Quite a long video today for you guys, so I've included some chapters to allow you to skip around as you please - let me know what you thought of the Soul King though in the comments and how he was utilised in the Bleach universe! Enjoy the video and have a great Friday.
@@Zeno1781 I think it is still unclear IF the soul king originally even had hollow powers. I didn't read all the books but it would seem the answer is: no.
@@djdrack4681 do u mean he got it over time? Because the requirements to be the soul king is to have shinigami, hollow and Quincy reitsu. Ginjo, ichigo were the only one who had those requirements before juha Bach came in and just straight up absorbed the soul king getting everything
Mangaka's would be some of the best writers and have infinitely better stories if they weren't forced to work themselves to death for the weekly release culture.
Theres so much potential in Bleach if Kubo wasn't forced to work himself to exhaustion to keep up we could of had a much more flushed out story and perhaps even a potentially promising sequel series.
"Kubo realized some things needed to be cut" *shows a picture of the Soul King cut in half* Don't know if it was intentional, but that was entertaining
The Novels are so dumb and plot-holey and dont-feel-like-bleach, that i have good reason to disregard all this as Non-Canon. Just like Cursed Child with J.K.Rowling: The Authors claim it's Canon are simply entirely Overruled; sorry fam!
@@nenmaster5218 you're a dumb fuck if you disregard the authors opinion regarding his own work, it's his own creation we're just enjoying his work, whether something aren't to your liking doesn't matter.
I liked that Aizen’s Chrysalis Stage kind of looks like the Soul King, I’d have to assume that’s intentional all things considered, but it was nice touch overall.
The way Kubo designed Reio is just so cool. He's so scary and Divine with ao much authority yet the fact that he's trapped in a crystal is a great juxtaposition.
He's not unlike a Lovecraftian eldritch entity. Unimaginable power, an alien mind due to his mental presence in both the past, present and future all at once, and after being sealed his corpse and separated body parts essentially became arcane relics and lesser deific figures.
Truly the biggest victim of the saga, and to think Gotei 13 very nearly subjected Ichigo to this fate worse than death. In a way the Spirit King's mutilation and subjugation, particularly the ancestors zeal to make things their own way, sort of subverts the whole grey morality of the series essentially making the ancient heads of the five families legacy villains. Their actions are the reason why the world of Bleach is sharply divided. It's sad yet unsurprising that many of the nobles still advocate violently suppressing the truth.
It's hard to say if they're truly villains. The primordial world sounds like a truly messed up place, so by creating this division it essentially brought more peace and order than before, that seemed to be utter chaos. Imo it's very grey, on one hand one person had to be sacrificed to be this tool to create such a world and in fear of them ever ruining it, get rid of their capacity for it, meanwhile you had all these unjust caste system with certain individuals holding power and more value than the rest, and people having power over life and death, and over those being subject to torture. But then on the other it did great a system that was fair for the better half and protection from beings that would ruin people's lives even further, as well as making the living world a form of paradise that was protected from interaction of either worlds. And the fact that the next "best" is the primordial world, where nobody is safe, there's no order, only luck and survival of the fittest, utter chaos and anarchy, yet complete freedom. It's one of those "Would you save one person from an eternal of suffer or save millions upon millions of people and generations from the fear of living?".
Yeah that would not have ended well, as Ichigo was stronger than those in the zero division, if they explained it to him then he probably would accept the position.
@@prinstyrio0 You shouldn't forget that the Soul King has the almighty too. He knew that the shinigami he saved will betray him but since the outcome would be better than the hell scape they lived in, he didn't resist at all. I think Yhwach was a manifestation of the soul king's desire to be free again. Since that hope took it's seed when he was immobilized and imprisoned, it's manifestation as Yhwach was the exact mirror image. An infant who couldn't move, see or talk. Yhwach was what the bleach universe would've experienced for millennia if the Soul King was even the least bit selfish. The Shinigami ancestors were definitely evil, there's no doubt about that but since that selfish act will result in a better outcome for billions of souls the Soul King allowed it to happen.
The Novels are so dumb and plot-holey and dont-feel-like-bleach, that i have good reason to disregard all this as Non-Canon. Just like Cursed Child with J.K.Rowling: The Authors claim it's Canon are simply entirely Overruled; sorry fam!
@@badrzouggagh People keep saying this, but there's nothing in CFYOW that suggests it. He has impressive feats, yes, but none of the manga god tiers have any anti-feats.
@@blazingocean4206 Aizen has none, but Yhwach (SK Absorbed, who does count as a manga character) was about to envelop all of creation in his power and return it to primordial soup. That's equally as impressive as the Soul King creating the material world and setting boundaries between the realms. Scaling-wise, though, as per CFYOW, Aizen's Kanzen Saimin is very much reiatsu based, and having high enough reiatsu means you can chad through it. Aizen affecting Yhwach with it at all puts them in somewhat the same tier (with Yhwach being superior, ofc). Same with Ichigo quite literally killing Yhwach before he revives himself and confirms that Ichigo did in fact kill him with sealed Tensa Zangetsu's Getsuga Tenshou.
@tom gu Does the Soul King even want to free himself? And based off the novel it seems like the Zero Squad killed the Soul King and used his body to stabilize all worlds, life and death.
Well one thing. Urahara has obviously been to the palace since one of the squad zero guy says that he was allowed to analyzed the healing bath. And it's how he created his bath in that training space when ichigo did bankai. So there is a relationship between urahara and them
it is made from soul kings pieces (which they call his nails) matsumoto had a piece and that what aizen took all the fullbringer have as well that why they have powers
I feel like aizen and urahara really did see him because of what urahara said to aizen or aizen saw him an urahara only discovered the information it’s ofc up in the air but we can’t jus throw away what urahara said because he said it like he’s seen the soul king already
Interesting to note, the kanji for the soul king (Reiō) is a pun, meaning literally Soul King and Zero King/King of Nothing. Quite interesting given his position in the end.
Well now the zero devision makes more since. Yet he weirdly seemed to have some form consciousness and communication or else he couldn’t have given Ichibe his moniker.
The Novels are so dumb and plot-holey and dont-feel-like-bleach, that i have good reason to disregard all this as Non-Canon. Just like Cursed Child with J.K.Rowling: The Authors claim it's Canon are simply entirely Overruled; sorry fam!
Sounds like the soul king was the absolute opposite of yhwach. The soul king gave to everyone and never took whereas yhwach took from everyone and gave very little back.
@@MILDMONSTER1234 I mean , he did had given the quincies their gift. the whole thing with Yhwach is that his infancy had him needing to kill to even breath , and when he finally discovers the truth about himself and the Original Sin , he wanted justice and revenge going overkill with it. I mean , East Soul Society is corrupt , so is the Central 46 , the first Gotei 13 were warmongers , it's sole existance is due to a betrayal over a messiah...yet they are the defenders of pretty much the insanity that would be Hollows or the destabilization of the souls. Both sides had validations to why they are just. In fact , the only ones with very little validation would be Ichigo and Ishida in the whole arc....all the others were about justice , those two didn't care about fairness or corruption , anything of that sort , they just wanted to enact vengeance over Yhwach. The worst offender been Ichigo , because Ishida's mom couldn't survive the Selection in itself , but Ichigo's could , he is blaming Juha for some arbitrary bad timing.
@@nicholasmerritt-baldwin206 no , Juha is just returning the world in it's original form , that in itself do not mean his father or his friends would die. Heck , Juha just needed to mention Misaki and Ichigo goes berserk against him.
I think the Soul King was a missed opportunity. he's kind of creepy and weird, but I think that had the concept of the "Soul King" turned out to be something else, not necessarily a being even, but something twisted and unwholesome, that would've really added spice to the soul society. it would retroactively make sense of Aizen wanting to destroy him and would bring the Soul Society's corruption and injustice back into the foreground, as it was in the Soul Society arc.
i had so many ideas how he could had use the quincys, juha, wasted characters, zero squad and soul king in betters ways. Kubo had a great world-building but he never polish to reach its potential, that is why it goes downhill in story and direction.
I'd say sealing their Messiah, dismembering and disemboweling him, stripping him of free will, and using him as a tool, and then saying "oh yeah guys the Soul King is totally an actual ruler and he put us in charge", is all pretty "twisted and unwholesome".
That probably was the intent but Tite's health problems forced him to cut the final chapter short sadly. It would have been really cool to see his original idea for the story. Let's hope the anime adds more to the story than the manga covered.
@@joshuabarnard5702 I still find it quite unacceptable that the Soul King who initially had good intentions of protecting the humans against the Hollows had to be treating like some tool by the Soul reapers.
I think the reason we never get to see Soul King's true personality is because you can never fully comprehend a God. He IS basically a God of Bleach world. We are only given some glimpses of his personality through his missing parts: Pernida, Mimihage and even Gerard.
Yeah and his viewpoint is different than anyone else, as he is genuinely selfless, which is sad as he allowed himself to be mutilated and probably grew apathetic over time to the point where he didn’t mind dying.
I think Yhwach was born similarly to how Yachiru, Lilynette, or the soul king monster things were. The Soul King simply created him using his monstrous spirit energy, and he became his own person, like Pernida or Mimihagi. That's why he was shown as being all black as a baby, similar to how the Soul King monsters were pure black.
Perhaps the Soul King created him from his innermost desire to get revenge on the people that made him that way, to reduce everything that he, the Soul King, created to dust and ending everything. Actually makes a lot of sense in my opinion.
@@Niko-pt9li Or it might have been SK plan to become a lynchpin to begin with and he started with mutiliation early. Yhwach in that case would be personification of his selfish desires he himself discarded to be able to go through with suffering fate worse than death for good of all.
Urahara has been to the "realm" of the Soul King. Where he got his idea and knowledge of the hot bath healing of Kirinji from. So he probably has seen the Soul King with his own two eyes.
Unless he was around when Kirinji was still in the Seretei. Kirinji made the hot springs before being recruited by the Zero Division, that's why he was recruited in the first place.
@@PunkZombie1300 he trained Unahana and invented Kiado, the healing arts. So he should predate the 4th division. He should have moved on well before Urahara was even born.
I could def see Aizen seeing the soul king when he gained his final form and was somewhat omnipotent, like he could finally sense the king's reietsu (sp?) and instead of a person he sensed the fragmented being in a chrysalis, thus him being shocked at seeing that "thing"
I doubt having the power of the soul kings nails lets you sense a being that is basically omnipotent. Aizen wasn’t omnipotent either, he just became very powerful but none of them knew true unrivaled omnipotent power at that point in the story.
@@Bori.1776 omnipotence dosent even seem to exist in Bleach, Omniscience to know everything to a degree yes, but not the former or else Ywach would’ve never lost.
