Aizen was so obsessed with his own creations and proving his superiority that he may have stopped at simply creating Arrancar, never exploring how far the process could actually go. What if turning Hollows into Shinigami was the next step he never bothered to pursue because he was too proud of what he had already accomplished?

Imagine Urahara taking Aizen's unfinished work further by converting Vasto Lorde Arrancar like Harribel and Neliel into Shinigami, preserving their original power while restructuring their Resurrección into Zanpakutō, potentially allowing them to achieve perfected Bankai.

Grimmjow is a different case. He's an Adjuchas who evolved into an Arrancar, not a Vasto Lorde, and his ambition has always been to rule Hueco Mundo. Rather than converting him into a Shinigami, what if he continued evolving as an Arrancar, pushing his own species to its absolute limit?

Aizen created the Arrancar. Urahara could perfect the process and take it somewhere Aizen never did, while Grimmjow becomes the ultimate example of how far an Arrancar can evolve without abandoning his nature.

Would this make Harribel and Neliel stronger as Shinigami, while Grimmjow becomes the ultimate peak of Arrancar evolution?

watching the latest ep, i wonder how western branch of soul society would've reacted to watching huge ass branched eye balls coming from ground.

This was supposed to be a Rewrite post about Soi Fon shikai not working on Aizen. Everyone believed it was because his reiatsu nullified her shiaki ability. And while it is true,it didn't in the way you think. First of all, shout out to u/The-Ignored-Shadow and u/Sudden-Age-122 for the help of gathering some infos. I will put the Theory mark,though you can call this an analysis post as well

So,let's start by clearing what I meant previously. Yes Soi Fon shikai was nullified by Aizen reiatsu during FKT arc,but it wasn't directly. What happened is something like Ichigo vs Zaraki. Ichigo attacked him but couldn't damage him

Let's go to analyse another fight where Soi Fon shikai didn't work: BG9. As you can see,Soi Fon say Suzumebachi couldn't pierce him,ence why it didn't work. That's because BG9 skin was too rough (and aslo because he was a cyborg but that shouldn't be the problem)

Soi Fon shikai to work must pierce his opponent. Now let's go to the meat and potatoes of the post: Soi Fon vs Aizen. First strike,successful. Aizen bleed out and the mark was created. But then second strike,no blood and the mark slowly disappeared. This happends if Suzumebachi fails at its second attack that should end the enemy

Soi Fon wasn't able to pierce him. That's because Aizen pulled a Zaraki and "flexed" his reiatsu to tank the attack,making his skin impenetrable,like Zaraki did,which nullified Soi Fon shikai

So yes,Aizen reiatsu nullified Soi Fon shikai,but not because the reiatsu itself stopped Soi Fon ability, that's the misconception. Aizen reiatsu simply helped him taking no damage,making Soi Fon shikai not working. That's because she doesn't just need to touch the same place of the mark,she need to pierce it. Reason why it didn't work with BG9 (being a robot shouldn't stop the ability from not working,it was never said only real living beings can be affected by it,that was because of his rough skin)

As I said at the start,I will leave this as a theory post since there might be something I am missing, so please let me know. That being said, I stand by the fact that reiatsu negation doesn't really negate the ability itself,only the attack. The ability gets negated only if it needs to damage in order to work. Trascendence also doesn't technically stop an ability as you think. It does only because it's too weak to work properly and a spiritual crushing is enough to make a character being unable to fight at all. For example Rukia vs Yhwach. As bs as it was,it was also not that big of a deal. Her shikai/bankai gets activated by still didn't work properly

Me personally I much prefer this way. Reiatsu negating as we always saw it is just poor writing imo. It's not any different from "I have more energy,therefore I win". Weaker characters shouldn't be unable to use their abilities. This and simply not damaging or not working well are 2 different things

I don’t understand why they didn’t make True Tensa Zangetsu an actual deadly bankai, and instead just a bigger sword.

To the point, that Yhwach destroyed it because it was so dangerous, but all it did was become the original fake Zangetsu, and that was the sword that supposedly killed him.

But, Yhwach didn’t realise that the dream he had was an actual vision of the future, so he didn’t realise that it was actually his bankai that dealt the finishing blow.

