I Think Kishi made it obvious that Hiruzen was stronger then the 1st and 2nd

[OnPoint]

But what is said about Hashirama implies that he lived hundreds of years ago for them to doubt his powers, when in reality many in Hiruzen's reign witnessed Hashirama. So that statement is obviously not that accurate. Doubting the Sage makes sense since no one was alive when he was there. That being said I agree with you, the stuff being said about Hiruzen doesn't prove that he was the strongest since many got similar praise. What we know for a fact though is that Kishi is just inconsistent.

Hashirama died young; many of the shinobi who fought with him wouldn't have lived through to see the next generation, since it was a time of constant war. It was the villagers who lived long lives who were likely to have formed these opinons; villagers who never experienced war first hand and lived off of the stories which were told. If people had first had experience of witnessing such power had lived through to Hiruzen's generation then there would be no reason for the massess to disregard his tales as mere legends. The stories which were passed round were not believe, and there were not people there who could give valid evidence or say otherwise - that's why Kabuto said what he said. And yeah, it's not just what was said about Hashirama which is important since there are things which have been said about Minato which leads us to question the validity of Iruka's comment.

 

[MickNerks]

Hiruzen did not win that battle, who was alive in part 2 and who had a funeral?

It was a draw. It was a 3 on 1 fight and hiruzen defeated 1 and 2nd hokages and took away orochimaru's arms.

Hiruzen proved he was powerful.

well kishi designed so that the 3rd wins bcoz if the 1st and second won the leaf would be ****ed

the leaf was already ****ed because gaara went on a rampage.. Kishi showed us the power of hiruzen and proved that he was a force to reckon with.

What you need to realise is that Hashi and Tobirama were no were near their full power, their personalties had been removed and they were turned into mindless killing machines. Also Oro did not know the full potential of Hashirama and Tobirama.

And the most important thing is that there was no way on earth hiruzen was going to win that battle so he had to resort to RDS and even when he did he still couldn't seal Oro because Oro put a sword through hiruzen's chest.

Hiruzen was not at full power either. He was older and slower, but he still was able to outsmart and defeate the 1st and 2nd hokage.

And were in the manga does it say orochimaru didnt know the full potential of hashirama and tobimaru. Orochimaru was/is the genius that knows EVERYTHING. He knew that madara didnt die at VOTE and where to find his body. U are trying to downplay hiruzen, by downplaying the hokages and you dont even know all the facts.

If orochimaru didnt know the full potential of hash and tobi he wouldnt have been able to use mokuton and water release on the scale that it was used on.

Here is this explained better in a thread I made:


Hashi and tobi were mindless killing machines they did not have their own personalities and did not fight how they would if they were in control of their own bodies all they did was charge, attack and counter.
Another thing they didn’t realise oro was in control of their bodies oro did not know what they (mainly hashi) was truly capable of. This is why when kabuto revived madara after altering his body he left madara to be in control of his body (correcting the mistake oro did) and said something like “now I can finally witness a fragment of the so6p’s power”. Kabuto did not know what madara could do but he knew madara would be on his side anyway so he could leave him to do what he was truly capable of something oro could not because hashi and tobi would not fight hiruzen if he didn’t turn them to mindless killing machines.

Hiruzen did not win this battle in any way, hashi increased his mokuton to the size of the barrier they were locked in. (notice mindless hashi couldn’t use his landscape changing abilities they were locked in a small area, also oro was in control and turned him into mindless zombie.)

Hiruzen realised there is no way he is going to win this battle so his only hope to protect the village was to give his life using RDS because there was no hope of him winning.

It doesn’t end there he couldn’t even beat his student, why? Because oro stabbed a sword through his chest preventing him from sealing him completely

Yes hiruzen stood his ground but he is hokage for a reason.

Old Hiruzen fought against 3 younger kage level shinobi and he held his own and defeated 2 and stole orochimaru's arms.