Which Fan Theories Explain Sasuke Orochimaru'S Long-Term Goals?

I still get into heated debates about this with younger friends when we rewatch 'Naruto Shippuden' — the short version I keep coming back to is: Orochimaru wanted power, knowledge, and bodies, but fans split on why Sasuke specifically mattered. One camp says Sasuke was the ideal vessel to absorb Uchiha abilities and maybe awaken hidden eyes like the Rinnegan; another says Orochimaru was grooming a human experiment to force-shake the shinobi world into a new evolutionary path. Sasuke himself evolves: from revenge-blinded youth to someone who wants to tear down and rebuild systems, then to a shadow protector. Some theories even suggest their goals overlapped — Orochimaru used Sasuke as a tool, but also learned from him, ultimately nudging Sasuke into choices that reshaped the world. I love how these theories let you rewatch scenes and find hints, and they spark long late-night chats about motive vs. method.

Growing up glued to 'Naruto' felt like being part of a giant, ongoing conspiracy club — and Orochimaru + Sasuke theories were the membership rites. One huge thread people cling to is the classic: Orochimaru wanted immortality and all jutsu, so he targeted strong bodies. Fans spin that into deeper long-term plans: he wasn’t just swapping bodies to stay alive, he was building a living catalogue of genetic and kekkei genkai data. Sasuke, with Uchiha blood and a powerful curse mark, was a perfect walking repository. That explains the experiments, the obsession with Uchiha power, and why Orochimaru focused so hard on him. Add to that the theory that Orochimaru hoped Sasuke would unlock or be the key to an even rarer power — think Rinnegan or a pathway to resurrecting extinct lineages — and his interest gets less random and more strategic.

Another theory I always liked is more narrative-savvy: Orochimaru as a long-game catalyst. Instead of being motivated only by self-preservation, he was planting seeds to accelerate evolutionary leaps in shinobi — breeding or pushing prodigies like Sasuke to extremes so they’d either break the world or transform it. Some fans argue he deliberately nurtured Sasuke’s darker choices to create a counterbalance to Naruto’s idealism; when Sasuke later becomes the person who defies the old order, Orochimaru’s meddling looks less like monstery and more like pushing a system toward forced adaptation. I’ve spent weekend afternoons arguing this with friends over ramen — it makes Orochimaru feel less cartoonishly evil and more like a mad scientist playing chess with history.

Finally, there are crossover-style theories that mash canon with myth: Orochimaru as an archivist of forbidden lore who wanted to reassemble primeval forces (think Kaguya-level things) and saw Sasuke’s lineage as a bridge. Others suggest he aimed to produce the perfect vessel not for domination but for containing or stabilizing a threat he understood better than most. Given how he behaves late in 'Naruto Shippuden' and later, a lot of these theories work because Orochimaru’s goals seem to shift from selfish immortality to pragmatic obsession — surviving is just the prerequisite for his curiosity. For me, the best theories are the ones that give Orochimaru a warped kind of purpose: long-term plans built from curiosity, collection, and a willingness to bet on the chaos certain prodigies like Sasuke could cause or cure.