Bleach/WMG/Shikai Open One

=== This is a list of Wild Mass Guesses which are still possibly true. Just for Fun and silly guesses go on the silly page. If a WMG is Jossed, please move it to the jossed page, if it is Confirmed, please move it to the confirmed page. ===

Please add new entries to the bottom of the page.

There are (or were) non-blade unreleased Zanpakutou at some point.
But because Katanas Are Just Better in Soul Society, those with such Zanpakutou are either pressured to make it look like a blade (even if they work nothing like blades) or not seated as officers. If not for this, then Zanpakutou could be as diverse (or even more so) than the kinds of weapons seen in Flame of Recca. Alternately, what is considered to be "Shikai" is what the Zanpakutou were like previous to the "All Katana All the Time" rule, and the Shikai chant just removes The Masquerade.

Soul Society and Hueco Mundo aren't real worlds, but the giant subconscious worlds (similar to Ichigo's sideways city) of some race of colossal beings...
... and the people in them are subdued souls unconsciously warring for control, similar to how an intelligent Menos is composed of thousands of separate individuals with one of them dominant. If Menos have inner worlds, I imagine they're populated by all the souls who were too weak to become dominant. The 'real' world, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo could be the same principle, just bigger.
 * This could be what the King's throne is; a place where a being can sit as the dominant consciousness.

Kenpachi is Yachiru's Bankai, and Yachiru is Kenpachi's Bankai
Because I figured that there weren't enough infinite loop theories. I've seen one, or the other, as a theory, but not both.
 * The explanation is probably something along the lines of "He's just that badass."
 * This is Kenpachi's Zanpakuto, a Soulsteel Zanpakuto. All craftsshinigamiship is of the highest quality. It menaces with spikes of Soulsteel. On it is a masterful rendition of an image of Kenpachi's Zanpakuto in Soulsteel.
 * ... what?
 * ...you just linked Kenpachi Zaraki to Dwarf Fortress. I don't know if that's awesome or terrifying.
 * Considering Stark and Lilinette...
 * Zangetsu said that Zaraki's zanpakuto was screaming. If Yachiru was a manifestation of the sword's spirit, wouldn't it be silent ?
 * Maybe he meant screaming with joy?
 * Or horror- I notice zanpakuto tend to "compliment" each other. Case in point - Ichigo and Zangetsu, the former being impulsive and a bit naïve, the former methodical and wise. Wouldn't it be the height of irony if Kenpachi's zanpakuto was a pacifist healer?
 * So his Zanpakuto is actually Hanataro?
 * Not always. Canonically Matsumoto and Yumichika's zanpaktou's have personalities very similar to their own.

Kenpachi is Yachiru's Bankai.
It's been mentioned already, with a link to a one-shot fanfic which centers on it, but hear me out. From their origin flashback, we know that Kenpachi doesn't really remember much about his life before meeting Yachiru, only that he wandered around and was nameless. The first example of him interacting with the world around him was when he saved Yachiru from a bunch of thugs, and remembered/gave himself and Yachiru names. Yachiru got her name because it was the name of the only person Kenpachi ever respected. And, Yachiru herself, despite being even younger than she is now, was unafraid of the blood, Kenpachi's jagged sword, or the big scary man with the jagged sword who was covered in blood. We were also given a hint that she's got the reiatsu to keep Bankai going permanently when she told a messenger to F* CK OFF during Kenpachi's fight with Ichigo, not to mention that she was completely unaffected by Kenpachi's reiatsu. We've also never seen the two of them more than a few meters apart from one another, but that and the indifference to Ken-chan's reiatsu are more circumstantial than anything else.
 * Actually, we've seen them separated on a number of occasions. At one point during the Soul Society arc she runs off while leading Orihime and company around. Kenny doesn't accompany her to the Women of Soul Society Meetings (although Byakuya attends). And while I'm reasonably sure she's with him in Huego Mundo atm, she's had so little presence its hard to notice.
 * Given that, this theory might not be so off the mark after all.
 * I think it would be kind of strange, considering that he doesn't have a name (He was named after Zaraki, the 80th district and Kenpachi was a title given to him). Although, it may not be too far off still.
 * Perhaps this also an explanation of Kenpachi's seemingly variable power levels: Yachiru is the ultimate souce of his power, and tends to unconciously enpower him to a greater or lesser extent depending on how she thinks the fight should go and on whether Ken-Chan is having fun or not. In the initial Rescue Rukia arc, she didn't want Silly Strawberry killed, so it ended in a draw rather than in Ichigo getting smeared all over the landscape: in the Hueco Mundo fight, she _really_ wanted Nnoitra messed up bad, so Kenpachi was in full, shall we say, 'Soul Resonance' ( Soul Eater )
 * But how, then, does Kenpachi have a sword-spirit of his own capable of at least screaming, if nothing more practical? Well, this is Yachiru we're talking about - she achieves this through Pure Awesomeness.

Ururu and Jinta are attempts at artificial Shinigami.
Ururu, judging by her reaction to the presence of Arrancar, and her ability to destroy Hollow, was a mod-soul/mod-body experiment by Urahara, much like Nemu was to Mayuri. However, she was an attempt to create an artificial Shinigami, with zanpakutou and all. Jinta SEEMS normal, but was actually originally intended to be Ururu's zanpakutou spirit. At some point, the two of them were supposed to be combined, but the experiment either failed or was abandoned. Or possibly was abandoned * because* it failed. OR its still ongoing, and they have yet to attempt the fusion.
 * If this is true, then I guess Mayuri succeeded where Urahara failed?
 * I'd say it was the opposite. When have we seen Nemu use a zanpaktou? there may be a bit of fridge logic here because it's unlikely that a second seat can't use a zanpaktou, but she might be able to compensate with creepy science powers...and we have yet to see former captain Yoruichi use a zanpakutou either, even when fighting a current captain.
 * Ururu being the same type of artificial Shinigami as Nemu is practically a certainty. There's no other rational explanation for her super-strength. However, outside of filler the only way for a zanpakutou spirit to physically manifest seems to be with Urahara's bankai training device, which has a strict limit of three days. Jinta is most likely just a kid with natural spirit powers, who Urahara took in because by himself he'd be nothing but Hollow bait.

Aizen's plan involves the Soul Society and Arrancar whittling each other down.
Aizen, Tousen and Gin have not attacked any shinigami since the Soul Society arc, and the Espada are getting smashed into the ground by the shinigami. Aizen is trying to get the Soul Society to remove the Espada from his path to glory, and possibly killing a few Shinigami along the way. Additionally, the whole Espada fight is also a diversion from his other plans. At least half of the Espada are dead, so they are vastly outnumbered. Aizen should not have made such a mistake. He evidently intended for Ichigo or someone to beat Ulquiorra since he never saw Segunda Etapa. Aizen's true plans could even be so far as to make the Soul Society look aggressive and evil. It is also possible Aizen and Yamamoto are conspiring for an excuse to wipe out the Arrancar, since Yamamoto did not kill Aizen when he had the chance.
 * This could be to further saturate the Karakura soil with spirit power. Aizen has just calculated the exact number of Espada needed to be equal. This forces both the captains and the Espada to go all-out. Maybe he forgot the Vaizard initially, but after coming to Karakura Town, he sensed them, and summoned Wonderweiss to even it up again. From the beginning Aizen has known the Shinigami would try to avert Karakura being involved. He probably also knew how they would do it. This also explains why he let the strongest Espada at home, as there would be no way the shinigami could fight that.

Ichigo is in love with Orihime
Because Ichigo is, well, himself, he is only aware of his feelings on a subconscious level, which is why his new form was so crazy protective/possessive of her. However, the relationship is only going to have a Bittersweet Ending at best, if Bleach's pilot chapter and the origin of Orihime's Meaningful Name are any indication.
 * So, He's a full-blown Sugar and Ice Personality? Makes sense. Makes so much sense that might not be wild enough for WMG.
 * So, what's her name mean? There's no listing for Bleach on the Meaningful Name page, so I have no idea what you're talking about.
 * Orihime is Vega, the weaver-princess who because of various reasons was separated from her husband. They can only meet once a year during Tanabata (July 7).
 * Though, if such is the case, hopefully her Screw Destiny powers will get to live up to the trope name.
 * Dense as he can be sometimes, one gets the feeling even Ichigo realizes there are some feelings going unspoken here.
 * You kidding? Judging by the sparkly-poo eyes he's sporting, he was probably touched by Orihime's words.
 * Very early on, her Hollow-fied brother (who is more like a father to her) tells Ichigo "I won't give her to you"...when you put it in context with how much importance Japanese culture still places on father figures entrusting/'giving' their daughters to their future husbands, it winds up screaming "OBVIOUS FORESHADOWING!!111"
 * Except that her brother was trying to kill her. So.
 * The sentiment is still the same. He was trying to kill her because he was jealous of Ichigo, and while you can translate his words in many ways the meaning is pretty much "I won't let you have her." Whether it's foreshadowing or not... * shrug* (In any case, it's apparently close enough that the anime changed the dialogue and left out this part, among other things.)
 * As if Chapter 167 wasn't enough, who can forget this little scene? Followed soon after by 286, no less.
 * Apparently, the original plan for Bleach in the proposal would have had Orihime as a straight-out successful Love Interest... who would have ended up dying during her brother's attack, to be taken to soul society. Looks like the name was going to allude to that after all...

The Vizards will pull a Face Heel Turn.
If Aizen can Brainwashed control Ichigo, why not the other Vizards? After all, as of this writing, only  Espada are left and the Vizards seem to be at least on par with them in terms of power. Also, we haven't seen what they can do yet and fighting captains would be a great way to do it. Aizen is so cocky because he knows there's reinforcements coming.

