Headscratchers / Bleach Uryu And Quincies

• Sooo. Ishida loses his powers to Quincy Final Form. Now, what should the poor lad do in a situation like this? Perhaps he should mope around, luck into his father being a power Quincy and rescuing him. Then perhaps he should agree to a promise he knows he can't really keep so that he can get his powers restored by an extremely dangerous method. Ooooor, maybe he should ask this girl, who just happens to be his friend, who also just happens to have miraculous healing powers to restore his own powers? Tough choice, really. I know that the extent of her phenomenon rejection powers was only revealed later but he didn't even try asking her for help.
  • Her power can only heal physical damage, it can't put someone's abilities right back into their body. Plus, all they knew at the time was that Orihime could heal physical injuries, as the readers thought before Aizen told the Espada.
    • That's never once stated or suggested, in fact the opposite is far more likely given what we've seen since her power is to "repel all negative events". Losing your powers is a negative event. In addition the final form is described as sealing the user off from spiritual energies when used, which could very well be physical damage due to the tremendous amount of power being more than can be handled. We don't know if this (final form spam) is possible, but dismissing it out of hand would be incorrect. However her ability to reject bad things wasn't known at the time, so that part stands.
    • However, I already adressed this by saying that the main problem was that he didn't even try doing that. Ishida is a very intelligent guy(as proved by his school results) so he should've figured out that it was at least worth a shot. It certainly couldn't have been emotional reasons - asking Orihime for help would've been way less humilating than asking his father for help.
    • He's also been hiding even the fact that he lost his powers from his friends; Ichigo notices after Orihime mentions that Uryu's been acting strange and he tries and fails to sense his spiritual pressure, but doesn't tell anyone that he knows about it. It's possibly because he didn't want the others to feel responsible for what happened as a result of going on the mission to save Rukia.
    • Uryuu's behavior could be a case of wounded pride combined with Remember That You Trust Me, except that no one ever bothers to remind Uryuu that he trusts them. He's both too used to having to do things for himself and too proud to ask Orihime for help. It's only when he's attacked and Ryuuken shows up that he realizes that this can't go on and he's going to have to get his powers back in order to survive. Also, as cited below the belief that Orihime is thought to only be able to heal wounds at this point in the game comes into play—Uryuu probably thought she couldn't do anything for him.
  • We only learned that Orihime could reject events after he got his powers back. Presumably, his thoughts were "Orihime heals wounds, this isn't a wound, she can't help me."
• Is it possible for Quincies to become Soul Reapers after they die (Soul Reaper/Quincy opinions of each other notwithstanding)?
  • There's no reason it shouldn't be possible. In fact, given their superior spiritual power to the run-of-the-mill soul, Quincies would seem like they'd be excellent candidates.
• If the reason Quncies are bad is that they destroy Hollows rather than purifying them, and souls are perpetually cycling between Soul Society and Earth, does this mean that every time the Quincies fight a Hollow the number of available souls goes down permanently? How does this work with human population increases, anyway?
  • Animal souls being reborn as humans?
    • As mentioned elsewhere, new souls pop up all the time. Destroying souls is not really a problem except that it denies them the option of reincarnation.
  • Since it seems that people can be born in Soul Society (characters such as Yoruichi and Byakuya were, for example), obviously new souls can be created in both worlds. But when there were large numbers of Quincies eradicating Hollows, they were destroying souls faster than new ones could form to replace them. Thus, they ran the risk of permanently unbalancing the reincarnation cycle.
• What the hell are Jinta and Ururu? They're not soul reapers, they're not Quincies, and they have no hollow-like characteristics. We know they're not enhanced mod souls, as Urahara seemed to be in line with Soul Society about enhanced mod souls, and their skills are too far ahead of Kon's "strong legs" thing to be from an earlier project. They're sure as hell not human, so what the smeg does that leave?
  • Well, they could still be modsouls (the author has remarked that the Bount Arc modsouls might become canon characters at some point, so Urahara's opinion on modsouls is presumably malleable enough), or they could be whatever the heck Chad and Orihime are.
  • Also, because of how militeristically Urahara went after Kon could be taken as proof that Jinta and Ururu are mod souls. Soul Society was leaving him alone. Exiled, not causing much trouble, they were ignoring his smuggling of stuff back and forth to the Soul Society. A mod soul appearing on Earth, from his shop, and he didn't do anything? Soul Society might have a reason to take a closer look.
  • Also, Urahara didn't know Kon's personality yet, nor that he could be trusted. Kon could have become the Jack of Mod Souls.
  • Ururu may not even be a Mod Soul, but something similar. A mod soul is a replacement soul for a dead body. Ururu could be a, for lack of better term, Mod Soul 2.0. Same concept, but designed to work in/with a gigai, not a corpse.
    • In fact, in the battle with Arrancars Ururu enters a "Berserk Mode" acting in such a way that it seems she's a robot.
    • So, Ururu is almost like Nemu, but in a gigai? Awesome.
  • Who says they're not something similar to Shinigami? Ururu in particular is probably a result of Urahara's version of the same process Mayuri used to create Nemu.
  • A bit off the wall, but Ururu looks slightly similar Akon, who was around the 12th Division at the same time as Urahara, albeit he appeared as a child. Both Akon and Ururu have the same zig-zag pattern in their hair, both have pale skin and dark hair, and on a vaguely related note, Ururu has the same fringe as Urahara. It could all be one massive coincidence in Kubo's drawing style, but it's worth noting?
