Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26998824-20150920161424/@comment-734582-20150927200254

BakumatsuWarrior wrote: If that guy were so badass, we would have seen something from him during the War. There's literally no logical step between those two things. I think it's fairly obvious that the reason we don't see anything of Hiruzen is because Kishimoto simply didn't have any ideas. He clearly wanted to bring back Hashirama, Tobirama and Minato (95% of the edo tensei story is about them, the other 5% Hiruzen), yet just as clearly had no idea what to do with Hiruzen. Why he exists in the story is pretty clear: to be the friendly grandfather figure that teaches the Will of Fire, nothing more (and nothing less). There was never anything beyond that on paper for the guy.