User blog comment:Godisme/The Closing Chapter Part 1/@comment-117598-20120531141750

I don't know if Kubo is trying to shock everyone and make up for the fact that no good guy died during the Arrancar arc, but this is a bit much. Right out of the gate, he's killing thousands of Shinigami, two of which were well known lieutenants throughout the series and their deaths were really sudden with no emotional build up at all. It just seems bizarre to me that such powerful foes that seem to be decimating shinigami left and right were "laying low" for their perfect moment to strike. Sorry, but I would have to agree with everyone that mentioned them being a bit overpowered. I guess Kubo needs to create a legitimate reason for bringing in the Royal Guard, but at the same time, how do you have such a large group of powerful characters hidden away somewhere completely unnoticed? Why did they wait 17 months after the Arrancar fight to attack? They seemed powerful enough to strike whenever, so why not attack when the Gotei was recovering? I'll give it some time. It's not like I'm going to drop the series, especially in its final arc. Maybe things will be different once they face a Captain. I know that in terms of power, there's supposed to be a huge gap between lieutenants and captains, so perhaps it will be more leveled when they fight, but everything seems so one-sided with the quincy, like Kubo is trying really hard to make these guys truly a fearsome force. BUT 1000 Shinigami deaths in 7 minutes??? C'mon. Also, what is the deal with bringing in new characters and then killing them off? What's the purpose in naming them? Just have them in the background. There's tons of nameless shinigami in panels. They easily could have been any one of them. And to be honest, Kira's death was a bit too sudden. Didn't even clash with a sword or block an attack. One second he's charging in, the next half his body is gone. Wow, I completely trashed the arc right now even though its still in its infant stage.