  • I say that Jinta is Urahara's son, and Ururu is Tessai's daughter. They're half-shinigami still developing their powers, just like Karin.
  • they are simply humans with high spiritual power, Shinigami are not actually there own species, there just human souls that have obtained a Zanpakto but most of there techniques dont actually require the Zanpakto meaning any human living or dead with enough spiritual power and training could theoretically develop there own abiliites, as we see with Don Kanonjis kanonball and Ganjus earth magic, both of which are likely derive from the same ability as Kido, though in cruder less refined forms

• What happened to all the dead Quincies? I mean, the dead go to Soul Society and bird-boy proves that the whole 'no memory of life' thing is pretty much bunk, so theorectically Soul Society should've been swamped with justifiably pissed off Quincies, but there's no mention of anything like that.
  • The Science Division Captain happened.
    • To all of them? (I kind of got the impression that prior to their being offed there was at least a few hundred of them).
    • And Mayuri went into some detail about how in the hundreds of Quincy he had tested, not one had Ishida's abilities.
    • Gah. Didn't see that episode. Although now I'm wondering how he managed to catch them all. After all, if Soul Society is so disorganised that family members can't find each other, I'd have thought that it would be pretty easy to give the shinigamis the slip (hmm, I wonder if they've missed any). Then again, it has been a couple of hundred years.
    • Knowing Mayuri he would wait for a Quincy to get gang raped by a hollow, take them back half died, then go to work on them. And to make sure that none would escape he would put explosives in their bodies, like he did to his own subordinates.
    • Ishida basically watched his grandfather pass on, but Mayuri still got his hands on him. It was probably easier to know where a person will pop-up if you watch them pass on.
    • If I remember correctly, he bribed the shinigami who were sent to keep an eye on the surviving Quincies so that, when they were attacked by Hollows, they would wait until after the Quincy was dead to show up... and once the Hollow was defeated, they'd deliver the dearly departed right to Mayuri's front door.
    • And, of course, Kurotsuchi doesn't stop prodding and poking until his subject's died AGAIN. Presumably after which Quincy souls are recycled into the real world again without knowing of their former life.
  • The 'no memory of life' idea is bunk. It was invented for the first film and completely contradicts the manga. In the manga itself, characters have shown knowledge of their life in the human world. Shibata never forgot his human life or Sado. Shibata's adoptive brother (who had died in the Shouwa era, which means he died somewhere between 25/12/26 and 07/01/89) also remembered his human life. Crossing over to the Soul Society didn't make Hisana forget she was Rukia's sister by blood. Also, it's been said several times that people in the Rukongai often form adoptive families while searching for the blood relatives they had in life, so clearly it's normal for Rukongai denizens to not forget their lives for them to not forget their blood relatives from those lives. That's before we get to all those thousands of quincies Mayuri experimented on who remembered their families, affliations and powers from their human lives.
• This Troper wonders if Quincies keep their abilities after they die. I thought that they did not, but how Mayuri said that none of the Quincies he experimented on had the ability Uryuu had leads me to believe that they might retain their Quincy powers even after they die.
  • Well, we know that souls that die in the real world go to Soul Society and souls that die in Soul Society go back to the real world minus their memories. My guess is that Quincies keep their powers when going from the real world to Soul Society, but lose the abilities along with their memories when they die in Soul Society and go back to the real world.
  • Where is it stated that souls that die in Soul Society are revived without their memories? Kaien said that souls turn into dust and become spirit particles in Soul Society.
    • That's what happens to their bodies, not their souls. The fact that souls reincarnate back into the world of the living after they die in Soul Society was shown back when the Shinigami/Quincy war was explained. The fact that this happens, and has to happen, is why the Quicnies' Hollow exterminations were not just bad for the human souls they destroyed, but for the entire universe.
• The Senrei glove. Basically, what it seems to do is act as a 'weight', making it more difficult for a Quincy to gather spirit particles. If they can manage to actively draw in particles with the limiter, it improves their abilities to the point that they reach the 'pinnacle' of Quincy powers. Now, two things bug me. First is the idea that it makes them so much more powerful, because in the Arrancar arc Ishida got his powers back using an ordinary Quincy cross, and was much more powerful than he ever was with the senrei gloves. Secondly, what Ishida's father said about never taking them off. Seriously? Does that mean that if Ishida hadn't broken them then he would be forced to wear them for the rest of his life?
  • If the glove makes it more difficult for a Quincy to gather spirit particles, then it only stands to reason that without the glove inhibiting Ishida's abilities, he'll be able to use the skills he learned with the glove in a much more efficient manner. Presumably the repelling effect of the glove also helps to pack some extra power behind the launch of an arrow. Ishida's attacks in Hueco Mundo may also be attributed to his new weapon (pentacle thingy) as opposed to his original cross, and his tendency toward a Flechette Storm of weaker arrows than a single powerful shot. As for the latter... well. Probably. Makes you wonder why they can't just... you know, stop collecting spirit particles. It's not as if they have their bows out at all times.
  • When we first see the gloves, they're noticeably lacking the barbs Ishida breaks to activate his super mode. Perhaps he can remove them without breaking them?
