Yesterday or the day before for a little bit I spent time in my room in Orochimaru-mode. (Sunday Monday)
It was a passive thing, but it happened nonetheless. It was mildly scary the speed at which it came, but I was sort of happy it did.
I ended up reacquainting myself with Michael Jackson and downloading the following tracks...
Bad
Black or White
Childhood
Thriller
Scream
Somebody's Watching Me
Beat It
Billie Jean
..I like Black or White. Just because.
I love Billie Jean, but I cannot dance it for the life of me. I need someone to teach me. ><
The newest addition was Childhood by Michael Jackson. It took the longest, and for long agonizing periods of time it would stagnate. But eventually it finished. And it was totally worth it.
I (in Orochimaru mode) nearly cried listening to it. The lyrics were so sad. They were so beautiful. And they felt so relevant to Orochimaru that I couldn't help myself.
People say I'm not okay
'cos I love such elementary things.
It's been my fate to compensate,
for the childhood I've never known.
If only the Naruto fans could see. Especially the Sasuke fans. Orochimaru had a human side as well. He wasn't all bad, and he didn't have no redeeming features.
I am not an animal!
I am a human being!
I... am...a man!
(The Elephant Man, 1980 film. Or in my opinion, what Orochimaru should tell everyone.)
The formal end of Orochimaru as we knew it, a part of Orochimaru's past was shown. Young Orochimaru was at his parents' graves, where he had found a white snake skin. Along came Sarutobi-sensei, who explained to Orochimaru that the skin was a sign of rebirth, and perhaps that meant that Orochimaru's parents had been born again.
Orochimaru didn't spontaneously begin his journey to find out how to live forever for nothing. Apart from his thirst to learn all the ninja arts of the world, which would, evidently, take more than one lifetime, Orochimaru desired to find his parents.
It wasn't his fault.
SARUTOBI DID IT.
And because Sarutobi impressed on young Orochimaru the notion that, perhaps, rebirth was possible, Orochimaru's desire to reunite with his parents caused his ruthless search for the way to live forever.
And perhaps, when he did find the solution, he would give it to his parents as well, so they would be eternally bonded, never to part.
When you're a kid, and you get told something by someone you trust, until you see actual results which prove otherwise, you usually don't stop believing in it. Young Gaara and Yashamaru, from the same series, provide a suitable parallel to the relationship between Young Orochimaru and Sarutobi in the matter.
Orochimaru, admittedly, was a selfish man. A very selfish man for that matter, that he was not beneath treating the pursuit of his dreams as a game of chess, in which 'pieces had to be sacrificed' for the greater good. He would kidnap civilian ninjas for the sole purpose of experimenting on them to tinker on their inner workings, for better or for worse. His injection of the DNA of a wood-style ninja art user into sixty young ninjas resulted in the deaths of all but one, but of the students and experimental subjects he left behind, the survivors gained powers beyond reason. Some, like Kimimaro and Sasuke, were able to take their powers to the next level and become more powerful ninjas, while others gained new abilities, such as Suigetsu and Yamato.
What he had going for him in his ruthlessness was that he never gave up in that which he wanted to pursue. He spent years trying to perfect the way to eternal life, and no matter how much time (and hapless people) he had to spend, he did it anyway, and he never had a moment in which he thought to himself, "Screw this, my parents are dead, why should I bother?". He displayed great enthusiasm in procuring new citizens (pawns) during the creation of the Sound village, and offered just enough to tip the down-and-out over to his side. He took great pains to train his proteges.
In the end, though, his selfishness was a reason for his fall. He trained Sasuke so as to take on Sasuke's body, and when the time came and Sasuke retaliated, Orochimaru could not bring himself to kill the person who should have been his future soul container. It was this hesitation because of his desire to pursue what he wanted that caused him to fall, as Sasuke had no reservations towards Orochimaru, and swiftly did him in.
...I'm done.
TWENTY-THREE DAYS TO CHIONG IT. (Or less.)
