User blog comment:Lia Schiffer/421: Deicide 23/@comment-44061-20100923023926/@comment-1454424-20100923041336

I think everybody is forgetting a key element of Aizen's speech, "Urahara Kisuke, I despise you. Why does a man of your intellect sit idle? Why do you allow yourself to be controlled by that thing?"

Aizen's speech comes from the heretic handbook 101. I don't think it indicates anything particular about the Spirit King or what he/she/it might be but more Aizen's attitude towards it. Think of the spirit king as... the pope as he was during the middle ages, all powerful, capable of commanding kings and princes of Europe to kneel before him etc, etc. Now think of Aizen as a heretic who is trying to overthrow said Pope and the whole catholic church in the process. Urahara is obviously someone Aizen thinks would be able to help him achieve his goal. In addition, because Aizen dislikes being controlled by the Spirit King, he expects Urahara Kisuke to feel the same.

I mean, let me rephrase Aizen's speech as "Urahara Kisuke! I despise you! How can a man of your intellect wear the yoke of the church and kneel before the pope! Why do you allow yourself to be restrained by the laws of the church and pope" or something roughly to that effect.

So I don't think Aizen had any noble goal as such or that the Spirit King is evil or anything like that. All the way back in SS, Aizen said to Ukitake that he wanted to utilise his full potential. At the same time, Aizen told Ichigo that other scientists didn't investigate hollowfication because of morals and also that laws of Soul Society made such release taboo. So overall, the Spirit King might be the most benevolent and beautiful being in the entire universe and Aizen would still despise him/her/it because they were restraining Aizen and trying to control Aizen, even if it was indirectly through the rule of law.

Urahara's answer is ultimately very pragmatic in that it proved that he wasn't loyal to the Spirit King for the sake of loyalty but because he wants to protect Soul Society and the world at large. Ultimately, that is the difference between everybody who opposed Aizen, including Gin, and Aizen and his most loyal subordinate: Tosen.

Everybody who opposed Aizen, did so to protect something. Gotei 13, Soul Society and the World. Ichigo: At least Karakura Town. Vizards, Urahara: similar sort of thing. Gin: Rangiku only. But they all wanted to protect. Aizen... didn't care what he destroyed for his own ambition and Tosen actively wanted to destroy Soul Society. That's the difference.