• Relates to the top JBM, why didn't Ishida's grandfather mention that the power loss from Final Form was reversible? If Ryuuken knew about it then Souken definitely knew about it, so he could have left a note or something.
  • Maybe he didn't want Uryu using it carelessly, or he himself wasn't skilled enough to pull off the restoration, and he didn't factor in Ryuuken caring.
    • Apparently answered in the Thousand Year Blood War arc: There were well-known ways around the "final" technique's limitations but there was also an ethical debate about whether pursuing them led down a slippery slope. Ishida Souken was the last Quincy master willing to take the side of restraint. Ryuuken must have known at least enough of the other side's techniques to make use of the sinoatrial node solution on Uryuu...or he may have sided against his father before turning his back on the clan altogether.
  • I would think it's because he didn't want Uryuu to abuse it with the attitude there are no long-term consequences. Uryuu abused his grandfather's trust as it was. His grandfather told him to not use it until he understood his father's heart, knew what he wanted to protect, and had faced the question of whether or not to continue being a Quincy. Uryuu met absolutely none of those requirements, used the glove prematurely, and didn't even question what kind of future battle his grandfather was hinting at. I wouldn't be surprised if Souken and Ryuuken had both fully expected Uryuu to prematurely use the glove. Ryuuken certainly wasn't surprised by what had happened: he knew exactly what had happened. That, of course, raises its own questions.
  • There could also have been the fact that regaining Quincy powers is very difficult and dangerous. The only other Quincy that would have been alive that was friendly to Uryu (barely) would have been his father. The procedure definitely requires two Quincies obviously since a spirit arrow is involved. Physical and spiritual exhaustion and then be shot EXACTLY 19mm to the right of the heart. Ryuken is very skilled, don't get me wrong, but that is still a difficult shot given the factors. Uryu is his son, deep down he does love his son and would be hesitant to actually shoot at his son with a shot that could potentially kill him. 19mm, from a distance while your target is exhausted? They are probably swaying back and forth and trembling after all of that. It is definitely better to just not need to do the procedure in the first place and they knew that.
• When Ishida was fighting Szayel, and Szayel was destroying his organs, why didn't he use Ransoutengai to move, therefore temporarily negating the effects of the attack. Sure, it would have hurt, but that's not a problem when you have Heroic Willpower, amirite?
  • My guess is that technique requires a good amount of concentration in order to work. Against Mayuri, Uryuu wasn't all that injured, just paralyzed by a neurological agent, and rage is a pretty good focusing tool. Against Szayel, there wasn't quite so personal a level of hatred, plus Uryuu had had his stomach blown out. Kind of hard to concentrate when you're dealing with that.
  • Szayel was destroying their organs. Moving accelerates the heart rate, and thus also the rate of internal bleeding. Also, Szayel would surely crush his liver and kidneys swiftly. The liver, kidneys and stomach are all vital organs, and while you can live without any one of them (including both kidneys) for several days, losing all three means starving to death in an hour- unless you're exerting yourself, in which case, you'll starve even faster.
• —> "Also, you got another thing wrong. You should be aware that Seele Schneider is not a sword. Quincy don't use any weapons other than bows and arrows."
  • Why did Kubo go ahead and have Uryu say that, and now these monstrous Quincy we meet are using guns, swords, etc!?
    • Probably because the Vandenreich aren't traditional Quincy. Opie mentioned how the traditions that Soken practiced were abandoned by the Vandenreich. Ishida got all his ideas of what a Quincy is from Soken- he doesn't even know about the Vandenreich yet.
    • But the Vandenreich are led by Yhwach, who's the original Quincy. One would think that he, at least, would still use a bow even if most of the Vandenreich use other weapons.
    • Also, Uryu's comments didn't make sense at the time. He said Quincies don't use any weapons other than bows and arrows while wielding an arrow that was capable of being used as a sword if necessary. On top of that, he had clearly been trained in swordfighting to be able to fight that way. Even then, the question existed of why Quincies would train in swordcraft and make multi-purpose arrows if all they did was fight with a bow. It immediately raised the question of whether Uryu fully understood Quincy history.
    • Whether he was aware of the Vandenreich or not, a big part of it was probably his Quincy pride. While it is indeed a sword arrow, swords (well, katanas and other Japanese swords) are Soul Reaper weapons, so he'd be quick to deny that it's a fully functional sword. Considering that he still had a bit of a grudge against Soul Reapers (mainly Mayuri), it makes sense.
• *Why*, again, did Uryu stop Super!Hollow Ichigo from continuing to attack Ulquiorra? Yes, Ulqui was pretty much done for, but clearly not dead as he hadn't disappeared, so that line about "mutilating his body" was bunk- and if not, then how does making a few extra holes in him make Ichigo "not human anymore"? Sure, Ichigo attacking Uryu proves that he'd gone over the edge, but that doesn't change the fact that it was Uryu's OWN DAMN FAULT for getting up in his bidness instead of letting him work it off- and if that didn't happen, *then* he'd be justified in protecting himself.
