User blog comment:ShonenChicoBoy/Shonen's Regimen and Tonic: April 2015/@comment-136273-20150416115644/@comment-3403804-20150416133437

Thanks a lot for your input, Saris. Things like this is very valuable. For the record, I myself have next to no skill at social interactions, outside of the internet I can hardly speak to people at all.

I agree with all four of your points. Kurama is approximately equal in power to my own rendition of Grimmjow, who is indeed classified as being on the level of a Royal Guard. Kurama is probably even more powerful than his Captain-Commander, of course, he's so well-written that I don't really care. Besides it always baffled me that they chose to remove the most powerful Captains from the Gotei 13 to make them into private escorts, seemed very strange to protect the king rather than his kingdom.

Ryuren's statement is an exaggeration if I ever saw one, especially considering that the character, while indeed powerful, is still overshadowed by other Captains, such as Kurama.

Fuyutama personally struck me as being something a narcissist, that was my own personal interprentation of his superiority complex, that is. He's strong, especially for a Lieutenant, but he's still no stronger than the other advanced Lieutenants we have such as Takashi or Kazuo.

Shingi appears to be an attempt at making a 14th Captain. Though I don't think he's on the level of a Royal Guard, he's much stronger than what I'd consider plausible for a Lieutenant.