That voice in the head orochimaru story would be really, really cool to read. I'm imagining writing it in third person sort of? Anyway, if I found time to write it, which I really want to, and I'll give you credit, do you have any suggestions?
Ah, hm. I think if you wrote it you’d have to work quite hard on Orochimaru’s characterisation.
I could rant on about Orochimaru for like months or something and this got pretty ranty, basically turned into me shrieking about Orochimaru (my precious murder goth Legolas) so if you get bored just stop reading okay? And, uh, sorry.
Orochimaru’s kind of… He has a great deal of reverence for the ideal of a sort of brutally rational detachment from people, but he also has a lot of feelings: resentment, bitterness, anxiety. He never goes after immortality the way Sasori does. Despite how he resents interpersonal attachments and obligations, he never tries to excise his emotions. I think it’s because he recognises on some level that a lot of the time he is motivated by his emotional responses.
He is satisfied when he can overpower others; he wants to prove he has control… which is ironic because he seems like he has very little control in some ways. Like - Did you see him with Sarutobi? So much of that was resentful showing off. (LOOK AT ME, SENSEI! I’M STRONGER THAN YOU NOW. PAY ATTENTION TO ME. RECOGNISE ME.) Seriously, go back and read or watch that bit again. It’s not a fight, it’s bloody performance art. He pulls out all the stops, everything he has that’s foul and powerful: Summons the dead. Regurgitates a legendary sword. Peels off his face. (Not to mention the incidental human sacrifices that these imply.)
Sarutobi’s disgust and horror is pretty much what he’s aiming for. He’s powerful and terrible and he’s wild with it. He can’t contain his laughter. It’s beautiful. It’s perfect. He’s an object of disgust - but so what? He’s also an object of fear.
I think it’s easy to make Orochimaru a) an unfunny paedophilia joke, b) a cardboard villain who does evil because it’s evil, or c) very simplified. I would strongly advise against that if possible.
Orochimaru’s personality, to me, is contrary and self-defeating and beautiful. He is insecure but proud, so proud; he hates humiliation, hates vulnerability. His rage at his own failures is only outstripped by his disdain for pretty much everybody else he encounters. An example of his behaviour: even when he’s begging Tsunade for help he’s absolutely determined to push her buttons. Why? Because he is not thinking clearly. He can’t be, or he wouldn’t. Even if he wanted to remind her of her “role” in the boys’ deaths and prey upon her insecurities, he could have picked many better ways. He doesn’t. He’s angry. Vulnerability makes him anxious, anxiety makes him resentful. He takes a dig at her because he feels bad and he knows where the soft bits are. (And Tsunade even might GET that, to a degree, depending on interpretation - because all she does is smile sweetly, remind him who he’s talking to, and break a wall. She doesn’t punch him in the face even though God knows he’d deserve it and she’s done worse to people she likes more… but knows less.)
I keep bringing up fear and anxiety, because that’s actually what I think motivates Orochimaru a lot of the time. He wants immortality. Basically anybody who actually wants immortality is anxious about dying. Orochimaru’s seen a lot of death. It’s stupid. It’s ridiculous. It frightens him that he could be ended. Somebody else might be able to snuff him out, and all his thoughts, all his ideas and brilliance and the things he had to do? They’ll be gone. Immediately. And then that’s it. Orochimaru has no time for death. He has things to do.
At any rate, all of this is related back to control. Vulnerability, humiliation, death - all losses of control. All terrifying.
Having a voice inside his own head that he can’t control, can’t hurt (without hurting himself) can’t shut off, can’t… anything, basically? That’s gonna scare the piss out of him. And then he’s going to resent that kind of a lot. So I think if you do decide to write this thing, Anon, you should take great care to make sure he’s an absolute asshole to that voice.
This probably brings to mind a person with limited social skills. Maybe that’s true in youth, or while he’s in Root, but do remember how he seems to be perfectly capable of pulling terrifyingly loyal ninja out of thin air at the drop of a hat. As far as we know he’s collected the unwanted kids of society and made them his very devoted followers. So as an adult, yes. He must have some social skills. Enough to persuade wary adolescents to follow him home.
He’s pretty easy-going, I think, when he’s either getting his way or he thinks he’s got something up his sleeve that will allow him to do so soon. You’ve seen him, right? He laughs. He teases. He’s genuinely if unpleasantly amused by things he finds funny. He turns bitter when something hasn’t worked out for him, and although we don’t see him outside of a villainous role much, I do think that this is when his actual allies would get the alarm bells. He’s unpredictable and dangerous to people he’s plotting against, sure - that’s super super canon- but I think when he starts spiralling into bitterness and anger (mostly with his own perceived failures, I suspect) is when he becomes dangerous to the people he knows and doesn’t hate. I can’t recall if the flashback was done the same way in the manga, but that scene in the anime where he is really cruel to Tsunade when he brings her back the necklace after the mission where her brother dies? He was on that mission. Her brother died. He failed, and he is going to lash out at somebody to assuage his own violent temper - because he can, because he doesn’t feel the need to deal with his feelings responsibly.
I feel like this has gone on way too long and I should end it here (but I will add that I’m on mobile and I can’t actually remember if that one scene was after the death of the dude she was into or if it was after her brother’s. Whoops).
