I've been a fan of L5R for many years now, but only started at Samurai. Since then, I had many favorite characters, but focused mostly on one clan (Spider). I didn't read all the stories, and although I felt I was missing something, time and interest kept me from digging all the stories from before Samurai. I read the most important ones, but never found the time or the courage to complete my readings. It does mean a whole lot a characters went completly below my radar and I want to know more, for my own personal enjoyment and for my multiple projects (including Tomorrow's Prophets)

I want to know, in you opinion, who were the most underrated and overrated characters. How they were used, how they should have been used or how they could be used by FFG. I always had a soft spots for the underdogs and for the characters we love to hate.

I will ask you for one exception. Daigotsu and his son Daigotsu Kanpeki. They are extremely divisive characters and I fear talked about how they were (or not) overrated will derail the topic faster than we can say seppuku. So please, I totally respect the opinion that Daigotsu was more of a Daigot-Mary-Su, and understand one half of the playerbase love him and the other half hate him, so please talk about other characters.

I'm game.

Most overrated: Iuchiban. He'd been built up in the lore as one of the Empire's greatest villains - so bad they had to kill him twice. And even then they were afraid it didn't take. Heck, they'd changed the entire culture's funeral customs because of him. Yet, when he showed up again in the story, he was basically a joke. Even his chief lieutenant, Yajinden, basically made fun of the guy. The story just didn't work.

Most underrated: Mirumoto Junnosuke. This one was harder, since there's a lot of different ways for me to look at someone underrated. Junnosuke got off to a great start at the beginning of Gold Edition - won some strong victories for the Dragon, and was different enough from his clan's stereotype to really stand out to me. He was disgraced by the Scorpion, and eventually corrupted by Shahai, only to eventually (sort of) redeem himself saving Tsudao. The second half of his story was never as good as the first, I admit, but he's largely been forgotten, and I think is terribly underrated.

My choices are purely out of the RPG as the area I'm in never had a CCG following.

Overrated: Hida Kisada. Up until the Clan War and the letting the Shadowlands through I was good with him. Rather liked him. Then he just went '**** it, demon army'. And somehow ends up as a Fortune out of the whole deal. Though he is tied with Yoritomo as well (Uber fanboy superpowers).

Underrated: http://l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Shosuro_Mukai this guy is fairly awesome, Wish there was more of him.

This never ends well.

Overrated or Otherwise Toxic: Yoritomo, Togashi, Hida Kisada, Bayushi Kachiko, and, much as it pains me, my boy Shiba Aikune. Iuchiban, but only because no character permitting any degree of narrative agency for anyone else could have lived up to the hype.

Underrated or Underappreciated: Moshi Ikako- A proper traditionalist Moshi actually worried about the fact that her pious, matriarchal family has started to turn into thunder-slinging bikini-wearing Yoritomo groupies? Sorry we didn't get to see that play out. Lovely that we DID get to see her shame Isawa Koiso into remembering what a shugenja's role is. Also Shiba Kakei- that guy was going places, and it was nice to see a Shiba leader (albeit not a Champion) who gave the Council his input without being arsed to care that they might be upset.