  • One can only assume Uryu knew Ulquiorra was still alive. He also knew that if Ichigo was in his right mind, he would have never kicked Ulquiorra while he was down like that. Plus, even when Ichithing was done, who's to say that he would not continue to kill? If Uryu had not have saved Ulquiorra from being "mutilated" then Ichithing would've attacked Uryu and Orihime anyway. There was absolutely no sign that Ichigo would come to his senses. All Uryu did was speed up the process in which those events happened. If he hadn't have stepped in, Ulquiorra would've never regenerated enough to stop Ichithing.
    • There was no sign that Ichithing wouldn't have stopped either. Especially if Uryu had the sense to hide behind Orihime. As an above troper noted Ulqui wasn't dead and he needed to be put down so the souls he'd devoured could return to Soul Society and he admitted he could heal, assuming he was just left alone and not finished off he probably could have healed and Ichithing didn't seem to be interested in torture so much as finishing off. It wasn't a mercy kill by any means but he hadn't gone into torture yet. Uryu here was just being stupid.
    • This is just a crazy guess, but maybe he was shocked that Ichigo was delivering such a merciless, brutal kill to someone who was in no position to defend themselves, and knew that Ichigo would be even more disturbed to come to his senses and realize what he'd done? Come on, people, he's "stupid" because he's not a complete sociopath?
    • Uryu is the most rational of the TrueCompanions so if he knew Ulquiorra was still alive, that makes it even odder. Wouldn't Uryu recognize the smartest thing to do would be to get rid of Ulquiorra while they had a chance? As a Quincy, doesn't Uryu also want to exterminate hollows? At the start of the Thousand Year Blood War Arc, he doesn't even go with Ichigo, Chad, Orihime, and Urahara to rescue Dondochakka at the request of Nel and Pesche because he says he cannot save a Hollow.
    • Well, if you'll recall Ichigo's fight with Byakuya for a moment, you'll remember that Ichigo physically pulled off his Hollow mask and practically apologized for the unfair advantage his mask gives him. Isn't it entirely possible that Uryu, Ichigo's friend, knows that Ichigo detests fights where one person is clearly obliterating the other? And also, doesn't it seem as though Uryu wasn't stopping Ichigo from killing Ulquiorra, he was just worried that his friend would never come back to his senses?
    • Kubo wrote a poem for Volume 39: to err is human, to kill is devil. That's a theme Kubo had been going with up to that moment. Until Ichigo killed Ulquiorra, there wasn't a single instance when a human character actually killed someone (unless you count Uryu destroying Hollows). Making mistakes is okay, but taking a life is evil. And then the Fullbringer arc came, and Kubo abandoned this idea.
    • Perhaps Uryu was worried that Ichigo would eat Ulquiorra, and thus become even more Hollow-like.
• Uryu holds a grudge on Soul Reapers because they didn't come to rescue his grandfather from Hollows. But we've recently found out that Quincy policy demands they never come to assist Soul Reapers in their fight with Hollows and only pick up if the Soul Reaper dies. Double standards much, Uryu?
  • As you said, it's a policy, not Uryu's idea. He's just following the rules... actually, he's not, considering he helps Ichigo regularly. As for Uryu's anger over Souken's death, it might not have made sense for the Soul Reapers to come and help, but Uryu still blamed them because he just wanted someone to blame. He really loved his grandfather, after all. Meanwhile, it makes slightly more sense for Quincies to not help soul reapers, since there's so much adversity between them and any involvement between them would probably just lead to conflict. Avoiding soul reapers is probably just a way to avoid trouble.
• Okay, the reason for Ryuken's hatred of his Quincy powers and heritage is now pretty clear, given that it got both Katagiri and Misaki killed. So, when his son started getting involved, why didn't he just 'tell Uryu "these powers are what killed your mother", instead of "I hate these powers" with no explanation?
  • Quincy powers aren't what killed Masaki and Katagiri — it was Yhwach being a royal asshole and the worst possible timing (Masaki was about to fight the Grand Fisher and Katagiri was still weak after giving birth). That could be the true reason why Ryuken hates being a Quincy: because he'll have to be Yhwach's bitch or disobey him and die. That being said, Uryu has joined Vandenreich, and Ryuken isn't seen anywhere around... what is he planning?
    • Katagiri hadn't just given birth when she died. Ichigo and Uryuu were both nearly nine when their mothers died.
    • Right, I misread the manga. She was weak since birth, not since giving birth to Uryu.
    • Unless of course Uryuu has a younger sibling that we don't know about.
    • Her being weak isn't what killed her. The way Yhwach explained it, every half-blood Quincy died from him taking their powers. Katagiri was doomed from the start no matter her strength, and Ichigo's mother, by that logic, was also doomed. Its just that the Hollow killed her first. That is why Uryuu surviving is such a big deal.
    • It makes no sense that Masaki lost her powers from it at all, given that she was not a half-blood Quincy. She was a pureblood, which was the whole point of the her being engaged to Ryuken.
    • Yhwach implied he could Select Echt as well as Gemischt. He started off telling Uryuu that he was the only Gemischt that had ever survived Selection, but he finished by saying Uryuu was the only Quincy to have ever survived Selection. At the time, Yhwach was Selecting all the impure Quincies. Most were Gemischt, but some, like Masaki, were "fallen" Echt. The story's implied that Ryuuken's mother may have been a victim, too.
