Was there any bigger of a waste than Zommari in the Espada? Maybe Test tube head, but the fact he had Kaien absorbed into him had a lot of potential just untapped. Zommari, apart from a cool base design was just lame. Fastest Espada was effectively worthless to the 3rd, potentially 4th, fastest Shinigami on the Gotei 13's side. Thought his Arrancar Monk gimmick would be cool, but he just sort of pontificates and dies.
Yeah, yeah. Grimm / Ulquiorra are the fan favorites. And I know there's a reason for that. Grimmjow's rebellous attitudes towards Aizen, the lord of Hax, is pretty cool. And his general demeanor can grab ya. Just not my type of character. He feels like he has no idea where he's going. Being King is great and all, and I know it's his desire to be the best, but it feels nebulous in some ways. A very airy goal. That and he vanishes off the screen only to return in a minor way. If he helped out Ichigo more, I'd be inclined to like'em. But it feels like he's there and then gone.
Ulquiorra's a little better in my book, but the fact half his screen time is against Orihime, who I have a very low opinion of, hinders him. I think his Power Scaling is whack even before Segunta Etapa and his death rattle makes me roll my eyes. But, IMO, the Espada are more interesting due to the relationships they have with one another. The little bit of banter and history we get and because Arrancar in general are just cool as shit.
I do find it cool that Grimmjow was probably one of the first of the second Gen. Espada though.
We're gonna have to fight because after Starrk, Nelliel and maybe Baragan, Nnoitra is my favorite Espada. Dude's in the strong half of the Espada and proves it. But I just love his "death", Despair. Love how his explanation to Nelliel (or someone, we really need to do this reread lmao) was the fact he fought essentially to die. He'd keep going after tougher and tougher people, but at the end of the day he thought his life had zero value. Add in some misogyny towards Nelliel (and more than a little sexual tension with her) and that weird love-hate relationship he had with Tesla and I'm hooked.
Nnoitra being one of the only Espada we've seen plotting against their own, making backhanded alliances to get rid of people, is real cool too. Especially because it's personal. He's not doing this to Ulquiorra to be the #4 Espada, but he just can't stand the thought of Nelliel of all people above him.