@@calebcollins5887 Well, no. It took the most powerful characters with broken abilities to even be able to touch Ywach but on top of that I don’t really believe Ywach was even close in power to the soul, at the very least not in his ability to use it. The soul king has been implied to basically have let himself be captured and put into that state, but we still don’t know everything about it so we can never say.
I think the Soul King was such an interesting concept, and I love that it was fleshed out more in Can't Fear Your Own World. Not having read it, I'm glad you've covered so much of that here. It explains a lot more about Mimihagi, Pernida, Gerard, and Yhwach, as well as just explaining why he was a creepy dude with no limbs stuck in a crystal. Great video!
The Novels are so dumb and plot-holey and dont-feel-like-bleach, that i have good reason to disregard all this as Non-Canon. Just like Cursed Child with J.K.Rowling: The Authors claim it's Canon are simply entirely Overruled; sorry fam!
@@nenmaster5218 You seem to be quite determined to get everyone to agree to your viewpoint which is quite stupid as the Novels literaly fill in the blanks in the plot of bleach
I always wondered if this whole thing, from Aizen, to White, to Ichigo, to Yhwach was created and manage by the soul king to be killed in order to be reborn, quietly and free.
I bet Aizen would love to know that all of his plans were part of the Soul King's plans all along. And yes, I think you may be right. Having Yhwach take his father's place reminds me of cyclical creation myths like the Viking Ragnarok. I can see Yhwach eventually going through the same thing in the future.
I'm glad you've been making these videos discussing the lore and characters. Bleach's story got so convoluted that it was hard for me to care much about what was happening during the Thousand Year Blood War.
Same for me. I just started skimming a lot of it for the most part. I wouldn’t even really commit characters names to memory or anything toward the end.
Same lol, i was a huge bleach fan in the beginning but then especially at the TYBW arc my interest dissipated rather quickly, also not even remembering names of even the more notable enemies, heck i even forgot they were called sternritters lol
The more I think about Aizen, the more I think of him as a tsundere. When he speaks of his own motivation and ambitions, he talks about how he has always been peerless. He talks about how he's just so naturally gifted that he could never connect with anyone because no one else was on his level mentally or physically. However, he then goes on the praise multiple people as being as gifted or more gifted than himself. Urahara is praised as being the only person more intelligent than him. He states that he could not have defeated Yamamoto in combat until he's made years of preparations. It feels like he's saying these things about his motivations in order to hide the fact that he's just socially awkward. Even the people whose lives he's willing to take or have taken by his subordinates is pretty specific. Even if you wanted to maintain secrecy and work within the confines of his plan there are several high ranking shinigami that he could have eliminated throughout the decades without changing much. It didn't feel like he wanted to destabilize the Hotel 13 so much as reform the way that they interact with their governing bodies (The Central 46 & the Soul King) He feels that something is wrong with the structure of Soul Society and he states that he wants to change it for the better, even threatening that he wanted to destroy the Soul King, but it seems like hubris for a character that is supposed to be so incredibly intelligent and talented and fortuitous to choose a plan that takes so much time and basically create ideal circumstances for someone to defeat him. Truly, if you think about Aizen's goals has more general statements, it is not unfair to say that he succeeded. After the arrancar arc, there are many noticeable changes in how the Gotei 13 is managed. Although some of the changes are more subtle or are hidden, you even have characters like Yamamoto willing to reward humans or ask for help. The Soul King was not transformed, but the Central 46 is an entirely new group. Even Aizen himself is not destroyed or entirely removed from Soul Society. He is imprisoned, but we see that even when locked away he still has influence within Soul Society and his power is still terrifying. Aizen was kinda a nice guy.
Yeah, we definitely get “nice guy” energy from Aizen when he tries to kill momo once so she wouldn’t suffer without him, and a second time to troll the captains and hitsugaya specifically. Then when he pops tousen like a water balloon. Yes, I’m being sarcastic. “Nice guys” are rarely good guys.
@@lord_haven1114 Aizen could have effortlessly killed anyone we encountered in the arrancar arc until he conveniently gave Ichigo the time, space, and trials he needed in order to be an appropriate challenge. He wasn't a good person, but it genuinely feels like he was intentionally positioning himself as an anti-hero.
Oh yeah, Aizen isn’t pure evil, twisted and warped yes, but not pure evil. He’s selfish and is unfeeling towards many, but he does genuinely have some strange form of compassion as in the novels he legitimately did admire Tosens convictions.
@@lord_haven1114 Killing Tousen was according to Tousen's own wishes. He was going to kill himself once Aizen establishes the new world anyway because he's aware of his own hypocrisy. Tousen was Aizen's only confidant, and he made him promise to kill him if he ever waver in his dedication to the cause. Putting down Momo was in his view, mercy, because she wouldn't have to live and suffer with her entire world in pieces. Even now she's still coping with it, same with Hisagi and Tousen. He's a twisted, blue and orange morality guy fighting against a corrupt, downtrodden, stagnant society built upon the sin of of the 5 noble family. The closet thing Bleach has to a big bad villain is Ichibe, who embody Soul Society and the 5 clanhead's original sin and will stop at nothing to keep the status quo. Soul Society is a terrible place and early SS arc showed that, it just took a backseat to the main battle shounen conflict, and Ichigo was willing to ignore it because he's buddy buddy with the elites. Neither Ywhach nor Aizen were good people, but they had genuine, honest ideal in changing and improving the world, even if it goes against the status quo.
Yeah man, thats exactly what im thinking, a being with immense power that had good intentions from the start of protecting humans against harm (the hollows). It really is hard to believe that the Soul King was just used as a tool, mutilated and forced into submission like a prisoner without the will of his own, im pretty sure he would have been OK in running those 3 worlds on his own without the zero squad too.
Yhwach; The Sight of the King Mimihagi; The Right Hand Pernida; The Left Hand Gremmy; The Mind of the King Gerard Valkyrie; The Heart of the King Lille Baro; The Soul of the King
One of Kubo's biggest mistakes with Bleach was omitting the basics of the world's creation myth and the Soul King's place in it, and Yhwach's (and Aizen's) opinions regarding it. Those omissions keep Bleach from being a complete story in and of itself within the manga. I don't know if Kubo felt indebted or not to the authors behind the yet-to-be-released novels and decided to provide them with some content so he held back in the manga.
I don’t think he held anything back intentionally. It wouldn’t make any sense with sth this crucial to the story. It’s safe to say that as with basically anything else in the last 20 chapters he simply ran out of time unfortunately.
Honestly a lot of the backstory just didn’t revolve around Ichigo and his friends, which is the main story of Bleach. The backstory is interesting, but damn trying to explain it in a manga without breaking up the story, now that would be a Herculean task.
@@calebcollins5887 I acknowledge the effort would have been great, but I only make the statement in concrete belief that Kubo was capable of delivering the goods as a writer.
@@duncannslade oh I agree that he could have but, the problem is that a lot of it was fully fleshed out as the story was being written, basic concepts were concrete, but it being the kind of story it was doing a full lore dump in the the middle of the last arc would’ve taken away from some of the mystery that did add to the expense. He definitely had the skill to do it, but honestly he probably just grew tired after so long and would’ve needed another arc to fully ugliest it out, which the light nobles allowed for luckily.
Perhaps Mimihagi's support of the shinigami reflects that part of the Soul King was supportive of the noble families vision to stabilize the worlds and understood them, but the other parts were infused with the parts that resented them.
I really hope Kubo adds thing to the final arc when the anime returns. More fights, show the off panel fights, more backstories for some Quincy and more story with Chad and Orihime in Hueco Mundo with Urahara and Grimmjow. Show that group overthrow the rest of the Quincy there to save Haribel maybe. And the anime REALLY need to include the Can’t Fear Your Own World. They can use that story to further explain the royal families, and the structure of the soul society and its dark history.
Good point . Think the Anime will extend / change some of the fights to add to your point. It be would be nice if the fight between Bach and Aizen was extended because technically Ichigo shouldn't of beaten Ycwbach considering was and what happened. Someone said the arrow should of been used for something else and have Uryu ✂ loose.
Same, we need more explanation since the manga itself getting rushed. Dunno if Kubo will give us flashback about Chad and Orihime in hueco mundo also how they're save Halibel, or other espada. But maybe Kubo will add a little content CFYOW. Seriously, we need tell him so he can convice Studio Pierrot and other director to added these kind of episode. Because they only give us filler or more information and flashback when they almost can't use manga content due (play catch up between anime and manga, just like Naruto when PDS4, so Kishimoto can draw and release new chapter every week and SP can animate the manga). Even, Kubo not satisfied how they execution Hell arc (one of bleach movie) that's why he upload No Breath from Hell, i wish Kubo can finish Bleach well with TYOBW get anime adaptation.
This video was surprisingly fascinating, wonderful job. I noticed some strange things, concerning those eyes ; 1 eye for mimihagi, 2 eyes for pernidas, 3 eyes for yhwach and 4 eyes for the soul king. I'm wondering if there is a particular meaning to this. After all those years, Bleach still has so many layers...fascinating 🤩
The Hogokyu has a piece of the soul king in it. With Aizen, it's not that surprising that he knows about the truth of soul society history(which is the prime reason for his actions). Has nothing to do with a vision.
@@Bornagainvillain He probably put a lot together, but I don't think he new all the specifics. If just anyone could read from some archives and the information is all there and that widely available, Aizen and Urahara shouldn't have been the first and only ones to come to the conclusion.
@@Tengu125 they weren't. Each of the 4 noble families held a piece of the Soul King, so I'm assuming those high up in those families knew of it. The main villain of the CFYOW novels became warped because he discovered the Soul King's origins.
Same here... kind of a Full Metal Alchemist parallel for me. With transmutations pushing boundaries you see Truth and the gate. I imagine Aizen and Urahara doing their Hougyoku shenanigans had a similar glimpse of the Soul King
@@Bornagainvillain Its not just "a" piece, the Hogokyu is a large clump of soul king fragments. That's what Aizen took from Rangiku, and likely why it could do those transcendental things.
I think Yuha considers anyone with quincy blood/powers to be "family". He calls Ichigo his son, despite that obviously being Ishin. Considering that the SK is the source of Yuha, Yuha calls SK "father" Just my own speculation though
The Soul King for me is a selfless being but not without any emotions. With his foresight it's impossible for him to be ambushed or sealed away unless he himself allowed it. It could possibly that the Soul King would already foresee his death and who's going to replaced him. Seeing that the world he saved would still be intact due to this event possibly made why he gladly accept his fate. The interference of Mimihagi probably for buying time in order for the event turned out just like the end we see. In some what deep down the Soul King never let go of his responsibility.
