For the longest time, the Espada stood alongside the Akatsuki as one of the most popular and iconic antagonist groups in battle anime and manga. But after rereading parts of Bleach, I just can't buy into the hype anymore. Most of them were surprisingly underwhelming and got done incredibly dirty by the story.Other than Ulquiorra and Grimmjow—the clear standouts, who received the most development and were coincidentally the only Espada with personal stakes involving Ichigo—most of the group felt like glorified jobbers. They never achieved anything meaningful and failed to live up to the massive threat they were hyped up to be.Aaroniero gets taken out in a single fight by Rukia, who wasn't even vice-captain level at the time. I can at least give that one a pass since he was the weakest Espada and Rukia nearly died.Szayelaporro had one of the worst and most boring fights in the entire Hueco Mundo arc. He spends forever trolling Renji and Uryu, only to get completely bullied and brutally killed the moment Mayuri shows up.Zommari might be the most forgettable member of the entire group. He existed solely to be cannon fodder for Byakuya.
>>288435622Nnoitra spends his time toying with a weakened Ichigo, then gets ragdolled by Nel, and finally serves as cannon fodder for Kenpachi, who absolutely annihilates him. The guy couldn't even finish off Chad.Harribel barely accomplishes anything against Hitsugaya, her fight gets very little screentime, and when we finally return to it, Aizen casually backstabs her. That's it.Barragan was actually threatening for a while and managed to seriously pressure his opponents. He even took Soi Fon's arm, although that ended up meaning nothing since she got it back anyway. Once the Visored arrived, most of the tension disappeared, and he ended up dying in a pretty dumb way.Starrk doesn't do much to anyone he fights. Sure, he was up against multiple captains, but he never really pushed anyone to use a Bankai or reach their limits. Most of his opponents walked away relatively unharmed.And don't even get me started on Yammy. The supposedly "strongest" Espada ended up being a complete joke. He couldn't even hold Kenpachi's and Byakuya's attention and somehow received less screentime than Barragan's fracción.Ulquiorra and Grimmjow were carrying the Espada hard. Ulquiorra even killed Ichigo twice, but because Ichigo is the protagonist, both deaths had to be immediately undone. In the end, the entire Espada accomplished virtually nothing. They scored zero meaningful kills, caused no lasting injuries, and left almost no long-term consequences.For a group that was built up as the ultimate enemy force, they ended up feeling more like stepping stones for the captains than genuine threats. What a disappointment.
Please care about bleach...
Please care about BRAAAAP
>>288435624even grimmjow and ulquiorra never did shit to anyone but the ryoka and that was just for dramathey existed for fight porn and then died without killing anyone so aizen could aura farm while he fodderized the entire gotei 13 and affiliates
Did you expect the status quo to be disrupted in a long running shounen? lolObviously no one was gonna die and the Espada were just there to provide fight pornDo the Akatsuki do something different in Naruto? I never watched it
>>288435622Captain-class shinigami are basically pagan gods in the Bleachverse. The Espada are like high ranking demons serving a rebel god. The fact they're the underdogs in the fight is what people find compelling about them.They shouldn't be compared to the Akatsuki who are all Kage-level or stronger
>>288436662Yes. Don't unspoiler if you're gonna watch.Akatsuki is like Espada of Naruto and became the main villains at the start of Shippuden. As soon as Shippuden begins Deidara(akatsuski) kills Gaara, who's not only in the same class as the protagonists but became ninja president of his village at the time. This is undone because Chiyo revives him, but then she sacrifices herself for this, so we've already got someone dead right off the bat.Then Hidan(akatsuski) kills series vet, the Jounin Asuma. This is akin to killing a captain in Bleach, which never happened.Then Pain(akatsuski) kills the protagonist's teacher, Jiraiya. That'd be like if Urahara got killed, or maybe even Ichigo's dad depending on how you look at their relationship.Then Obito(akatsuski) kills Neji, one of the K12. Killing the K12 is like killing one of the ryoka or one of Ichigo's other friends in Bleach, which, again, never happened.There's a lot more too. Dads get killed left and right, and of course the bad guys all die in the end too.Know how the female bad guys pretty much always get off scott free in Bleach? Naruto gave the finger to that and killed off Konan(akatsuski) no questions asked.So yeah, by comparison the Espada didn't do shit really. And honestly nobody likes to talk about this but Aizen barely did anything either, really. Only big kill was his own man, Gin.
>>288437051Best explanation. They still should've done more though, especially Starrk and Barragan. Fuck Yammy.
>>288435622well Aizen said it himself; the whole project was a giant waste of time and he could have taken out the whole SS by himself especially if the old man was just gonna watch til the final hour. They're all throwaways with some cool designs and not much else which I suppose is poetic since they're hollows to begin with. In general Aizen carried this whole series
