#and there are no alternatives available to you or said alternatives harbour other unreasonable risks or disadvantages

[comikadraws]

how morally grey are hiruzen, hashirama, Tobirama and tsunade?

The Hokage and Moral Greyness

Oh boi. That's difficult to judge, honestly.

A morally grey character is one who is not purely good or evil. Their actions are not determined by their morals but by their ambitions. Said ambitions themselves can be either good or evil but both may be accomplished through good or bad means. What makes matters worse is that morality (and therefore moral greyness) is a spectrum.

Itachi is a very good example here because his goal (saving innocents and his little brother) is good. But the actions he takes to get there (mass murder of both the guilty and innocent, manipulation of his brother, and threats toward the village) are traditionally considered "evil" or "amoral".

It's all a big "ends justify the means".

<My opinion under the cut>

All of the characters mentioned above are morally grey to some degree. You cannot be a ninja, killing or willfully sacrificing people, without carrying at least a little bit of moral greyness to your decision-making.

But what we need to understand here is that sometimes, moral greyness is unavoidable. If the world demands you either pick up a weapon or watch your friends die, there is no such thing as a perfect solution to shield you from getting blood on your hands. Morals, sometimes, are a luxury.

And that is the issue with character morality. Are the characters in question really validating evil actions for the sake of evil or are they just being deprived of all viable alternatives? Or was it even a mistake perhaps? Or are they just evil in some aspects of their character but good in others?

Hashirama, for example, is morally grey because he decided he would kill both friend and foe if pressured to do so to save the greater good and establish lasting peace.

Tobirama is morally grey because he decided he would marginalize groups of people or make use of immoral methods even when peace is not under immediate threat.

Hiruzen is morally grey because he gave executive rights to morally corrupt individuals and then refused to punish them to instead maintain a malfunctioning system. In this instance, among other things, he condoned immoral methods to protect the greater good.

Tsunade is morally grey because she agrees to the use of children on the battlefield to save the greater good and re-establish peace.

In comparison, I'd say that Tsunade and Hashirama are the least morally grey as their worst decisions come from a place of necessity. Tobirama and Hiruzen are more morally grey because they commit, agree to, or tolerate immoral actions even when circumstances do not demand such apathy. But of course, it is more difficult to judge for us (the audience) as we do not have to deal with the trauma or pressure of those situations (or possibly even the full scope of events) that do very much influence those decisions.