Ichigo is already dead.
If Rukia's zanpakutou through his heart didn't kill him, and he even survived Byakuya's destruction of his Soul Sleep, then he died when Urahara cut the chain that connected his soul with his body. For everything after that, he's in a gigai, and he probably hasn't even noticed yet.
 * This Troper couldn't say otherwise. I mean, how could Urahara preserve his corpse, anyways? And how would Ichigo notice the difference? After all, if he ever was in his original body, he'd be a zombie already.
 * Actually, what Rukia and Byakuya did only affected his soul (or rather his "astral body"), not his actual physical body - he wasn't even in his body when he fought Renji and Byakuya. As for Urahara cutting the chain, he would've died only if he became a hollow, but as he didn't, he could go back to his body - and unlike a gigai, he's still connected to it to the point that he can't even leave it without outside help. (As for how Urahara preserved his body, they already had Kon at that point.)
 * That's what Urahara says. We've also been told, before that, that severing the chain that connects the soul to the body means the soul can no longer return. And as for not being able to leave his body without outside help, has anyone ever bothered to teach him how to do that? It's not even entirely clear Shinigami do that all too often, since they usually use the Soul Candy as well if they're in gigai.
 * Possibly supported by a comedic scene in the first movie, where it is revealed that Ichigo's body essentially dies (much to the dismay of the Muggles around him) whenever he abandons it without using a modsoul.

Orihime is related to the Royal Realm.
Think about it; her powers defy destiny, and, if she were to put her all into it, she could probably reject anything. We have never been given any inkling to the power of the Royal Family... No one has powers exactly like hers, and she is shown as one of, if not the, most powerful healers. It's a possibility that she has some ties to RR, and that may be the next arc's setting. Hopefully, she will Take a Level In Badass by the time the next arc rolls around.
 * She might have been one of the princesses, and got killed by Aizen (or one of his servants). Other Princesses and Princes (if not, at least the Princess' Guard) could be Ichigo's other friends, Tatsuki, Chizuru, Mizuiro, and Keigo.
 * Her name also literally means "Weaver Princess".
 * Actually, Kubo Tite translated it as "Vega" (Vega Highwell), which is the star the princess of the legend represents.
 * According to Wikipedia, "Orihime (??, Weaving Princess) [is] the daughter of the Tentei (??, Sky King, or the universe itself)." Hmm.

The ending of Bleach will be...
...the entirety of Soul Society is destroyed by whomever the final Big Bad is, Ichigo and co. is out of commission, and all is lost. At least, until a single figure stands above the ruins, faces the bad guy. Zaraki Kenpachi stretches his shoulders, grins, and says "Ban....". Cut to black. The End.
 * Although it'd be awesome and one hell of a Downer Ending (no, seriously), he probably will get his Bankai before that.

Ichigo is so powerful because he is human
Think about it. His power goes up and down like crazy, and Orihime shows that the power of a human/shinigami hybrid can be staggering. Ichigo is a shinigami, a hollow, and alive, giving him higher potential than even Aizen.
 * It is this troper's hypothesis that Ichigo is basically what Aizen seeks to become, or is at least Ichigo can become it. He is, or will be, the perfect combination of human, shinigami and Hollow. The Shinigami part allows him to focus his power externally in weapon form, his hollow part increases that power and focus it via body augmentation and his human part is what makes him most dangerous. With the Quincy, Chad and Orihime as examples, humans spirit power can effectively mutate, either with help (Ichigo's leaking power) or naturally over time with conscious or unconscious effort (Quincy). The human in him is what will make him perfect, as neither the Visored or Arrancar have any human in them, just Shinigami and Hollow.
 * I always assumed he had hollow powers because he is still alive yet has tapped into the power he will have after he dies. As a human he will always have the potential to become a hollow, basically you can't turn a human into a Shinigami without inducing hollow powers as well. Urahara probably wanted to release his Shinigami powers to confirm that it was true after learning about the Visored. This might explain why Ichigo keeps getting stronger so fast, no matter how strong he becomes he will always become stronger when he dies so basically he found a loophole in the universe thanks to his unique heritage of dead soul father and living soul mother. This would also explain why he gets so much stronger every time someone kills or almost kills him because this resets his potential to the next highest level. Wait this could also explain why he has control issues, he is tapping into the power he will have in the future, before he should really gain it, so it is always more than he can handle, by definition.

Ichigo's mother was a hollow
This explains where Ichigo's hollow powers come from, as well as how that... thing with the Grand Fisher happened.
 * It wouldn't explain the other Vizards. It would be more adequate to Chad's power origin's theory, though. Although that can be believed that his abuelo was a former Vasto Lorde...
 * Maybe Chad's grandfather is really the 2nd Ranked Espada?
 * Or alternatively, Barragan(The 2nd Espada) is really Uryuu's grandfather. He is a combination Arrancar/Quincy. This would actually make him One part Hollow, One part Shinigami, and One part Quincy, talk about a crazy combination!
 * If we mention Yadomaru Lisa's theory, Uryuu himself could become one of these. Both theories could be connected to each other, as that would be a huge subversion to the whole "apprentice does what master does", as master would become what apprentice was destined to since he was born. And that would make Ryuuken a Covert Pervert for banging a seifuku-wearing girl, but that's something for an entirely separated WMG.

Ryuuken is a Covert Pervert
If we take that convoluted Yadomaru Lisa's theory, pretty sure he is. But obviously, only Meganekko schoolgirls might affect him. He might be even the reason on why Chizuru became a lesbian in first place. Rather Squick if we think about that, but Bleachverse parents seem to be wackos with dangerous quirks (Isshin, Mayuri, and, to some extent, Kenpachi and Urahara), he just can't be the exception.

Ichigo is in the same situation the Vizards were before Urahara's intervention.
Take a look at Kensei. Most people just write it off as his hollow form, but that doesn't convince me. You can still quite clearly see that he retained his "human" look, rather than going full-out hollow, but he pretty much lost all of his control or inhibitions. He also ended up being considerably stronger than many of the other captains, which is unheard of for a newly formed hollow. Ichigo seems to be stuck in the same form right about now. However, all the supposed places "in between" Shinigami and Hollow are getting increasingly frustrating.
 * The problem with that is that Kensei was not whole(hehe) covered, or possess the hole in his chest/body.Only his extremeties such as his head, hands and feet were effected, even with the cylinders on his back. When Ichigo got help from the Visored and battled Shirosaki in his inner world, the state his body was in is likely the closest to what Kensei and the others went through.

Ichigo has become a Vasto Lorde.
Ulquiorra succeeded in killing Ichigo and so he has become a Hollow. However, because of his power, he didn't become a simple Hollow, he became the most powerful kind a Vasto Lorde which is humanoid. This has dramatically increased his power and at some point he is going to pull off the mask and become an Arrancar, possibly increasing his power even more. And then Ichigo will have been everything but a Quincy.
 * Menos are formed when a ton of other Hollows decide to gather around for a meeting of Cannibals Anonymous, remember? Ichigo, despite however many levels his Hollowfied form has taken, hasn't merged with any other Hollows that we know of. Although that would explain a lot...
 * Ichigo has purified quite a number Hollows in his Shinigami career, correct? How do we know that these "purified" Hollows were not, in fact, absorbed into Ichigo instead of being cleansed of their sins? None of them have made a repeat appearance, so we have no proof of where they ended up. The continued mutation of Ichigo's Hollow half makes perfect sense if this is taken into account.
 * That's not how Zanpakuto's work, genius. Theory shot to hell.

The above guess is true, and Ichigo will request that a Soul Reaper kill him once everything is over
Its all but forgotten, but Hollows slain by Soul Reapers are purified and sent to Soul Society. Ichigo will use his new vasto lorde/arrancrar status to crush Aizen, and then commit suicide by Soul Reaper, eliminating his hollow. He will then pick up a gigai and go back to his everyday life.
 * But he'll only do it when he accidentally kills or becomes a threat to his friends.
 * Both WMGs above are true, but when he commits suicide by Soul Reaper, he ends up in Rukongai and eventually gets reincarnated... into a Quincy.
 * At which point Hell will be introduced with the King of Hell as the new Big Bad, as per the WMG lower on the page. Demons will overrun the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the world of the living. Quincy!Ichigo will be possessed by one of those demons, regain his shinigami and hollow powers and then spend the arc conquering his inner demon, making him the first ever shinigami/hollow/Quincy/demon hybrid. Then God will decide that Ichigo has grown too powerful and send His legions after Ichigo, nearly bringing about the end of the world. At the end of that arc, Ichigo will eat God and in doing so become a new God.
 * This idea is so crazy it deserves a Made of Win.
 * And then, Orihime comes in a moemoe fashion, kisses Ichigo, and takes all of his powers to her, remaking the Universe and becoming Haruhi. What do you mean by this joke is getting old?

Ulquiorra's intervention has accidentally made Ichigo even more godawful powerful
Just before Ulquiorra made that Cero explode in his face, he was in full Hollow form. But the blast made the mask break and fall off. Since Arrancar were created by removing Hollows' masks, this could mean that Ichigo has just jumped in power level in a way equivalent to Hollow -> Arrancar. That'd also explain the ridiculously fast regeneration after the fight; as Ulquiorra made such a fuss about, Arrancar can heal really well.
 * What about Orihime's brother? He managed to rip his own mask off, yet nothing came of it? Granted it's likley Arrancar hadn't been invented yet, but I'm pretty sure losing the mask is an effect of the process, not the cause.
 * He was killed with a soul cutter after doing so and was sent to soul society.
 * And wasn't it said somewhere that there's more to making Arrancar than just tearing off their masks? Besides, if that was all, then something would have probably happened to the one whose mask remnants were half destroyed by Chad in the beginning of the HM Arc.

