How would you have written Orochimaru and Sasuke's relationship post-war? It's such a wasted potential considering the sannin x team7 master-mentor relationship were relevant throughout the series. Current Sasuke seem to treat orochimaru as his walking library of knowledge and that's about it.

Orochimaru and Sasuke’s relationship is just one of the many wrong post war things.

(antiending, some antinaruto, deal with it)

I actually liked their interactions in Sasuke Shinden, more than those in Gaiden. Shinden Sasuke is broken and lonely, his pain is tangible, but despite the brainwashing and the guilt they instilled in him there are still glimpses of his pure and honest self in the way he tells Orochimaru that he came to him because he knows everything (a praise delivered as a fact because to him it is a fact not a praise), or how he interrupts that hippie guy talking to ask if Itachi knew about those facts I completely forgot (btw I haven’t read the book so I’m referring to the anime), or in the way he interacts with Team Taka (almost, as they were already been dismissed by kishi and whomever wrote the books and SP). I didn’t like how Orochimaru treats Sasuke as if he’s a selfish person who doesn’t care about others, I really hate that, and I hate that it seems Shinden’s underlying theme, because of kishi and SP shitty writing. 

Instead in Gaiden he’s completely dead inside, with occasional glimpses of bitterness at least in the beginning, before kishi tried to turn the later chapters into something positive, failing btw. 

Team7/sannin parallels were forgotten because kishi decided to focus on next gen shit. It’s not just Sasuke, in fact he is the one who treats his mentor better, at least he acknowledges as the one who knows everything. S*kura completely forgot about Tsunade, and N*ruto lost Jiraiya already, but he was very close to Tsunade too so you’d think she would have stayed relevant somehow. But it’s part of N*ruto’s inconsistencies (of most shounen manga tbh) to dismiss characters the author doesn’t need anymore, regardless of their actual importance. In universe it looks like N*ruto is quick to forget about “friends” as individuals, despite he’s fast at painting group images of Konoha as a family or whatever. So just like he forgets Tsunade (I think in some book he even said nasty things about her being a drunkard or whatever) he treats Orochimaru like shit, which might make sense since he experimented on people, killed the Third Hokage and more. What doesn’t make sense is that he’s the Hokage so he could arrest him, kill him or whatever. Instead, just like Kakashi before him, they let him go on with his life and experiments, and send spies to control him. Well. Spies missed him experimenting on those gaiden clones but ok. 

Orochimaru in Sasuke Shinden explained his treatment as Konoha needing them for their dirty jobs, he even said it’s the same for Sasuke (as if they’re the same kind of person, but I won’t even comment this because I did it already and it’s part of postending shitty writing) so.

What’s even more outrageous is how N*ruto treats Team Taka, like the worst useless people ever, when they’re SAsuke’s precious comrades, who stood by him when no one else had. 

But I digressed. I don’t like when Sasuke is portrayed negatively, no matter the context, also because if readers actually read the manga they see that every other character has a worse attitude and did worse things than him.

How I’d have written their post war relatioship? In a similar way to how their reunion was written, with Orochimaru being less creepy and more mentor-like, willing to listen to him, explaining him stuff and providing him with support whatever his cause, completely loyal to him, and still interested in him, because a little Oro creepyness is part of his personality. I’d write Sasuke interested in what Orochimaru explains him, as he acknowledged his strength and knowledge in canon as well, and I’d have them talk, kinda like in Shinden, also about the Uchiha history, because Orochimaru knows everything, including Uchiha stuff that Sasuke has no way of knowing about otherwise, since the village swept them, their traditions, their history under the rug. 

I’d have written Sasuke getting closer to him and Team Taka, who got closer to Orochimaru in the end, not in a fluffy “let’s forget about how badly Orochimaru tortured and manipulated them” but in a mature way, because Orochimaru did horrible things but they know Konoha’s fake goodness that hides and justifies the worst actions, and they see that Orochimaru is willing to change his ways now, accepting some punishment like home arrest or something (same for Kabuto btw) but also since he’s the one who knows everything and he’s one lucky guy, kinda getting away with a slight punishment instead of death, not because I don’t want to consider his crimes or I think he’s a nice guy, but because the system is shitty and this is one more proof, and I want this shitty system to make it so that Sasuke stays away from Konoha, the root of his suffering, and closer to his real comrades, Team Taka.