Well, I did call it last week. Kubo could make this week epic or catastrophic. He obviously decided to go for catastrophic, lame, and ridiculous in all possible senses.
The start pointed towards an epic chapter, showing Gin's past and possibly, the true motivations for his actions, a real deep insight to Gin and a final revelation of why he's been messing with our minds for so long, and of course, what his final intentions were.
Then there was Aizen disintegrating and Gin stealing the Hogyoku from him. Epic scenes of Aizen seemingly dying, more wounded that we've ever seen him. When he screamed I really thought he was dying. When have we ever seen Aizen losing his cool like this? It was an amazing page and for the first time, he really looked like the monster he really is.
And then it all went to hell. The smoke came clear and Aizen was back with his Aizen-smirk, unwounded and... I want to make clear I have never, ever used the term "Aizenfly"It started somewhere else. Anyway, I mean... Can this get anymore ridiculous? Wings.... unnecesary, but I could tolerate them. But BUTTERFLY WINGS?! Was Kubo on POT or something?
Of course, we all thought, maybe Aizen could die, but most possibly he won't. I had thought he'd do the fake Aizen or pull off another clarivident moment, maybe even a "Hinamori". Whatever it was, I was prepared for it to be lame, and to curse it to hell, but I was not ready for this middle finger Kubo just gave us. So Gin stole the Hogyoku and Aizen still says "Even if the Hogyoku isn't inside me, it's still mine"? I could take it if it was something due to Aizen's overpowered intelligence or whatever. But this is awfully random. It's just like "Go figure, luckily I didn't die". I can't believe Kubo did this crap to us.
The final shots were more chibi Ichimaru's. It does seem like his determination to join Aizen comes from back then. From what I could get, he was looking at a starving Matsumoto and then he saw Aizen, so maybe he joined the Gotei to help Rangiku? But that would contradict his "snake" idea of himself, so I'm not sure.
And the last panel shows Gin getting Aizen'd? Or Gin slashing Aizen? I'm not quite sure. The situation would point to the former, but Gin's words "This is the guy I have to..." seem to point to the latter. I'm wondering what would complete that sentence "follow?" "kill?" But Gin's shoulder seemed to be slashed, so maybe it's Gin. Gah, I don't know.
In short, we're back to our old formula. A hero comes to save everyone, they take the upper hand for three seconds, Aizen's so shocked that he was overcome for three seconds, and then he smiles and pulls out the most ridiculous trick out of his butterfly sleeve and the hero gets Aizen'ed. I'm so sick of this. I think TV's blog has the most appropriate title ever
Anyway, you guys know the rules, spoilers and crack theories are not allowed, stay in topic and all the usual. And I love your comments and opinions, as always!