[manga] who is the strongest espada

[Varis]

Didn't this arrancar explain to Hitsugaya that 1-10 are ranked by power and 11-? are numbered by birth?

Yami being 10 and shown to be the weakest makes number 1 the strongest by default.

So if Noitura is 2, then he is the 2nd strongest. It's pretty obvious that he thinks himself as the strongest and perhaps he will challenge Ulquiorra when given an opportunity.

Because we saw the seating of the espada and can do basic math we know which espada is which number.

[kagato3]

The latest manga has already shown that the seating order =/= Number order but a few of them are in order namely Yami, ZAG, and Grim. Perhaps they are grouped based on who will fight them, female and masked guy for rukia, Yami and old guy for chad, ZAG and dark guy for Renji, Ulq and Grim for Ichigo, but that leaves Noitura and board guy for Ishda so maybe that doesn't work out too well.

[Lendial]

ouch ishi is in a world of hurt if he eventualy faces bored guy with gloves and eyepatch man.

[Zu Ra]

Ichi will face Noitora before GJ . GJ is the main villian of this arc and Noitora is hunting for Ichi . Thats makes it more likely Noitora is Espada 7

[astrallionheart]

It's also possible that a similar relationship exists between Noitora and Ulq as Kenpachi challenging Byakuya. One may be so powerful he just spams reiatsu, but in a real fight, the other guy is just too versatile, with too many powerful abilities. Kind of like a powerful boxer vs a complete MMA fighter.

[Zu Ra]

Also Ichigo being the hero he will have the maximum number of fights . Atleast a semi-finals with an Espada before going against GJ . So that made me think if Noitura was stronger than GJ It would be funny as strongest villian always fights last .

If Noitura is homing in on Ishida then it might be a diffrent story . If its Ichigo then he is Espada 7 most likely IMO

[shenzu]

For no reason whatsoever Noitora's haircut reminds me of Ishida's....

although i'd love to see that fight

[Zero system]

You know, i just had a crazy thought, well it might not be that crazy.

In whatever kind of anime, the biggest, looking guys are never the strongest and the most human-like enemies are always the strongest, bleach is no exception to that, now this has already been mentioned.

The closer an espada gets to "human" the stronger he should be

now if we remember that they are hollows, meaning have a big hole in their chests, couldn't we say that the smaller the hole, the closer to "human"

meaning that we could, maybe, class them from strongest to weakest by the size of their hole.

so far, as i remember i will have to check(or someone else)

-yami has a huge hole in his chest

-ulquiora has a tiny hole just under his neck

-grimm has a hole that is about half the size or less than yami's and more than double the size of ulquiora's


the others i dont realy remember seeing their hole, someone would have to check for the other espada.


another thing about ulquiora is that before doing anything, he unzips his jaket a bit to expose the hole, i dont know what it means but this is what i have observed so far

what do you think

[Hisago]

Regarding the above post, I think the Hole is proportinal to their body sizes. Ulqi is much shorter than Yami and thinner than Grimmjow, plus his hole is in his neck, which is a fairly narrow area.

[Scep]

I think that ulquiorra showing his hole was more of a effect to show that he was a arrancar, and didnthave much symbolic meaning.

[Zu Ra]

Nicely put by Sceptileex , second you on that Ulqi was the perfected arrancar to be shown unlike GF who still was an imperfection and less humanoid

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by The Small One

Don't start to mistake menos and arrankar again.
Arrankars all look human!

Incomplete ones don't, like Iceringer and Grandfisher. The only exceptions are probably the Privalon Espadas, but that's possibly because they were imcompletely concieved from possibly Ajucas and top class Gillians instead of non-menos Hollows like GF.

A possible argument at this point is that the closer the released state of an Arrancar is to a regular human form, it probably means how close they are to Vastrodes, since Vastrodes are supposed to be human-ish hollows. Naturally, this is just assumption.

Which brings back another point, the released state of Arrancars are supposed to reflect their sealed Hollow powers. But strangely, Ill Forte, Shaw Long and Edorad who's all Gillians, meaning giant bigass ugly Menos Grandes with a mere large mask and big bodies... how does a Edward Scissorhands lookalike, a beefed up-Chadish Volcanic Arms, and a Bull reflect the generic Menos Grande who all looks technically the same.

But then again, it's somehow possible for a Gillian to be a brother to a non-Gillian (( assumption again, based on how Zaera called him a Gillian trash, indicating he's above Gillian )) Arrancar, so there's probably more to Hueco Mundo and Hollows than Kubo is letting on.

[Scep]

if we say that how close to human form a arrancar is when released, then it makes sense that luppi is relatively close to a human ( he basically retains his whole human figure ), and it also explains why hitsugaya's opponent was so strong. I think that we need to see the other espada release before we can confirm this.

I thought the arrancar release shows its "true form". Im not sure, im reading a really screwed chinese translation, so maybe other people have more accurate ones.

[Scep]

the guy who brought orihime's food had just half a mask. The bottom of his face is not covered. And besides, i dont think vaste lordes can be just ordered around by espadas and serve prisoners XD

[Scep]

a normal arrancar? although we havent been introduced to a division system in hm, they might have a similar kind of hierarchical rule, and that person is probably some random low guy.

[kagato3]

Iceringer had even more of a mask and was fairly human in shape, Nell is looks completly human, has about half her mask, and seems much weaker then any menos. It is intelegence that is the main factor in whether an anacarr looks human not power,

[Zu Ra]

I agree Kagato3 on that one intelligence is the key . Ulqi is supposed to be a Vastorode but his mask or what remains of it pretty big comparitively Grim has a smaller mask

[kagato3]

GF was always cunning but a bit slow on the thinking side. As a hollow he didn't strike me as being that much of a planner and acourding to Icerinnger tended to mess around which is why he had to be pachted up so much. Anacarr GF was by no means the brightest bulb in the bunch. He seemed to have a hard time understanding that Kon was not Ichigo, blew off a shingami, Isshin. that's power was to quote Ichgo "huge" granted he called GF's huge as well, but he did not even look at him as a possable threat.

Nell of the other hand has the IQ of someone of at least her age. Of course her education is a bit questionable.

[sandymm]

Well having read chapter 271 it seems that Ullquiora is not the strongest but the

Spoiler for your title:

4th!!

Like Ichigo a lot of us assumed he was the strongest and I loved the way Kubo handled this chapter - Ichigo suggesting that Ullquiora must be the strongest and that if he is defeated things will be easy.. too bad.

[Zu Ra]

My pick for top 3 would be Stark Halibel and the Old Geezer . It would be really cool if stark was indeed no 1 we get to see more Lilinet : D