Nell has no hollow hole.
We've seen a lot of this girl's skin, almost all the way up her back so we can more or less count out between the boobs as the hollow hole goes all the way through. that really only leaves her upper thigh/butt area. Besides, most of the other hollow holes are semi-prominently featured, but with her, we see none.
 * Szayel did not have a Hollow hole either, at least in the anime he did not. It was probably just an animation mistake, Kubo forgets to put them on some Arrancar in the manga too on occasion. I do not know what to say about Nel though, seeing as how we have seen her a lot and there is no Hollow hole.
 * Hollow holes in general are a bit strange. Just look at Ulquiorra's... when he first appears, it's in his neck. Now it's down around his collarbone.
 * Her hole is in her head, being covered by her hair and cranium mask, where else?
 * You said it yourself; "that really only leaves her upper thigh/butt area." What is the obvious conclusion?
 * but that really does not seem like a likely place for a hollow hole, and besides we have seen evidence that she has a heart, that she is much more kind compared to the other espada. Also, the holes that are the eye sockets on her mask are simply a part of her mask, the hollow hole goes all the way through the body.
 * This troper maintains that the hole is sideways across her boobs. They're certainly large enough to pull it off.
 * ....Hmmm.
 * It seems plausible enough. And while we're at it, Halibel's Hollow hole must be in her crotch, crossing through her body, and ending at her buttcrack. It would be really funny if it was, since Tite Kubo would have some difficult with censors... Also, this part was the only vital one not really shown by her revealing clothes, and not covered by her creepy mask. (it would be the definitive Cock Block to hentai artists. Or not...
 * It would go really well with the theme of sacrifice. Szayel's hole could be in similar location, as it does match his whole theme, too (if it's his aspect of death or the fact that he's a rapist, you choose).
 * It's more likely that Halibel's hollow hole is under her sleeves. Possibly through her shoulders, but more likely through at least one wrist, resembling stigmata to go with the sacrifice theme.
 * This troper always had the theory that some hollows "lose" their holes when they become arrancars as a symbol of their recovered humanity (for lack of a better word). Harribel also seems like a possible example. Course, the theory becomes tricky to support with someone like Szayel who seems to lack any visible hole too.
 * It's more likely that her hole is simply covered beneath her clothes; even as shredded as they were, there are still some places left concealed. And we know that an arrancar's hole can be off-center; there's no reason it couldn't also go through diagonally or sideways, which opens up more possibilities for Nel.
 * Nel's hole is sideways through the eyes in her skull helmet!

Yachiru is stronger than Kenpachi.
Might be a bit of a stretch, but just look at the facts.
 * She can take Kenpachi's spiritual pressure and suffer no ill effects whatsoever, whereas Ichigo had trouble breathing when he first encountered it. Granted, she could just be used to it, but she would still have to be pretty tough to begin with to deal with it.
 * Her Battle Aura can scare off grown men. This may be just to show that she's tough, but it seems compelling.
 * She can lift Kenpachi and still run around faster than most characters. This may only be sign of physical strength, but it's impressive nonetheless.
 * She'll stare down guys who are about as strong as Kenpachi and not even look scared. It might be that she knows Kenpachi will intervene to save her or it's possible she has nothing to fear because of her own power level.
 * She never carries her zanpakuto. Admittedly easily explained away that she doesn't need to use it because Kenpachi can take down anyone, but it could also mean that she doesn't need it to kick anyone's ***.
 * And seriously, how awesome/hilarious would it be that the pink-haired five-year-old is stronger than the hulking Blood Knight?

The souls "born" in Soul Society are the souls of children who died in, or before, infancy.
Since, apparently, the Bleachverse can't create new souls, and it's all one huge recycling bin (or else the Quincies wouldn't have been hunted to extinction).
 * Alternatively, the rate at which quincies destroyed Hollows was greater than the rate at which new souls could be created.
 * Given the rate at which Ishida was taking out Hollows during the 'contest', I think that's probably a given. As for why new souls are born, any system with a fairly tight margin of error needs a way to compensate for any...wastage. The Quincies were just more than it could handle, ergo, dead Quincies.
 * Most likely, the creation of new souls would compensate for those eaten by Hollows; it's impossible for the Shinigami to save them all, after all.
 * That's what I meant by wastage.

The real King's Key is hidden within Yamamoto's soul
Only the General-Commander knows where the key is hidden, and what could be a better place than the (supposedly) strongest shinigami's soul? We already know that it is possible to do that, see Rukia and the H?ugyoko. Also, this doubles as Aizen's back-up plan. Should it be impossible to create a new one in Karakura Town, he will rip the key out of Yamamoto.
 * Wouldn't it be too obvious? Perhaps the key is hidden in the weakest seated Shinigami, just to throw away suspicions... Poor Hanatarou. Seems like Unohana Retsu knows that, or else, why would she make he risks his life so much? She wants him to try and be stronger, to not have the Key so easily stolen, of course.
 * Who says it has to be a shinigami? See the "Orihime is the King's Key, or has it sealed inside of her" theory below. Or don't, since the title makes it pretty clear.

Hell will play an important part.
It showed up once, in a couple of pages. It was a too important and significant thing to be forgotten so easily. Either Aizen will ally himself with the Legions of Hell after his Hollow army is annihilated, or Legions of Hell ally themselves with the Soul Society against a common enemy. Or something.
 * Hell will be revealed to be a third faction and Ichigo and the gang will fight their way through it during the Rescue Tatsuki arc.
 * Given the pattern, I'm afraid that might be true. We'll probably find out that Ichigo is part demon on his mother's side or something soon and he'll use that power to beat Aizen and the Espada.
 * And such arc will only happen because Tatsuki's possible powers will make it able to easily open a portal to Heaven, which Aizen (or whoever would be the Big Bad) would be really interested into.
 * Alternatively, Hell is already aware of Ichigo's doings and the lad is actually a big celebrity down there. I mean hey, if the sinners are all trapped down there they've got to watch something for entertainment and what's more entertaining than watching their Shinigami enemies get their asses handed to them by some teenage punk?
 * I vaguely recall reading that Kubo wants to do a Hell arc.

The King of Soul Society is some previously introduced bit character.
Tite Kubo loves setting up characters as negligible or weak before revealing their ridiculously potent abilities (Aizen, Orihime) or their true identity (Yoruichi, Nel.) A little-seen, long absent, presumably powerful King presents a perfect opportunity to pull this trick again. We'll discover that he contracted amnesia, or exiled himself, or became trapped in a lesser body, or accidentally locked himself out of his realm and had to descend to a lower dimension - where he became known as...Hanataro! Or Yachiru. Or Keigo. Or Tatsuki. Or one of the shop attendants, or one of Ichigo's sisters. Hell, any character with unaccounted powers and a bit of face time is a possibility.
 * My vote's on Hana. xD Because I like him, and because - well - a seventh seat going on a mission to Hueco Mundo with a bunch of Captains and Vice Captains is really odd, you must admit. Something's gotta happen there.
 * Two words: Don Kanonji.
 * You guys are all wrong. It's Afro-san.
 * You're all nuts. It's Isshin.
 * Oh, puh-lease. It's obviously Ken-jisan! You know, the old man who got the Yuzu and Karin drunk? Don't tell me you've all forgotten the chocolate banana!
 * My vote is on a very early character, one who has been commented on as having immense spiritual energy (and no one can figure out why)... Ichigo Kurosaki. Or at least the rightful king (i.e. for some reason he has the right to be king), and that is the reason he has so much reiatsu.
 * Misaki whatever his mother's name was. We don't know anything about her- just that Isshin loved her. If she turns out to have been the Princess of Soul Society, that would explain why they were found in the Land of the Living- such a marriage was forbidden, as the Kurosakis are not a Great Noble family, and so they eloped to the Land of the Living, using humanizing gigais purchased from Urahara.
 * My mind only thinks about Hinamori Momo. Dammit, she was pretty baddass to try to challenge someone way stronger than her! But then again, the most improbable could be the one. So, I vote Uryuu.
 * If you ask this troper, the King's a Queen and her name's Yachiru.
 * And it's the most plausible theory of all of them! It explains how Kenpachi didn't just cut her guts off; he RESPECTS her as a superior!
 * It's Mizuiro or Keigo. Gotta be.
 * Although they probably are there as parodies of the main character's best (and probably only) friends, like Toji and Kensuke, or Kazu and Kenta.
 * How can so many brilliant tropers be so incredibly wrong? Clearly it's Chizuru. There's no way a normal human could survive being beaten to a pulp by Tatsuki so many times and still keep coming back for more.
 * And when she is Fuhr^^^^King, all the female shinigami will have to WEAR MINISKIRTS!
 * Thought it was Power of Love, you know, since she was always being beaten to a pulp while thinking in Orihime... She also could be a masochist.
 * You're all wrong. It's Ururu, with her memory bleached from herself. After all which situation is the safest to keep the King? As a little girl that acts almost like a mod-person, seeming to not know even how to read, and living at a banned officer's place. Because it's not like they haven't done something like that before. Also, if weapon size really means spiritual power, that girl is by far the most powerful character in Bleach.

