Opinions on Bleach’s Ending

And now, at last, the trainwreck comes to a halt. On top of a children’s hospital. Leaking its radioactive cargo into the environment around it, rendering it uninhabitable for decades to come.

Soul Society. A portal opens up and Yhwach exits it. He greets Aizen, who’s still just vegging out in his snazzy Muken chair.

Back upstairs at Silbern, Uryu runs up one of its many handrail-less staircases to the top, but he’s intercepted in his tracks by an arrow shot by his dad. Uryu demands to know what he and Isshin are doing there, and Ryuuken is cagey, but tells him that he came to deliver the arrowhead. He tells Uryu that he forged it from silver collected from the bloodstreams of dead, Auswahlened Quincy, accompanied by a brief flashback to him dissecting Katagiri, Uryu’s mother.

In the Dangai, Ichigo and Renji are their way to fight Yhwach again. Ichigo falters, and Renji helps shoulder him. Ichigo tells Renji that he should have stayed with Orihime and Rukia, resulting in Renji headbutting him and punching him in the face. Renji tells Ichigo that it’s because of him that his and Rukia’s relationship was repaired, and he’s always privately vowed to find a way to help Ichigo if he should ever falter.

In Soul Society,Yhwach destroy’s Aizen’s chair, and Aizen thanks him… for giving him the chance to stop him. Yhwach finds this curious, and comments that it’s against Aizen’s interests to fight him. Aizen responds that it has nothing to do with interests, and is just about stopping somebody who wants to rule over Aizen himself. Before they can bicker any more, Ichigo and Renji pop out, attacking Yhwach.

His Mimihagi eyes spot them, and counter-attack. Yhwach is unsurprised, commenting that they recovered quickly, like he expected. He adds that he also expected Ichigo to fix his Bankai… only to have it broken again. A crack appears in the blade. Yhwach, however, says that he intended to destroy it entirely, not just crack it. He seems to get serious.

Facing off, Yhwach asks Ichigo why he didn’t wait for Orihime to heal him before setting off to fight again. He speculates on the reasoning, and then Renji tries to attack him, in Bankai mode. Yhwach casually focuses on him and takes off both Renji’s regular arm and his Bankai arm.

As he taunts him, “Renji” is revealed to actually be Aizen using Kyouka Seigetsu. Yhwach barks out his surprise that Aizen is working together with and shielding the Shinigami, while Aizen, down to just one arm, performs Hadou 99. Yhwach tells Aizen that his Bankai has also “already” been broken, and he effortlessly hits Aizen, lifts him into the air, and hurls him away. Then, Ichigo (curiously missing an arm) makes his attack.

(3-seconds-from-now-spoiler alert) Have Aizen’s illusions always had a lag time?

Yhwach counters that as well, grasping his sword and breaking it completely. He mocks Ichigo and blasts a hole through the centre of his chest, and pushes his arm through the hole and lifts him up into the air. He bids Ichigo farewell, but an amused voice asks Yhwach if he thinks he’s looking at Ichigo at that moment.

“I’ve made a huge mistake.”

Aizen’s illusion drops, revealing that “Ichigo” was Aizen again. They were all Aizen! I’m Aizen! You’re Aizen! Everybody’s Aizen! The real Ichigo’s blade bursts through Yhwach’s chest from behind, and he Getsuga Tenshous him.

Ichigo and Yhwach stare at each other for a moment, and Yhwach has a Mimihagi freakout and collapses. Aizen compliments Ichigo for recognising his illusion and reacting so quickly. Ichigo explains that he felt a similiar sensation the last time he entered a battle that Aizen had people under a Kyouka Suigetsu illusion. Aizen comments on the irony that Ichigo, his enemy, being unaffected by his illusions saved his butt.

Before he can say much more, he’s suddenly struck down by Yhwach. Now with only his big shiny teeth not covered with black goo, he mocks Aizen and Ichigo for thinking that would be enough to stop him. He claims that he can even rewrite futures in which he (has died?) dies.