User blog comment:Lia Schiffer/415: Deicide 17/@comment-2250530-20100814081101

@ Captain Brooks That is an excellent point that had not come to mind when I posted the original thought. After thinking about the cases you mentioned, though, I offer this as a possible counter, though I admit this may be a stretch. In the case of #1, Renji was already injured from his conflict with Byakuya (though he had received some healing). He had just reached Bankai and was still inexperienced with its use. Aizen stopped his attack with his hand, a show of his immense reiatsu. He delivered a blow destroying Renji's shikai. I might suggest this is a case of his superior power than any adept swordplay. The stance he takes is first defensive and he attempts to dissuade Renji from defending Rukia, thus showing a predilection to avoid offensive power in the form of his sword.

In the case of #2; Lisa, Rose, Love, Soifon, Sajin, and Shunsui were already weakened by their previous fights so it would be fair to say they were not at full fighting capacity. There are actually two cases for Toshiro. One was in the Soul Society Arc when Aizen revealed himself to Momo, Isane, Unohana, and Toshiro. The other is his defeat in the Fake Karakura Arc with the others. Interestingly, in both instances, Aizen was able to use psychological tactics to stir Toshiro to act uncharacteristically out of control by referencing Momo and thus give himself a fighting advantage. Furthermore Toshiro was also weakened already in the Fake Karakura Arc. I would say that in the case of Shinji, however, we do have an ‘equal’ fight in the sense that Shinji was operating at full strength.

There was an indication that they were all still under the power of Absolute Hypnosis in his reference to Shinji’s question after they discover Toshiro had impaled Momo instead of Aizen (cf. manga 392, p. 17. Though I admit it is not clear how this would necessarily have impacted their fighting ability). I think in the case of Shinji and in reality, all of them, we can understand the way of Aizen’s fighting in his statement on the nature of shinigami vs. shinigami fighting. Aizen alludes to it in his fight with Sajin (manga 390, p. 12-14) in that Sajin’s definition of power and Aizen’s are different. He then demonstrates by severing both the zanpakuto and arm of his bankai. While this may appear to show the nature of his swordsmanship I think it is actually a demonstration of what he told Soifon was the inherent aspects of shinigami on shinigami fighting – namely a battle of reiatsu (manga 391, p. 15). Thus his level of reiatsu can suppress a captain’s shikai from even affecting him. If Aizen’s reiatsu is indeed the level of multiple captains, then it would be no surprise that he could defeat multiple weakened captains (not excluding whatever additional power he was channeling at this time from the hogyoku).

I guess my main point is that Aizen seems to derive power best by using other resources first before direct engagement (taunting, subordinates, illusion, kido, etc.). While we can easily assume that he has swordsmanship prowess since he is a captain, it is interesting that he uses all of these other means first and even in his sword strikes, there seems to be a sense of his powerful reiatsu behind the intensity of his strike (obviously) more than his ability. I know I am belaboring the point, but this is what I am getting at when I say his zanpakuto is a complementary reflection of himself (as they are supposed to be). It is not offensive in nature but uses other means in a very powerful manner. Thus his power, as he told Sajin, is not understood by the other shinigami. I am not going to swear by this or anything, I just think that he is possibly not as all powerful as everyone believes, just different and thus has his weaknesses yet to be discovered.