#fullbringer quincy

[distinguishedshoeduckdonut]

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/The DeathBerry/

Date finished: 14/01/2024

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[epraim1992]

Yhwach's Origin

Yhwach created the Quincies but his own birth is still a mystery.

Yhwach claims to be the son of the Soul King. But he was seemingly born around 1200 years ago in the human world and Soul King was sealed in his crystal the Soul Society.

Also we can't take what he says literally. He considers himself Ichigo's true father calls Isshin a stand-in.

I have a theory that Yhwach is the reincarnation of a member of the the Shihoin Clan.

The three worlds used to be one and in Can't Fear Your Own World it was revealed that splitting life and death was the idea of the ancestors of the five noble clans.

It was the Shihoin Clan ancestor that came up with the reincarnation cycle. "The Shihoin clan’s ancestor believed that an even greater cycle of circulation was needed to progress the stagnant world forward." I think it would be significant and ironic for a Shihoin to put end to that cycle.

I think it will be a twist similar to Hollows being revealed to be fallen human souls.

Yhwach was born without his senses which I think is influenced by the Three Wise Monkeys and the Sanshin. I think this is a clue on how Yhwach got his Quincy powers.

The Sanshin are evil spirits believed to live in people and try to hasten the death of their host. They record the sins of the host to report to the gods so they would be punished. I think this is the inspiration for Yhwach power sharing ability.

The Sanshin are believed to reside in three dantian "energy centers", respectively located within the head, chest, and abdomen. This correlates to the saketsu and hakusui which are located in the chest and abdomen.

I think the third eye of Aizen and the Llyod twins hint at a pressure point existing in the head.

Uryu regained his Quincy powers by being struck with a Heilig Pfeil in the chest.

In the spot where the saketsu or Chain of Fate would be. I think this is a hint on how Yhwach gain his Quincy powers.

The Soul King split the primordial world into the triplet worlds.

He used a sword.

And three arrows to do it. EDIT: I think he pierced his saketsu, hakusui and "third eye" to transform into a Quincy.

The Shihoin Clan are the guardian of heavenly weapons and tools bestowed unto them by the gods/heaven which I take means the Soul King. I think they had the sword and three arrows.

Tools have souls in the name and Fullbringers can boost their power with their own souls. The Soul King in Can't Fear Your Own World was said to have countless abilities like the Fullbringers. I think the Soul King boosted the arrows with his soul.

I think the arrow had spirits in them similar to Shun Shun Rikka.

Orihime's hair clips were compared to Zanpakuto.

I think these spirits were incarnation of the Soul King and will be inspired by the Sanshin.

As opposed to Shinigami Quincy extinguish the souls of Hollows.

It was explained as being out of revenge for the Hollows killing their loved ones.

Mayuri pushed back on the that idea and hypothesized it was because Hollows are deadly to Quincy.

Urahara cosigned this and explained that Quincy had no antibody against Hollows. This makes me think that it being out of resentment is true.

Urahara is not a reliable narrator. He is a fierce defender of the status quo so won't reveal the true reason Quincy seek to kill hollow.

The Shihoin lead the Onmitsukidō who act as scouts against the Hollows. Sui Feng lost all 5 of her brothers so I see that how the would breed resentment against Hollows. Also they assassinate lawbreakers so maybe the Yhwach's past life believed the Shinigami deserved punishment for mutilating the Soul King.

I think it could be why Chika Shihoin joined the Gotei 13, out of a sense of familial obligation to stop the Quincy since they were born from his family.

Old Man Zangetsu looks like Yhwach from a thousand years and interestingly enough Yoruichi met him. It's unclear if Yoruichi knows Ichigo is a Quincy but I think she could bring it up in the anime. I have feeling Urahara knows the truth and that Yoruichi will get it out of him.

[magicgurljhonnie]

Ichigo Kurosaki ⚔️💀

Substitute Soul Reaper/Vizard/Fullbringer/Quincy

[bitchymusicpuppy]

CREDITOS A SU AUTOR

[snowddeong]

It's super stuck in my brain now so bleach tybw inspired Ryeji based off of haschwalth/bazz

Coincidentally the night they escape and hide out in the forrest is also the night Yhwach attacks and burns down the whole village. Ryujin swears revenge and Yeji swears to be by her side and support her any way she can. The plan is basically to enlist into the knight order, get close to Yhwach and kill him so they train with that in mind for like 5 years and keep getting closer but shit goes south when they head for conscription.

These are some of the slightly more detailed changes I wanna make but basically Ryujin is the daughter of their village's noble family and Yeji's a poor kid with a horrible home life. They meet in the woods, Yeji's really struggling to hunt and eventually after befriending Ryujin she learns about Quincy stuff, gets stronger and eventually can hunt on her own and starts bringing back more than a single rabbit. Her uncle gets suspicious and stops her from going out anymore so Ryujin helps her gtfo.