I really hope Kubo makes a new arc that tackles around finding the rest of the Soul King's body fragments for his Bleach Universe, in the future. Be it a new arc for Bleach/Burn The Witch, or another spin-off from Kubo.
@@mrsticky005 That's actually a good theory, I mean it was stated that Märchens existed even before the formation of Reverse London (as in; The Soul Society).
Well the fragments are mostly either inside of people aka the Fullbringers or now in the Hogyoku cause Aizen was feeding the Hogyoku fragments of the Soul King from Soul Society and Hueco Mundo so there aren't many fragments of the Soul King left to find
I admit I was disappointed with Soul king, I expected something more than a torso with a head. I kind of understand why Soul king is what he is but I expected him to do lot more than just be. Having said that, the whole thing with Soul king is interesting and having inspirated me as I created this imperial family which is being separated from the rest of the world due them being too dangerous to the rest of the world.
Tbh almost all issues of the thousand year blood war could have been solved with one flashback that goes over the origins between the soul king, juha and the original gotei
I think more backstory could have been done to flesh him out but the crystal. how soul society has a dirty secret of how they use the soul king and keep him in a prison. Used as a source of power is way more interesting.
That's why Aizen called it a "thing" and couldn't stand the status quo. The Soul King isn't a God or King. It's a corpse battery. His only influence beyond that is as a puppet used by the Noble Clans to maintain order and control
I think Gremmy might have been the brain of the Soul King. Since his Visionary makes most sense for a brain, always thinking and dreaming. The heart typically represents vitality so it makes sense that the heart cannot die. The right hand Mimihagi has the power of progression, while Pernida is stillness or stagnation. In the Bible, during Jesus’ crucifixion there are men on either side of him. The one on his right accepts Jesus and progresses towards Heaven while the one on his left, remains stagnant in his disbelief and his sent to Hell for denying God
To correct you, Mimihagi, the right hand signifies stillness and stagnation while Pernida, the left hand signifies progression. You have reversed their roles in your comment.
@@k2basior im on vol 3 and haven't had that confirmation yet a lot of ppl are saying it tho so you aren't the first but i got bout 300 pages left so who knows
One thing that you may not have noticed is, the symbols on the Captain Haoris match the pupils of the Soul King, white star inside a black background. I thought it was a nice touch.
Have to say first of all, Bleach is one of my favorite anime/manga but I've watched many of your videos and I am constantly impressed. Literally your videos alone make me want more content from Kubo and yourself. Keep up the wonderful work bud!
I think bleach's very end showed that perhaps Juha Bach may have been the good guy and SS may have been the bad guys. Sure we want to believe SS is unquestionably good, but the reveal that noble families mutilated the Soul King and created the 3 worlds makes it seem like Juha's intentions may have been altruistic itself: End suffering and the 'artificial' cycle of life/death the noble families created.
We were literally introduced to the Gotei 13 as the evil guys who were going to kill Rukia. We are introduced to the Soul Society as a whole as this segregated world where might makes right and you're nobody if you're not strong, a noble, or both. We were never meant to believe that these are 100% good and moral guys. The society as a whole seems to fit better the category of "Lawful Neutral".
So considering the soul king could see everything it would be safe to assume he saw Yhwach ultimately taking his place. Which could explain how Yhwach was born in the first place. The soul king manifested him as his one and only selfish act, so he could die and have his son take his place.
I wonder if he could see all or he could only see till his death...Maybe he saw that the only way to die was through his son and no further than that? Kinda like the Sorcerer Supreme.
...I gotta say after seeing this video and etc on the Soul King...the Soul Society is gray as hell lol. Sure, they seem to be on the "good" side of things but their hands are tainted in blood. From what they did to the Soul King, to them thinking of fucking trapping Ichigo to be the next king lol....
Soul Reapers are the closest thing Bleach has to actual villains. The Hollows eat souls because that is their nature. The Fullbringer's are essentially cursed humans. But the Soul Reapers killed God and introduced death into the world and the Quincies, under Yhwach's leadership, are just trying to undo that even if it means ending the world as they know it. Compared to them Hollows are downright neutral characters
They have Mayuri and in all aspects of morality he fails, but in the messed up world they live in they need the help of anyone capable, or else people like Unohana or Kenpachi would’ve never made it far.
You just provided so much more depth and intrigue into a character I basically found myself not caring about when I read through the manga. Thank you I appreciate the insight
it's contradictory that the zero division says the soul king selects candidates who have the potential to stop Juha, but he holds a grudge. The soul king might've accepted and preferred the way of the shinigami. If he had the almighty, then he's probably foreseen the future in which he is involved; which means he probably saw Ichigo's effort to stop Juha. It could be that Juha misunderstood the soul king.
I’m not gonna take credit for this bc I saw it on a Tekking101 video. But there’s a theory that bc Kyoka Suigetsu allows Aizen to control the senses of his opponents so they see whatever he wants. His Bankai is actually kinda the opposite and it allows him to see whatever he wants within reason. So he basically used his Bankai to see the Soul King and saw that he’s basically a vegetable and wished to overthrow him. I absolutely love this theory.
That wouldn’t explain Kisuke. I think Kyoka Suigetsus command “Shatter” is the biggest hint at what the Bankai would do. Where the Shikai control the mind I believe the Bankai would break it, essentially making his opponent brain dead, which is overpowered as fuck and is why Kubo couldn’t ever give him a Bankai.
@@juliandavidhoffer2022 I think with Kisuke when he asked Aizen ‘So you’ve seen it?’ It wasn’t really a hint that Kisuke himself had, rather he had knowledge of the Soul King and was intrigued at the possibility that Aizen could have seen him. But who knows it’s all speculation at the end of the day haha
@@juliandavidhoffer2022 As for Aizen’s Shikai, his release command ‘Shatter’ could mean so many things: shatter the hopes of his opponents, shatter the senses, shatter his own innocence etc
I think it's likely that Yhwach is either the actual son of the soul king from back in the day, or he is another portion of the soul king. He could possibly be the soul kings eyes or some other bits.
@@otislloyd-zollinger2579 True that's what was said and I didn't read the don't 😱 fear your own world novel certainly would like to thank you for your kind response Otis Lloyd-Zollinger 😎 cool name btw. It's kinda weird a corpse still has/ have that much🔋2 to hold that universe together after the chaos.
@@AJ-kt5zo yes it was told in can't fear your own world. Thanks for the compliment. Yhwach was so strong I'm not surprised he could do it, he absorbed the og soul King, all the stern Ritter and has the almighty
I can’t believe I never realized that Ichigo is the same as the soul king as far as they both are born from the three races hollow Shinigami, and Quincy.
When I found out that the soul king had 4 irises it has been very weird looking at him, I thought it was a unique eye design and it made him seem like he was just in stasis and now its more off a hanging body since they look so vacant now, makes me wonder how ywach looks right now and also how far squad 0 is willing to go against the next candidate since they don't really need the whole body apparently.
Maybe the “key” aizen was going to create, was himself. Maybe what he was trying to do, was give himself that power through whatever method he came up with.
I think its neat to think the Soul King appeared almost like an amalgamation of massive riatsu that contained all powers but ended up using the Quincy powers. Kind of like Ichigo if he never learned to be a Soul Reaper. Its also good food for thought thinking the Soul King and Ichigo had similar desires to protect
At the 6:10 about Menos Grande vs the royal guards. Kubo's problem for me has been stating definitives and his power scaling. You know exactly damn well that back than he was referencing them, but by the time he introduced them a Menos Grande became fodder.
I think you are right on that. I think they must have some sort of feeling link to the Soul King due to being connected and infused with his power. So for example that one guy who mentioned how he was interested in Ichigo may have just noticed that SK watching him more than anyone else and can feel the SK's fascination.
I actually like if the retcon idea would've been implemented in the story itself. Like what if there was an actual key at the beginning and the library archive actually documents this but then the soul king decided to change it and infuse it into the bones of his guards(or maybe the key was first and the guards were formed later) and thus making both versions true
I strongly believe that the Ise sword was used to split the Soul King into Eight major parts, but I'm not sure what all of them are. Obviously the right arm became to Mimihagi, the left arm became Pernida, the Heart was taken in by Gerard, and I strongly suspect (though I suppose it isn't confirmed) that his brain was the brain that powered Gremmy. Two of the other limbs were clearly the SK's legs, though we have no information on what happened to them. Finally, I'm unsure what the last two pieces of the SK would have been (Is it simply his Soul Chain and nails? Or his ears? Perhaps his lungs?), but I still think this makes the most sense. As such, I think the Ise Clan is either the unrevealed family of the major Five Noble Families or is/was a retainer to one of them who played a large part in them splitting the Soul King apart. Really, I hope we get more Novels after CFYOW that further explains the lore of Bleach and its universe to explain these things as well as to get more information about the unnamed Great Noble Family, more information about the original Gotei 13, a deeper explanation of how Hell works and how it differs from the three major realms, and also just simply more stories with the great characters Kubo created in the Shinigami of Bleach!
I always thought it was interesting that mimihagi had one pupil, pernita had 2, yhwach have three, and the soul king had 4 pupil. I didnt notice until watching your vid and seeing them one after the other it is a nice little detail kubo did there
I don't agree that it's a bad thing that we didn't get more details about this soul king. There has to be some mystery, some space left for a reader to think, guess, speculate for a story to be interesting and entertaining. Sometimes having everything explained can make a story less compelling.
I wish if Bleach ever got restarted, Kubo would design a proper, consistent lore and universe before fleshing it out in manga/novel/anime. I hope he reads fan theories about bleach, which could help him identify the inconsistencies and contradictions on the current lore.
He already been done that he just never 👎 showed us until now because I guess that’s what he didn’t wanted to focus on early on the anime and manga he wanted a build up
Kisuke for sure went to the royal realm remember kirinji told ichigo that kisuke made the hot springs in his hideout by studying the waters in his spring
More and more of these analysis and speculation videos I watch, I’m thinking more and more that Kubo didn’t put as much thought as we thought he did. It’s getting more evident that he was making some things up as he went along. It mostly worked wonderfully but when it didn’t, it really didn’t work.
Kinda sad that I didn't a convo with the Soul King and Ichigo. That being said and I am happy with what I did get. Just wish we could've gotten a little more.
@@juliandavidhoffer2022 Christianity is low key just a revamp of greek/roman religion. Which was pretty much a copy of Egyptian mythology. Jesus is just a copy of osiris son.
@@BlizzardofOze Norse mythology is very similar to islamic mythology. Which is older and similar to original christianity. Which borrows from greek/roman mytholigy. Which is a copy of a mix of much older Ethiopian and egyptian mytholigy. LOL, religion is hilarious when you really look at it. Everyone is basically telling the same story but their own version of it.
