept Sasuke in dark, but we all know he had his reasons and couldn’t avoid doing any of the things he did. He killed his clan just for the sake of keeping Sasuke alive. He simply couldn’t bring himself to kill Sasuke.
Even after his death, he was so brilliant and loyal that he broke the reanimation Jutsu by putting himself under Genjutsu, and fought kabuto and saved the shinobi world by undoing the reanimation Jutsu. Itachi is a shinobi that any village would make him their Kage. The wicked Danzo, few unfaithful Uchiha and events at that time, characters development of Sasuke, all these things collectively played out hard on Itachi. Despite all this, he is the most famous character of Naruto franchise. According to myanimelist's top 10 Antagonists, Itachi is on number 1 position and Madara is on number 2. Itachi beat Madara with a humongous lead of 40000+ votes. Such is the popularity of Itachi.
I could go on and on about Itachi but then it would take me days to explain about him completely. And most of you all already know so much about him. Let us know the characters you love that we can write about. For more characters dissections, anime news and updates, stay tuned on otakuintown.com.
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