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how often is hashirama demonized or made out to be a villain while having his positive qualities ignored or even omitted compared to tobirama? it seems to be that tobirama is more disliked and even demonized.
Definitely. Though I can also see why and, to a degree, agree with them.
Of course, there will always be exceptions (for example, I have a mutual who harbors a burning hatred for Hashirama), but generally speaking, Hashirama often gets treated like an angel compared to Tobirama.
Hashirama is the one who founded the village and fans usually associate him with that perfect image Hashirama made up in his mind. Peace, stability, friendship.
But Tobirama is the one who actually structured the village and fans associate him with his failings. The brutality of the shinobi system, the wars waged by Konoha, the corruption in the village's government.
Both, I find, are actually fair assessments of their characters, though very one-sided. The nuances are missing.
What I believe people like to forget is that the village and its political relationships were built and structured by Tobirama during Hashirama's time in office. That means Hashirama oversaw the process and agreed to Tobirama's ideas.
As I explained in a different post, and as paradoxical as it may sound, Hashirama's initial goal to protect the lives of children became second to the wellbeing of the village. The village that was established for the purpose of protecting children. As Hashirama lost sight of his original goal, children were sacrificed and ended up protecting the village and not the other way around.
Madara says that Hashirama mistook the cause for the end or put the cart before the horse, depending on the translation. Hashirama, looking back at his village's history, openly admits that these were circumstances he had considered acceptable in the grand scheme of things. A mistake, as we all know.
To make matters worse, Tobirama also gets the bigot treatment from the fandom. Or rather, the fandom has identified him as what they perceive to be a racist. I have further talked about the whole issue in this post, but long story short, Tobirama makes a good training dummy for that sort of discussion but within a fandom context - even if it distorts Kishimoto's initial vision, as I have explained in this post.
What is strangely interesting is that Hashirama seemingly agrees with Tobirama's theories (about the nature of the Uchiha Clan) yet doesn't get the same amount of hate that Tobirama does for this prejudice. I have previously explained this detail in this post. The fandom's perception seems to be influenced a lot by Tobirama's and Hashirama's respective personalities and their resulting actions rather than beliefs.
And Hashirama genuinely does have more (or at least more striking) positive traits than Tobirama. He is more likable. Meanwhile Tobirama's personality, in the databooks, is described as "bold, zealous, rational, principled", whereas Hashirama's traits are listed as "warm, considerate, carefree and easy-going". Particularly Tobirama's brutal honesty and rationality are unpopular character traits.
I also somewhat implied this above, but I also believe the fandom tends to simplify and reduce the Hokage a lot to their most striking character traits or their most striking accomplishments/failings (which are not even necessarily connected to their time as Hokage).
You can see that reflected in polls. This one was made by @/narutopolls.
Hiruzen "wins" by a ridiculous percentage because he is the Hokage whose failings we have been confronted the most with during the series. His leniency on Danzo and Orochimaru, the Third Great Shinobi War that was waged during his reign, Naruto's neglect and ostracization, the mishandled Hyuga Affair, the Uchiha Genocide, and so on and so forth.
The problem is just that we don't really know that much about the other Hokage and their respective legacies aside from Tsunade maybe. But everything we know about her reign relates to Naruto (ie. being nice to him and defending him in front of the elders) and we barely know what she did for the rest of the village aside from founding medical law (though it is unknown whether she did that during her time in office or before she left the village). We know that, unlike Hiruzen, she saw through Danzo's and the elders' bullshit. But also, she went into office already knowing that Danzo was shady, due to Hiruzen finding out during his reign. Truthfully, we have no idea about her qualities as a Hokage, but she just so happens to be a very positive, likable character.
In regards to Minato and Kakashi, we barely even know what they did in office. Could be anything, really, but they have likable personalities and cool fights, so they are better regarded than the others and we assume that they must have excelled as much as political leaders as they have excelled in our hearts.
Naruto we also barely know anything about. You could give him shit for not abolishing the use of child soldiers, but neither did any Hokage before him. Or you might dislike him for stopping Sasuke's revolution, but he did that before his time as Hokage. So why did Naruto get voted third worst Hokage? I'd daresay it's because people were able to watch his failings on screen and that soured his character for them.
All of this is just to prove that (with the exception of Hiruzen) people seem to base their perception of a character's competence on their affinity toward that character.
And now, apply all this to Tobirama and Hashirama. We barely have any particular failings to directly connect to Hashirama. We just know about his founding of the village, his mercy and empathy for the Uchiha, and his positive personality. But that's because we never saw him actually fulfilling his Hokage duties to begin with. Additionally, while in office, he had the support of his more rational and cunning brother to prevent political disaster. He was never given the opportunity to disappoint us.
In the case of Tobirama, he gets credited specifically for the village's (poor) planning, he openly expresses prejudice toward the Uchiha (who are fan favorites), and has an unlikable personality. In the case of Tobirama too, we never got to see him in the position of Hokage. Unlike Hashirama, for all we know, Tobirama did not receive any particular assistance to balance out his negative personality traits. He was never given the opportunity to win us over.
This creates a sharp contrast between the two. It elevates one brother's failings and facilitates choosing a "worse" brother to turn into a scapegoat for the other. And while, yes, certain things apply to both Hashirama and Tobirama (their willingness to train and use child soldiers, or their shared belief in the Uchiha's innate predisposition to strong love and hatred), we can also say that one of them actively caused those circumstances while the other mostly just condoned or supported them. They are both responsible, just to different degrees.
The only thing I really disagree with is that many fans completely absolve Hashirama of all blame or fail to even notice his faults to begin with.
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Ah, new series part posted
Here ya go
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I give you: Keiko Kiiro. Formerly known as Keiko Kamizuru.
#oh boy look at the time it’s oc o’clock#Naruto AU - HFV#backgrounds are my worst enemy#why did I do two light sources 💀
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Encore!
I’m actually proud of this one fr
It’s my second favorite oc! Kuragari!
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you are at a house party and your friend asks if they can have a drink
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My absolute favorite oc ever. And it’s not even close.
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I didn’t intend for my Naruto au to get this out of hand. I literally have 102 ocs. Technically, 105 but whatever the other three are only hypothetical
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The way I cannot stop drawing her still 🫣
I’m actually proud of this one fr
It’s my second favorite oc! Kuragari!
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wanted to give xianxia au tobirama some of his necromancy flair
it's supposed to be a tuna bc i think tobirama would enjoy using them like an attack dog
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Sometimes I am okay at art 😩
It’s one of my- pause while I check my notes… 98 ocs for a specific au
#Lady Luna my beloved I love her she’s my 9ft tall baddie 🥴#oh boy look at the time it’s oc o’clock#Naruto AU - HFV
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Give Me Your Hand and I'll Guide You Home
A story in which Yoichi finds Tenko underneath the bridge instead of All For One! He takes him home and quickly decides that they're keeping him.
Now Yoichi has new challenges to tackle: keeping his brother from putting Tenko under his villainous influence, as well as turning his brother from his own dark path.
But most of all: learning how to be a good parent. He's a naturally good person, it sounds easy enough... until it isn't.
It's not so easy for Tenko either, trying to live a good life while being constantly reminded of a past that's too hazy to remember, but uncomfortable at best, painful at worst.
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