User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 562 - THE VILLAIN 2 (Mask De Masculine is a Mexican luchador in a German army)/@comment-5693502-20131217161348/@comment-28861328-20131218215500

I would focus on the differences between the Quincy and the Shinigami. We know that there was a vast difference in appearance and that the Quincy were wronged thousands of years ago.

They didn't start out evil. Or, so we were lead to believe. Uryu told us that the Quincy fought back against the Shinigami because they refused to help the Humans fight back against the Hollows that were killing their own people. Then, when the Shinigami had finally had enough, they killed all of the Quincy. But then you have Shutura saying that these Quincy are far more evil than Aizen.

So we know the Quincy side of the story. So why do the Shinigami see them as evil? What REALLY happened back then, and what does it have to do with this conflict.

If I were given the pen to take this arc anyway I wanted, instead of showing Masaki's backstory, which, curious as most fans were about it, wasn't important to the story at all, I would've given the backstory about the Quincy and Shinigami conflict. What started it, what was going in Soul Society and the Human World, and what ultimately caused both sides to act. Then I'd flash back to the current time and show why Yhwach had such animosity for Yamamoto and why the Quincy have been waiting for a millenia to exact their revenge.

Then I'd go with Yhwach's plan. Destroying Soul Society could end the universe. That wouldn't help the Quincy at all, and I doubt Yhwach would ever convince anyone to follow him if that was his plan, yet that's what Kubo is telling us. So, I would focus on what Yhwach actually plans to do once he kills the Shinigami. Is he going to replace them with his Quincy? After all, without the Shinigami, Hollows and Plus can't be purified and make it to Soul Society.

Those are the kinds of things I'd focus on in an arc between Quincy and Shinigami. And, instead of making the Quincy insanely powerful, which makes absolutely no sense considering how they were supposedly trounced in the last war, and, like it or lump it, humans just aren't much compared to the superior bodies and powers of a Shinigami, I'd make them cunning, resourceful - make them use their intelligence to outwit the Shinigami's superior powers.

THAT is how you make them give off a sense of despair.

That's what I would do. Things like Isshin's past and Masaki's past, and Ichigo's resolve are all nice to know, but they mean nothing whatsoever to the overall scheme of things. For Ichigo, I believe he's on the right course, though Kubo did a shit job of explaining it. Showing him choosing between his Human life and his duties as a Shinigami, and eventually deciding to become a "true Shinigami" is where his place in this story belongs. And there is even some symbolism to play on there, since he has Shinigami and Quincy lineage, to decide which side he will stand beside in the final conflict.