Madara Uchiha is one of the main antagonist in Naruto Shippuuden. However, does his solution for peace for the ninja world by trying to create the perfect world that’s free from conflict truly make him evil?

The truth is you can consider Madara as “good” because he genuinely desired peace and wanted an end to all conflict. Even if his methods and actions can be considered “evil”, the end goal would lead to the end of warfare. Madara realized the harsh truth of war and sought to change things in a way that would benefit people as a whole.  

In order to fully understand Madara’s perspective and how he came to his solution of peace, its important to note his background, his experience dealing with war as a child, the harsh realities he faced, and the pursuit of his dream to make the world a better place.

Madara’s Upbringing

Madara grew up in a era of constant war. As a result, he developed a strong love for battle and this turned him into a perfectionist. The more battles he won, the more confident he felt about his abilities. Madara is also competitive by nature and dedicates much of his time improving his abilities. He always felt like he wasn’t good enough as a child and set high expectations for himself, a trait he retained even in adulthood. Having an even more talented rival like Hashirama Senju furthered his development as a ninja. He defeated many adult ninjas as a child. Combine this with his natural talent and strong chakra, he is one of the most gifted shinobi in history.

However, no matter how strong Madara was, he was still not able to protect his loved ones and unable to do anything about the constant state of war. His era was one of the bloodiest and most violent period in Naruto’s history. Times were so tough that the average lifespan was around 30.

It also didn’t help that Madara belonged to the Uchiha clan, one of the well known and elite clans of the period. As a child, Madara started out very idealistic but as time went on, he experienced the loss of too many of his loved ones, particularly his brothers. Izuna, his younger brother, was one of the last person closest to him and when he died because of mortal wounds dealt by Tobirama Senju, Madara became jaded.

As Madara reached adulthood, he saw the world for what it was. Hell.

Madara’s Reality

Despite the fact Madara experienced traumatic loss, Hashirama still managed to have him buy into his ideals of peace , which led to the creation of the Hidden Leaf Village (Konoha). However, after a while, it became clear that Hashirama’s idea of peace was flawed. Madara saw this flaw early and took a different approach to settling conflict during the early years of the Hidden Leaf Village. For example, he took an aggressive approach with negotiating with the shinobi of the Hidden Stone Village by forcefully telling them to swear allegiance to the Hidden Leaf. This was done to prevent The Hidden Stone Village from betraying the Hidden Leaf. He desired control so the peace would never be threatened. This was very different from Hashirama’s compassionate and peaceful approach. However, neither approached worked in the long run. Madara’s approach created resentment and hate from other villages and Hashirama’s approach created peace but this did not last. To make matters worse, the Uchiha clan was getting mistreated by the Senju. Conflict continued.

Madara eventually realize that despite ending smaller scale conflicts by creating the village system, this led to larger scale conflicts. He also felt the Senju’s clan domination threatened the Uchiha Clan and when he warned his clan of this, his warning were ignored. Feeling isolated and powerless, he began to feel disillusioned. What pushed his despair even further was deciphering the stone tablet, which had been in the Uchiha’s possession for generations. By reading the tablet, Madara learned about the history of shinobi, the endless cycle of hatred and war, and the futility of the current system.

He realized that the Hidden Leaf Village was a failure. However, he found a possible solution to all this conflict. This was the Eye of the Moon plan (Project “Tsuki no Me”). This plan involves casting an infinite Tsukuyomi (powerful genjutsu) on the moon in order to trap the entire world while getting rid of chakra. Furthermore, those who are under the infinite Tsukuyomi experience a dream where their deepest desires are fulfilled. This sounds like the perfect solution to everything.

It’s perfectly normal for those with great power to try to influence the world around them. Madara felt like he had an obligation to try to attempt this plan and try to make the world around him a better place. However, to achieve something like this would require great sacrifice, planning and time. This was not a problem as he felt that he had the mental toughness, strength and resolve to achieve this.

“Cooperation is merely a quiet form of conflict.” This was the conclusion Madara reached and from that moment, he had a new dream: Execute the Eye of the Moon Plan.