Yhawch is there and he realises Yeji is able to give and take away power just like him. He offers her a position as his advisor but before she can even consider Ryujin panics for her sake and tries to kill Yhwach. She fails and goes to try again but Yeji stops her cause she knows how powerful this mf is and that he WILL kill Ryujin. So for Ryujin's sake Yeji joins the Order and abandons Ryujin.

Ryujin does eventually also join the Order and rises in the ranks super quick but her motivation now is she hates Yeji for betraying her and wants an explanation wtf happened. Yeji meanwhile is doing everything for the sake of keeping Ryujin alive. Also they're gay

[variablejabberwocky]

oh so byakuya's new bankai is yumichika's true shikai but turned up to 100000x

thats not FUCKING TERRIFYING or anything

ok I need elaboration on pretty much all of those bankais that you haven't already talked about but for now i'm probably most curious about ichigo and hanataro? please, a measly few crumbs of context

The short version of Ichigo's sword situation is that he is D'artanigan to Zangetsu's Three displaced-during-the-fuckery-surrounding-his-parent's-meet-cute-slash-manslaughter-thing Musketeers. We got his dad's half-starved family Zanpakuto, The Family Ghost from his Mom's side, and a guy made in an evil instapot that wandered in here on accident and precipitated the whole enfuckening. They are untied in their goal of "Keep Ichigo Alive" but unfortunately they also have a collective IQ of Negative Four.

Reader: Gee Ichigo, why does the author let you have THREE Zanpakuto spirits?

Ichigo: That's nothing! Orihime has SIX!

Ichigo and Orihime's nonsense is connected to how The Almighty operates:)

Meanwhile, short summaries of Unohana and Byakuya's Bankai under the cut:

Minazuki is a sword primarily about the manipulation of flesh- healing injury, making better fighters by pushing the flesh to it's limits- This is a spirit that is distinctly VISCERAL in nature. It has mass. It has a very distinct body.

Unohana:

So it follows that, in order to supply injured patients with blood and drugs and new flesh and everything else, Minazuki is giving up some of her Mass. Consequently, the Stingray form of Minazuki is the SECOND one- she cannot create her elixirs and make new flesh from nothing. First she must FEED.

Which is why Minazuki's liquid format is acidic blood that devours anything organic. It's why Kenpachi!Unohana's bloodthirst was so bloodthirsty: she was literally starving for biomass to complete her sword's two forms and finally put her Soul in Balance.

Senbonzakura has been with the Kuchiki family for generations, passed from one head of the clan to the next in a sacred ritual that allows the Zanpakuto to bond to its new weilders and grant them the power accumulated with generations.

In the fic, Ukitake is one of a handful of people old enough to remember "Yachiru" Unohana, and until Zaraki's arrival, probably the closest to understanding her. That Unohana and Retsu both understand the horrors of the flesh he lives with every day more intimately than anyone else in his life, and it's the basis of an almost sacred friendship between them. He knows perfectly well where the emergency transfusions and drugs she creates come from, and they have a standing agreement that if he predeceases her, she is to feed his body to Minazuki so he can pay forward at least some of the debt given to him.

He will not be the first of Unohana's friends that have been willingly devoured by her sword.

Byakuya:

But for course, everything has it's cost.

Byakuya was not the head of the Kuchiki clan when his father Sojun died prematurely and make Byakuya the orphan heir apparent as an adolescent. He was not the head when he met Hisana in a grove of cherry trees in the middle of harvest, and fell in love with her He was not the head when he had a terrible row with his grandfather Ginrei and the rest of the clan elders about his elopement. He was not the head five years later, when on a cold spring morning before the plum trees had blossomed, Hisana died of a miscarriage.

One week later, when the plum trees bloomed and the cherry trees had budded, Byakuya came to his grandfather, head bowed and heart broken, and agreed to take up the mantle of Clan Head. His soul had already been torn in half, what was another half?

Everything has it's cost, and the price of Senbonzakura's power is the sacrifice of the weilder's own original Zanpakuto spirit, and by transference, the imminent death of the previous head.

He had known this day was coming, ever since his own native Zanpakuto spirit failed to awaken at the academy. At the time, he'd thought it a mercy that the poor thing wouldn't awaken and be aware of being devoured. But now, as he held the tiny, warm body of the spirit out to Senbonzakura, he could only think of the child he never got to hold.

...with Senbonzakura, at least, she'd be at rest with something beautiful that loved her.

Because Senbonzakura loves it's family, and in particular it adores Byakuya. It has, ever since Byakuya fearlessly climbed it's branches as a small boy, since he partook of the sword's fruits as a young man, and now, when Byakuya offered the most precious parts of himself to the sword with a sense of peace and profound trust. And Senbonzakura repays that trust in kind.

The sword's shikai release is the same, or at least similar for all it's wielders, but long-term friends of the family note that that is a LOT MORE blades than the sword ever summoned for Ginrei or any other head.

