Kubo's BIGGEST MISTAKE (With the Espada) | Bleach DISCUSSION

I think the main issue throughout the whole series was the power creep of the captains. Bleach was probably at the peak of popularity during this arc so I’m guessing they got cold feet actually offing some of the Gotei. Missed opportunity if you ask me, the character roster was overloaded after the Aizen arc.

They should have really allowed them to win some fights and kill some shinigami. There should have been a part where a midlevel Espada (Nnoitra, Zommari, Grimmjow?) is locked in a fight against a few lieutenants (like Sasakibe, Omaeda, Isane, Tetsuzamon and the two guys from the 13th), and killed some of them, while seriously wounding others. There should have been some replacement captains for the 3rd, 5th and 9th squads who could have been killed by the three strongest Espada in a skirmish. Some of the less popular/least important captains like Suifeng and Komamura could have been killed by an Espada too. Soul Society really flawlessed Aizen's army at the end, there should have been casulties.

I'm confused, don't you want the Soul Reapers aka Shinigami to beat the Espada?

It begs the question, why didn't the Soul Reapers just go to Hueco Mundo and wipe out the most powerful hollows before they reached the human world?

I always felt like Ulquiorra should have been the main villain. Like I get he was number 4 but it feels like he was the strongest with his second form. Plus he was so smart he should been the guy to usurp Josh Groban and steal the magic hacks bullshit wish making sphere cube. I think it would have been a huge surprise for the guy who put all this ish in motion to get betrayed and killed off by a villain who appears as the first henchmen of the arc(arcs). His views of humanity is great, and he is real intimidating as a bad guy with how calculating and unbothered he constantly is

I'd like to think in a perfect world, we could have Gotei 13 vs Espada vs Sternritter in all out warfare.

Would've been epic even though it's just fight after fight

me to MrTommo...Uh it's called PLOT ARMOR..? LOL I love these vids and Bleach but yea plot armor is a huge problem in it.

I remember the scene where Hitsugaya is talking about the vasto lorde power scale and the danger they represent to the SS. He was talking about 10 VL > GOTEI 13 . It's hard to think about that considering yamamoto but as far as we know only number 1 to 4 were Vasto Lordes(maybe wonderwise was a VL too). I wish every espada were a Vasto Lorde and also have first and second resurrection(like shinigamis have shikai and bankai).

Honestly the Lieutenants and seated characters really shined

One of my main problems with the espada hierarchy was with the fact that the numbers were supposed to be a symbol for their placing in the ranks. To explain further:

10 (0) x 9: Yammy is literally the poster child for the stupid meathead, and receives no respect from his fellow espada. Yet he imposes far more of a menace than number 9 Arroniero who, besides the great fight he had with Rukia, was defeated by a vice Captain level fighter and was basically a Gillian who could consume Shinigamis and Hollows to add his strength.

8 x 7: Apollo is far superior than Zommari in regards to skill and intelligence.

6 x 5: The only thing I can see tipping the scales for Nnorita is his Hierro and his unusual weapon.

4 x 3: Aizen probably knew that Ulquiorra had a second release. Harribel is by no means weak but her Fraction did far more damage to the Gotei 13 than the third espada and Ulquiorra only fell because Ichigo became a Vasto Lorde.

2 x 1: Barragan was the King of Hueco Mundo, had the skill to age and rot even Kidou with a reach similar to Senbonzakura and a massive black Axe. Meanwhile Starkk, the primeira espada, had guns that shot in rapid succession Cero Blasts and could make swords or seeking Ceros. If Ukitake wasn't taken out by Wonderweiss or if Rose used his Bankai the end of his battle would be way worse...

I think it was ok with the lower espada being presented as strong but beaten up by captains easily. The mid tier espada would have captain level and they did, they were hard but at last were beaten. But top 3... were really badly treated. OK if Ulquiorra was the strongest, but Hitsugaya who struggled with a Numero in Bankai (even with the limitator), having chance with her? and Yammy 0 espada only would be ok if he was up to it and said beaten by... Unohana. Here a nice scenario: Yammy beats Byakuya Mayuri and Kenpachi. Unohana beats him with Bankai. Hallibel beats Hitsugaya Hiyori and Lisa. Yamamoto beats her as he did with Ayon, with ease, showing how powerfull he is (so he gets a win sometime also haha). Barragan beats Soi Fong and Hachi, Ukitake gets up and give him Respira back or some hax like that. Stark beats Love and Rose and Kyoraku teams up with Shinji and Tessai to beat him in a hard struggle. Inoue comes back with Unohana and heals everybody for Aizen. Or maybe Aizen just beats Unohana, Kyoraku, Shinji, Tessai, and Ukitake together (the ones who beat the top 0-3 espada save Yamamoto), so his power IS shown huge, also Yamamoto's, and then they face each other (with all the wonderweiss stuff equal).

