Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24593407-20140226215644/@comment-3507581-20141119234558

Hmmm... too long to answer, but well...

The Espada, Aizen's army's top ten most powerful arrancar, are sure a special case. For an arc which spanned 5 years out of Bleach lifespan, there were sure a lot to expect about these nutjobs. Ulquiorra and Yammy were the first Espada (and by extention, Arrrancar) to be introduced; the former met his end by succumbing to the wounds inflicted by Ichigo in his hollow form; that would be luck, in your logic; Yammy, in his case, was the last to be defeated, and it took two Captains (Byakuya and Kenpachi) to crush him since neither one of Ichigo's friends was able to do so. In that case, it was a matter of strength combined with personality since Yammy was pure muscle and no brain, plus he was arrogant.

Then we have Grimmjow, which was confirmed dead by Kubo himself. Ichigo needed to "call a little help from friendship" to defeat him, given the lack of experience he has compared to a Gotei 13 captain. Aaroniero was introduced just when Wonderweiss was turned into an Arrancar. Given his position as Noveno, he was the first to die, due to him being a gloater and the fact that he underestimated Rukia after giving her a taste of manipulation, and that's why he didn't exploit his abilities to the max. Szayelaporro had to be drugged by Mayuri to get killed, and note that Mayuri was planning this battle with caution and even got prepared. Zommari was nothing but an arrogant mass, and this coupled by the fact that he wanted to prove his supposed superiority was his downfall. Nnoitra, then was killed by Kenpachi which had to come in hand with his intensive training of kendo in order to overpower his opponent, yes, training.

Then, finally, we have the top 3 Espada: Baraggan, which had a death befitting his arrogance, which if not, could allow him to use his Resurrección ability in the same level as Kyoka Suigetsu. Oh, and Hachigen was very intelligent to theorize the nature of Baraggan's power and came with an effective tactic to counter it. Starrk was killed fair and square by a more powerful Kyoraku, and Harribel is not dead.