Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27172747-20161203081130

So, before I start off with this theory I have about Bleach, I have to say that a lot of the ideas within this theory are not mine but come from the many, many forums that I have read, with them being modified a little bit to fit into this framework that I’ve built up. I won’t be citing these specific pages but I want you to know that if you see an idea or a concept that sounds familiar and it hasn’t been cited, just know that I know that it isn’t mine and doesn’t truly belong to me and I have modified it from the original. It’s gonna be a long theory and I don’t expect everyone to read it. Just bear with all of this, I will try to make the theory conversational so it’s easier to read and follow through with. The scope of this theory will actually cover the general plot direction of the story. That is, I’m going to go all the way back to the very, very beginning of the Soul Society and describe what happened, in my opinion and based on research that I’ve done. So, I won’t be focusing on specific characters unless it is Ichigo and some others who are relevant to the story and I will definitely not talk about the specific Shikai and Bankai abilities of the characters UNLESS I have a great need to, such as when I attempt to explain why certain events may have taken place. So, Kubo has actually revealed quite a bit about the history of the Soul Society, though certainly not enough for me to confirm a large part of this theory as being correct but I will do my best to explain what I have. So, let’s go back in time to when this whole business really started. The Shinigami Academy or the Spiritual Arts Academy was founded 2100 years ago by Yamamoto. Presumably, he himself would have had to have been extremely powerful back then to have started an entire school and almost certainly, all students who went to this school learnt and fought and became Shinigami. Of course, this means that they must have possessed Zanpakuto because being a school, there must have structure and that structure would be based on the idea of Shinigami having a Zanpakuto as their basic weapon. So that’s good and we’ll leave this information aside, for now. Now, we fast forward to approximately 1000 years back, when Yamamoto became the Captain Commander of the Gotei 13, commanding 12 other captains, of which only Yachiru Unohana has been confirmed to be a founding member alongside Yamamoto. He was ruthless with his enemies, cruel and downright treated his subordinates as expendable pawns. We don’t know the identities of these other captains but there are theories on who some of them might have been. During that time, Ywach made his move and Yamamoto failed to kill him for some reason. There are a few things that can be deduced from these pieces of information. Firstly, it can be deduced that not all of the Royal Guard were part of the original 13 captains, only a select few of them. Secondly, we can infer that the structure and building of the academy as well as the Gotei 13 was done through the orders of the Soul King himself. That is, Soul Society and its various structures were all made through the orders of the Soul King, as a way to create an army that would protect the Soul Society in times of need. Since Yamamoto himself was a Shinigami head at the Spiritual Arts Academy, he was called upon to be the leader of this organization known as the Gotei 13, tasked to defend the Soul Society. Simultaneously, the Royal Guard was also formed and I theorize that the ones who were the first to join the Royal Guard were Nimaiya Oetsu and Ichibei Hyosube. My prediction is that these are the two people who also founded the Spiritual Arts Academy along with Yamamoto and when the Gotei 13 was formed, they were called upon to be a part of the Royal Guard for their respective contributions and abilities. I actually suspect that Yamamoto was also called to be a member of the Royal Guard and the one reason why I think that might be the case is because of the sheer strength and power of Yamamoto’s Bankai and how he is simply untouchable when using his Bankai. That is, defeating him through normal means or direct attacks is impossible and using Kido is also not an option. In other words, defeating him without taking his bankai or neutralizing it (good luck with that) is impossible and that may be one of the reasons why he might have also been offered to be a member of the Royal Guard. 1000 years ago, Yamamoto was asked to create this organization known as the Gotei 13, which means that he had to find people who would have comprised it and were strong enough to fight alongside him. It is very likely that Yamamoto really did move around quite a bit and seek out the captains that fought alongside him. As was mentioned, they were a bunch of murderous thugs and so, Yamamoto likely would not have been able to recruit them unless he defeated them in battle first. That is, he fought against the very people who he recruited, to earn their trust and loyalty. Now, I cannot give any more speculation than this because there is just not enough information on the old Gotei 13 and how it actually formed but this is my theory on how that happened. Now, we move forward in time a little bit to when the actual Gotei 13 was first setup, where the captains had already pledged their loyalty and the Gotei was first born from the first 13 captains. During that time, we know that the Quincy had tried to fight against the Shinigami and that Yamamoto had used his bankai against Ywach but failed to kill him. During that time, I highly doubt that the Quincy had those medallions that could steal the Bankai of the captains. I also doubt that the captains were so weak as to have their Bankais stolen, the whole point of the medallion is that the person using it can steal the bankai of another if and only if he has the power to handle that Bankai and its effects. The 13 captains were no pushovers and probably never had to use anything more than their Shikai to actually fight. Now, I am theorizing about a couple of things here. Firstly, I theorize that Ywach was not killed by Yamamoto because of the Soul King; the Soul King did not want his son to die and so, he requested Yamamoto to not kill him. Yamamoto used his Bankai to defeat Ywach in battle but he did not kill the Quincy King. Secondly, we know that Kirio was a member of the Gotei before she got promoted to the Royal Guard but I also want to say that she, along with Tenjiro Kirinji and Senjumaru Shutara, were part of the first Gotei 13. All three of them, alongside the other captains, fought in the first Quincy War and fought alongside Yamamoto. Thirdly, after the Quincy War took place, there was peace for a long, long time since the first 13 captains were still intact and they really ruled over everything, ensuring nothing fell out of place, which is why they were feared so much. I suspect that, during this time, Tenjiro Kirinji taught Unohana Kaido and it is also during this time that he invented his two ponds with healing water. It is because of this that he was called upon to become a member of the Royal Guard. Around the same time, Senjumaru Shutara was also called upon to become a member of the Royal Guard. Now, I am not sure what she did such that the Soul King called on her to become a member but since her abilities correlate strongly with sewing, I can only assume that she was called upon because she could create clothing that would protect the wearer in many, many ways. But I’m not too sure and unless there is more information, I can’t speculate.

