Happy birthday Itachi!
Believe it or not, but Itachi was originally my favourite character, at least when I first watched the show. I was like, what, thirteen or fourteen, bawling my eyes out as I watched the end of the Uchiha brother's fight and the revelation that Itachi was a good guy???
Yeah, no, even back then I didn't buy it.
I always liked Itachi as a deeply morally grey character, who clearly has good intentions, but still does unrepairable damage trying to do the best...
Anyway, if I'm here right now drawing naruto fanart like a broken printer, it's because of him, so say, thank you Itachi (I'm not joking, if it weren't for him, I don't think I would have registered Madara's existence as much. I think it was from a fic and I saw his name a lot and I didn't remember the full cast and I was like 'who?' and boom, founders era dropped on me like a fucking boulder)
What I always liked best was his relationship with Sasuke, the devotion he had for his younger brother and the length he was ready to go to in order to protect him (I still think he did a terrible job at that, but it's the intention that counts, right? (Sasuke's thousand yard stare in the corner, the traumatised seven y/o who just watched his whole family getting murdered by the man he trusted the most))
Now you know why I like Madara so much.
It's funny to me, because I am not the older sibling irl, I am the youngest. I always looked up to my older brother, and I still do, so I've always found it odd that I relate more to the older brother figure in both instances. I guess it might be because my brother didn't like me that much for a portion of our childhood (oops) and maybe because I had mostly friends younger than me that I treated like younger siblings, lol.
I think I relate more to their coping mechanism, too, and their overall personalities more than their role.
