#bleach worldbuilding questions again this time about the Quincy

[berrymascarpone]

Rukia Bankai Episode let’s go!! Thoughts on episode 19:

1. Why is everyone dressed like they're going skiing when they come down from the Soul King Palace? Shutara says there's a 72-layer barrier (which, of note we never actually see? So we just have to take her word for it and assume if he weren't wearing the clothes he'd just go splat on some invisible barrier on the way down), so is it about clothing density and coverage? Or is it just really cold? But knowing Rukia's powers, I don't think it should bother her as much, so we know she's only dressed like that so she could coordinate her outfit with Renji.

2. So Ichigo is now a True Shinigami whatever that means. Considering Ichibei's power, I'm wondering if him saying this out loud has some real effect on Ichigo's actual shinigami-ness. We know from future events that Ichigo still does have some Quincy-ness to him, so is shingami-ness an additive property? Or is it just that he has a real zanpakuto now, and the zanpakuto makes the shinigami? And does being a true shinigami have anything to do with his Soul-King compatibility anyways (which seemed to be what the training was really about)? Yhwach is clearly compatible and he's not at all a shinigami.

3. Kirio is really the best teacher. Snacks for the road too!

4. Lol Mayuri just staring over Urahara's shoulder as he makes the phone call is so on brand. And also Ichigo being surprisingly perceptive again, proving that he has emotional intelligence if he puts his mind to it.

5. More info about Yhwach's abilities, and does this gaining the powers and skills thing apply to all Quincies, or just the ones with Schrift? Haschwalth's phrasing implies the latter, but Auswählen implies the former.

6. The thing about the Schrift being engraved on Ishida's soul is interesting though. It seems to imply that there's going to be consequences for that, but there...aren't? Like nothing bad happens to Ishida after the Yhwach is defeated, and even after the weird shit with Kazui ten years later, he's still doing fine? Maybe it only takes effect after Ishida dies? But also, considering that at the end, Yhwach is the new Soul King, does that mean Ishida's soul will just go to Soul Society and join the cycle of reincarnation with everyone else?

(speaking of which, I think it's implied that Quincy souls don't usually go to Soul Society after they die, but to Yhwach? so that could be a reason we never see a dead Quincy's soul. That or Kurotsuchi just kinda experimented on them all.)

7. As Nodt is delightfully creepy. Definitely got that horror vibes down pat

8. But why his obsession with Byakuya? I feel like there's some kind of one-sided rivalry where the Quincies are interested in the shinigami whose bankai they stole for some reason, but there isn't really a compelling reason? Maybe it's just because Yhwach told them to fight those shingami, but that feels kinda specious, like there's no real reasoning behind that order, and in any case they lost the bankai after Urahara's hollow pill intervention. And half the rivalries get thwarted by the narrative anyways, with how Cang Du's fight with Hitsugaya was preempted by Bazz B, and now this confrontation with Rukia instead of Byakuya. Cang Du and BG9 weren't even killed by the shinigami anyways, but made examples of for exposition purposes.

9. As Nodt talking about fear of death really has me thinking about how kind of absurd it is that there's so much talk of life and death when this is an anime about shinigami, as in death gods, as in they are already in the afterlife and by definition dead. Like what does death mean here, if everyone already had to die just to get here (minus Ichigo and his friends who got there through Urahara's weird science reasons, and the fact that there are still kids born in the afterlife, which...what? what does that mean on a metaphysical level?). This also kind of relates back to Komamura's fight with Bambietta, where he can't be killed because he's already dead, like yeah you're dead. Everyone's dead!! This is the afterlife!!!

Anyways, does the afterlife have another afterlife? The anniversary chapter seems to imply that there is, and it's hell, but only for really powerful people. Is Soul Society just a kind of limbo? What about the whole concept of reincarnating back to the living world then? Shouldn't Shinigami not fear death because they know they'll go back to the living world? Is fear of death not mitigated by the fact that you know what comes next?