Risa Yadomaru is a relative of Uryuu's.
It never struck me 'till this (warning: Spoiler galore!), but she looks a HELL lot like him (and I think they even share some mannerisms). It's not sure all shinigami retain their human memories, so... yeah.
 * Perhaps Ryuken had a forbidden relationship with her, and she is Uryuu's mom. Hey, we never heard about his mom at all, right? Almost like they are hiding something from him! And he MUST have a mother, unless he's some sort of artificial soul, which it's 98% improbable. (The other 2% leads to rescued experiment issues, but hey, it's only 2%!)
 * If she's really his mom, she'll give him a Training From Hell to make him a different kind of Vizard (or something like that), and it'll be his new power, that'll rival Ichigo's, since he was going to be his rival since the beginning. And it'll be awesome, he is deserving it after all the bad luck he was passing through since... He was born.
 * AMEN.
 * I really wish this manages to get confirmed, Ishida deserves some love. Someone send this page to Tite Kubo, if you manage to know his e-mail or IM ID? (Seems like he can read English fairly well, if he reads it, he might have ideas)
 * Don't give him ideas! He may well have already taken ideas from this page before, if Yammy is any indication.
 * Further support for this may well have appeared in the latest chapter - Lisa's mask has what appears to be a Quincy cross on it.
 * On chapter 433, they mentioned something about Ichigo not being the only half-Shinigami with fighting powers in existence. Could Uryuu be the other one? If yes (and if Karin and Yuzu are discarded in the equation), he could gain a new power up and be ready to fight on equal grounds with Ichigo once again.

Soul Society and Hueco Mundo aren't "official" afterlifes, just dimensional pockets where ghosts developed some special abilities that enabled them to form groups.
We know that there's at least one Hell that isn't the Hueco Mundo. This also explains why there are almost no non-Japanese in Soul Society (except for Soifon).
 * How can we know that? Considering how Japan-based Soul Society is and the fact that the majority of ghosts show up with no memories of life, they may simply all adopt Japanese names. Of course, my theory may be faulty as well, although to be fair the only problems with dead people keeping memories are caused by Urahara in Memories of Nobody. (Blanks are generic because they have no memories, but shinigami generally keep no memories? What the hell?)
 * Sounds like an Ass Pull. Nobody thought it was strange that the kid in the parakeet remembered his mother.
 * Rukia is shown having difficulty with the Japanese language early on. It may be that all the "Japanese" names we see are names in other languages being translated into their Japanese meanings?
 * This troper remembers it being explicitly stated (in the anime at least) that Rukia has trouble only with the MODERN form of Japanese.
 * It still doesn't explain how a clearly Italian (Kyouraku) and a clearly Black (Tousen) captains have Japanese names. At all.
 * Perhaps Kyouraku was an Italian man in life who became so infatuated with Japanese culture (samurai stereotypes, cherry blossoms, younger Japanese girls) that he changed his name?
 * So, both Tousen and Yoruichi might be Brazilians that went to Japan, following that logic. Which would confirm that every Brazilian in anime turns out to be awesome.

Aizen isn't really evil.
He is faking it to deceive the real main bad guy. He avoided killing Ichigo (and I don't believe that he could just "mess up" that easily), as well as Renji, Hitsugaya, and Kommamura, all powerful captain level shinigami who could possibly have a major effect on the war. There is also the fact that Tousen, who seems to have very strong morals and doesn't really make much sense as a bad guy, is on Aizen's side. He is helping Aizen because he knows that Aizen isn't evil. I think the answer is he told them he would make them whole. Also, as previously meantioned: 'It is also possible Aizen and Yamamoto are conspiring for an excuse to wipe out the Arrancar, since Yamamoto did not kill Aizen when he had the chance.' Should this happen, in the end our intrepid heros will need to stand firm to protect Nel and her freccion from every soul reaper that remain loyal to Yamato. Hell arc anyone?
 * Which means either the King of Soul Society is the villain, or the "real villain" is out to get the Royal Key? Whatever it is, this question might be cleared up very soon; Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tousen are about to embark to Karakura in the manga...
 * It was Urahara all along. Bet 10 virtual bucks.
 * There is actualy fair degree of evidence behind this, as Yamato has shown at least as many evil traits, earlier than Aizen did. Furthermore, it is never actually stated what Aizen intends to do with Hogyoku. I have always wondered just what it was that so motivated the arrancar to follow him- and fear isn't an excuse, not with so many deaths.

The King of Soul Society is actually dead, and Aizen is a Well Intentioned Extremist trying to take his place so things don't go straight to hell.
The fact that the King of Soul Society lives in another dimension so nobody ever sees him is suspicious enough, and before Aizen ascended to Hueco Mundo, he said that the throne in the heavens had been empty for far too long. Add that to the fact that we have no idea whether the King is a figurehead with no real power or if he has actual duties that must be attended to to keep the Soul Society from going straight to hell (which, under the rule of the Central 46, it seems to have), and you've got an opening that some Well-Intentioned Extremist needs to fill.
 * Perhaps he's not really dead, but somwhow or another, managed to return to a child state to not draw suspects. It leaves four possibilities (maybe five, and six if we stretch a lot): Kusajishi Yachiru, Hinamori Momo, Hitsugaya Toushirou, and Yamada Hanatarou. The other two stretchy possibilities are Izuru Kira and Kuchiki Rukia, as they seem to be really young teenagers that just got an earlier bloom; although Rukia seems to be too much of a stretch.
 * Why leave out Renji? He's around the same age as Kira and Rukia.
 * Because said troper forgot him; you know the rules, it means that if such theory is true, it means he is going to be the King.

Urahara Kisuke is evil.
He wants to take Aizen down to take his place as "God", but knows he wouldn't be able to win in a straight-up fight; therefore, everything he did in the past twenty years (starting from when he invented the Orb of Distortion) has been an extended and elaborate Xanatos Gambit to make sure Ichigo is capable of going toe-to-toe with Aizen (I wouldn't be surprised if he was actually the one who introduced Isshin to Masaki). After the fight is over, he predicts that whoever is left standing (Ichigo or Aizen) will be badly wounded and easy to dispatch.
 * So then how did he arrange for Rukia to pass her powers to Ichigo?
 * Ichigo was a dormant Shinigami before the Rukia's incident, and after awhile in Soul Society, she recovers her zanpakuto.
 * Simple: he arranged for a hollow Rukia wouldn't be able to defeat to attack her and the Kurosakis. Keep in mind that it was shown that before the Soul Society arc Ichigo was stronger than Renji using his Shikai (Renji had a Power Limiter on him at the time, but the fact that Ichigo would have beaten him if not for Byakuya's intervention still stands), therefore it's entirely possible that the hollow was above Rukia's level but below Ichigo's, necessitating the power exchange. Furthermore, as shown in a flashback near the end of the Soul Society arc, Urahara was hanging around in the streets near the Kurosaki Clinic the night the hollow attacked and that, obviously, is no coincidence: Urahara instigated the hollow attack and watched from a distance, in case Ichigo didn't prove strong enough to defeat the enemy, in which case he would have stepped in to protect his "investment".
 * The recent manga flashbacks have shown Urahara partnering up with "precrime" prisoner, which happens to coincide with Shinigami mysteriously
 * Or apparently not?
 * Hell, he could have given Ishida the Hollow Bait as well, or at least, exchanged the Ishida family's bait for something way more powerful.