Thanks for the video man! I definitely wish we had more information on the Reio, but at the same time his mysteriousness makes everything very interesting
Phenomenal video, it again shows that you're the best bleach UA-camr. I would like to support you as a patreon but I don't have money to spare. Still people like you make my weeks brighter thanks to that!
Always felt it would have been really interesting meet more people in the story who have maybe been imbued with parts of the Soul King like his leg etc. Similar to Pernida, Gerard etc and maybe have a concept where the parts of the Soul King are kind of unconsciously being drawn back to the main body for a resurrection type event
In my opinion the existence of a royal family or a king in soul society was quite obvious and logical since the beginning, I mean the Gotei 13 are translated in English as the 13 royal court guards, so they're basically guarding a royal court, meaning a royal family. Also if nobles exist, the logical thing would be for royals to exist as well. Since Bleach takes a lot of inspiration from western countries, especially Spain, it makes sense that it would use Spain's ruling class' history as a model for Soul Society as well, which also consisted during a long time of nobles and royals working together yet at the same time keeping each other in check and controlling each other, and at times it would be nobles gaining more power or viceversa. This is symbolized by the 5 noble families keeping the Soul King in check.
I've always assumed that the right arm holds the shinigami power and the left arm is the quincy would explain why one wanted to protect ss and the other joined yhwach
I don't know, I'm torn on this topic, pun intended. I do really like what's there, but it's so underdeveloped and underutilized it almost feels like it would be better if it had been abandoned entirely. If you take the time to really dig into it, the Soul King is the oversoul, the primordial first piece of the trilogy of Reio, Ginjo and Ichigo, which is fascinating. All three are aberrant combinations of all soul types, and that parallel runs through their story arcs and beautifully fits the themes of Bleach. You can trace the very, very slow redemption of Soul Society through the severity of their betrayals, and fascinatingly they also mirror the three main antagonists of Bleach in chronological order. Reio, like Byakuya, responds with complete indifference, but obviously holds some animosity about it considering how much of his surviving sentience tried to destroy Soul Society. Ginjo is overcome with contempt and a desire for scheming revenge, but is eventually reduced to impotent rage, and then reluctantly assists, just like Aizen. And Ichigo and Ywach are both driven to right what they view as inexcusable wrongs committed by the Soul Society, and work to bring about their vision of a better world, despite how different those visions are. It adds so much weight to the fact that Shunsui and Ichibe were perfectly ready and willing to carve Ichigo into the new Soul King. But the fact none of this is ever in the foreground and could all be an accident takes away some of the gravitas
What if Aizen meant to make himself like the Zero Division, or infuse Oken into a being, similarly to how he tailor-made Wonderweiss for the singular purpose of sealing Yamamoto's flames? Maybe he intended to use a process not unlike how Mayuri created both a body and a soul from scratch, to make a being to act as the vessel for a "synthetic" Oken? We don't actually know how he intended to use the destruction of Karakura to facilitate the creation of the "key", and he might have even just been trying to make himself enough of a threat to the stability of the realms to coax the Zero Division to descend so he could use them to figure out the truth of what the "key" even is. Both he and Urahara are brilliant scientists with analytical minds, and surely they must've realised that there are some things missing from the archives' description of this thing and they don't know exactly what it is. There are so many possibilities.
The Soul King: He had the Pridefulness of the shinigami. To save the humans from hallows. He had the Selflessness of a human to save the world. And guilt for causing an imbalance. But also a Distain of the quincy, for the way the shinigami went about it. Threatened by his power & mysteriousness. The original sin, of the soul society. Combination, of all races.
Omg you did NOT just forget the “most important species”!! The Bounts! Like omg they were so important and controversial to the series Ofc they would represent the fact that The Soul King got no eyebrows, which is his defining and only well known trait.
One of your best videos yet. I love Reio as a concept. He's great for worldbuilding and even characterization for those 5 ancient royal families' ancestors. What happened to him is a great illustration of the tragic human condition. I wish Kubo would've shown us all of this in the manga. Hopefully he will add this to the anime. Keep up the great work! \(^o^)/
Great video. The Soul King and everything surrounding him is one of the coolest aspects of Bleach imo, and it was so satisfying to finally learn the truth in CFYOW. 17:57 tfw you realize that Soul Society probably sacrificed 100,000 people each time they needed a new member of Squad Zero. Not surprising tbh.
I think Aizen and Kisuke both "saw" the soul King in the moment of creating the hogyuku... somehow the hogyuku being able to manifest wills and desires tied back to Reiao
I love that Kubo did a reverse on what we thought and made the soul king perhaps not a good guy. It sounds like he was trapped and was happy to let his death happen finally if it meant SS would be destroyed. I always thought the SK was this pillar of good and kept it all together for the sake of everyone but the fact they were willing to use Ichigo against his will seriously makes it show that the SK is just a tool and makes you kinda agree with Aizen that they’re just bending the knee to a puppet and basing peace on a lie
after reading Reio's story i came to understand that he's just a being beyond comprehension and understanding like what most god like beings are often portrayed. and i think he understood that hollows and humans are not so different other than the fact the hollows resent the living for having the things which they lost. i think that Reio had nothing but pity for them all and decided to try an ease each of their pains in different ways, but they are imperfect beings an prong to make mistakes being almighty an omnipotent Reio probably saw there was no easy way for mortals and hollow to co-exist in peace so he agreed to the noble houses' suggestions an divided their world into three a place for the hollows to abide in silent vigil "hueco muendo" a place for the living mortals "earth" and a place for their souls to learn to live without regrets if they so chose "soul society" and avoid becoming hollowfied an preying upon the living, he ofc saw what would become of him for accepting the nobles houses that they'd stab him in the back out of a irrational fear and obsession to control but he did not retaliate but instead chose peace but the hollow side of him resented them for the betrayal and wanted bloody resolution so Reio killed that part of himself seperating it from his body/mind but it would later find its way into the soul of his progenitor Ywach whom shared that hatred and fury with Reio's left arm Pernida. which i suppose is why Ywach took it so negatively that the right arm would rebuke him when the left accepted him.
Quite a long video today for you guys, so I've included some chapters to allow you to skip around as you please - let me know what you thought of the Soul King though in the comments and how he was utilised in the Bleach universe! Enjoy the video and have a great Friday.
Please can you make a video on top 10 most powerful/best kido users in bleach✊
Who is juha Bach? Is he the soul king son? Is he a bootleg soul king since he was only born with Quincy powers and not hollow and shinigami powers?
Thank you so much for this. I wasn't aware of the implications from Can't Fear Your Own World.
@@Zeno1781 I think it is still unclear IF the soul king originally even had hollow powers. I didn't read all the books but it would seem the answer is: no.
@@djdrack4681 do u mean he got it over time? Because the requirements to be the soul king is to have shinigami, hollow and Quincy reitsu. Ginjo, ichigo were the only one who had those requirements before juha Bach came in and just straight up absorbed the soul king getting everything
Mangaka's would be some of the best writers and have infinitely better stories if they weren't forced to work themselves to death for the weekly release culture.
Theres so much potential in Bleach if Kubo wasn't forced to work himself to exhaustion to keep up we could of had a much more flushed out story and perhaps even a potentially promising sequel series.
A monthly release works so much better than a weekly one.
@Ral Quo Is that sarcasm? XD
@@mercianthane2503 nah it really worked wonders for Jojo's
@@mercianthane2503 it's also half speed. one piece would be a 50 year story instead of 25 years. if you're too slow interest will die, get real.
"Kubo realized some things needed to be cut" *shows a picture of the Soul King cut in half*
Don't know if it was intentional, but that was entertaining
Lol yeah. The SK can see the entire future, so that joke was still "too soon"
The Novels are so dumb and plot-holey and dont-feel-like-bleach,
that i have good reason to disregard all this as Non-Canon.
Just like Cursed Child with J.K.Rowling: The Authors claim it's Canon
are simply entirely Overruled; sorry fam!
@@nenmaster5218 you're a dumb fuck if you disregard the authors opinion regarding his own work, it's his own creation we're just enjoying his work, whether something aren't to your liking doesn't matter.
I liked that Aizen’s Chrysalis Stage kind of looks like the Soul King, I’d have to assume that’s intentional all things considered, but it was nice touch overall.
The last stage is actully the weakest
Yeah something about the Hogyoku rejecting its user I think.
@@SuperSilver316 bro read properly hogy oku did not reject him, Aizen had self conflict he wanted to loss and hogyouku made him loss
It never rejected him ffs
The hogyoku also contains a part of the soul king
The way Kubo designed Reio is just so cool.
He's so scary and Divine with ao much authority yet the fact that he's trapped in a crystal is a great juxtaposition.
Nah-
I don’t fear someone who doesn’t even have eyebrows.
@@-0m3rcy0-8 fear is somewhat subjective
Uncanny and outlandish might be a better word for you.
@@ez_is_bloo ouch- okay then
He's not unlike a Lovecraftian eldritch entity.
Unimaginable power, an alien mind due to his mental presence in both the past, present and future all at once, and after being sealed his corpse and separated body parts essentially became arcane relics and lesser deific figures.
@@-0m3rcy0-8 probably because of ss3 goku
Truly the biggest victim of the saga, and to think Gotei 13 very nearly subjected Ichigo to this fate worse than death. In a way the Spirit King's mutilation and subjugation, particularly the ancestors zeal to make things their own way, sort of subverts the whole grey morality of the series essentially making the ancient heads of the five families legacy villains. Their actions are the reason why the world of Bleach is sharply divided. It's sad yet unsurprising that many of the nobles still advocate violently suppressing the truth.
Thsts what I'm saying I was like yooo hol up now, as soon as I heard that was possible
It's hard to say if they're truly villains. The primordial world sounds like a truly messed up place, so by creating this division it essentially brought more peace and order than before, that seemed to be utter chaos.
Imo it's very grey, on one hand one person had to be sacrificed to be this tool to create such a world and in fear of them ever ruining it, get rid of their capacity for it, meanwhile you had all these unjust caste system with certain individuals holding power and more value than the rest, and people having power over life and death, and over those being subject to torture.
But then on the other it did great a system that was fair for the better half and protection from beings that would ruin people's lives even further, as well as making the living world a form of paradise that was protected from interaction of either worlds. And the fact that the next "best" is the primordial world, where nobody is safe, there's no order, only luck and survival of the fittest, utter chaos and anarchy, yet complete freedom.
It's one of those "Would you save one person from an eternal of suffer or save millions upon millions of people and generations from the fear of living?".
Yeah that would not have ended well, as Ichigo was stronger than those in the zero division, if they explained it to him then he probably would accept the position.
