User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 557 - He Already Set His Life Aside/I Already Threw Away My Life/@comment-2211792-20131113144641/@comment-28861328-20131113165520

He's trying to show the difference between them, if you ask me. Shinigami are very much like Samurai, in that the Samurai once believed that their swords were "living things" in a sense, and were also part of their very souls. Quincy, if you haven't noticed, are very materialistic.

Weapons, are just that to them: weapons. A means to an end.

Shinigami, on the other hand, literally have to work together with their weapons: because Zanpakuto have a soul of their own.

Its just a way of showing the two conflicting ideologies. Its also a common theme of war. Neither side understands the other as much as they profess to, so, its just showing that the Quincy are more ignorant of the Shinigami, whom they profess to hate with a passion, than they put on.