There is more than one Soul Society.
There are actually separate Soul Societies for each nation and culture. China, for example, would have four, to account for the Han, Tibetans, Uighur, and Mongols.
 * Considering we've seen four dimensions (Human world, Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and Hell) in this story thus far, the idea of different Soul Society "countries" isn't so hard to imagine.
 * Taking that idea a bit further, there would also be shinigami for each country, with different uniforms and weapons. What they would be is another question altogether.
 * Presumably the British/European soul reapers would wear black cloaks and carry scythes. Also, perhaps Fionn MacCumhaill or Cúchullain is the king of the Irish Soul Society.
 * Hmm. They might have the cloaks but probably not scythes, due to them being very unweildy and a difficult to fight with. A western style sword would be a better bet.
 * So does this mean the original Order of the Phoenix became Reapers in British!Soul Society? They already have personal/specialized weapons (their wands)....
 * Yeah, but in animeland, scythes are very effective weapons. Most likely, the scythes are the sealed forms of the zanpakuto, which become swords in the shikai state. This fact, twisted by time, led to the story about the Grim Reaper using a scythe to claim the souls of peasants and a sword to claim kings.
 * I forgot about the practicality of scythes in animeland. The sealed form= scythe, shikai= sword is a good idea, particuarly since it ties in with actual folklore.
 * Evidently something went horribly wrong in the Mexican afterlife, resulting in Hueco Mundo, and maybe the Day of the Dead.
 * You could blame Mictlantecuhtli on that. He even wore a skull mask!
 * Norway obviously has an all-female Shinigami equivalent. And I imagine Haitan Shinigami possess humans rather than using gigais.
 * Regarding Norway (and other Nordic countries) maybe it's not all female so much as all/most of the men are in their answer to the Eleventh. After all, Valhalla basically involves warriors fighting, getting drunk and fighting some more. Sounds rather Eleven-ish to me, obviously the Nordic reapers are a bit more pro-active with their recuiting and enlist those who are suitably Badass as soon as they snuff it.
 * Hell, anything fromthesepages could fit, with some Bleach-ification.
 * I don't think you could Bleach-ify all of those, some are just too weird, but there are a few likely looking possibilities. I still think England's shinigami would have a Grim Reaper thing going on, albeit a non-skeletal version (for some reason the image I've got in my head is; trousers, black tunic with a bit of white embroidery around the coller and hem, hooded black cloak, scythe).
 * Forget about the Grim Reaper I've had a better idea as to what the Death gods for Britain and possibly a sizable chunk of Europe would be like. Based on an examination of the wiki entries on death gods and psychopomps (see above) and a bit of research into Anglo-Saxon/medieval clothing (it stayed the same for a long time so I thought it worked best), I'm thinking that the basic uniform would be something like tunic, trousers and boots with a shortish hooded black cloak (making them look a bit like a bunch of LARPers while still faintly Grim Reaperish). Captains would wear long coats or cloaks with wide brimmed hats (there seems to be a lot of hats among northern European psychopomps). The grim reaper legend would be the result of someone catching a glimpse of a reaper in action, specifically one with a rather odd shikai combined with a few centuries worth of Memetic Mutation.
 * Anyone got any idea what the shimigami for America or Austraila would be like, given that most of the population are, relatively speaking, newcomers?
 * America is a melting pot, so its afterlife would probably match- people of Norse descent go Valkyrie style, anglos go Grim Reaper style, etc. Its afterlife, being new and fairly unestablished, is, due to Rule of Cool a ginormous Wild West town, with regular raids from Native American dead and Hollows in the border sections.
 * Australia likewise, although it probably has better relations between Aborigianal and Immigrant soul reapers.
 * Actually, I'd picture Australia with more of a Dreamtime setup; big red rocks, flat red plains, empathic boomerangs instead of swords, possum-skin cloaks instead of haori, and talking animal psychopomps. (Maybe Komamura's from there.) Immigrant-descended souls just have to make do.
 * Alternatively, given that Austrialia is even more recent then America and the majority of the non-Aboriginals are of British descent, they might be covered by the British, Grim Reaper-type shinigami and go to the same Soul Society as Brits. After all, when you think about it there's no real reason why shinigami have to be restricted by geography.
 * Another possible theory is that which Soul Society you go to is decided by genetics, following where you are most descended from, since it would be rare for someone to break completely even on several genetic backgrounds since magical universal functions don't need to bother with calculating. Soul Societies may combine as genetic groups in areas become more mingled. However, there is things like Renji in Japanese Soul Society while having red hair. Could be that spirit power can give cravy hair, which would explain that. And many other's magical freaky hair colours. I may be wrong on how genetics works, since I don't know all that much about it.
 * Seeing as Renji isn't the only one with freaky hair in the seireitei (Gin, Isane, Matsumoto (even if you go by her manga-blondness, it's still weird for Japan!), Izuru, and of course Yachiru), I'm inclined to believe the spiritual power bit. Heck, it might even explain Ichigo's hair! Although I have to point out that your theory doesn't really factor in Tousen. Or Komamura, for that matter.
 * Which Soul Society you end up in could be a result of which was the dominant culture in the place where you died. Sasakibe Chojiro could have been a Frenchman who happened to have died while visiting Japan.
 * Sasakibe could have been a Frenchman who simply moved to Japan for some unstated reason and came to like it. Perhaps married a Japanese woman (Taking a suitably Japanese name) and just came to identify with the place. Thus he went to Japanese heaven because his soul just BELONGED there.
 * This same troped proposes that Sasakibe (As a means of example) died in Japan and was reaped by a Japanese Soul Reaper. First come, first served.
 * Actually, most sources place Sasakibe Chojiro as a Japanese Anglophile. He apparently spends all his free time "westernizing" himself, and is more likely a reference to the Meiji-era modernization of Japan (at the time, the were even calls for Japan to abandon the Japanese language and adopt a European one). According to his article on the Bleach wiki, he's even at odds with Yamamoto about how Tea-time should be observed (English or Japanese).
 * Why has no one written a fan fic of any of this yet?
 * There have been a few attempts but most of them ended up being naff due to the writer not putting enough thought into it. The idea was also discussed for cosplay purposes but that sort of fizzled out.
 * Europe would have some kind of WW 2/grim reaper theme going on, with latin release commands, and instead of seretei, there would be some kind of massive castle/fortress.
 * Why would release commands be in latin? Maybe in Italy and Spain (in the case of the latter, it'd be the only way to avoid being the butt of many, many smartassed comments), but not in the rest of Europe.
 * Firstly, Latin is the root of most southern-European language- if any European shinigami existed at the time of, say, just after the Roman Empire, then it'd make sense for them to use Latin release commands. Secondly, Spanish, Japanese and English have already been taken (by Arrancar, Shinigami and Fullbringers respectively). Thirdly, Rule of Cool. Release commands would probably be in Latin at least in England (Scotland, Wales, Republic and Northern Ireland would probably have Welsh, Scottish-Gaelic and Irish-Gaelic) Elsewhere in Europe is still debatable.
 * I think that Old English would be a better choice for the English reapers since a) it's more in keeping with the fact that the country is mostly Anglo-Saxon, and b) the aforementioned Rule of Cool (have you ever heard it spoken? It sounds like something out of the Lord of the Rings). Actually, come to think of it, it'd be a good way to show the age of the reaper in question; the younger ones use some varient of English, and the ones that have been round for a long while use Latin or one of the Cetic languages. Something similar would apply to other countries.
 * Also, somewhere in the British equivalant of the 11th, there's a guy with a mustach and a Claymore-shaped zanpakto (and possibly some bagpipes).
 * Oh god, savage Scottish Highlander Zaraki? I hope that Kubo is reading this. A fight to end all fights!
 * Of course there is, his name is "Fighting" Jack Churchill.
 * I declare all three of the above comments Made of Win.
 * The aforementioned American Wild West has a version too. His name? Sheriff Roosevelt.

Rangiku is a future version of Orihime
Both have bright red hair, enormous breasts, somewhat ditzy personalities, and bizarre taste in food.
 * But Rangiku is dead. She and Gin are seen as residents of Rukongai(sp?) when they were children. Plus to this troper's knowledge there hasn't been any mention of time travel in Bleach... yet.
 * There has been one mention of true time travel. When Ichigo and co. went through the pathway to SS, they said that it sent them about a week back.
 * There has been: Orihime's Soten Kisshun can revert anything it surrounds to its previous state. Thus far it has been used only for healing, but what's stopping Orihime t Thee it to, say, turn back time a few years for the whole universe except for herself?
 * The fact that she probably has no idea how to do that (is it even possible? it's not like she can surround the entire universe); plus even if she could, she wouldn't be able to do it without a *** good reason (since the strength of her powers depend on the strength of her determination).
 * Actually, surrounding the whole universe is a lot easier than it sounds if you think about it. She just surrounds herelf with the Shun Shun Rikka facing OUT.
 * So Orihime is a demi-Haruhi Suzumiya... or at least her hairclips are.
 * The problem is, Rangiku is blonde, has a mole that Orihime doesn't have, and even their ditziness is different...

Rankgiku is Orihime's ancestor.
Same as above. If Rangiku was Orihime's ancestor then she wouldn't know her anyway. (Note: This troper is unsure of Rangiku's age (Really Seven Hundred Years Old ?) or if Orihime's parents are actually dead.)
 * So, it would make her fanservice scene as incest?

Aizen is actually Lucifer.
And he sees the absence of God as a chance to finally succeed in becoming God where he failed before.

Nell is Ichigo's mother.
Because she looks more like her, it makes better sense, her being devoured by a Hollow and all, and it's just funny.
 * In chapter 350, Coincidence? I think not!
 * Also shortly before her introduction, Ichigo's mother is mentioned when she is avenged. Do you think the creators are giving us hints?
 * The differences in their appearances can be explained by the fact that Nel was at least an Adjuchas class menos, therefore having many more souls inside of her. Also, Ichigo's mom died protecting him; Nel has a desire to protect Ichigo from Nnoitra. And when she asked what Rukia's relationship with Ichigo was, she wasn't being jealous; she was subconsciously acting like an overprotective mother.
 * Impossible, it takes hundreds of years for a mere Hollow to become an Arrancar. Then again, Ichigo could have a double-shot of one-in-a-million Determinator genes....

Yachiru is the spirit of Kenpachi's Zanpakutou
Kenny's been suppressing his sword for so long, the spirit energy manifested externally via a non-Bankai path, as an inhumanly strong child. He was nevertheless drawn to finding her and giving her a name anyways.
 * Supporting evidence: The spirit of Ichigo's zanpakuto is known to have human form; Kenpachi and Ichigo are both insanely powerful, largely self-taught, and their zanpakutos are constantly in the shikai state. Also, we see Zangetsu interacting with Yoruichi on at least one occasion, so the spirits aren't necessarily invisible. Zangetsu "pulls out his sword" a few times, so Yachiru doing so doesn't prove anything. They both place extreme importance in having named each other; in the manner that zapakutos usually are named.
 * In fact, Kenpachi has in fact somehow managed a Shinigami technique from an entirely different anime together. The fact that he's more badass than Shinigami who have mastered Bankai is because he's engaged in Soul Resonance with Yachiru; and nobody recognizes that technique.
 * The opposite theory, that he's the spirit of her sword, works almost as well.
 * This troper once read a fanfic where it was revealed that Yachiru has a bankai, which must at all times be kept a secret from Kenpachi. The punchline was: "She calls it Ken-chan."
 * If anyone's interested, here's the fic in question.
 * One other piece of evidence: Just after he Ryoka return to the world of the living, Zaraki mentions that he and Ichigo "are a lot alike" while the camera focuses on Yachiru. This could be foreshadowing.
 * With the whole Stark-Lilinette thing, this can be.
 * The absence of Kenpachi and Yachiru from the recent Zanpakuto Filler Arc might be taken as lending credence to this theory; involving them would require the anime to offer exposition, which Tite Kubo might want to avoid from happening.
 * There they are! Just in time for the arc's obligatory.

