I think people don't talk about Shisui's flaws enough. I'm saying this as someone whose favorite character possibly ever is Shisui, in all honesty, but we have to take a serious look at him.
To be clear, Shiusi died as a child. I don't necessarily think he's evil for the things im about to mention, but everyone treats him as a do-no-wrong sunshine boy and i think we as a society need to acknowledge he's got more going on.
(This is mostly influenced by the Shinden and the Ninja Storm Revolution depuctions of Shisui just so everyone knows.)
First of all, and I cannot stress this enough, Shisui got the Mangekyo. Not from someone else's contrived suicide, but because he saw that his best friend who was better than him needed help and he was a jealous enough person that he didn't save him from certain death. His best friend is dead because Shisui got jealous.
Yes, he was probably like 6-7 when this happened. Yes, kids don't have a developed sense of right and wrong and are selfish. But this is also a fictional character in Naruto of all series that we're talking about- we need to look at him as a written character that was designed and crafted.
(Furthermore, but also as an aside because this is another post I need to make, there's a nonzero chance that Shisui used Kotoamatsukami on Itachi to get him to be friends with him. See the fic "I WOULD DIE TO BE SOMEBODY YOU COULD LOVE" if you want more of this concept immediately.)
Shisui is overly friendly, a smiling person, but also gets grave as one would expect. He isn't one to downplay a situation, but puts other people at ease by assuring them that he thinks everything will be fine. But also, he works himself to his health's detriment. Shisui's health goes downhill in the Shinden, even as he assures Itachi that everything is fine.
Shisui took a Heavy workload, probably shielding Itachi from how bad the things behind the scenes were as much as possible. Shisui ran himself absolutely ragged. But, in doing so, he made sure Itachi didn't know about how bad things were until Shisui was already dead and Itachi was alone to shoulder the burden.
Because, to be clear, Shisui left Itachi alone to deal with a situation he promised they would handle together. Was Shisui still a kid that was under enormous pressure? Yes. But Shisui also actively reinforced the idea that Itachi could trust nobody else, that Shisui was the only person Itachi could rely on for this, and then left him with instructions that were rather contradictory ("Protect the Village and the Uchiha Name"), putting the burden of how to solve the situation on Itachi himself.
Shisui is about 2-3 years older than Itachi. That's not a lot, considering Shisui died when he was about the same age as Itachi was when he committed the massacre, but people readily agree that Itachi could have made better decisions without vilifying him (sometimes), and I think we can hold Shisui similarly accountable despite his age. Especially considering, as I said earlier, that Shisui is a fictional character and not a real person and that how we view him needs to reflect that.
Do I think Shisui is evil or malicious? No, and in fact I think he was actively trying to be a better person before he died. Do I think he, as a traumatized child, made many mistakes and deserves to have those acknowledged instead of ignored? Yes.
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