gravelgods reblogged
something really fascinating about konoha is that, canonically, the Will of Fire is more like a religion than a philosophic mantra.
the manga explicitly states that in konoha they worship the hokage and their predecessors rather than gods.
i think that makes perfect sense for the specific type of nationalism and exceptionalism konoha runs on.
it also changes how we must view hashirama’s set up of hokage-ship and how he styled his throne of fire —
— as well as shikamaru’s final words to hidan.
not only is he saying he now owns hidan’s entire ass, he is performing an act of worship. his revenge is enacted in the name of konoha’s version of ancestor worship for asuma.
additionally, it contextualizes konoha’s generational commitment not to question the previous generation and therefore to repeat the past. even to the “non-religious,” this is a belief that has bled into konoha’s culture and social mores — which explains why even naruto, someone with every reason to want to restructure konoha, winds up buying into, supporting, and firming up the same rhetoric he rebelled against as a child.
although there is no doubt that kishimoto did not mean for this to be a point of criticism, there is something really powerful buried in all of this if you look at the entire series : idealizing the past threatens the present and stymies the future. your ancestors and elders are not always right. some beliefs and traditions SHOULD be questioned, interrogated, and changed in light of new knowledge; the refusal to do so poisons the entire system, and a system, once corrupted, is nearly impossible to save.
