Naruto IX: [Epilogue Intensifies]

[Aotrs Commander]

Honestly thinking back to what Koji said, I think it's more that he was using the drones and not that it was a sneak attack that was the concern. If he had set up like, paper tags, it would be less bad. But since it's just floating cyberdiscs it's "less ninja" than it could be. Since the divide seems to be between "natural fighters with magic" and "cyborgs with tech".

Either way it's all very silly, still. Also, over under on Koji's steam toad being a reconstruction of Jiraiya's toad friend who died with him which means Jiraiya'll be back as a cyborg thing? I say: slightly likely.

Ah, so he's more a Luddite than a complete idiot. Well, that's... Not really much better, actually...

[LaZodiac]

Ah, so he's more a Luddite than a complete idiot. Well, that's... Not really much better, actually...

The other irony here is again, he used a lightsaber to disable Ao so he's not REALLY a luddite, it's just...a really weird thing. There's some level of tech that is fine and fair to use, and some which is not, and there's an incredibly fine line between that, and the villains entire motive is to erase the ninja side of that line. Where does the line between kunai, lightsaber, and automated drones that suck your power out and shoot it wherever you want, really begin and end? What is ninja, what is techboy?

Like I said. Something at the very core of Boruto the series is fundementaly broken in a way I can't really think of how to fix.

[Traab]

The other irony here is again, he used a lightsaber to disable Ao so he's not REALLY a luddite, it's just...a really weird thing. There's some level of tech that is fine and fair to use, and some which is not, and there's an incredibly fine line between that, and the villains entire motive is to erase the ninja side of that line. Where does the line between kunai, lightsaber, and automated drones that suck your power out and shoot it wherever you want, really begin and end? What is ninja, what is techboy?

Like I said. Something at the very core of Boruto the series is fundementaly broken in a way I can't really think of how to fix.

Thats obvious. Throwing kunai is fine, arming your train with gatling kunai launchers is cheating. We have known this since the land of snow filler arc. More seriousness, its probably a parallel to real world war and how its changed/changing. Our lich friend made the comparison to old school brits and battle lines, now look at how much farther its evolved since then. Half the time we dont even have troops in the area, we just launch missiles, drones, or air strikes at targets instead. Thats just unsporting. And it also makes people uneasy over how much "easier" war is now which may make it a less terrible option to consider. After all, we arent putting so many of our people in harms way anymore, we attack at long range with smart bombs and such instead

[LaZodiac]

Thats obvious. Throwing kunai is fine, arming your train with gatling kunai launchers is cheating. We have known this since the land of snow filler arc. More seriousness, its probably a parallel to real world war and how its changed/changing. Our lich friend made the comparison to old school brits and battle lines, now look at how much farther its evolved since then. Half the time we dont even have troops in the area, we just launch missiles, drones, or air strikes at targets instead. Thats just unsporting. And it also makes people uneasy over how much "easier" war is now which may make it a less terrible option to consider. After all, we arent putting so many of our people in harms way anymore, we attack at long range with smart bombs and such instead

I do really hope that's what Koji and Fang's goal is. They want to keep war personal.

[Aotrs Commander]

Bleakbane Catches Up With Naruto

Next three...

A hilarious, not-sure-if-canon-aren't-omakes-supposed-to-come-at-the-end intro later, Naruto enters the battle and proceeds to kcik a stupid amount of arse.



Gaara pretty effortlessly pummels his dad. And I know that Worst Anime Parent is pretty stiff competition, but Gaara's dad is in the running... Also, I like that gold-haired Kazekage guy with the moustache. He's funny.



And then Itachi, Nagato B and Naruto.

"Saskue's going to destroy the village!"

"Why?"

Because you subjected him to pshchological torture TWICE, you dipspit!

Followed by the most hilarious fight thus far. 'Cos all I could think of was that scene in Red Dwarf Demons and Angels (my favourite episode, as it happens): "I'm coming around behind you to take you by surprise, sir."

(I mean, Itachi practically SAID that! Priceless! As I've said before, Kabuto is Worst Necromancer.)

And then to further split my sides, Itachi just casually breaks himself free of being under Kabuto's control with a convoluted plot device he set up yonks ago, because of course he does. Man maybe a dumabass child-torturer, but he does have SOMETHING of a sense of style...

