Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26998824-20150920161424/@comment-26773508-20150928115749

Thekillman wrote: Oh i don't disagree that Kishimoto changed his mind (Hashirama was only ~60 years ago but everyone magically forgot about him) but i don't see Hiruzen's strengths as a retcon. I think we're working with two different ideas of "retcon". When I say Hiruzen's strength was retconned, I mean he's no longer the strongest hokage before Naruto. By this statement, I also mean that Hiruzen is not at the same level as Hashirama and Madara. That still leaves room for Hiruzen to be the 2nd-strongest hokage after Hashi (Naruto doesn't count). In fact, it's been actually confirmed that Hiruzen indeed is the 2nd strongest Hokage, since DB4 claims that Hiruzen showed more talent than Tobirama since a very young age. So he's still strong. But not as strong as he was made out to be in Part 1. GreatestSin wrote: ^i think your "Observation 2" has a mistake, hiruzen wasnt hyped to be the most powerful shinobi in part 2 :) Nope. He was overhyped in Part 1, when Iruka said to a bunch of Academy kids that Hiruzen was the strongest Hokage to have ever lived. Further hype came from Part 1 Kabuto, who tried to console a defeated Orochimaru that he had fought and killed the strongest Hokage ever; a shinobi of such fearsome power that he was called "The God of Shinobi".

I don't remember anyone saying such things about Hiruzen in Part 2. Instead, Part 2 hyped up Minato, then Madara and Hashirama. Hiruzen wasn't even mentioned most of the times.