Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-28869806-20150525191639/@comment-4912646-20150526062541

Hiruzen for me, specifically the way his character was portrayed in Part 2. Early in the manga, he was portrayed as not only the strongest shinobi, but also exceptionally kind and a beloved leader. Then he died and we didn't really hear anything about him for a couple hundred chapters. Suddenly, as a result of Danzō's introduction in Part 2, we're constantly told how much of a failure he was as a Hokage, not only by Tobi and Orochimaru, but even Sarutobi himself.

Not only that, his position as God of Shinobi and strongest Hokage were both retroactively given to Hashirama and he was portrayed as if he were one of the weakest of all the Kage. I remember being excited to see how he would evolve to fit the current scale of battles when he was resurrected. And of course the answer was... he just didn't. He disappeared for a bunch of chapters, had one nice moment where he saved Naruto from the tree, then returned to the afterlife without contributing anything else.