STILL manages to allow Kabuto (via Nagato) to get the drop on them though.

Numpty.

[Starwulf]

Hey guys, are we not using spoilers anymore? Kind of rude to the people who haven't read the most recent(as in, 3 days ago) released chapter. I could understand if we were discussing stuff that happened back in the original Naruto manga, but you're discussing things that aren't even a week old with absolutely zero warning that you're doing so. So yeah, spoilers please, thanks :).

[LaZodiac]

Hey guys, are we not using spoilers anymore? Kind of rude to the people who haven't read the most recent(as in, 3 days ago) released chapter. I could understand if we were discussing stuff that happened back in the original Naruto manga, but you're discussing things that aren't even a week old with absolutely zero warning that you're doing so. So yeah, spoilers please, thanks :).

Yeah sorry about that, my reading the official translation basically four days after the illegal scans come out made me err in wheter or not I should spoiler or not.

[Aotrs Commander]

Bleakbane Catches Up With Naruto

Next three episodes...

Okay... I grudingly have to admit. Actually being on the good guy side, Itachi is.. kind of awesome, actually. Dude may be a child torturing nutjob, but... I hate to admit it he, he IS kind of cool. Dammit.

And that's Nagoto dealt with and Itachi's gunning for Kabuto. Whoops.



I feel sorry for the second Mizukage. Dear LICHEMASTER, those shinobi are dumb. I mean, like, too dumb to live! He spent the episode literally telling them "I'm an illusion, attack the real one!" and they didn't listen a little and continued to throw physical attacks (not a jutsu among them) and miss. About halfway through I was like "dude, just KILL THEM ALREADY. Nobody THAT STUPID deserves to live!" Ye gods. One of them was practically speaking in Linkara's Superbpy Prime squeaky voice. I am pretty sure Gaara very carefully formed that division with all the really stupid morons with the intention of using them as canon fodder, and was dreadfully disappointed when he got back to the fight and found the Second hadn't righfully sligahtered them all. (And Kabuto probably knows damn well those fracktards serve him bettr alive than not getting in everyone's way.)

Particle style is hilariously awesome, by the by...

(What I said about promoting that lass from a couple of episodes who used the Talk no Jutsu? Jonin. Make her jonin. If this is the standard...)



Last episode today (Paradox) sees Temari's group having every so slightly more sense, but only on terms of dumb verses too dumb to live. (Some of them even remember that they have jutsu!) But ye gods, even with some Named Characters (Matsuri, stop drooling over Naruto!) they barely have a functioning brain between them. Even Temari (who really should know better) seemed to have grabbed the idiot ball; but at least "Bendy-Guy" as Naruto calls him (the dude with the one byankugan) has some braincells to rub together.

Naruto, meanwhile, is finally acting the smartest of the lot of them, actually Doing A Smart and putting a plan together that even I didn't think of and getting the 3rd Raikage to stabd himself with his own jutsu.

I don't know whether that should terrify me or not...!



(By-the-by, I'm not spoilering because I'm so far behind that I am working on the basis that even the people following on DVD are going to be ahead of me! However, if anyone IS even further behind me, do speak up and I'll spoiler right away.)



I withdraw my former complaints about Naruto joining the battle. I was, you see, working on the basis that the first battle by the coast, with a disproportionate amount of Named Characters and I had assumed a base level of both competance and intelligence from the average shinobi. Dear frag, was I wrong. Now I understand why the rookies nearly or very actually made chunin the first or second time time,while all those older ones repeatedly failed, because apparently the average intelligence of the average shinobi is such that they wouldn't win a battle of wits with Dave Lister and BALDRIK would probably be in with a fair chance...

[LaZodiac]

It's really telling about how much of an endless ****ing slog this war is that I just went through all of it a few months ago and I have barely any idea what the **** you're talking about.

[Traab]

As for naruto, i think this is the start of the time where we are supposed to adjust to him actually being competent as more than just a brilliant idea in the midst of battle type and a total idiot otherwise. So thats why we get to see naruto actually logic things out with the raikage. Look for more leadership and good ideas in future arcs. Im.... not sure how far away they are, my knowledge of the 4th war is relegated to watching youtube clips of the fights in no particular order.

[Silverraptor]

So with the Boruto episode, they are really rushing towards the plot point of the movie at lightning speed. I foresee the chunin exam starting soon.

