User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 584 - THE HEADLESS STAR 3/@comment-5551986-20140611182431/@comment-24153155-20140613101718

Mind you, one of the main reasons why I am mad about Bleach is because heaps can be explained from the Japanese history/philosophy perspective (which I kinda have a passion for) and Kubo is brilliant in giving this its own twist.

Yeah, I do think that Yhwach has always had this God-complex in him, but as of now I am not quite sure whether his nature was all that evil. I think Ichigo would be really key in this story. In ch.511 Yhwach briefly explained about that Yamamoto was strong and pretty much invincible before the Quincy were eradicated. And that he became weak after it, as Yamamoto was guarding peace. I think the pre-Soul Society as-we-know might have been a big chaos and terrible place. All the different races/entities (Hollow, Souls, just-Human, Quincy, Spirits yadda, yadda) were all living in the same soup and I guess it was like the strong became even stronger, as the weak became weaker (read: killed) and hence the balance was off. Perhaps at some point, it was considered that the spirit-on-the-loose was a hazard. Not so much because they were dangerous themselves, but if paired with the wrong soul/entity, this being could lose its reason/sanity (it is believed that (the most powerful) Samurai had a relationship with their Katana Spirit and that it also strongly related to the spirit the sword smith put in while forging the katana. The art of sword fighting was/is believed to be highly philosophical/spiritual and being just physically strong doesn't make you an invincible warrior. There is a lot behind knowing your zanpakuto's name ;) Anyways, there are quite some examples of what can go wrong in case a soul+spirit(+hollow) loses its sanity and we have seen the drastic (preventive) measures Yamamoto and/or Central46 is/are willing to take. Although Ichigo is a true Shinigami at heart, he has often questioned this reasoning. He hasn't been very unsuccessful in convincing the entire Seireitei that things will have to change. If the Soul King and Spirit King were once a combined entity, I could see why a seal/separation could be the sweeter end of the deal (over death), but at the same time it's cruel cuz Spirits need a Soul. I think the question why some souls are tremendously gifted in the spiritual department is food for another discussion.

As for the Hollow/ Soul part: I don't think they are the same, but I do think they are existing alongside each other (again, this has to do with Asian philosophy). A Soul needs to battle its Hollow to become stronger. But let me know where I could find the discussion. Would be fun to read.

On a different note: could it be that Urahara knows about all this and tried to prevent this war from happening/ save guarding peace by inventing the Hogyoku? Ichigo/Karin/Yuzu might be part of an unintentional experiment, but one that may save the balance of it all.