• Quincy souls get destroyed if they come into contact with Hollow spirit energy, and a Quincy is unable to Hollowfy according to Urahara, but Masaki's soul wasn't damaged by White infecting her, she began Hollowfying until Urahara stopped it with Isshin's help, Kirge was able to absorb Ayon with no negative effects and it seems like Juha Bach expected attempts to steal Ichigo's Bankai to fail because of how strong he was, not because of any effects from his Hollow powers. Urahara's probably right about the effect because Toshiro's Bankai started breaking as soon as he took the Hollow pill. So are Hollow powers actually dangerous to Quincies?
  • Masaki would've died without Urahara and Isshin. The Hollow infection doesn't kill Quincies instantly, as seen with White biting Masaki. However, it needs to be treated ASAP, and that's why Katagiri brought Masaki for "decontamination" even though Ryuken insisted her fight with a Hollow be kept secret from everyone. As for the pills, all they do is detach the bankai from their thieves and allow it return to their rightful owners... although, like I said, the infection doesn't mean instant death. No idea about Kirge.
    • Makes a fair bit of sense, might just be the way it was translated made Kisuke sound like he expected the Quincies to to start breaking down as soon as they had contact with Hollow powers. Kirge still bothers me so I'm hoping the Hollows effect on Quincies gets explained better at some point.
    • Personally, I suspect its because he was wearing Ayon like a sheel rather than taking Ayon's reiatsu into his system.
  • As to why Kirge could absorb Ayon, "With my Vollstandig, I could've disintegrated their bodies. Sklaverei. It was a technique used by Quincies to decompose and completely break down the surroundings that were made up of reishi and to force the Arrancars into slavery. Although Hollows were poisonous for Quincies, it was possible to dismantle their bodies, so that they became harmless. Currently, Ishida Uryuu and his father alone were capable of using that technique, thought Liltotto." From Can't Fear Your Own World
• Bambietta freaks out when Shinji inverts her senses. Okay, understandable to be a little scared when your whole perception suddenly turns upside down. But why go to Vollständig? She can make explosions. She could continue blowing up everything around her to fight Shinji and Komamura.
  • They either weren't hurt by the first one or appeared right after it finished, they could dodge or endure a few of the explosions which would be long enough for them to kill her since she'd be unable to attack or defend with any real success, plus she's up against 2 captains that have Bankai that can't be stolen, why wouldn't she increase her power to try to fight them?
  • It looked like Yhwach activated the Vollstandigs remotely. Whoever activated Bambi's, though, she proceeded to do just that: making explosions everywhere. She took down Shinji and blew Komamura's armor off.
  • She also seemed rather pissed off, so she probably just activated it so she could finish the battle and kill Shinji and Komamura as quickly as possible.
• Here's a pertinent question; if Hollows are poison for Quincies, and Quincies completely destroy Hollows, how the hell are Hollows able to use Quincy powers with no ill effects? We see Aarancar Asguiaro Ebern clearly using Quincy abilities and equipment, setting him up as some Quincy-Hollow hybrid. If Hollows and Quincy don't mix, how the hell can a Hollow use Quincy abilities. This ties into Kirge consuming Ayon in Quincy: Vollständig and Ichigo having both Quincy and Hollow powers without ill effects. It seems that otherwise, the two groups can mix and match powers at will, but in only a few cases is this treated as a negative.
  • Ebern was an Arrancar before gaining Quincy powers, which means he had some Shinigami powers in him prior to gaining Quincy powers. This may have helped kept him from Soul Suicide. Quilge was likely able to absorb Ayon because he broke him down into reishi particles before absorbing him. Think of it like breaking down a toxic chemical into its component parts.
    • That isn't a full proof explanation, as Quilge is still taking a toxic substance into himself. When you get down to it, all spirit beings are made of reishi, apparently something is diffent about them.
  • Unlike Quincies, who lack the necessary antibodies and die of contracting Hollow energy, Hollows don't instantly die when touched by Quincy energy. Attacks need to be powerful enough, otherwise Uryu would've defeated that Menos Grande all by himself. Because of that, there's no contradiction in Arrancars not dying from gaining Quincy powers.
    • To clarify on the above statement, it's due to why Hollow energy kills Quincies. It's not because the two powers are naturally opposed; they're not. It's because a Hollow's power is naturally hostile to everything, but most individuals can still take it into their system without worrying about it because they have "antibodies" that render that hostility harmless. Quincies don't have these. Since a Quincy's power is not an actively hostile element like a Hollow's power is, no one else has a particular problem in using it. On the other side of things, someone who is not a pure-blooded Quincy would have inherited defenses against Hollow power from their non-Quincy side, causing them to not have this problem.
  • As for Ichigo, as he is obviously alive, it's likely that his frankenstein existence (Shinigami-Hollow-Quincy hybrid) allows him to bypass this rule and possibly also not be bound to Yhwach or that Yhwach cannot take Ichigo "back in" due to the Hollow baggage. Also, consider that it's hinted that Ichigo's Hollow powers are the corruption inside his mother, the merge occurred before Ichigo even existed, so that alone sets his case apart from all other "Quincy infected by Hollow" cases we've seen so far.
• Also, either Yhwach was lying when he called Uryuu the last half-blood, or something is not right. Both Ichigo and his sisters are half blood Quincies. And they too should have died when Yhwach did his thing. So why has he, so far, ignored them? And why is he making a big deal about Uryuu, when Ichigo has the most potential to harm his plans?
