Summary

Sasuke's contradictions stem from his desire to seek revenge through violence while at the same time avoiding becoming like his brother.
Sasuke's character breaks down when he shifts his vengeance from individuals to the entire Leaf Village.
One explanation for Sasuke's breakdown involves the Uchiha clan's "curse of hatred," which shifts the responsibility away from his character.

Sasuke is one of the most popular characters in the original Naruto series and serves as the perfect thematic contrast to Naruto himself. Sasuke throughout the series tends to do the opposite of what one might expect in an almost contrarian-like way, leading to many confusing decisions and plot lines.

No doubt, many of his actions have rational and understood motivations. However, Sasuke’s actions seem to be a collection of contradictions, at least sometimes. There are times when we will see Sasuke try his best to protect something, only to destroy or kill it later on. He constantly reverses course when deciding how to deal out his brand of vengeance, and he often seems to be intentionally edgy just for the sake of it. This article will attempt to explore the contradictions seen in Sasuke to find out how much sense his character makes in the story of Naruto.

picture: sasuke in the cover of the sasuke shinden book.

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Sasuke’s Internal Contradictions

Does the Child of Prophecy Know What He Wants?

sasuke bleed — Sasuke bleeds from his eye after overusing his sharingan.

Sasuke’s problems as a character start from an early age. After his brother, Itachi wipes out his entire clan, the young ninja is left with an upside-down sense of justice. He becomes determined to get stronger to kill his brother, no matter the cost. However, the contradiction to his character is also baked in from the beginning in this aspect too. Sasuke also wants to avoid being like his brother as much as possible, making it frustrating for him that he has to train like him to stand a chance. He also embodies the potential for extreme violence that his brother inflicted on the Uchiha clan. This means that despite his desire to be different from his brother, his lust for revenge inevitably makes him follow in his footsteps.

This contradiction in his goals and desire to be different from Itachi saw Sasuke make some decisions that might not make sense on the surface. During the battle against Haku, Sasuke used his body to protect Naruto, someone he outwardly showed hostility toward. However, this contradictory action can be explained by his desire not to be like his brother and let the weakened Naruto die. Constantly throughout Naruto, Sasuke is weighing his goal to see his revenge against the urge to make every decision differently than his brother would. This often leads to him making choices that don’t appear to make sense but can be explained with a little extra investigation.

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When His Character Broke

A Turning Point for Sasuke

sasuke ship — Sasuke and Kakashi look bored while on a ship.

Later in the series, it is revealed that Itachi had actually massacred the Uchiha clan for the greater good, leading to an inversion of justice in Sasuke’s mind. While Sasuke once wanted to protect his friends from the Leaf Village, his unquenchable desire for power to defeat his brother made him turn his back on them. Now with this new revelation, Sasuke turns his desire for vengeance against the entire Leaf Village, wishing for its total destruction. This is where things start to break down for Sasuke’s character motivations.

"It's not the future I dream of anymore. Only the past." - Sasuke

He would now kill innocent people, betray allies, and show no mercy no matter who his opponent was. Why would he now want to massacre everyone after what happened to him, instead of just targeting the people responsible? If his goal was just revenge, he should have just targeted the elders. As Sasuke's craziness grew, he lost control of his lust for revenge and became a different character. Sasuke’s character became broken because he no longer had a goal to strive for and reason for his existence. Sasuke became trapped in the cycle of revenge, and after that point his decisions started to divert even more from making rational sense.

The series attempts to offer an explanation for Sasuke’s breakdown, suggesting that the Uchiha clan as a whole is afflicted by a “curse of hatred” that makes them more prone to losing mental and emotional control and creating conflict.This explanation for Sasuke’s seemingly random bouts of mental instability makes sense, but in doing so, shifts the agency away from his character, and he becomes more of a plot device.

It’s possible to argue that all of Sasuke’s actions in Naruto make complete sense in the story. However, someone doing so might have to concede that what this actually means is that his character not making sense is what actually makes sense in the end.

Naruto can be streamed on Crunchyroll and Netflix.

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