[khadgar567]

So with the Boruto episode, they are really rushing towards the plot point of the movie at lightning speed. I foresee the chunin exam starting soon.

2 more weeks then we are at chunin exams

[Aotrs Commander]

Bleakbane Catches Up With Naruto

Next three episodes!


Terror: The Steam Imp

In which Gaara soundly thrashes the Mizukage, even after he stops telling everyone how to beat him (and honestly, given how cretinous the ninja mooks facing him were before, I don't blame him).

And Matsuri and Yukata (Gaara's fangirls) carting off the Tsuchikage was hilarious.

Everyone is deeply concerned about the white Zetsu imposters.

Except Tenten, who is just looking for that ultimate ninja tool they took off her. Tenten, you really are just priceless! Best Ninja.




Ghosts from the Past and The Underworld Transfer Jutsu

PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What?! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Kabuto... you... BAHAHAHAHA! think the PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Sound Four can beat Shikamaru, Neji, Chouji, Kiba and Akamaru? AHAHAHAHAHAHA! The guys that soundly (ahaha!) creamed them (well Chouji and Neji creamed anyway, Kiba and Shika needed a little back-up) when they were GENIN (and barely one chunin) and you BWAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHA! think that, even boosted up, they can beat them NOW!?!?

Wait, you're serious? Allow me to laugh HARDER!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Seriously, what was EVEN your plan? You send them up to attack those four specifically? Are you really THAT excrement scared of those four guys that you made a specific (and pretty silly) trap JUST for them? Instead of doing anything actually USEFUL tactically with the Sound Farce? I mean, even as a psychological tactic to demoralise the utter morons that apparently compose the allied shinobi forces, that's not very good.

You suck, Kabuto, you SUUUUUCK. I cannot wait to see Itachi beat the [excrement] out of you; it'll be glorious.

(But bonus points for Ino and Shino, for also being, y'know, fracking awesome.)



Next time: The awesome foursome inevitably break out of the silly soul-trapping jutsu (unless they spin this out to a forth episode...)

[Traab]

Too be fair, choji and neji both had to effectively suicide to pull off a win, and both kiba and shika were defeated. And now the sound 4 are (mostly) unkillable. That SHOULD have raised their threat levels a great deal.

[Rater202]

Yeah.

The main problem is that Kabuto screwed up by leaving the zombies with enough control of themselves to talk.

I can get the psychological effects of making someone fight their incredibly reluctant loved ones/idols/worthy rivals could be delibitating, but in this case his army of invicinible zombies can just go spouting off their weaknesses or the unfinished business that needs to be achived to let them rest in peace and thus becoming retroactivily immune to the zombie techique.

[khadgar567]

Yeah.

The main problem is that Kabuto screwed up by leaving the zombies with enough control of themselves to talk.

I can get the psychological effects of making someone fight their incredibly reluctant loved ones/idols/worthy rivals could be delibitating, but in this case his army of invicinible zombies can just go spouting off their weaknesses or the unfinished business that needs to be achived to let them rest in peace and thus becoming retroactivily immune to the zombie techique.

same psychological effects forced him to pull heel face brain washing on himself curtsy of itachi uchiha. for someone smart enough to start world war it was dumbest thing he do before itachi beats him spectacularly.

[Traab]

Yeah.

The main problem is that Kabuto screwed up by leaving the zombies with enough control of themselves to talk.

I can get the psychological effects of making someone fight their incredibly reluctant loved ones/idols/worthy rivals could be delibitating, but in this case his army of invicinible zombies can just go spouting off their weaknesses or the unfinished business that needs to be achived to let them rest in peace and thus becoming retroactivily immune to the zombie techique.

Wasnt it a matter of being unable to control them all enough at once to shut them up? Like, he was able to raise and force them to fight, but unless he took direct control, they had enough freedom to at least speak? I mean, this wasnt bringing back 2 kages 6 feet from you, it was raising an entire small ARMY of legendary ninja and having them attack an even larger army while remaining hidden.

[Rater202]

Wasnt it a matter of being unable to control them all enough at once to shut them up? Like, he was able to raise and force them to fight, but unless he took direct control, they had enough freedom to at least speak? I mean, this wasnt bringing back 2 kages 6 feet from you, it was raising an entire small ARMY of legendary ninja and having them attack an even larger army while remaining hidden.

