Considering the fact you all are up to date, I can comment this: Remember, White warned Ichigo, if he didn't wanna see him again, then he should not die. He also said the king and the horse can swap places at any time. Then Ichigo does die and White shows up again, taking over.

Kubo specifically wrote the Hueco Mundo arc to parallel the Soul Society arc but only in order to further differentiate them, most fans don’t look past the superficial surface level differences and simply call attention to the parallels. Some of these parallels and differences being Rukia and Orihime being taken to a different world, the differences is that Rukia was taken forcefully back to her world while Orihime left willingly to a world not her own, Rukia had been imprisoned Orihime was actually being treated like a guest for the most part, Rukia was to executed Orihime is actually free to move and was more used as bait. Just to make a few parallel differences in just one of the surface level similarities these 2 arcs share. Now mentioning that, Ulquiorra vs. Ichigo is a parallel to the arc ending fight of the Soul Society arc being Byakuya vs. Ichigo. One parallel and difference to mention is Orihime being a witness and wanting to interfere but not only knowing she might not really be of help if she jumped in, knowing Ichigo wouldn’t want her to jump in even if she could help. A difference is that when she sensed Ichigo could be in danger she jumps in as fast as she can when in the Soul Society arc she only showed up at the end of that fight, because in this one she had a bad feeling for the ending.

Whether Ulquiorra's Segunda Etapa is enough to make him the strongest espada is a controversial topic that's been debated in the community since these chapters first serialized. Consensus is split with more casual viewers thinking he must be the strongest, while those who are into power-scaling think his rank doesn't change, or that he's 3 at best.

his shoulder piece is actually part of his bankai, all of ichigos clothing is.. notice when he changes form his clothes do as well. thats why that one piece is still there bc his bankai is in his hand still.

Gran Rey Cero was done by Grimmjow earlier under the Las Noches ceiling, which he wasn't supposed to do so he broke Aizen's rules, but that's it unfortunately Kubo didn't have any of the other Espadas use theirs smh lol. Gran Reys require an Arrancar to mix a bit of their blood, in cut be from a simple cut even, with their spiritual pressure to pull off. Cero Oscuras all the other Espadas can, if they wanted to, use as well & sadly no other Espada used it smh lol Since y'all are obvs already in TYBW I can say all these things as y'all indeed saw every Espada's fights a hot min ago. in the Bleach Novels post TYBW there's some certain Arrancars, I can't reveal who exactly yet, that do bust out their Gran Rey & it's very powerful lol

Kubo did answer in a recent question asked on his website earlier this yr if a segunda etapa/2nd release was possible for the other Espadas. he said yes a 2nd release form was possible at least albeit it didn't happen obvs smh lol. so let's say if current Harribel, the 1 in TYBW, perhaps trained more well a Segunda Etapa for her isn't impossible at least. tho Kubo didn't say how hard or not it is to obtain. anyways hope this was interesting/informative lol

Andrew be like ….. Ulquiorra can’t be that strong 😂😂😂😭😭… lol just messing wit ya great reaction

YES! YES! YES!

Oh fuck yeah

are you guys watching both bleach and tybw together?

Y'all were really quite on the money in the end with your ep thoughts saying White would come out to help Ichigo lol as ya it did happen. remember when Ichigo trained with Visoreds White told him "if you really wanna control my powers make sure you don't die before the next time I come back" well obvs Ulquiorra did slump Ichigo here & then you saw the power of White unleashed & he completely dominated Ulquiorra & in fact it's even more 1 sided/uncensored in the Manga how fucked up Ulquiorra got lol. Segunda Etapa by Ulquiorra is impressive he unlocked it however he also said "I've never showed the form to Aizen" but he doesn't know if Aizen knew about it anyways.. only that he didn't show what it looked like. Aizen gets his intel lol that's all I will say lol btw TYBW Kenpachi, the 1 that got folded by that fake Yhwach Sternritter y'all saw in Yama's bankai ep.. has as much spiritual pressure/power as White with long orange hair etc that killed Ulquiorra. during the timeskip he got stronger so ya that's where's he at rn. but mans can still get stronger!