sakumo and third hokage - do you take character's word for it?

[Captain Shodai]

sakumo hatake's strength has been said to surpass that of the sannin, and the third hokage has been called the strongest hokage; however in the case of sakumo, we know nothing specific about his powers, and the third has been shown capable against the first and second, but they were only IWR versions, so its not fair to use that as a measure of the thirds power necessarily. so the question is, when characters make comments about other's strengths, do you take their word for it?

 

[Kenpai]

I do. But most people on NB don't. They use skills or techs to justify their arguments which is not a bad thing. If a character say something as plain as day that he is stronger than another, people ignore...so uugh.

 

[Tsukune]

i kinda look at their past battles what is at their disposal and cross-reference it with other characters opinions

 

[Itachi Namikaze]

Not a chance, people talk trash or talk well of people all the time and it hardly ever is the case. If you listened to whatever the manga characters said then stuff we have seen would just be ridiculous. According to Ten-ten, Neji is unbeatable. Iruka was the one who said that the third was the strongest, is he the most reliable source? Characters in the manga say things all the time that contradict each other.

Now that I have answered the thread question I am going to attack the characters statements, not yours but the characters in the manga.

I don't know if you believe that Sakumo is stronger than the Sannin but no one said that in the manga, in the manga Minato said, and this is a direct quote you can check the chapters if you don't believe me, "His name had respect on the same level as the legendary Sannin", respect and power are different. All the kages have about equal levels of respect but some are much stronger than others.

Now about the third, I know Hiruzen was strong but strongest Hokage? Even in his prime I highly doubt that. It would be tough to rank the Hokages as Konoha's kages have all been super boss (other than Tsunade who is just alright). Saying that for me strongest Kage would have to go to Minato followed by hashirama and then Tobirama/Hiruzen and finally Tsunade.

 

[Sasuke2]

Hurizen was not strongest ... just learned most techniques of all Hokages ... Minato saved Village and Sarutobi did nothing against Kyubi ... and Hashirama defeated Kubi + Madara so ...