User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 654 - Deadman Standing/@comment-26091912-20151204015106

Aaaaaannd out come the trolls from under their bridges... again.

In all seriousness though, I thought the Elite Guard we're actually in a different league than regular Sternritter, but the notion is contrived and exaggerated. The ONLY thing separating them from regular Sternritter is their Scrift which allows them to survive otherwise fatal attacks—nothing more. Other than that, they're piss weak. ANY Sternritter could've qualified as an Elite Guard.

There's a real lack of consistency when it comes to the Elite Guard. At first, they seemed really strong: Gerard easily wounding Senjumaru, Pernida easily crushing a Second Class Divine Soldier, Lille destroying an entire city with just ONE Heilig Pfeil each, etc. They seemed strong until they were defeated by Nimaiya; then along comes Auswählen to revive them. Then the Royal Guard is defeated. Now, they're confronted by regular Shinigami, and get their arse kicked. 'Oh, but what happened to the power boost?' Irrelevant. Now the focus is on their Schrift powers.

So far we've had Pernida who can survive fatal attacks and make clones of itself. Lille, who can survive fatal attacks and make clones of himself. Bit of theme emerging there? And now Gerard, oh boy! I'm hoping for a good fight, but I honestly can't see it happening. (Oh, hey Byakuya! Nice of you to show up.)