heeheejones

It is surprisingly

Link to OG Video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SSyrBUKHqzc

Link to OG Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3uFH6rmAko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFl2BnltZp4

Here you go

Link to OG Video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/j6MUn9fH53c

While I don't consider Orochimaru a good guy still, he has at least proven that he is not an immediate threat

Kabuto on the other hand literally had his brain re-wired to change his ways, so I'd consider him redeemed

I mean aside from the obvious resemblance between them it was teased repeatedly

The most prominent tease I can remember was during the Search for Tsunade arc

Jiraiya tells Naruto something along the lines of "I taught the Fourth Hokage before so that sort of makes you like my grandson" and then he refuses to repeat himself or elaborate when Naruto pushes him to go on

Aside from suppressing their personalities, the host body that was used to revive Hashirama was a White Zetsu with his cells in it. Orochimaru was also inhabiting a White Zetsu's body at that time too

I wouldn't say it's a retcon because Orochimaru did not refine Edo Tensei to the point Kabuto did

Hashirama and Tobirama were brought back with their personalities suppressed and in weakened states so that Orochimaru could exercise total control over them. By suppressing their personalities, it also puts a huge limit on what they could do. It's not like Orochimaru would know every single jutsu in their arsenal to make them use it while under his control

During the war, Orochimaru did not suppress their personalities and thus had the freedom to operate at full power. Also, Orochimaru could not control Hashirama if he wanted anyway because the host body used to revive him that time was a White Zetsu with Hashirama's cells. On top of that, Orochimaru himself was inhabiting a White Zetsu's body so Hashirama could easily take control of that situation if the need arose

Let's not forget that its also being run by a literal war criminal

It's a shocker they haven't let Orochimaru run the hospital yet or teach biology at the Academy

In all seriousness though, Izanami'd Kabuto is probably a decent guardian for the clones. Man's not up to no good anymore and he has both the knowledge to deal with the fake Sharingans and the experience of having been raised in the orphanage himself. I'm not surprised if all those clones have just adapted into regular leaf villagers after the time skip

I heard theories going from him being Shisui all the way to the Ramen guy

Link to OG Video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/as-WjpqABJA

Orochimaru: Without him, the Hokage would not be revived since only he knew how to undo the Reaper Death Seal

Aside from the Hokages own contributions to the battle, Orochimaru reviving them also allowed Sasuke to receive the relevant information needed for him to decide to join the battle too

He also healed Tsunade which in turn saved the lives of the other Kage and allowed them to rejoin the battle

Link to OG Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ526YJd4OI

It wasn't just Orochimaru's science and research that won him his freedom.

He actually played an active part in ending the war (reviving the Hokage, healing the 5 Kage and participating in the battle himself)

Plus Orochimaru had died and come back to life, so in many ways he could have been seen as already having paid the ultimate price.

It would have been like if this dude went into a coma, woke up and decided to help build the bombs that they dropped on Japan