Even if it was a matter of power and control, he still kind of screwed up: If he can't control them all perfectly, he shouldn't have set people to fight their loved ones.

[Traab]

Even if it was a matter of power and control, he still kind of screwed up: If he can't control them all perfectly, he shouldn't have set people to fight their loved ones.

What else was he supposed to do against the united armies of the 5 great nations? Rely on zetsu? Besides

Spoiler

Show

Wasnt this all a holding action, attempting to delay events till they could tear the kyuubi out of naruto after forcing him to show himself? I dont think they ever really meant to win with this, just unleash enough power to force naruto to show up so they could extract kyuubi, create the ten tails, and enact the moons eye plan or whatever it was called.

[Ramza00]

There is no reason why Kabuto should do the tactics he does for war with fighting 50,000 people.

The advantage of his Edo Tensai is they are infinite chakra, unique abilities, and hard to kill but they can still be defeated and sealed. Furthermore summons can summon other Edo Tensais while retaining their sensor abilities and also some Edo Tensais have ultimate stealth abilities or good forms of moving / scouting abilities.

So what Kabuto should have done is use Edo Tensai as a guerrilla war force while the White Zetsu "occupy" / "delay" the armies. Your Edo Tensai are effectively cavalry that can attack, flank, and target the enemy formation weak spots.

Furthermore some of the Edo Tensai that are Sensors should always avoid battle and their purpose is to summon Edo Tensai out of battle, away from sealing techniques.

Furthermore Edo Tensai can literally teleport miles away due to other Edo Tensai summoning them, followed by another Edo Tensai summoning them at a different location.

In some ways this should be similar to Battle of Watling Street (Celtic' Boudica vs Roman Gen Paulinus) or Thermopylae (Sparta's Leonidas vs Persian Xerxes) except instead of doing defensive you are the offensive force doing Gorilla tactics but you should have a major force advantage where your soldiers can easily handle 10:1 or 100:1 while suffering low to no casualties.

You had complete battlefield control Kabuto and he did not use it!

[deuterio12]

To be fair they're supposed to be ninjas, used at best at small squad tactics, not generals used at commanding tens of thousands of troops. They're very different scales and just because you're competent in the smaller ones does not mean you will still be competent at higher levels.

[khadgar567]

To be fair they're supposed to be ninjas, used at best at small squad tactics, not generals used at commanding tens of thousands of troops. They're very different scales and just because you're competent in the smaller ones does not mean you will still be competent at higher levels.

which is why shikamaru failed in sasuke rescue arc as he has no knowledge or skill to handle the five man party in important mission. Then he trained himself to lead and see bigger picture. which shikadai shows in last arc.

[Traab]

To be fair they're supposed to be ninjas, used at best at small squad tactics, not generals used at commanding tens of thousands of troops. They're very different scales and just because you're competent in the smaller ones does not mean you will still be competent at higher levels.

Does kabuto even know that much? The dudes a evil doctor/spy not a unit commander really. Im trying to think offhand if he ever really took command in the field in the series before this. Also, ramza, keep in mind that the enemy cant use ideal techniques all the time, or else he would win, and the story would end really really fast. I get that there were far better strategies available for using the zombies but you also have to take narrative convention into account. The strategy was good enough for the job it needed to do. Namely, show off how badass the legendary figures of the narutoverse were, show off how badass the upcoming generation is becoming, and add an extra 15 years to the length of the manga.

[Ramza00]

Also, ramza, keep in mind that the enemy cant use ideal techniques all the time, or else he would win, and the story would end really really fast. I get that there were far better strategies available for using the zombies but you also have to take narrative convention into account. The strategy was good enough for the job it needed to do. Namely, show off how badass the legendary figures of the narutoverse were, show off how badass the upcoming generation is becoming, and add an extra 15 years to the length of the manga.

I agree that the "bard" / "storytelling rules" is why the scene was written the way it was written instead of a way that made sense. I was trying to take the points Rater202 was making and expanded on his points. Expanding on them to the point of absurdity and possibly being ironic while doing so.

So what do you when something is absurd, and ironic, to the point of silliness and you feel nihilistic. You top, you slow down and you realize the person is being sincere and you move on. The author of Naruto was being sincere with his story and by focusing on sincerity you are better able to enjoy the good parts of the story that he did.