The Bankai is different every time. Senbonzakura is ready to give Byakuya whatever Bankai he wants immediately, but it's not until after he adopts Rukia and sees her fooling around in the family orchards when she thinks he isn't watching that he realizes the shape it should be.

It's name is "Senbonzakura: Sakura no Kaju-en" and it is beautiful and terrible.

Sakura no Kaju-en requires only that Byakuya pierce the flesh of his enemy or the terrain around him with one or more of his petal-blades. Once in the ground or embedded in flesh, the blade is transformed into a seed and an entire magical cherry tree grows from it, converting the Reishi and spiritual energy around it into its own mass. Since Byakuya is effectively wielding somewhere around 10,000 petal blades in his shikai alone, he can summon up to 10,000 devouring cherry trees, which will radically alter the landscape of battle and blossom into millions and millions of new petal-blades.

That is, unless his foe is unfortunate enough to have the blades penetrate their flesh. Then the trees will devour them as they grow. Even a truly massive opponent like Yammy can be mulched in minutes.

The trees initially blossom almost white, but as his enemies are felled and Senbonzakura drinks, the blooms grow pinker and then redder until they transform into deep crimson fruits.

It's a brutal Bankai, but a beautiful one. When Byakuya looks out upon the blooming landscape and tastes the sweet fruits of his efforts, it brings him peace to know the small, sleeping spirit he had to sacrifice is playing somewhere within, they way he saw Rukia playing in the family orchards that day.

[distinguishedshoeduckdonut]

2004 vs 2024

[worldofreapers]

Check our recent blog for the Shinigami race and our differences between the show and our site. How have we made it more accessible for the RPers under this race. Create an account of your own and leave a comment to let us know your thoughts!

[aurora-313]

Ichigo, staring blankly: ... you're gonna need to be loooooooot more specific.

the society made up of millennia old death gods who constantly yap about how their 'true power' would cause the entire universe to implode: "Heyyyyyyyyyyyyy, little teenage boy, could you pwease help us? Pwease? 🥺👉👈"

[zabiume]

Could Orihime Reject Someone Out of Existence?

This is one of those statements that gets thrown around by Orihime fans a lot as a way to defend her strength, because Orihime's weakness has been a defining part of criticism surrounding her character throughout the early-mid 2000s (and even today tbh). And it's not limited to Orihime's fans either. I've seen a lot of people use this as criticism too ["Orihime could probably reject someone out of existence"...(hence it's bad that she didn't get the opportunity to do so)]. Nevermind the fact that there hasn't been a single instance where she felt a villain has even warranted that, or the fact that Soul Society goes absolutely ballistic on Quincies, who do wipe souls out of existence, I still find this to be an interesting discussion because it neglects to consider....anything we've been told about Orihime's powers. Granted, it's pretty scummy that Kubo elaborates on the structure/logistics of her powers only in extra-canon material like CFYOW (read by only a few dedicated fans) or Klub Outside (paid Q&A forum with restricted fan access), so I don't expect that everyone has done their required reading on this, but I still think it's a good excuse to actually talk about what she can and can't do.

What Orihime Can Actually Do (Basic Powers, Achievements/Growth)

At the start of Bleach, Orihime has three basic shields - 1) Soten Kisshun - the one that rejects damage within a particular area, 2) Santen Kisshun - the one that rejects any attack aimed at Orihime & her allies (AKA, a traditional shield), 3) Koten Zanshun - the shield that forms within an external object and basically blows it up. I've seen people say Koten Zanshun is a akin to a small knife or shuriken, but in classic Kuboscience fashion, we see that it actually creates a shield that disrupts the union of matter. Ostensibly, Orihime could blow someone up if she's angry enough, and it is fun to think about Orihime blowing people up, so I understand any disappointment on that front, but. Moving on.

In Chapter 43, the Shun Shun Rikka clarify that they're not really "fairies," but a manifestation of Orihime herself. They are a part of her. I assume this works similarly to zanpakuto spirit manifestation. And IIRC, she is the only Fullbringer that has this type of manifestation (object affinity + spirit), when most Fullbringers only have an object affinity. They also mention that she needs two things to activate her powers: 1) her Heart, and 2) chanting the kotodama. I think point #1 should already make clear to us that Orihime won't be abusing her powers to hurt anyone any time soon, not unless she loses her 'Heart' like Ichigo did as a Vasto Lorde in Las Noches. Bleach signifies this as an Objectively Bad Thing. Whether we agree with that or we don't, it is the underlying mythos that sets apart our hero characters (Ichigo & his friends) from our villains.

So what can Orihime do, at this point in canon? She can regrow limbs and shield people from attacks, which she does extensively throughout the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo arcs. Here she is a) using two of her shields at the same time, and b) trapping Ichigo (the strongest guy in canon at any point in time) within her shield.

