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Rank All 13 Captains at their best based off the Thousand Year Blood War Arc.
What I took into account in my list:
1. My list took performance and what was shown into account moreso than what could have been, for example the Vizard captains have cases to be higher with their hollowfication but they simply never used it. I’m not sure if there was a reason provided in one of the novels but I think the reason they didn’t use it had to do with with the honor of being a Gotei 13 member or something like that. Though Mashiro used her mask while training with Shuhei, but I guess she’s not officially part of the Gotei and Kensei just brought her to help train Shuhei. This also applies to characters like Ukitake, if we got more with him he could have been higher on my list.
With that being said, this joint legit took me 3 days to make and compile. I wanted to go in depth for some Captains but sadly there’s an image limit so I wasn’t able to do so, but it was getting kind of long and I said mostly what needed to be said.
Coming in at 13, I got Soifon. I think this one is self explanatory or at least should be. Soifon was already one of the weaker Captains to begin with. With the other weaker Captains who were around her level gaining new abilities and power ups, she gets bumped in the rankings. She honestly didn’t do much either as far as feats go to demand a higher spot.
In her fight against BG9, she didn’t really impress despite mastering her Shunko to this extent:
She barely even left a scratch on BG9 using this improved Shunko and couldn’t handle him in close quarters combat either:
She barely managed a win by getting her bankai back and Omaeda helped her lift her arm to aim the Jakuho missle towards BG9.
With BG9 being one of the weaker Sternritter, you can already see why she comes in at 13. She practically did nothing noteworthy for the rest of the arc and was possibly one of the people who were sidelined due to Lille’s deadly sniping during the Wahrwelt invasion, she wasn’t shown and wouldn’t have mattered vs the Schutzstaffel anyway.
Until Mask used his superstar hax and he proceeded to become a punching bag to create an opening for Rose. Not much else to say tbh, he’s one of those captains who are clearly below post Royal Guard training Renji and as such, this is where he belongs.
And then Mask proceeds to pop his freaking ear drums to dissipate the bankai’s effects. With his bankai rendered ineffective, he was basically done.
For some reason Kubo was on a mission to use the Vizard Captains as punching bags to hype up the Sternritter and then have those Sternritter be defeated by other characters like post RG Renji, whom Rose is clearly weaker than which is why he comes in at 11th.
10. Shinji
I never thought someone like Shinji would be this low but we cannot go against the evidence and author intent.
Where to begin with Shinji? This dude was catching so many Ls in the final arc that I’d honestly rename him Shanji. It was that bad.
This isn’t even taking into account what happened during the first invasion, we don’t know who Shinji actually faced in the first invasion but everyone was losing at the time. We can cut him some slack there no problem. However what happened throughout the rest of the arc is indicative of why he deserves to be called Shanji.
Let me break this down, chronologically:
Chapter 554- He confronts a rampaging Bambietta, immediately puts her under Sakanade’s effects:
- Bambietta gets dizzy, Shinji explains how the inverted world works and remarks that he’s not fond of cutting up “young misses”, as a result he doesn’t even attack her.
Chapter 555- Bambietta goes Vollstandig, ends with a cliffhanger of an explosion erupting in front of Shinji.
Chapter 556- Shinji passes out from the initial explosion, he gets bombed further as he falls:
- Bambietta attempts to finish him off but Komamura (of all people) protects him from getting attacked any further.
Chapter 581- Shinji is seen for the first time since getting bodied by Bambietta.
- He locates Soi Fon and Omaeda with Momo, they plan on saving Kenpachi from being killed by the quincy girls (post Gremmy battle) and Bazz B confronts Shinji and attacks him at this time:
- As a result of Bazz B’s intervention, (even though we don’t see what happens with Shinji) he is not part of the team that confronts the quincy girls. Which only tells us that he got another L.
Chapter 658: -During the Wahrwelt fight, he is one of the many characters that get sidelined by Gerard, being carried by his Vice Captain wounded and broken whilst we are shown Toshiro (who just showed up at the time) battling Gerard in the distance:
- this is the last we see of Shinji in the war.
Imagine having a final arc like this after being such a dog in the Arrancar Saga. After beating base Grimmjow and forcing him to almost release and after being the first guy to wound and momentarily throw Aizen off his game in a 1v1. He went from all that to being the one getting dogged by Bambietta and being rendered irrelevant vs Gerard.
Kubo did this man real dirty lmao. He has no case to be higher than this besides his hollowfication. Post RG Renji vs Shinji? Hard to realize but even Renji has surpassed Shinji at this point.
