In The Once and Future King, there are many characters that exhibit heroic and honorable traits, often sharing a large amount of similarities with many fictional characters that are popular today. It was revealed farther into this book that Lancelot had an affair with Queen Guinevere, causing a large conflict between his best friend, King Arthur, and his not-so-secret lover, Queen Guinevere. However, Sir Lancelot was still known to be an honorable man, withholding his own moral code, which often relates to fictional characters such as Itachi Uchiha from the Naruto Series, as well as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader from the Star Wars Trilogy.
The way that Itachi Uchiha was portrayed in the first half of the Naruto Series was as a villain who betrayed his own people, wreaking havoc among his own village and leaving his own little brother to grow up wondering what had gone wrong in Itachi Uchiha’s mind. It was later revealed towards the last half of the series that Itachi Uchiha actually didn’t “want to do the things he does, mostly he’s just following orders and trying to atone for it all,” leaving him with no other choice but to bring pain among his own village in order to save his little brother’s life as well as the future of his village (Naruto). Nearing the end of the series, Itachi Uchiha made one of his last appearances, which gave him the opportunity to speak to his younger brother one last time, as well as letting the viewers have a chance to fully understand his past situations and see how intelligent and heroic Itachi Uchiha actually was throughout the entire series. Therefore, Itachi Uchiha’s actions are similar to an “anti-villains,” and this is mainly due to how he made such impossible decisions at such a young age, however he did it all to save his brother and the future of the village (Anime).
In the beginning of the Star Wars trilogy, Anakin Skywalker had a very promising future in regards to becoming a powerful Jedi Knight; however, “his promising career tragically did not last when his personal demons lured him into turning to the Dark Side and becoming known as Darth Vader,” changing his life and forever affecting his reputation (Star). While his intentions were good from the start, Anakin Skywalker ended up going down a path where he hurt those he loved the most, such as his wife who was bearing their two children, his friends and those he had grown up around, due to how he was tricked and taken advantage of by the dark side. Once he became referred to as Darth Vader, he had already lost those he had loved most, except for his two children, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia; however, years had gone by already without his children knowing of his existence as their father, and only knowing him as a villain in their eyes (Star). Later on in the Star Wars films, moments before Darth Vader’s death, he revealed to Luke Skywalker that he was his father and by doing so, Luke Skywalker believed that it was still possible to turn his father back to the light side. Although there was still goodness inside of Darth Vader, there was no time to bring himself back to the light side, since he instead sacrificed himself in order to save Luke Skywalker’s life as well as many other people’s lives (Fox).
Throughout the Naruto and Star Wars series, both of these characters, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Itachi Uchiha, committed countless inexcusable acts; however, there were still elements of goodness that shone throughout these characters, mainly towards the beginnings and ends of their lives. Although they had many faults, they both had similarities in regards to having good intentions, as well as having a patch of time in their lives where they were lost in regards to their original goals.
Works Cited:
“Anime & Manga / Anti Villain.” TV Tropes, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AntiVillain/AnimeAndManga.
Fox, Timothy. “Sacrifice and Redemption in the Skywalker Saga.” StackPath, https://crossexamined.org/sacrifice-and-redemption-in-the-skywalker-saga/.
“Naruto – Itachi Uchiha / Characters.” TV Tropes, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/NarutoItachiUchiha.
“Star Wars — Anakin Skywalker/Characters.” TV Tropes, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/StarWarsAnakinSkywalker.
Hey Kristina (nice Kakashi profile picture, by they way)! I agree with you on all of these characters- I think that all of them are honorable, even if they weren’t portrayed that way during the whole show. Another character I’d like to add is Naofumi from an Isekai anime series, Rise of the Shield Hero. After Naofumi was transported to another world, he was betrayed by the King and Princess, being labeled a criminal. However, Naofumi still had a good heart and saved many people from the waves of monsters. He swore off being nice to anyone after the betrayal, but he still made close comrades and saved lives. I believe that this character is heroic and honorable at heart. I appreciate hearing your interpretation on these characters, I love all of those series and book. ~✰
Hello Kristin, I like when you talked about Itachi Uchiha from Naruto how he was misunderstood by people and his brother. I think a lot of villain’s in animes, TV-shows, movies being misunderstood because they are ready to go against world for one person or they did mistakes and it turned them into villain. Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next, because I liked they way you expressed it.