Over time, she develops Shiten Kosshun, a way to incorporate Tsubaki into an offensive technique without actually compromising on her distaste for excessive violence. Here's why that's a big deal. She can also use her Shun Shun Rikka long-range, which you can see when she's a) healing Chad post-Yammy (sorry for the random color screenshot, I got it off Twitter because I couldn't remember the exact chapter), and b) in 686, when we learn she uses them to keep an eye on Kazui. She also uses Santen Kesshun as a transport service throughout TYBW, which is not something she could do during the Lust arc, since she needed Uryu's help to get there. She also does not need to say her kotodama to activate her powers anymore, which is the result of constant and continuous training with Rukia pre-HM arc and Chad post-HM arc.

Since Orihime isn't a shinigami, it might get a little difficult to measure her "growth" the same way we do with characters who attain bankai (the Bleach standard for strength). But in less than three years, Orihime developed a new shield, got faster at healing, and found new and inventive ways to use her powers every arc. She was already at lieutenant-levels of strength in terms of healing way back in the Soul Society arc, if Ieumura's testimony is anything to go by:

So...what can't Orihime do? This is what I think I've seen a majority of people scratch their heads about, thereby making her seem ridiculously overpowered but severely underused.

Like any Bleach character of significance, Orihime is ridiculously overpowered, but I don't think this translates into "Orihime can do everything" and its implied "but she chooses to do nothing." We'll get into Orihime's choices and my opinions later, but I think now is a good time to talk about Orihime's natural limitations.

What Orihime Cannot Do

Two of Orihime's major limitations that I wanted to highlight are from Klub and CFYOW, like I mentioned earlier. You can read about them below.

To summarize: 1) Orihime can't recover spiritual pressure/is very slow at recovering spiritual pressure because of the tremendous strain it puts on her body and the fact that she can only heal what she can see, 2) Orihime can't heal someone with fatal injuries if "enough time has passed" (AKA if she gets to them too late after they've been injured). 3) Orihime can't actually revive someone if they've been evaporated. She needs a physical body.

These limitations are important, because they imply that she can't actually wipe someone out of existence. Interacting with reiryoku puts a strain on her. I once wrote that she could probably "reject" an egg that's just been fertilized by a sperm (we love a pro-choice queen!), but I doubt she could zoink a 20-year-old out of existence, because again: there is a time limit within which she has to act, or her powers won't be able to work. The only rejections she could do with people are abortions, and even then, I don't think she could do late-terms. And even then, if you can't see a cell with your naked eye, I doubt she could do those either. I've seen people wonder if she could cure cancers and my honest answer is: probably not until the symptoms were obviously visible.

The Shun Shun Rikka can't actually undo something if a certain amount of time has passed, so I highly doubt she could undo one's physical body, one's spiritual pressure...one's entire being. Even if she could, I doubt that would cleanse the spirit and send it to Soul Society. Instead, they would disappear/evaporate, which destabilizes the balance of souls (the way Quincies do it).

The reason I obsess about this is because limitations are a good thing when you're exploring a power system. There's always been this misconception that Orihime can basically "do anything," but that doesn't...mean anything. Orihime can't do everything, which means she is, like every other Bleach character, limited. Even Aizen's zanpakuto had a shortcoming, so I don't think Kubo necessarily nerfed her, and I think it does help contextualize what she can actually do vs what people expect her to do for no good reason.

Even if Orihime Could, Should She?

I enjoy powerscaling as much as the next guy, but I think the thing I like the least about it is its complete lack of literacy. Specifically literacy of the narrative.

In stories like this, heroes don't win over villains because they're objectively stronger. They win because they push an ideal that, in some way, represents the core values of the series. You were stronger, but I had the power of friendship on my side. You turned your pain into violence, but I turned mine into compassion. The entire point of Ulquiorra's arrogance was that he believed in what he could see – Aizen's strength. But he lost because of what he couldn't see – Ichigo & Orihime's hearts.

A part of the Arrancar saga is the long philosophical battle between Ulquiorra and Orihime, where Ulquiorra has faith in Aizen's watertight plans, his formidable army, his impenetrable kingdom. Meanwhile, Orihime has faith in her five scrappy best friends who invaded said kingdom overnight and have,,,,,only the slightest idea about what they're doing. Aizen's entire force operates under the belief that because they can do something, they should. Because they have power, they should use it, and if they can, seek more of it. Ichigo and Orihime, as a contrast, use their discretion and seem really upset about having to fight anyone at all. People point this lack of killing intent out as an exclusively Orihime thing, but it is very much an Ichigo thing too. Ichigo looking down at Grimmjow with pity-filled eyes is an exact parallel to Orihime looking at Ulquiorra with the same expression. People wanted Orihime to be vengeful against the Arrancars because they're her abusers. But Orihime sees them as victims. She pities the fact that they know nothing but brute violence — and that this is their reality. She sees them as someone to be saved.

