(Disclamer: I, maybeafew, do not, in any way, own have claim on Naruto. The show solely belongs to Masashi Kishimoto-sama)
How would you describe Jiraiya as a person? A hero, a mentor, right? - A good person, in general?
Well, let me tell you - often, everything is not what is seems to be. There is more to him than just being Jiraiya of the Sannin.
I'll start from the beginning of his story, within canon. In the first scene, in chronological order, he was seen with his teammates, Senju Tsunade and Orochimaru with their teacher-to-be Sarutobi Hiruzen, taking the 'Bell-Test'. This test was one where the team is supposed to display teamwork. It was clear to those who know the story, that they did pass the test in a similar fashion to the Team 7 under Hatake Kakashi's lead - though, the details of the test of Jiraiya's team were pretty vague. Jiraiya, in this test, was depicted as a pervert, incompetent and an overall shitty person with practically no ninja skills. This depiction was painfully similar to Uzumaki Naruto, when he took his own test. Nevertheless, we will move on and see his growth as a person and a ninja - maybe, it will be his salvation?
Moving onwards, the next we saw Jiraiya was when he, alongside his team, fought Hanzo of the Salamander in Amegakure - which consequently coined him as one of the Sannin, for his team held their own against Hanzo. This took place during the Second Shinobi War, when he was in his early twenties. It should also be noted that he already had a Genin Team under his jurisdiction - which meant Namikaze Minato and his two, other, teammates were already his students.
Anyways, back to when they finished fighting Hanzo. The next scene showed us how three, seemingly non-descript, children followed the newly-coined Sannin in a, rather, poorly-concealed search for anything to help themselves survive. Skipping all the unnecessary details, we reach to where Orochimaru suggested a mercy killing for the clearly starving, helpless children - which, I think, is a sound suggestion as a ninja, if you ponder about it. Now, was when Jiraiya decided to stay in Ame to teach these children he had known, literally, nothing about - also, taking into account, his students back in Konoha, this is a poorly thought-out decision. By doing this, not only was he, essentially, abandoning his team, his village and his students for these unknown children, in the middle of a war.
There could be a lot of reasons to this, which might be considerable, but improbable - one of which can be Danzō. Because, if that was what made him decide to stay in a war-torn region to take care of children, while the war was still in play, wouldn't he have taken his teammates with him and gone missing, basically? Another reason, that was reoccurring within the story, was for the so-called prophecy that was later fulfilled by Naruto. It was clear that he saw the qualities that he thought were of the boy in the prophecy in Yahiko - just like he saw them in Minato and Naruto.
But, undeniably, Jiraiya was irresponsible, here. For all his loyalty to his toad summons, to a prophecy that he didn't even know the subject of, he did not think of Orochimaru or Tsunade or Minato.
While, he was teaching his new 'students' in Ame, he prattled on about 'Peace' and how he intends to achieve. Basically, being manipulative to each and everyone of them - we know that he already had his sights on Yahiko. But his focus, somewhat, shifted when Nagato had gotten his Rinnegan, however 'borrowed' it may be and ignoring Konan, in relative comparison to his other students.
Next up, was when, I believe, he returned to Konoha and left again to be a Spymaster - somewhere around the Third Shinobi War. I imagine, this was where he returned to his village, found out that Tsunade had left, in grief - because of the death of Senju Nawaki and Kato Dan, Orochimaru was 'caught up in his experiments' (I talked about that part in "The Snake Summoner and Scientist: Orochimaru"). Once again, he decided to be a shitty person by leaving the village, though it was unclear whether on orders or not, abandoning his teammate who was still within the village. The details of when he returned to the village are blurred around the edges - but, I'm sure it must have been enough time to train Minato as extensively as claimed he did in the manga/anime.
Throughout being the Spymaster and alternating between the village and his duties outside it and Mount Myoboku, he was mentioned returning to the said village when Uzumaki Kushina was heavily pregnant. Then, he was named yet to be born Naruto's Godfather - though, in my opinion, it was a really bad choice.
While he was present in the village enough to named godfather of Uzumaki Naruto, the 'Kyuubi Attack' occured in his absence.
Returning after the said attack, he found Minato, his star student, dead. While it was understandable for him to grieve for his student's death, it did not release from his duty as a godfather, a guardian that he was supposed to be, of the then recently orphaned child of his own student. Whether or not Hiruzen, Danzō and the rest of the village council had harped about the village jinchuuriki being recognized as the son of the Fourth Hokage, I like to think he could have argued with a lot of sound reasons to back up his decision to take Naruto as his ward. He could have argued that, since he was the village's best Seal Master, Naruto living with him could be seen as a regular enough occurrence. Also, as far as the recognition of the jinchuuriki by other villages went, I think it a major flaw within the story as Naruto's facial features were quite an anomaly within Konoha and he closely resembled Minato. The change of surname could have protected him for only so long - when, Minato's name was in so many Bingo Books.
Nonetheless, he left the village - turning his back on Naruto, even though he had enough power and sway within the village to keep Naruto as his ward, leaving the newborn to the mercies of the moronic villagers of Konoha.
Glaringly, over a decade passed, and while he did return to the village to receive orders, like the one of apprehending Orochimaru - he, like the asshole he evidently was, he did not, once, check up on Naruto. In the scenes that he was seen in opposition to Orochimaru, he did not try to work out a reason of why his ex-teammate did what he, allegedly, was caught doing.
Then, the Chuunin Exams, showcased in the series, arrive and suddenly he was there again. This time, to teach Naruto. Just swooping in like nothing happened and still bound by the gag-order to not reveal Naruto's heritage, and claiming to the child that he was there to teach him. Not once was Naruto given a choice in matter, not really - as he did not truly know who this 'old-man' was, nor did he know his heritage or why a Sannin was tasked to teach him.
Even so, in their training trip and the entire series, there is one thing about the said Sannin that seriously unnerves me - that he compares Naruto and Minato so much. Nevertheless, they are still my thoughts and speculations.
So, I come to the conclusion that while some may think him a good person, I do not. He is too unlikeable. Albeit I admitted in my last work that everyone makes mistakes at some point in their life, it does not apply in this case - atleast not fully. The continuing series of abandonment was what did it for me.
