User blog comment:Toshiroichigo/Kensei and Rose's Deaths- Were they Necessary?/@comment-1268838-20140430224949

I think you're confusing the impact on the fans for the impact on the overall story. In the end, what did Gin and Ulquiorra's deaths accomplish, asides from tying up some loose ends? We have yet to see any significant development on Rangiku's part regarding Gin's death - that was something she seemed to cope with rather easily at the end of the Arrancar arc. Ultimately, it was the fans of those characters that made a huge deal out of it. To them, and even to people who didn't necessarily like those characters, the deaths certainly had an emotional impact.

Of course, it is the impact on the story that should matter, in my personal opinion. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. While Chojiro was a blank slate for the vast majority of the series, we got genuine development on his part post mortem. To that end, we also got some significant development on Yamamoto's character as well. We saw him silently mourning his subordinate's death, and his bubbling anger, which ended up driving him over the edge. It could even be argued that Chojiro's death was what got Yamamoto killed in the end. The loss of the Captain-Commander and his lieutenant was obviously a huge plot point, and a tragic one at that.

Byakuya is a slightly more iffy case; I honestly did expect him to die, and felt slightly cheaped out when he ended up surviving. But even his wounding had at least some impact, particularly on Ichigo. Ichigo was already desperate to get to save Soul Society to save everyone, and he knows that Byakuya values his pride over anything else. So to see Byakuya there utterly ruined, throwing away his pride to beg him to save Soul Society, was just more motivation for Ichigo. (You can tell because Ichigo's srs face was all heavily shaded and stuff.) He could have just died there, but instead Kubo decided to take his character further than that, using his near-death experience as another opportunity to develop his character. Byakuya now openly admits that he has no pride, and that he wishes to regain it. To that end, we've already seen that he has reexamined his fighting style. So the whole ordeal still an impact on Byakuya, and on the story in general.

Now that that rant is over, I suppose I should actually address the two deaths this topic actually addresses - Rose and Kensei's. Frankly, I am still skeptical about whether they are actually dead or not, considering the nature of Gremmy's power. And regarding the impact of their deaths, it is much too soon for them to even have one, especially since the ones closest to them are unaware. Maybe Hisagi finds out about it later on, has a flashback and whips out his Bankai in rage or something. We don't know. As for how it all went down, I can't say I'm a fan either. I don't particularly dislike Mask, but I don't like how easily he felled Rose and Kensei. That in itself lends some credence to Gremmy's sly way of offing them, but it does feel rather cheap. But whether they are really dead, and whether their deaths will have any impact, well, it is way too soon to say.

TL;DR - It takes time for the impact of a character's death to be determined. Regardless of how it went down, or how cheap it feels, it will end up having some kind of impact, whether it is on the fans, the characters, and/or on the story as a whole.