9. Dangai Komamura
After the Vizard Captains and Soifon, Komamura should be around here. In his human form, he got a pretty big boost in power to the point that he was able to one shot the same Bambietta who dogged on Shinji rather easily:
Of course at this point, the humanization technique made Komamura invulnerable to damage to an extent. Characters with higher reiatsu levels and hax would able to beat him though, which is why he isn’t higher than this imo. Still pretty solid though. He can body Shinji.
8. Ukitake
Ukitake like the Vizard Captains was another character who Kubo didn’t do much with in this arc (besides the Mimihagi stuff) but when we are talking about what he did in the entire series, he’s unlike all the Captains and is in a class of his own at that point. He barely was in any fights throughout the entire series. His only notable moments are fighting alongside Shunsui against Yamamoto and then later on Starrk. But he got sidelined by Wonderweiss and was asleep for the rest of Fake Karakura, causing him to miss the action everyone got against Aizen.
During the first Sternritter invasion, he was matched up against a Sternritter that looks like Askin:
If this is Askin, it’d be nice to see this expanded on in the anime.
But besides that, he’s got clear portrayal of being one of the top Captains, Yamamoto called him and Shunsui his strongest students and stated they were in a class of their own. That is enough to place him here but without any feats and illness holding him back, I can’t place him higher than the Captains who faced off against the Schutzstaffel (who are Royal Guard level) who gained/developed new abilities.
7. Mayuri
Mayuri comes in here for me. He was able to hang with one of the Schutzstaffel and the left arm of the Soul King in Pernida, though he ultimately would not have beaten him without Nemu’s help. Being able to contend with one of the elite quincys 1v1 for a while is enough to place him here but I don’t think he’s near the remaining Captains.
6. Byakuya
Post RG training Byakuya is one of the strongest Captains left for the Gotei 13 by the time he shows up. Simply put, he gains a considerable boost in overall power to the point that he could singlehandedly battle 5 Sternritter and manage to defeat 3 of them in just shikai:
Whereas before, he couldn’t even handle one. He was strong enough to play a crucial support role vs Gerard, who’s probably the strongest Quincy under Yhwach when he gets to the peak of his miracle hax. One spot shy of the top 5 is where he belongs.
I had a hard time choosing between Unohana and Shunsui at 4.
On one hand, you have Shunsui: a guy who has been portrayed as one of the strongest Captains. Was able to go toe to toe and force one of the Schutzstaffel in Lille to use Vollstandig. Dominated Vollstandig Lille with his Bankai:
Shunsui has better feats but on the other hand, you have Unohana who’s potrayal alone builds a stronger case imo but its close. Shunsui is clearly the strongest Captain by the time he’s Head Captain outside of the only War Potential in the Gotei and Toshiro.
4. Unohana
Unohana, while lacking comparable feats to Shunsui, has the superior portrayal, the panels speak for themselves:
She was also able to constantly fodderize early TYBW Kenpachi in their death battle, that Kenpachi is arguably stronger than most of the Captains who were struggling against the Sternritter in the first invasion.
Kenpachi wasn’t relative to her until he was close to restoring his unlocked power, which showcases she’s comfortably above anyone not named Shunsui and Byakuya, but is below the remaining Captains, who simply have greater feats, greater power or both.
3. Toshiro
Toshiro is within the top 3 for only one reason; his adult form:
Without it, he’s around 9 for me, possibly lower.
In his adult form, he’s able to hang with 2nd form Gerard. At this point, Toshiro is easily stronger than Shikai Kenpachi whom was able to defeat Gremmy (the strongest non-Schuzstaffel) and this is demonstrated when Toshiro was able to completely cut the Hoffnung in two:
not to mention negating its hax
While Shikai Kenpachi was struggling just to nick it:
Remember, Shikai Kenpachi at this point is heads and shoulders above the majority of the Captains which showcases just how strong Toshiro is in his adult form.
Another thing I would like to mention when it comes to Toshiro. Although this is lowkey speculation but taking a look back at this statement made by Shunsui in reference to Toshiro:
At face value, Shunsui was only making a guess about Toshiro’s potential here. But when you start to consider how Soul Reapers age and how mature Daigen Hyourinmaru is basically the pinnacle of his power.....It starts making a lot of sense.
We saw how characters like Byakuya and Gin were kids in the Turn Back The Pendulum flashback, which was 100 years ago give or take. Matured DH might as well be him a century older considering all that. Adding more credence to Toshiro being superior to Shunsui already.