@@prinstyrio0 You shouldn't forget that the Soul King has the almighty too. He knew that the shinigami he saved will betray him but since the outcome would be better than the hell scape they lived in, he didn't resist at all. I think Yhwach was a manifestation of the soul king's desire to be free again. Since that hope took it's seed when he was immobilized and imprisoned, it's manifestation as Yhwach was the exact mirror image. An infant who couldn't move, see or talk. Yhwach was what the bleach universe would've experienced for millennia if the Soul King was even the least bit selfish. The Shinigami ancestors were definitely evil, there's no doubt about that but since that selfish act will result in a better outcome for billions of souls the Soul King allowed it to happen.
The Novels are so dumb and plot-holey and dont-feel-like-bleach,
that i have good reason to disregard all this as Non-Canon.
Just like Cursed Child with J.K.Rowling: The Authors claim it's Canon
are simply entirely Overruled; sorry fam!
"The soul king, the closest thing to a god in the bleach universe"
Juha and Aizen: *crying*
Both are still nothing compared to prime unsealed sk
@@badrzouggagh People keep saying this, but there's nothing in CFYOW that suggests it. He has impressive feats, yes, but none of the manga god tiers have any anti-feats.
@@sageoverheaven what feats of Yhwach and Aizen make them equal to prime Soul King? And how could they even beat him?
@@blazingocean4206 Aizen has none, but Yhwach (SK Absorbed, who does count as a manga character) was about to envelop all of creation in his power and return it to primordial soup. That's equally as impressive as the Soul King creating the material world and setting boundaries between the realms.
Scaling-wise, though, as per CFYOW, Aizen's Kanzen Saimin is very much reiatsu based, and having high enough reiatsu means you can chad through it. Aizen affecting Yhwach with it at all puts them in somewhat the same tier (with Yhwach being superior, ofc). Same with Ichigo quite literally killing Yhwach before he revives himself and confirms that Ichigo did in fact kill him with sealed Tensa Zangetsu's Getsuga Tenshou.
@tom gu Does the Soul King even want to free himself? And based off the novel it seems like the Zero Squad killed the Soul King and used his body to stabilize all worlds, life and death.
Well one thing. Urahara has obviously been to the palace since one of the squad zero guy says that he was allowed to analyzed the healing bath. And it's how he created his bath in that training space when ichigo did bankai. So there is a relationship between urahara and them
*slams book shut*
Good point I forgot about that
He was supposed to be one or was offered to be one but he said no
I always believed that the Hyogoku was created by pieces of the soul king and that's how Aizen and Urahara learned the nature of the soul king.
it is made from soul kings pieces (which they call his nails) matsumoto had a piece and that what aizen took all the fullbringer have as well that why they have powers
I’m sure that some of the information is in the secret library too, as neither are exactly too keen on following rules.
I feel like aizen and urahara really did see him because of what urahara said to aizen or aizen saw him an urahara only discovered the information it’s ofc up in the air but we can’t jus throw away what urahara said because he said it like he’s seen the soul king already
Interesting to note, the kanji for the soul king (Reiō) is a pun, meaning literally Soul King and Zero King/King of Nothing. Quite interesting given his position in the end.
Well now the zero devision makes more since. Yet he weirdly seemed to have some form consciousness and communication or else he couldn’t have given Ichibe his moniker.
The Novels are so dumb and plot-holey and dont-feel-like-bleach,
that i have good reason to disregard all this as Non-Canon.
Just like Cursed Child with J.K.Rowling: The Authors claim it's Canon
are simply entirely Overruled; sorry fam!
@@nenmaster5218 Your head-canon isn't canon.
@@amado4249 agreed
@@amado4249 lol don’t bother he’s a child
Yeah my man. Being a weekly bleach reader was a different kind of hell
What a time to be alive.
@@xtubejr wouldnt trade it for the world
People don't even realize
Every week I used to read bleach naruto and one piece as 5hey were coming out. Bleach first. And medaka box even.
@@buukaczi The Big 3! I remember those days, so much nostalgia.
The soul king existence just shows how dark the bleach world can get
It was always dark really. Rukia was gonna be killed just for giving Ichigo her powers.
@@juliandavidhoffer2022 that wasn't the reason though
I think he means just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Because so much happened that gace me chills
Lol it makes sense too
It gives me evangelion vibes of the Lilith
Sounds like the soul king was the absolute opposite of yhwach. The soul king gave to everyone and never took whereas yhwach took from everyone and gave very little back.
I always saw YHWACH as an evil Jesus lol
@@MILDMONSTER1234 I mean , he did had given the quincies their gift.
the whole thing with Yhwach is that his infancy had him needing to kill to even breath , and when he finally discovers the truth about himself and the Original Sin , he wanted justice and revenge going overkill with it.
I mean , East Soul Society is corrupt , so is the Central 46 , the first Gotei 13 were warmongers , it's sole existance is due to a betrayal over a messiah...yet they are the defenders of pretty much the insanity that would be Hollows or the destabilization of the souls.
Both sides had validations to why they are just.
In fact , the only ones with very little validation would be Ichigo and Ishida in the whole arc....all the others were about justice , those two didn't care about fairness or corruption , anything of that sort , they just wanted to enact vengeance over Yhwach.
The worst offender been Ichigo , because Ishida's mom couldn't survive the Selection in itself , but Ichigo's could , he is blaming Juha for some arbitrary bad timing.
@@phantasosxgames8488 Except Ichigos not out for Revenge, hes fight Juha because He's LITERALLY DESTROYING REALITY
@@nicholasmerritt-baldwin206 no , Juha is just returning the world in it's original form , that in itself do not mean his father or his friends would die.
Heck , Juha just needed to mention Misaki and Ichigo goes berserk against him.
@@phantasosxgames8488 yes, but that would destroy the current world.
I think the Soul King was a missed opportunity. he's kind of creepy and weird, but I think that had the concept of the "Soul King" turned out to be something else, not necessarily a being even, but something twisted and unwholesome, that would've really added spice to the soul society. it would retroactively make sense of Aizen wanting to destroy him and would bring the Soul Society's corruption and injustice back into the foreground, as it was in the Soul Society arc.
Same
i had so many ideas how he could had use the quincys, juha, wasted characters, zero squad and soul king in betters ways. Kubo had a great world-building but he never polish to reach its potential, that is why it goes downhill in story and direction.
I'd say sealing their Messiah, dismembering and disemboweling him, stripping him of free will, and using him as a tool, and then saying "oh yeah guys the Soul King is totally an actual ruler and he put us in charge", is all pretty "twisted and unwholesome".
That probably was the intent but Tite's health problems forced him to cut the final chapter short sadly. It would have been really cool to see his original idea for the story. Let's hope the anime adds more to the story than the manga covered.
@@joshuabarnard5702 I still find it quite unacceptable that the Soul King who initially had good intentions of protecting the humans against the Hollows had to be treating like some tool by the Soul reapers.
I think the reason we never get to see Soul King's true personality is because you can never fully comprehend a God. He IS basically a God of Bleach world. We are only given some glimpses of his personality through his missing parts: Pernida, Mimihage and even Gerard.
Yeah and his viewpoint is different than anyone else, as he is genuinely selfless, which is sad as he allowed himself to be mutilated and probably grew apathetic over time to the point where he didn’t mind dying.
@@calebcollins5887 he got ambushed
@@Qweeeeegame oh dang I thought he allowed it to happen.
@@Qweeeeegame It was stated by Ichibei that perhaps SK saw his ambushed as well and allowed it to happened.
@@calebcollins5887 he did allow it to happen. Remember, the Soul King has foresight. He quite literally can't be ambushed.
I love the long discussions because it always gives me more things to realize and think about
I think Yhwach was born similarly to how Yachiru, Lilynette, or the soul king monster things were. The Soul King simply created him using his monstrous spirit energy, and he became his own person, like Pernida or Mimihagi. That's why he was shown as being all black as a baby, similar to how the Soul King monsters were pure black.
Perhaps the Soul King created him from his innermost desire to get revenge on the people that made him that way, to reduce everything that he, the Soul King, created to dust and ending everything. Actually makes a lot of sense in my opinion.
@@Niko-pt9li Or it might have been SK plan to become a lynchpin to begin with and he started with mutiliation early. Yhwach in that case would be personification of his selfish desires he himself discarded to be able to go through with suffering fate worse than death for good of all.
The Soul King may be mysterious but this guy gave me the answers and now I am looking forward for the TYBWA. Thanks, Tom.
Imagine saving the world from imbalance and then being murdered
Urahara has been to the "realm" of the Soul King. Where he got his idea and knowledge of the hot bath healing of Kirinji from. So he probably has seen the Soul King with his own two eyes.
Unless he was around when Kirinji was still in the Seretei. Kirinji made the hot springs before being recruited by the Zero Division, that's why he was recruited in the first place.
@@PunkZombie1300 I don't know exactly which chapter it is.; maybe hot hot heat where Kirinji says to ichigo that urahara has been there.
@@PunkZombie1300 he trained Unahana and invented Kiado, the healing arts. So he should predate the 4th division.
He should have moved on well before Urahara was even born.
I could def see Aizen seeing the soul king when he gained his final form and was somewhat omnipotent, like he could finally sense the king's reietsu (sp?) and instead of a person he sensed the fragmented being in a chrysalis, thus him being shocked at seeing that "thing"
i would think the 5 houses have records on the soul king
and aizen would likely be able to steal such records
@@scottgrasser9737 and Aizen could sneak into any places because of Kyoka Suigetsu
I doubt having the power of the soul kings nails lets you sense a being that is basically omnipotent. Aizen wasn’t omnipotent either, he just became very powerful but none of them knew true unrivaled omnipotent power at that point in the story.
@@Bori.1776 omnipotence dosent even seem to exist in Bleach, Omniscience to know everything to a degree yes, but not the former or else Ywach would’ve never lost.
@@calebcollins5887 Well, no. It took the most powerful characters with broken abilities to even be able to touch Ywach but on top of that I don’t really believe Ywach was even close in power to the soul, at the very least not in his ability to use it. The soul king has been implied to basically have let himself be captured and put into that state, but we still don’t know everything about it so we can never say.
I think the Soul King was such an interesting concept, and I love that it was fleshed out more in Can't Fear Your Own World. Not having read it, I'm glad you've covered so much of that here. It explains a lot more about Mimihagi, Pernida, Gerard, and Yhwach, as well as just explaining why he was a creepy dude with no limbs stuck in a crystal. Great video!
Mimihagi: *squints*
Ywach: "And I took that Personally."
The Novels are so dumb and plot-holey and dont-feel-like-bleach,
that i have good reason to disregard all this as Non-Canon.