But lest we think she's an irrefutable saint who gets off way too easy, it's clear she has some regrets about her place in the friend group and her dependency on Ichigo in particular. But, post-HM, she doesn't ask him to save her at all. Rather, the first time we see Shiten Kosshun, she's the one protecting him. I don't think Orihime has ever needed to kill someone to prove that she's a dimensional character in a series where even Ichigo hesitates to murder the guy who killed his mother. I think it's interesting that Orihime and Ichigo are largely sympathetic towards their villains unless they really, really fuck up, in which case Orihime has lashed out in appropriate doses (see: Ginjou, Yhwach.). I don't understand what vengeance would add to her character that compassion hasn't tenfold.

A last point I want to note is about weakness and our reaction to it. Many of us are shonen-brained to a point where we divide a story into victories and losses, battles won and battles thrown. But Orihime's character arc has never been about her victory over anyone but herself. Orihime can't reject someone out of existence, and even if she could, would she want to? Would Ichigo? Throughout the story, these two have been set to contrast characters who can and did. While their enemies sought to escape their own weaknesses (which Bleach conflates with being human) through transcendence, Ichigo and Orihime chose weakness constantly. They chose to be merciful, to be kind, to be vulnerable. I've seen countless jokes about how Ichigo loses 5 times before he can win for good. I've seen Orihime get her fair share of setbacks. But they come out of it victorious anyway, against all odds. And they aren't stronger because they have the power, they're stronger because they have the heart. I simply couldn't bear losing out on character writing like that.

[troius]

What we learned from the war

"Endings are hard" is a something of a truism, but it's borne out in Bleach, where every story arc besides after the first two stumbled at the finish (even the endings of the first two arcs don't really "end" so much as continue into a new story). In the Arrancar arc, the number of characters and plotlines got so overwhelming that an ending that had to be rushed if it was to arrive at all. In the Lost Agent arc, the characters were pared down, but the ending wound up thematically inconsistent with the story anyways, possibly due to real-life circumstances. And the Thousand-Year Blood War somehow managed to have both problems.

The change in direction from "tightly focused character drama" to "sprawling cast of soldiers" meant that it was unlikely to ever give us the development of our protagonist that we craved, and that lack of focus was only aggravated by the widely-reported health problems of the author. And yet, perhaps because we don't get that, because so little of this arc is filtered through Ichigo learning about himself, we get a much clearer statement of the values inherent in the work.

This is most evident in our antagonists for this Arc. Yhwach and the Wandenreich don't really have the relationship with Ichigo that previoius antagonists had. He never knew his Quincy heritage, never identified with their ideals, and so feels very little conflict about opposing them. He doesn't ever develop his Quincy powers, at least beyond integrating them with his already existing powerset. And he doesn't take much of a personal interest in Yhwach, who in turn, doesn't seem to think much of him when he's not directly in front of him.

But for all that Ichigo doesn't end up having much of a dynamic with them, the Wandenreich still manages to maintain a unique character. Every antagonist has a priority, something that they are willing to do great evil for. For Soul Society, it's its own existence, the continuation of the system they've built. For Aizen, it's his own self-aggrandizement. For the Fullbringers, it was simply living another day, screwing over others so that they can't screw you first. But the Wandenreich has no such priority. They simply want it all to end.

That's most obvious in Yhwach's ending monologue, but you can see it from the very beginning as he kills Yamamoto, the man who tried to move on from his bloody past being slaughtered by the man who would absolutely not let it go. Yhwach shows more emotion towards the skeletons of Argola and Huberdt, his dead soldiers from a war long lost, than he does towards any of his living subordinates. And his subordinates follow his lead in showing no love to one another, happily stabbing each other in the back without even the Arrancars' uneasy level of camaraderie. Their movement has no future, and neither do they, so nihilism is the only recourse.

Most of the time. I think it's important to note that every time a member of the Wandenreich expresses positive feelings towards one of their comrades, it's immediately followed by them turning on Yhwach. Liltotto, Bazz, Giselle, eventually, in her own twisted way…even Jugram, at the very end. Sure, Yhwach kills them for their impertinence (he is the bad guy), but he also massacres the Wandenreich faithful en masse. There's no salvation, only death, and he'll enforce that state on his followers rather than allow them to discover any alternative.

I imagine the lesson, and the general attitude of the Wandenreich, was not lost on Uryu Ishida. Even in his relative paucity of appearances, it's he who is at the moral center of the arc. His culture, which he had thought was nearly entirely dead, turns out to be alive, and out for vengeance against the people who exterminated them. It's something he probably fantasized about growing up, and I don't blame him for joining. How could he not?

But at the end, he makes the very easy choice. Calling it a matter of "life and death" is a little on the nose, but it's morally quite black and white. Yhwach has no hope for this world, or for his people within it, or even himself. He lost a war for the nature of existence to a monster a thousand years ago, and never got over it. But Uryu has the strength to look at the horrors of this world and yet hope for better. Because he has people he loves in life, and who love him in return, he can dream of a better tomorrow.

