User blog comment:Aldarinor/Second Fight Prediction, Part II!/@comment-16344653-20110810204724/@comment-3290324-20110815201548

Aldarinor i have to stop you there. Rukia is highly skilled with Kido. Bankai is a skill that is pretty much exclusive to Captains with the exception of a skilled non captains so she, being a lieutenant, wouldn't have Bankai. Renji has not mastered Bankai. He is able to use it effectively, but it's no where near as powerful as a Captains and he definitely doesn't have the skill to use it as effectively as a Captain can. Ichigo isn't exactly a master with his either. He can use it effectively enough, but his power is very inconsistent and fluctuates constantly. Overall he is Captain level as far as raw power goes, but he doesn't have the skill or precision that a Captain possesses.

To say that Chad, Uryu and Orihime are as strong as Rukia is very untrue. Chad lacks Shunpo or any speed technique so she can easily outmaneuver him and his attacks. He has a good amount of brute strength and power, but as I said he wouldn't be able to hit her with those attacks. Uryu does have some speed, but has never once shown himself to be stronger than Rukia. Orihime is totally out of the question. She has two offensive abilities. The first one sucks because she is two kind, and even if she does gain some killing intent she still hasn't trained with that attack enough to even dream of being able to hit Rukia. Secondly Rukia doesn't charge in blidnly like Kugo did so she would have no reason to slice at Orihime's shield. All of Rukia's Shikai dances have more than enough power to finish off Orihime and given the fact that Orihime has no speed technique (i.e. Shunpo, Sonido) she couldn't possibly dodge them.

Rukia's a pretty strong character, us as viewers tend to label her and all other lieutenants as weak because of their inferiority to the Captains, but let's not forget that just because your not a Captain doesn't mean you are weak. You simply aren't Captain level.