User blog comment:Kartik "k2"/Comparision between regular shinigami/Hollow and Vizards/Arrancars/@comment-5551986-20140918202200

Vasto Lorde i think are pretty strong, its just Hallibel was a weak one, I'm pretty sure she hardly ever consumed other hollows, and might have had some weakness akin to starvation. And the theory of their strength by Hitsugaya may have been greatly exaggerated, for one its doubtful hes met a Vasto Lorde, and may be just going on rumors, its never stated he fought one directly. And also, he probably never had a huge idea of how overpowered Yamamoto was, I couldn't see him getting beaten without a plan. Oh and Hitsugaya is a really inexperienced Shinigami compared to even Byakuya who is quite young himself, so add a little inaccuracy for that too.

Hitsugaya fought on par with Hallibel just by luck and skill. Luck being that his Zanpakuto could freeze her water, coincidentally being close to her cryptonite, and used his abilities fairly well and that she was nowhere near as viscous as the other Espada. Let's face it, if he happened to have a flame type or even a melee type, he would have got torn to pieces. Skill being that Hitsugaya isn't just some amateur, during his fight most the wiki's combat data of him was taken from that fight due to the sheer volume of techniques he used when compared to Shawlong (whom he probably underestimated and had a restriction seal, so due to his fight he was more wary of their power)

It should be noted that Hitsugaya only really had a good advantage when he used his best technique that weird 100 flower thing, which didn't actually kill her. Also Hitsugaya seemed to be merely on the defensive and saving his own hide rather than trying to kill her, if his best move couldn't what can? He never really and truly pressed her, even when he had 2 visored helping, albeit they were lieutenant level, Hallibel was virtually undefeated.