Itachi's vs Sasuke's sacrifice
Sasuke is a great final villain as he internalizes ego death the same way every villain in the show has thus far. He tries to become a unifying symbol of shared hatred. He dehumanizes himself like Zabuza, seeks ultimate power to enforce his philosophy like Orochimaru, tries to erase his past in order to achieve that dehumanization like Obito, preaches self-sacrifice like Danzo, isolates himself so that his hatred doesn't impact others like Itachi, and applies Itachi's self-sacrificial philosophy globally in order to establish himself as a necessary savior of humanity like Madara and by letting the outside world shape his ideology he parallels Kabuto.
But why does Itachi's sacrifice seem so much more noble than Sasuke's? While I would say both of their sacrifices come from narcissism (might be a hot take), Itachi was at least fighting against a real, concrete conflict, while Sasuke was in a self-imposed fight against the very concept of a conflict. Itachi did what he thought was necessary, and Sasuke's sacrifice was a massive cry for attention. He kept pushing Naruto away because that way Sasuke felt in control of their bonds demise (unlike his bond with his family), the idea of losing that friendship the way he lost his clan terrified him so he wanted to end it himself. But the whole time, he loved the fact that Naruto chased him, he was very impressed with Naruto's determination to not do the easy thing (to cut off the toxic terrorist Sasuke like everyone else has). Sasuke saw the tragic unfolding of Madara and Hashirama and felt that the loss of his friendship with Naruto was destined, inevitable, unavoidable.
So he decided to do the fight at the final valley and enforce one of these 3 outcomes:
1) Kill Naruto and become an isolated miserable martyr (this is what he said his goal was, but I believe this was his least preferable outcome)
2) Force Naruto to kill him, and thus prove to him that his bond protecting ideal is futile once pushed to an extreme
3) Get Naruto to love-bomb him and convince him to go back to the village
I believe he was fine with all 3 of these outcomes, but deep down really wanted 3).
Kishimoto is trying to say: Stop pretending to be a martyr, you have loved ones to struggle with, self-sacrifice is an easy way out.
Sasuke is a great final villain as he internalizes ego death the same way every villain in the show has thus far. He tries to become a unifying symbol of shared hatred. He dehumanizes himself like Zabuza, seeks ultimate power to enforce his philosophy like Orochimaru, tries to erase his past in order to achieve that dehumanization like Obito, preaches self-sacrifice like Danzo, isolates himself so that his hatred doesn't impact others like Itachi, and applies Itachi's self-sacrificial philosophy globally in order to establish himself as a necessary savior of humanity like Madara and by letting the outside world shape his ideology he parallels Kabuto.
But why does Itachi's sacrifice seem so much more noble than Sasuke's? While I would say both of their sacrifices come from narcissism (might be a hot take), Itachi was at least fighting against a real, concrete conflict, while Sasuke was in a self-imposed fight against the very concept of a conflict. Itachi did what he thought was necessary, and Sasuke's sacrifice was a massive cry for attention. He kept pushing Naruto away because that way Sasuke felt in control of their bonds demise (unlike his bond with his family), the idea of losing that friendship the way he lost his clan terrified him so he wanted to end it himself. But the whole time, he loved the fact that Naruto chased him, he was very impressed with Naruto's determination to not do the easy thing (to cut off the toxic terrorist Sasuke like everyone else has). Sasuke saw the tragic unfolding of Madara and Hashirama and felt that the loss of his friendship with Naruto was destined, inevitable, unavoidable.
So he decided to do the fight at the final valley and enforce one of these 3 outcomes:
1) Kill Naruto and become an isolated miserable martyr (this is what he said his goal was, but I believe this was his least preferable outcome)
2) Force Naruto to kill him, and thus prove to him that his bond protecting ideal is futile once pushed to an extreme
3) Get Naruto to love-bomb him and convince him to go back to the village
I believe he was fine with all 3 of these outcomes, but deep down really wanted 3).
Kishimoto is trying to say: Stop pretending to be a martyr, you have loved ones to struggle with, self-sacrifice is an easy way out.
