Amazeballs
Active member
Orochimaru's combat power, without Edo Tensei, was never anything special... he relies on snakes/poison/swords. He's "decently" fast, but nothing special compared to other S-class ninjas. His durability is decent, in the sense that he can replace his body to shrug off otherwise-mortal wounds, but he still takes the damage and has to spend chakra to replace himself. He has a decent knowledge of cursed seals, as demonstrated against Spiral Zetsu, Naruto, and Sasuke, but it's nothing to get worked up about.
Against anyone who can defeat large snake summons, Orochimaru's firepower is decidedly lacking. Orochimaru's true power was always outside of simple combat strength; he has possibly the greatest knowledge of jutsu, and is immortal.
He does things that only a Rinnegan user should be able to do (create life, revive himself, revive the dead, etc.). He was able to deduce the nature of Uchiha/Senju and their relation to the Rinnegan, purely through research. The Uchiha had a friggin tablet telling them all of that information, and it took hundreds of years for a single Uchiha to actually decipher it and attempt it. Even then, Orochimaru's fusion of Senju/Uchiha was stronger than Madara's (Madara's Hashirama strength was dramatically increased by Kabuto's modifications, which resulted from Orochimaru's research).
Basically, Orochimaru is godly, and Kishi confirmed at the NY Comic Con that Orochimaru will be around long after the heroes are dead. I'm sure in a thousand years Orochimaru will have reinvented himself to the point where he obtains true enlightenment; his major development throughout the manga has been about discovering that his motivations were misguided. I like that Orochimaru decided to stop being "evil." It's friggin awesome that Orochimaru, of all people, actually decided to produce a child of his own, and that kid is teammates with the children of Naruto/Sasuke. Passing on his will to the new generation is a different type of "immortality" for Orochimaru, and Mitsuki is interesting; he obviously is a decent guy, and is wise for his age.
Against anyone who can defeat large snake summons, Orochimaru's firepower is decidedly lacking. Orochimaru's true power was always outside of simple combat strength; he has possibly the greatest knowledge of jutsu, and is immortal.
He does things that only a Rinnegan user should be able to do (create life, revive himself, revive the dead, etc.). He was able to deduce the nature of Uchiha/Senju and their relation to the Rinnegan, purely through research. The Uchiha had a friggin tablet telling them all of that information, and it took hundreds of years for a single Uchiha to actually decipher it and attempt it. Even then, Orochimaru's fusion of Senju/Uchiha was stronger than Madara's (Madara's Hashirama strength was dramatically increased by Kabuto's modifications, which resulted from Orochimaru's research).
Basically, Orochimaru is godly, and Kishi confirmed at the NY Comic Con that Orochimaru will be around long after the heroes are dead. I'm sure in a thousand years Orochimaru will have reinvented himself to the point where he obtains true enlightenment; his major development throughout the manga has been about discovering that his motivations were misguided. I like that Orochimaru decided to stop being "evil." It's friggin awesome that Orochimaru, of all people, actually decided to produce a child of his own, and that kid is teammates with the children of Naruto/Sasuke. Passing on his will to the new generation is a different type of "immortality" for Orochimaru, and Mitsuki is interesting; he obviously is a decent guy, and is wise for his age.
