the "will of fire" aka fascism 101
unfortunately, i have more thoughts
i always found it so interesting (and annoying) that the show portrays it so positively. like sure, itachi, let's try to use your dead friend's eye to control your little brother in order to protect the village that he has incredibly valid reasons to hate.
pretty much throughout naruto, the "will of fire" is portrayed as this brave, honorable notion that the "good" shinobi follow. basically, indoctrination to choose konoha over everything.
my favorite example being, hashirama telling madara that he'd kill his child if they turned against konoha.
well that sure doesn't fucked up
i've been trying to understand why hashirama came to that conclusion. perhaps it was simply how he grew up? hashirama and madara grew up in the time of the warring states, surrounded by child soldiers, their siblings dying, etc.
that being said, this was a time where immense loyalty to one's clan was necessary for survival. i do think it's understandable that the "will of fire" began as that - unquestioned loyalty to the nation, rather than one's clan.
that does not mean that that belief should have persisted throughout generations.
we have people like sakumo, who was literally ostracized for...not choosing to let his comrades die.
it's funny how kisame, who's flashbacks show him eliminating his comrades under the orders of yagura/obito are portrayed as oh, kisame is emotionless and horrible when konoha promotes literally the same thing.
we only don't view konoha the same way because we follow naruto & friends on their missions, and they have plot on their side.
not to mention how early the shinobi are driven to believe this, with itachi being the key example. when the hokage are reanimated, hashirama says that itachi was a greater shinobi than him, and hiruzen talks about how itachi was thinking like a hokage at the age of 7.
great...he was a greater shinobi than you because he *checks notes* was even more brainwashed?
itachi was basically fed propaganda his entire life, so that he was led to believe that his clan's legitimate grievances about their mistreatment were a threat to the village. the "will of fire" was literally used to coerce itachi into eliminating his own clan as a fucking 13 year old.
we actually see how much the ideology messed him up, with it taking him forever to finally accept sasuke's decisions.
i have no conclusion to this, i just really wish that someone said fuck no to the "will of fire" at some point in the manga.
we literally have sasuke return to konoha in the end and work for it *screams into pillow*.
