It’s also amazing that the information never disseminated to a point where Isshin was recognized by his SS peers

Wasn't it always established that these older and more "wise" peeps were generally better?

This adaptation is simply incredible, every episode feels so well done. I get goosebumps at least once an episode

Wish we got see more of Isshin beating ass I would love a full prequel story with him

Was it ever explained why they didn't recognize him or was it just a plothole

You also gotta keep in mind that Isshin could only use 1/5th of his power and he was still putting in work against almost evolved Aizen

Bleach made captains look trash as soon as they let Ichigo and his friends create havoc at the very beginning

Isshin was wounded by Aizen so he couldn't use his bankai, Isshin is definitely up there in the strength as a captain

Unohana's generation was more savage and barbaric, and Yhwach commented as such, but idk if they were actually stronger. Although this series does seem to equate raw f*** you energy to power pretty often

That post isn't about clowning the guy for losing, the point is that he himself did not think he could win against what is probably a below modern captain level hollow without using Shikai. I comment on Isshin's reputation in that earlier post, and I don't think any comparably noteworthy captain currently would need a shikai to beat a hollow like that imo. Could be wrong there though

Idk how many times he's actually in front of Soul Society members from the Aizen battle on. I was trying to remember earlier, but I really want to say he's not in the line of visibility of any of the Gotei 13 in Fake Karakura

Isshin didn't lose though. He was probing it for answers and wasn't going for the kill immediately. It's implied that his bankai would easily stomp it but that's why he was wounded by Aizen. You gotta understand a captain's real power is from their Bankai. This isn't an indication captain's being weaker but of how strong the hollow was. The hollow is like low level captain tier

I’ve read that perspective (earlier today actually. I agree with him not attempting to kill it, but I disagree with you needed to have bankais to gauge strengths. There’s some bankais that are either haxxier or grant some more insane abilities than others (Soi Fon’s is the opposite), but all bankais are similar multipliers in terms of just fighting ability

If Isshin was an upper quadrant captain, so like 1-4, I’m thinking someone like Byakuya or a Hitsugaya is his peer. Byakuya could neg an Ichigo who overpowered shikai Renji. I think he could murder White shikai-less tbh

I can’t find a source for how strong White is but calling him like soul society arc Renji or Ikkaku’s level, high 2nd seat/low 1st seat isn’t outrageous to me

It just depends on if you’re scaling White to those guys when they’re going all out or not

Because it was doing decent against Isshin without bankai, it's definitely lower captain level

Actually byakuya probably would be fringe quadrant 1 at his absolute best and realistically should be high Q2

Yamamoto, Unohana, Kyoraku, and I would imagine Ukitake would be higher than him atp. Zaraki should actually be under Byakuya up until the amp he gets from fighting Nnoitora

Now we’ve gone full circle lol

He did well against Isshin, which means he should be low level captain at that point in time. I’m saying that the captains are a stronger unit than back then lmao

A well-renowned captain that’s probably in the top half nowadays wouldn’t have struggled to that degree in the same scenario, that’s all I was saying

It’s more worthwhile to compare that Isshin to end of Aizen level captains, but if we thought of the captains as constructed at the end of TYBW arc for a second

The White hollow probably goes from being equal to a low level captain to being domesticated shikai-less by second seats. Just saying that to make the point that the measures of power have changed in favor of this current crop

I mean low level captain level in general. There is no indication that captain level is higher now than in the past. Also I don't know how far in the past you think this flashback is but most of the captains in the gotei 13 now are 100s of years old and were already captains at this time.

agree to disagree homie

I actually agree with your Ikkaku and Renji comparison cause I'd say they're right at the bottom scale of captain level since they both got Bankais.

Did someone ever make a power scale of these guys lol?

It's tough bc of the inconsistencies as the series progressed, Kubo's own lack of desire to really feed into that part of constructing battles, and I personally think the narrative feeds into it a lil

to that last point, there's alot of battles in this franchise that aren't "real" fights. just like me and the other fella was discussing with Isshin, Aizen could've murdered him, Urahara and Yourichi if he fought with the same intent he had against the captains (after the Momo reveal). Isshin would've murdered the hollow if he went all out. Yamamoto crushes a Yhwach clone that gives almost no feats in proportion to how strong Yhwach himself is

I don't think Kubo ever wants clear power scaling to be a crutch for depicting strength OR a factor that weighs more than anything else in how we view his captains.

With the enemies, I think he generally does make it pretty easy to see how A compares to B, although he has to add some flair

Espadas are 0-10, but you can contend Ulquiorra (I actually watched a video on this earlier this month) has more power than the ones ahead of him sans 0. The Sternritters are a bit tougher, but you at least know there's a group that're more favored than the rest

So after next week, there’ll be a break?