Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-28869806-20150430170122/@comment-26275777-20150430220244

What's so great about becoming Hokage anyway? As far as I can tell you get a desk job forever and ever and then you get called out to deal with some threat and you die.

I don't see why the hat should rotate between clans or whatever. It's not even as if the position comes from an election or whatnot, a council of some sorts simply nominates candidates and then the daimyo, etc pick the best person for the job (apart from Hiruzen's choice, but they were at war and he probably did all that when he got back to the village). And as far as I can tell strength and some amount of levelheadedness seem to be the only criteria (well duh, it's a military settlement, of course they're going to give the position to the person that can protect the village/instill the most fear in the other villages). So no-one can complain that they didn't have a chance to become Hokage; Minato who didn't even have a clan became noteworthy enough on his own to make the cut.

The Uchiha have never actually had a real Hokage candidate. Madara was, well, Madara, and I count Hashirama and Tobirama as one reign because they died within months or a couple of years of each other. Hiruzen was by all accounts the strongest in his time, stronger than the other kages even in his old age, and we know too little about Kagami to say he should have gotten it instead. When Minato came round the other candidate was Orochimaru of all people so if the Uchiha couldn't advance someone then that's their own damn fault. As for Itachi and Shisui, I have my reservations when it comes to people who (a) believed mind-raping their beloved little brother into oblivion was the best way to ensure he grew up healthy and sane and (b) pushed the former to make that choice in the first place, and also thought mind-raping people was the way to peace.