Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27565137-20160415174609/@comment-28096256-20160422025310

It's not a valid comparison, but not for the reasons mentioned. The Royal Guard's abilities don't simply make them exceptions to all the rules, they just happen to have unique Zanpakuto. We might as well mention that Kyoraku has two separate Zanpakuto as well, and that is about the closest any soul reaper comes to comparing to Ichigo right now in terms of looks and unusual swords.

Look at it this way. What percent of Ichigo's power comes from soul reaper power? Like 1/3 of it. What percent of Squad 0 power comes from soul reaper abilities? 8/8. I think just based on that we can't really compare Ichigo to any other soul reaper. The closest comparison so far would be Arrancars with Quincy medallions who possess powers of all three major groups, but even then they don't really compare.