Isshin Kurosaki was the Captain Kenpachi defeated to gain his rank.
He threw the match in order to be with the future Mrs. Kurosaki, and for extra authenticity didn't tell Kenpachi about it because if he knew the fight was rigged Ken-chan would've either 1)not fought at all or 2)make extra sure Isshin was dead.
 * I also heard a theory that Urahara might've helped him by making a gigai to fool Kenpachi, but this screws with this troper's timeline: ~200-100 years ago: a new Kenpachi (Ken-chan or Isshin, not made clear) takes charge of Div. 11; Urahara is the new leader of the Science Div. Sandle-hat and the Cat leave Soul Society. ~20 years ago: Isshin leaves Soul Society to be with future Mrs. Kurosaki.
 * ...Or maybe Tite Kubo's the one with a screwed up timeline... or maybe it's not impossible that Urahara could've gotten something of his from the human world into Soul Society w/out being detected.
 * It can't really be Ken-chan, or else, Yachiru would be older than Hitsugaya, and around the same age as Nanao, which we can clearly see it's not true. Also, Isshin could have had contact with Urahara in the Living World, and asked for a portatile corpse doll to use in such occasion. The fact that Unohana mentioned the possibility of Aizen using a corpse doll (which she was wary that it couldn't be true) to fake his death makes us believe that she has a lot of experience with that kind of stuff, and probably helped Isshin, regretting what she did later in a rather harsh way, by being more law-abiding and faithful to Soul Society than Byakuya would dream to be. (Whether it raises a one-sided crush in the shape of I Want My Beloved to Be Happy or raises the question that she could be a romance otaku, it's up to the tropers, though)
 * Interesting theory, but the timeline needs to be changed a little. We know that Isshin couldn't have been the 11th squad Captain 200-100 years ago because during Turn Back the Pendulum, Shinji comments on how lazy the current Kenpachi is (implying that Shinji knows him) but then comments he doesn't recognize Isshin's spiritual pressure when Isshin fights the Grand Fisher. So Isshin has to have become a captain/vice captain in Soul Society after the Visoreds; wouldn't this make him less sympathetic to Urahara if he met him in the World of the Living because Isshin probably didn't know Urahara? Alternatively, maybe Isshin took a gigai from 12th division before he fought Kenpachi and didn't interact with Urahara until much later.

Rukia and her sister died when the Atomic Bomb was dropped at the end of World War II
We know both Rukia and Hisana died at the same time, so it has to be something, in Japan, that would kill two young children, yet leave the parents alone (the parents died separately, or they would have showed up together, so they must have been in the army). We know they died fairly recently from the recent flashback chapter setting the "Momo sees captain Aizen" moment, which was concurrent with Rukia's time in the Academy, at less than a hundred years ago, and in that time, the Bomb was the only major thing that would kill two young children at exactly the same time.

Comments?
 * There are many things that can separate two daughters from their parents and kill them at the same time. This troper, for example, suggests they both died when Rukia's sister attempted and failed to rescue Rukia from a speeding Army truck in the post-war period, an incident that's fairly common where Army traffic is heavy; this troper's uncle for example died from such an incident, despite being a Marine himself (I believe the truck was even from his own unit) and thus presumably more aware of such dangers.
 * The problem with the army truck theory is that Rukia didn't appear to be old enough to even crawl when Hisana abandoned her (which raises questions on how she survived alone in the Soul Society).
 * Infant Immortality, followed by being adopted by Renji's Kid's Gang
 * Problem: Rukia is stated to be over 150 years old.
 * Problem with the problem: the time line does not really work in terms of real years, best to just think of it as sequential without the labels, afterall Shunshui claims the whole shinigami set up is 2000 years old.
 * First of all, what Shunsui stated was that the academy was 2000 years old. There had to have been shinigami long before then or there would be no point in having an academy as there would be no teachers. Secondly, how exactly does this present a problem?
 * IT doesn't, but the flashback chapters make it very clear that Rukia is no where near 150 years old.

Ururu is an artificial person similar to Nemu
Just like Mayuri did with Nemu, Urahara created Ururu via a combo of gigai and modsoul technology. Since modsouls were originally designed to combat Hollows, this explains her freakish strength and robot-like behavior when encountering the Arrancar.
 * This troper agrees and would like to amend that this implies that Jinta is also a mod-person. (mod soul in gigai would be a whole person) in the first book Jinta tells Ururu that although she is older by a few years, he is faster, stronger and better. We also see that he acts more like a regular person, as befits a second more refined attempt at making a mod-person.
 * Jinta could be just an adopted brat with high spiritual power to keep the facade. Or could be Urahara's illegit son.

Aizen wants to eat the King of Soul Society
Two thousand years ago the King of Soul Society was trying to surpass his own limits, just like Aizen is now. He succeeded and made himself uber-powerful, but it had the side effect of driving him homicidally crazy. With the little sanity and self control he had left he charged Yamamoto-Genry?sai with the task of covering things up and then sealed himself away in a pocket dimension where he couldn't do any harm. Yamamoto destroyed the Royal Key to prevent the king from being released from the outside, then formed the soul reaper academy to train up an army of soul reapers to defend Soul Society from the king if he should ever happen to break out from the inside.

Aizen somehow found out about this but couldn't figure out how to duplicate the king's transformation. He intends to break the king out of the dimensional prison, temporarily transform himself into a hollow with the Orb of Distortion, and eat the king in order gain the king's powers.

Evidence for this whacked out theory:
 * Why should Aizen care so much about the king if all he wants is to rule over all of existence? If he conquers both the living world and Soul Society (and maybe Hell as well), what does it matter if this one man sits impotently on his throne while cowering away in a pocket dimension? And if it did matter to Aizen why is he concentrating on killing the king before conquering Soul Society?
 * If the Royal Key actually existed, Aizen could have used his Absolute Hypnosis to trick Yamamoto into revealing the hiding place for the Key. The fact that he's going to the trouble of creating a new Key means that the original key is destroyed.
 * Yamamoto is the only soul reaper who has ever seen the king. Why would the king seclude himself for centuries on end in a tiny little pocket dimension when he could be enjoying the good life in the Seireitei?
 * So the king of Soul Society is ?
 * Not true, in the "Turn Back the Pendulum" arc, it is mentioned that Urahara's predecessor as 12th division captain was promoted to the Zero Division, which is the Royal Guard.
 * Well, that's what we are told. This just means that sometimes powerful captains leave Soul Society, that they officially "retire", and that the other captains are told that they've joined Division Zero. Nothing else is certain. And besides, "Royal Guard" can mean that they actually guard the king the same way a prison guard guards prisoners.
 * If he is, he's apparently trading tips with

Aizen is the King of Soul Society.
As has been brought up before, why should Aizen care about some powerless figurehead locked away in a pocket dimension if he just wants to take over the Soul Society? The answer is that he is the king and he got bored and decided to become a regular shinigami, but he was still bored. So he conquered Hueco Mundo and decided to start a little war for his own entertainment. That way, no matter which side wins, he's still ultimately the winner.

Ichigo's siblings will become shinigami.
Well at least Karin will. She can see spirits and has even fought hollows before. Yuzu might too even though she can only vaguely see spirits. They have a shinigami as their father as well.
 * Alternatively, Yuzu will get some other power. Chad and Orihime both had even less ability than Yuzu to sense spirits at first, and they both ended up with powers.
 * Yuzu will have Hell-related powers? Taking in consideration the "Ichigo's mom is a demon descendant" theory...

Soul society is an Earthsea-style artificial afterlife.
It seems extremely unlikely that you'd randomly get walls made of that anti-spirit metal stuff to form naturally, and without them the place would be overrun in minutes. In addition, the fact that the population isn't nearly large enough to be the whole planet's afterlife, and the fact that it's so predominantly Japanese indicates that it's a localized talented soul recycling center. Perhaps the "king" is merely the first person who figured out how to create stable areas like Soul Society.

Ishida will unlock some form even better than the final form
Because this is a shonen manga, he'll find a way to surpass final form and achieve an even better form, possibly with two wings. However, since final form had the 'price' of losing his powers, this even-better-form would have the price of losing his life.
 * That'd make sense, seeing the story patterns concerning Ishida - that is, he uses his power, does something really cool, then spends the rest of the arc either without his power or with his power being useless, with optional humliation and character rape. So if he ever achieves a better, more powerful form, I won't be surprised if he's simply killed off or loses his powers for good.
 * suggests that Ishida Ryuuken is actually more likely to end up dying in a blaze of glory, as it would redeem his troubled relationship with his son.
 * We don't know anything about Uryuu's mom, remember. Perhaps the lady has some yet unnamed importance.
 * In the same vein, Ichigo will probably find a stage beyond Bankai, simply by virtue of being a shonen protagonist, or there be a massive retcon stating that what he thought was Bankai was actually Shikai, and that he has yet to truly unleash his Bankai.
 * He might simply discover a new "mode" or "form" of his Bankai, like, he's been using the speed mode, and there's an offense mode in there somewhere.
 * Possibly foreshadowed in how Byakuya's Bankai has at least three forms.
 * Another method of power up may be that he will gain the ability to use his bankai, while willing changing and controlling his hollow's true form, since this would give him a tougher body, regeneration and it would add another first - doing something the other Visored haven't been shown to do - to the list containing gaining shinigami powers while still alive, successfully breaking into Soul Society and gaining power it takes all others at least a century to gain, and thats if they are a genius.
 * Another thing to consider, enhanced levels of Quincy power seem to correspond to the manifestation of a Physical bow. When using the Sanrei glove and the Quincy Final Form Ishida used a physical bow, his father is even more powerful than he is and he uses a physical bow. The only time we see Ishida's grandfather manifest any kind of bow is when he is very old and helping to train a youngster he doesn't want to discourage, he could very well have used a physical bow in his younger days when in full combat. So far Ishida has not shown any ability to manifest a physical bow without outside aid (Sanrei glove, Quincy Bangle.), Ishida's next 'power-up' could revolve around him learning to manifest a physical bow on his own and thus not 'waste' energy holding a pure spirit-bow together.
 * He will die. But of course, he'll come back. As an arrancar with Quincy powers, since he died with the fancy Ultimate Soul-Messing Technique and wouldn't accept being a hollow.
 * Given that the only thing limiting the Final Form is his human body, dying would make Ishida stronger. That much is obvious, even if didn't become anything other than a spirit. None of the previous Quincy had time to test this theory, because they were too busy getting dissected by Mayuri after they died.

