User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 555 - THE HERO/@comment-4207271-20131030053245/@comment-28861328-20131031224946

It doesn't feel that way to me. Much of this arc feels far too forced to me, so maybe I'm bias. Yes, I get Ichigo's Bankai is a lot faster than normal captains, but Quigle all but flat out said the Quincy fear Bankai. I honestly don't think a single of them stand a chance. Ichigo is by no means as experienced as these captains are, despite his ridiculous powers, so if a senior Quincy officer got put in the ground by a teenager throwing around his unmature powers, then do you seriously expect the Sternritter to stand any chance against the experienced captains with their Bankais returned? I don't buy it. I think this is it for the Quincy. They just released their Vollstandig, all of them, all at the same time, and, so far, Hitsugaya has been the only one to use Bankai (which isn't saying much to begin with, as he doesn't get much stronger in Bankai). Do you know what that means? It means that they all just used their trump cards against Captains who are not even using their Shikais to fight them off. That right there should tell you what they're up against. The Fullbringers showed us how much Humans stand a chance against Shinigami, and, at the end of the day, the Quincy are just humans with some glorified powers. It will end in a similar fashion.

Once the captain's get serious, Yhwach will be pretty much the only thing standing between them and the extermination of the entire Wandenreich.

And as far as Ichigo's development is concerned, I'd only agree with you if Kubo hadn't already shown twice before that he can't keep Ichigo serious. Ichigo was epic when he had his showdown with Aizen, and again when he killed Ginjo with a straight face, but that attitude literally only lasted about 3 chapters in either direction. I don't expect Kubo to hold it here, either. I mean, this is the man who is literally responsible for murdering his mother, which was the reason Ichigo even desired to protect anyone to begin with (his mother, that is), and Ichigo just acts as though he doesn't care. He's calm, collected, serious. That's not Ichigo.

Like I said, Kubo really seems to have forced this arc, and the way some characters are being portrayed (Soifon using Bankai TWICE now in this arc, the moment she's able to, despite stating how much it insults her pride to use it even once in the Arrancar arc) is really rubbing me wrong.