A Tale Of Severus Snape and Itachi Uchiha! (Massive Harry Potter series and Naruto Spoilers below. Read at your own risk. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)
In the last few days, something really beautiful happened in my head. I was just browsing YouTube and I found a video about the Harry Potter cast mentioning their awkward behind the scenes moment which got me thinking about the series all over again. A series that I have not really thought about in years suddenly crawled in my head out of nowhere and then I went into a binge oblivion of clips from throughout the history of the movies. It was like reliving old memories again. Now see Harry Potter is very close to me and probably to any one who was born around the 90s because it was the first actual series of movies I watched as a kid and the way the world is created by J.K Rowling is absolutely Jaw Dropping even at this day and age. Too bad J.K is a bit too 'woke' now a days and gets criticized pretty often for a tweet or two but honestly I do not really care. The series started as child friendly series but as time went on, it turned into more mature teenage drama dark thriller type of series. The actors grew and changed and the kids born in the 90s could relate to the movies so much. People born in 1990 are pretty much the same age as Emma, Rupert and Daniel(Harmione, Ron and Harry also known as the Golden Trio) and if they followed the series from the start, they pretty much grew into adulthood with the movies and the actors and no other movie series can ever replicate that. Now I know the movies are no perfect and a ton of details from the books are missing but still the movies are pretty good and they still at least pretend to follow the books even if its just a bare-bones representation of the books(unlike Game Of Thrones Season 8).
And then we have Naruto, the anime that played a huge part in imprinting the importance of anime in the minds of people. It was pretty much my first actual main anime I watched and in a lot ways its also like the Harry Potter series as most people were also kids when they started watching the anime and saw Naruto begin as stupid kid friendly anime about a stupid wannabe Ninja boy causing havoc in his town grow into a much more darker and gritty anime as time went on and the kids grew up with the anime. The anime created a very detailed and in depth ninja world with a ton of characters and each of the characters are very deeply explored. It explored love, death, betrayal, family bond, sacrifice, friendship, complexion, politics, etc in a much more detailed way than the Harry Potter movies.
Thinking about both Harry Potter and Naruto, a thought came in my mind about two characters that play a very important part in the major events of both the series and it blew my mind that how I never thought about how similar these two characters are to each other while at the same time being significantly different. Of course I am Talking about Severus Snape And Itachi Uchiha, the two most important, badass and bittersweet characters in the history of entertainment and both equally having a really dark and tragic story. Snape and Itachi are the puzzle pieces without which, the story of Harry Potter and the story of Naruto are incomplete. Both of these characters played an interwoven role in each of their respective pieces of media since the very beginning and only after years did we get to know the actual truth about both of them. I think it will be very interesting to compare them.
The Similarities
Although these characters are certainly very different and from each in a lot of ways, it is absolutely shocking how similar they are as well, something I have only thought about now in 2021, years after watching The Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Naruto Shippuden.
They both had to sacrifice the people they held close to them. Snape failed to save the love of his life and the only actual friend he ever had,
Lily Potter. His hatred for
James Potter also converted into his hatred for Harry and only during his final moments did he realize that Harry is much like Lilly. Somewhere he started caring for Harry and respected Harry even if he did not love him due his love for Lily. He was forced to kill
Dumbledore after which, Harry hated him believed he was a traitor until he watched his actual memories and saw the real truth.
Itachi Uchiha's story however takes everything up a notch. He was forced to kill his entire clan due to the orders from his higher ups just so that he could stop an actual world war that would have destroyed everything. He only left one person from his clan alive and that was his own brother
Sasuke Uchiha who grew up hating his own big brother without knowing everything that happen and only during Itachi's final moments did Sasuke got to know the actual truth.
- Protecting The Children That Hated Them With All Their Life
As Ron says, it is absolutely 'mental' when you think about how both were trying to protect the very children that despised them.
Harry was never really a fan of Snape and after the Dumbledore incident, he absolutely hated him. And Snape did not really love Harry but still since the very beginning, he wanted to do everything to make sure that Harry is safe. He did not want the one person that Lilly sacrificed her life for to be gone and with time, he did seemingly started to care for Harry and respect him to the point where he seemed genuinely shocked when Dumbledore told him that Harry will have to die since a part of
Voldemort is inside him.
Itachi on the other hand was trying his level best to make sure his brother was safe all the time. Even though Sasuke grew up hating Itachi to the point that he wanted to kill him, Itachi loved his little brother with all his heart and he wanted to die by Sasuke's hand as he believed only Sasuke should punish him for his unforgivable crime. He was forced to create a false image in his brother's eye and the eye of the world that he was the most evil bastard to ever exist.
- Double Agent and Joining an Evil Faction
Both Snape and Itachi played the role of a double agent throughout the significant part of their lives while sacrificing their own image.
Snape is a bit different in this regard because he is not really a double agent. He is actually a Triple Agent. Well I guess he was at the start a double agent for Voldemort and was a Death eater who gave information about Dumbledore's plans but it seems like after the death of Lily Potter, he switched sides and became a triple agent and started spying for Dumbledore. After Voldemort returned, Snape pretended that he was still a double agent for him and still very faithful to the Dark Lord and Voldemort believed it but actually he was spying on Voldemort and the
Death eater gang for Dumbledore which makes him Triple Agent. I know it is a bit complex but you get the point. He and Dumbledore planed that Snape had to kill Dumbledore for few reasons.