Aizen is a wuss.
The power of Aizen's Zanpakuto is to ...so he's been using it constantly to make people believe he's a supreme badass, even though he has no real combat skills whatsoever. Blocking 90th level Kido? Nope, it was aimed in the wrong direction. Catching Bankais with his bare hands? Nope, he was really far FAR away before you started slashing away. Also explains why he never finishes anyone off when they're "at his mercy."
 * It could be that he isn't too much strong, but really, really quick. Quick enough to slow down time and catch the Bankai because it was too slow.
 * is this a joke? Aizen being a wuss? He took down near every captain with ease in FKT.
 * Wait, I'm confused. The only thing FKT stands for is Fake Karakura Town and Aizen outright admitted he'd been using the ultimate illusion the entire time.

Bleach is an inaccurate translation. It's really Breach.
Makes sense. Lots of things in the series are breached.
 * Except, you know, that "Bleach" makes more sense. Bleach is a substance that turns stuff white, white is the color of death, and it's a show about dead people.
 * It could be that Bleach and Breach are both correct, and Tite Kubo was exploiting the L/R fuzziness in choosing a name.
 * Er, didn't Kubo say that the name was a homage to a Nirvana album? Also, people at school think that Ichigo bleaches his hair. Hence, Bleach.
 * Apparently, if the latest SJ issue is to be trusted, Tite said that he was originally going to call it "Snipe", but changed it because he changed the weapons used, which were originally guns. He then chose the soul reapers' clothing color as the name, but "Black" sounded to boring. So, he chose white, therefore "Bleach", which suggests black as a complementary color.
 * Hey hey, doesn't 'Bleach' clean laundry and such? Couldn't the name possibly be signifying the Shinigami's cleansing of hollows? I mean, the original arc was about Ichigo saving pluses and cleansing hollows.
 * You morons. Obviously Bleach is a reference to the kimonos that are worn by the Shinigami, who have never heard of the stuff. Which means that their kimonos were all originally white, and now need a deep scrub to get their original color back.

Ishida is the real reason for Karakura town's specialness
The theory given as to why Chad and Orihime have special powers is that they've been exposed to Ichigo. This seems plausible at first, before you realize that Ichigo himself is a similar anomaly, and all the characters have something in common - they've spent a lot of time near Ishida. Quincy collect spirit particles, so it's plausible to suggest that the reason their powers awoke abnormally quickly is because they've been surrounded by the cloud of spirit particles surrounding Ishida. Similarly, the reason that Karakura town has so many spirit particles relative to the rest of the planet is because the only remaining Quincies live there. Presumably Aizen organized the extinction of all but a few Quincy in order to allow more concentration of spirit particles to take place - the explanation of them "interfering with reincarnation" seems like it would be very difficult to verify, and could possibly have been falsified.
 * Yeah, but we know where Ichigo's powers come from, specifically . Plus Urahara and co and the Vizard would probably have more impact than a trio of Quincy.
 * To be fair, Urahara and the Vizards are probably smart enough to mask/hide their reiatsu so as not to attract attention; and as many characters have noted, Ichigo is still abnormally strong.
 * As much as I'd like the Quincy to play a bigger role... They collect spirit particles only when they're fighting or, to a lesser extent, using their special abilities. And while the three Quincy may have killed hollows, trained a lot, etc., they couldn't have been active enough to collect enough spirit particles to cause any kind of anomaly... otherwise the shinigami would've already finished them off.

Twins separated at birth: Ichigo and Isane Kotetsu
In episode 54, when Ichigo looks down to see what is going on with the flaming bird that now has a big rope around it's neck, he's the spitting image of Isane Kotetsu. Go look...
 * Forget Isane, Sohma Kyo is Ichigo's twin. Or possibly clone.
 * Kotetsu herself could be a stray Shiba member, that had to change her surname for some weird reason. Or perhaps she's Ichigo's half sister, (obviously) on Isshin's side. Now, unless one of the white haired boys is hiding something, there are no other white haired girls on Bleach... As we know of.
 * Oh, there's her (at least soul) sister Kiyone. But Kiyone's not important. Also, she's (most of the time) blonde in the anime.

Tatsuki is a Shiba.
Well, if you notice, Kukaku looks a bit like Tatsuki, but rougher, older, more developed, and missing one arm. Perhaps she could be Kaien's daughter, but was sent to Earth, put in one of Urahara's experimental growing up gigais and adopted by the Arisawa family.
 * Or her whole name, memories and family were invented by Urahara himself, with trinkets, modsouls, and gigais. He's capable of doing something like that, you know.
 * Or it was actualy Tatsuki who was Kaien's reincarnation during this cycle.
 * That wouldn't be so, seeing as Kaien wasn't truly dead until Rukia killed of Aaroneiro Arrurrerie, when Tatsuki was already born.

First Generation Shinigami are the Result of Purifying Hollows.
Ok, according to the (admittedly dubiously canonical) movies, it's incredibly rare for a Shinigami to recall anything of their life prior to arriving in soul society, which (based on the bird-kid) isn't the case for regular Pluses. Now, the only thing of significance that's different about Shinigami and humans is the spiritual power - which is meant to be excessively rare amongst mortals without stimulus (like a full set of Shinigami fighting in your bedroom for a few hours). So what causes you to get a shot of spiritual power and severs all connections to your past? Hollowification sounds about right. Presumably the rare cases of people who do have spiritual power in life (whether or not they're aware of it) are the ones who retain their memories (like Rukia's big sister - she and Rukia do both look like the traditional shrine maiden image).
 * This makes some sense, but there's also a possibility that some pluses retain their memories, and others don't. Or alternatively, enough time spent in Soul Society makes all pluses lose their memories eventually, and it takes some time for a Shinigami's power to manifest.

Aizen Sosuke does not really exist.
He is actually just an illusion created by "his" zanpakutou, who is the real mastermind behind everything. When he reveals that he is still alive, he tells the Soul Reapers a line along the lines of "The Aizen Sosuke you knew never really existed", while this could be interpreted as his "nice guy" personality was all just an act, it could also mean that he really does not exist.

Hell is some sort of extreme version of the Zanpakuto's blade, possibly to do with the presiding First Captain's Bankai.
The blade cleanses a Hollow of any wrong it's done after life, but if the Hollow came from someone who was evil in life, Hell appears to swallow it up. Since the damage a few hundred mortal Quincies could do by destroying souls permanently was worth slaughtering every last one the soul reapers could find, Hell is unlikely to take souls completely out of the loop. It's possible that the death and2C tansing cycle can be looked at with a computer metaphor: Death, birth, and passage to the soul society are all mode locks, saving the soul in its current state. The zanpakuto is a system reboot, removing unsaved data. Hell is a full magnetic wipe and reformatting the soul for return to circulation. And the Quincies' method is a bullet through every disc and card in the system. Since First Captain Yamamoto's Bankai hasn't been seen, but its shikai is said to burn away a soul (similar to the execution blade's Phoenix form), so the Commander Captain's Bankai may just be a more discriminating, and far more powerful, version of the same thing. (It could even be the soul purpose of the King of the Soul Society, and First Division's Captain is just a clue to the nature of Hell and the King's powers.) Whether the nature of Hell would change if someone took the place of Yamamoto-Genryusai remains to be seen, but considering the 2000 years thing people keep mentioning, it does seem likely.

Orihime is the King's Key, or she has it sealed inside of her.
Although the Ouken has been around for a lot longer than she has, reincarnation is canon in Bleach, even if no reincarnations of deceased characters have been identified as of yet. Aizen has stated that her powers surpass those of any other human. Her abilities allow her to 'defy god,' and what could be a greater defiance than breaking down his front door? And even if she's not the Ouken, she could still probably get into the Spirit King's realm.
 * Or maybe Ichigo is the Key. Hell, even Kon might be the key as well due to their unique characteristics!
 * While that'd be interesting, neither of them have barrier-centered, reality-rejecting abilities.

Uryu sees his team-up with Mayuri as an Enemy Mine.
Meaning, as soon as Orihime is rescued and/or the war with Aizen is over, he's going to tear him a new one. And maybe let his dad join in.
 * This seems likely, he is just putting up with Mayuri for now, but when the current conflict is all over...
 * If only... but since Mayuri is not supposed to be a bad guy anymore and there's been no mention of, or even allusion to his crimes... I don't think this is too likely. :/

The King of Soul Society is in a Lotus Eater Machine, and Aizen's master plan involves putting everyone else in one.
Hence why no one disturbs the King (he's in his own personal idea of heaven) and Tousen believes the ends justify the means. And it would be a cool extension of Aizen's zanpakutou.
 * And I bet the King is Haruhi, and her Heaven is the Haruhi Suzumiya universe. Perhaps Orihime might save her, as she has an uncanny resemblance (or rather a huge pair of resemblances) to Mikuru. And let's take in consideration that she CAN make the time travel with her powers, if she wants to do so. If Matsumoto is Older Orihime (according to other theories), she might be Older Mikuru as well.
 * And Nel is Tsuruya... Ryoko is Aizen... Yuki is Chad, Ichigo is Kyon, Byakuya is the Computer Club president, Emiri might be Renji, and Itsuki is Uryuu. It makes Rukia the King AND Haruhi! I can't take this image off my mind!