10. I am so fascinated by the way that Rukia explains her ability with scientific language--all molecular movements have ceased, stating temperatures in celsius. I know most of these things were invented before Rukia died, but she was a baby, so it's highly suspect that she learned it while alive. Do they teach this in Shinigami academy? Did she actually learn something in the time she was enrolled in Ichigo's high school? Is this a result of 12th squad continued education efforts to keep the shinigami up to date on the conventions of the living world? (logically, this is probably just Kubo trying to make them look cool, but it’s fun to imagine alternative explanations)

11. As Nodt's flashback implies that the Qunicy have definitely been recruiting from the living world after Yhwach's defeat. His medical equipment is definitely modern day. Maybe in the 9 years since Yhwach's power started to return? It implies that Yhwach gave him that Schrift power just then, so he's only had it for a max of 9 years, as opposed to some others who have clearly had it since like 1023 or something (aka Bazz B?). Or did they all gain Schrift only after Auswählen and he had enough power to go around? And judging by the number of people whose abilities are a reflection of modern technology/culture, either a lot of them were recruited relatively recently, or they've had enough contact with the living world to absorb the changes happening? Even Bazz B, who we know is from some medieval town 1000 years ago,  seems to fit in pretty well with the modern kids.

Were most of the Sternritter survivors or descendants of survivors of the Quincy genocide 100 years ago? No wonder they really hate Soul Society. But that also makes me question why Ishida thought he was the last Quincy, like clearly there were all these others not that long ago? Unless they also mysteriously disappeared 9 years ago when they joined the Wandenreich?

12. As Nodt instills fear through your optic nerves...so you're saying Tosen would be immune to this too? I'm telling you, Soul Society needs to be recruiting from a way more diverse pool. No way there's only one single blind person in all of Soul Society who had the ability to become shinigami. Think of all the trouble they could have avoided just by having more than one of them.

13. If Rukia and Byakuya had a nickel for every time they fought an enemy with an eye motif, etc. etc.

14. RUKIA!! HAKKA NO TOGAME!!! Beautiful, wonderful, elegant, lovely!! Though after fawning over its elegance, I do wonder how much control she has over what freezes, because it seems like there would otherwise be a lot of collateral, but also Byakuya seems to have managed to avoid it despite being at the same distance away as As Nodt.

15. Overall a very fun episode, and next up is the Gremmy and Kenpachi fight!

[troius]

As I hope you're aware, I've really enjoyed reading your thoughts on BLEACH during your reread! I was thinking today though: do you have a personal top 10 chapters or a favorite chapter [so far]? Totally okay if you don't want want to answer this, I was just curious.

No, thank you, that's a very good question! And an interesting one, since I don't tend to think of Bleach in terms of chapters. Unlike in anime, where the episodes have clear dividing lines with the openings and endings, manga chapters just sort of blend into one another when I'm reading them. Even during this reread, where the plan is to do roughly one chapter per day, I'm actually just posting my thoughts on interesting pages, so some chapters get more or less time depending on how much stuff catches the eye.

But I think it'd be an interesting exercise to see what chapters I do really like as isolated works of art! And if it encourages anybody to reread these chapters, or read them for the first time, so much the better! Troius's Top Ten Bleach Chapters (limited to those I've covered in this reread) under the cut.

34. Quincy Archer Hates You. A funny thing about looking at individual Bleach chapters is that they are clearly designed to run together, to keep the reader interested in what's going on so that they buy next week's copy of Weekly Shonen Jump. So they often are part of an ongoing storyline, and include several scenes, some of which are characterization and some of which advance the plot. This chapter, IMO, is the first one that does all of that and still feels "complete". Yes, it ends on the cliffhanger of Uryu's introduction, but that's the natural culmination of all the scenes in the chapter, including a really good one about low-stakes discrimination to set us up for the Quincy. Excellent stuff.

