When Prodigies Become Snakes - A Look at Orochimaru

[tonyyao82.livejournal.com]

Given that it's Lunar New Year and the fact that he's back to possibly cause more trouble, I decided to take a look at the sinister scientist that is Orochimaru. You can read it at:

http://www.mangatherapy.com/post/43121222980/when-prodigies-become-snakes-orochimaru-naruto

I recall Kishimoto once saying that Orochimaru is "good" in an old interview. Given his actions as of late, what do you guys see this year for him? In some ways, he's like a water snake that has to go through multiple phases to get what he wants.

Comments

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

Odd, that whoever wrote that-- you?-- assumed that Konoha wrote off Orochimaru as a rotten apple when he was young, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Orochimaru seemed to enjoy nothing less than the favoritism of his teacher and the renown and status that came with being a Sannin well into adulthood.

[tonyyao82.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, well, it seemed like Hiruzen was the only one who believed in Orochimaru more than anyone else. I do remember Jiraiya wanted to help him too. I did say most folks.

Also, didn't seeing the deaths of people close to his comrades affect him to a certain degree that may have caused him to be more selfish and evil?

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

It's hard to tell how most of Konoha treated him because we're never shown that definitively one way or the other.

The anime went into a long, almost-entire-episode flashback showing Orochimaru reacting to various deaths and wars and skirmishes in such a way that he came off as sympathetic, the victim of too much violence deadening his emotions, but there's no equivalent in the manga that I can recall. It's implied that the deaths of his parents hit him hard-- I personally believe that some of the quieter, more withdrawn behavior he shows as a kid is the result of depression, but that's just speculation.

[tonyyao82.livejournal.com]

Something could be revealed since Sasuke is suspecting a reason as to why Orochimaru wants to destroy Konoha.

Yeah, I wonder if Orochimaru was pampered by his parents because of his talents and after they were gone, he became depressed and withdrawn.

[mangacrack.livejournal.com]

Part of this episode was also that Orochimaru was the commanding Jonin on the mission, on which Tsunades brother Nawaki died. It was also implied that Orochimaru sent Dan on his last mission. This I always thought as an important factor, because Orochimaru simply had the desire to become stronger and dabbled in forbidden jutsu afterwards.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

Yes, but as I mentioned, the stuff from that episode was-- essentially-- filler, since there's no manga equivalent. In manga-verse, none of that happened.