I doubt he has Hashirama's full powered Sage Mode, since he obtained it from a weakened out Hashirama. Not only that he himself said the sage mode isn't that powerful. While we know Hashirama's Sage Mode is freaking powerful.
Hashirama immobilized an Edo Madara with Rinnegan/Mokuton/EMS.. I doubt the current one is even on that level. People who are making the excuses for Madara with the whole "he wasn't trying" uh no.
Fact: God tree went after the people with huge amounts of chakra.
Fact: Hashirama has huge amounts of chakra (on par or higher than Naruto's).. So he had already gotten his chakra taken away, while fighting Madara. Though can't say the same for Madara.
In the end as I said , the only way Living Madara would be a good attempt is to make Hashirama useless somehow.. and that is what happened. However, if you guys believe that Hashirama being useless = him being inferior to Madara.. then you seriously misguided.. because Hashirama pulls out a move that will finish of Madara with the last of Hashirama's power, will you guys then say current weakened Hashirama > Full powered Madara?? no.
In the end Madara hasn't beaten Hashirama in a fight period.. Hence Hashirama still stays the stronger one.
No matter what Madara does Hashirama will be a step ahead. Hell he already knew who Madara was going to go after.
PS: Not bashing Madara here, because now its clearly shown that Sasuke and Naruto still have a whole lot to do before they can catch up to Madara and Hashirama. He still the strongest after Hashirama. Plus, dude is a freaking genius for having Zetsu stay with Obito the entire time. He used Zetsu with the perfect timing.
You have to speculate when a majority of the battle was off panel.
He also didn't try when Obito became the Juubi jinchuuriki basically at all. Its probably a plot contrivance.
Either way, like I said, everything is speculation (Madara was able to break the seal perfectly well when he was alive which has shown to have no advantage to the edo tensei body other than hype thus far among all the off panel stuff we already went over with the rods) and I'm done with this thread. I have to study for a test.
If he didn't want to try, there was no need for PS. If he didn't want to try there was no need to go chase Hashirama to stab with black rods. The fact is he was trying. However him losing and being immobilized was meaningless because he already had black zetsu to bail him out with Obito..
I see you are a big fan of the word speculation but you are misusing it in this instance.
What I am saying to you, and what I assume Hipster Madara was saying, is not speculation. It is a manga fact that the rods were placed in Hashirama's back before Madara was bound. We know this for a fact because when Kishi first shows us a bound Madara, the rods are clearly in Hashirama's back. The very instance at which the rods enter the back is when Madara's chance to control him became available.
Now as far as why Madara didn't control him right away; yes that is speculation. Hipster Madara has already said that twice, and I myself never brought that into the conversation. I'm simply letting you know that your statement "Madara didn't control him because he was immobilized" is false because the rods were in Hashirama's back before Madara was ever bound. Again, that is not speculation. Hashirama became open for control the moment those rods entered his body.
Maybe Madara stuck the rods in his back but then Hashirama blitzed him, keeping him from having enough time to control Hashirama. Maybe Madara just decided to wait to control him. Maybe Madara got the rods in him only seconds before he got caught in the wood dragon. That is speculation, and it is also not a point I'm making to you. The point is that Madara's position to control him came first. Whether or not Hashirama allowed him the time to do so or Madara decided against it right away is a another argument altogether. One I don't care enough to speculate on.
Basically, no one knows what the reason is to why Madara didn't control him. But we do not it's not because he was immobilized, because again, Hashirama was open to control before Madara was ever immobilized.
To control someone with the rods, you have to be in a more powerful state than the person you are trying to control. Madara wanted to control Hashirama, so the speculation of "He didn't try" is already nulified when he now with all his chakra back and at full power restrained a weakened Hashirama.
Before he couldn't restrain him because he wasn't stronger than Hashirama. Just like Nagato couldn't do anything to Naruto with the rods when the kyuubi's chakra came into play.