It is around this time when Unohana first met Kenpachi Zaraki and had her fight with him. She deemed him worthy of taking on the title of Kenpachi and she moved to the 4th division right are Kirinji left, to let the 11th division be taken by someone else. It is likely that Senjumaru Shutara was the captain of the 8th division and the unknown captain of the 13th division, who was presumably a bloodthirsty killer as well, took the name of Kenpachi and became the second captain of the 11th division. It seems likely that this kind of reshuffling could be done, I don’t see any reason why this might not have happened. That left the 13th division and the 8th division without captains of their own. This is where Shunsui and Juushiro come in. During this time, they were being trained by Yamamoto himself and Yamamoto had seen how much they had grown and learned. He saw how capable they were and the fact that they had mastered their respective Bankais, with Shunsui’s Bankai being extremely dangerous to even try and go into, he made them the captains of the 8th and 13th divisions respectively. Now, people might think that Shunsui and Juushiro are weaker than the original captains. Allow me to say that Shunsui and Juushiro were the only ones who were using simply their Shikai during the Fake Karakura Town Arc amongst all of the captains. The other captains had to use Bankai at some point. Shunsui fought against Starrk alone and won while only using his Shikai abilities. He only used a few of his Shikai techniques and not the others that were mentioned in the final arc. Both Shunsui and Juushiro were, very likely, on par with the original 13 captains, being able to fight evenly against them if needed to. Now, since that is set up, for one reason or the other, the 13 captains had members who left or who were killed in the many battles that may have followed after that and we get to a point, about 110 years ago, where the only captains who were in the gotei for a very long time were Unohana, Shunsui, Juushiro and Yamamoto. The rest of them were rather new to their jobs as captains. Now, during this time, we find that Yoruichi was a captain and Kisuke was under her, though he was already at the level of a captain by the time he was introduced in that arc. That is, he had achieved and fully mastered his Bankai, alongside mastering the other aspects of being a Shinigami. He was someone with a genius intellect and a particular proclivity for analytical thought and it is very, very likely that he had these skills for a very long time but was not able to become a captain because there were no vacant positions. Once there was a vacant position when Kirio left for the Royal Guard, he was immediately recommended by Yoruichi. He passed the test, became a captain, had some trouble with Hiyori but finally made his Division his own, he turned it into a research institute. From information that we found it, the Royal Guard members do seem to know him quite well and he invented various things inspired by the things that the Royal Guard members built, such as the two ponds that Urahara took inspiration from Kirinji to build a similar one of his own. Now, this means that Urahara has been to the Soul King’s palace once and I theorize that he went there sometime in the 9 year period between his promotion to captaincy and the hollowfication incident involving Aizen. Before that time, he had already come to the conclusion that the Hogyoku was necessary to become a transcendent being and he likely also knew the nature of the Soul King simply because of the vast knowledge he already had and the easy ways in which he would’ve been able to attain that knowledge. He knew exactly what the Hogyoku was and how to create it, even if it was incomplete. He knew all of this and I really do suspect that he had gotten to the same conclusion as Aizen, with the exact same mindset and way of thinking, where he was questioning the Soul King’s authority. Well, during this time, I suspect that he was summoned to the Soul King’s palace. Now, I can tell you that you are almost never summoned to the Soul King’s palace unless the Soul King takes an interest in you personally but not make you a Royal Guard member or he wants to make you a Royal Guard member to recognize your contribution. It is very, very likely that it was the former, though the latter is also likely to have happened. After all, Urahara did make a huge contribution to technology and to soul society by creating the Research and Development Bureau as part of his own Division and he probably made some very important breakthroughs. Now, if anything, the genius intellect of Urahara is his greatest asset and this puts him ahead of foes who have statistically stronger attack power. That is, Urahara could go up against Yamamoto, potentially, and truly find a way to defeat him while ensuring his own safety and this could be done using Kido or other solutions. In terms of his abilities as a Shinigami, I would say he is on par with Shunsui, Juushiro and even Unohana, though his intellect is what would keep him ahead of even them and even Yamamoto, who is a master strategist himself. