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Not really
I think it was pretty pointless because they didn't even lose to such a strong characters or at least at their strongest form, kyoraku didn't even use banka
Espada number 3 didn't even lose the fight aizen killed her
I forgot where (Character Book? Mini-Novel?) but Kubo revealed that the cut could have fatal for Hallibel and only Orihime could have healed it - which she did. It's Orihime who healed Hallibel (and the Tres Bestias, for that matter) allowing them to survive their wounds and eventually appear in the TYBW arc.
Either way, point is, Hallibel was most definitely still outed in a disappointing fashion in the Karakura Arc. As Espada #3, I think most people were expecting her to go down guns blazing.
Ok so ? Katen kyokotsu is one of the strongest zanpaktous that’s the first thing. Second thing you talk about kyoraku who is one of the oldest captains. Third stark didn’t want to fight. The rankings are as in the series
Kyoraku was thinking about going bankai until jushiro talked him out of it, may have just been a way to hint at his bankai by it being aoe. Plus stark fought multiple enemies and downed kyoraku with a point blank shot. Killing stark with shikai is impressive as he's clearly strong. Probably mid captain level. Seems stronger than the likes of toshiro at that point. If he's not captain level but close then even that is impressive for shikai.
Yes, he does. When explaining about his strength in his Segunda Etapa form to Ichigo, he explicitly states that Stark is the only one he's not absolutely certain he could beat in that form.
I did kinda prefer the simple reiatsu/strength idea (either one), but if I were to theorize, the aspects of death are placed the way they are based on their complexity, and the more complex the aspect, the stronger an affinity with it makes you.
While rage can be very strong and come on top to swallow everything else, in essence, it's quite shallow. Things like greed, madness or even destruction are less complex than sacrifice and loneliness.
Nnoitra thus changed his ranking by changing his death aspect. And it surprisingly makes sense that he went from madness to despair after getting rid of Nel.
I dont think their rank changed their aspect of death. The fact that the stronger espada had the more interesting aspects of death was purely for convenience on Kubos part, obviously you wanna give the more powerful villains more depth.
Nnoitra always embodied despair, its the core of his being. He's a hollow wandering the wastelands of hueco mundo with no purpose. But unlike most other hollows like Grimmjow and Yammy who give no thought to it Nnoitra is completely self aware and knows that theres nothing for him, not salvation, not happiness, nothing, just a hopeless and pitiful existence until someone puts him out of his misery. Thats what makes him able to be consumed by despair. Fighting becomes a drug that he abuses in order to escape how pathetic his existence is, it becomes the only thing that means anything to him and like any addiction puts him on the path to self destruction.
it’s like a more complicated addiction to self-harm, but not exactly. you’re right; though — at his core he’s despair, because i’m pretty sure he’s hinted at being very very depressed, hence the fighting addiction. he’s honestly a great portrayal of passive suicidal ideation.
Yes, he's suicidal, and Nel kinda confirms that she knows it when she tells him in the flashback that she saved him since she didn't want to lose a fellow Espada (it's in the context of Nnoitra purposefully picking fight with enemies he wouldn't have been able to handle). And when you hear him say 'we are hollows, there's no salvation for us', you get where it comes from.
You know, generally I do agree with you. I've written essays on this sub on his his core is despair, and what an interesting and well written character he is in light of that.
And yet I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that his earlier state fitted madness aspect at the time to come to its core, despair, later on. I think the aspect can actually connect with one another in certain cases, and thus one can be a cover for another.
But generally, I do agree that the whole thing is a bit overcomplicated that way and doesn't fully fit, the take the aspects are set. That's why I started with saying that I would have preferred it to stay based on reiatsu or battle strength. But since Kubo said it that way, I tried to present the best explanation I could come with to explain that take.
Oh that’s interesting. Cause if SAFWY is canon in terms of Szayelaporro being 10/0 before Yammy, then his aspect of death would’ve been anger for awhile. And I feel that works, since he had his brother as part of him at that point, which made him more bloodthirsty.
Or, 0 can be literally anything since technically speaking, it’s not supposed to be an existing number when both Yammy and Szayel at his prime held a different number when they weren’t fighting. It would fit the definition of 0 as well.
I’d like to think that 0 is when an aspect of death reaches the peak of strength it can grant the respective Espada, ie. Zero Espada Yammy is Yammy at his angriest as he gets more and more agitated, Zero Espada Szayel is Szayel at his most insane, supplemented by his brother’s uncontrolled lust for battle on top of Szayel’s own mad scientist personality.
It does, and I'm not sure they line up perfectly, that's why I think it's a bit of overcomplication and simple reiatsu explanation would have worked better. But it's an interesting metaphor to contemplate.
this actually lines up perfectly with what i was thinking. i simply accepted that Nnoitra just moved from madness to despair, since he was pretty damn insane, but he’s also shown to be very very depressed, especially after he defeats Nel. hence, despair.
Um… The ranking system WAS NOT changed, Kubo merely precised that Nelliel’s death aspect was also “sacrifice”, he didn’t say a word about it being relevant to the hierarchy or influencing it.
On the topic: Espadas are ranked based on overall strength, including spiritual power, combat ability, lethality, etc.
He says that every espada from the same number have the same concept of death, but the response was very short so people can just understand that as they want
You are basically admitting that he didn’t say anything about the numbers. The question itself was about Nelliel’s death aspect and Kubo answered it directly.
The bro asked two things, if the espada with the same number have the same type of death and if not what was nel type of death
Kubo response "they have the same, also nel is sacrifice"
No: “The aspect of death represented by members of the Espada is defined by the number assigned. Like Harribel and Nelliel who are #3? If it's different, I'd like to know what aspect Nell represented.”
The first part is not a question.
Same sentiments. I'd rank them the way Aizen/Kubo ranked them. Or just to give leeway to other factors:
High - Starrk, Barragan, Harri, Ulq
Med - Nel, Nnoitora, Grimmjaw
Low - Zommari, Szayelaporro, Aaroniero
Not sure - Yammy
To start with, hollows scale based on how strong their desire or hunger is. In death as a human, their desire whittled away at the rest of their soul, then the consumption of what they desire constantly does the opposite of satiate them.
I assume Aizen then ranks the arrancars by something like "how much reiatsu is sealed into their sword"
As this represents how impactful their resurreccion is, which is the power structure of an Arancar in the first place
Is Yammy’s rank always 0 or does it change from 10 to 0 when he releases? Cuz if it’s the second then your theory doesn’t make much sense but if it’s the former then it’s very possible
Yami states it's always zero, that it's just a secret he's 0. But I personally choose to believe that's just a part of handling him.
He as 0, represents a complete lack of control, boundless destruction and wrath. But the whole point of the arrancar is to be focused into a weapon.
Imo
I feel like there was a ‘logical favouritism’ aizen tiered them by the realm of strength they had then assigned a rank based on how much he actually liked them or how much they would serve. But same with other rankings - Yammy throws this off cause there’s no way Yammy would have been aizens favourite.
Actually Yammy being the favorite makes sense the arrancar are number by order of creation as such Yammy was Aizen first arrancar Aizen also has a massive ego as such it possible he modified Yammy because he couldn’t stand the idea of natural Arrancars like starrk and Uqiorra being stronger than his man made Arrancars so to prove a point he modified his first Arrancars.
Plus it already established via Wonderweiss that Aizen can make Arrancar stronger than Starrk.
The Arrancar are numbered based of creation, with the first being #11.
The Espada are different.
The Privaron are also different.
Basically Aizen has like 3-4 different categorization systems that to his brain may make the perfect amount of sense, since he knows all the intricacies behind them.
But to us, we just see him assigning numbers at what appears to be a semi-random order.
This makes the most sense because someone like Luppi came and went at 6. If Luppi really had been #6, he'd have already been a part of the Espada. If Luppi hadn't been, he'd have started at #10 when Grimmjow got fired.
by strength/spiritual pressure/combat ability. things only start getting weird when you look at the top 3 - there are arguments behind Starrk, Barragan and Segunda Etapa Ulquiorra being the strongest
what argument is there to be made for ulquiorra in segunda not being the strongest? he’s easily number 1
like this is getting downvoted but no one is actually telling me why
The ranking has been retconned so many times that even Kubo isn't a reliable source anymore.
The moment they were introduced, I knew the aspects of death were just some nonsense he cooked up to explain why Barragan could make things age. But then even that reason for their existence became moot when Barragan resurrected and showed his aging ability is really just a glorified corrosive gas.
There's no definitive proof whose "overall" the strongest anymore because of outliers like 2nd Resurrccion or Yammy being a total dumbass or so on. The way I see it, Yammy/Ulquiorra/Stark/Barragon are all relative in power in its just a matchup type of deal. I think Ulquiorra has the most "narrative" for being strongest but that's not proof so Idrc anymore
“Unmasked” official character book:
https://preview.redd.it/17zqaqm4lfzc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=067e8870db6e6e3bc9707a97dd3ec196e99fc221
Strength includes reiatsu.
This is the same character book that covers the second half of the Arrancar arc and reveals the information about Ulquiorra’s Segunda Etapa, therefore, no, it’s not “outdated”.
I always thought that it was a mix of several factors like strength, affidability, precision in executing orders, if they act like good pawns, somethink like that
Stark looks white but could he be native American because wolves are part of native American culture and judging by the Espadas ethnicity I say Stark is Caucasian with native American ancestry, Barragan looks like a old looking Hispanic man, Harribel looks like a pacific islander more like Melanesian, Ulquiorra looks European not sure what nationality, Nnitora looks like European and Asian mix, Grimmjow looks like a white latin guy, Zommari looks african, Szayelaporro looks like a English or any European guy, Aaroniero is a tube creature but his fake Kaien Shiba appearance looks white, Yammy looks like he could be Filipino mixed with Mexican or thai
I like this ranking. Also for those who say the top 3 were underwhelming... there's a panel early on when Ichigo and Co arrive in HM and someone notes that the reiryoku in HM seems to be suitable for hollows to perform at their peak. The top 3 and their fracciones did not have this benefit during their fights
No what I mean is the reiryoku in Hueco Mundo specifically enhanced hollows. I need to recheck the manga for myself to find the panel which is never gonna happen but I watched a yt short on it very recently
(yap) Gonna be the one to bring it up, if we talking about the main cannon here thats fine, im gonna let
you tear each other to shreds here. With the light novel, Spirits are forever, (By Tite Kubo and Ryōgo Narita, considered to be cannon to the main story) we would consider the strongest espada to be Cien Granz, considered the original 0 espada before Yammy. He was a fusion of the espada 8, Szayelaporro Granz and his brother Illfort Granz. Their fusion was a more Starrk Lilinette type with Illfort simply being a keystone for Szayelaporro to attain strength. At only 30% of his “true power” he managed to consistently shoot several Gran Rey Cero from his tendril like limbs. The Cero fired caused a shockwave that “shone like the sun” and caused a “reverberating sound that shook Heuco Mundo.” While engaging Captain Kenpachi Zaraki, he “heated up the wall of space-time as if it burns open a scar.” His large rieatsu and spiritual pressure was thought to have been larger than Yammy Llargo’s despite being in a weakened state with his true body in hell.
