User blog comment:TotalDrama22121/Carbon Copies/@comment-1405841-20100914205330/@comment-1405841-20100915024116

I think the misconception comes from the fact that Grimmjow instantly incapped her in the first confrontation, then during the second she was put in danger if not saved splitsecond by Shinji. Overall, she has not been in a lot of fights like Ichigo...the first time we see her fight is against Fishbone at the start of the series (or if you include the anime filler Hollow, the buglike Hollow she clearly dispatched of immediately). Her powers are pretty much gone until the end of the Soul Society arc...before then she was just your above average human in fighting ability.

Afterwards, her first fight is against D-Roy whom she dispatches quite easily and the only reason Grimmjow overcame her is due to his pure power and the fact that I believe Kubo wanted to establish him as a monsterous foe from the outset. She's then healed and trains Orihime after the incident. Her next appearance she freezes Grimmjow's arm and he nearly decapitates her with a Cero, but again...he's supposed to be heavily powerful (and still too strong for Ichigo to handle). OF course, she's saved by Shinji...

Next appearance is in Huenco Mundo, to where she fights an Espada (and, an Espada from the first generation mind you) that may be considered the weakest but she, unlike Renji and Uryu, succeeds in destroying him. The battle, like I said before, would have gone much smoother if he did not take on the appearance of Kaien...and trust me, in a fight Morale is heavily important. If you're forced to fight someone that looks just like someone close to you, your concentration will faulter and ultimately your attacks will be weaker...you may also leave some blindspots and thus lead to further damage. The reason she did so "terribly" during the fight is because of these blindspots causing her heavy damage...and that damage multiplied her inability to dodge further damage. It's like breaking someone's leg...it damages them and it also renders them less capable of evasive manuevers and overall fighting ability.

Regardless of this fact, REGARDLESS of the fact that she was impaled on a Trident and is pretty much at no-energy whatsoever...she succeeds in destroying an Espada. While yes, the enemies are vastly different in terms of method, tactics, power and some other aspects...there is just one rank seperating the two and Rukia, by herself without any interruptions from other characters...took out an Espada. Nobody helped her, nobody provided a distraction...it was just she and him.

Then there's Rudobone, like Lia said Renji and Chad's involvement did not belong...she took that battle with her own ability and sure Yammy "finished him off" but she had already proved that no matter what, she was to be victorious. As for fighting against Yammy in survival...he's the 0 Espada, what more could she do at her level? She's not at Captain level, neither are Renji and especially not Chad....she's proved herself time and time again to be stronger than Chad. I'll take back what I said about Uryu however, as he has proved to be A POWERFUL warrior in his own right. So I take back my Uryu statement...as for Renji, maybe they're on equal footing...but it would be bold to say she's below his level just because she isn't a Vice-Captain or lacks Bankai. As far as I can see, her Shikai surpasses Renji's who almost always has to enter Bankai just about as much as Ichigo does these days...