And that's what the ending is all about. Yhwach loses to Ichigo, and it is very much "good guy beats bad guy". But he also loses to Uryu, and to "I hope to have a family with my girlfriend who I love so much" Renji Abarai, and to "I have a tremendous amount of hope to eventually make myself king of everything" Sosuke Aizen, and eventually (in a way I'm still confused about mechanically) to the child Ichigo and Orihime will eventually have, the literal embodiment of the potential of the future.

The final villain of Bleach is not society's tendency to preserve itself at any human cost. It's not individual selfishness, or manipulativeness, or any of the many vices we saw embodied in the hollows throughout the series. It's despair, the idea that life might not be worth living even through all the struggles and horrors our protagonists have endured. Sure, it will always raise its head, sometimes at the most inconvenient, or ill-fitting times. But having its reincarnation be blown away by the supernaturally normal lives of our cast…well, that's as clear of a message as I can imagine.

[littleeyesofpallas]

At this point I've basically long since run dry on Bleach funfacts, certainly out of any that have any real weight in the broader readings of the series. But I do have one not-so-fun fact still left up my sleeve --a real dead end nothing contribution... So buckle up, I guess? I apologize in advance if this ends up, like, I dunno, spoiling the aesthetic(?) for anyone. Feel free to just ignore this and move on if you're touchy about keeping your obsessive fandom experiences squeaky clean.

So, I noted back when I was combing thru Quincy terms, that it felt a little less than comfy that in addition to the general n*zi aesthetics Juugram's official title was in fact "Sternritter Grand Master" which felt, at the time, like an unfortunate coincidence that it would fall in line with the naming scheme of the K*K's nonsense titles like Grand Wizard/Grand Dragon, Grand Cyclops, Grand Magi and various other ridiculous sounding occultist LARPer horseshit they've cycled thru over the past century+. But I just kinda left it at that and didn't think to dig any deeper,

But then I was reminded that in the early days of the K*K one of their stated goals was to establish a white supremacist "country" inside the united states, and as they dabbled in this insurgency fantasy, they dubbed this goal of a secret, second, white nation within the confines of the USA, their "Invisible Empire"...

And although the word we hear throughout the TYBW arc is the German Wändenreich[ヴァンデンライヒ] from Wänden:“Walls” and Reich:“Empire/Realm,” the Japanese meaning underlying that term is [見えざる帝国]: “Unseen/Invisible Empire.”

In fact the white robed and hoods tradition stemmed from what were initially petty pranks(although they escalated very quickly in seriousness and danger) in which they would menace black communities and abolitionists by pretending to be the ghosts of dead confederates. In this capacity the imagery and language around them also evoked an "Army of Ghosts."

And although it was never properly addressed, there was always this vague issue of the Quincy's ages... Those with clear backgrounds like Juugram and Bazz-B seem impossibly old. And we see that As Nodt is recruited on what appears to be his deathbed --in a hospital, on life support and in fear of dying, with a bible on his bedside as if ready to be read his last rites-- and of course the Quincy genocide of 200 years prior.

And tangential to this, we see the brief, if mostly pointless, return of the three dead Fullbringers --Ginjo, Tsukishima, and Giriko-- who all seem to have retained their memories and powers across the borders of life and death. (We won't ask about how or why their fullbring items are still usable) Is it safe to speculate then that the Quincy are in fact a literal Army of Ghosts? It explains how they're able to go toe to toe with the shinigami in ways Uryuu's initial explanations of their skills would've suggested wasn't possible. (i.e. that they were describes as being regular flesh and bone humans and only their weapons are actually supernatural, and thus they are not capable of particularly extraordinary physical feats, or blessed with any superhuman durability.) And it also sort of makes more sense that rather than being a bunch of flesh and blood humans who survived losing the war, somehow spiritized themselves to get into the afterlife, and then hid for 999 years, that they could have just been humans who died first and were recruited as ghosts, having been spirited away into the shadow realm. Or Quincy that died with the full intent of reuniting as ghosts, having some kind of assurance that they would retain their memories and powers.

I like the former over the latter though, as it means the Ishida family really were the last living Quincy. But I do like the morbid idea of Yhwach commanding his army, Jamestown style, to kill themselves as the first step to them going to heaven. Only in this case the kingdom of god as they imagine it has to be fought for because the shinigami are already have a whole society there and need to be driven out first.

There is also a lot of "Knight" and "White Knight" imagery and titles evoked in the K*K's long history, and while that's absolutely vague enough to be handwaved on its own, it's definitely not not adjacent to all this....

(This has nothing to do with anything I just had already slapped the uniforms pic together and wanted to use it somewhere)

So to sort of loosely review everything going on with the Quincy....