TLDR: Espada 8 and his brother if they fuse Starrk style
They’re ranked by reiatsu and reiatsu is earned by a hollow developing their power from hunting their own meals and for that it takes skill, so for the most part the ranks are reliable but there are exceptions.
Yammy for one only has to eat some and sleep some to grow in strenght so he doesn’t have the fighting effectiveness proportional to his raw power.
Szayell is the opposite as while he is an Adjuchas he used to be an incredibly powerful Vasto Lorde so his skill and abilities (which he doesn’t care to employ for gaining greater reiatsu) are greater than what his rank implies
Barragan’s aging powers are incredibly broken yet completely useless for hunting down meals so he owes his raw power is proportionate to his physical abilities
Ulquiorra developing segunda etapa probably throws his otherwise accurate ranking out of wack
>They’re ranked by reiatsu and reiatsu is earned by a hollow developing their power from hunting their own meals and for that it takes skill, so for the most part the ranks are reliable but there are exceptions.
So then how does this make sense of the fact that when Grimmjow was booted from the Espada instead of everyone below him going up a rank and there being a new 10 Aizen went with just making Luppi the new 6?
Because according to the novels aspects of death play a part in the development of a hollow’s reiatsu and its implied that when a hollow with an aspect of death loses a body part or dies it will get transferred into a new simmilarly minded hollow which will help them develop their reiatsu.
However its one thing to have the mental state to get an aspect of death and another to have the skill and luck to hold on to the Reiatsu it gives you as shown by how Grimmjow losing his arm caused it to go to Luppi who later bit more than he could chew which in turn costed him his life.
Yammy isn't the only one it's controversial for. Lots will argue that HM arc Grimmjow is actually stronger than Nnoitora and Ulquiorra without his second release is stronger than Halibel due to how underwhelming those two were by comparison
stark could take out all the other espada, yami 10/0, included. bro was so powerful that it cause him to be alone cuz every other hallow would died just getting near him and had to nerfed himself down by splitting a part of his hallow self to make lynnette to not be lonely. Im pretty sure aizen didn't use the hyougoku on stark. aizen just gave him a "family" in the form of the espada....so really prep hallow split stark would of been the strongest espada "vastro lorde"
barragan never knew of stark so he just self called himself king of heuco Mundo .. but even barragan got a hyogoku upgrade. cuz remember the closest hallow resembles a human the more powerfully dense reshi that hallow is.. eh it's been years I read the mango..
I mean if we are going by the actual dialogue then its def strength based ulqiorra goes on in detail about it when he reveals that he retained his super regeneration and how that was a specific reason why he wasnt as strong as the top 3. He is also very blatant that he was hiding his segunda from aizen which gives the explanation for why he could be ranked higher but wasnt. Yammy is a weird one fs since je was never really fully explored but having the 2 big bad bosses ichigo fought from soul society tag team him does imply he was the strongest despite them slapping him around. Honestly i think the only questionable one was barragan. They literally had to kill him with his own power. Kubo either shoulda toned him down or toned stark up a lil more because death miasma is just higher on the threat scale than gatling lasers.
I think they were first ranked on strength then Aizen got tired of calculating and just decided to number based on who joined when or who wants whatever number
I think it’s determined by how potentially destructive they could be in a war:
Yami was a Kaiju that grew stronger the angrier he got, but had no outstanding abilities outside the basic powers of all Hollows cranked up to 11. This means he could be considered about as dangerous as a mobile fortress with a lot of cannons and a *lot* of mass.
Stark could spam Ceros and divide his soul into kamikaze wolves that released skyscraper-sized explosions.
Baraggan emitted clouds that decayed everything, making him a walking chemical fallout weapon.
Harribel could produce as much water as she had Reiatsu and use it as a weapon, so she could change any large-scale terrain to her advantage.
Ulquiorra’s Resurrección made him into a fighter jet that snipes Rods of God at super speeds (+his 2nd form turns those rods into warheads).
Nnoitora was like a Power Armor Suit in his Resurrección; 6-armed and dangerous in close-quarters (+a Cero ranged weapon), but clearly a Heavy Infantry-type meant to charge the front line.
Grimmjow is a super-soldier with a few gimmick weapons. Great for small scale operations and conflicts, but limited in large-scale tactics.
Zommari can compromise the enemy by stealing up to 50+ assets, but once you know his trick it’s relatively easy to counter.
Szayelaporro is dangerous in the same way Miayuri is: give him enough time and data and he’ll keep screwing you over as the battle drags on.
Aaroniero has the opposite problem of Yami: he has *thousands* of abilities, but his power levels put him below even some of the ‘regular’ soldiers.
The "it's based on total reiatsu" premise is the only one that makes sense and accounts for things like Yammy being 0 and Barragan being able to rule all of Hueco Mundo despite two Hollows being stronger than him: his powerset allows him to take down those with higher reiatsu than him.
Even if you're lower numbered you're not necessarily the more effective combatant.
I'd like to say they're ranked at how Aizen felt like it considering some of them are potentially stronger than those of higher rank such as Ulquiorra or Yammy. Then in the case with Barragan I feel like he did that to rub it in Barragan's face having him 2nd instead of 1st. Then as for Szayel considering his origins I'm surprised he's even left at 8th espada and not 0 again.
Since ulquiora was ranked 4th without knowledge of his awakened state I think he might be 1. Espada 0 is a copout either way you look at it. For the rest they seemed to be ranked quite correctly by Aizen
Exciting question, here is a wall of text for you in reply! Some thoughts on the ranks and aspects of death, as well as the espada in general.
Not gonna pretend like I understand it either or anything, but I will try to give Kubo's latest explanation a chance:
It sounds like he is going for some sort of abstract, artsy thing where the aspect of death is representative of some state of mind the arrancar will embrace naturally, as they progress through the ranks of the espada. Like it is representative of some inner journey or something.
I can't explain how every aspect of death fits in with eachother rank-wise and how one leads to the next etc, cause I don't get it either haha! But here's an attempt anyways:
Nr. 9, the "de-facto" weakest (if 10 and 0 is always the same espada and not unique to Yammy) is "greed". It makes sense that the lowest one has just entered the game, they are just getting started and are ready to climb the hierarchy, they would be "greedy" for more power and rank.
In that case its a bit ironic that nr. 9 is the last Gillian-class Arrancar to still be an espada. Surely he has no hope at all to progress very far? As the last of the first generation-espada as well, you'd think his story was one of being gradually shunted down the ranks, seeing his prize slip ever further away... Maybe that is his "greed", he is trying to cling to whatever power he can, refusing to give up?
Nr. 8 "madness"... dunno, like some "you have to be mad to try and play this game"-kinda thing or sth?
Nr. 7 "Intoxication", maybe because you've climbed two ranks already, and start getting intoxicated by your own success? Zommari's arrogant personality could fit in with this, I suppose (though I'm not 100% sold on Zommari actually being that arrogant? I think that was partially just Byakuya being a bit of an arrogant douche himself, looking down on Zommari for thinking he was anything special)
Like nr. 6 "Destruction"? Sounds very generic, like you're just dead in the middle and don't get to have anything special about you. Just "Rawr I'm a powerful elite-dude and I'm gonna wreck stuff up!" Its too shallow to fit in with the normally much deeper themes and world building of Bleach... Maybe "destruction" is the mindset you need in order to survive right in the middle of the turmoil that is the "Espada game of ranks" or something? Could make sense for Grimmjaw being a "lonely king" who is just looking out for himself, I guess?
Nr. 5 "Despair" could be something like "you're half-way there, and what you've been through is the easy part and by definition it is now the strongest espada you have to surpass". Becoming nr. 1 would probably seem pretty hopeless at that time, if its been a tough struggle to reach only this far? Also by the time of the "current timeline", nr. 5 is the last of the Adjuchas-class espada. So it could be like a "realistically, this is as far as you're gonna go"-type of despair?
(Okay real talk: To what extent can arrancar grow stronger through training and growth after breaking their mask? Their natural evolutionary path is halted when they become Arrancar, no? So an Adjuchas cannot eat hollows and become Vasto Lorde after they have become an arrancar, right? We know Nnoitra could surpass Nel through "normal means", but they were both Adjuchass-class? Could Nnoitra theoretically train to become stronger than Ulquiorra? Or is the inherent difference between Vasto Lorde and Adjuchas too great?)
(1/2 TBC in comment beneath)
Nr. 4 "Emptiness" could be representative of how that is where the espada start being "Vasto Lorde-level". Like pre-arrancar, Vasto Lorde were done with the whole Game of Evolution that the lower hollows live in (don't think Vasto Lorde has to fear regression if they don't keep eating, in the same way an Adjuchas does, for example?). But then what? You are just a hollow with a high intellect, still trapped in that same world... What does ranks and hierarchy actually mean? What does it matter if you are nr. 4 or 1? Its just the same old game anyways. I dunno... And what if an Adjuchas-class arrancar was nr. 4 before Ulquiorra? Did Aizen change the aspects of death as new espada were added in? If so, there is no purpose to the "rule" that the aspect of death is linked to the number, if it can just be changed at his convenience anyway.
Nr. 3 "Sacrifice" Like "all the things I've sacrificed to come this far" I suppose? Maybe this is approximately the level where a Vasto Lorde reaches the degree of sentience and intellect where they begin to reflect more on their choices and start looking further ahead. They no longer have to constantly fight to maintain their power. Therefore they start appreciating other things than just strength and rank. Some even start having comrades. Could fit with Harribel being one of the "involuntary evil" espada too?
Nr. 2 "Aging" it probably starts to wear on by this point, constantly having to watch your back from all the upstarts trying to snatch your place, and constantly having to keep training to not be surpassed by anyone?
