User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 555 - THE HERO/@comment-4207271-20131030053245/@comment-1268838-20131101015204

Except word of mouth is literally all we have to go on. Pointing to Aizen, who was literally only wrong in his last moments when he was facing the one thing he could not accept or understand, does not set a precedent for everybody else in the series - or me, for that matter. "Amongst the enemy forces, there are at least 16 individuals with power comparable to or greater than a Captain-level Shinigami." "But you're not the kind of opponent we can defeat without using our Bankai." Those are both statements made by some of the most informed characters in the series, attesting to the fact that at the very least, these opponents are an equal match to the captains.

And again, while Quilge was not pleased to see Tensa Zangetsu (he was outright ordered to not even let Ichigo use it), it's what he was thinking after that was more important. "Why is it that... this man is able to outmatch me so easily?" Why would Quilge be thinking that, if he were not confident that he was powerful enough to take on anyone else's Bankai?

Of course the Quincy are all going to get defeated - that's a matter of fact, not just your opinion. They are the antagonists. But with the context of what we've seen and been told already, it is not going to be easy for the Shinigami.

The arguments about Out-Of-Character characters are not new, and frankly, I don't agree with any of them. I'd argue the specifics for that one, but that is even less relevant to this blog than what has already been discussed.