Did orochimaru become dumber as the series went on?

[Deadmed]

in part 1 he seemed cunning, complex like there was real insight to his nature, stuff he said was thought provoking and interesting, his existential philosophy was relatable and grounded in reality, flashbacks when he recruited children into the sound village showed how he was so evil to manipulate orphans and then use them as pawns even going as far as to use them as living sacrifices for edo tensei. He was a truly fascinating villain and mysterious at that, he had this whole system of underlings who helped him with his sick experiments he'd force people to fight to death in a dungeon just to decide who's body to take. He had no sense of mortality whatsoever and it made him so interesting, the fact he was so purely psychopathic and yet his underlings looked up to him as a father figure, but in reality they were nothing to him. Remember how hardcore it was when they encountered him in the FOD and when he pinned Anko to a tree or when he tore off his face to reveal he was in a stolen female body. He was scary and twisted as ****, hell there's a panel of him with dead bodies on the wall naked and dissected and severed limbs in jars and he's just calmly dissecting someone with blood all over him like Jesus that's seinen shit.

Then in part 2 he just became a parody of himself, showing incompetence and underestimating his opponents over and over again. Just sad that Kishimoto decided to make a mockery of a great villain in order to give the akatsuki the spotlight.

 

[KesOnFire]

Stop complaining its his manga

 

[ChicagoJhawk]

Oro had the potential to be a great villian but kishi trolled us hard

 

[To Whatever]

Short answer: He stopped caring after itachi sealed him and found a new purpose in life.

He's more interested in Watching his son and younger gen influence the world. That and experiments and knowledge.

 

[Deadmed]

Short answer: He stopped caring after itachi sealed him and found a new purpose in life.

To fully realize his dream of being a woman and giving birth to Mitsuki.

 

[Nagi]

Orochimaru lived the fast life. He took over a country, formed his own village, attacked the hidden leaf village, and caused the death of the 3rd hokage. Most importantly, he got what he wanted in the end. A perfect body that will allow him to research whatever he want for the rest of his life. He is immortal.

No non-special clan ninja can come close to that.

Like really. Orochimaru is not in it for the power, he is in it for the knowledge.

 

[Lucifero]

Orochimaru lost his show in part one when itachi appeared, Itachi stole Orochimaru`s show.

 

[To Whatever]

To fully realize his dream of being a woman and giving birth to Mitsuki.

That's oro for you. He cracked the human genome. He probably made mitsuki without a female or male involvement.

I imagine he came out the lab announcing that he's successfully impregnated himself.

 

[SatanicGod]

Incompetence and underestimating his opponents? He hasn't had a serious fight in this manga... He toyed with 4 tailed Naruto, but had always been weak to Sharingan genjutsu like a Biju, it isn't that he was shown to be incompetent in Part 2, but that more was revealed about his history in part 2

 

[Deadmed]

Even if he did become good does no one remember how sick he was he killed and tortured so many innocents including young children.

 

[Nagi]

Even if he did become good does no one remember how sick he was he killed and tortured so many innocents including young children.

He also saved some innocents children. A lot of them was outcasted from their village or don't have a home to go to. Say what you want about him, He was a pure character.

 

[Natsu Shazneel]

Orochimaru lost the plot when he trained Sasuke to be like him. Sasuke is a better version of Orochimaru all together.

 

[SenjuOfTheFrost]

Harvey Dent once said "you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." that applies to orochimaru.

 

[Umari Senju]

Orochimaru lived the fast life. He took over a country, formed his own village, attacked the hidden leaf village, and caused the death of the 3rd hokage. Most importantly, he got what he wanted in the end. A perfect body that will allow him to research whatever he want for the rest of his life. He is immortal.

No non-special clan ninja can come close to that.

Like really. Orochimaru is not in it for the power, he is in it for the knowledge.

So much this. I do understand what the OP is getting at though. It's not so much that he became dumber. The problem was by the time the war began everyone who once feared him pretty much surpassed him. I know I will get slack for this but even Sakura could give him a challenge at this point. (i didn't say win I said a challenge)

Orochimaru lost his show in part one when itachi appeared, Itachi stole Orochimaru`s show.

True. Once Itachi got more active, Sasuke no longer really needed Orochimaru thus the begining of his decent. He did have so much potential. Naruto Gaiden really should have spent time making Orochimaru the last villain and not those rediculous Uchiha knock offs.

I mean if you think about it the plot was already set. Since he could no longer have Sasuke(since Sasuke would literally solo him with a glance) He could have turned his attention to Sarada the daughter of the vessle he wanted so badly. He could have gotten his hands on say Madara's body once again and even cultivated the Rinnegan for himself through experimentation and then Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura could have faced off with rinnegan wielding Orochimaru.....could you imagine!?

 

[FemmeFatale]

Maybe you became smarter

 

[WalksInShadows]

mad scientists are never complex.

 

[Kratoss]

I personally don't care either way. I never found him interesting or complex, even in the antagonist side I would rank him very low. I'm glad that the author discarded his sub plot and focused on Akatsuki.

 

[awesomeseimei]

I'd say Kishi reached the peak, writing wise, with him in Part I (as in, did everything that could have been done with the character archetype), there wasn't really any room to develop him, given how twisted he is. And like someone said, his goal was knowledge and immortality, not conquest or destruction.