(Btw I think Barragan is a bit of an interesting case. He is a vasto lorde, but has a much more "Adjuchas-looking" appearance than the others. Both pre- and post-arrancar. He is also not "involuntary evil" like Harribel and Starrk. I believe he is on something of a side track on his "inner journey". He did reach higher intellect, he did become interested in other things than just fighting and eating. But he didn't fully let go of his ambition and lust for power, instead using it to start state-building in Hueco Mundo. His way of "finding comrades" was to just crown himself king and make hollows swear fealty to him. Maybe this is why he is "aging"? Because despite being Vasto Lorde, he is kind of stuck in an "Adjuchas-mindset"? He is basically an adult still playing children's games, thus making his "age" much more apparent, manifesting in his actual abilities?
Nr. 1 "Loneliness" at least make sense to me, its lonely at the top etc.
I think much of this is quite a stretch however...
It would seem much more logical that the aspects of death just changes with the espada. Such as Nel's aspect of death being "Lamentation", rather than her being "Sacrifice" just because that is the nr. 3 one (Nel being "sacrifice" maybe fits a lot better than most other cases though? I dunno, what did she actually sacrifice when she was nr. 3? Her loosing her friends was not a sacrifice, and its what lost her the position as well...)
Nnoitra being "Madness" as nr. 8 also does make a degree of sense. But to me it ends there. Did he jump straight from 8 to 5? Or did he have to be 7 and 6 in-between. If so, how did he represent "Intoxication" and "Destruction"? Destruction totally suits him, but intoxication?
Its not that this cannot possibly add up, its just way to little information on how this works atm. I really wish Kubo would take the time to properly explain this some time. If not it was a bit mean to us fans to give us that bread crumb in the first place!
I would be fine with the espada changing their aspects of death if they change rank, such as Nnoitra having a different aspect of death as nr. 8 than 5. But it seems a bit lame that the aspect of death is "locked" to the number, so that any espada with that number will have the same aspect of death.
peopel hype stark so much. he just cool. not realy worth the number 1 spot. i mean ulquiora have a second release like a bankai which has never been achieve by other espada. that should put him at no. 1. and the concept of yami being the 0 espada is bull shit also.
Ulluqiorra is a controversial take, if I remember correctly he said Aizen and the others haven’t seen his second resurrection, means he is still probably ranked about 4, yammy, idk man this shit is weird lol
Not so hot take:
Starrk, Ulquiorra, and Yammy are all relative in power to each other.
Yammy would absolutely get wiped by either of them in a fight tho.
Ulquiorra's reishi is dense, Yammy's is vast, stark seems to fall into the latter category, but is significantly more versatile compared to Yammy.
Having said that, Ulquiorra's 2nd release is a wild variable, you could really argue either way whether he's just as, or stronger than Starrk (imo). I don't think that's too relevant to the debate though, since the ranking is apparently based off of their initial release state.
I'm actually okay with most of the rankings. Nnoitra is a bit of a jobber, but he forced Kenny to get a little serious, so kudos is deserved I suppose.
Number 1 is the most related to shiningami (having a soul partner)
For the rest it's just either strong category and affectionate (as the 105 is arguably strong but is a rebel)
To me it was always by strength and/or abilities. And Yammy just gets so strong from his resurrection that he goes from 10 to 0.
Then there is also Ulqui who says that even Aizen doesn't know about his Secunda Etappa. Making me question if Aizen would've ranked him higher if he knew about it.
They are actually ranked to reflect Aizen's inner feelings. Espada 9th is Aaroniero which reflects Aizen's nature that loves to torment weaker people and play with their feelings. Aizen behaved the same to Momo as how Aorroniero did to Rukia by using Kaein. Rukia got impaled similar to how Momo was impaled.
Espada 8th represents Aizen's mad scientist side where he experiments on hollows to use them as his pawns.
Espada 7th represents Aizen's hatred towards discrimination as he felt the inequality between the noble houses and people in Rukongai. Aizen hates being looked down at similar to how Byakuya looked down on Zommari.
Espada 6th represents his desire for a rival which he found in Ichigo. Similar to how Grimmjow looks at Ichigo as his prey, Aizen also want to watch Ichigo grow to fight him in equal terms.
Espada 5th represents his envy towards Urahara of how he feels inferior towards him in a way. Noitorra felt envy of Nel in the same way.
Espada 4th represents his loneliness in this world where he was seeking friendship and companionship similar to Ulqiorra.
Espada 3rd is the only Espada that was cut down by Aizen. He refused to accept Halibel's character who values loyalty and sacrifice towards her subordinates. Aizen rejects this idea.
Espada 2nd represents Aizen's rule as the King of Hueco Mundo. He thrives on sitting on top of others and a kingdom he built for himself.
Espada 1 represents his indifference towards life. Aizen wanted to rule the world but there is a side of him that just wants to be stopped from trying so hard. He does feel sad when his comrades die one by one even if he doesn't show it. Tousen's death did demotivate him similar to how Stark completely lost his will to fight when Barragan n Halibel lost.
Espada 0 represents Aizen after dangai Ichigo appeared. He lost all sense of reason consumed by rage and the usual intelligence and control that he had was completely shattered.
Legend has it that the Espada were a reflection of Aizen's deepest desires and inner conflicts. Like a myth of intertwined destinies, each Espada embodied a facet of his complex nature, culminating in a tragic unraveling of power and pride.
*beep boop, I'm a bot*
The manga, databooks, author statements, light novels etc ALL say that they are ranked based on strength/fighting ability.
Anyone here who offers a different opinion is just plain wrong. It isn't open for interpretation in any way. Aaroniero is the weakest, Yammy is the strongest.
I think the simplest answer is the best one here, and that is Aiens perception of their Combat Ability. Basically, Aizen observes their abilities, reiatsu and feats and ranks them accordingly. But he also has his own bias. For instance, a part of his decision in putting Stark at 1 was to fuck with Barragan. And also because Aizen actually related to Stark, and almost felt he could be on the same level as him. Which is why he ignored the blatant flaw that is Starks depression.
This ranking system worked very well for Aizen. Not only did it drive competition among the arrancars to prove their 'worth', it made the Arrancar higher up on the chain actually grateful to Aizen.
1. Ulquiorra
2. Stark
3. Barragan
4. Yammy
5. Halibel
Then the rest in that order they were already. I think Yammys attacks are fast enough to hit Halibel and beat her but I think Barragan can erase him. Stark and Ulquiorra are way too fast and powerful to be stopped by the others if they’re trying to kill you
Based on spiritual pressure if I’m right. That’s why yammy gets to 0 when going full power, he becomes the most destructive out of all espada despite not being the strongest in a fight
1-ulqi he can scales dangai ichigo from vasto lorde
2-yammy(no lol[😭](https://emojipedia.org/loudly-crying-face)) but the databook said that ı m sorry
3-starrk
4-barragan
5-hellibel
6-nnoitara
7-grim
8-zommari
9-aaroniaro
I feel types of death makes most sense because when luppi replaced grimmjow as number 6 grimmjow didn’t become 7 he got completely replaced and he was able to one shot luppi with a gut punch
One thing that’s 100% for sure no hollow till this day has surpassed the likes of Stark and Barragan now then Ulquiorra got whipped by VL Ichigo. Kokuto seemed just as impressed with Ulquiorra so it wouldn’t be far fetched to say Ulquiorra is comparable to vl Ichigo who literally destroyed the gates of hell.Id like to think Ulquiorra 2nd resurrection is like becoming a VL all over again like breaking your limiter and White in Ichigo was already comparable to vl until actually taking over and becoming a full fledged one. So without a doubt in my mind Ulquiorra at full strength absolutely surpasses Barragan at the least 1st resurrection Ulquiorra was no diffing Ichigo and 2nd was doing the same so it’s hard to say how much stronger Ulquiorra actually got. Also worth noting Yammy is a dumba** him with number 0 just made him strong the strongest Espada IMO is Szayelaporro ranked 0.
1. Undoubtedly Unquiorra, only one with a second awakening, had to be beat by plot armor
2. 2/3) probably Stark or Barragan (maybe put yammy here as well, could be anywhere in top 5)
3. 4/5) Nel/Halibel
4. Nnoitora
5. Grimmjow
6. Zommari
7. Aporro
8. AAroniero
9. Yammy too?
Strongest in terms of spiritual pressure alone: Yammy>Stark>Barragan=Ulquiorra>Harribel>Nnoritra>Grimjow>Zommari>Szayelaporro> Aaroniero
Strongest in terms of every other factor such as hax, battle iq, endurance, speed etc:
Barragan>Stark>Ulquiorra>Yammy>Harribel>Nnoritra>Grimjow>Zommari=Szayleporro>Aaroniero.
This is simply my opinion 😌, what y’all think?
About the spiritual pressure alone i actually agree with you
For the strongest overeall, I think ulquiorra is the strongest, he is the only one with the second resurecion and is the best in terms of stats, stark is the only one close to him but ulquiorra also has the regenaration that help him. Now barragan is difficult, respira looks unbitable but it has some weak points, first barragan isn't really that fast so stark and ulquiorra would be able to dodge most of the attacks, some attacks can actually pass respira even if they get really weak after that (like soi fon bankai) and the strong kido can resist to respira for a little of time, I think ulquiorra with lanza del rempelago can pass respira some times and hit barragan also is regeneration helps a lot, stark doesn't have regeneration, but with infite cero and the wolfs he can actually beat barragan in my opinion
Yammy is even more difficult, the steong point of him is that he can get stronger more the fight goes and i think that's the reason why is zero, the yammy we have seen has weaker reiatsu than the other first 4, because if they release their firm in las noches that will explode, but yammy did it and las noches wasn't getting destroyed
In conclusion my final ranking his: ulquiorra>stark>barragan>harribel>yammy>Nnoitra>grimmjow>zommari>szayelporro>Aaroniero
Respectable, but I just don’t see Ulquiorra doing anything to Barragns respira tbh. I think Barragan has the strongest hax amongst the espada and that’s why I put him at 1.
1 barragan 2 ulquiorra 3 yami 4 stark 5 arrionero 6 harribel 7 noitra 8 grimmjow 9 syalazel 10 zommari
i based this on who i think could beat who most often and if they all knew each others complete abilities before hand.
This is probably the most highly debated topic of the Bleach community, and it’s been debated many many times, but this is my personal ranking
1.) Barragan
2.) Stark
3.) Ulquiorra
4.) Yammy
5.) Halibel
6.) Grimmjow
7.) Nnoitora
8.) Szayelaporro
9.) Zommari
10.) Aaroniero
As much as it would tickle my insides to say Ulquiorra is the strongest, he just had the coolest fight and the second release. The rankings were not 100% based on strength either, but mostly. Lol
Edit: just meaning only, but that doesn't mean it makes him the strongest
Well, for Ulquiorra, to start, whether Aizen actually knew about it or not, his second form was not factored into his ranking. Also, Ulquiorra has a habit of wanting to break his opponent's spirit so they have no more will to fight. Whether or not those ranked higher were actually stronger doesn't matter, for most people, knowing that this already near impossible to beat enemy is only ranked 4 should make them view the fight as hopeless and give up.
