More of this au/concept!!
But this time instead of funny comics I wanted to do some character studies. I really like to explore Obito and Sasuke’s mentalities after the war.
Just to clarify, I am not in any way equating Sasuke’s crimes to Obito's. Sasuke’s actions were rather tame for the series and in fact he did the world a favor by getting rid of Danzo and Orochimaru (the snake's still dead to me I don't care what canon says). But I think he'd still feel guilty after the war, if not for the crimes themselves, at least for hurting the people who cared about him (part of his reasons to travel around was to atone after all). He still hates the Konoha elders but he's scared to show it bc of how much hatred as a whole has damaged his life.
Obito, on the other hand, has learned a few things about guilt (living with Kakashi does that). He knows he can never truly atone for what he did, but there’s a difference between coping with his past actions and using other people's pain to hurt himself. He understands now that moving on (while carrying the weight of his sins) is also part of his redemption. And he's allowed to be happy, especially if his own happiness can alleviate the pain of one of the people he hurt the most (Kakashi). However, there is still some self-hatred left unhealed, as seen on his expression when he tells Sasuke to hate him if he wants to. He does mean to rightfully take the blame, but there is an extra layer to his words.
The "blame Madara" thing is a silly thing Obito and Kakashi came up with bc they were arguing about which of them was truly responsible for Rin's death, and then realized Madara is the one who planned the whole thing. Obito then realized a lot of his own pain also came from Madara, hence the concept was created. The idea is to redirect the self hatred momentarily towards someone else (who is dead and willingly committed those crimes) as a way to stop being cruel to themselves. It's not meant to fuel the hatred towards that person, though.
Lastly, some may say that Kakashi forgiving Obito and imprisoning the elders is hypocritical but I don't care. There's a difference between causing atrocities to cope with unbearable trauma while being manipulated, and doing a genocide out of prejudice to simply stay in power. Besides if we look under the village rules and their shinobi ways, almost every single adult has commited a crime and some of those people are Kage (the system is based on violence and death, war crimes are pretty common). Obito is trying to be better and live peacefully now, while those old fuckers would use every cheap and cruel method just to stay in power.