Catholic inverted priest frocks, crosses, silver and exorcisms, holy eucharist angel wings&halo final forms, blood eucharist schrift, conversion based recruitment policies, the whole "one kingdom under god" shtick, miracle baby son of god christ figure, explicit mention of monotheism

but then also 5 pointed crosses/stars and pentagrams,

victims of a genocide with a dr.mengele nemesis, YHWACH-v-YHWH

inverted Hugo Boss uniforms, german themed attacks, skills and tools, crosses again, explicitly evoking the Schutzstaffel with Yhwach's royal guard, and nonsense blood purity eugenics b.s.... weirdly not touched upon "black sun" or swastika imagery tied to Ichigo

For some reason a few loose threads of what appear to be Loius XIV and his sun god apollo fixation, purifying light and sun and stars motifs

YHWACH having big Backbeard energy, the literal evocation of Backbeard, being a western ghost army

and now these mismatched crumbs of what appear to be deliberate K*K references: ghost army, invisible empire, grandmaster, etc...

Like... I don't think this makes them worse, or paints Kubo as some kind of crackpot racist --in case my stance on his use of n*zi imagery didn't make that clear-- but like... I don't know what to make of it honestly... It's as inconsequential to the actual message or plot as anything else, including the n*zi stuff, but it just feels weird knowing it's there? Just sorta loitering around in the background?? Also the Quincy are just such a bizarre clusterfuck of unfocused nonsense ""themes"" with like zero actual content just in general. Given everything that's in that slurry I think that might be for the better? Because any coherent message drawn from all of these influences probably couldn't have been any good...

[phoenixcatch7]

Aahh thank you thank you thank you both so much!! I've never forgetten about this ask either lol, but I just figured tumblr had eaten it, so no worries ^^.

This is fascinating, and a huge help to what dregs of my calculations remain in my drafts haha. Of course, tybw tosses it all on its head, but that's to be expected lol. I love all these little intricacies and surprising details.

Thank you so much for getting to my ask, even after a this time haha! You lay things out very helpfully ^^

I wonder how fullbring sky standing works? I think that's more using the actual physical molecules of the air than the reishi ones, but it's an interesting contrast.

None of the schools I or anyone around me went to have had multi year classes or activities, so this is a big help too! I can definitely cut down on my estimates with this!

Hello again, ti's I! I've hit a major stumbling block in my academy calculations (either the seireitei has an astronomical death rate 10x real world examples or I messed up my beginning calculation and have to do the whole thing from scratch ToT) but I have to ask: how often do shinigami stand on air in soul society?!

In the human world that's all they do, in heuco mundo I can think of several examples off the top of my head, but in soul society? I can think of *maybe* one example that isn't filler or film. Their buildings are built on a 2d plane for a people that can move in 3 dimensions. Do you have any memories or screenshots of people running on air in ss? Do you know if there's any explanation?

(Do either of you have memories of irl class exercises that involved multiple year groups??)

[DO YOU REMEMBER ASKING THIS, ALMOST A FULL YEAR AGO? LOL. Trust that we never forgot!]

whipplefilter:

What do we know about the atmosphere?

According to Renji, the Living World has a relatively low concentration of reishi in its atmosphere; 

according to Ishida, Hueco Mundo is reishi dense;

and according to Byakuya, so is the Royal Realm.

What do we know about sky standing?

We've certainly seen shinigami stand in the sky in the Living World, no question. Until earlier this year I honestly assumed they could do this anywhere and didn't think about it, and it wasn't until a few months ago it occurred to me I couldn't think of any examples of this! (NB: In the time elapsed since I wrote this, we've gotten 999 examples of shinigami sky-standing in Soul Society in TYBW lol. ALL THE SAME--)

We also have a lot of examples where they are explicitly not sky-standing in Soul Society. Every battle that immediately comes to mind definitely takes place on the ground, to the detriment of the buildings and rooftops. (When I say "every battle that immediately comes to mind" I mean Hitsugaya showing up to fight Ichimaru in socks and Kira, Hitsugaya, and Matsumoto causing roof damage as they tear after each other after discovering Central 46 dead. Rumor has it there are other fights that happen in Bleach.)

The existence of Zabimaru Express also kind of makes it seem like it's not as second nature to sky stand in Soul Society:

[DiamondDust Rebellion]

-> Below the cut, 2 theories about how sky-standing might work!

Renji also ran down all the Soukyoku Hill stairs, which seems like maybe something that wouldn't have happened if he could have simply Tony Hawk'd it through the air.

I briefly trawled some forums that said that Quincy showed shinigami how to sky-stand in Soul Society, and that Vizard sky stand in Rukongai in TBTP, but neither of those things rang any bells for me. I would happily be tagged in someone else's post if you remember either of these things happening, though!

How does sky standing work?

We know shinigami are able to stand in the sky by concentrating reishi particles under their feet. But what… what does that mean…

Theory 1:

In order to stand on air, you need to be less dense than air. If you can gather reishi under your feet and sky stand, maybe reishi is less dense than air. If you gather enough of it beneath you, it can also suspend you. Kinda like… imagine the atmosphere as a liquid, and concentrated reishi like little air bubbles under your feet as you sky stand.

