First of all some quotations:

“Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.”
~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky ~

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr. ~

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
~ Jesus ~

“Fear is the original sin. Almost all of the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that someone is afraid of something.”
~ Lucy Maud Montgomery - The Blue Castle ~

“For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst? Verily, when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.”
~ Khalil Gibran, Der Prophet ~

“Monster: “I am malicious because I am miserable. ... If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them a hundred and a hundred fold.””
~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ~

"We frail humans are at one time capable of the greatest good and, at the same time, capable of the greatest evil. Change will only come about when each of us takes up the daily struggle ourselves to be more forgiving, compassionate, loving, and above all joyful in the knowledge that, by some miracle of grace, we can change as those around us can change too."
~ Mairead Maguire ~

“What soul is truly made of ice, when all are created from fire? We are all born with hearts. Some are bigger than others, some have grown small and trampled upon, some are buried deep under emotions long dead and gone, but the heart is there, always.”
~ “Down like Rain” – Silmarillion Fanfic ~

"We all have to wear masks sometimes, there are faces we can't let them see." "Let who see?" "That's the riddle, isn't it? Who is the only person who can never see behind a mask?" "The person who can't see behind a mask is the person wearing it." "That's right, and that means, no matter what you may see behind a mask, you must never assume that the person wearing it will see the same. Be mindful. Take nothing for granted. But don't stop looking. Don't ever stop looking."
~ "Father's Heart" - Star Wars Fanfic ~

“I find “ pure evil” to be “mostly silly” [….] I want to experience real villains, not transparent ones. I want villains who are driven by the pain that produced them. Villains who behave in a logical and consistent fashion. I want villains who have a goal beyond the evil, potentially even an honourable and noble goal, but who find themselves doing terrible things to achieve it. [….] that allows me to identify with a tragically flawed villain, one whom I pity, care about, or even cry for. A villain who breaks my heart with every self destructive step.”
~ Article - “The Villain In Me“ by Corvus ~

Last but not least a nice song:

[link]

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The quotations I used say a lot about my attitude towards the whole subject. ^^

Most people indeed don’t understand or don’t even want to understand, since it is so easy to see everything in black and white instead of different shades of grey, or better: shares of both in everybody.
Thinking about the reason behind the “evil” confuses most persons and it makes them feel uneasy because if the scapegoat, whom they can blame for everything, is gone, they finally have to face their own shadow and this frightens them to no end …. so why not better looking for and picking on others’ flaws - it boosts the own self-esteem, ne!? ^__~
Therefore in most cases people end up accepting/liking the concept of a character being the representation of ultimate evil without any redeeming qualities.
By embracing this way of thinking they also adopt the idea of an eternal damnation without any hope; grace given only in a strictly limited way, denied to those who obviously need it most - and that is truly sad! -_-°
It’s very easy to support such a thing when it affects someone else but oneself, but they fail to realize that we all do wrong sometimes and that they might need another person’s forgiveness someday as well.

Believing that the true nature of all beings is good/light/purity/innocence/…., I, of course, also include those who might not be associated with such a thing at first glance, namely the villains.
It bugs me a lot to read things like Orochimaru having some sort of native maliciousness (among lots of definitely not very flattering things others like to credit him with)…. what a crap!!!! >_<°
If one takes a closer look we can clearly tell there is a reason behind all that.
He had a lot to endure after all with his parents gone at such an early age – which was, I think, the main catalyst for his behaviour, actions and everything that happened afterwards. A child devoid of motherly love and a father to look up to …. that’s just horrible. (I don’t know if you’ve heard of the experiments with infants, who were denied exactly that – most of them died.)
Facing great emotional pain, some search the contact of their fellow men to speak about it and getting rid of it this way; others – like Orochimaru – rather tend to back out and become close-mouthed. By and by they become desperate and bitter and finally lock their heart away in order to prevent it from being hurt and broken again.
It’s their miserable state that carves their road, that makes them capable of committing such cruelties, that doesn’t allow them to see and listen to their heart anymore.

Now to their (seemingly) lacking redeemability:
Can such a person truly be saved, can he repent, even turn into a “better” person? Can he really change?
The answer is (in semi-quotation of Mr. President Obama =3): Yes, he can!!!!

Even the worst of us can return from the depth he had thrown himself into.
No heart - may it be locked away, unseen and forgotten - is lost!
It just needs some crucial experience to free itself!

Also important is the willingness of the others to forgive him, grant him another chance and believe in him!

There is a scene in Shippuuden 91 where Naruto is sitting with Jiraiya in some sort of hotel.
Jiraiya is reflecting about Naruto’s determination and his steadfast feelings of friendship concerning Sasuke and then thinks back to the time when he considered Orochimaru a friend, but gave up on his feelings and changed his attitude towards him. It just seems like he’s finally admitting his own failure when stating to Naruto: “It’s said that thinking about someone means that they’ll come back someday, after all.”
Somehow I get the impression that there is a regretful undertone when he says that.

Then again there is this strange scene with Sarutobi, where he had a short vision of a calm Orochimaru-Kid before he died with a smile on his lips.
A fellow Deviant artist assumed that Sarutobi managed to see Orochimaru’s true innocent self after all, which I consider highly possible as well – at least that would also explain his hesitation in killing Orochimaru when his secret was discovered…. just interpretation. ^^

Furthermore there is something Orochimaru tells Sasuke in chapter 343, page 2 (Manga): “You’ll never be able to kill Itachi if you can’t even kill your own emotions.” ….which suggests that this was what he himself had done, since most advices come from personal experience.

Orochi even has a moment where he fails to succeed in the subject of his own advice (just for a little instant, but highly impressive =3):
When he prepares to stab his former sensei with a kunai he pauses for a moment and you see tears in his eyes …. to put it bluntly: he’s crying! Something no one would have thought of him. How confusing! And instead of stabbing Sarutobi, he pierces his own hand. WTF, why that!? Did he have a wavering Moment now, did he!?
Of course most people would say: “Nay, it’s Orochimaru, after all. He’s supposed to be evil!” But that’s due to everyone’s personal take on things, ne!? ^__~

When he talks with Kabuto about the upcoming Destruction of Konoha and the assassination of Sarutobi, he says that he’s “not sure if it’s going to be fun to kill that old geezer”. Hmmm… <_<

And as a last note:
In episode 113 there is a quite interesting and, rather self-explanatory remark of his (just a little excerpt of what he said):
“…. No one other than me, who can understand the darkness in his heart….”
Obviously he is referring to his painful past and current emotional state, his own suffering, showing that he isn’t as cold-blooded as it seems.



So enough now of my ramblings. I really hope I didn’t bore you, since I always get carried away when it comes to that subject.
Anyway, thanks for reading! ^__^/