Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27172747-20151107131413/@comment-26051097-20160720150735

While it's true Aizen only completely disintegrated 1 weak person, he also started dissolving Gin, a very powerful captain-class Shinigami just by touching him. Unless I missed a scene where Yamamoto started dissolving a captain-level spiritual being just by touching them, that's evidence Yamamoto was significantly weaker than 3rd-form Aizen. And yes, up until recently Aizen was chairbound, but keep in mind that chair was made by Mr. Deus Ex Machina, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, and the only way they could get him into that chair was because of Urahara, aka Mr. Deus Ex Machina Sr. The fact that he lost and was captured only tells us 3 things. 1. Ichigo was stronger than him. 2. Urahara was smarter than him. 3. Mayuri is very good at restraining people. And we already knew those last 2 things.

As for Ichigo, It's obvious that when he got his powers back, he was weaker than he was after the Dangai training, especially since he didn't have his Bankai fused to his hand, he couldn't erase his surroundings with a simple sword swing, and other people could still feel his Reiatsu. And that makes sense. Thanks to Saigo no Getsuga Tensho, they had to cheat to get his powers back, so they obviously wouldn't come back at their peak. While I do think that Ichigo is now more powerful than he was after the Dangai training, there isn't enough evidence to suggest it, so I said possibly. The only thing we know is that Current Shikai Ichigo > Old Shikai Ichigo, and Dangai Bankai Ichigo > Old Bankai Ichigo.

I do agree that Dangai Ichigo is not relevant to the story anymore, but neither is Yamamoto, or Kaien's theoretical Bankai, yet we're still talking about them. However, I disagree that Aizen's previous forms are irrelevant, since we have no reason to believe that Aizen has gotten weaker since then, yet we have evidence that he hasn't, like him still being able to dissolve people, even from within his seal, his Reiatsu alone killing a large amount of Yhwach's weird shadow creatures, and his recent comments about being able to beat Yhwach.

I put a lot of stock into these characters because they both performed incredible feats that have, as of yet, not been copied by anyone, like Ichigo dispelling level 90 kido with his bare hand, or Aizen being able to physically harm and even kill people with only his Reiatsu. It's true we never see them fight anyone else, but we don't need to. If someone breaks a brick wall with their bare hand, and another person can't, we have no choice but to assume the first person is stronger.