Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26929884-20150903213841/@comment-8986886-20150916144436

^ Of course. What I was after was the sacrifice. At the beginning of Bleach Rukia, a representative of Soul Society, sacrificed her Shinigami powers to save Ichigo (world of the living). I thought that if Ichigo were to give up his powers to save Soul Society, the story would come full circle.

Though, that already sort of happened when Ichigo used SGT against Aizen, so maybe Kubo has a more original ending in mind. ;)