There are limits and exceptions obviously.
As you know, the effectiveness of any ability on an intended target is determined by who has the greater reiatsu, and how wide the gap is in the strength of that reiatsu. At the point in the story when Yuha activated the Auschwalen that killed Gerard he had absorbed the original Soul King. Yuha’s power clearly would have eclipsed Gerard’s own and had overridden any hax he may have otherwise activated in that moment.
This is without even taking into account Yuha’s natural dominion over all other Quincy given his status as their progenitor and king. And not to mention the power of the Almighty on top of all of this, which has been further enhanced by the Soul King’s power.
In hindsight, I will admit that Kenpachi pulling off a win will be more difficult than I first thought. Trunks and Sasuke present considerable obstacles. Zoro however? I maintain that Kenpachi’s physical abilities definitely far exceed his own. For one, there’s no evidence that Zoro has ever matched the meteor feat, at the very least not without significantly more effort than Kenpachi himself gave.
And also - I believe the enemy whom Trunks fought that you were referring to was Goku Black. Yes, Trunks fought Goku Black, but he most definitely didn’t beat him. Not even close. And there was a lot of outside help involved to begin with from Goku and Vegeta. What’s more, Goku Black’s way of tearing space time clearly required a certain amount of energy and effort to pull of. Kenpachi simply swung at it normally with the intent to cut, and it worked.
In terms of raw ability and physical power, Kenpachi clears everyone here imo. Remember his feats against Gremmy - he tanked a close range nuked blast, shattered a city-sized meteor with a casual swing of his Shikai, and literally cleaved through the fabric of space-time when Gremmy tried to trap him in space. To my knowledge, no other swordsman on this list has come close to doing anything like this.
Gerard is almost certainly capable of damaging Lille actually. Last I checked, the ‘Miracle’ doesn’t just apply to his own body - there’s an element of probability manipulation/hax involved. When faced with an opponent who phases through all attacks, it would be a ‘Miracle’ for Gerard to hit them right? And that’s exactly why he’ll pull it off.
He did something similar when confronted with all of those captains at first. The lower the probability of success normally, the more powerful the effect of the Miracle becomes. ‘Surely he can’t beat all of those captains at once’ - and then he does. It’s a miracle.
’Surely he won’t come back to life yet again’ - and then he does. It’s a miracle.
You get the picture.
Spoiler Warning!
Ichigo in true Bankai straight up one-shot Soul King Ywhach and killed him. Twice. And that was AFTER Ywhach stole his Quincy and Hollow powers, meaning no access to Horn of Salvation or Blut Vene.
The moment Ichigo goes all out Kenpachi is finished.
LOL I suspected you the moment you mentioned Hell Arc Squad 8 but now you’ve just gone and said the quiet part out loud
Vizards for sure. Hollow *and* Shinigami powers plus you mostly get to just hang out and do what you want
Oh really? That’s kinda cool. Looks like powerscalers are gonna have their hands full though lol.
It’s less of an ‘I love Ywhach’ thing and more of a ‘who’s powers are more blatantly ridiculous’ thing I guess, you feel me? To be honest I lowkey just used my first comment to complain about the Almighty cuz I truly do hate how broken that ability is for the series lmao. Literally the only reason he could be killed for good was a barely-foreshadowed plot device. Looking back on it I did sound a little dramatic so let’s hope I can edit that out 👀.
I catch up with the Marvel comics every so often too, so I’m aware of how Gwenpool and Deadpool just casually bend reality. I think that they genuinely do stand a chance except for the fact that, at least in theory anyway, Ywhach can see and know every possible and nonsensical method of action they take long before they themselves do, and then there’s the part about the Almighty giving him a degree of immunity to those things that he sees and the ability to ’break’ any ability that does him harm or simply alter that timeline of events if he wants. The dude is too broken.
Ywhach would win. Easily. Prep time is useless because Ywhach will have already seen everything they prepared and changed the future accordingly to his advantage. Never forget - the Almighty is one of the greatest ass-pulls in all of fiction. Just read the panels below to get an idea of how truly broken it is. (HUGE Spoilers btw)
The official answer is that a ‘strongest’ squad doesn’t actually exist. Each squad fulfills a particular niche role in Soul Society’s military and is roughly equal to every other squad in overall fighting strength once every member is taken into account.
I would have used the strength of the captains and lieutenants to determine the strength of the squads as well, but like someone else pointed out it depends on what point in time you’re looking at since captains and lieutenants will have changed posts, or will have died and been replaced.
Just looking at the ability of the footsoldiers, I would say that overall its a competition between Squad 1 and Squad 11. This is because Squad 1 is traditionally full of the most experienced and highly skilled veterans, and squad 11 is traditionally comprised of the most bloodthirsty and brutish fighters.