Just like Cursed Child with J.K.Rowling: The Authors claim it's Canon
are simply entirely Overruled; sorry fam!
@@nenmaster5218 You seem to be quite determined to get everyone to agree to your viewpoint which is quite stupid as the Novels literaly fill in the blanks in the plot of bleach
@@khali1203 Haha
I always wondered if this whole thing, from Aizen, to White, to Ichigo, to Yhwach was created and manage by the soul king to be killed in order to be reborn, quietly and free.
I bet Aizen would love to know that all of his plans were part of the Soul King's plans all along. And yes, I think you may be right. Having Yhwach take his father's place reminds me of cyclical creation myths like the Viking Ragnarok. I can see Yhwach eventually going through the same thing in the future.
I'm glad you've been making these videos discussing the lore and characters. Bleach's story got so convoluted that it was hard for me to care much about what was happening during the Thousand Year Blood War.
Same for me. I just started skimming a lot of it for the most part. I wouldn’t even really commit characters names to memory or anything toward the end.
Big true, I was only there to see the Bankais.
Same lol, i was a huge bleach fan in the beginning but then especially at the TYBW arc my interest dissipated rather quickly, also not even remembering names of even the more notable enemies, heck i even forgot they were called sternritters lol
Brooke was never the same after finding the one piece
dude that freaking fits on so many levels it's hilarious 💜😅
The more I think about Aizen, the more I think of him as a tsundere. When he speaks of his own motivation and ambitions, he talks about how he has always been peerless. He talks about how he's just so naturally gifted that he could never connect with anyone because no one else was on his level mentally or physically. However, he then goes on the praise multiple people as being as gifted or more gifted than himself. Urahara is praised as being the only person more intelligent than him. He states that he could not have defeated Yamamoto in combat until he's made years of preparations. It feels like he's saying these things about his motivations in order to hide the fact that he's just socially awkward. Even the people whose lives he's willing to take or have taken by his subordinates is pretty specific. Even if you wanted to maintain secrecy and work within the confines of his plan there are several high ranking shinigami that he could have eliminated throughout the decades without changing much. It didn't feel like he wanted to destabilize the Hotel 13 so much as reform the way that they interact with their governing bodies (The Central 46 & the Soul King) He feels that something is wrong with the structure of Soul Society and he states that he wants to change it for the better, even threatening that he wanted to destroy the Soul King, but it seems like hubris for a character that is supposed to be so incredibly intelligent and talented and fortuitous to choose a plan that takes so much time and basically create ideal circumstances for someone to defeat him. Truly, if you think about Aizen's goals has more general statements, it is not unfair to say that he succeeded. After the arrancar arc, there are many noticeable changes in how the Gotei 13 is managed. Although some of the changes are more subtle or are hidden, you even have characters like Yamamoto willing to reward humans or ask for help. The Soul King was not transformed, but the Central 46 is an entirely new group. Even Aizen himself is not destroyed or entirely removed from Soul Society. He is imprisoned, but we see that even when locked away he still has influence within Soul Society and his power is still terrifying. Aizen was kinda a nice guy.
Yeah, we definitely get “nice guy” energy from Aizen when he tries to kill momo once so she wouldn’t suffer without him, and a second time to troll the captains and hitsugaya specifically. Then when he pops tousen like a water balloon. Yes, I’m being sarcastic. “Nice guys” are rarely good guys.
@@lord_haven1114 Aizen could have effortlessly killed anyone we encountered in the arrancar arc until he conveniently gave Ichigo the time, space, and trials he needed in order to be an appropriate challenge. He wasn't a good person, but it genuinely feels like he was intentionally positioning himself as an anti-hero.
Oh yeah, Aizen isn’t pure evil, twisted and warped yes, but not pure evil. He’s selfish and is unfeeling towards many, but he does genuinely have some strange form of compassion as in the novels he legitimately did admire Tosens convictions.
@@lord_haven1114 Killing Tousen was according to Tousen's own wishes. He was going to kill himself once Aizen establishes the new world anyway because he's aware of his own hypocrisy. Tousen was Aizen's only confidant, and he made him promise to kill him if he ever waver in his dedication to the cause. Putting down Momo was in his view, mercy, because she wouldn't have to live and suffer with her entire world in pieces. Even now she's still coping with it, same with Hisagi and Tousen. He's a twisted, blue and orange morality guy fighting against a corrupt, downtrodden, stagnant society built upon the sin of of the 5 noble family.
The closet thing Bleach has to a big bad villain is Ichibe, who embody Soul Society and the 5 clanhead's original sin and will stop at nothing to keep the status quo. Soul Society is a terrible place and early SS arc showed that, it just took a backseat to the main battle shounen conflict, and Ichigo was willing to ignore it because he's buddy buddy with the elites. Neither Ywhach nor Aizen were good people, but they had genuine, honest ideal in changing and improving the world, even if it goes against the status quo.
Aizen and Yhwach are the true heroes of Bleach. But not the one we deserve.
It's basically sad
The soul king is a tragic character
Yeah man, thats exactly what im thinking, a being with immense power that had good intentions from the start of protecting humans against harm (the hollows). It really is hard to believe that the Soul King was just used as a tool, mutilated and forced into submission like a prisoner without the will of his own, im pretty sure he would have been OK in running those 3 worlds on his own without the zero squad too.
Every time I read about the soul king I get so sad, frankly, he didn't deserve what they did to him.
Never knew about that backstory, since I hadn't read the novels, but that is hella fascinating. I love mythologies like that
Yhwach; The Sight of the King
Mimihagi; The Right Hand
Pernida; The Left Hand
Gremmy; The Mind of the King
Gerard Valkyrie; The Heart of the King
Lille Baro; The Soul of the King
One of Kubo's biggest mistakes with Bleach was omitting the basics of the world's creation myth and the Soul King's place in it, and Yhwach's (and Aizen's) opinions regarding it. Those omissions keep Bleach from being a complete story in and of itself within the manga. I don't know if Kubo felt indebted or not to the authors behind the yet-to-be-released novels and decided to provide them with some content so he held back in the manga.
I don’t think he held anything back intentionally. It wouldn’t make any sense with sth this crucial to the story. It’s safe to say that as with basically anything else in the last 20 chapters he simply ran out of time unfortunately.
@@SN27671 Great point, not gonna lie. Personally I've suspected it came down to a decision he made when pressed by editorial.
Honestly a lot of the backstory just didn’t revolve around Ichigo and his friends, which is the main story of Bleach. The backstory is interesting, but damn trying to explain it in a manga without breaking up the story, now that would be a Herculean task.
@@calebcollins5887 I acknowledge the effort would have been great, but I only make the statement in concrete belief that Kubo was capable of delivering the goods as a writer.
@@duncannslade oh I agree that he could have but, the problem is that a lot of it was fully fleshed out as the story was being written, basic concepts were concrete, but it being the kind of story it was doing a full lore dump in the the middle of the last arc would’ve taken away from some of the mystery that did add to the expense. He definitely had the skill to do it, but honestly he probably just grew tired after so long and would’ve needed another arc to fully ugliest it out, which the light nobles allowed for luckily.
Perhaps Mimihagi's support of the shinigami reflects that part of the Soul King was supportive of the noble families vision to stabilize the worlds and understood them, but the other parts were infused with the parts that resented them.
I really hope Kubo adds thing to the final arc when the anime returns. More fights, show the off panel fights, more backstories for some Quincy and more story with Chad and Orihime in Hueco Mundo with Urahara and Grimmjow. Show that group overthrow the rest of the Quincy there to save Haribel maybe. And the anime REALLY need to include the Can’t Fear Your Own World. They can use that story to further explain the royal families, and the structure of the soul society and its dark history.
Good point . Think the Anime will extend / change some of the fights to add to your point. It be would be nice if the fight between Bach and Aizen was extended because technically Ichigo shouldn't of beaten Ycwbach considering was and what happened. Someone said the arrow should of been used for something else and have Uryu ✂ loose.
Same, we need more explanation since the manga itself getting rushed. Dunno if Kubo will give us flashback about Chad and Orihime in hueco mundo also how they're save Halibel, or other espada. But maybe Kubo will add a little content CFYOW. Seriously, we need tell him so he can convice Studio Pierrot and other director to added these kind of episode. Because they only give us filler or more information and flashback when they almost can't use manga content due (play catch up between anime and manga, just like Naruto when PDS4, so Kishimoto can draw and release new chapter every week and SP can animate the manga).
Even, Kubo not satisfied how they execution Hell arc (one of bleach movie) that's why he upload No Breath from Hell, i wish Kubo can finish Bleach well with TYOBW get anime adaptation.
Lovin these longer vids because they always go into so much detail. Keep up the good work tommo you gonna get to 100k soon
This video was surprisingly fascinating, wonderful job. I noticed some strange things, concerning those eyes ; 1 eye for mimihagi, 2 eyes for pernidas, 3 eyes for yhwach and 4 eyes for the soul king. I'm wondering if there is a particular meaning to this. After all those years, Bleach still has so many layers...fascinating 🤩
Great video my friend, your uploads always make my day, thanks tommo
Thank you so much, and thanks for being a Patron!
No problem tommo
My theory is that aizen and urahara got a vision about the soul king because of the hogyoku
The Hogokyu has a piece of the soul king in it. With Aizen, it's not that surprising that he knows about the truth of soul society history(which is the prime reason for his actions). Has nothing to do with a vision.
@@Bornagainvillain
He probably put a lot together, but I don't think he new all the specifics.
If just anyone could read from some archives and the information is all there and that widely available, Aizen and Urahara shouldn't have been the first and only ones to come to the conclusion.
@@Tengu125 they weren't. Each of the 4 noble families held a piece of the Soul King, so I'm assuming those high up in those families knew of it. The main villain of the CFYOW novels became warped because he discovered the Soul King's origins.
Same here... kind of a Full Metal Alchemist parallel for me. With transmutations pushing boundaries you see Truth and the gate. I imagine Aizen and Urahara doing their Hougyoku shenanigans had a similar glimpse of the Soul King
@@Bornagainvillain Its not just "a" piece, the Hogokyu is a large clump of soul king fragments. That's what Aizen took from Rangiku, and likely why it could do those transcendental things.
I think we are owed a Pernida vs Ukitake fight
Yes and no. Think about it.
@@tyronjasonhuff I have, and Ive concluded demigod severed armwrestling would be bad ass
I think Yuha considers anyone with quincy blood/powers to be "family". He calls Ichigo his son, despite that obviously being Ishin. Considering that the SK is the source of Yuha, Yuha calls SK "father"
Just my own speculation though
Welp, that kinda makes sense though
"No family casually kills you for a little power up"
-sincerely, the sterniritters and quincies killed by Yhwach's Auswahlen
He is quincy father
That's a goooooooood take. I love it.
