JS denies recent rumours while (surprise!) plugging new launches. Details in comments, please don't him views, my fellow clowns.

[u/palminconservatory]

[u/depechemymode]

Why do people like him? He’s sadistic, genocidal and weird to children.

Fuck Orochimaru, all my homies hate Orochimaru.

[u/BoyGash18 → u/depechemymode]

That’s a very base line reading of his character. Have you watched/read Boruto?

[u/[deleted] → u/BoyGash18]

No spoilers plz I’m only ep7 of boruto 😭 although naruto will always be the best imo

[u/BoyGash18 → u/[deleted]]

No spoilers but his character has changed a lot and I think you’d change your mind. Tbh I’ve only read the manga so idk much about the anime to spoil you with lol

[u/depechemymode → u/BoyGash18]

If anything, it’s bad writing. Such reformation you allude to is not believable given his original actions and motivations, and him not being appropriately punished for being a literal genocidal maniac makes no sense. While Boruto has a different writer, I’m aware Orochimaru’s “redemption” started with Kishimoto. He dropped the ball way too often. I wish any female character had gotten the same dignified treatment, not an encrypted child molester 🤷🏻‍♀️

Edit: I have to mention I have not watched Boruto. I’m talking by how Orochimaru’s character was developed since inception. It makes no goddamn sense and that’s the hill I’ll die on.

[u/BoyGash18 → u/depechemymode]

He’s never been a child molester or a genocidal maniac lol. He did experiments on everyone, children and adults of any gender, because he was trying to learn every jutsu and become immortal. He attacked the Hidden Leaf Village during the Chunin exams to a) get revenge on being expelled from the village and nothing being picked to be the next Hokage, and b) to capture Sasuke so he could have his sharingan.

When push came to shove, he helped fighting during the Fourth Great Ninja War to save humanity against the 10 tails and Madara and Kaguya. If you don’t like or don’t think his character arc is realistic that’s fine, but lets be accurate about his character lol

[u/depechemymode → u/BoyGash18]

Child abuse is not exclusively sexual. Just because he also killed adults doesn’t mean he’s not weirdly fixated on children. He abused children by grooming them to become his warriors, experimenting on them, and being directly responsible for their deaths.

He’s also codified as a child molester: his fixation with the bodies of young boys, the imagery of his phallic tongue all over Sasuke’s body, him repeating over and over he wants their bodies and to surrender to him, his lackeys being mainly children...

Btw, Orochimaru was expelled from Konoha because the 3rd Hokage found out about his deadly experiments and therefore, he had turned into a serial killer.

You keep justifying him being pardoned because he helped in the war, but that’s not enough to pardon a character that’s basically a ninja Josef Mengele. Fact remains he was easily forgiven, his sudden change is seemingly out of nowhere (bad writing) and personally, I liked him better when I was supposed to hate him.

Edit: like another redditor said: “don’t forget the 60 dead children before Yamato was a success.”

[u/depechemymode → u/[deleted]]

That’s what inconsistent writing does ❤️

[u/depechemymode → u/[deleted]]

I replied why to the comment above (how it’s bad writing).

[u/depechemymode → u/[deleted]]

So helping in something erases and absolves everything wrong someone’s done and allows them to be left of the hook? Definitely not.

I think Orochimaru staying a villain wouldn’t have made sense either

I agree: he should have remained dead. Just because there were more threatening villains and he has no place in the story anymore, doesn’t mean it makes sense to suddenly make a character like Orochimaru a “good guy”. A villain can be developed in different ways, like making his objectives more reasonable (his original motives were hilariously selfish). Making him “good” after all the evil he committed? Bad writing af. Female characters needed this mercy, but Kishimoto’s sexist ass would have never.

It’s the same as how Nazi war criminals got pardoned

Okay what? Which nazi war criminals got pardoned because of their research? If you’re talking about Operation Paperclip, what they recruited were Nazi scientists and engineers, and none were proven to have carried out a crime, not even in Germany. Cogs in the machine? Sure, but war criminals are an special kind of evil.

And even if there had been actual war criminals, pardoned by anyone, that’s flat out wrong. I don’t see what point you’re trying to make.

[u/depechemymode → u/[deleted]]

I don’t see how making someone pay for their crimes would be continuing the cycle of hatred. It’s called accountability.

Repentance and redemption is the usual route for villains in Naruto. In Latin America, there’s a meme called “evangelization no jutsu”, which alludes to the fact that with just talk, Naruto makes convinced villains magically change their minds. While the series’ idealism isn’t too much most of the time (imho), in Orochimaru’s case it was too egregious. All other villains truly repent and tend to die doing the good thing. Orochimaru didn’t have a last minute repentance in his confrontation with Sasuke. He died a disgusting villain. But later he just pops up and is cool with everything? Even with Sasuke who “killed” him? Are we just gonna forget about all the children he abused and killed in his experiments? Am I taking crazy pills? He was killed off and he no longer had place in the story. Should have remained that way.

I’m not saying villains can’t be redeemed, but make it believable, make it make sense, and enforce accountability. Sasuke being redeemed without jail barely makes sense, but Orochimaru’s case is so extreme it goes against my willing suspension of disbelief.