Although the author of this theory names it a crack theory, I quite like it. I have a particular liking for theories that flip the coin on a character - take dark!Minato and good!Orochimaru, for example - and this theory does just that.
You can read the full theory here.
The gist is that Shisui used his Kotoamatsukami on Itachi as he died, since his sharingan was activated and he said "Protect the village and the Uchiha name". The user notes the significance of the word use, “Uchiha name”, not simply “Uchiha”. It allows for Itachi’s integrity to be strengthened - as, otherwise, why would he really do what he did? The user points out that it would mostly make sense when taking the ‘brain washed soldier’ angle which the series goes out of its way to disprove at points.
Regardless of the credibility of the theory, I like it very much.
The PDF itself makes use of anchored headers/sub-headers, so navigating pages should be easy (for those of you who decided to download the PDF, since Google Drive doesn't support anchored links). LINK TO REDDIT POST @ https://www.reddit.com/r/5ToubunNoHanayome/comments/bev4p7/my_yotsuba_theory_on_the_subject_of_ribbons_and/
This is not my theory. I wish I could take credit for this. Whoever created this ended up missing the mark on the true identity of “Rena” but he is perceptive as f@ck!!! To identify this many clues before Yotsuba’s back story was revealed is impressive. I’ve started rereading the manga and I’m blown away by how many clues there are right from the beginning that Yotsuba was destined to be the bride. Once you know what to look for, it’s all over the place! The first time I read the manga, I overlooked Yotsuba because (unlike Miku, Ichika, and Nino, whose romantic feelings were obvious) I didn’t see any evidence that her feelings were anything more than platonic, save for a couple moments played for laughs. Her confession in chapter 21 was passed off as just kidding. Her kiss in chapter 51 caught me completely by surprise, coming right after she imagined giving Fuutarou a medal while the other 4 quints imagined kissing him. In retrospect, the medal was the red herring, not the kiss, but at the time I treated the kiss as a red herring. Mostly. It had my eyebrows raised, but only to the extent of thinking that Yotsuba isn’t as innocent as she seems.
It wasn’t until chapter 72, “The Rumor About the Class Reps,” that I saw solid evidence she had feelings beyond friendship. There are several moments throughout that chapter wherein her feelings for Fuutarou are obvious, but the most noteworthy one is towards the end. When two classmates ask Yotsuba if she and Fuutarou are dating, she sadly echoes Fuutarou, answering, “hell no, there’s no way that’d happen.”
Her back story in chapters 87-90 cast all of her actions up to that point in a completely new light. It explained the confession in 21, her kiss in ch 51, and the bell kiss in ch 68. Since the true identity of the girl in the ch 68 bell incident remains unconfirmed in the manga, I will elaborate. If it were Ichika, Miku, or Nino, why would they hide their identity from him? As for Itsuki, there is no evidence she is romantically interested in Fuutarou at all. Therefore, it must be Yotsuba who kisses him at the bell. Notice, just before she runs away after kissing him. she has a sad expression on her face. If it were Ichika, Nino or Miku, they’d look happy or relieved, or nervous, not sad. Only Yotsuba has been hiding her love for Fuutarou, out of her own sense of failure, inadequacy, and guilt, but also because she always puts her sisters’ happiness before her own. Only she would have the motive to kiss him without revealing her identity, and only she would feel sad out of her longing to pursue a relationship that she doesn’t think is possible and doesn’t think she deserves to have.
The following exchange from ch 90 is telling: - Itsuki: “Yotsuba. It it okay to keep going like this?” - Yotsuba: “Up until now it’s been Miku and the others who have confronted Fuutarou.” - Notice she calls him Fuutarou and not Uesugi-san. - Yotsuba continues: “At this point there’s just no place for me to come in.” - Itsuki: “You’re wrong! For so long, for so very long, haven’t you been the one watching over him by his side? Everyone has the right to hope for happiness.” - Yotsuba: “ Itsuki. Don’t say any more. I’m sorry for putting you in such a tough role.”
After she kisses him at the end of 108, she tries to convince herself that “this isn’t the time to keep being weighed down by the past. With this I feel like I’m able to move forward,” only to start crying at the thought of letting Fuutarou go.
In chapter 114, when Fuutarou tells Yotsuba he came to meet her, her first answer is “you must be joking” and when he asks her why she wasn’t in the nurse’s office waiting for him, she says “I didn’t think you would come to me.”
All of this is exactly what the bride meant in chapter 1 when she said, “I never imagined that this would happen in my wildest dreams.”