User blog comment:Maattthhhh/My Overthinking: Matsumoto and Gin/@comment-24382493-20170925055057/@comment-24382493-20170925213407

For starters I wanna point out something that isnt any "solid evidence" per se, but something worth considering. The ambientiation of the flashbacks Gin had is really shady and gritty. As a writter, id say Kubo is trying to let on from the beggining that this is some dark shit going on, so hes trying to put ambientiaton fitting for it. But thats just the speculation part of my analysis, lets proceed to the actual evidence.

Here is what happens, Gin sees Shinigami handing souls to Aizen. This happens by coincidence as they where operating near Gin's area of residence. Gin doesnt know whats going on, so he just heads back home. Some time later, he is heading back home and he sees these man passing by, chatting in a fashion that makes it seem theyre feeling quite grand (from the little we see of them, only a part of ones face is in-panel). They are coming from the direction of Gin's home so this leaves him curious and he stares over the hill and sees the house destroyed and Matsumoto battered, laying unconscious on the ground.

Now lets analyze the events up to now. Here is where a lot of people misinterpret and thinks they just assaulted Matsumoto to take energy from her, and thats what Gin saw when he saw them meeting with Aizen. But these are 2 completely different events, separated by at least a days timeframe. Gin saw those men and Aizen meeting by casuality, he then went home and thats the title page showing footsteps heading into a home stating "he caught a glimpse of the truth". Some time later, heading home he sees those same men coming from the direction of unconscious assaulted Matsumoto. Gin then remembers that he had seen this men before. How do we know he is simply remembering them from the chance meeting from before? Because, we see darkened panels showing the events of Aizen meeting those men in the forest as Gin peeked on them. Kubo uses darkened panels to symbolize reminescence of events, examples being when Aizen told Ichigo all the fights up till now had been planned by him, or when Yhwach pretty much told Ichigo the same thing. Thus, the fact that we see the event where Gin spies on Aizen and his men as darkened panels verifies to us that this is a past event. So what does this tell us? Simple, the Shinigami that attacked Matsumoto werent shown to be stealing her energy, people just misinterpreted that, thinking that the first flashback came after the 2nd flashback. Surely you must think "well, the fact we didnt see them steal her energy doesnt mean they didnt do it". Sadly, it does mean that. Following chapter Aizen specifies what exactly he was doing, feeding the Hogyoku. How did he feed the Hogyoku? He fed it souls. NOT reiatsu, he fed it whole souls. We even see the shinigami provide magatama aka spirits in ball of fire which is the usual japanese portrayal of souls to feed the Hogyoku. So, the Hogyoku wasnt fed just reiatsu, it was fed whole souls. Thus, they couldnt of attacked Matsumoto to feed the Hogyoku, since if they did, it would of been her soul that was taken... meaning she would of died by having her soul devoured. But evidently, that wasnt the case, Matsumoto is still alive and well. So in this case, what where the men doing there? The theory is rape, but what proof do we have? Well, the rape wasnt shown of course, but there are 3 pieces of evidence which solidly indicate this. The 1st we already discussed, the Shinigami that attacked Matsumoto didnt do so to feed the Hogyoku. Feeding her to the Hogyoku, would of meant her destruction. 2nd evidence has 2 parts, if you recall Gin is implied to pretty much be a pre teen when he joins the Gotei, and him and Matsumoto are around the same age. You think a 13 year old girl goes around with her kimono open while living in the slums of the Rukongai which is borderline lawless? Ofc not, yet we find her with her kimono open borderline revealing her whole cleavage. What is 3rd piece of evidence? Her neck. She has a bruise on her neck. A bruise which is not from choking, as choking bruise would wrap around her neck, meanwhile the bruise we see on her neck is a small, roundish bruise. What kind of action causes these type of bruises? Simply said, hickies are these type of bruises. Now, you could think its maybe a hit to the neck and not a hickie. But what is the possibility of that? Realistically, its highly improbable cus 1, the neck isnt that easily bruised since its pretty solid so it would have to been a very strong hit (or a hickie) and furthermore, how common is it for people to punch you in the side of the neck during an attack? Attacking the neck with blows is very uncommon, specially if its to the side, when someone goes for the neck (which is already uncommon to begin with) they either go for the throat or try to choke. Neither of these possibilities are viable seeing as the bruise mark on her neck does not coincide with choking, and it doesnt coincide with a blow to the throat either. So, are we really gonna be gullible enough to assume that the factors aligning are coincidence? These men assaulted Matsumoto for something unrelated to feeding the Hogyoku and left her with her blouse open and with a mark that seems to be a hickie, but they didnt rape her? Kubo isnt so incompetent to make such clear hints not mean anything.

Furthermore, there is even more evidence after this. As you mentioned, the poem is one. Gin becomes a "snake" so that Matsumoto doesnt. He becomes something others deem treasorous and poisonous and took the burden of himself to relief Matsumoto from it. What burden? To try to correct the wrongs done to her. When Gin left we see he has blood on his face and is wearing shinigami robes that arent his and he tells Matsumoto that hes doing it to make a world where she doesnt have to cry anymore. What did that mean? Gin killed the shinigami that assaulted her and since the Rukongai is such a lawless place that the Shinigami just overlook the wrongs commited there, he was going to become part of the Gotei to help over turn it from the inside and try to fix it to actually try to establish a more just system. Why did Gin blame Soul Society for this? Simple, because Aizen and the men where shinigami yet the men where the culprits and Aizen as their boss having them under his wing permitted them to take advantage and do things like what they did to Matsumoto. Gin blamed the corrupt system for what happened to Matsumoto, so not only did he decide to avenge Matsumoto by killing the men who did this to her, he also decided to kill Aizen for making such situation viable for them and to overthrow SS from the inside out to make a more just system.

Finally, when Gin is dying he says these final words "I should of apologized. In the end I couldnt return what was taken from you.". What symbolism do these words hold? Quite simple. He wanted to apologize for not being there. In the end, Gin is the one that indeed went down the twisted path like his poem indicates meanwhile Matsumoto lived a proper life. What was he not able to return? Her "innocence". Since he was dying, apparently there was no one else to fulfill his goals. Aizen was alive, the Gotei was on the verge of destruction and there was no one who would be there to rebuild it into a better system. So Gin failed creating a world where Matsumoto wouldnt need to cry anymore, he wouldnt be able to make a safer world, he wouldnt be able to get back the "innocence" that his goals where meant to provide for Matsumoto. In the end the world was still shitty and Aizen was still alive.

So these are the events in summary: Gin sees shinigami reuniting with Aizen by accident. He heads back home and doesnt make all that big deal out of it. Some other day he comes back home and he sees those same shinigami walk past by him. He remembers them from the previous chance meeting when they where with Aizen and sees that they assaulted Matsumoto. The assault was sexual as her blouse is open and has a hicky on her neck and we know they didnt take anything from her as Aizen confirms his incomplete Hogyoku required to devour souls to feed itself, not just reiatsu. Gin decides to avenge Matsumoto and try to make a fairer society in which they wouldnt need "to cry" due to injustices like this again. Gin kills the shinigami and takes their robe to pass as a shinigami and try to fix the problem from the inside. Gin is working under Aizen ever since he joined the Gotei, which facilitates his goals. Gin betrays the Gotei and then Aizen as part of his plan. Thus Gin is a "snake" but in reality thats just what it seems and hes doing it for someone elses sake, hence the meaning behind his poem. Gin is slayed by Aizen, making him feel he failed his goals which ultimately would metaphorically equate to recovering Matsumoto's "innocence" by providing her with a safer world with a juster society and where the men who harmed her where no more.