Is Yamamoto Weaker than the Royal Guards?

[Hakuteiken]

Well, if they are to appoint someone else and leave most of the tasks to him as a deputy, I see no particular reason to take that rank for only its looks.

[M3J]

Why would they take it for looks? It'd be for better protection since they're more easily able to fight on the front lines before damage gets bad.

[NoOneInParticular]

I don't think Yamamoto is weaker than the Royal Guards, based on how he was still the captain of all captains. Pretty sure if one of the Royal Guards were stronger, one would have challenged him to become the leader of the Gotei 13, considering how old he was and how his power could have diminished as result. Since Yamamoto was still the leader, either no one challenged him or he flattened everyone who did. I doubt anyone would let him be the leader if he wasn't strong enough to be one.

Well, in the scheme of things, protecting the Soul King is more important than leading the Gotei 13, because if he dies the whole world falls apart, apparently. So it could be argued that the strongest individual's place is in the Royal Realm, not Seireitei. I guess the thinking is that the last line of defence should be stronger than the first because in the worst case scenario it's the most important. But aside from the issue of who's stronger, Yamamoto is the guy who founded the Gotei 13. Even if he's not as strong as another guy, he was the most suited for the position of Captain Commander. I wonder if that's the reason he wasn't inducted into the Royal Guard. The Gotei 13 and Shinigami Academy are just as important as Kirinji's healing pools and Hikifune's technology, so I'd say Yama meets the requirements for Zero Division. But maybe both he and the Soul King realised it was more important for him to be leading in Soul Society.

That said, I'm thinking one person in ZD is stronger than Yama. My vote goes to Bonze, just because he comes across as the leader, if unofficially. But it's not necessarily the case. After all, 4 Yamas could probably take on the rest of the G13 with ease, so for these 5 to be the stronger force, none of them actually have to be quite at Yama's level (but somewhat close I'd say).

[kkck]

Well, as things stand yamamoto was actually stronger than the 12 other captains combined at any given time. To the likes of yamamoto captain level people were by all intents and purposes fodder (evidence by yamamoto seemingly defeating 3 stern rittern with no effort while in shikai). Even aizen was supposedly stronger than his 10 espada combined and defeated 8 captain level fighters with relative ease. With yamamoto being that high above everyone else in the gotei 13 then all the royals need to actually be stronger than the gotei 13 is to be able to take on yamamoto as a group. If the 5 of them combined can actually defeat yamamoto then the claims can still lay as true.

[WickedNeko]

Yamamoto may or may not be stronger than the Royal Guards. The author is pretty liberal on retconning Bleach. But, at this point (assuming that the author doesn't retcon anything), Yamamoto lacks the qualification of being invited... aka having contributed something significant (which seems to be required to be a technological sort, not "social" accomplishments like setting up organizations).

As far as we know, Yamamoto (as strong as he may have been) hasn't invented anything.

[kkck]

^Yamamoto invented badassery on a scale worthy of the king of souls. Anyways, yamamoto might not have invented something like zampakuto or mod souls however he is someone to whom aizen refered to as "the history of soul society itself". One was or another everything SS is or isn't is to a large degree because yamamoto made it so through sheer badassery. We are talking about a guy who founded the academy, later on the squads as we know them and perhaps even started the military organization of SS as a whole. He didn't invent zampakuto, healing ponds or mod souls but he build SS as it is today (which is presumably better than what it was before him). The databook or kubo did say that the reason he did not get promoted to royal guard is because there is no one to replace him though.

[Delbi]

Each member of the Royal Guard serves a purpose that goes beyond their strength. Yama for all intents and purposes seems older than all of them. His claim that no Shinigami had been born stronger than him likely still stands.

Fact of the matter is the totality of their power exceeds his (as it should IMO), but individually they are not stronger than him.

And while it may be more important to protect the King, Yama did that by proxy for the guards up until now. The fact is, no one to our knowledge has ever gotten to the King and that is a product of Yama and his baddessness, not the Royal Guards. It is likely that Yama existence as the protector of SS pre-dated there ever being Royal Guards, meaning there had to be some event that led to their creation as a back up plan in case he lost IMO.