User blog comment:Godisme/Rain as a Blade/@comment-1624279-20111013130429/@comment-1747976-20111013175716

I do not think that this is a change. I think that this has always been his philosophy but he saw that this kid was fighting ferociously for essentially nothing or for something he did not understand. Much like the Arrancar in Aizen's army. They did not really understand why they were fighting or for what. In the end, he decided to do the job himself. Decimating the Gotei 13 nearly completely until I came along and ........MUGETSU! Okay....got that out. Ikkaku is a warrior second in reality only to Kenpachi himself from the standpoint of loving battle and thirsting for challenge constantly. As I said before in another blog with Salubri and a few others, Squad 11 has a code and each one of them are expected to live by it and, more importantly for them, die by it. Ikkaku is like a miniature Zen master and this can be seen by how he trained Renji and the philosophical views he imparted to him in the process. He is far from unintelligent and very masterful as it relates to the view of battle and what a person should be fighting for and why. He is also very lucky. LOL.