The Soul King for me is a selfless being but not without any emotions. With his foresight it's impossible for him to be ambushed or sealed away unless he himself allowed it. It could possibly that the Soul King would already foresee his death and who's going to replaced him. Seeing that the world he saved would still be intact due to this event possibly made why he gladly accept his fate. The interference of Mimihagi probably for buying time in order for the event turned out just like the end we see. In some what deep down the Soul King never let go of his responsibility.
I really hope Kubo makes a new arc that tackles around finding the rest of the Soul King's body fragments for his Bleach Universe, in the future. Be it a new arc for Bleach/Burn The Witch, or another spin-off from Kubo.
😎
Could the Marchen be fragments of the Soul King?
@@mrsticky005 That's actually a good theory, I mean it was stated that Märchens existed even before the formation of Reverse London (as in; The Soul Society).
Well the fragments are mostly either inside of people aka the Fullbringers or now in the Hogyoku cause Aizen was feeding the Hogyoku fragments of the Soul King from Soul Society and Hueco Mundo so there aren't many fragments of the Soul King left to find
I admit I was disappointed with Soul king, I expected something more than a torso with a head. I kind of understand why Soul king is what he is but I expected him to do lot more than just be.
Having said that, the whole thing with Soul king is interesting and having inspirated me as I created this imperial family which is being separated from the rest of the world due them being too dangerous to the rest of the world.
Tbh almost all issues of the thousand year blood war could have been solved with one flashback that goes over the origins between the soul king, juha and the original gotei
yea he came off more as a object then a being
I think more backstory could have been done to flesh him out but the crystal. how soul society has a dirty secret of how they use the soul king and keep him in a prison. Used as a source of power is way more interesting.
That's why Aizen called it a "thing" and couldn't stand the status quo. The Soul King isn't a God or King. It's a corpse battery. His only influence beyond that is as a puppet used by the Noble Clans to maintain order and control
I think Gremmy might have been the brain of the Soul King. Since his Visionary makes most sense for a brain, always thinking and dreaming. The heart typically represents vitality so it makes sense that the heart cannot die. The right hand Mimihagi has the power of progression, while Pernida is stillness or stagnation. In the Bible, during Jesus’ crucifixion there are men on either side of him. The one on his right accepts Jesus and progresses towards Heaven while the one on his left, remains stagnant in his disbelief and his sent to Hell for denying God
To correct you, Mimihagi, the right hand signifies stillness and stagnation while Pernida, the left hand signifies progression. You have reversed their roles in your comment.
I believe CFYOW confirms Gremmy being SK brain.
@@LUCK_RW you’re correct I realized that after my comment. Whoops 😅. Either way I still think Gremmy is the brain of the Soul King
@@k2basior im on vol 3 and haven't had that confirmation yet a lot of ppl are saying it tho so you aren't the first but i got bout 300 pages left so who knows
I believe that the brain of the soul king is in Urahara's possession. That guy should have something as well :)
One thing that you may not have noticed is, the symbols on the Captain Haoris match the pupils of the Soul King, white star inside a black background. I thought it was a nice touch.
Have to say first of all, Bleach is one of my favorite anime/manga but I've watched many of your videos and I am constantly impressed. Literally your videos alone make me want more content from Kubo and yourself. Keep up the wonderful work bud!
I think bleach's very end showed that perhaps Juha Bach may have been the good guy and SS may have been the bad guys.
Sure we want to believe SS is unquestionably good, but the reveal that noble families mutilated the Soul King and created the 3 worlds makes it seem like Juha's intentions may have been altruistic itself: End suffering and the 'artificial' cycle of life/death the noble families created.
Or the better answer everyone has ther own self interests they seek a world of their own vision and care little for others.
Dude, he is called Yhwach
We were literally introduced to the Gotei 13 as the evil guys who were going to kill Rukia. We are introduced to the Soul Society as a whole as this segregated world where might makes right and you're nobody if you're not strong, a noble, or both. We were never meant to believe that these are 100% good and moral guys. The society as a whole seems to fit better the category of "Lawful Neutral".
So considering the soul king could see everything it would be safe to assume he saw Yhwach ultimately taking his place. Which could explain how Yhwach was born in the first place.
The soul king manifested him as his one and only selfish act, so he could die and have his son take his place.
"OHHH how the ...turn, tables?😌 " - The Soul King, probably
I wonder if he could see all or he could only see till his death...Maybe he saw that the only way to die was through his son and no further than that? Kinda like the Sorcerer Supreme.
...I gotta say after seeing this video and etc on the Soul King...the Soul Society is gray as hell lol. Sure, they seem to be on the "good" side of things but their hands are tainted in blood. From what they did to the Soul King, to them thinking of fucking trapping Ichigo to be the next king lol....
Soul Reapers are the closest thing Bleach has to actual villains. The Hollows eat souls because that is their nature. The Fullbringer's are essentially cursed humans.
But the Soul Reapers killed God and introduced death into the world and the Quincies, under Yhwach's leadership, are just trying to undo that even if it means ending the world as they know it. Compared to them Hollows are downright neutral characters
The soul soceity itself is fucking awful so yeah lmao
Are…are we the bad guys…
They have Mayuri and in all aspects of morality he fails, but in the messed up world they live in they need the help of anyone capable, or else people like Unohana or Kenpachi would’ve never made it far.
You just provided so much more depth and intrigue into a character I basically found myself not caring about when I read through the manga. Thank you I appreciate the insight
it's contradictory that the zero division says the soul king selects candidates who have the potential to stop Juha, but he holds a grudge. The soul king might've accepted and preferred the way of the shinigami. If he had the almighty, then he's probably foreseen the future in which he is involved; which means he probably saw Ichigo's effort to stop Juha. It could be that Juha misunderstood the soul king.
I’m not gonna take credit for this bc I saw it on a Tekking101 video. But there’s a theory that bc Kyoka Suigetsu allows Aizen to control the senses of his opponents so they see whatever he wants. His Bankai is actually kinda the opposite and it allows him to see whatever he wants within reason. So he basically used his Bankai to see the Soul King and saw that he’s basically a vegetable and wished to overthrow him. I absolutely love this theory.
That wouldn’t explain Kisuke. I think Kyoka Suigetsus command “Shatter” is the biggest hint at what the Bankai would do. Where the Shikai control the mind I believe the Bankai would break it, essentially making his opponent brain dead, which is overpowered as fuck and is why Kubo couldn’t ever give him a Bankai.
@@juliandavidhoffer2022 I think with Kisuke when he asked Aizen ‘So you’ve seen it?’ It wasn’t really a hint that Kisuke himself had, rather he had knowledge of the Soul King and was intrigued at the possibility that Aizen could have seen him. But who knows it’s all speculation at the end of the day haha
@@juliandavidhoffer2022 As for Aizen’s Shikai, his release command ‘Shatter’ could mean so many things: shatter the hopes of his opponents, shatter the senses, shatter his own innocence etc
I think it's likely that Yhwach is either the actual son of the soul king from back in the day, or he is another portion of the soul king. He could possibly be the soul kings eyes or some other bits.
Who do you think could take the Soul's King's 👑 place since essentially holds up the reality or realms of that universe now.
@@AJ-kt5zo Currently it's yhwach's corpse doing it
@@otislloyd-zollinger2579 True that's what was said and I didn't read the don't 😱 fear your own world novel certainly would like to thank you for your kind response Otis Lloyd-Zollinger 😎 cool name btw. It's kinda weird a corpse still has/ have that much🔋2 to hold that universe together after the chaos.
@@AJ-kt5zo yes it was told in can't fear your own world. Thanks for the compliment. Yhwach was so strong I'm not surprised he could do it, he absorbed the og soul King, all the stern Ritter and has the almighty
@@otislloyd-zollinger2579 💙
I can’t believe I never realized that Ichigo is the same as the soul king as far as they both are born from the three races hollow Shinigami, and Quincy.
When I found out that the soul king had 4 irises it has been very weird looking at him, I thought it was a unique eye design and it made him seem like he was just in stasis and now its more off a hanging body since they look so vacant now, makes me wonder how ywach looks right now and also how far squad 0 is willing to go against the next candidate since they don't really need the whole body apparently.
Maybe the “key” aizen was going to create, was himself. Maybe what he was trying to do, was give himself that power through whatever method he came up with.
I think its neat to think the Soul King appeared almost like an amalgamation of massive riatsu that contained all powers but ended up using the Quincy powers. Kind of like Ichigo if he never learned to be a Soul Reaper. Its also good food for thought thinking the Soul King and Ichigo had similar desires to protect
At the 6:10 about Menos Grande vs the royal guards. Kubo's problem for me has been stating definitives and his power scaling. You know exactly damn well that back than he was referencing them, but by the time he introduced them a Menos Grande became fodder.
Tbf it still makes no sense that they where able to kill one if he meant above captain level soul reapers
Kubo is a prove that sometimes less is more. The amount of mysteries in bleach make it so much more interesting.
I agree
Agree
@Sky Light I meant that leaving things unexplained allows for mysteries to form, therefore sometimes showing less makes fans wonder more
@Sky Light Yeah your right, but your also not that stupid to not grasp what he was saying.
Nah its pretty annoying now we as fan have to piece the rest of the story together smh
I think you are right on that. I think they must have some sort of feeling link to the Soul King due to being connected and infused with his power. So for example that one guy who mentioned how he was interested in Ichigo may have just noticed that SK watching him more than anyone else and can feel the SK's fascination.
Sounds like the Soul King suffered a lot , i mean they freaking tortured him by cutting his body
Remember its still 'Aizens' story
I actually like if the retcon idea would've been implemented in the story itself. Like what if there was an actual key at the beginning and the library archive actually documents this but then the soul king decided to change it and infuse it into the bones of his guards(or maybe the key was first and the guards were formed later) and thus making both versions true
I didn't put all this together and ppl ALWAYS say Kubo misses but I seen the long game played since the beginning. Excellent breakdown bro
I strongly believe that the Ise sword was used to split the Soul King into Eight major parts, but I'm not sure what all of them are. Obviously the right arm became to Mimihagi, the left arm became Pernida, the Heart was taken in by Gerard, and I strongly suspect (though I suppose it isn't confirmed) that his brain was the brain that powered Gremmy. Two of the other limbs were clearly the SK's legs, though we have no information on what happened to them. Finally, I'm unsure what the last two pieces of the SK would have been (Is it simply his Soul Chain and nails? Or his ears? Perhaps his lungs?), but I still think this makes the most sense. As such, I think the Ise Clan is either the unrevealed family of the major Five Noble Families or is/was a retainer to one of them who played a large part in them splitting the Soul King apart. Really, I hope we get more Novels after CFYOW that further explains the lore of Bleach and its universe to explain these things as well as to get more information about the unnamed Great Noble Family, more information about the original Gotei 13, a deeper explanation of how Hell works and how it differs from the three major realms, and also just simply more stories with the great characters Kubo created in the Shinigami of Bleach!
