Through its long run, Naruto has had a number of highs and lows. What's most incredible about the series is that it's never managed to make a narrative decision that basically everybody disagrees with. Every controversial aspect of Naruto has been, well, a controversy—a center of discussion, with as many people who like it as hate it.

There are plenty of things about Naruto's ending with which one could take issue. The infamous twist with Kaguya and the Otsutsuki clan, for example, or the revelation about Naruto and Sasuke being the reincarnated form of a long-standing rivalry. There isn't a moment more egregious than the Akatsuki retcon with Black Zetsu, though, and I'll stand by that point.

Naruto's Biggest Retcon: The Problem With Black Zetsu

Naruto's World Slowly Chipped Away At The Role Of Willpower

The Black Zetsu retcon refers to the revelation that Black Zetsu had been the motivating force for hundreds of years of shinobi history. It's revealed that Black Zetsu was the materialization of Kaguya's will, and it existed solely to bring her back to life. Operating within the shadows—like a shinobi, fittingly enough—Black Zetsu pulled strings in order to make sure that Kaguya's eventual resurrection would play out.

This plan spanned generations and generations, implicating Indra Otsutsuki, Madara and Obito Uchiha, Nagato Uzumaki, and essentially the entire Akatsuki operation in turn. It wouldn't exactly be accurate to say that the Black Zetsu retcon rewrote the history of the entire shinobi world—as Naruto stubbornly rebutted, "shinobi made the shinobi world." Yet, I can't help but feel it takes the sting and bite out of what was actually a pretty noble mission on the Akatsuki's part.

The Black Zetsu Retcon Wasn't Fatal, But It Was Completely Unnecessary

Zetsu Was Already An Interesting Character

One of the funniest things about the Black Zetsu retcon is that it wasn't needed at all. On one hand, it rewrote the fundamental function of Zetsu as a character—and he was already more than interesting, on his own. Akatsuki always works in pairs, but Zetsu was a crucial exception to this. Because of his relative lack of physical strength in combination with his ability to phase through materials, he instead often takes up a messenger role for the Akatsuki.

It's in this precarious but fundamental position that Zetsu was able to carve out a role for himself as a character. One of his most memorable moments comes during the Five Kage Summit arc when he ruins Sasuke's attempt at a stealthy operation. Zetsu had become a wildcard who, with only the motivation of his supposed allegiances, played an incredibly interesting strategic role.

I would even grant Zetsu's role for Obito and Madara. The idea that Zetsu was actually the materialization of Madara's will, rather than someone who had pulled one over on Madara as part of a generations-long master plan, and that Obito followed Zetsu's calls as a result, is a fascinating narrative decision that could have uplifted, rather than ultimately undermining, Madara's role in Naruto's overarching narrative. Where things get messy and gratuitous is precisely where Zetsu starts to become a transcendental figure linked to Kaguya, who was a controversial addition on her own and felt all the more forced by Zetsu's retcon.

Like It Or Not, The Black Zetsu Retcon Undermines Naruto's Most Important Idea

The Black Zetsu Twist Isn't Just Unnecessary, It's Harmful

The shinobi world is a world of dreams, built on dreams. Jiraiya's death scene and its role in Naruto's meta-mythology reveals how, in a sense, the shinobi world itself is a waking dream: the idea of a peace that always lies on the horizon, hiding behind one more war or one more inconvenient clan needing extermination, but ultimately reachable (somehow). The shinobi ideal of peace is a dream that can justify immense cruelty in order to assert its own reality.

Love him or hate him, Madara's decision to press toward the Infinite Tsukuyomi as an alternative to shinobi society is immensely powerful. It's the rejection of one dream of peace for another dream of peace. In the context of Madara's relationship to Hashirama and Tobirama, as well as to the longstanding conflict between the Senju and Uchiha clans, it's a really powerful conviction because it's an utter rejection of shinobi society.

Madara says, in so many words, that if the only solution to bringing peace between clans is a shaky dream built on a foundation of discrimination and the minimization of past horrors, then it's better to cocoon oneself away. At least then, nobody gets hurt.

In a way, it's detestable; it scratches against every fiber of our beings thanks to the idealistic tendencies of the society we inhabit. Yet at the same time, it's also understandable—it's possible to see why this resonated so much with Obito. After all, Madara only came to the idea himself after realizing there was no real way to contest the authority of the nascent shinobi order.

Different characters come to different conclusions about dealing with the horrors of the shinobi world: Yahiko wished for simple armed resistance and self-defense; when that failed, Nagato wanted to deploy the Ten-Tails as a Rumbling-esque prophylactic; and one of the greatest disservices Naruto ever did is not giving Sasuke room for exposition on his plans after his end-game plans for revolution. What's critical is that the Akatsuki served as one of Naruto's few moments of self-reflection on its own ideals. It was a vessel of resistance against the shinobi order with no real parallels, except for Sasuke's own vague ideas of revolt.

I hate the Black Zetsu retcon precisely because it undermines Naruto's self-awareness. One can compare it to other controversial moments in the finale to see the sheer impact. The reincarnation twist arguably undermined Naruto's themes of rugged determination and hard work, rather than birthright, making one worthy and noble. The Otsutsuki twist writ large was a moment where Naruto shifted from a relatively grounded series focused on the shinobi world to a bizarre science-fiction story.

Yet somehow, those both pale in comparison to the way the Black Zetsu retcon comes along and says that the only serious force of skepticism and resistance toward the shinobi world was actually the result of a trickster devil pulling the strings and manipulating the plot. For better or worse, it's the moment that makes it perfectly clear why Konoha later turns into a surveillance state, and why, despite international cooperation, the shinobi order remains a deeply flawed world of contradictions.

The Black Zetsu retcon is where Naruto, without even realizing it, says "the shinobi order is the way things should be—there is no reasonable alternative," in a move that renders all of its conflict meaningless.