Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4115054-20140903063305/@comment-26475399-20151024165932

Okay, I'm going to add a bit more to my statements in my comment above. I'm pretty much thinking aloud; please bear with me. :P

So in my previous comment here, I noted the dramatic bit of the scene where Aizen is ultimately defeated. How his blade just completely shattered ("No! Why would you literally 'Shatter', Kyoka Suigetsu?!" Hahah.), and Aizen observed in horror.

First, i wish to quickly add, that with Aizen's defeat, there are two expressions from him that almost seem to contradict each other:

- His face of shock and horror upon seeing his slowly crumbling blade dramatically vanish completely;

- His face of smug confidence when receiving his sentence of imprisonment, the look on his face when being bound and sealed.

Now, further into my thoughts, i wonder why Aizen seemed so shocked in the first place, when his blade violently shattered. He even explained his belief that he became one with his powers as Ichigo did, and that he no longer even needed a blade. So why the look of horror when this happened, and why did he even appear to prepare an attack toward Kisuke like that in the first place?

This is what i find puzzling. Other than hypothesizing that Aizen was acting out a more dramatic "final shout" to falsely reassure his enemies of his defeat (his ultimate contingency plan?), i can't really see how this detail really adds up.

What if Aizen made an on-the-spot decision, right at the moment of his defeat, and thought of it, "The only way out of this, is through it." He may or may not have always taken into account the possibility of a defeat; but either way, i'm sure he just didn't find it to be likely.

You could say that Aizen had, at this point, simply become too overconfident and thus arrogant enough to not want to accept that things didn't go his way. And this arrogance being reflected in his attitude during his trial. That seems to be a common and very reasonable belief.

It makes sense. What else would he do during trial? Aizen would never feel remorse or be apologetic, so he naturally would talk of being superior to everybody else. How true would such thoughts be, however, is the question. That's where his confidence would not be so frivolous.

I'm positive that Aizen knew without a doubt that his defeat was definitely not the end for him.

And that this was not simply an overconfident and arrogant state of mind.