Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-27233105-20160307210530/@comment-734582-20160308090957

MlGshinobi wrote: Exactly and for hiruzen it was even worse, since he was well outside of his prime to begin with Well and Orochimaru kind of has a grudge against him. But the Nagato case seems to indicate that Edo Tensei can only ever bring people back as they died, it can't pick an earlier spot to improve them. Hiruzen was brought back as his 70-year-old self, and Edo Tensei mitigates some of his problems (e.g. reserves) but he's way past his strongest point (as Orochimaru himself stated) whereas the other Hokage were actually around their strongest.

I guess it's kind of ironic that one of the strongest characters lived so long that he can never reach that level again. Well it also kind of applies to Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi with their temporary power boosts, but at least two of those maintained significant levels of power.