User blog comment:B214/Volume 23 discussion blog/@comment-139.190.27.252-20170321092843/@comment-10330822-20170322185857

I feel a lot of people, such as myself, are more concerned with Issei not being able to prove he is stronger than someone, because these Rating Games are rare opportunities to prove who is stronger than the other in a controlled setting. Dulio wouldn't normally fight Issei like this.

For example, I would have liked to see a conclusion between the fight with Dulio and Issei. If that had happened, I wouldn't have been salty at all about him losing. Because, at the end of this battle, we still don't know which is stronger, which I felt was the main advantage of this tournament for the story itself.

My problem is that while I agree with everything you say, I feel people are too focused on Issei only learning through losing. Itr's true, failure is a part of losing, but you don't need to fail to learn. H e can also learn just as much from seeing faults in their performance during a victory. Failing allows you to accept that you have faults. If Issei was the sort of person who just ignorantly kept winnng while ignoring his team's faults, then yes, I'd say he should lose to realize this. But Issei's team has been getting sh*t since the very beginning in terms of ratings, so I feel he wasn't losing sight of the fact he and his team had issues.

Also, Issei recognizes he doesn't have the experience to leadership yet, that's why he's relying on Ravel. That's the real problem here, is that if Issei fails, it isn't entirely his fault, which would be the case for most Kings, Ravel will also see it as her fault, which she shouldn't have too.

The thing I want most from Issei is to become independent as a leader, to take Ravel's advice and work it into his plans, rather than solely relying on it. He has been a soldier for most of this series, only Vol 8 have we been able to see him as a leader, and I want more of that. Everything else I feel Issei already has, he recognizes the importance of teamwork, he trusts his peerage to do their jobs, and he inspires them all in the process. Tiny things like individual teammate's problems or him being too lenient on them is something that could be fixed, regardless of whether he wins or loses.