Orochimaru possesses a complex personality, but more often than not, however, he was often described as twisted by a large number of people, including Tsunade. Jiraiya speculated that this was due to the fact that both of his parents died when he was at a very young age, along with his horror for Tsunade losing Nawaki and later shedding tears when she lost Dan, imply that Orochimaru grew to disdain the fragility of human life and how it affected those still living, which led him to desire immortality. To that end, the primary purpose of Orochimaru's human experimentation is to test what modifications the human body can endure and harness a subject's unique abilities for himself. Once accomplishing this goal, Orochimaru had hoped to be worthy of the title of "ultimate being", unable to die and able to achieve his secondary goal to learn every ninja technique in the world, which would normally take many lifetimes to obtain. 

 

  According to Sasuke, becoming cruel with any good he had as a member of Team Hiruzen gone, Orochimaru's agenda made him develop a god complex and valued himself while delighting in striking terror in his first impressions. Though causing conflict to ease his boredom, Orochimaru seems to have no interest in wars started by others. His charisma also attracts a number of followers, many of which he would not hesitate to send on potential suicide missions if for his own personal benefit, expressing some remorse if they're unable to properly complete a task, having no sentimental attachments to any of them despite their values. Despite this, Orochimaru has genuine interest in the development of his underlings and experiments. 

 

  Taking Sasuke as an apprentice, seeing him as a prodigy like himself, Orochimaru intended to take the youth's body to obtain the Sharingan to reach another step in his goal of immortality and learning every technique in the world. This goal has developed to the point of obsession. However, despite knowing that Sasuke was willing to do anything for revenge, including sacrificing his own body, Orochimaru did anticipate treachery from his disciple and showed only a small level of surprise when it actually occurred. What truly surprised Orochimaru was Sasuke's decision to follow his own path and ultimately choosing defend the village he initially swore to destroy, one that Orochimaru openly approved and curious to see what the end result it. 

 

  He also had an initial disdain toward Naruto Uzumaki, believing him to be a poor excuse for a ninja until he defeated Kabuto with the Rasengan. Despite attempting to kill Naruto at the time after coming to the realisation that he would become a threat to him in the future, Orochimaru became interested in Naruto's development, provoking Naruto during their battle to see his full abilities at the time. Though coming to hate his home village, orchestrating a few attempts to destroy it, Orochimaru despised his former Akatsuki colleagues more. Throughout Part II, if Orochimaru was not busy with Sasuke's development, he would try to cripple the Akatsuki's operations, seen in the "Sai and Sasuke Arc" as well as the "Three-Tails Arc". He expresses delight over the death of Sasori and later convinced Sasuke from killing Team Kakashi so they would thin out the Akatsuki membership.

 

  An aspect of Orochimaru's personality is also his greatest weakness: his arrogance. He truly believed he is immortal at times, attacking recklessly against powerful opponents such as his former teacher andItachi Uchiha. Both times he was left crippled in some way since he either wanted to make his opponent suffer, like against Hiruzen, or because he was too uninformed to face his opponent, like against Itachi. Despite his distinct lack of morals, Orochimaru seems to be well-versed in human psychology and displays insightful wisdom when disparaging Tobirama for the actions resulting from his policies. 

 

  After being revived by Sasuke, his personality changed a bit. While he still wished that he could gain Sasuke's body, he acknowledged that he was too weak at the time. He also realised that copying someone completely was a mistake from his observation of Kabuto and displayed interest in Sasuke's "different path". Later, he felt sentimental over his failed candidacy for being Hokage, though this may be because he was in front of his master and the Fourth. Wanting to see Sasuke's path, he chose to fight alongside the Uchiha instead of ignoring Madara's war like he planned, and even made it a priority to heal Tsunade and the other Kage after their defeat before hurrying to the battlefield. Orochimaru also shows a sick sense of humour at the time, from using the memory of Sasuke stabbing him to convince Karin to aid the youth again to his comical method of threatening her and Suigetsu into cooperating to heal Tsunade. Orochimaru has also shown signs of regret, seemingly saddened by his childhood friend Jiraiya's death. Orochimaru does also seem to genuinely care about Sasuke's well being, as he originally thought it was best to take his time figuring out how to battle Spiral Zetsu but quickly decided against taking his time when Karin sensed Sasuke was on the verge of death.