With a Giant fucking Happy Rasengan...

 

Madara, Kaguya, and the Jubi will suffer a painful death of vomiting their innards at the sentimentality.

 

It shows their ideal world. Tsunade may have bucked up and stopped mopping around but in her perfect world the people she loves are going to be alive.

 

Has a nice ring to it.

 

There are a lot of faulty memories going around in this thread.

Orochimaru's dream is obviously to have his parents back. Or did you forget that them dying was the entire reason for everything he did?

Orochimaru's dream world would be like Gaara's. It would be sad as hell. Probably him as an adult hanging out with Tsunade and Jiraiya with Sarutobi and his parents being proud of him.

 

Or him in posession of the Sharingan and all other blood line limits

 

That sounds nice, but the fact that this was what led him down his path in no way means that it is his dream of a perfect life. It might have been, once, but not anymore. As a person changes, so does their idea of perfection.

 

There hasn't been nearly as much emphasis on Orochimaru wanting his parents back (or caring about them at all) as there has been on Gaara and his familial angst/bromance with Naruto. I could be wrong, obviously, just like I was wrong about pretty much everyone's dream worlds except for Gaara, Tsunade, and Hinata. But at this point I think Orochimaru has moved past his parents.

 

Because Orochimaru isn't a main character. He was a villain, briefly, but was eclipsed almost as soon as he showed up by the Akatsuki. You say not as much emphasis was put on it, but how much emphasis has ever been put on Orochimaru's motivations and past? We were shown, once. And that's basically it.

It doesn't mean it wouldn't be, either, and it's the best guess we have. Your argument is even less valid now, seeing how Orochimaru has given up actively trying to conquer or take over anything. The only thing he has left that he would regret besides his own actions would be the loss of his parents, Jiraiya, and Sarutobi.

 

Orochimaru's sudden 180 is another matter I'm still scratching my head about.

 

The power of the Happy Rasengan and the Talk no Jutsu.

 

But Naruto didn't talk to Orochimaru as far as I know.

 

Itachi's TNJ affected him through osmosis.

 

He took a good look in the mirror (kabuto) and didn't like what he saw. Plus two quasi-deaths and being forced to take a spectator's role for like a year to back it up. Something like that.

 

Orochimaru said that he still wants Sasuke's body and that he still wants to use people as test subjects. I don't know if I'd call that a 180.

 

I eyerolled so hard when he was resurrected through a random Curse Seal. Proof that if Kishi wants someone to live, they'll live, bullshit or not.

Edit: Even id I dont remember a detail or a bullshit explanation, that is the gist of it.

 

Honestly I don't think Orochimaru did a 180 at all. The vibe I am getting from him is scientific interest. While he is primarily portrayed as an aggressive tyrant in the first part of the series, I felt that was more personal anger against Sarutobi than anything else. I don't think he really held much of a grudge towards Konoha itself. It was just there in his way.

As for his attitude now, I feel that Orochimaru as a pseudo-immortal is taking a scientific interest in the world and more particularly Sasuke's actions. He is observing a specimen and wishes to see how it plays out. Also...he really doesn't care for Madara/Obito's plan so he naturally teams up with the Shinobi Alliance.

 

No it's not. That's just what you'd like to believe.

Orochimaru is obsessed with knowing. Any and everything. That's why the Human-Mirror, Kabuto decided to go down the path he did, because Orochimaru convinced him that if he knew enough about everything, he'd be able to find his true self. His obsession with Immortality might have started out as a response to him being an orphan, but certainly not because of any of that touchy-feely crap you're talking about. Orochimaru is the only actual sociopath we've met in a story about killers trained from infancy....let that sink in. His obsession was/is purely selfish in nature. He can't do much knowing and understanding if he's dead, can he?

Orochimaru is THE MASTER at playing possum (unless you're counting Kaguya too). We know this.

Regret? That's an entirely too human attribute to associate with Orochimaru. He's probably just pissed that he didn't steal Sasuke's body sooner.

 

Kishimoto made part 2 Hanabi.

 

This! Just finished getting up to date in the manga... and... seriously, what the fuck? I've read like 30 chapters in a row and there's so much crazy stuff happening it's insane to keep track of it. It wouldn't have surprised me at all, had Kaguya been the reincarnation of Sakura - not really.