#saying he did post impure king ignores all the setbacks and work after that and half the reason he and yukio have friction

[tonguetiedraven]

I've seen this opinion pop up a lot recently, and I really need people to take another look at what was happening in that arc and afterwards.

Rin is powerful, yes. Rin has a lot of boom and NO IDEA HOW TO USE IT. Rin has gone toe to toe with his twin and been defeated by him time and time again. Rin is not smart and not analytical and Shiemi was able to keep him at bay when he was unsealed and she was exhausted with a single familiar.

Rin is powerful, but he is not a god in this universe and he is weaker because he is not learned and impulsive. Renzou knocks him on his ass without even throwing a lot of effort into it, and we know Renzou doesn't even really train. We haven't seen the others go out against him, but I imagine they could do a lot more than anticipated.

Furthermore on the Impure King thing, because I'm so tired of people not acknowledging this very important scene from chapter 39.

Rin can't handle even the lowest of the kings who has a portion of his power bound by Shemihaza. Rin is not hot stuff yet. He destroyed the Impure King with direct and necessary intervention from Ucchusma. He could not have done that alone. At the current point in the manga, probably, but even still I don't think he'd have the control to manage that extent of manipulation. None of the demons he has faced has he faced alone. He has defeated none of them but his own on his own.

We see Rin get possessed after the Impure Arc too. We see Rin get swallowed by zombies. We see Rin get the sword broken and be devoured by it. Rin gets his ass kicked by Yukio all the time. Rin gets his ass kicked by Shura. Rin drops like a fly so damn many times against Hachiro it's played as a ha ha.

Rin has the ability to be a nuclear bomb of power, but he does not have control and does not have a ton of knowledge on how to manipulate that until later in the manga, and even still he struggles.

That's not even touching on what other skills the exwires and exorcists are bringing. Shiemi and Izumo are really talented tamers and Rin has Kuro, but he can't summon demons and hasn't so far. Rin has, as far as we've seen, not managed any arias. Konekomaru and Ryuuji kick his ass all over the place with that. Yukio and his dragoon self has bested Rin multiple times. Renzou is the only knight his age we see, and even Renzou has beaten him. They are all immensely talented, usually in different ways from them, and comparing Rin's flames to their skill set is missing what weakness Rin has and what strengths they have.

There is a vast difference between having brute strength and having any idea how to use it. That is what Rin works on, and maintaining control of the flames and the demon so that they don't consume him. The others far out pace him on knowledge of their skills and obtaining their own mastery of their chosen subjects.

Hot Take time, Rin was able to solo his entire class by the time Kyoto got done and he had acceptable control over his flames. Yes, even Yukio. The only reason he seems "weaker" is because Rin just holds back most of his power 99% of the time.