1. Dumbledore was already dying due to the cursed ring.
2. To save
Draco Malfoy's soul because he would have been a gone case if he killed Dumbledore and Dumbledore did not want that.
3. But most importantly keep up the charade that Snape and Dumbledore had been playing for years and get the complete trust of Lord Voldemort.
By killing Dumbledore, Snape completely ruined his image and reputation around the wizard world. He would have been known as a traitor if not for Harry revealing the actual truth to the world.
Itachi was a true double agent. Since a very early age, he was a very skilled fighter and was very highly ranked within his team and was way too skilled compared to the
Uchiha clan members. This created a kind of a feeling of tension within the Uchiha clan who started to doubt the village government for unfair treatment. They planed a coup against the village and Itachi knew about that and just to make sure that a full on War is avoided, he became a double agent for the
Konoha village and reported all the information about the Uchiha clan to the
third hokage and the
Konoha council. After Itachi lost his best friend
Shisui Uchiha and his clan started to believe that he was the killer, Itachi lost his cool. Even though the third Hokage tried to find a peaceful way to solve the issue, Itachi knew that there was no other way and Itachi decided to do the most horrible thing ever with a very heaviest heart as he massacred the entire clan along with a man claiming to be
Madara Uchiha in just one night. Finally he killed his parents with a very heavy heart and insane amount guilt and his parents accepted his decision and told that they were proud of him. Itachi left his young brother Sasuke alive telling him that he massacred his entire clan just to test his skill. He showed Sasuke the memories of how he killed the entire clan and how he wants to make sure that Sasuke is trained before he kills him and told that he never loved him, hence completely ruining his image in front of his little brother. However in reality, Itachi was wanted to die and could not handle the guilt of the horrible thing he did and believed that it should be Sasuke who should be the one to punish him for his sins.
By doing this act, he forever ruined his image and lived the rest of his life known as traitor who killed his entire clan and was forever hated by the very people he committed the ultimate sacrifice for. Only a few select group of people knew the actual truth and the truth did come out very late after the Itachi's death.
Just how Snape joined the Death Eaters as an agent for Dumbledore(well he already was one but you get the point), Itachi also joined an evil faction called the
Akatsuki which was again under the man claiming to be Madara Uchiha. Itachi knew that Madara wanted revenge on Konoha village and hence remained a double agent working for the Konoha village and at the same time, protected Sasuke from the shadows. Even after being hated for the rest of his life, he remained faithful to the village till his last breath.
It really crazy how similar they are but their are some differences as well that also makes them quite a different
The Differences
The early teenage days of both the characters are actually very different from each other and I am talking about the way they were treated. Now Snape in his teenage years was one of the most bright magical student and was very skilled but he was bullied by none other than James Potter who is the dad of Harry and he never really had a friend in his childhood except Lily. I think what was worse is that Snape loved Lily but Lily only thought of Snape as a friend and actually loved James and they got married. These two are the reasons why Snape hated James so much and he carried that hate onto Harry as well.
Itachi had it differently though. He was not only very skilled at such a young age but also he had the respect of everyone around him. He was highly respected by his friends and colleagues was also very respected by his village. The only people who were kind of not really supportive of him were his own clan members who were kind of jealous of him.
- The Weight of their actions are very different
Both had to commit crimes and ruin their own image in front of everyone for the benefit of the people but the weight of their actions are very different.
As a triple agent, Snape actually never really committed a crime for the most of his years. He was a strict and asshole of a teacher and the kids hated him and were scared of him and he treated Harry and his friends like shit and he was very mean for the most of his life but that is all that he was and it made sense with his character to be kind of like this Gray moral guy considering how he was treated like shit when he was kid. As a teacher, he was still very respected throughout the magical word. The only crime he committed was to murder Dumbledore but the thing is, his name was cleared fairly quickly and he was proven innocent rather quickly. Well he did not have to face much of consequence for his action and he himself passed away pretty soon after the murder of Dumbledore.
Itachi had it different and much more harder and although he did what he did to prevent a war, it does not detach the fact that he literally committed a mass geocide of his own clan which in anyway cannot be justified. At least Dumbledore and Snape already planned that Snape was supposed to kill him but that was not the case with Itachi. he massacred his entire clan which not only made everyone hate him but also he hated himself and the guilt ate him up inside and he knew his people will never forget and he knew that the very people he saved will hate him and fear him for the rest of his life. And so he spent significant years of his life as a complete villain and living with the worst evil organization. What I loved the most about all of this is that Itachi never justifies his actions. He knew he had to do what he did but he still knows that what he did was a horrible crime and that is why he put Sasuke in a path of revenge and wanted Sasuke to be the one who punished him for his sins.
Conclusion
Well as you see this was a rather interesting topic to write about and I loved how random it was and it just came in my head out of nowhere. Snape and Itachi themselves are very different and they cannot and should not be even compared considering that their respective source materials in which they exist are very different and the world and the science behind the worlds are very different but some of the things are just a bit too similar to ignore. I will like to state though that while discussing this comparison, I may have got some story beats wrong since I have not watched a single Harry Potter movie in like a decade and have not watched Naruto in like 5 years.
Thanks for reading though.
Excelente análisis
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