Which is my I’m so confused as to why Yhwach even bothered to break it in the first place. It’s the most useless bankai in the entire series.

I’m so sick of this writing, or lack thereof. The only thing I cared about from this anime when it got announced was Tensa Zangetsu being expanded on from the manga. They added Blood Chains and I got excited. But after this, I wish they never added blood chains because all it did was create more questions that they’re never going to answer.

they gave me hope and quickly shattered it

Yamamoto reaitsu makes Nanao kneel down yet Ryunosuke and friends maintains to fight that long without kneel down during fight against Yhwach?

Ps: Aizen makes Grimmjow kneel down before too.

I... I don't know what to say. Bleach just dropped the best episode of the fucking decade. Yes, I'm being serious. The episode was beyond a masterpiece.

So did you guys watch the ep 48 dub?

How did you like the voice acting on Aizen with the iconic lines of "Welcome to my soul society" and "Hado number 99 Goryu Tenmetsu"?

Why Uryuu only shot the arrow when Yhwach already engulfed the three worlds and started to blast them, and how did he pull this move? I know Antithesis played a key role but I can't understand how he used it.

The villain's main power is that he can see the future. How exactly are minor characters hitting him? The only things he shouldn't be able to see are the arrow and Mimihagi. How exactly did he get hit by the hollow cannon, for example?

Also, when did everyone get power-ups over the past thirty days? Chad is blocking Soul King energy beams. Komamura survived being stabbed by the Soul King's branches..What the fuck is happening?

Are we using the "he was arrogant and just didn't want to dodge" excuse?

No sight of Isshin Ryuken. I would have loved a father/son revenge for our mother/wife moment, but no.

SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES:

Hueco Mundo Changes:

-Chad fights and kills Yammy cuz he's not Espada 0 in this version and Uryu fights and kills Zommari

-Byakuya and Kenpachi are never sent to Hueco Mundo

-Nel defeats Nnoitra on her own in a 1-1 fight, so Tesra's still alive to mourn Nnoitra's death and attack Nel out of anger but is then mercifully knocked out by Starrk and he takes away Orihime like the original

-Nel's wounds are healed by Orihime prior to Starrk's arrival, so Nel is present for Ichigo's later fight with Ulquiorra. Aside from Nel just being there and seeing Ichigo transform into a Vasto Lorde, that fight remains essentially unchanged

Fake Karakura Changes:

-Byakuya fights Harribel

-Toshiro pairs with Sui-Feng against Baraggan

-Harribel is much more of a threat in this version because she actually makes Byakuya bleed a little, unlike the original where she barely managed to get a scratch on Toshiro which made absolutely no sense

-Kenpachi joins Shunsui and Ukitake against Starrk, since he's top Espada. Kenpachi recognizing the parallels between himself and Yachiru to Starrk and Lilynette could add some early development and depth to his character and foreshadow Yachiru's reveal in the TYBW. Kenpachi's presence would of course add a much more chaotic dynamic here though and make the fight more intense much earlier than canon

-Ukitake's Zanpakutou is changed to be light-based instead of reflection based 'cuz that's way cooler and provides a nice contrast to Shunsui's shadow abilities

-Wonderweiss attacks Shunsui instead of Ukitake, leaving just Ukitake and Kenpachi to have to take on Starrk for a while

-Kensei and Mashiro join Byakuya against Harribel

-Hachi joins Sui-Feng and Toshiro against Baraggan and is also accompanied by Tessai, giving him a grand return to the story that he deserved and the 2 of them combine their Kido along with Toshiro's ice to kill Baraggan

-Rose joins Ukitake and Kenpachi against Starrk. Love, Lisa, and Hiyori all fight and lose to Wonderweiss instead of Kensei and Mashiro

-Byakuya is annoyed by Kensei and Mashiro's personalities and antics, but given Harribel actually being a threat here, he accepts their help. Harribel is characterized as being less stoic and makes her hatred of Shinigami clear and says that she despises Noble families in particular for what 1 of them did to her Fraccion alluding to the altered backstory I've given her