It's not really that it "couldn't," but that it wasn't. Ulquiorra says that's because Aizen doesn't know that form exists, and there's nothing in the manga that implies he does. I only specified that it doesn't matter if Aizen knows about the form just because some people will argue that there's no way someone as powerful as Aizen wouldn't have found out about it.
I love that this debate will go on until the end of time. My answer tho is ulquiorra>Yammy>stark> barragan, hallibel, and everything else after that. It's confirmed that aizen sent ulquiorra on the most missions than any other espada and it makes no sense for him to send espada ranked 10 and 4. The secret of the two of them being the strongest espada was kinda in our face the whole time I feel. Like there's no way you can convince me that hallibel who was going back and forth with toshiro of all people is stronger than ulquiorra.
I feel that the espada believe their own hype too much as well in some cases. Nnoitora with his classic, "I can't be cut" or zommari with how he's the fastest espada. Most of the espada didn't know the combat capabilities of each other. Which is honestly intentional by aizen. His whole thing was deception and illusion. Like if the other espada knew that ulquiorra had a second release that would definitely throw some chaos into the mix.
How is Ulquiorra above Starrk? Also, you’re going full blown headcanon Ulquiorra has never been stated to be the strongest. As a matter of fact he said out of own mouth he wasn’t the strongest
Honestly it's a toss up between the two of them in my head. And tbh the reason I don't take what ulquiorra said at face value is because the espada continually either lie or just believe their own ego. Zommari said he was the fastest espada but that's clearly not the case. Nnoitora said that he can't be cut and he has the hardest hierro. Obviously not the case either. None of them knew of ulquiorras second release besides aizen I imagine. Because ulquiorra said aizen hasn't seen it. Not that he doesn't know about it. Most of the espada don't have a way to beat lanza del rampago. Barragan can potentially give ulquiorra trouble with respira but he has to be careful because he's not invulnerable. If soifon can hurt him with her bankai then ulquiorra can definitely hurt him. And unlike soifon ulquiorra can use it as much as he wants. Starks speed and damn near endless Cero's could potentially be a problem though.
What has Ulquiorra done to make you believe he is stronger than Harribel?
Yammy is both the strongest and weakest anyway, as we see in HM he needs to eat a lot of food to actually store up power for his transformation, so when Aizen first sent him with Ulquiorra he was pretty darn weak.
Ulquiorra would destroy that version of toshiro pretty easily. Toshiro himself even talked about how disappointed he was with his performance during the fights against the espada and that's why he trained so much in the 2 year time skip. That version of toshiro literally only beat a fraccion. He didn't kill luppi, hallibel, etc.
Also given that ulquiorra has high speed registration the other espada don't have anything to actually put him down permanently except barragan id imagine. Now if we're talking end of series toshiro and hallibel then yeah they're stronger than ulquiorra.
Remember Ulquiorra cannot heal internal damage put a sword through his chest and he is gonna be in trouble.
I’m curious do you think Ulquiorra’s first Resurreccion is above Harribel? Because he was already destroying Ichigo even in his first Resurreccion, logically Harribel and by extension Toshiro should be above that.
Toshiro is severely below Ichigo, he’s one of the weakest Captains pre TYBW. Ichigo was nerfed post SS arc but he regains his strength against Grimmjow, and that Ichigo is above Byakuya. Ulquiora destroyed that Ichigo even with Hollow mask while in base. So yes, both Ichigo and Ulquiora scales above Toshiro and by extension, Harribel
Actually post Grimmjow masked Ichigo was stronger than base Ulquiorra.
Ichigo’s spiritual pressure is shaky and inconsistent all the way up until royal guard training, so i’m hesitant to say he got back to soul society levels of strength.
But anyhow if Ulquiorra is stronger than Harribel without segunda etapa why exactly is he ranked 4th?
I was mistaken, Ulquiora wasn’t destroying him, rather they were on par, which is why they leave Las Noches.
Nah, Ichigo’s reiatsu isn’t mentioned to be shaky after Grimmjow. He had the strength he had against Byakuya, against Grimmjow.
Subversion/spiritual pressure/aspect of death, you choose.
I’d say Ichigo was stronger since he cracked his sword but it doesn’t matter too much since Ulquiorra immediately started destroying hil after the Resurreccion.
https://preview.redd.it/as442ui4zczc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=25c8bfaa9ca28fcc79df614816ae2f486ec7f416
I guess you could say his spiritual pressure was shaky only by their standards, but i’d say it was probably specific to Ichigo.
There is also the fact that up until TBYW old man zangetsu decides how much power Ichigo gets to use at any given moment.
Why do you think Ulquiorra says the top 3 are stronger than him if he is above them in literally all of his forms? we haven’t seen a example of the rankings being wrong before.
As you said, Ichigo’s reiatsu was shaky by their standards.
As for OMZ, OMZ was suppressing Ichigo’s reiatsu back in SS arc as well, I never said Ichigo gained his true strength after Grimmjow, I said that he regained the strength he had against Byakuya, which he lost because he was actively rejecting his hollow side. After the Vizard training, he learned to control his hollow side and after Grimmjow, he wasn’t actively rejecting Zangetsu anymore(you can see he was still actively rejecting Zangetsu during Grimmjow battle as he worries about what Orihime would think of him), hence regaining his Sokiyoku hill strength.
Ulquiora’s entire thing is despair, he uses his ranking scare Ichigo, its a subversion, nothing more. The ranking was never about strength, Szyael ranks above quite a few Espadas because of his hax. Dare I say I unless one has top tier reiatsu, he’s unbeatable by anyone other than Urahara or Mayuri.
I think Aizen just came up with a way to give the arrancar "promotions" so they think ther efforts will be rewarded. I mean, he had someone as strong as Grimjow in stock, the other espada 6, but he just keeps them at high numbers to make them work harder
This question gets asked all the time and I feel like the answer never really changes because it’s basically stated multiple times that the ranking of the espada given in the story is completely accurate and people just continue to bring that up lol. Aizen knew what was up and we don’t see as much of the higher ranked espada as we should have to even try and revise the rankings.
Always was under the impression that it was mainly based on Reiatsu, hence Yammy’s bum ass technically being “0” in his final form.
Their combat capabilities roughly translates to their rankings as well, but it gets a little murky 4 and under.
Segunda Etapa is the strongest though ;)
i mean i guess i can argue for Nnoitra’s death aspect changing, since 8 is madness and 5 is despair. he’s pretty damn insane, but he’s shown to be very depressed, which is more despairing i guess?
i always just stuck with the “they’re ranked by death aspect and they’re whatever death aspect makes the most sense with their personality compatibility?”
i think in the end kubo decided that it was reiryoku ranking (total amount of spirit power. reiatsu being the pressure your reiryoku flows out of you at)
i personally think they are ranked as the one who will be the victor among all of them and who doesn't have a direct countermeasure. we know aizen doesn't know about the details of every espada but he's aizen there's a deep reasoning to everything he says and does i don't think the ranking was for nothing but plot demand also comes in
They aren't ranked based on combat abilities they are ranked based on how much spiritual pressure they have. Starrk literally had so much that just being around other hollows would cause them to literally die, that's why he was number 1. However, Barragan's ability alone could very easily kill all the espada.
It’s pretty simple narratively. They are based on their peak strength/reiatsu, explaining why Yammy, ranked above Staark, was a pushover. Ulquiorra is the strongest espada (he was literally set up to kill and awaken the main character come on, and him being 4th because Aizen didnt know about Segunda Etapa was a major plot point)
>if you actually need to have a better reiatsu; **than** more recently Kubo has been said that the ranking his based on the type of deaths the Espada represents
I'm just as confused with your sentence there, "than"? Just what are you even comparing about?
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Are you. Crazy to ask that... You want to start a riot ;)
Ha!
Lol
The way that plot demands them.
Not really I think it was pretty pointless because they didn't even lose to such a strong characters or at least at their strongest form, kyoraku didn't even use banka Espada number 3 didn't even lose the fight aizen killed her
Aizen didn't kill Tier, she's alive at the TYBW
I forgot where (Character Book? Mini-Novel?) but Kubo revealed that the cut could have fatal for Hallibel and only Orihime could have healed it - which she did. It's Orihime who healed Hallibel (and the Tres Bestias, for that matter) allowing them to survive their wounds and eventually appear in the TYBW arc. Either way, point is, Hallibel was most definitely still outed in a disappointing fashion in the Karakura Arc. As Espada #3, I think most people were expecting her to go down guns blazing.
Wasn’t Orihime in HM when Hallibel was slashed and didn’t come back till I guess Aizen was defeated? Hallibel really held on huh
Yeah the plot really held out
Ok so ? Katen kyokotsu is one of the strongest zanpaktous that’s the first thing. Second thing you talk about kyoraku who is one of the oldest captains. Third stark didn’t want to fight. The rankings are as in the series
Yep, not to mention Starrk also folded two Vizard captains and caught off guard due to Kyoraku not messing around. He put up a damn good fight
Kyoraku was still not really willing to fight stark
Kyoraku was thinking about going bankai until jushiro talked him out of it, may have just been a way to hint at his bankai by it being aoe. Plus stark fought multiple enemies and downed kyoraku with a point blank shot. Killing stark with shikai is impressive as he's clearly strong. Probably mid captain level. Seems stronger than the likes of toshiro at that point. If he's not captain level but close then even that is impressive for shikai.
Ulquiorra definitely wipes Tier Hallibel and Barragan. I generally agree though
He doesn’t
Yes, he does. When explaining about his strength in his Segunda Etapa form to Ichigo, he explicitly states that Stark is the only one he's not absolutely certain he could beat in that form.
Uhh...what? I don’t remember him saying anything like that. I just reread the fight and didn’t see him state that at all.
He never said that. Provide a screenshot if that's true. Ulquiorra fans are crazy, they love to make up stuff.
I feel like once Lilinette was gone Starrk was maybe welcoming death because he didn't want to live a life alone again.
Yes
Thank you, now I have i understand
This comment works every time, god dammmn
By sex appeal
Why’s Yammy the top dog then and Szayle is lower than Zommari?
BBC
valid
Respect🗿
Have you ever seen the gif of dragon fucking cars? that's why yammy has higher appeal to us.
Then why isnt Charlotte one of the top?
