Wasn't Itachi's plan to set Sasuke up to kill I'm so he could die by an Uchicha as penance for the murder?. It's why I always refer to him as "Good" Itachi. What he did to Sasuke was reprehensible. The village forced an impossible choice on him, but his decision to torture his brother was 100% Itachi. I don't think its convulated, but its not thought through.
What was Plan B if Sasuke behaved differently? LIke if Sasuke said, I'm not going to be like Itachi. I'm going became an upstanding citizen who saves people and kids. Maybe like an orphanage for kids who lost their parents. Then he could run one instead of the serial killer who currently does. Would he torture Sasuke some more? Or what if Sasuke went through with his threat to destroy Konoha which Itachi murdered his family to protect?
I can just see it: Ghost Itachi looking at Konoha as its burns to the ground. "Oh, kitten."
Speaking of Itachi and I supposed to consider him redeemed? Naruto's reaction (or lack thereof) to the whole thing really sends a muddy message as to what the manga wants the reader to feel. Sympathy for the hard choice? Revulsion for the selfish and inhuman follow-up? And I'm not even getting to the part where the manga secretly implies Sasuke is the only Uchiha not in on it (besides Shisui and Itachi) and is under 12.
Character shield set to maximum!
yes yes yes
you're right about Itachi as 'good' and 'bad' - one being the pacifist, and one being the maniacal torturer. But that single thread of him having a good reason or one time being a peace loving child of the village is almost microscopic compared to the crimes he committed over and over again, all in the name of being a pacifist.
Because you know, 'bad Itachi' had to have killed more people after he joined Akatsuki. They wouldn't have let him in otherwise. So it's really not just the Itachi was bad to Sasuke for the sake of Sasuke. Itachi would have been all over the place, killing heads of state and other jinchurikis then stripping them of their demons, and for what? All so he could 'protect' Sasuke? (No wonder Sasuke's such a mess - just sayin.)
And yes - what would have happened if Sasuke had not gone according to Good/Bad Itachi's diabolical, mustache-twirling plan? What if Sasuke had become the ultimate pacifist - and turned away from being a shinobi and instead became a civilian? What if he blinded himself to foil Itachi? What if he threw away the power that was so desired by Obito, Danzo, etc?
Or what if went the opposite way, and Sasuke became the villain that Obito, Madara and Pain all wished they could be? That when Sasuke found out how he'd been manipulated by so many people, including his own brother, that he just became unhinged? So instead of Itachi creating the ultimate protector for Konoha, what if he ended up creating its ultimate destroyer?
Either of those options — A, Sasuke as ultimate pacifist or B, Sasuke as ultimate villain — seem like a more logical fall out from Itachi's murderous meddling. In fact, weighing it like that, it makes it really unlikely that Sasuke just accepted that all those deaths were really for his benefit. That Itachi loved his brother so much he killed all these people just for him.
But that's the way it went for Sasuke - he never looked too deeply at Itachi, what he did or why. Instead he just cried about it. On a rocky cliff. While looking into the sunset. He never felt like a pawn of Itachi's. He never really railed against him or what he did. And he never questioned all the people who died because of Itachi's plan.
And you're right about the last - Itachi had to have killed innocent people. Baby Uchihas. Any number of targets for the Akatsuki. Anyone who got in the way of his master plan (that Sasuke was then forced to accept and play his part in). But Sasuke never once looks at what Itachi did or feels remorse for any of the blood spilled on his account. He just accepts that all those people died because his brother loved him.
Itachi, Sasuke, Obito and Madara all have a super better-than-everyone-else complex. Must be an uchiha thing. Because they all have no problem taking, planning or killing anything/anyone that doesn't server their purpose.
On the one hand, we're supposed to understand that they're the 'cursed clan' because they love too much and it makes them crazy (or some weak crap explanation that was just to build in sympathy). But on the other hand, they all act like dictators. Every one of them.
I had always hoped that Sai would turn out to be an orphaned Uchiha, and he would represent the rebuilding of the clan in a gentler nature without the eye powers (like Sasuke's mom clearly was). That way Sasuke's goal of rebuilding the clan might be resolved without the strife of the past generations being passed on. Like Naruto's whole theme of breaking the old cycle. But clearly that didn't happen!!