Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24317446-20160321225110/@comment-1268838-20160330194541

I do like this theory. But frankly, I believe that Ichigo's explanation is more than likely the correct one.

Time and again, he has demonstrated the ability to gain an understanding of his opponents just by crossing blades with them. How much he knew about them beforehand was always irrelevant. The problem with Aizen was that Ichigo was never powerful enough to do so, not until the very end. It is easy to dismiss this ability as being insubstantial, but given that it is a recurring theme in the series, and that Zanpakuto are reflections of their wielders' souls, it is a phenomenon worth taking heed of. Thus, I do not feel that it is farfetched that Aizen felt some kind of satisfaction that his accidental science experiment was able to surpass him.

As far as Urahara being incorrect, he himself suggested that he had become savvy to the orb's true nature. He even implied that he could master it to the level Aizen did, not that I could picture him doing such a thing. I doubt that such a desire exists in his heart anymore. At the same time, I do not think Aizen was ever wrong about anything; not until he was faced with Ichigo, anyway, and even then he had some semblance of an idea of what was going on. He just did not want to admit that the possibility was true.

That being said, I agree that the orb did not "reject" him per se, but not for the reasons stated. The Hōgyoku was functioning just as it always had.

In regards to "transcendence," the term merely applies to Aizen's Reiatsu. As in, he exerts such an immense quantity of it that weaker opponents are utterly incapable of sensing it. I do not think it is too far off from the reason why ordinary Humans, who have little to no spiritual power, are incapable of seeing spirits. And Ichigo was at a level above that, albeit briefly.