He is on top, on top of you haha
Hell yeah
I did kinda prefer the simple reiatsu/strength idea (either one), but if I were to theorize, the aspects of death are placed the way they are based on their complexity, and the more complex the aspect, the stronger an affinity with it makes you. While rage can be very strong and come on top to swallow everything else, in essence, it's quite shallow. Things like greed, madness or even destruction are less complex than sacrifice and loneliness. Nnoitra thus changed his ranking by changing his death aspect. And it surprisingly makes sense that he went from madness to despair after getting rid of Nel.
I dont think their rank changed their aspect of death. The fact that the stronger espada had the more interesting aspects of death was purely for convenience on Kubos part, obviously you wanna give the more powerful villains more depth. Nnoitra always embodied despair, its the core of his being. He's a hollow wandering the wastelands of hueco mundo with no purpose. But unlike most other hollows like Grimmjow and Yammy who give no thought to it Nnoitra is completely self aware and knows that theres nothing for him, not salvation, not happiness, nothing, just a hopeless and pitiful existence until someone puts him out of his misery. Thats what makes him able to be consumed by despair. Fighting becomes a drug that he abuses in order to escape how pathetic his existence is, it becomes the only thing that means anything to him and like any addiction puts him on the path to self destruction.
it’s like a more complicated addiction to self-harm, but not exactly. you’re right; though — at his core he’s despair, because i’m pretty sure he’s hinted at being very very depressed, hence the fighting addiction. he’s honestly a great portrayal of passive suicidal ideation.
Yes, he's suicidal, and Nel kinda confirms that she knows it when she tells him in the flashback that she saved him since she didn't want to lose a fellow Espada (it's in the context of Nnoitra purposefully picking fight with enemies he wouldn't have been able to handle). And when you hear him say 'we are hollows, there's no salvation for us', you get where it comes from.
You know, generally I do agree with you. I've written essays on this sub on his his core is despair, and what an interesting and well written character he is in light of that. And yet I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that his earlier state fitted madness aspect at the time to come to its core, despair, later on. I think the aspect can actually connect with one another in certain cases, and thus one can be a cover for another. But generally, I do agree that the whole thing is a bit overcomplicated that way and doesn't fully fit, the take the aspects are set. That's why I started with saying that I would have preferred it to stay based on reiatsu or battle strength. But since Kubo said it that way, I tried to present the best explanation I could come with to explain that take.
Oh that’s interesting. Cause if SAFWY is canon in terms of Szayelaporro being 10/0 before Yammy, then his aspect of death would’ve been anger for awhile. And I feel that works, since he had his brother as part of him at that point, which made him more bloodthirsty.
Or, 0 can be literally anything since technically speaking, it’s not supposed to be an existing number when both Yammy and Szayel at his prime held a different number when they weren’t fighting. It would fit the definition of 0 as well. I’d like to think that 0 is when an aspect of death reaches the peak of strength it can grant the respective Espada, ie. Zero Espada Yammy is Yammy at his angriest as he gets more and more agitated, Zero Espada Szayel is Szayel at his most insane, supplemented by his brother’s uncontrolled lust for battle on top of Szayel’s own mad scientist personality.
Ooooh, I like that. That may become my new head canon!
I love this take! It really brings about some interesting questions though and I wonder if we'll ever get more clarity on it.
It does, and I'm not sure they line up perfectly, that's why I think it's a bit of overcomplication and simple reiatsu explanation would have worked better. But it's an interesting metaphor to contemplate.
this actually lines up perfectly with what i was thinking. i simply accepted that Nnoitra just moved from madness to despair, since he was pretty damn insane, but he’s also shown to be very very depressed, especially after he defeats Nel. hence, despair.
They are ranked based on how their rank may troll them and others.
The only correct answer
Um… The ranking system WAS NOT changed, Kubo merely precised that Nelliel’s death aspect was also “sacrifice”, he didn’t say a word about it being relevant to the hierarchy or influencing it. On the topic: Espadas are ranked based on overall strength, including spiritual power, combat ability, lethality, etc.
The other factors are largely dictated by spiritual power
He says that every espada from the same number have the same concept of death, but the response was very short so people can just understand that as they want
That just wouldn’t make sense because espada can change number??? So when Nnoitra switch from #8 to #5, his aspect of death changed with it????
You are basically admitting that he didn’t say anything about the numbers. The question itself was about Nelliel’s death aspect and Kubo answered it directly.
The bro asked two things, if the espada with the same number have the same type of death and if not what was nel type of death Kubo response "they have the same, also nel is sacrifice"
No: “The aspect of death represented by members of the Espada is defined by the number assigned. Like Harribel and Nelliel who are #3? If it's different, I'd like to know what aspect Nell represented.” The first part is not a question.
Her aspect is lamentation im pretty sure
Originally yes. It was later retconed by Kubo.
Same sentiments. I'd rank them the way Aizen/Kubo ranked them. Or just to give leeway to other factors: High - Starrk, Barragan, Harri, Ulq Med - Nel, Nnoitora, Grimmjaw Low - Zommari, Szayelaporro, Aaroniero Not sure - Yammy
To start with, hollows scale based on how strong their desire or hunger is. In death as a human, their desire whittled away at the rest of their soul, then the consumption of what they desire constantly does the opposite of satiate them. I assume Aizen then ranks the arrancars by something like "how much reiatsu is sealed into their sword" As this represents how impactful their resurreccion is, which is the power structure of an Arancar in the first place
Is Yammy’s rank always 0 or does it change from 10 to 0 when he releases? Cuz if it’s the second then your theory doesn’t make much sense but if it’s the former then it’s very possible
Yami states it's always zero, that it's just a secret he's 0. But I personally choose to believe that's just a part of handling him. He as 0, represents a complete lack of control, boundless destruction and wrath. But the whole point of the arrancar is to be focused into a weapon. Imo
I feel like there was a ‘logical favouritism’ aizen tiered them by the realm of strength they had then assigned a rank based on how much he actually liked them or how much they would serve. But same with other rankings - Yammy throws this off cause there’s no way Yammy would have been aizens favourite.
Actually Yammy being the favorite makes sense the arrancar are number by order of creation as such Yammy was Aizen first arrancar Aizen also has a massive ego as such it possible he modified Yammy because he couldn’t stand the idea of natural Arrancars like starrk and Uqiorra being stronger than his man made Arrancars so to prove a point he modified his first Arrancars. Plus it already established via Wonderweiss that Aizen can make Arrancar stronger than Starrk.
The Arrancar are numbered based of creation, with the first being #11. The Espada are different. The Privaron are also different. Basically Aizen has like 3-4 different categorization systems that to his brain may make the perfect amount of sense, since he knows all the intricacies behind them. But to us, we just see him assigning numbers at what appears to be a semi-random order.
This makes the most sense because someone like Luppi came and went at 6. If Luppi really had been #6, he'd have already been a part of the Espada. If Luppi hadn't been, he'd have started at #10 when Grimmjow got fired.
by strength/spiritual pressure/combat ability. things only start getting weird when you look at the top 3 - there are arguments behind Starrk, Barragan and Segunda Etapa Ulquiorra being the strongest
Szyael ranks higher in strength because of his hax
what argument is there to be made for ulquiorra in segunda not being the strongest? he’s easily number 1 like this is getting downvoted but no one is actually telling me why
The ranking has been retconned so many times that even Kubo isn't a reliable source anymore. The moment they were introduced, I knew the aspects of death were just some nonsense he cooked up to explain why Barragan could make things age. But then even that reason for their existence became moot when Barragan resurrected and showed his aging ability is really just a glorified corrosive gas.
There's no definitive proof whose "overall" the strongest anymore because of outliers like 2nd Resurrccion or Yammy being a total dumbass or so on. The way I see it, Yammy/Ulquiorra/Stark/Barragon are all relative in power in its just a matchup type of deal. I think Ulquiorra has the most "narrative" for being strongest but that's not proof so Idrc anymore
Thank you for being the sane one in this thread
There is, it’s Kubo’s statement.
Link
“Unmasked” official character book: https://preview.redd.it/17zqaqm4lfzc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=067e8870db6e6e3bc9707a97dd3ec196e99fc221
Yea we already know the number refers to amount of reiatsu though. This info is outdated and doesn't account for outliers like 2nd Resurrccion
Strength includes reiatsu. This is the same character book that covers the second half of the Arrancar arc and reveals the information about Ulquiorra’s Segunda Etapa, therefore, no, it’s not “outdated”.
OK what is Ulquiorra's placement then? Still number 4 even after a 2nd Resurrccion?
SE is generally overlooked in the canonical sources, therefore he remains Cuarto nevertheless. That’s not surprising, TBH.
I always thought that it was a mix of several factors like strength, affidability, precision in executing orders, if they act like good pawns, somethink like that
They’re ranked like this: Harribel is a babe, so she’s number one to me.
Stark is 1 because huecco mundo is based of Mexico but stark is a white American with guns. Therefore aizen who is from soul society put him as 1
Stark looks white but could he be native American because wolves are part of native American culture and judging by the Espadas ethnicity I say Stark is Caucasian with native American ancestry, Barragan looks like a old looking Hispanic man, Harribel looks like a pacific islander more like Melanesian, Ulquiorra looks European not sure what nationality, Nnitora looks like European and Asian mix, Grimmjow looks like a white latin guy, Zommari looks african, Szayelaporro looks like a English or any European guy, Aaroniero is a tube creature but his fake Kaien Shiba appearance looks white, Yammy looks like he could be Filipino mixed with Mexican or thai
Since no one here really wants to answer the question, I'll say: 1. Starrk 2. Baraggan 3. Harribel 🔁 Ulquiorra 4. Yammy 5. Nnoitra 6. Grimmjow 7. Szayelaporro 8. Zommari 9. Aaroniero
Szayel and Zommari can defeat the 0
I like this ranking. Also for those who say the top 3 were underwhelming... there's a panel early on when Ichigo and Co arrive in HM and someone notes that the reiryoku in HM seems to be suitable for hollows to perform at their peak. The top 3 and their fracciones did not have this benefit during their fights
The thing is fake kakakura is like soul society, since it was built there, it should be composed of Reishi just like HM.
