Bleach is a long-running shonen anime series with plenty of exciting villains, from predatory Hollows like Grand Fisher to the ten mighty Espadas and now, the hidden Quincy empire, the Wandenreich. Once again, protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends face an elite corps of Captain-level enemies, but they are not the Espadas 2.0.
The Espadas and the Sternritter are roughly similar, but some key differences set them apart. Not only do the Sternritter despise Hollows and Arrancars, but they are also already a much more formidable threat than the Espadas ever were in Bleach’s anime. The Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War arc has already proven that in just four episodes in the Fall 2022 anime season.
How the Quincy Challenge the Soul Reapers With Advance Preparation
The ten Espadas and the Sternritter both knew ahead of time that they would cross swords with the Soul Reapers, but the Sternritter are clearly much better prepared for that challenge than the Espadas were. Most Quincy already know exactly what the Soul Reapers are capable of, such as bankai and kido spells, and they have perfect countermeasures ready. The best example is the Quincy medallion — a series of identical artifacts that can outright steal a Captain’s bankai, robbing the Soul Reapers of their best weapons in one move. Ichigo’s bankai, Tensa Zangetsu, cannot be stolen, but four Soul Reaper Captains did have their bankai stolen in recent episodes. The Espadas didn’t have their own version of that except for Wanderweiss Margela, who was designed to counteract Yamamoto’s fire-based zanpakuto.
In addition, the Quincy have the element of surprise and a great deal of one-sided knowledge on their side, such as knowing who all the Soul Reaper officers are and which of them can perform bankai. That allowed the Quincy empire to massacre the Soul Reapers when they launched their bloody invasion, and the Soul Reapers didn’t fully know who their enemies were or what they were capable of. By contrast, the Soul Reapers knew exactly what the traitorous Captains Aizen, Ichimaru and Tosen were capable of, and they knew weeks in advance that the Espadas would eventually attack them.
The Arrancars also underestimated their Soul Reaper opponents or were totally ignorant of them, often asking the Soul Reapers for their names. None of the Arrancars expected Yumichika Ayasegawa to have a hidden kido-type shikai, for example, and Ggio Vega didn’t expect Soi Fon’s shikai to work in certain ways. The Quincy, by contrast, have a vast store of information called Daten, all of it provided by their king himself. Not even Aizen bothered to provide his own Daten to his Arrancar minions beyond the basics.
The Wandenreich’s Unity of Purpose
The Quincy empire has several logistical and tactical advantages over the Espadas, and that alone makes the Sternritter a much greater challenge than the Arrancars and Espadas ever were. There is also a psychological gap between the Quincy and Espadas that makes the Quincy army that much stronger. The Espadas were motivated not by conquest but by the false promise of salvation, hoping that Sosuke Aizen could give them a purpose or fill the emptiness in them. However, this was all for naught, since the Arrancars had no chance for salvation, and some of them even knew it. What’s more, some Espadas acted independently, such as Grimmjow and Szayelaporro, acting totally on their own and not coordinating with the other Espadas. Aizen’s unmasked army was just a collection of desperate, selfish thugs who were doomed to fail as disposable tools.
The Wandenreich does things differently. The Quincy are all united by their desire for revenge and their hatred of Soul Reapers, making them a cohesive, motivated and purpose-driven army of spiritual warriors. Best of all, the Quincy king may view his Arrancar shock troops as disposable dogs of war, but he values his Sternritter, and those Quincy support one another. There may be a few independent-minded Quincy in the ranks, but overall, the Quincy empire has a level of discipline and cohesion that the Arrancars were simply incapable of achieving. All this, combined with the Wandenreich’s one-sided knowledge and specialized tools, make them a true threat to the Soul Society, while the Espadas were merely an exercise in futility.
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