98. A Star and a Stray Dog. For once, Kubo uses one chapter to tell one story, end to end, and it's a tour de force. Granted, it's in the larger context of the Ichigo/Renji fight, and the Soul Society arc as a whole, but the entire Renji + Rukia relationship flashback is in this chapter, and it's magnificent. Renji starts the chapter as the closest thing Ichigo has to a rival, and by the end, Ichigo is the closest thing he has to an ally.

124. Crying Little People. This chapter title kinda sucks, and the title page is a pretty boring illustration of Ichigo, who doesn't even appear in the chapter proper. But as an Uryu stan I could not in good conscience leave off the moment where he sacrifices his powers and his childish aspirations for moral principle. The fathers-and-sons dynamics here are impeccable, and the Quincy worldbuilding flawless. I can't recommend it enough.

159. Long Way to Say Goodbye. It turns out that while single chapters often don't tell a complete story in Bleach, they do frequently tell one complete story, and that's the patented Bleach Characterization Flashback, where Kubo cuts away from the end of the fight to give you the backstory of whoever's fighting. In this chapter we get Soi Fon and Yoruichi's history, and it's incredibly effective once again in turning an antagonist into a sympathetic character.

168. Behind Me, Behind You. A complete change of gears -- the Byakuya/Ichigo fight wraps up in the previous chapter-- this is a complete information dump that nonetheless Extremely Works in getting the reader invested in the Hitsugaya/Matsumoto Spirit Detective plotline. Those two, Kira, Momo, Gin...none of these are the main characters of Bleach, but even if you didn't have strong emotions about them coming in you will once the chapter's over.

169. End of Hypnosis. This is just a run of killer chapters, and this one features both the start of the Matsumoto/Kira fight, as well as, uh, Aizen revealing himself. Now, obviously the latter is probably one of the more notable moments in all of Bleach (and maybe shonen manga in general), but what actually makes the chapter work is the taste of violence introduced in the opening, which is then tied to the Gin/Momo/Aizen stuff with just the briefest flashback-- one page! But it's essential to making the story cohesive, and to putting the appropriate focus on Gin, who would otherwise be overshadowed, I think.

171. End of Hypnosis3 (the Blue Fog). Okay, I promise I'll stop in a second. But I just cannot get over the pacing of this thing, starting with Unohana walking in on Aizen right as he finishes gutting Hitsugaya, and the tense standoff where Aizen reveals how he pulled it all off. And of course, that exposition is interwoven beautifully with the inevitable reveal that Tosen was in on the plot all along. When the chapter finally closes with the reminder that "oh yeah, Rukia was the target of all of Aizen's schemes" . . . it's magnificent. I don't know if anybody's ever paced anything better.

221. Eat the Worlds End. This chapter is just excellent when it comes to working with the existing concepts and characters to develop Ichigo’s character further-- and not in a good way! It’s basically Bleach’s version of inception, with Ichigo’s inner hollow letting Ichigo get the “victory” over him, while at the same time using the image and likeness of Kenpachi Zaraki to get Ichigo to embrace his “killer instict”. Really well done.

268. You Are Forbidden to Die. It’s another end-of-fight flashback chapter! This one might be the best though, as Rukia’s journey back into her memories to honor the Kaien she knew contains the thesis statement of the series as a whole, and makes for a very satisfying last couple of pages where she stabs Aaroniero in the face.

283. You don’t hurt anymore. The Grimmjow/Ichigo fight has so many layers to it, but what makes this chapter stand out is that it works independently of all that. You don’t have to know that Orihime’s concerns about Ichigo are extremely well grounded, or that Ichigo’s been fighting a massive battle about how much he should lean in to his dark side, or that Grimmjow is fighting in part because he’s scared about what he’ll feel if he doesn’t fight. The story the chapter tells in isolation-- of our hero being given the strength he needs to fight by the person he’s rescuing-- works well enough on its own.