I always thought it was interesting that mimihagi had one pupil, pernita had 2, yhwach have three, and the soul king had 4 pupil. I didnt notice until watching your vid and seeing them one after the other it is a nice little detail kubo did there
Yeah I've always been looking forward to the Soul King's video. He's a really great take on God I think.
I don't agree that it's a bad thing that we didn't get more details about this soul king. There has to be some mystery, some space left for a reader to think, guess, speculate for a story to be interesting and entertaining. Sometimes having everything explained can make a story less compelling.
I wish if Bleach ever got restarted, Kubo would design a proper, consistent lore and universe before fleshing it out in manga/novel/anime. I hope he reads fan theories about bleach, which could help him identify the inconsistencies and contradictions on the current lore.
He already been done that he just never 👎 showed us until now because I guess that’s what he didn’t wanted to focus on early on the anime and manga he wanted a build up
Kisuke for sure went to the royal realm remember kirinji told ichigo that kisuke made the hot springs in his hideout by studying the waters in his spring
I am now imagining Oetsu murdering a bunch of Gillians while making poses
Number 1 Hollow Purifier
More and more of these analysis and speculation videos I watch, I’m thinking more and more that Kubo didn’t put as much thought as we thought he did. It’s getting more evident that he was making some things up as he went along. It mostly worked wonderfully but when it didn’t, it really didn’t work.
Kinda sad that I didn't a convo with the Soul King and Ichigo. That being said and I am happy with what I did get. Just wish we could've gotten a little more.
ahhh, this helps me understand the bleach manga even more
thank you :)
That's Osiris. Cut up into pieces. It's all Egyptian.
Him allowing it to happen for everyone else’s sake is also a bit of a Jesus dying on the Cross kind of thing.
Could argue it's Nordic too. Ymir's blood forming the oceans, his bones the mountains etc... plenty of religions have butchered deities.
@@juliandavidhoffer2022 Christianity is low key just a revamp of greek/roman religion. Which was pretty much a copy of Egyptian mythology. Jesus is just a copy of osiris son.
@@BlizzardofOze Norse mythology is very similar to islamic mythology. Which is older and similar to original christianity. Which borrows from greek/roman mytholigy. Which is a copy of a mix of much older Ethiopian and egyptian mytholigy. LOL, religion is hilarious when you really look at it. Everyone is basically telling the same story but their own version of it.
I'm laughing at this comment section.
I read this whole series and forgot this whole series, nice video
Aizen told us the viewers his plan straight up from the beginning when he was ascending to hueco mundo 🤷🏾♂️
I don't know why I'm even watching this I've never seen bleach before but it sounds cool and the art style looks really nice
The Seireitei probably should have kept better track of all it's parts
Thanks for the video man! I definitely wish we had more information on the Reio, but at the same time his mysteriousness makes everything very interesting
"reiou" just means "soul king"
And it's rei-oooo (the o is long) not reyo.
The hogyoku probably gave them impressions of the soul king. Each of them made one and Aizen mentioned he fed Kisuke’s hogyoku to his own hogyoku.
Phenomenal video, it again shows that you're the best bleach UA-camr. I would like to support you as a patreon but I don't have money to spare. Still people like you make my weeks brighter thanks to that!
I've read from the Quincy Archives that Yhwach is actually the Soul Kings foreskin.
Always felt it would have been really interesting meet more people in the story who have maybe been imbued with parts of the Soul King like his leg etc. Similar to Pernida, Gerard etc and maybe have a concept where the parts of the Soul King are kind of unconsciously being drawn back to the main body for a resurrection type event
Rangiku
In my opinion the existence of a royal family or a king in soul society was quite obvious and logical since the beginning, I mean the Gotei 13 are translated in English as the 13 royal court guards, so they're basically guarding a royal court, meaning a royal family. Also if nobles exist, the logical thing would be for royals to exist as well. Since Bleach takes a lot of inspiration from western countries, especially Spain, it makes sense that it would use Spain's ruling class' history as a model for Soul Society as well, which also consisted during a long time of nobles and royals working together yet at the same time keeping each other in check and controlling each other, and at times it would be nobles gaining more power or viceversa. This is symbolized by the 5 noble families keeping the Soul King in check.
Soul King arms have different abilities, just like Chad.
Nice connection made...
Perhaps other Fullbringer powers represent a facet of the Soul King's powers as well
@@D2TD4Life all fullbringers have pieces of the soul king inside them...so yes
I've always assumed that the right arm holds the shinigami power and the left arm is the quincy would explain why one wanted to protect ss and the other joined yhwach
@@kikima258 💓
I don't know, I'm torn on this topic, pun intended. I do really like what's there, but it's so underdeveloped and underutilized it almost feels like it would be better if it had been abandoned entirely. If you take the time to really dig into it, the Soul King is the oversoul, the primordial first piece of the trilogy of Reio, Ginjo and Ichigo, which is fascinating. All three are aberrant combinations of all soul types, and that parallel runs through their story arcs and beautifully fits the themes of Bleach. You can trace the very, very slow redemption of Soul Society through the severity of their betrayals, and fascinatingly they also mirror the three main antagonists of Bleach in chronological order. Reio, like Byakuya, responds with complete indifference, but obviously holds some animosity about it considering how much of his surviving sentience tried to destroy Soul Society. Ginjo is overcome with contempt and a desire for scheming revenge, but is eventually reduced to impotent rage, and then reluctantly assists, just like Aizen. And Ichigo and Ywach are both driven to right what they view as inexcusable wrongs committed by the Soul Society, and work to bring about their vision of a better world, despite how different those visions are. It adds so much weight to the fact that Shunsui and Ichibe were perfectly ready and willing to carve Ichigo into the new Soul King. But the fact none of this is ever in the foreground and could all be an accident takes away some of the gravitas
What if Aizen meant to make himself like the Zero Division, or infuse Oken into a being, similarly to how he tailor-made Wonderweiss for the singular purpose of sealing Yamamoto's flames?
Maybe he intended to use a process not unlike how Mayuri created both a body and a soul from scratch, to make a being to act as the vessel for a "synthetic" Oken?
We don't actually know how he intended to use the destruction of Karakura to facilitate the creation of the "key", and he might have even just been trying to make himself enough of a threat to the stability of the realms to coax the Zero Division to descend so he could use them to figure out the truth of what the "key" even is.
Both he and Urahara are brilliant scientists with analytical minds, and surely they must've realised that there are some things missing from the archives' description of this thing and they don't know exactly what it is.
There are so many possibilities.
Soul king has a schrift, K - The Kubo. Gives him complete omnipotence and omniscience.
The Soul King:
He had the Pridefulness of the shinigami. To save the humans from hallows.
He had the Selflessness of a human to save the world. And guilt for causing an imbalance.
But also a Distain of the quincy, for the way the shinigami went about it. Threatened by his power & mysteriousness. The original sin, of the soul society.
Combination, of all races.
Omg you did NOT just forget the “most important species”!!
The Bounts!
Like omg they were so important and controversial to the series
Ofc they would represent the fact that The Soul King got no eyebrows, which is his defining and only well known trait.
@@-0m3rcy0-8 Not Canon 🤦🏽♂️
@@felipesantos-er4kk /woooosh
I love being in the perfect place for content like this every week!
Do a deep dive into Lille Barro! Is he perhaps another part of the soul king? If not, how are his godly powers explained?
Seeing his last form, I started to think that maybe he is related to the Marchen's of Burn the Witch.
@@felipebf 💚
well articulated, excellent quality, detailed. Excellent work 💪
One of your best videos yet.
I love Reio as a concept. He's great for worldbuilding and even characterization for those 5 ancient royal families' ancestors. What happened to him is a great illustration of the tragic human condition.
I wish Kubo would've shown us all of this in the manga. Hopefully he will add this to the anime.
Keep up the great work! \(^o^)/
I'm sure Kubo was meant to include as much he could in the last arc, yet he was forced to end the manga quickly and he had to cut so much content.
Great video. The Soul King and everything surrounding him is one of the coolest aspects of Bleach imo, and it was so satisfying to finally learn the truth in CFYOW.
17:57 tfw you realize that Soul Society probably sacrificed 100,000 people each time they needed a new member of Squad Zero. Not surprising tbh.
Because Gerard is the heart do you think that ywch could be the ego of the soul king?
Ywatch is the son of the soul king
I think Aizen and Kisuke both "saw" the soul King in the moment of creating the hogyuku... somehow the hogyuku being able to manifest wills and desires tied back to Reiao
CFYOW made him awesome. Doesn't even care as people rip his limbs apart like whatever
Those limbs had an instinctual hatred for soul reapers.
The best thing about CFYOW is the novel kinda created an "old testament" to Bleach universe
I love that Kubo did a reverse on what we thought and made the soul king perhaps not a good guy. It sounds like he was trapped and was happy to let his death happen finally if it meant SS would be destroyed. I always thought the SK was this pillar of good and kept it all together for the sake of everyone but the fact they were willing to use Ichigo against his will seriously makes it show that the SK is just a tool and makes you kinda agree with Aizen that they’re just bending the knee to a puppet and basing peace on a lie
after reading Reio's story i came to understand that he's just a being beyond comprehension and understanding like what most god like beings are often portrayed.
and i think he understood that hollows and humans are not so different other than the fact the hollows resent the living for having the things which they lost.
i think that Reio had nothing but pity for them all and decided to try an ease each of their pains in different ways,
but they are imperfect beings an prong to make mistakes being almighty an omnipotent Reio probably saw there was no easy way for mortals and hollow to co-exist in peace so he agreed to the noble houses' suggestions an divided their world into three a place for the hollows to abide in silent vigil "hueco muendo" a place for the living mortals "earth" and a place for their souls to learn to live without regrets if they so chose "soul society" and avoid becoming hollowfied an preying upon the living,
he ofc saw what would become of him for accepting the nobles houses that they'd stab him in the back out of a irrational fear and obsession to control but he did not retaliate but instead chose peace but the hollow side of him resented them for the betrayal and wanted bloody resolution so Reio killed that part of himself seperating it from his body/mind but it would later find its way into the soul of his progenitor Ywach whom shared that hatred and fury with Reio's left arm Pernida. which i suppose is why Ywach took it so negatively that the right arm would rebuke him when the left accepted him.