User blog comment:NaiflidG/Relating to Alastair in "On the Head of a Pin" and "Caged Heat"/@comment-24199167-20141116191139/@comment-11331875-20141120230906

I was actually thinking of that scene when I said that Demon!Dean is probably stronger than Crowley, but I wasn't sure if it really meant anything -- after all, shoving someone hardly makes you stronger than them, and physical strength isn't always a great measure of supernatural power. While on one hand, Crowley didn't retaliate when Demon!Dean shoved him, on the other, he still thought of Demon!Dean as his friend at the time, so I decided not to mention that scene -- it was a little too dicey as evidence. We can reasonably consider Demon!Dean (that's it, I'm calling him DeeDee from now on) to have been stronger than Crowley because DeeDee was more powerful than Abaddon, who was more powerful than Crowley, who was stronger than every other demon in Hell and most all on Earth at the time; ergo, DeeDee was stronger than Crowley and at least almost all other demons, with the possible exception of Cain.

I would agree with you about the knife's effects demonstrating ranks better than eye colors because might equals right does seem to be a thing with Supernatural's demons, but The Essential Supernatural pretty firmly grouped all demons by eye color and I suspect that the writers are using that as a reference; the demon hierarchy-by-eye-color from The Essential Supernatural is listed on the Supernatural Wiki, which writers have admitted to relying on as a reference guide. So I would guess that eye color determining rank is canon at this point. I think that the Knights are black-eyed because of The Essential Supernatural's description of black-eyed demons as "the soldiers," the Knights of Hell being described as "soldiers of Hell." Which makes sense and I suppose is interesting, but it gives them the appearance of common-place demons as opposed to more special eye colors special demons should have. The Knights being the yellow-eyed demon army generals would have been a pretty cool addition to the mythos. And Cain could be the white-eyed chief of armies. Ah well, no use crying over spilt milk, I suppose.

They actually showed Dean being stronger than Crowley. In a episode (i believe Reichenbach) Dean easily shoved Crowley to the floor. I also said "completely immune to the knife". Alastair was immune but he showed little pain. Cain didn't feel any pain at all. I do believe that the Kurdish knife shows results better for demon ranks than the eye color thing.

If I'm understanding what you mean here, then I'll have to disagree, because it seems pretty obvious to me that the Mark was (and is) the cause of both Cain's unheard-of immunities and powers. The Mark is stated to slowly turn humans branded with it into demonic entities that it resurrects as uber-demons when killed. As the major difference between Cain and all the other top demons, the Mark is likely the thing that made Cain and his demons un-killable (except for the First Blade). Just having the Mark made Dean overpower and kill Abaddon, and fight God-level Metatron, all while still (mostly) a human. So I'm sure that the Mark is the reason for Cain and Deedee's insane power. You're right, Cain could still use all his powers without any apparent decline from not having the Mark and it was implied that he retained all his immunities without it (since he didn't just off himself then), but still, I have to point that he was still an uber-demon that'd been created from the Mark (and from it, Lucifer) -- not having the Mark anymore might just mean that he can't use the First Blade, or perhaps that he's not the only one who can, now. (He's also the oldest demon left in existence now, and age does tend to mean something in terms of power when it comes to Supernatural-verse, so it could be that he would still be able to use those powers even if he hadn't got the Mark -- but I doubt it.)

We can agree on Carver, hombre.