Kubo is a good character designer, up their with Nomura himself. I would consider him a character designer giving a battlefield to his designs.

Just seeing this now, and agreed with the Espada, especially when Aizen literally says how disappointed he is to have to step into the frey since they couldn't fight for him.

Have a question though Tommo, I've been watching the older videos and when did you stop using background music in the videos?

Top 10 things i hate about bleach:
-Nnoitra having incredible development just to instantly die
-yeh that's it

i really hated the fact that baragan who destroyed an entire building in an instant. Didn't even try to finish what his underlings started, which was destroy the pillars.

I honestly think stark should’ve either fought and kill another captain first or at least made shunsui use his bankai the #1 Espada got murked by a shikai

Stark, Hallibel and Barragan were so unbelievably disappointing and just messed up the power scaling. Hitsugya for example fighting so evenly with Hallibel, nunber 3 was nonsense.

The problem is that the rankings don't make sense... Ulquiorra definitely should have been #1, Grimmjow #2 and Nnoitora #3... Yami shouldn't have been an Espada at all but Ulquiorra's fraccioni and as for Espada #0... Well that honour should have gone to the king of Hueco Mundo himself Baragan

The thing is, we got to see the arrancars invading the human world and wiping the floor with the captains, Grimmijow who is just espada 6 destroying bankai Ichigo which at the time was powerful enough to go against Biyakuya one of the strongest captains in gotei 13. By that logic, espadas above Ulquiorra should've be godlike but instead they were actually very weak, c'mon hitsugaya beating espada number 3 felt hillarious, the guy was struggling to beat some dog shit arrancar.

Maybe it’s that the espada were a bunch of bandits basically they all believed in their own strength not the strength of their leader Aizen. Idk if the point of aizen getting them was to beat soul society rather if they did it’d be a bonus. Hollows are unstable emotional beings right?

Stark essentially losing to a shikai was the biggest wtf moment. Granted, Kyoraku was, at the time, in the top 3 as far as captains were concerned & probably showcased the most intriguing shikai there is, but still... it was such a let down.

Excellent video

It was really frustrating how the Espada were used. Halibel stood by and watched Grimmjow get beaten by Ichigo , then watches Nnoitora annihilate him, when he's obviously a valuable combat asset to their cause. Grimmjow should've been saved by Halibel...Noitora should've won his fight by all right against Kenpachi. Ulquiorra should've won too but fuckin Plot shields. Also, for being the Primera Espada - Starrk just fought like utter shit. For a guy who literally annihilates other hollows that even come near him , Starrk just got nerf'ed. It's rediculous.

For being the "Fastest" espada and having a special Sonido technique (Gemelos Sonido) , Zommari had sooooooo much promise , but he got shat on.

When arrancars arrive in fake karakura town, Kubo didn't even cared about killing about that fatso lietenant 'Omaeda'.

The Espada needed more W's.
Kill some characters like Chad, some Vizards, Lieutenants, etc, for example.

But can nnoitra survive hell?

And that's why they suck as villains. They had no credibility. Without credibility, they cannot help but suck. And honestly, if Aizen, had simply not executedthe Privaron espada for failing, and had the Espada gang up on the captains sent to recover Ichigo, then maybe the Arrancars wouldn't have had such a poor showing.

this dude is the king of taking a 5 minute video and making it a 30 minute video

I still firmly believe that the espada fought in Las Noches should've been opponents that Ichigo's team dealt with, rather than have what are most likely the three most busted captains in the gotei to bail them out.

Give our protagonists (ichigo aside) actual fights and let them shine, and then when they've gone through their solo fights, have them either team up against one espada, pooling together their power to overcome them after they're all worn out or THEN have the other captains come in to help them out.

fights of espada 3, 2, 1, 0 were really disappointing. especially Baragan, he has the most frightening of powers but underdelivers. It should be illegal to teleport stuff inside someone.
The rest were on the spot.

stark should of lived and ended up being a captin as it brings the old man got weaker let a hollow as captin?

The only problem with the Espada their lack of any kind of meaningful body count they kill almost no characters of any kind of meaningful importance they should have taken down at least a couple of captains were important characters.

