More Bleach filler? (spoilers)

[Zeus]

I'm on ep 131 now (had two weeks off :-), is that little mini-arc with the two kids and the pseudo-Annacar a filler? Sure as fuck felt like it.

I had just gotten over the damned Bounto filler, I hope there ain't more....

[M'k'n'zy]

Took me a sec to remember what you were talking about. Yeah that was filler, I didnt even watch most of that little mini-arc, it was REALLY bad.

[Don]

Even the manga is like one giant filler at the moment. They've been fighting since forever and not a single important bad guys has even died yet. It's almost like the fights start and then the author referred to his power level chart on #3 and #4 and it's like 'oops we still need 3 more powerup session before Ichigo stands a chance'. The popular saying goes there's a tier above #4, and certainly #3 is stupidly overpowered. If you assume Bleach has any integrity in its world view, then #4 and #3 are both undefeatable at this point in the story.

[Zeus]

Took me a sec to remember what you were talking about. Yeah that was filler, I didnt even watch most of that little mini-arc, it was REALLY bad.

I think there's a bunch of one-offs after it too. I mean, we had one with the captain of the 10th squad playing soccer with Ichigo's sister for cryin' out loud. ALMOST makes you long for a Bounto-level filler....ALMOST

[Don]

The captain of the 10th squad also happens to be the 2nd most popular character in the series. Since his power level is somewhere around negative, he doesn't see much action in the main storyline and thus special spinoff stories must be made to accomodate for his presence.

In fact, he's so hilariously weak there's one fight where it's like the enemy uses his attack, he blocks it, and then looks surprised that he wasn't KOed in one hit. Of course at that point the enemy uses his real attack and he is immediately KOed in one hit similar to his every other appearance. He's probably about 3 tiers of instant KO below #3 or #4 right now. The funny thing is apparently the rest of the captains all seem to have a power level comparable to about #5 at the lowest (who is still a tier of instant KO below #3).

[SineSwiper]

The only time he's had any trouble with the current opponents is when they take too long authorizing their limit releases. Besides, he's one of the only captains on the field who has had a fight with the higher level Arrancar, so you can't really compare him to the other captains. The Arrancar are supposed to be elite, even to the captains, so any captain would have trouble against at least the lower digit enemies.

[Don]

The captains are more than capable of handling the higher #s. Right now the power level looks like something like

#3/#4 >>> #5/#6 > #7-10 >> Triple digits >>> #11/replacement #6

Ichigo maxed out is about the same as #6. Toushiro is somewhere around where #11 is. Kenpaichi is presumably > #5. Every captain but Toshiro is at least stronger than #7-10 by a considerable margin (maybe the beast guy is weak too, he seems to be useless).

Right now it's looking only #1-#6 is at or higher than a Captain level. Granted higher than a captain can mean anything from barely stronger (#6) or being able to KO a captain in one hit (#3's Jade Lance, for example, would be overkill on a Captain-level opponent). Right now Toushiro's power level is an anomaly, significantly below what any captain are capable of. It might be more correct to interpret what Toushiro as "If we have 13 captains like me, then we are doomed." It might be incorrect to use #3's power as indicative of the rest of the guys, because it's pretty clear that 3 and 4 are meant to be way stronger than what their number indicates.

[SineSwiper]

All of this overzealous speculation is useless, because no other captain has faced the Arrancar. Aizen doesn't really count because his power seems to be unnaturally high anyway. (His sword's ability allows him to do almost anything, really.)

[Don]

Actually the captains have fought against the Arrancar already in the manga which is why I said the captains are more than capable of fighting the higher #s. Currently only Kenpaichi vs #5 is unresolved, but the popular belief is that he's probably not going to lose. The only question is will he overcome the bar set by #3, who can kill #5 in one hit.

For what it's worth, Aizen actually isn't that strong, as hard as that's to believe. So far the stats show he's at > 2X power level of a Captain, but that's really not saying much. If I remember he can do up to level 93 casting but as a point of comparison, the captain of the 6th squad can nullify up to 89 so it's not like being able to cast level 93 is that impressive (especially since it was actually a failure). Even Rukia can cast up to about level 70ish range.

[SineSwiper]

I haven't read the manga, so I can't comment on that.

[Don]

Well right now it's mostly filler. It's not like anyone expected the captains to lose to the Arcanarrs that have a "I'm unimportant filler guy, please kill me" sign behind their back. Right now it is just establishing some respectability for the captains since people were started thinking like 10 captains put together would have a hard time beating an Arcanarr after Toushiro's 'We're doomed!' speech and general failure to do anything. Right now the current story seems to establish an average captain to be around #5/#6's power, and #4 being stronger than the average captain, and #3 being A LOT stronger than an average captain. However there is a lot of evidence to suggest that #3 isn't just your typical 3rd most powerful Arcanarr because #3 seems to be the only Arcanarr that doesn't fear Aizen...