Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24873020-20140427214458

In my opinion, ulquiorra could have easily been No.1 espada. I mean, in his first release he already is a beast, being able to effortlessly defeat bankai-hollow mask ichigo after he defeated grimmjow. While Hallibel struggled against one captain, who was probably much less powerful than hollow mask ichigo. That already confirms that his first release is stronger than halibel. I am not sure about Barragan and stark though. They are both powerful fighters and fast. But considering that Ichigo is knowledgeable for his speed and reflexes, which are further increased when going bankai and putting on the hollow mask,and that he was easily outrun by him, I'd say Ulquiorra is at least as fast as they are, if not faster(in R1). His attacks are destructive as well, his cero oscuras was able to scatter ichigo's mask as well as heavily damaging him, and taking out a huge part of the city sized las noches' top....while the first 10, clear shots from grimmjow didn't do jack against it. He was also able to block a full-powered hollow getsuga tenshou with his mere reiatsu. I'd say he'd have a chance against both stark and baragan in R1. IN R2, there are no questions to be asked for me. He could kill barragan with lanza del rampago, it is clearly on a different level than that of soi fong's bankai. and even that was able to blow a giant whole in him. He clearly outmatches both of them in speed. Stark's ceros might be fast, but it's useless if they can't do jack against ulquiorra. his wolfs are strong, but still not something ulquiorra would take much damage from, and he could just recover. I mean two captain level shinigamis were able to withstand the wolfs. They won't appear to be much of a problem for someone his level. Stark's wolfs are lucky if they can be as strong as ulquiorra's cero oscuras (in R2), but they aren't i don't think so anyway. For me he is definitely the strongest espada, and his R2 level can be compared to aizen's base form in my opinion.  