You are totally right, the danger level is totally different, i kinda look at it as a foreshadowing for the shinigamis dectatorship aspect over Hollows, as they are a superior entities looking down on them.

I would prefer if the Espada were much more of a threat instead of getting wiped by the captains and Ichigo 😭
Like I might go as far as to say they could’ve killed off a major character just to leave an impact

I agree with your point

the biggest, biggest let down was Halibel's fight. She didn't feel threatening or powerful at all, while hitsugaya is a prodigy, she being number 3 should have absolutely ended hitsugaya.

Even the scale is all over the place. The Ichigo that beat Byakuya is taking a beating from espada 6 without his ressurrecion. It really makes no sense for other captains to take down the top espada WITH ressurrecion.

I despise Kubo not writting Orihime healing Neliel's completely, then she returns in the last arc and doesn't do anything. And Grimjow does almost nothing. They should have both gotten a fight where they use the second ressurreccion.

I think the problem started with the Anime adaptation which nerfed violence and gore to be more child-friendly. Lighting, and coloring were toned down.

The problem lies inherently in the mode of production of a shonen weekly manga series.
The sternritters actually did concretely represent a bigger threat because Kubo by then already knew it was the end.
By the time of the hueco mundo or fake karakura town the plannings would only go so far as Kubo could have in the insane weekly work and schedule. It's not like a book which is countless times re-written and made to have a factual cohesion. Also a determined end towards which the happenings will lead. It's always vague and undetermined, a lot of left in the air propositions and later on contradictions with those determinations left behind.
If it wasn't weekly and the absurd pressure to keep going as much as possible weren't real, if fake karakura was to be the end, how would Kubo have written hueco mundo and fake karakura? 100% more deaths would be happening. But as he didn't know and on the contrary probably was disencouraged to make anything irreversible to the ad aeternun continuation of the series, the spada were just bravado, despite an excellent and stylish one. Which is sad.
Btw I'm on bleach since 2005; so I loved it throughout week by week.

Top 3 were really bad. Both Harribel and Barragan lost to two of the weakest captains 1v1. For Stark I thought going toe to toe with Shunsui and Ukitake was fine than he really get his ass kicked by those two jobber visored. Dont even remember their names.

The espada are used to make Aizen disappointed in them.

Ask any anime fan and the Eapada will always be seen with popularity and respect, they are just too cool.
One of the legendary character groups in anime history along with the Z Fighters(DB), Akatsuki(NS), The Emperors(OP) and others.
Bleach is known for its iconic groups like the Gotei 13, Squad-0, the Stirnritter and the Schutzstaffel but none are as iconic and popular as the Espada.

The Akatsuki like the Eapada also loose every fight they'er in (to teenage shinobi) exept for Pain himself who bodies almost all of Konoha by himself but then Naruto comes to save the day via Talk No Jutsu! So he just changes his mind. Itd pretty much be like if Ichigo out of nowhere convinced Aizen to stop what hes doing and see the light after Aizen claps all Seireity and fights Ichigo for a bit after most Eapada are defeated or leave the group. Thats how the Akatsuki fall. At least the Espada lost to the best of the best Soul Society had to offer. Most Akatsuki got done in by teenage noob shinobi. (Granted prodigies kids)

Cascada, Respira, and Cero Metralletta, are all massive attacks that should've each individually forced the entire Gotei 13 to deal with them purely because they are large enough to cover the entire Fake Karakura Town at once...but that just doesn't happen.

His biggest mistake was not having Nelliel kill that sexist piece of shit

Really, all I feel Kubo could have did was just give the Top 4 Espada a second release. I get its what made Ulquirora special, but least now the captains need to work together and jump them if they wanna win.

To me it just seemed expected. The espada is a new organization (at a guess most were only espada a few years). The same with Aiziens kingdom; plus it never felt like they were preparing for war. They often fought as hollows would fight. It felt like gangsters going into battle with professional fighters; them getting steam rolled felt natural. Imagine if every espada learned their 'bankai'? Imagine if each unique cero ability could be used by everyone? (Maybe not Stark's gattling gun)

They certainly had the potential to steamroll the soul society if given the time and training.

By contrast the quincies were preparing for war for a thousand years. Even if none of them were from that time they still would of learned the skills of their forebearers and improved on them. That, to me, is the key difference here.

The one Quincy in the story, Uryu Ishida, should have gotten to accomplish more, as well as Chad. They could have taken out #8 together, or something. Meanwhile Ichigo gets his privaron AND two Espada THEN Aizen.

Was there anything you'd improve about the Espada overall? How would they have fared in the final arc? Let me know!