* Caveat 1: Of course, Shinigami are already made of reishi, but they don't float off into space in the Living World, so not all reishi is less dense than air. But I think we're asked to believe that reishi can take on multiple forms/states and cannot be described as any one thing with any one set of characteristics--shinigami are reishi that understands itself to be corporeal: It holds the memory of blood and weight and flesh. Free air reishi understands itself to be free air.

** Caveat 2: I don't think it makes sense for reishi motes to be knocking around with, you know, carbon dioxide and nitrogen and hydrogen and whatnot in the Living World, so I feel like the units of measurement when thinking about density/displacement don't even actually track in exact computational ways. Like, they can probably occupy the same molecule-sized space simultaneously. We know shinigami in their fleshy-reishi state of being can sit on beds and crash into buildings in the Living World, but they can't eat (easier to imagine interaction with a hard surface than it is to imagine the entire chemical process of digestion? if a shinigami was well-studied enough and concentrated hard enough, could they pull off an autonomous process in the Living World??). Regardless, we know there's various and ineffable forms of interaction between the physical and spiritual worlds, so maybe trying to separate them into discrete categories is the wrong move.

My theory about why sky standing might not work as well in Soul Society is because there's more reishi in the atmosphere and less more-dense-than-reishi Nothing, so it's more cumbersome to gather it under your feet effectively.

BUT THEN. THEN. Why is it possible in reishi dense environments?? I'm going to be honest with you, we just watched the whole Hueco Mundo arc (NB: again, this was like, last winter lol) and I have zero memory of anyone sky standing. I'm not saying it didn't happen; I just have no memory of it. I do have memory of Byakuya BUNNY HOPPING THROUGH THE DESERT, which sure is a Choice if sky-running on an even plane was an available option.

And then Byakuya spends a page and a half hypothesizing as to why they can't sky-stand in the Royal Realm:

[Bleach 628]

Something something Quincy blah blah, but the relevant part here is that Byakuya seems very certain that normally they can stand in the Royal Realm, and that this is due to the reishi dense atmosphere. Why he would be certain about this, I don't know, but I don't think he's just freeballing. Byakuya doesn't freeball. Maybe he aspires to be Soul Society NOAA incarnate, and that's why he wants to be friends with Hitsugaya. ANYWAY. 

Why would Byakuya's whole spiel here be true? I don't know. If we're assuming it's easier to do in the Living World and not as easy in Soul Society, just based on how often we do or do not see them doing it--this throws a spanner in the works. Maybe they can sky stand in Soul Society, but it's distracting and tedious to sky stand. So if they're not worried about destroying human buildings/killing people, they just resign themselves to destroying the Seireitei on the regular and condemning Joe Shinigami to several lifetimes of new construction. 

Theory 2: Solid vs liquid vs gas particle states

ippoddity: This theory requires us to review a bit of high school chemistry. To review, in order of reishi concentration levels, from low to high: Living World < Soul Society < Hueco Mundo = Royal Realm. Somewhat related to the previous theory, we can think about reishi particles existing in different states of matter, which relates to their availability for usage in situations like sky standing. 

[particles in states of matter]

Let’s think of the reishi concentration in the Living World as existing in a gaseous state. In this state, particles are in the lowest concentration, because they’re constantly bouncing around in a free state. But, this also allows for skilled reishi manipulators to “grab” those free particles flying around and craft them into platforms to stand on, so they can stand in the air. So even though there’s overall a lower concentration of reishi particles (gas particles floating around in the big ol’ Living World container), they’re easier to scoop up and pack together into a different shape.

In Soul Society, reishi particles might exist in more of a “liquid” state. Meaning they are pretty high in concentration, but not as freely available to manipulate and use for purposes like standing in the air. Since there’s less freely available particles, we don’t see any shinigami sky standing. But for example, as seen in Ishida vs Mayuri, a Quincy can come on by and suck up the liquid reishi particles and craft them for their own use. Maybe there’s some kind of Quincy ability to apply energy to a reishi particle, so that it goes from a liquid to a gaseous state, thus “freeing” it up from the more dense state so that they can use it. 

The most high concentration reishi realms are Hueco Mundo and the Royal Realm. Particles are the most dense in a solid state, and in this state, particles are the least available to use. This is why solid shapes are fairly stable and don’t go around changing very much. Solid states like all their particles to stay packed together, so they’re not available to use for other things (like gathering random particles to stand in the sky). If all reishi are in the “solid” state, then they can’t be grabbed and used for other things, like sky standing foot platforms.

I’m sure there are plenty of loopholes and exceptions to this theory, but it mostly holds up, at least until the TYBW arc I think?

Note: This theory is only half thought out, as my knowledge of chemistry and states of matter is loose at best. It probably doesn’t hold up well if you examine it too closely, but maybe you can get the gist of it!