I think Ichigo would just be allowed to keep living independently as a ‘substitute’ Soul Reaper after he passes over to Soul Society. He’s too powerful to realistically be a good fit for any regular rank of either the Gotei 13 or the Royal Guard. Plus, he would probably be given a lot of special treatment and a few unique privileges as thanks for his deeds as the savior of Soul Society. This is especially likely given the reforms made by Shunsui after the war. As long as Soul Society can keep an eye on him and he keeps defending them as an ally when they ask for help, I’m willing to bet that Ichigo would more or less have the autonomy to live the way he wants
I’ll give you that one for the most part. But I’d like to argue again that Ichigo’s performance should be seen as remarkably impressive regardless considering the centuries of experience these captains have. Especially considering that Ichigo himself has had maybe a few weeks of proper training in total, and also the fact that these are feats from Soul-Society/Arrancar arc Ichigo. We haven’t even taken into account any of the improvements he’ll have inevitably made from his training with Ginjo and more importantly with the Zero Division. Then there’s also the 10 year timeskip to the end of the series and the new hell arc to consider as well in terms of skill and experience that he’ll have gained.
Lets look at things from the other side too while we’re at it - I’m assuming you’re pretty familiar with One Piece as well, so if you have the time please explain what Mihawk has proven over Ichigo in terms of traditional sword skill - and I’m not talking about giant slash attacks to cut something arbitrarily big, but rather actual melee feats in a duel.
I would disagree. When it comes to sword skill one could argue that Mihawk actually has more to prove than Ichigo does.
In terms of pure swordplay without any advanced spiritual pressure techniques, Ichigo has trained under Urahara, fought as equals against Byakuya and Gin, and outright beaten Kenpachi.
Keep in mind that these guys all have CENTURIES of training and combat experience under their belt, which means that even if you wanted to level their physical stats with Mihawk, they would still be much better swordsmen than he is by default because they have spent more time with the blade than he’s even been alive. Several of his lifetimes in fact. Ichigo has the battle IQ and improvement rate to go blow for blow with guys like this as an equal, so Mihawk is still losing regardless.
This is even more solidified when you take into account that Gin is a prodigy even by Captain standards, but Ichigo was still able to adapt and match him AS they were fighting. You simply don’t see Ichigo’s level of adaptability and on-the-fly strategy making in any One Piece sword fights.
I’ve followed Bleach for half my life and to this day the waste of Chad’s character is one of the biggest problems I have with the series. He could have been so much more but Kubo refuses to give him the time of day.
I mean for crying out loud the guy is supposed to be Ichigo’s BEST FRIEND and the the two of them have a pact to always fight for each other. That dynamic should’ve been way more important especially now that Chad starts doubting if he’s strong enough to have Ichigo’s back. That’s an easy setup for a great training/character development arc but it was sacrificed for more superficial captain fights instead.
Imo Chad should have had a rematch and won against Yami (in base form) sometime after beating Gantenbaine to show how much stronger he got - way better than wasting the Espada 0 reveal just to get off-screened by Byakuya and Zaraki anyway (I’m totally not bitter I promise)
Chad is also by far the most physically gifted among Ichigo’s friends - just let Yoruiichi or Kensei teach him some Hakuda techniques to use with his powers already and he’d be awesome.
Rukia’s bankai is so overhyped - It‘s not as impressive as you think it is, especially against someone like Ichigo who’s reiatsu and physical ability has always massively dwarfed her own several times over.
Remember that Vasto Lorde Ichigo was at less than HALF of his full power when he low-diffed Ulquiorra’s second form, which could fire energy attacks capable of destroying Las Noches over and over without getting tired. As Nodt hasn’t demonstrated anything that’s anywhere near that level of power.
Plus, Rukia‘s Bankai is still new and she’s far from mastery. After that initial burst of cold she’s literally no better than a sitting statue until she can defrost again, which can only happen very slowly otherwise she risks shattering herself. Its a safe bet that Vasto Lorde Ichigo at full power can and will survive that blast, and when he does, Rukia is as good as dead. The only one here who presents a problem is Hitsugaya.
Phenomenal, I’ve been watching them both on repeat for ages
Btw the final transformation that Ichigo used to beat Aizen is actually called the Final Getsugatensho. Mugetsu is just an offensive technique that Ichigo can use while in that form. But then again, ‘Final Getsugatensho’ is a long ass name and no way am I saying it every time so I see why ppl just say Mugetsu lmao.
The funny thing is that this poll technically makes no sense - both the Final Getsugatensho and Bankai transformations are essentially power multipliers, and the Final Getsugatensho is obviously a way stonger transformation than Bankai in terms of the size of the power boost it gives, it’s just that Ichigo has gotten so much stronger since the fight against Aizen that just going into Bankai as he is now makes him stronger than when he activated the Final Getsugatensho way back then.
I’m assuming this comparison is based on the point in time that Ichigo used them. If that’s actually the case, then True Bankai is obviously way stronger.
The core of a Soul Reaper’s power is the strength of their relationship with their Zanpakuto and back during the fight with Aizen, Ichigo still had a pretty dysfunctional relationship with Zangetsu. He rejected his Hollow and his inner Quincy was suppressing him. This means that even when he used Mugetsu against Aizen he was never actually fighting at full potential, only a small fraction of it.
True Zangetsu on the other hand is the result of Ichigo finally understanding and embracing every aspect of his powers. At this point in time he has achieved complete synergy with Zangetsu and can use the full power of both his Quincy and Hollow side.
Add that to the fact that Ichigo’s reiatsu and physical strength in general is several times greater than what he had during the battle against Aizen thanks to his fullbring training, receiving reiatsu from all the captains, and his training at the Soul King’s palace. Yeah, he’s wayyyy stronger.
How can you fight what you can’t see