User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 610 - Mausoleum of Skulls/@comment-28861328-20141219003243/@comment-5398287-20141219175031

"you liked the part where zangetsu appears to be Yhwach from a 1000 years ago...? that was the biggest a**pull Kubo has done in the history of bleach..."

I'm sorry, but as far as I know, an asspull is, to quote TV Tropes:

"a moment when the writers pull something out of thin air in a less-than-graceful narrative development, violating the Law of Conservation of Detail by dropping a plot-critical detail in the middle, or near the end of their narrative without Foreshadowing or dropping a Chekhov's Gun earlier on."

Since this pertains to the second half of that sentence, I'd like to point out the massive amount of foreshadowing this revelation had in the arcs prior.


 * First and foremost, Hollow Ichigo saying "I AM ZANGETSU!"
 * Hollow Ichigo always being the one to save Ichigo's life.
 * Hollow Ichigo always being the one to train Ichigo when he wants to gain better control over his powers.
 * Fake!Zangetsu heavily resembling Yhwach from the beginning of the arc.
 * Shattered Shaft manifesting both the fake Zangetsu and the real one at the same time.
 * Fake!Zangetsu's various Quincy-like abilities, up to and including stopping blood flow (something that Zanpakuto spirits shouldn't be able to do) and manipulating Reishi.

There's more, but if you actually read the chapter, Fakegetsu himself points out all the evidence of how the real Zangetsu kept saving Ichigo's ass and helping him out and so on, and his explanation of why he'd been masquerading all this time retcons nothing and makes a whole lot of sense. As such, I can't see how this is an asspull, much less the worst one ever *cough*Segunda Etapa*cough*