User blog comment:Toshiroichigo/Kensei and Rose's Deaths- Were they Necessary?/@comment-24282510-20140430143423/@comment-1268838-20140501222655

You want an honest, truthful answer? In the grand scheme of things, the impact of the deaths of those 2000-and-counting "redshirts" will be much greater than even the death of a captain. Those so-called "basic" duties that they perform are kind of the point of them even existing. Soul Burial and Hollow Purification constitute the very 'purpose of Soul Society. They were called "Balanacers" for a reason.

The captains themselves play little to no role in that, from what we have seen. The only real reason their deaths would even matter is because this is a war, and they are the only ones who stand even a lick of a chance against the Quincy. Yes, in the short term a dead captain would tip the scales in the Wandenreich's favor. Doom and gloom all around. But in the long run, a captain can be replaced.

That's how a system works, especially one like Soul Society. The peons are always the ones who really matter in the end. The fact that the majority of those individuals are faceless is more or less irrelevant, since that's an inevitability. You may not be able to care about those character's deaths for obvious reasons, but there is an impact there.