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that he would be called up to the Soul King’s palace to either show his abilities or to become a member of the Royal Guard. Either way, he was probably there for quite a while and as he met each of the Royal Guard members, he studied their various inventions, coming up with his own variations. For example, the healing spring, the reiatsu concealing cloak, the gigai or the mod souls etc. He invented these things from all of that inspiration. After meeting all of them and learning a lot of the history of the Soul Society from them as well, probably, he met the Soul King and this is where he would have attained the inspiration to make the Hogyoku. This is where he found out what he could use to increase the power of an individual to that of a transcendent being. This is also where he truly understood why the Soul King must exist, why nothing else could take his place as the ruler and this is also where Urahara understood what Aizen truly meant when he was accused of letting himself be subjugated by the Soul King. Urahara had come to the same conclusion as Aizen initially and was convinced that the Soul King was nothing more than a figurehead, with the real power being with something else within the Soul Palace. However, Urahara’s meeting with the Soul King gave him a different interpretation or a different way to interpret the power of the Soul King and his importance and so, Urahara knew that fighting to gain that kind of power and overthrowing the Soul King was never going to work, because the Soul King was the one who kept everything in place and without him, everything would fall apart. But there’s still one question that lingers; why did Ywach attempt to fight against the Shinigami 1000 years ago? Well, there is a simple reason for that and that is the following; the Soul King himself seemed to favor the Shinigami over Ywach and he was giving the Shinigami much more power than he was to Ywach. That is, Ywach felt threatened by the Shinigami and he feared that they would one day rise to take away his own position as potential King. That is, he feared that, Yamamoto especially, would rise, slay the Soul King and take that power and so, he fought against the Shinigami in a bid to ensure his own rightful place on the throne was not threatened. This was why there was such a fight. A slightly different point though; It was said that the Soul King’s power was restricted at some point by Shinigami. As far as we know, the only person with the power to actually do this is Ichibei, who can restrict the powers of anything based on his Zanpakuto’s abilities. He was probably the one who placed those restrictions and in turn, he is the one who is probably behind the scenes, the true ruler of everything and the one who decides, truly, what happens within the soul society. Now, there have been some things which have been quite weird with the way they appear. For example, the origin of Aizen’s power is unknown and origin of any transcendent abilities is unknown. For example, how is it that Zangetsu and Engetsu are the only swords that possess the FGT and so, I want to put forth a theory on that. When talking about transcendence in the context of bleach, we must take note that transcendence in bleach doesn’t simply mean the mixing of Shinigami, Hollow and Quincy powers. That is, Ichigo is not transcendent because he has all three aspects within himself. He achieved transcendence through FGT, albeit for a short period, because all three aspects harmonized themselves within him through the FGT, causing him to get the right mix such that he unlocked the new powers and abilities which he had. Similarly, the Hogyoku caused Aizen to Hollowfy just enough to mix with his other powers in the right amount that allowed him to become a transcendent being. So there are two known ways to achieve transcendence; through the hogyoku and through the FGT. Now, I theorize that to achieve transcendence through the Hogyoku, one absolutely must be part shinigami, part quincy and part hollow. That is, the hogyoku will hollowfy you, as originally intended, but it will turn you into a transcendent being if you possess both Shinigami and Quincy abilities, which is why Sosuke Aizen, I can theorize, was actually a hybrid himself, which was one of the reasons why he was so interested in Ichigo and his development, since Ichigo was another hybrid and he saw his own equal in Ichigo. Urahara was another one but Sosuke saw his own equal in terms of intellect in Urahara. So, to fuse successfully with the Hogyoku and to achieve hollowfication with the intent of transcendence, one must be part Quincy and part Shinigami. Now, the FGT itself is a transcendent ability and I suspect that it does manifest itself in different forms within other Zanpakuto, giving those users the same abilities and the same levels of power if certain conditions are fulfilled. I theorize that the user, in order to be able to unlock FGT as a power, has to be part Quincy, part Shinigami and part Hollow, as is Ichigo. That’s the only way that the FGT can be truly achieved and this is the main reason why Isshin, despite being as strong as he is, was not able to unlock it; he is only a Shinigami. If Aizen does have a similar ability within Kyoka Suigetsu, and this is just speculation on my part, he would not have been able to attain it either, because he is only part Shinigami and part Quincy, or so I speculate. But this is highly plausible. The FGT harmonizes all three aspects, allowing the user to obtain power beyond their wildest imagination, to the point where even a transcendent Aizen was not able to truly keep up with Ichigo in the final battle between them. This is also why I suspect that the Soul King, really, is part Quincy, part Shinigami and part Hollow and this is what makes him the linchpin which holds everything together. He is the only being to have truly attained transcendence and this is what puts him above everyone else. 