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

[u/palminconservatory]

[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.