#excuses to crop stuff into little portrait jpgs

[littleeyesofpallas]

Stupid exercise in futility but trying to nail down some sense of order within the Gotei 13.

Squad 1 as best as we ever knew was Yamamoto, Sasakibe, and Okikiba, three old men... Maybe they're all old because they've all just been at it for just as long a time, but I like to think that squad 1 is just the retire to a desk job squad for the gotei, so it's full of retirees.

But then Shunsui and Nanao get thrown in there to resume capt. and lt. duties basically just by way of Shunsui's senority. He definitely steps up to the task given the needs of the plot, but it would have been nice to see more of a total shift in personality once slacking off ceases to be a real option.

So as far as we know this squad is largely administrative and political. Whatever it is that unites the other 12 squads, and gives the Gotei as a whole direction comes from Squad 1. Presumably Squad 1 also directly negotiates relations with the Central 46 and the Royal Families.

We also know Genryusai is the founder of the Shinigami Academy that trains new shinigami, but it's unclear if he still had any direct interaction himself.

Squad 2 we know was initially just a "militia" which makes sense as a top priority in the Gotei's formation. But Yoruichi's ascent to head of her family, her family's secret police, and 2nd squad captain merged said militia with the Shihouin Family's special forces. The special forces seem to thus recruit from/thru the 2nd Squad now.

They consist of what are basically ninja police, patrolling, surveilling, arresting, and detaining. I kind of hate that they exist the way they do because they seem to just be a giant redundancy within the Gotei; various things the gotei would sensibly have specialized departments for that might be squad specific duties, the onmitsukido seem to have their own subdivisions handling already...

Squad 3 we have no damn clue about.... They're really never elaborated on in any meaningful way under any particular captain...

Squad 4 is all medical. Thank god this one's nice cut and dry. We know they have both nurses in dedicated medical facilities within the seireitei as well as field medics in 14 different subdivisions. It is not clear if those subdivisions have any specialized roles. They attend to prisoners as well as active duty shinigami that they follow out into the field. It is questionable if they offer any services to the souls in the rukongai, although Jidanbo's complete neglect would suggest not.

Squad 5 has no explicit roles or duties shown throughout the series. But there is some suggestion that they could be the gotei's liason with the academy, or otherwise something like HR, dealing with assigning incoming shinigami to squads and filling squad needs for personel.

We know Aizen had a hand in shuffling Renji, Kira, and Momo around in their early days with the Gotei, but it's unclear if those were attributable to his Captain rank in general, or if he did so in his capacity as 5th captain specifically.

Alternatively it could be something that would cover the information and resources that facilitated Aizen's specialized research into hollows, but there's not a lot to go off of there.

Squad 6 also has no clear roles.

They went to the human world to apprehend Rukia, but that feels more in line with Byakuya's personal responsibilities than his squad's.

The position appears to have been passed down several generations in the Kuchiki family.

We also know they have their own jail cells, and its not made clear if that's something every squad has although it very well might be. But given Byakuya's fixation on law, it's possible the 6th Squad is specialized in some form of law enforcement: tracking down, apprehending, criminal shinigami like Rukia, and detaining insubordinates like Renji.

Squad 7 is yet another super vague one. All we really know is that Komamura and Tetsuzaemon operate akin to a yakuza boss and underling, and that Komamura values loyalty above all else. Between Tetsuzaemon's name, his predecessor Jinnemon's name(which both refer to "gates" and contribute to the yakuza aesthetic) and Komamura's affinity for heavy armor, it's possible they are a defensive focused group. But what kind of actual responsibility that would entail under normal circumstances is super unclear.

No idea what Love lends to any of this.

Curiously, the Gate Guardians would presumably be part of a squad if they aren't their own independent force, but it's not clear whose squad they'd belong to if they belong to any at all. But Jidanbo's little brother Jirobo was part of 7th Squad. (Although once they brought up the that walls and gates surround the King's Realm normally... which makes very little sense anyway... it would suggest the Gate Guardians hang out up in the Royal Realm under normal circumstances???)

Squad 8's responsibilities are also just never really addressed.

Whatever it is the squad does, Nanao's the one doing it, so possibly something fitting her bookish demeanor more than Shunsui's?

With Shunsui's slacking there's no reason to suspect that any part of the squad's duties particularly suit him. And whatever Nanao did as his lt. Lisa had done before her, and resumed doing as new captain once Shunsui moved to 1st squad. But then Lisa's demeanor is, superficially at least, identical to Nanao's. So that doesn't really add any clues.

Squad 9 has some clues, but none that really add up.

We know they run the cultural magazine on the side.

We know Kensei ran them like a biker gang in the past.

We know they were the ones sent to investigate when shinigami disappeared in the rukongai.

So it's possible they could be the vanguard? Either like scouts or as the first line of defense? Feels redundant with Squad 2's spec.ops. patrol squad though, but again most of 2nd squad's existence as a partially independent organization suggests they just internally do all the same things the gotei does more broadly...

The biker gang thing would sort of suggest high mobility as a specialty skill/group tactic?

Squad 10 unclear.

Hitsugaya's got a whole boy detective thing going on in the SS arc, but that might be circumstantial to the conspiracy plot and not related to his duties as 10th captain. Plus more of a personal character quirk than a job role.

Matsumoto does not appear to be an asset to these duties in any case.

The late addition of Isshin also does not make clear much of anything.

