

This is something that's been bothering me for some time. Back when we get
into the flashbacks for Tobi's backstory and how he ended up becoming the
masked man, a special Zetsu with a spiral face is introduced, and his face
looks pretty much identical to the mask Tobi wears. Additionally, his voice
and mannerisms are very similar to what Tobi uses when he's being goofy and
doing obfuscating stupidity stuff. Spiral Zetsu (not sure if that's an actual
name people use for him, but that's what I'm going to call him) actually ends
up attaching himself to Tobi, further blurring the line between the two
characters.

This leads me to the question: is the introduction of this character supposed
to be an explanation for why Tobi was acting so goofy when he was first
introduced? Was it, in fact, Spiral Zetsu talking? I really hate this
implication, because as a ninja, obfuscating stupidity should be no problem
for Tobi to pull off, and this seems to be trying to take his acting skills
away from him, just because, "There's no way such a serious character could
act that way, and it lessens his character, so we need an explanation that
puts the blame elsewhere." Or something like that. But that seems to indeed be
where it's going, because evidently Spiral Zetsu is named Tobi in the
databook, according to the Fandom Wiki:
<https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Tobi_(Zetsu)>

Am I wrong here? Or is Spiral Zetsu really supposed to be Tobi? Is this the
intention of the author?


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2022-03-15T19:26:36.843
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2023-02-10T21:50:41.793
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question
naruto
Is Spiral Zetsu Tobi?


Yes. But he was Tobi way before meeting Obito. Zetsu's story is quite complex,
but trying to keep it simple, Tobi is a body retrieved from the demonic
statue, that was previously absorbed into it when Kaguya first used the
Infinite Tsukuyomi. Madara put Hashirama's cells into the statue, and he
believed he was cloning Black Zetsu with it, but they're just the victims of
Kaguya. One of these bodies was Tobi.

PS: Technically, Tobi is a White Zetsu, because that's the origin of every
White Zetsu. He is the only one with a "special" name (Guruguru, or Spiral)
because he is noticed by Obito, who gives him this name.


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2022-06-28T20:06:38.003
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I cannot speak to the author's intent, (and if anyone can, via author
interviews or databooks, I would encourage them to write an answer.) however,
there are in-universe reasons to believe Spiral Zetsu is not Tobi (the
Akatsuki member).

Herein, to avoid confusion, I will use the name Tobi only to refer to the
Akatsuki member with the orange mask. I will use the name Spiral Zetsu and
Tobi's real name (spoilers ahead) to refer to those characters.

First off, let's examine Tobi's mask. Though it looks like Spiral Zetsu's
face, it is orange. Did he paint it? But when we see Spiral Zetsu show up
again, his face is still white. It's shape also does not conform to what we
see in _Episode 345: I'm in Hell_ , when we see Obito wear Spiral Zetsu on his
body. Spiral Zetsu, being hollow, wraps his whole face around Obito's head.
But Tobi's hair is always sticking out when we see him. In the episode, there
are three forms:

  1. A form where Spiral Zetsu's whole face wraps around Obito. We see the spiral mask in this form, and he looks quite like when Obito is pretending to be Tobi, but with a white mask.
  2. A hood form where Obito's face is exposed. The top of Obito's head is still covered.
  3. A form where Spiral Zetsu comes off of Obito's head entirely while still wrapping around his body. In this form, Spiral Zetsu's swirly tendril-like head and upper body become shoulder spikes for Obito.

While he's in his Tobi persona, Tobi's hair always sticks out. We don't see
this in either forms 1 or 2, and he's missing the shoulder spikes in form 3.
Additionally, in _Episode 99: The Rampaging Tailed Beast_ , Toby takes his
mask off (yeah, I know it's filler, and y'all think filler isn't canonical,
but he takes it off to talk with Kisame too, though I don't feel like looking
for that scene). The mask is orange and it is removable. Spiral Zetsu's face
does not work like that. Thus, the mask is not Spiral Zetsu's face. Tobi does
cover a large portion of his head with cloth, so could it be he's hiding
Spiral Zetsu in form 2, just with his head uncovered somehow? I would contend
the volume under the cloth doesn't match. Spiral Zetsu looks kind of bulky in
form 2. Additionally, when we see Yamato come out of Spiral Zetsu, we again
see the shoulder spikes, so it really seems that Spiral Zetsu has not changed.
Thus, it is highly probable Obito is not wearing Spiral Zetsu during the
series.

Personality wise, I think there are actually some differences between Spiral
Zetsu and Obito's Tobi persona. While Tobi's humor comes off as a goofy human,
Spiral Zetsu, though also goofy, can't really pass as a human with his humor.
He's obsessed with asking about poop since he doesn't need to, and doesn't
seem to understand what being a normal human is like.

I also noticed while looking through these episodes that an echo filter is
used for Spiral Zetsu's voice, but not for Tobi's.

This answer is not definitive. But if all of this is actually true, and we're
going to say that Tobi really is Obito, I think it is also important to
acknowledge that in this case, Obito definitely based his Tobi persona on
Spiral Zetsu. They were close for years, after all, so the similarity is not a
coincidence.


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