Madara’s New Dream

Madara cut all ties to Hashirama, his clan, and the leaf village. An essential part of the Eye of the Moon Plan is to have both Senju and Uchiha powers. In other words, Madara had to fight his long time rival to the death. This battle was symbolic as it was the clash of the two’s different viewpoints and ideologies. The destructive power caused by the battle was so great, it changed the landscape and the land was appropriately named The Valley of the End.

What’s truly significant about this battle was Madara and Hashirama’s last words to each other. Hashirama manages to get the upper hand and literally stabs Madara in the back. He then says :

“I will protect my village no matter what. I still believe to this day that protecting the village will lead to the protection of the people, shinobi, and children. I will never forgive anyone who threatens the village…Be they a friend, sibling, or even my own child.”

Madara responds by saying:

“You’ve changed, Hashirama. You’ve got your priorities backwards. Ultimately, it shall lead the village to darkness.”

This interaction is very important. This shows how far Hashirama is willing to go to protect his dream. You can argue that Hashirama is evil for killing Madara, his best friend, for the sake of that dream. The lines between good and evil are sometimes blurred. People are capable of doing horrible things in the name of protecting something dear to them. Madara would later use Hashirama’s same words when he stabs Sasuke as he shows that he’s also willing to do anything for his dream, even it means killing someone from his own clan. Madara’s response is also a foreshadowing of events. Later, you can see the negative effects of trying to protect the village by any means necessary. This ranges from Itachi having to slaughter the entire Uchiha clan to prevent war and chaos or Danzo using any method necessary to protect the village. Their actions create a domino effect that just causes more problems.

Madara, thinking ahead, managed to take a piece of Hashirama’s flesh and had Izagani activate after his death. This essential rewrote reality, causing him to come back to life. He implanted Hashirama’s flesh into his wound and eventually awakened his Rinnegan. He realized that he couldn’t finish his Eye of the Moon Plan in his lifespan. He planned to have someone act on his behalf and then have that person bring him back to life after his death. That person would be Obito Uchiha.

Madara’s Final Stand

After getting old, Madara becomes bitter and cynical. He manages to find Obito and have him act on his behalf by having the girl he loves die in front of his eyes, thereby corrupting him. Before this, he tells Obito he wants him to help sever the ties of this world and create a world of only love and peace where the concept of winners and losers are gone. Obito eventually agrees to this so he can see Rin and prevent tragedies like hers from happening again. Madara manipulating Obito can definitely be deemed as evil. However, he believes that the end justifies the means. The end result of the plan would end in Obito’s happiness.

Madara shared his history, the secrets of techniques and abilities, and all that he knew before dying. Obito was suppose to approach Nagato and determine the appropriate time to bring him back to life.

Madara is eventually reincarnated by Kabuto during the Fourth Great Ninja War and finds that Obito deviated from the plan. He faces the current Kage and defeats them easily. Later, he finds a moment where Obito is completely vulnerable and forces him to bring him back to life. Madara comes back to life and absorbs the ten tails and becomes the Ten Tails Jinchūriki. He also manages to get his Rinnegan back with the help from Zetsu and he reaches his goal of executing the Eye of the Moon plan (rare for antagonist to actually achieve their goal). He succeeds and everybody is sent to a dream world where they achieve happiness.

However, all this was really planned by Black Zetsu, who used Madara to revive Kaguya Otsutsuki. Kaguya is eventually defeated by Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Madara later reconciles with a reincarnated Hashirama and admits that Hashirama’s approach of peace is the best method.

Conclusion

Madara was a product of his circumstances. He saw the worst of what humanity had to offer and was helpless to do anything about it. Despite this, he devoted his entire life to finding a solution. He realized that the only way to eliminate conflict was take extreme measures. He saw this as the only option to truly make things better and his ambition caused him to work tirelessly towards this goal, even if it was at the expense of others. This was evident when he told a reincarnated Tobirama “drastic measures are needed to save the dying patient”. After seeing all his loved ones taken away from him and living through decades of war and despair, this was the logical conclusion for him.

Despite his horrible actions, we should also take note of his intentions. Madara just showed us a path thats different from people like Hashirama and Naruto. ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ are subjective terms, but you can argue that Madara was good. Whether he was good or evil, Madara succeeded in his goal of making the world a better place as the world had a common enemy and everyone banded together to defeat him. The end result was peace.

Madara is definitely one of the most badass villains in anime history.

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