2. Yamamoto
This one is pretty straightforward imo. Although it is debatable if he’s clearly above Adult Toshiro, I’m going with Yamamoto. Besides Kenpachi, he’s the only other Captain in the Gotei 13 who was potentially going to be considered part of the War Potentials by Yhwach, but wasn’t placed there because he lost an arm and gotten weaker than he was in his prime, as stated by Yhwach:
This is why he’s below Kenpachi who I got at no.1, but he’s above the rest.
1. Kenpachi
I got Kenpachi at no.1, he has a well grounded foundation of feats, portrayal and hype all in one. He’s within the top 5 without his bankai and with it, I think he’s honestly the strongest.
Kenpachi’s strength was considered invaluable to the Gotei 13 in the war multiple times:
He was the only figure from the Gotei 13 to be considered part of the 5 War Potentials:
With only a weaker and one armed Yamamoto coming close to that category.
In bankai, he displays a ridiculous amount of raw power when he was able to not only stop Gerard’s fist by biting it, but proceeded to chew off the dude’s entire arm:
And then he proceeds to cut him in half:
You gotta realize Gerard at this point is strong enough to no sell pretty much everyone except for a few select characters at the very top of the verse, i.e Yhwach, Aizen, Ichigo etc. So for Kenpachi to maul this dude like that is quite impressive.
I have seen people arguing that Toshiro replicated similar feats against a stronger Gerard and conclude Toshiro is superior, however:
1. 2nd form Gerard was able to fight back against Toshiro and break out of his flash freezing:
Whereas, Bankai Kenpachi vs Gerard was a completely one sided beatdown.
2. Who’s to say that Bankai Kenpachi wouldn’t be able to do just as well against 2nd form Gerard? If not better? Considering how like I said, 1st form Gerard didn’t stand no chance at all against Bankai Kenpachi which prompted Gerard to enter his 2nd form in turn to challenge Bankai Kenpachi.
Kenpachi is so strong at this point, that even in base its implied he can one shot Captains:
And Toshiro doesn’t deny that he could.
All in all, I think Kubo was making it pretty evident that Kenpachi was the strongest the Gotei 13 had at their disposal against the Wandenreich. Having him as a War Potential + the numerous statements showcasing his irreplaceable strength. I think that’s enough to place him on the No.1 spot.
Tags:
@Blackbeard @Van @Topi Jerami @ZenZu @RayanOO @TheAncientCenturion @Jiihad @Jo_Ndule @playa4321 and the rest
What I took into account in my list:
1. My list took performance and what was shown into account moreso than what could have been, for example the Vizard captains have cases to be higher with their hollowfication but they simply never used it. I’m not sure if there was a reason provided in one of the novels but I think the reason they didn’t use it had to do with with the honor of being a Gotei 13 member or something like that. Though Mashiro used her mask while training with Shuhei, but I guess she’s not officially part of the Gotei and Kensei just brought her to help train Shuhei. This also applies to characters like Ukitake, if we got more with him he could have been higher on my list.
With that being said, this joint legit took me 3 days to make and compile. I wanted to go in depth for some Captains but sadly there’s an image limit so I wasn’t able to do so, but it was getting kind of long and I said mostly what needed to be said.
13.
Soi-fon
In her fight against BG9, she didn’t really impress despite mastering her Shunko to this extent:
With BG9 being one of the weaker Sternritter, you can already see why she comes in at 13. She practically did nothing noteworthy for the rest of the arc and was possibly one of the people who were sidelined due to Lille’s deadly sniping during the Wahrwelt invasion, she wasn’t shown and wouldn’t have mattered vs the Schutzstaffel anyway.
12. Kensei
Kensei comes in here for me. Similar to Soifon, he simply didn’t stand out much to demand a higher spot. His shining moment came when he used his bankai against Mask and he was looking good here for a moment:
11. Rose
Pretty much what I said about Kensei can be applied to Rose. Although his bankai looked more impressive than Kensei’s and he performed better against Mask using it. Again like Kensei, Rose was looking good at one moment:
For some reason Kubo was on a mission to use the Vizard Captains as punching bags to hype up the Sternritter and then have those Sternritter be defeated by other characters like post RG Renji, whom Rose is clearly weaker than which is why he comes in at 11th.
10. Shinji
Where to begin with Shinji? This dude was catching so many Ls in the final arc that I’d honestly rename him Shanji. It was that bad.
This isn’t even taking into account what happened during the first invasion, we don’t know who Shinji actually faced in the first invasion but everyone was losing at the time. We can cut him some slack there no problem. However what happened throughout the rest of the arc is indicative of why he deserves to be called Shanji.