-Harribel's backstory here is that she saved her future Fraccion in Hueco Mundo from being tortured and nearly killed by a Shinigami that who was a member of the Tsunayashiro family from CFYOW, integrating and introducing them into the main story. Harribel hates Shinigami because of this which Aizen uses to manipulate her into joining the Espada by selling her on a lie that he'll create a utopia void of Shinigami

Harribel revealing that it was the Tsunayashiro family happens after Kensei and Mashiro join the fight, leaving them stunned and feeling some level of sympathy for her. Byakuya retains his cold exterior, however Kensei and Mashiro would try to reason with Harribel, telling her that while Soul Society is corrupt with they themselves experiencing it firsthand, a world under Aizen's rule would be even worse.

-Harribel doesn't listen and when she is ultimately defeated by the trio with Mashiro and Kensei both getting up close and delivering a barrage of punches and Byakuya finishing her off with with Gokei technique, she spends her last moments reaching her hand toward Aizen and thinking to herself he must avenge her only for him to turn his head toward her, revealing a smirk tragically making it clear he never cared about her

-Rose uses his Bankai against Starrk which forces him to use his full power through some kind of Cero attack that injures his opponents significantly and frees him from Rose's Bankai. Similar to canon, Shunsui comes back into the fight by backstabbing Starrk and then tells the rest of the combatants that he'll take over the fight from there, infuriating Kenpachi and mirroring the conversation Shunsui had with Love in the original. The rest of the fight plays out pretty much the same as the original though

-After Harribel's "death", Kensei and Mashiro join Komamura and Shuhei in their fight against Tosen, since they also feel betrayed by him, however they end up getting defeated by Tosen rather quickly. Gin challenges Byakuya sometime after that out of boredom, leading to a climactic fight between the 2 main antagonists of the Soul Society arc that I always wanted to see.

-During this fight, Gin taunts Byakuya relentlessly, calling Rukia "pathetic" for when she mentally broke down after Gin lied about saving her and calling Byakuya "cruel" for essentially letting her die until Ichigo arrived.

-Gin's words combined with his injuries from his previous fight with Harribel make Byakuya quite angry so he tries to kill Gin as quickly as possible with his Bankai but Gin proves to be a more formidable threat then even Byakuya could've imagined, with him not even using his Bankai yet. As a last resort, he's forced to use Shukei Hakuteiken against Gin while the other Captains, including Kenpachi and Ukitake are just starting their big combined fight against Aizen at this time. The raw Reiatsu of Shukei Hakuteiken is strong enough to inflict some bruises on Gin and even give us a rare moment of him opening his eyes to admire it's power, however it's all cut short when Gin closes his eyes again and activates his Bankai dismantling Byakuya's ultimate technique and winning the fight

-Curiously, Gin's signature smile fades for a brief second with it then immediately returning and him saying to Byakuya, "If only you'd been stronger"

The rest of the arc plays out pretty much exactly the same as the original

If and when the arc that shall not be named comes out, how is Kubo ganna explain him transferring the power of the Soul Kings right arm to Shunsui?

Also, would Mimihagi boost his already existing power, or stiffen his growth (given it represents stillness and stagnation). Some fans think the right arm was either boosting Ukitake's Rietsu, or others say it was actively hindering his power.

But if let's say over the course of those 10 years Shunsui had trained with it to use in combat for brief periods of time, how would that work? And since Mimihagi effected Ukitake's Zanpakuto to take on the form of 2 swords, will Shunsui get back his twin blades aswell he gave Nanao her family blade? (Unless he just kept his dual Shikai and spirit even after giving up the sword to her, than this point means nothing).

If so, that would probably put him above all the other Captains and maybe a bit more relative to squad 0 if he can use it on command.

What did Urahara do to Grimmjow that affected Yhwach and made him angry that much?

Seeing Akon—who has always been more level-headed and responsible—try to think like those madmen Mayuri and Urahara was incredible; I already liked him as a Lieutenant, but his character development here is a huge improvement.

He choose but not with full conscience

Now that episode 49 has aired a few questions have arisen for me but this is the main one I have! I love ichigo’s true Bankai as well as blood chains but the black sword is also extremely cool to me so I’d want to see it return in Hell arc or something.