  • He may have meant last true Quincy/Human half-blood. Ichigo and his sisters are a mix of Human/Shinigami/Quincy/Hollow (At least Ichigo has Hollow powers, dunno about Karin and Yuzu). Yhwach may consider them something different then just half-blood Quincies.
  • Maybe he doesn't count any descendants who haven't learned to use quincy abilities, because stealing their energy would be pointless.
    • That doesn't make sense. It says that Yhwach performed Holy Selection on all half-bloods, this should have included Ichigo and his siblings. Their powers are innate, whether they realized they have them or not. As for whether or not he considers them half-bloods, it must be remembered that his power just wasn't affecting half-bloods, but those affected by other powers and considered impure. This would have included Ichigo and his sisters as they fit that status, no matter how many powers they are indeed mixed with
    • I think it is because the Kurosakis powers were not unlocked when Yhwach performed the Selection. It's the only difference between Uryu and the Kurosaki siblings that I can think of. It goes with how Ichigo's Quincy powers weren't awakened or stirred until he exhausted his reiatsu in Krige's Jail, at least according to Yhwach. Yuzu's spiritual powers are very low. In the manga she can only see the outline of spirits and the anime she can't see spirits at all. There is a good chance she didn't inherit her mother's Quincy powers at all. Ichigo's powers seem locked until they were awakened when Rukia transferred her Shinigami powers to him. If they weren't unlocked or possibility not have Quincy powers it might be possible that the Selection ritual did miss Ichigo and his sisters. Yhwach is clearly worried about Ichigo. He didn't start his invasion of SS until he learned Ichigo was in HM where he would be delayed. He wants Ichigo to fight for his side too. If it weren't for his time running out he would have taken Ichigo back with them to make him fight on their side. But he is still interested in Uryu because he has no explanation for why Uryu is still alive and wants to keep an eye on him and possible use that power for his war effort. Yhwach seems to have plans for both Ichigo and Uryu. It's just he succeeded in getting Uryu first.
    • Maybe they managed to avoid dying thanks to the Hollow energy they inherited from Masaki. Since Hollow energy is supposed to be flat-out poison to Quincies, and all Quincy powers from from Yhwach, maybe he couldn't take their powers without causing hurting himself. Yuzu and Karin might not have their own inner Hollow mixing with their inherited shinigami powers like Ichigo does, but it's likely even a trace wouldn't be healthy for a Quincy to try to absorb.
• How did BG-9 and Cang Du manage to end up handcuffed in front of Yhwach, it seemed like he was just standing around watching the whole Seireitei with Uryu while the rest of the Vandenreich went on a killing spree, BG-9 wasn't in a position to return without trouble and the last we saw of his fight indicated that he was losing it, so did Yhwach go out and capture them, revealing his location and then bring them back so he could stand around with them captured waiting for Haschwalth to return so he could watch him execute them?
  • It seems that, in this case, Kubo is withholding how their prospective battles ended for some reason. Cang Du was in primary position to murder both Hitsugaya and Matsumoto (if he hadn't killed her already) and BG 9 would have most likely killed Omaeda and Soi-Fon. In which case, both may have returned to Yhwach of their own volition, or been called back like Haschwalt was. The problem is that Kubo jumps around to much and isn't following battles to their conclusion. Until we actually see what became of these Sternritters' prospective opponents, we won't know what happened.
• Yhwach's powers of giving people part of his soul to give them power and heal them is where the Quincies come from, right? That's why he's the King of the Quincies or whatever his title was, and why he was able to pick out all the half-blooded Quincies and kill them via taking his power back and their souls along with it, right? So if anyone who has so much as touched Yhwach's soul has their soul go to him to make him stronger when they die, how did hundreds of Quincies like Ishida Souken end up in the Seireitei?
  • According to Yhwach's backstory, those who carry his soul shards imprint their memories and abilities onto them. The shards return to Yhwach after carriers die. On the other hand, Haschwalth says that Quincies offer their very souls to Yhwach... so it possibly depends on the definition of soul. Some phylosophical teachings view it as everything that makes up a person's psyche (memories, feelings, dreams etc.) rather than an abstract immortal part that travels between the realms of life and death, so all the stuff that gets imprinted onto Yhwach's soul shards probably counts as a soul. It's that, or Kubo contradicted himself within one and the same chapter.
  • We're assuming that Yhwach ALWAYS takes enough soul to kill his hosts. People like the Sternritter are strong enough to survive the drain, but are confirmed to have lost a massive amount of strength (enough to lose Volstandig), so for them, it's more like his shards act as conduits until their hosts really DO kick the bucket. And that's when Yhwach was awake and active; folks that died as humans when he was "sealed" probably didn't get drained at all until they died as spirits.
• Guremi talking about cookies. Did he actually turn Yachiru's bones into cookies or did he mean brittle like cookies?
• This troper may have missed something, but it got me thinking. For what reason does Yhwach actually need a successor? He doesn't really seem like he plans on giving up his leadership position any time soon. Or did he only pull that announcement out of his ass just to get the Sternritter to watch Uryuu with scrutinous eyes, with no real intention of having a successor?