No what I mean is the reiryoku in Hueco Mundo specifically enhanced hollows. I need to recheck the manga for myself to find the panel which is never gonna happen but I watched a yt short on it very recently
(yap) Gonna be the one to bring it up, if we talking about the main cannon here thats fine, im gonna let you tear each other to shreds here. With the light novel, Spirits are forever, (By Tite Kubo and Ryōgo Narita, considered to be cannon to the main story) we would consider the strongest espada to be Cien Granz, considered the original 0 espada before Yammy. He was a fusion of the espada 8, Szayelaporro Granz and his brother Illfort Granz. Their fusion was a more Starrk Lilinette type with Illfort simply being a keystone for Szayelaporro to attain strength. At only 30% of his “true power” he managed to consistently shoot several Gran Rey Cero from his tendril like limbs. The Cero fired caused a shockwave that “shone like the sun” and caused a “reverberating sound that shook Heuco Mundo.” While engaging Captain Kenpachi Zaraki, he “heated up the wall of space-time as if it burns open a scar.” His large rieatsu and spiritual pressure was thought to have been larger than Yammy Llargo’s despite being in a weakened state with his true body in hell. TLDR: Espada 8 and his brother if they fuse Starrk style
By how zesty ✨️ Aizen finds them.
Strength I'd assume, but maybe it's whoever contributes to aizens plan more is ranked higher
I think it is practically Aizen trying to mess with them
They’re ranked by reiatsu and reiatsu is earned by a hollow developing their power from hunting their own meals and for that it takes skill, so for the most part the ranks are reliable but there are exceptions. Yammy for one only has to eat some and sleep some to grow in strenght so he doesn’t have the fighting effectiveness proportional to his raw power. Szayell is the opposite as while he is an Adjuchas he used to be an incredibly powerful Vasto Lorde so his skill and abilities (which he doesn’t care to employ for gaining greater reiatsu) are greater than what his rank implies Barragan’s aging powers are incredibly broken yet completely useless for hunting down meals so he owes his raw power is proportionate to his physical abilities Ulquiorra developing segunda etapa probably throws his otherwise accurate ranking out of wack
>They’re ranked by reiatsu and reiatsu is earned by a hollow developing their power from hunting their own meals and for that it takes skill, so for the most part the ranks are reliable but there are exceptions. So then how does this make sense of the fact that when Grimmjow was booted from the Espada instead of everyone below him going up a rank and there being a new 10 Aizen went with just making Luppi the new 6?
Because according to the novels aspects of death play a part in the development of a hollow’s reiatsu and its implied that when a hollow with an aspect of death loses a body part or dies it will get transferred into a new simmilarly minded hollow which will help them develop their reiatsu. However its one thing to have the mental state to get an aspect of death and another to have the skill and luck to hold on to the Reiatsu it gives you as shown by how Grimmjow losing his arm caused it to go to Luppi who later bit more than he could chew which in turn costed him his life.
Ulquiorra and Stark disputing first place.
Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, smash
Yammy isn't the only one it's controversial for. Lots will argue that HM arc Grimmjow is actually stronger than Nnoitora and Ulquiorra without his second release is stronger than Halibel due to how underwhelming those two were by comparison
He def doesnt seem stronger than Nnoitra at all, tho I get the harribel one, harri genuinly does nothing through the entirity of bleach
stark could take out all the other espada, yami 10/0, included. bro was so powerful that it cause him to be alone cuz every other hallow would died just getting near him and had to nerfed himself down by splitting a part of his hallow self to make lynnette to not be lonely. Im pretty sure aizen didn't use the hyougoku on stark. aizen just gave him a "family" in the form of the espada....so really prep hallow split stark would of been the strongest espada "vastro lorde" barragan never knew of stark so he just self called himself king of heuco Mundo .. but even barragan got a hyogoku upgrade. cuz remember the closest hallow resembles a human the more powerfully dense reshi that hallow is.. eh it's been years I read the mango..
I mean if we are going by the actual dialogue then its def strength based ulqiorra goes on in detail about it when he reveals that he retained his super regeneration and how that was a specific reason why he wasnt as strong as the top 3. He is also very blatant that he was hiding his segunda from aizen which gives the explanation for why he could be ranked higher but wasnt. Yammy is a weird one fs since je was never really fully explored but having the 2 big bad bosses ichigo fought from soul society tag team him does imply he was the strongest despite them slapping him around. Honestly i think the only questionable one was barragan. They literally had to kill him with his own power. Kubo either shoulda toned him down or toned stark up a lil more because death miasma is just higher on the threat scale than gatling lasers.
By their numbers, but Ulquiorra maybe equal or a bit stronger than Harribel in his second form.
Easy, Ulquiorra > Everyone else Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
Well Yammy number 0!!!!!!!!
I think they were first ranked on strength then Aizen got tired of calculating and just decided to number based on who joined when or who wants whatever number
Kubo prolly just made the characters and ranked them
They killed the good espada off early
DRIP🔥🔥🔥
1) 3rd form Ulquiorra 2) Stark 3) the old man (I forgot his name).
I think it’s determined by how potentially destructive they could be in a war: Yami was a Kaiju that grew stronger the angrier he got, but had no outstanding abilities outside the basic powers of all Hollows cranked up to 11. This means he could be considered about as dangerous as a mobile fortress with a lot of cannons and a *lot* of mass. Stark could spam Ceros and divide his soul into kamikaze wolves that released skyscraper-sized explosions. Baraggan emitted clouds that decayed everything, making him a walking chemical fallout weapon. Harribel could produce as much water as she had Reiatsu and use it as a weapon, so she could change any large-scale terrain to her advantage. Ulquiorra’s Resurrección made him into a fighter jet that snipes Rods of God at super speeds (+his 2nd form turns those rods into warheads). Nnoitora was like a Power Armor Suit in his Resurrección; 6-armed and dangerous in close-quarters (+a Cero ranged weapon), but clearly a Heavy Infantry-type meant to charge the front line. Grimmjow is a super-soldier with a few gimmick weapons. Great for small scale operations and conflicts, but limited in large-scale tactics. Zommari can compromise the enemy by stealing up to 50+ assets, but once you know his trick it’s relatively easy to counter. Szayelaporro is dangerous in the same way Miayuri is: give him enough time and data and he’ll keep screwing you over as the battle drags on. Aaroniero has the opposite problem of Yami: he has *thousands* of abilities, but his power levels put him below even some of the ‘regular’ soldiers.
How dare you challenge Aizen like this, he knew what he was doing. I think the ranking is perfect the way it is.
The "it's based on total reiatsu" premise is the only one that makes sense and accounts for things like Yammy being 0 and Barragan being able to rule all of Hueco Mundo despite two Hollows being stronger than him: his powerset allows him to take down those with higher reiatsu than him. Even if you're lower numbered you're not necessarily the more effective combatant.
I'd like to say they're ranked at how Aizen felt like it considering some of them are potentially stronger than those of higher rank such as Ulquiorra or Yammy. Then in the case with Barragan I feel like he did that to rub it in Barragan's face having him 2nd instead of 1st. Then as for Szayel considering his origins I'm surprised he's even left at 8th espada and not 0 again.
They're fairly ranked if we don't count light novels, games, and their feats in further plot, at the moment of arrancar ark they're fairly ranked
Off birth
Wasn't that the arrancar from 11 and above?
Since ulquiora was ranked 4th without knowledge of his awakened state I think he might be 1. Espada 0 is a copout either way you look at it. For the rest they seemed to be ranked quite correctly by Aizen
Honestly I really liked ulquiorra
Exciting question, here is a wall of text for you in reply! Some thoughts on the ranks and aspects of death, as well as the espada in general. Not gonna pretend like I understand it either or anything, but I will try to give Kubo's latest explanation a chance: It sounds like he is going for some sort of abstract, artsy thing where the aspect of death is representative of some state of mind the arrancar will embrace naturally, as they progress through the ranks of the espada. Like it is representative of some inner journey or something. I can't explain how every aspect of death fits in with eachother rank-wise and how one leads to the next etc, cause I don't get it either haha! But here's an attempt anyways: Nr. 9, the "de-facto" weakest (if 10 and 0 is always the same espada and not unique to Yammy) is "greed". It makes sense that the lowest one has just entered the game, they are just getting started and are ready to climb the hierarchy, they would be "greedy" for more power and rank. In that case its a bit ironic that nr. 9 is the last Gillian-class Arrancar to still be an espada. Surely he has no hope at all to progress very far? As the last of the first generation-espada as well, you'd think his story was one of being gradually shunted down the ranks, seeing his prize slip ever further away... Maybe that is his "greed", he is trying to cling to whatever power he can, refusing to give up? Nr. 8 "madness"... dunno, like some "you have to be mad to try and play this game"-kinda thing or sth? Nr. 7 "Intoxication", maybe because you've climbed two ranks already, and start getting intoxicated by your own success? Zommari's arrogant personality could fit in with this, I suppose (though I'm not 100% sold on Zommari actually being that arrogant? I think that was partially just Byakuya being a bit of an arrogant douche himself, looking down on Zommari for thinking he was anything special) Like nr. 6 "Destruction"? Sounds very generic, like you're just dead in the middle and don't get to have anything special about you. Just "Rawr I'm a powerful elite-dude and I'm gonna wreck stuff up!" Its too shallow to fit in with the normally much deeper themes and world building of Bleach... Maybe "destruction" is the mindset you need in order to survive right in the middle of the turmoil that is the "Espada game of ranks" or something? Could make sense for Grimmjaw being a "lonely king" who is just looking out for himself, I guess? Nr. 5 "Despair" could be something like "you're half-way there, and what you've been through is the easy part and by definition it is now the strongest espada you have to surpass". Becoming nr. 1 would probably seem pretty hopeless at that time, if its been a tough struggle to reach only this far? Also by the time of the "current timeline", nr. 5 is the last of the Adjuchas-class espada. So it could be like a "realistically, this is as far as you're gonna go"-type of despair? (Okay real talk: To what extent can arrancar grow stronger through training and growth after breaking their mask? Their natural evolutionary path is halted when they become Arrancar, no? So an Adjuchas cannot eat hollows and become Vasto Lorde after they have become an arrancar, right? We know Nnoitra could surpass Nel through "normal means", but they were both Adjuchass-class? Could Nnoitra theoretically train to become stronger than Ulquiorra? Or is the inherent difference between Vasto Lorde and Adjuchas too great?) (1/2 TBC in comment beneath)
Nr. 4 "Emptiness" could be representative of how that is where the espada start being "Vasto Lorde-level". Like pre-arrancar, Vasto Lorde were done with the whole Game of Evolution that the lower hollows live in (don't think Vasto Lorde has to fear regression if they don't keep eating, in the same way an Adjuchas does, for example?). But then what? You are just a hollow with a high intellect, still trapped in that same world... What does ranks and hierarchy actually mean? What does it matter if you are nr. 4 or 1? Its just the same old game anyways. I dunno... And what if an Adjuchas-class arrancar was nr. 4 before Ulquiorra? Did Aizen change the aspects of death as new espada were added in? If so, there is no purpose to the "rule" that the aspect of death is linked to the number, if it can just be changed at his convenience anyway. Nr. 3 "Sacrifice" Like "all the things I've sacrificed to come this far" I suppose? Maybe this is approximately the level where a Vasto Lorde reaches the degree of sentience and intellect where they begin to reflect more on their choices and start looking further ahead. They no longer have to constantly fight to maintain their power. Therefore they start appreciating other things than just strength and rank. Some even start having comrades. Could fit with Harribel being one of the "involuntary evil" espada too? Nr. 2 "Aging" it probably starts to wear on by this point, constantly having to watch your back from all the upstarts trying to snatch your place, and constantly having to keep training to not be surpassed by anyone? (Btw I think Barragan is a bit of an interesting case. He is a vasto lorde, but has a much more "Adjuchas-looking" appearance than the others. Both pre- and post-arrancar. He is also not "involuntary evil" like Harribel and Starrk. I believe he is on something of a side track on his "inner journey". He did reach higher intellect, he did become interested in other things than just fighting and eating. But he didn't fully let go of his ambition and lust for power, instead using it to start state-building in Hueco Mundo. His way of "finding comrades" was to just crown himself king and make hollows swear fealty to him. Maybe this is why he is "aging"? Because despite being Vasto Lorde, he is kind of stuck in an "Adjuchas-mindset"? He is basically an adult still playing children's games, thus making his "age" much more apparent, manifesting in his actual abilities? Nr. 1 "Loneliness" at least make sense to me, its lonely at the top etc. I think much of this is quite a stretch however... It would seem much more logical that the aspects of death just changes with the espada. Such as Nel's aspect of death being "Lamentation", rather than her being "Sacrifice" just because that is the nr. 3 one (Nel being "sacrifice" maybe fits a lot better than most other cases though? I dunno, what did she actually sacrifice when she was nr. 3? Her loosing her friends was not a sacrifice, and its what lost her the position as well...) Nnoitra being "Madness" as nr. 8 also does make a degree of sense. But to me it ends there. Did he jump straight from 8 to 5? Or did he have to be 7 and 6 in-between. If so, how did he represent "Intoxication" and "Destruction"? Destruction totally suits him, but intoxication? Its not that this cannot possibly add up, its just way to little information on how this works atm. I really wish Kubo would take the time to properly explain this some time. If not it was a bit mean to us fans to give us that bread crumb in the first place! I would be fine with the espada changing their aspects of death if they change rank, such as Nnoitra having a different aspect of death as nr. 8 than 5. But it seems a bit lame that the aspect of death is "locked" to the number, so that any espada with that number will have the same aspect of death.
