User blog comment:Kogath/Monster Hunter Generations Discussion/@comment-6050823-20161003221508/@comment-27125903-20161006212101

Well to be fair, the Astalos in the intro caught the Rathalos completely by surprise and Rathalos's weakness to thunder alongside Raizex's hostility doesn't help and we can easily conclude Astalos wins most fights between it and a Rathalos.....

However.... the fact that Astalos is a physically fragile monster still stands(being based on dragonflies which aren't the hardiest bugs out there).... If a Rathalos was to surprise an Astalos instead of the other way around.... Astalos most likely is going to be bruised and battered a lot more(possibly even outright killed) due to his body being much less resistant.

And in-game stats doesn't really mean anything.....

You can fight a Cephadrome(2 star) way before you fight a Lagombi(3 star), even though we all clearly know a Cephadrome poses much more of a threat than Lagombi(excluding deviant).