  • Chances are Yhwach isn't immortal. Quincys are really nothing more than humans with spiritual powers, so they naturally have finite lifespans (Don't know how the hell BG 9 could be a quincy since he seems to be a machine). Yhwach had to seal himself for 900 years to live to be as old as he is now. If he's telling the truth anyway. We can see how he used to look by looking at the Zangetsu that is the manifestation of Ichigo's Quincy powers, Zangetsu is how Yhwach looked a thousand years ago, minimum. Kept in stasis 900 years, then it was said that he spent 90 years regaining his intelligence. Probably ridiculously close to dying of old age since he looked to be in his late 20's, early 30's by looking at Zangetsu. Then the Auswählen happened nine years after he regained his intelligence and all that power flowing into him at once restored quite a bit of his youth but not all of it as can be seen by his current appearance. Chances are good he knows he doesn't have as long to live as it seems (I'd say it restored him to his late 40's or 50's not taking the years that have passed since the story began and just because it restored a lot of his youth doesn't mean he gets to live to die of old age at the same age that he was originally meant to i.e. he might have died at age 100 before he regained all that power, since his restoration he could die of old age once his restored body's dialed back biological clock reaches the age of 60 instead of the 100 it originally had) and so that means he would eventually need a successor whether he wants to ever step down or not. He can't prolong his life indefinitely and still be a mortal.
• So... the only letter of the alphabet we don't know its corresponding Sternritter is the N, but we have TWO Sternritter with an unknown letter: Shaz Domino and the old guy with the glasses. How does that compute?
  • Well besides the option that Kubo fails at maths, there's the possibility that Shaz Domino was the active Sternreitter V at the start of the war. During the fight between Gremmy & Kenpachi in chapter 575, Pepe states that Gremmy is a monster that should've been 'kept locked up for eternity', so its just about concievable that Gremmy was brought back into the Vandenreich to make up for the Sternreitter killed in the first asssault (although is this somehow *is* the case, why the others didn't get replaced is a mystery).
  • Joking theory a friend of mine came up with to explain this. Shaz Domino was a creation by Gremmy because he was bored.
    • Pat that friend on the back, because that's exactly it. Gremmy imagined a dude whose Schrift "V" (The Viability) is about absorbing reishi to replace any and all damaged soul; like how Hollows heal themselves, only taken to an extreme. Shaz used this ability to replace the soul Gremmy imagined for him with real reishi from the Seireitei, becoming his own person. Yhwach decided to make the guy an official Sternritter, giving him the letter "Σ".
    • Another theory I had, Shaz could be the real K, and BG 9 is his creation. He does seem to be very mad scientist-y, and every group needs one.
  • Let's not forget the whole "Espada no. 0" deal, it's possible that something like that happens again with some incredibly obscure letter, a different alphabet or just the letter "null".
    • While that's very possible (since this IS Bleach we're talking about) I feel like we already had that reveal when it turned out that there were twin holders of Y.
  • Given how blatantly Germanic the Quincy are, Shaz could be Sternritter ß ("eszett" or "sharp S", typically rendered as a double S in English). Post-1996, it's been replaced in actual German spelling with a double S in most cases, but the Quincy are way older than that.
• Yhwach uses his Auswählen to drain the powers of the "useless" Quincy down below and revive his "elites" up in the Soul King Palace. Okay, reasonable enough for a guy who considers his subordinates to be nothing more than expendable tools. But he deems "useless" the likes of Bazz-B, who's never lost a fight, and the guys who just got their butts handed to them by the Royal Guard are useful? How does that make any sense?
  • Bazz-B is undefeated because he has never faced a truly powerful opponent, whereas Yhwach's elite were only taken down by the insanely-powerful Royal Guard using unfamiliar techniques and weapons. Now that they're revived and know what to expect, they are shown to put up a much better fight.
    • Bazz-B oneshotted a Captain with his second weakest move. I think you're underestimating him.
    • Captains are small fries to Stern Ritter.
  • Bazz-B didn't lose a fight because the enemies he faced were severely disadvantaged.Look at his bout with Renji and Rukia, even an enhanced Volstandig 'Burner Finger 4' didn't do any damage to the shinigami whatsoever. And to those who say they had royal training whatsoever, remember Bazz-B had to go serious mode to even defeat Hitsugaya in shikai. Give the captain his bankai and Bazz could end up like Cang Du in a matter of minutes.
• Ok so after reading Chapter 609 today and finding out what Ywhach's A means. The Almighty. Ok. I still don't see how understanding everything about Ichimonji made it possible for him to counter having his named erased and changed. I look on the character page and it says No-Sell: "Thanks to 'The Almighty', once he understands a person's power, it cannot affect him anymore." I read the chapter on mangastream which has always been reliable for me. Not once did it say that was part of his power. Haschwalth says this in the translation: "The power of his majesty... Is that which allows him to understand all that he sees from any given perspective. As such... That knowledge makes it all but... Impossible for his majesty to be bested." Nowhere does it say that knowing everything about the technique makes it not effect him anymore, it's basically just saying that makes him like Shishio from Rurouni Kenshin, once he has seen it once he can react just the right way to counter the move from then on. He didn't know everything about Ichimonji until after all of its abilities were used on him, which means he couldn't counter his name being erased or changed because those were the first time he had seen them. Yes, he says he figured that was what would happen, but it would have been impossible to know for absolute sure. And ok, so he did counter it somehow, but that is not what makes them no longer take effect. After all, when he lost his voice, he had to actually do something to restore it (which was shoving his fingers through his throat.