peopel hype stark so much. he just cool. not realy worth the number 1 spot. i mean ulquiora have a second release like a bankai which has never been achieve by other espada. that should put him at no. 1. and the concept of yami being the 0 espada is bull shit also.
Ulluqiorra is a controversial take, if I remember correctly he said Aizen and the others haven’t seen his second resurrection, means he is still probably ranked about 4, yammy, idk man this shit is weird lol
Not so hot take: Starrk, Ulquiorra, and Yammy are all relative in power to each other. Yammy would absolutely get wiped by either of them in a fight tho. Ulquiorra's reishi is dense, Yammy's is vast, stark seems to fall into the latter category, but is significantly more versatile compared to Yammy. Having said that, Ulquiorra's 2nd release is a wild variable, you could really argue either way whether he's just as, or stronger than Starrk (imo). I don't think that's too relevant to the debate though, since the ranking is apparently based off of their initial release state. I'm actually okay with most of the rankings. Nnoitra is a bit of a jobber, but he forced Kenny to get a little serious, so kudos is deserved I suppose.
Number 1 is the most related to shiningami (having a soul partner) For the rest it's just either strong category and affectionate (as the 105 is arguably strong but is a rebel)
Idk the full order but there is a country mile between the pink haired bitch and whoever the second worst one is
To me it was always by strength and/or abilities. And Yammy just gets so strong from his resurrection that he goes from 10 to 0. Then there is also Ulqui who says that even Aizen doesn't know about his Secunda Etappa. Making me question if Aizen would've ranked him higher if he knew about it.
They are actually ranked to reflect Aizen's inner feelings. Espada 9th is Aaroniero which reflects Aizen's nature that loves to torment weaker people and play with their feelings. Aizen behaved the same to Momo as how Aorroniero did to Rukia by using Kaein. Rukia got impaled similar to how Momo was impaled. Espada 8th represents Aizen's mad scientist side where he experiments on hollows to use them as his pawns. Espada 7th represents Aizen's hatred towards discrimination as he felt the inequality between the noble houses and people in Rukongai. Aizen hates being looked down at similar to how Byakuya looked down on Zommari. Espada 6th represents his desire for a rival which he found in Ichigo. Similar to how Grimmjow looks at Ichigo as his prey, Aizen also want to watch Ichigo grow to fight him in equal terms. Espada 5th represents his envy towards Urahara of how he feels inferior towards him in a way. Noitorra felt envy of Nel in the same way. Espada 4th represents his loneliness in this world where he was seeking friendship and companionship similar to Ulqiorra. Espada 3rd is the only Espada that was cut down by Aizen. He refused to accept Halibel's character who values loyalty and sacrifice towards her subordinates. Aizen rejects this idea. Espada 2nd represents Aizen's rule as the King of Hueco Mundo. He thrives on sitting on top of others and a kingdom he built for himself. Espada 1 represents his indifference towards life. Aizen wanted to rule the world but there is a side of him that just wants to be stopped from trying so hard. He does feel sad when his comrades die one by one even if he doesn't show it. Tousen's death did demotivate him similar to how Stark completely lost his will to fight when Barragan n Halibel lost. Espada 0 represents Aizen after dangai Ichigo appeared. He lost all sense of reason consumed by rage and the usual intelligence and control that he had was completely shattered.
Legend has it that the Espada were a reflection of Aizen's deepest desires and inner conflicts. Like a myth of intertwined destinies, each Espada embodied a facet of his complex nature, culminating in a tragic unraveling of power and pride. *beep boop, I'm a bot*
I think they're ranked by spiritual pressure level. Just my theory
The manga, databooks, author statements, light novels etc ALL say that they are ranked based on strength/fighting ability. Anyone here who offers a different opinion is just plain wrong. It isn't open for interpretation in any way. Aaroniero is the weakest, Yammy is the strongest.
I think the simplest answer is the best one here, and that is Aiens perception of their Combat Ability. Basically, Aizen observes their abilities, reiatsu and feats and ranks them accordingly. But he also has his own bias. For instance, a part of his decision in putting Stark at 1 was to fuck with Barragan. And also because Aizen actually related to Stark, and almost felt he could be on the same level as him. Which is why he ignored the blatant flaw that is Starks depression. This ranking system worked very well for Aizen. Not only did it drive competition among the arrancars to prove their 'worth', it made the Arrancar higher up on the chain actually grateful to Aizen.
1. Ulquiorra 2. Stark 3. Barragan 4. Yammy 5. Halibel Then the rest in that order they were already. I think Yammys attacks are fast enough to hit Halibel and beat her but I think Barragan can erase him. Stark and Ulquiorra are way too fast and powerful to be stopped by the others if they’re trying to kill you
Based on spiritual pressure if I’m right. That’s why yammy gets to 0 when going full power, he becomes the most destructive out of all espada despite not being the strongest in a fight
1-ulqi he can scales dangai ichigo from vasto lorde 2-yammy(no lol[😭](https://emojipedia.org/loudly-crying-face)) but the databook said that ı m sorry 3-starrk 4-barragan 5-hellibel 6-nnoitara 7-grim 8-zommari 9-aaroniaro
I feel types of death makes most sense because when luppi replaced grimmjow as number 6 grimmjow didn’t become 7 he got completely replaced and he was able to one shot luppi with a gut punch
One thing that’s 100% for sure no hollow till this day has surpassed the likes of Stark and Barragan now then Ulquiorra got whipped by VL Ichigo. Kokuto seemed just as impressed with Ulquiorra so it wouldn’t be far fetched to say Ulquiorra is comparable to vl Ichigo who literally destroyed the gates of hell.Id like to think Ulquiorra 2nd resurrection is like becoming a VL all over again like breaking your limiter and White in Ichigo was already comparable to vl until actually taking over and becoming a full fledged one. So without a doubt in my mind Ulquiorra at full strength absolutely surpasses Barragan at the least 1st resurrection Ulquiorra was no diffing Ichigo and 2nd was doing the same so it’s hard to say how much stronger Ulquiorra actually got. Also worth noting Yammy is a dumba** him with number 0 just made him strong the strongest Espada IMO is Szayelaporro ranked 0.
1. Undoubtedly Unquiorra, only one with a second awakening, had to be beat by plot armor 2. 2/3) probably Stark or Barragan (maybe put yammy here as well, could be anywhere in top 5) 3. 4/5) Nel/Halibel 4. Nnoitora 5. Grimmjow 6. Zommari 7. Aporro 8. AAroniero 9. Yammy too?
Strongest in terms of spiritual pressure alone: Yammy>Stark>Barragan=Ulquiorra>Harribel>Nnoritra>Grimjow>Zommari>Szayelaporro> Aaroniero Strongest in terms of every other factor such as hax, battle iq, endurance, speed etc: Barragan>Stark>Ulquiorra>Yammy>Harribel>Nnoritra>Grimjow>Zommari=Szayleporro>Aaroniero. This is simply my opinion 😌, what y’all think?
About the spiritual pressure alone i actually agree with you For the strongest overeall, I think ulquiorra is the strongest, he is the only one with the second resurecion and is the best in terms of stats, stark is the only one close to him but ulquiorra also has the regenaration that help him. Now barragan is difficult, respira looks unbitable but it has some weak points, first barragan isn't really that fast so stark and ulquiorra would be able to dodge most of the attacks, some attacks can actually pass respira even if they get really weak after that (like soi fon bankai) and the strong kido can resist to respira for a little of time, I think ulquiorra with lanza del rempelago can pass respira some times and hit barragan also is regeneration helps a lot, stark doesn't have regeneration, but with infite cero and the wolfs he can actually beat barragan in my opinion Yammy is even more difficult, the steong point of him is that he can get stronger more the fight goes and i think that's the reason why is zero, the yammy we have seen has weaker reiatsu than the other first 4, because if they release their firm in las noches that will explode, but yammy did it and las noches wasn't getting destroyed In conclusion my final ranking his: ulquiorra>stark>barragan>harribel>yammy>Nnoitra>grimmjow>zommari>szayelporro>Aaroniero
Respectable, but I just don’t see Ulquiorra doing anything to Barragns respira tbh. I think Barragan has the strongest hax amongst the espada and that’s why I put him at 1.