Let me break this down, chronologically:
Chapter 554- He confronts a rampaging Bambietta, immediately puts her under Sakanade’s effects:
Chapter 555- Bambietta goes Vollstandig, ends with a cliffhanger of an explosion erupting in front of Shinji.
Chapter 556- Shinji passes out from the initial explosion, he gets bombed further as he falls:
Chapter 581- Shinji is seen for the first time since getting bodied by Bambietta.
- He locates Soi Fon and Omaeda with Momo, they plan on saving Kenpachi from being killed by the quincy girls (post Gremmy battle) and Bazz B confronts Shinji and attacks him at this time:
Chapter 658: -During the Wahrwelt fight, he is one of the many characters that get sidelined by Gerard, being carried by his Vice Captain wounded and broken whilst we are shown Toshiro (who just showed up at the time) battling Gerard in the distance:
Imagine having a final arc like this after being such a dog in the Arrancar Saga. After beating base Grimmjow and forcing him to almost release and after being the first guy to wound and momentarily throw Aizen off his game in a 1v1. He went from all that to being the one getting dogged by Bambietta and being rendered irrelevant vs Gerard.
Kubo did this man real dirty lmao. He has no case to be higher than this besides his hollowfication. Post RG Renji vs Shinji? Hard to realize but even Renji has surpassed Shinji at this point.
9. Dangai Komamura
8. Ukitake
During the first Sternritter invasion, he was matched up against a Sternritter that looks like Askin:
But besides that, he’s got clear portrayal of being one of the top Captains, Yamamoto called him and Shunsui his strongest students and stated they were in a class of their own. That is enough to place him here but without any feats and illness holding him back, I can’t place him higher than the Captains who faced off against the Schutzstaffel (who are Royal Guard level) who gained/developed new abilities.
7. Mayuri
6. Byakuya
5. Shunsui
On one hand, you have Shunsui: a guy who has been portrayed as one of the strongest Captains. Was able to go toe to toe and force one of the Schutzstaffel in Lille to use Vollstandig. Dominated Vollstandig Lille with his Bankai:
4. Unohana
Kenpachi wasn’t relative to her until he was close to restoring his unlocked power, which showcases she’s comfortably above anyone not named Shunsui and Byakuya, but is below the remaining Captains, who simply have greater feats, greater power or both.
3. Toshiro
Toshiro is within the top 3 for only one reason; his adult form:
In his adult form, he’s able to hang with 2nd form Gerard. At this point, Toshiro is easily stronger than Shikai Kenpachi whom was able to defeat Gremmy (the strongest non-Schuzstaffel) and this is demonstrated when Toshiro was able to completely cut the Hoffnung in two:
not to mention negating its hax
Another thing I would like to mention when it comes to Toshiro. Although this is lowkey speculation but taking a look back at this statement made by Shunsui in reference to Toshiro:
We saw how characters like Byakuya and Gin were kids in the Turn Back The Pendulum flashback, which was 100 years ago give or take. Matured DH might as well be him a century older considering all that. Adding more credence to Toshiro being superior to Shunsui already.
2. Yamamoto
1. Kenpachi
Kenpachi’s strength was considered invaluable to the Gotei 13 in the war multiple times:
He was the only figure from the Gotei 13 to be considered part of the 5 War Potentials:
In bankai, he displays a ridiculous amount of raw power when he was able to not only stop Gerard’s fist by biting it, but proceeded to chew off the dude’s entire arm:
I have seen people arguing that Toshiro replicated similar feats against a stronger Gerard and conclude Toshiro is superior, however:
1. 2nd form Gerard was able to fight back against Toshiro and break out of his flash freezing:
2. Who’s to say that Bankai Kenpachi wouldn’t be able to do just as well against 2nd form Gerard? If not better? Considering how like I said, 1st form Gerard didn’t stand no chance at all against Bankai Kenpachi which prompted Gerard to enter his 2nd form in turn to challenge Bankai Kenpachi.
Kenpachi is so strong at this point, that even in base its implied he can one shot Captains:
All in all, I think Kubo was making it pretty evident that Kenpachi was the strongest the Gotei 13 had at their disposal against the Wandenreich. Having him as a War Potential + the numerous statements showcasing his irreplaceable strength. I think that’s enough to place him on the No.1 spot.
Tags:
@Blackbeard @Van @Topi Jerami @ZenZu @RayanOO @TheAncientCenturion @Jiihad @Jo_Ndule @playa4321 and the rest