There is lots of things to like about "The War" arc of Naruto and you should focus on those things instead of focusing too much on the lack of applied mechanics about things like how Edo Tensai work and the Summoning school of Ninjutsu.

Also, ramza, keep in mind that the enemy cant use ideal techniques all the time, or else he would win, and the story would end really really fast. I get that there were far better strategies available for using the zombies but you also have to take narrative convention into account.

Kabuto is a spy and thus he should know how a general, army, and system think for a spy job is to exploit how a general, army, and system think and be orthogonal at this. That is literally the job description of being a spy.

Yes now he is a general to spys and he may suck at being a general to spys but he should at least try to fight the way he is familiar with fighting instead of just assuming I need to abandon all the knowledge I do possess and pretend I am a Major Modern General. I am the very model of a modern Major-General / I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral... Kabuto is an Assassin who became a Caster (expert at item and territory creation) and was half way on the journey of becoming a Rider while not realizing he had an inner berserker who was raging at the world driving everything that he did... damn it I have crossed the Shounen genres streams. Yorokobe Shounen (Rejoice Youth)!

[Aotrs Commander]

I get that there were far better strategies available for using the zombies but you also have to take narrative convention into account. The strategy was good enough for the job it needed to do. Namely, show off how badass the legendary figures of the narutoverse were, show off how badass the upcoming generation is becoming, and add an extra 15 years to the length of the manga.

I'm afraid I take the view that if you write sufficiently stupid/silly that I'm laughing at how inept your characters are, you have rather failed on any badassery point. If you write crap tactics, I don't care what your goals were, you wrote crap tactics, and I'm going to call you on writing crap tactics, exactly the same way I'll call you on crap physics, crap characterisation or crap anything else.

Rule of cool and "because the plot says so" does not preclude thought.

ESPECIALLY when you have demonstrated on numerous occasions that you CAN write clever tactics.



Kabuto is truly inept necromancer, a poor tactician and FAR too confident in his own complete lack of ability beyond that which to spam one rather dubious jutsu.

The only reason the resurrections are even at all working ('cos most of them have gone down in one episode like chumps) is because the average intelligence of rank-and-file appears to be suffering from the Discworld mob intelligence, halved and places most of the shinobi in the "dumber than stormtroopers" and "too dumb to live" camps. Slaughtering them by the boat-load doesn't convince me how badass these ninja were in the same way hitting the broadside of a barn with a wide-area orbital bombardment doesn't. (If anything, what it convinces me is that the writers/animators were being a bit lazy.)

Kabuto is SO bad at his job, it's HILARIOUS.



Bleakbane Catches Up With Naruto

The Vengeful

Pahahahahahahaha! Shikamaru and Naruto complete school the Sound Farce once again, between using their own stupid vengeance nonsense and then Naruto one-shotting them with a regular rasengan. Pillocks.

Again Kabuto, what was the point? Or was it really that the average shinobi is so DUMB (and ye gods, Academy!Naruto was smarter than a lot of these nitwits) that going for Named Characters is actually a smart meta-move...?



The Heart's Eye
And Flashback Episode! With Neji, Hinata, Naruto and Sakura! Unlike basically EVERYONE else, I love these silly filler episodes. Neji, shows he had NO IDEA how to train someone and Hinata shows she had Naruto's work ethic without his ability to heal...

I can't help but wonder if the doctor was actually just trolling all off the genin when he told them about the flower to heal Hinata's eyestrain. And the whole thing was just a set-up aided and abetted by Guy and Kakashi for a lark. Because a chasm, in which a flower grows that magically heals eyestrain (and co-incidently might be useful for eye jutsi resreach that Roachymoron has never bothered with before now), which joinin don't return from, but someone has seen said flower growing in, that is peopled by faceless, shapeless mystery ninja people who have apparently evolved that way for thousands of years according to Kakashi...? Come on, Neji, Kakashi's bovine excrementing you! You're a genius, surely you and Sakura know evolution doesn't work like that! Nah, it all has to be Kakashi and co trolling the daft genin.



Fade into the Moonlight
Okay. I... Did not expect a Hayate and Yugao mini-arc, I must admit. Okay, then.

