Your manipulative Hashirama hcs makes so much sense now that I think about it like???? Ppl tend to forget he's also known as a God just like Madara. They both grew up in war, and both equally took lives and had to result in dark methods to reach a goal. While Tobi seems like the one to do things directly and it's probably why everyone is scared of him, Hashi does his methods behind the scenes so it doesn't soil his image. He gotta keep up a persona after all.
Plus who KNOWS how many strings he was pulling behind the scenes and how he influenced people personally or used his power to really scare people into giving him what he wanted.
if people were just already scared of him and literally gave him anything and everything he wanted with zero questions or anyone even thinking of speaking up against him other than Tobirama. There is no doubt in my mind Hashirama had some crazy influence over people with his reputation. Plus like imagine someone during that time saying no to him? they’d piss their pants if the thought even crossed their mind. If he didn’t wreck their shit physically that person’s paranoia and state of mind was probably outta there.
(to add onto this I think the Senju clan back in that time had a decent amount of money due to them having armor, nonetheless dyed armor, and that stuff is expensive to forge and takes time. I think they had money, power, and a good strong foot in the door. I mean their clan really did get a lot of things they wanted thanks to Hashirama. Who would want to be on the enemy side of that clan? Certainly not me.)
Sure Hashirama wasn’t super formal around others and he was goofy as hell but he had the option to be like that. The man captured all of the bijuu on his own and took down Madara Uchiha, who the fuck is gonna question this guy acting like a damn fool?
and poor Tobirama wants to keep up appearances around others because he also has to deal with representatives and higher ups. People will treat him completely differently compared to his brother and they may even joke around about serious topics because of Hashirama.
Like imagine talking to some super important guy who is joking around and being super goofy but then you have to suddenly talk to his younger brother and actually be serious about it, no way would someone take this guy seriously at first. That’s like whiplash on two legs.
{sorry if this seems all over the place I was writing exactly what my thoughts were at the moment so zero editing or even reading this over before I posted it happened}
