User blog comment:B214/General discussion/@comment-27180505-20151226021459/@comment-27180505-20160203033236

Never said he was stronger(though yeah one can make a case for him post v6, touka lost to yudaii who has the same fighting style as kuraudo except with a spear. She loses against ranged opponents who can spam attacks and kuraudo is exactly that. You’re weighing past achievements and ranks when ikki himself proves those don’t mean shit. And this is also ignoring match ups; certain fighters do better against some than others. Though at this point she cant handle stella anymore) than rakiri, I just implied that he’s a better rival. The touka v ikki fight was more or less two friends being forced to fight each other, whereas the kuraudo fight was a brawl between bitter rivals despite the mutual respect they share for the last samurai. Add on the hyped rematch and yeah kuraudo definitely deserves one more. Tohka is a better rival for stella and shizuku anyway.

As for your claim that stella is ikki’s vegeta… wtf are you talking about. Stella is no vegeta. Her role is nothing like his. She primarily serves as ikki’s love interest. She’s not a former antagonist turned mutual ally turned frienemy. if your basing it on power than technically ikki would be her vegeta lol. My whole point is that kuraudo fits that role better than anyone else because his whole story is very similar to that type of character. An enemy concerned with power and nothing else is bested by the hero and then makes it his mission to one day surpass him, despite the viewer knowing that wont happen. He manages to keep up, but eventually finds something more important than being strong. The subplot with kuraudo reaching out to ayatsuji is the perfect set up for that.