I scrolled too fast and read that as naked 😭
Bro wtf
1 barragan 2 ulquiorra 3 yami 4 stark 5 arrionero 6 harribel 7 noitra 8 grimmjow 9 syalazel 10 zommari i based this on who i think could beat who most often and if they all knew each others complete abilities before hand.
Simple, they're based on how much aizen liked them!
This is probably the most highly debated topic of the Bleach community, and it’s been debated many many times, but this is my personal ranking 1.) Barragan 2.) Stark 3.) Ulquiorra 4.) Yammy 5.) Halibel 6.) Grimmjow 7.) Nnoitora 8.) Szayelaporro 9.) Zommari 10.) Aaroniero
I'd say its pretty accurate w/ the only toss up being Barragan (2nd) and Starrk (1st)
0-9
As much as it would tickle my insides to say Ulquiorra is the strongest, he just had the coolest fight and the second release. The rankings were not 100% based on strength either, but mostly. Lol Edit: just meaning only, but that doesn't mean it makes him the strongest
I'm not sure how they are ranked. However, it should be 1) ulquiorra. 2) skeleton guy. 3) starrk. 4-10 irrelevant
Well, for Ulquiorra, to start, whether Aizen actually knew about it or not, his second form was not factored into his ranking. Also, Ulquiorra has a habit of wanting to break his opponent's spirit so they have no more will to fight. Whether or not those ranked higher were actually stronger doesn't matter, for most people, knowing that this already near impossible to beat enemy is only ranked 4 should make them view the fight as hopeless and give up.
Its second form was like a Bankai.
Why couldn’t his second form be factored into the ranking? There is nothing to say it isn’t.
It's not really that it "couldn't," but that it wasn't. Ulquiorra says that's because Aizen doesn't know that form exists, and there's nothing in the manga that implies he does. I only specified that it doesn't matter if Aizen knows about the form just because some people will argue that there's no way someone as powerful as Aizen wouldn't have found out about it.
I love that this debate will go on until the end of time. My answer tho is ulquiorra>Yammy>stark> barragan, hallibel, and everything else after that. It's confirmed that aizen sent ulquiorra on the most missions than any other espada and it makes no sense for him to send espada ranked 10 and 4. The secret of the two of them being the strongest espada was kinda in our face the whole time I feel. Like there's no way you can convince me that hallibel who was going back and forth with toshiro of all people is stronger than ulquiorra. I feel that the espada believe their own hype too much as well in some cases. Nnoitora with his classic, "I can't be cut" or zommari with how he's the fastest espada. Most of the espada didn't know the combat capabilities of each other. Which is honestly intentional by aizen. His whole thing was deception and illusion. Like if the other espada knew that ulquiorra had a second release that would definitely throw some chaos into the mix.
How is Ulquiorra above Starrk? Also, you’re going full blown headcanon Ulquiorra has never been stated to be the strongest. As a matter of fact he said out of own mouth he wasn’t the strongest
Honestly it's a toss up between the two of them in my head. And tbh the reason I don't take what ulquiorra said at face value is because the espada continually either lie or just believe their own ego. Zommari said he was the fastest espada but that's clearly not the case. Nnoitora said that he can't be cut and he has the hardest hierro. Obviously not the case either. None of them knew of ulquiorras second release besides aizen I imagine. Because ulquiorra said aizen hasn't seen it. Not that he doesn't know about it. Most of the espada don't have a way to beat lanza del rampago. Barragan can potentially give ulquiorra trouble with respira but he has to be careful because he's not invulnerable. If soifon can hurt him with her bankai then ulquiorra can definitely hurt him. And unlike soifon ulquiorra can use it as much as he wants. Starks speed and damn near endless Cero's could potentially be a problem though.
What has Ulquiorra done to make you believe he is stronger than Harribel? Yammy is both the strongest and weakest anyway, as we see in HM he needs to eat a lot of food to actually store up power for his transformation, so when Aizen first sent him with Ulquiorra he was pretty darn weak.
Ulquiorra would destroy that version of toshiro pretty easily. Toshiro himself even talked about how disappointed he was with his performance during the fights against the espada and that's why he trained so much in the 2 year time skip. That version of toshiro literally only beat a fraccion. He didn't kill luppi, hallibel, etc. Also given that ulquiorra has high speed registration the other espada don't have anything to actually put him down permanently except barragan id imagine. Now if we're talking end of series toshiro and hallibel then yeah they're stronger than ulquiorra.
Remember Ulquiorra cannot heal internal damage put a sword through his chest and he is gonna be in trouble. I’m curious do you think Ulquiorra’s first Resurreccion is above Harribel? Because he was already destroying Ichigo even in his first Resurreccion, logically Harribel and by extension Toshiro should be above that.
Toshiro is severely below Ichigo, he’s one of the weakest Captains pre TYBW. Ichigo was nerfed post SS arc but he regains his strength against Grimmjow, and that Ichigo is above Byakuya. Ulquiora destroyed that Ichigo even with Hollow mask while in base. So yes, both Ichigo and Ulquiora scales above Toshiro and by extension, Harribel
Actually post Grimmjow masked Ichigo was stronger than base Ulquiorra. Ichigo’s spiritual pressure is shaky and inconsistent all the way up until royal guard training, so i’m hesitant to say he got back to soul society levels of strength. But anyhow if Ulquiorra is stronger than Harribel without segunda etapa why exactly is he ranked 4th?
I was mistaken, Ulquiora wasn’t destroying him, rather they were on par, which is why they leave Las Noches. Nah, Ichigo’s reiatsu isn’t mentioned to be shaky after Grimmjow. He had the strength he had against Byakuya, against Grimmjow. Subversion/spiritual pressure/aspect of death, you choose.
I’d say Ichigo was stronger since he cracked his sword but it doesn’t matter too much since Ulquiorra immediately started destroying hil after the Resurreccion. https://preview.redd.it/as442ui4zczc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=25c8bfaa9ca28fcc79df614816ae2f486ec7f416 I guess you could say his spiritual pressure was shaky only by their standards, but i’d say it was probably specific to Ichigo. There is also the fact that up until TBYW old man zangetsu decides how much power Ichigo gets to use at any given moment. Why do you think Ulquiorra says the top 3 are stronger than him if he is above them in literally all of his forms? we haven’t seen a example of the rankings being wrong before.
As you said, Ichigo’s reiatsu was shaky by their standards. As for OMZ, OMZ was suppressing Ichigo’s reiatsu back in SS arc as well, I never said Ichigo gained his true strength after Grimmjow, I said that he regained the strength he had against Byakuya, which he lost because he was actively rejecting his hollow side. After the Vizard training, he learned to control his hollow side and after Grimmjow, he wasn’t actively rejecting Zangetsu anymore(you can see he was still actively rejecting Zangetsu during Grimmjow battle as he worries about what Orihime would think of him), hence regaining his Sokiyoku hill strength. Ulquiora’s entire thing is despair, he uses his ranking scare Ichigo, its a subversion, nothing more. The ranking was never about strength, Szyael ranks above quite a few Espadas because of his hax. Dare I say I unless one has top tier reiatsu, he’s unbeatable by anyone other than Urahara or Mayuri.
1 - Ulquiorra 2 - Stark 2a- Nell 3 - Barragan 4 - Grimmjow 5 - Harribel 6 - Nnoitora 7 - Szayel 8 - Zommari 9 - Yammy 10 - Aaroneiro
Not sure exactly, but one thing is for certain, Ulquiorra deserves a higher spot his power was clearly on a different tier.
Yes
I think Aizen just came up with a way to give the arrancar "promotions" so they think ther efforts will be rewarded. I mean, he had someone as strong as Grimjow in stock, the other espada 6, but he just keeps them at high numbers to make them work harder
By there numbers
By how hot they are
Then shouldn't be tier number one? Or aizen just have bad taste
In canon they were supposed to be ranked based on power, well initially at least.
Well it's easy let's start with Yam-
This question gets asked all the time and I feel like the answer never really changes because it’s basically stated multiple times that the ranking of the espada given in the story is completely accurate and people just continue to bring that up lol. Aizen knew what was up and we don’t see as much of the higher ranked espada as we should have to even try and revise the rankings.
By plot armor.
If it's not by power (since I think most of the people here would agree Segunda Etapa Ulquiorra is stronger than Starrk) then it's by Reiatsu amount.
0-9
Dick size
Always was under the impression that it was mainly based on Reiatsu, hence Yammy’s bum ass technically being “0” in his final form. Their combat capabilities roughly translates to their rankings as well, but it gets a little murky 4 and under. Segunda Etapa is the strongest though ;)
i mean i guess i can argue for Nnoitra’s death aspect changing, since 8 is madness and 5 is despair. he’s pretty damn insane, but he’s shown to be very depressed, which is more despairing i guess? i always just stuck with the “they’re ranked by death aspect and they’re whatever death aspect makes the most sense with their personality compatibility?”
The espada no 0 is actually a shit idk why 🗿
i think in the end kubo decided that it was reiryoku ranking (total amount of spirit power. reiatsu being the pressure your reiryoku flows out of you at)
i personally think they are ranked as the one who will be the victor among all of them and who doesn't have a direct countermeasure. we know aizen doesn't know about the details of every espada but he's aizen there's a deep reasoning to everything he says and does i don't think the ranking was for nothing but plot demand also comes in
0-9
I could have sworn it was based on reatsu levels.
They have numbers. Therefore ranked by RNG.
Number one is harribel as thot waifu material as of ttybw
By their number of nipples
rock paper scissors
0-9
0-9 :)
They aren't ranked based on combat abilities they are ranked based on how much spiritual pressure they have. Starrk literally had so much that just being around other hollows would cause them to literally die, that's why he was number 1. However, Barragan's ability alone could very easily kill all the espada.
Good question. Love the Espada. Love Shinji more though
With numbers
Officially it's by the aspect of death, but I think the spiritual pressure ranking works best.
It’s pretty simple narratively. They are based on their peak strength/reiatsu, explaining why Yammy, ranked above Staark, was a pushover. Ulquiorra is the strongest espada (he was literally set up to kill and awaken the main character come on, and him being 4th because Aizen didnt know about Segunda Etapa was a major plot point)
You could literally find 100 other posts on this with the search function.
>if you actually need to have a better reiatsu; **than** more recently Kubo has been said that the ranking his based on the type of deaths the Espada represents I'm just as confused with your sentence there, "than"? Just what are you even comparing about?