We know they received some kind of casualty reports but it seems like they weren't reports from their own squad. (the reports were filed late due to Isshin and Rangiku's shirking, but if their own squad members had been dead and missing for months surely they'd have noticed.)

We know Hitsugaya was the supervising captain in the Karakura stakeout after the first Arrancar attacks. But it's super unclear what the process there really was; he may have opted into it as a personal matter wanting to deal with Aizen's affairs, and it sounded like the other team members had been selected first and independent of his command. So not clear if any of it really aligns with his squad duties even remotely...

Squad 11 is nice and simple. The fighters of the Gotei wind up here. But notably not the formal militia that make up squad 2, even before the incorporation of the shihouin spec.ops.

Given the general thuggishness and wild demeanor of the most of the squad it's possibly these are categorized by kill count or otherwise fight record and not by qualifications of formalized training. That or their overall tone is a result of Zaraki specifically being their captain and previous iterations didn't necessarily have the same delinquent vibes.

Squad 12 is Research & Development. Nice and simple.

Given Hikifune's role as creator of the Soul Candies prior to Urahara's remodeling of the squad, and her subsequent focus on food as part of the Royal Guard, it sounds like they were always a group outfitted for mass production of synthetic goods, Urahara just happened to modernize their process from what was likely a more traditional arts kind of focus into something more industrial.

Given the importance of food and hunger as correlated to the emergence of spirit powers in Soul Society that kind of role within the gotei is actually a lot more important than it sounds. I again turn to my tangential speculation and head canon that specialized food in soul society relates to size relates to spirit power, as exhibited in Hacchi's inhuman size(over 8 feet tall) and themes of food in parts of his name and powers, which in turn points back to the gargantuan gate guardians.

Despite being one of the squads with the most intimate focus, Squad 13 is yet another super unclear one.

We know they deployed Rukia, afro guy, and Ryuunosuke & Shino to Karakura.

We know Ukitake gave Ichigo the substitutes badge, and that Ginjo seemed to know Ukitake personally, likely thru the substitute shinigami position as well.

Together those facts might suggest they're specifically the ones in charge of human world activities; whether that's something that would be focused on slaying hollows, rescuing humans and ghosts, or delivering ghosts to Soul Society first with the others as incidental responsibilities is unclear.

Also the Royal Guard were presumably all previous captains of Yamamoto's earliest iteration of the Gotei 13, which suggests that whatever role they filled then were the basis of the squads going forward.

So is there a squad that specializes in clothes that Shutara had founded? (i want to say 8th personally)

One in charge of distributing the asauchi to new shinigami that had been Ohetsu's old squad?

Kirinji seems to have implicitly been the original 4th captain while Unohana had been 11th.

And what about Ichibee's prolific set of skills? His knowledge of true names, theme of rakugo wordplay, theme of calligraphy, and joining theme of artisan monks all seem to suggest he was the original Kido specialist, turning truth into words into poems/chants into magic. But his name also means "military commander" which could suggest he ran the standard militia at the time before they were merged with Shihouin special ops.

edit: right i guess this whole bit has been debunked since the random release of the original gotei roster

And on the subject of the Royal Guard, what is up with their random subordinates, whom I assume live with them on the big city plates in the Royal Realm? Are they shinigami? Are they considered part of the Royal Guard? And is the Royal Guard still part of the Gotei? The Captains are clearly of a higher authority, as is the group itself, but the captains were "promoted" from within the gotei, and share the captain coats, as well as the Gotei diamond insignia. Which begs the question, are the inhabitants of the Royal Realm thus also elevated Gotei members? Or is it an entire literally stratified upper class, (somehow even above the royals and lesser nobility that inhabit the seireitei) who have families and children and communities within the Royal Realm without ever having the go through the academy or gotei service?

(I think the obvious answer is that Kubo did not think it through and that the contradictions just need to be ignored)

Also the Kidou Corps is in there some place outside of the gotei proper yet apparently still abiding a capt.+lt. system of command...(although that feels like a half assed addition of the TBtP more than anything sensible) They have their own jailers that handled Rukia and Aizen, and a separate type of uniformed member that handled the execution ceremony after Rukia was delivered from her cell.

Their uniforms are different from standard shinigami and distinctly monk and even nun like which would have suggested they functioned not dissimilarly to the warrior monk and general buddhist temple during warring states era, where they were considered autonomous from the military caste structure of the samurai and imperial court.

They also supposedly operate the gates to the human world.

And then the late addition of Tessai and Hacchi in formal captain & lt. roles introduced a set of totally different uniforms that are just a coat and mantle over basic shihakusho. Again this feels like a crappy halfbaked idea rather than something that adheres to the established aesthetic of the kidou corps at all.

And the Central 46 all wear shihakusho, despite their apparent nonmilitary role in Soul Society, and autonomous structure outside the Gotei.

Aizen also seemed to suggest that it's possible for Gotei captains to be promoted to the Central 46, and we've seen several of them are elderly, so it's possible the previous captains from Yamamoto's generation are/were among them. Curiously, the Central 46 aren't specifically all elderly when we see the aftermath of Aizen's slaughter, but in the TBtP sidestory the few we see the faces of are specifically much older than basically any other shinigami we see outside of Yamamoto and squad 1.

Yhwach also distinctly calls out the Gotei as having grown weak in peace time since his original invasion 1000 years prior, which suggests that there wouldn't be much cause for casualties among the captains in that time, save the Kenpachi in squad 11 killing eachother in succession. So, the turn over of captains might be accounted for by Central 46 promotions.