  • Most of what you just said happened BEFORE his "Almighty" was activated. And remember, among the things that happened AFTER was Yhwach hijacking Ichimonji's final chant, knowing the words exactly, and turning that last kido against the original caster. The soul fragments given to other people work by imprinting themselves with everything about their hosts and then taking possession of the hosts' strength; the "Almighty" is shaped by that very principle.
• Why does anyone follow Yhwach? From the start, he has made it clear he is a hypocrite who holds little to no value for his own army and will kill them on a whim with little to no reason. Why then is anyone surprised when he uses Auswählen to revive his elite? Heck, why does anyone follow someone as bloodthirsty and crazy as him for that matter?
  • Fear. They know he will kill them, but if they serve him they know they'll live just a little bit longer than they would have otherwise. They don't know when the time comes that he might kill them, but they're hoping it comes as late as possible, maybe even deluding themselves that if they live until the end of all the fighting, he'll set them free without killing them. That's why most follow. The others follow because he is crazy, and they are crazy, and so in this insanity they think he considers them more than pawns with the idea: He won't kill me, I'm special! The reason anyone freaked out when Auswählen took place is because they thought they'd have more time, the fight in the regular Soul Society wasn't over so of course they'd think they have more time. Then suddenly they start losing power and dying, sudden death from nowhere can freak anyone out. While the crazy ones finally get their illusions shattered, they realize they aren't special as they die.
• Why do people take what Yhwach said to the Soul King at face value? He called the Soul King his father, twice, at the end of chapter 611, and near the beginning of the next chapter. That doesn't mean he is speaking literally, unless there's some nuance in the original Japanese that makes what the says more literal I can't understand. Even the Bleach wiki is saying so based on this. Need we forget his words to Ichigo at the end of chapter 514? "I shall return for you in the future. Heal your wounds and wait for me. My son, born in the dark." He called Ichigo son, sure they are related distantly, but again it was more of a metaphor.
  • Chapter 620 suggests it may indeed be literal when Yhwach deals with Mimihagi (quote taken from Viz translation):
    Yhwach: Right arm made of Reishi. So you want to consume me, your own child?!
• In Chapter 585, the remaining Soul Reapers and Quincies face off against each other. The participants are established as such: Renji, Rukia, Byakuya, Hisagi, Ikkaku and Yumichika for the Soul Reapers; Robert, Bazz-B, Meninas, Candice, Giselle, Liltotto, Nanana, and Pepe for the Quincies. As the fights progress, they battle as follows. Renji and Rukia fight Bazz-B. Ikkaku and Yumichika fight Giselle. Byakuya trashes Candice, Robert and Candice. Meninas and Liltotto also appear to have been fighting Byakuya, but held up much better than their colleagues. And Pepe waits in the shadows for his chance to steal the glory for himself. He turns up completely unharmed when he makes his move, confirming that he hasn't participated in any fights yet. However, after Byakuya curb-stomps three of the Sternritter, Shuhei turns up announcing that he's just defeated someone. Two problems here. One, all of the Sternritter present at the fight are accounted for in other fights or not fighting at all. Two, all Sternritter not present in this battle are either dead or on their way to the Royal Realm with Yhwach. So who the hell did Shuhei fight and apparently defeat?
  • Shuhei fought Pepe but fell victim to the quincy's ability. The part about him defeating a stern ritter was just a ruse in an attempt to trick Byakuya into lowering his guard.
• So... Both Bazz-B and Haschwalth are also over a thousand years old. I can understand with Haschwalth due to him having powers like Yhwach, but Bazz-B as well?
  • The Vandenreich have been living beneath Soul Society. That means they had to be converted to spirit form to be there to begin with, and souls, while not entirely immortal, live long enough to functionally be considered as such. That one threw me off for a moment too until I remembered that.
• Nanao's Zanpakuto is meant to fight against Gods. Given the shaky definition of "Gods" in the bleach universe, Would it work against someone like Yhwach or Aizen? If not, it is to be renamed the Mystic Paddle of Slaying Lille Barro.
  • Nanao's sword is said to disperse the powers of a god into all directions. The Soul King is a god, whose powers were dispersed into all directions, so it's quite likely that the mirror sword was used on him. Since he is Yhwach's father and Aizen displayed similiar traits to Lille, I would say the sword would work on them too.
• Why didn't anybody tell Nianzol Weizol that Senjumaru was about to kill him? I know she's supposed to be able to do impossible things like swap out someone's clothes without them noticing just because she's that skilled, but even if Nianzol didn't notice, are we really supposed to believe that Uryu, Haschwalth, and even Yhwach himself didn't notice, either? They were all definitely there to watch the confrontation between the two, since Nianzol emerged directly from Yhwach's shadow and then pretty much stayed in the same place up to being killed, so there's no real excuse for them to have not let him know unless everyone who witnessed the fight was okay with him losing. And considering how Nianzol's "Instant Death" Radius of an ability pretty much rendered Yhwach untouchable, I doubt he'd be someone that they'd be fine to let die.
  • When you have an entire crew of elite Sternritter in your shadow and the ability to drain and distribute the strength of all the Sternritter down below (strength enough to take out almost every single one of the Royal Guard easily AND off-screen, by the way), the loss of one guy really isn't that big of a deal.

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