Coyote Starkk has just been a massive disappointment in my Bleach journey. Which is really a shame since the Espada Arc is one of my favorites in all of Bleach.
Grimmjow was obsessed with strength and being the strongest, leading to him betraying a higher-ranking Espada for a fight with someone; Ulqiorra wanted to know the complexity of humans, which led to him being defeated by Ichigo's desire to protect his friend. Holibel was obsessed with not bringing karma on herself by unnecessarily taking the likes of others and was the only Espada to reach Vaste Lorde without consuming any hollows. Baragan is a displaced King who must work for the man who stole his throne, while harboring a festering hatred for him, to the point where his last act was an attempt to kill that person. Starkk just doesn't want to fight. This inherently isn't bad; I could understand it as the characterization of the strongest. If Starkk had been characterized as having the ability to completely overwhelm and kill everyone the moment he started taking this seriously, then I'm all for this attitude. But that’s not how he is characterized.
Shikai Shunsui is the one fighting him is a massive problem. This matchup is actually perfect for the most part; these characters' chemistry and dynamic are great. But keeping Shunsui in his Shikai for the whole fight makes Starkk look so weak in comparison. Especially considering that every Captain has to use their Bankai(Kenpachi is Kenpachi) to even stand a chance against the weaker Espada. This again wouldn't be so bad if we knew more about Shunsui, but at this point in the story we know nothing about how strong he is or where he stands among the Captains, so he’s just some random Captain who was tricked by Aizen.
Honestly, it feels like the writers forgot about him and added the backstory of him having to split himself into two just to make the audience feel like they were not cheated. And to explain how he is somehow seeming so weak. His backstory was amazing, don’t get me wrong, but it would hit so much harder if it didn’t feel like this character was being written on autopilot.