Also, shinobi... You are NINJA, stop charging at the enemy in a straight line! Ye GODS, substitution is supposed to be an academy jutsu! And so are kunai! THROW THEM! When you see a line of enemies posing against the fire, THROW THINGS AT THEM. Sure, it probably won't have much effect, but it might make them dodge at least and it gives YOU chance to dodge, you cretins. At the very least PLEASE stop standing and gawping like fish, or you can forget any sympathy when you get mown down like cheese, you dunces...

[Rater202]

Kabuto is SO bad at his job, it's HILARIOUS.

To be fair, Kabuto is batpoop insane.

Spoiler: Kabuto's Tragic Backstory

Show

Danzo threatened to pull funding at the medic-nin run orphanage where Kabuto lived--the Medic Nin in charge having personally adopted him--unless Kabuto sighned up for Root.

I'm not sure why Kabuto specifically, it's been a while.

Then Kabuto spent years and year s away from the village under cover spying on other villages as Genin for them while occasionally having his picture taken to be sent back to his mother to prove he was already.

Eventually Danzo started sending pictures of a kid who looked similar to Kabuto instead, and as they got older Kabuto and this other kid stopped looking so alike, meaning that when Danzo contrived for the Medic Nin to be sent on a mission against the village that Kabuto was spying on and bring them into conflict, Kabuto's mother didn't recognize him and he had to kill her in self defense.

I don't know why Danzo did this other than to be a tool.

This is when Orochimaru got his hands on Kabuto and basically groomed him to be a minion before doing the reverse double mobious reach around spy thing with Kabuto spying on Sasori while pretending to spy on Orochimaru for Sasori.

Orochimaru gone, Kabuto has no master toserve and no family to go to, which causes sanity loss and eventually horific medical experimentation to make himself the new Orochimaru.

He gets better, but only after being trapped in an illusion where the only way to get out is if he confronts all of his personal demons and genuinly becomes a better person, otheriwse he's stuck in a 15 minute gounrdhog day loop for all eternity while his physical body goes comotose.

[deuterio12]

Kabuto is a spy and thus he should know how a general, army, and system think for a spy job is to exploit how a general, army, and system think and be orthogonal at this. That is literally the job description of being a spy.

Eeerrr, no it isn't.

1. a person employed by a government to obtain secret information or intelligence about another, usually hostile, country, especially with reference to military or naval affairs.
2.a person who keeps close and secret watch on the actions and words of another or others.
3.a person who seeks to obtain confidential information about the activities, plans, methods, etc., of an organization or person, especially one who is employed for this purpose by a competitor:
an industrial spy.

Spying is limited to collecting information on your targets. That's it. A spy is not a tactician nor a general. Being able to blend in helps, but as far as I know Kabuto's never spied on generals nor armies ten of thousands strong thus he never had to worry about those. He only needed to worry about blending in with ninjas that act in small squad tactics.

Plus as pointed out by Rater202, Kabuto's gone full mad scientist mode by then. He lost everybody close to him, had nowhere to return, his mind had been manipulated and twisted for most of his life, plus he suddenly had a bunch of dangerous knowledge and resources at hand with nobody else to guide him, so Kabuto created himself an army of monsters that he had no real idea how to use.

[Aotrs Commander]

I mean, I should at least say, it's not like Kabuto's a poor antagonist, or anything, he's quite good in that regard actually. Naruto can - and has - done faaar worse in that regard. *cough*Pain*cough* (Or Amoron from Korro season one, and no, that might not be how hw thinks his name is spelled and pronounced, but he's wrong about that...) Or, hell, Saskue. Kabuto isn't deterimentally affecting my enjoyment of the show just by being in it. (The opposite, in fact.) The fact he makes me laugh (albeit inadvertently) is, at least, a backhanded complement in his favour, and his ineptitude is just building my anticipation for his inevitable righteous smackdown.

It's just he's more DickDastardly than Thrawn, like HE thinks he is...!

[LaZodiac]

Kabuto is a fantastic villain in so far as he is clearly a dude who's trying very hard to be like Orochimaru and failing almost entirely in every regard, and that's at least interesting to see play out.

[Rater202]

Kabuto is a fantastic villain in so far as he is clearly a dude who's trying very hard to be like Orochimaru and failing almost entirely in every regard, and that's at least interesting to see play out.

He's got the snakes and the horrific self-experimentation part down.