Ichigo was Dead All Along, and he is a hollow being fooled into thinking he got Soul Reaper powers by Aizen's zanpakuto.
Fishbone D. Was an illusion of Aizen's that he used to attack and kill Ichigo, turning him into a Hollow. Everyone in Karakura and the captains and lieutenants of the Soul Society are all under the effects of Aizen's zanpakuto, and the Breakdown Sphere will be used not to reconcile Ichigo's hollow half and Soul Reaper half, but to separate the illusory copy of ichigo from his Hollow self and fuse it with Aizen. This explains how Aizen was able to make it look like he'd deflected Ichigo's "cero-bankai" attack without Ichigo seeing his shikai release. It also means that Shirosaki is the real Ichigo.

Aizen and Masaki Kurosaki are siblings.
...Or just related. They both have the wavy hair. Plus, if super spirit powers are hereditary, then it would assume that Masaki Kurosaki was just as powerful as Aizen and thus explains Ichigo's strong spirit powers.

Hinamori Momo is a failed Vizard experiment.
Let's sum up the facts: Usually, Hollows have some grave sin while in life to become so, like uncontrolled hatred, and such, and the Vizard experiments were to manage to make them transform into Hollows without having to reincarnate and become sinful people, through extreme conditions like extended fighting, or aggressive emotions. With Aizen framing his own death and the fault falling into Gin, Momo, who had him as a father figure, just went berserk and tried to kill Gin. Also, we never know what that guy have done to the girl all that time (in b4 child abuse, creepy perverts), probably doing experiments and passing these as training. If this went right, he would have a powerful, faithful weapon in hands. But Aizen's plan backfired just because Momo didn't really pass all the hardships the other Vizard passed, and never had enough Reiatsu to start with (not to count that it didn't break her Chain of Fate Like Ichigo's Hollowification - because Shinigamis don't have such - just her emotional stability). He overestimated the girl. But then, there's always a chance that she might become one someday. And it won't be pretty. At all. After all, maybe heavily messing with the poor girl's mind was an alternative way he found to try and create a Vizard, or something alike. After all, it's similar to the (supposed) method of influenciating the other Vizards' Hollowification. (Plus, she would be -more- badass with a Hollow Mask).

Soul Society and Hueco Mundo don't exist even within the Bleachverse.
Everyone refers to the mundane world as "the real world," contrasting with the aforementioned realm. Hell's ontological status is ambiguous. Aizen wants the King's Key so he can make Hueco Mundo real.
 * This Troper noted how they refer to Earth as the "Real World" as well. Which implies that Soul Society and Hueco Mundo are not actually afterlifes, but merely alternate dimensions.
 * Wait, when do they refer to the 'real world'? I've only ever seen them use human world and the world of the living.
 * The "mundane world" in the original post refers to Earth. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear. As for the terms "human world" and "the world of the living," I'm not sure whether those are the terms used in the dub or a fansub. The expression "real world" comes from a fansub, although the Japanese word used the root "gen," which at least means "real" in the word "genjitsu," for reality. Granted, I don't know Japanese, so if anyone can correct this, please do. In any case, I hope the theory is still sufficiently interesting to warrant being on the page.
 * The word is "gense" which, in this context, is a Buddhist term referring to the world of the living. I suppose it can be translated to "real world," but in the case of Bleach it obviously means "temporal world," "human world."

Arrancar and Vizard have a second zanpakuto that no one has yet to access.
First let's examine arrancar. Supposedly, they are hollows with shinigami powers. However, the only shinigami-like aspects of them are their human forms (and some shinigami aren't even human), their zanpakuto (which are also different than shinigami zanpakuto) and Sonido, their version of flash steps (which aren't limited to shinigami, quincy have their own version as well). They don't have kido and their zanpakuto only have a single release. Now consider the zanpakuto. How does it power them up? It makes them more hollow-like.
 * Next look at the vizard. They are supposed to be shinigami with hollow powers. They do a bit better than the arrancar. They have hollow masks to power them up and they can use cero. Yet look at them during the Turn Back the Pendulum arc. Their bodies are almost completely hollwified prior to Urahara fixing them.
 * So, this leads to my conclusion that they both possess a second zanpakuto which belongs to their inner shinigami/hollow. In the case of the arrancar, it gives them access to shikai and bankai. In the case of the vizard, it gives them access to resurrección.
 * Proven somewhat- Tousen has a Resurrecion, and Ulquiorra has a Bankai equivalent (though he never used a shikai/bankai).

Chad's abuelo was a wrestler
But not any; he was one of the first and one of the strongest wrestlers in Mexico (he probably cheated a bit using his Hollow-like powers), and moved to Japan to promote wrestling there, with a huge sucess. It would explain how Chad, that should be considered a lower citizen (for not being completely Japanese), got many friends, and not too much discrimination (it means he still had a buttload); having a famous grandfather helps a lot. Also, how awesome could it be?
 * He probably was an Arrancar as well, and his fighting mask was made to resemble his Arrancar one. Of course, it would mean his Hollow hole would be hidden under bandages or something.
 * What about the mask fragment?
 * He's a luchador, they don't take off their masks, some of them were even buried with theirs. So, that would explain it.

Yachiru's story is an alternate version of Orihime's past the author didn't want to discard
And Zaraki is the equivalent of Sora. To think about it, they even have similar pasts, except that Orihime and Sora weren't, you know, dead (unless some WMG comes and says the opposite). If she and Sora were in a similar situation (living in a place where only murderers and criminals that didn't have the time to become Hollows and go to Hell after encountering Shinigamis do whatever they want, being capable to even stomp a baby), they'd probably be just like these two. Or even worse. To think about it, Yachiru's hair is even styled like a short version of Orihime's (not to count that when she was a baby, Zaraki's hair was just like Sora's)! If we think about that, they being that badass, but still being heroes and controlling themselves only when needed, it would turn Orihime and Sora too awesome to live, though (Sora still was, but not Orihime, poor girl).

Tatsuki will have Slider-like powers
Pay attention at this detail: She can feel Orihime's energy even when the girl is in friggin' Hueco Mundo. If she trains with the right people, she could easily slide between dimensions without losing her body, and use this dimensional sliding power as a stealthy advantage, as she could hide in another dimension while not attacking, and rip someone apart (or at least take off chunks of them), teleporting the parts to different dimensions. To make it awesome, she would do it with punches and kicks. Oh, and she could also borrow powers and techniques from other dimensional entities, if not just a little, and unconsciously. She'd be the awesomest fighter of them all, but such powers would have a drawback to damage body parts; it means that if she overuses her power, she might die. Perhaps she didn't break her arm in a car accident, but when she first discovered such powers, but didn't want Orihime to know the truth and be worried.

There was a primitive way to manipulate spiritual power before Shinigamis existed
And it's probably not completely lost. They probably were the first Hollow purifiers, and some of them formed the Shinigami to keep things more organized, like in a magic academy (Hogwarts anyone?). The remaining ones are probably hiding somewhere in Soul Society or the living world, and are yet to be introduced. Due to their power not being limited to a single setting, they could work and release it more freely, making more powerful attacks. Why? Because Ichigo needs to learn a final ability to surpass anyone's, even if this means the sacrifice of such clan, or of himself.
 * To make this theory complete, Jesus probably was a holder of this technique, or at least, one of the first Shinigami. Nah, just kidding, guys, Bleach is not in the same universe as Shaman King to reference Jesus... Or is it?
 * No, it isnt; and to be fair, Jesus was the first Quincy. Ishida will die for your sins.
 * That would explain all the crosses...
 * The possibility of the existence of completely new characters is shown at the recent chapters, when Hollows get blasted. It's some sort of blast, thus, it's not like most Shinigami attacks, the Vizards were still at their warehouse at this time, and possibly, no Arrancar would attack their own allies that way (It'd be a food waste). Kubo possibly will introduce new characters with new powers, or will use characters from the anime canon.
 * I was under the impression that they were such weak Hollows that they imploded from all the reiatsu being thrown around even from so far away.

The three renegade Captains are Vaizard
Given Aizen's habit of mixing Hollow and Shinigami powers, this would make perfect sense. This would also explain why Tousen and Gin, neither of whom were previously shown to be particularly powerful, are talking down to the Arrancar. And the current Big Bad of a Shonen series just has to have the shiniest tricks.
 * Beat me to it. But yes, this theory makes a lot of sense. The whole reason Aizen wanted the Hogyoku was because he believed that he had reached his limits as a shinigami and had to gain hollow powers if he was to continue growing. It makes no sense that once he had it in his possession that he wouldn't do just that.
 * Tousen is using his mask all the time, it's right in his face, as (at least part of) his glasses. Sorta like Szayel, but to a less bishie effect.
 * CONFIRMED! Tite Kubo indeed reads TV Tropes. Excuse me while I gloat and wait until Gin reveals his bankai to be a bow and arrows.
 * In the Turn Back the Pendulum arc, we see Tousen wearing a white, full-faced mask. Foreshadowing, perhaps?
 * Probably, only Tousen is a Vizard. Aizen is probably a half-demon, and Gin was probably a Quincy traitor when alive. It could be weird, but would work. Could work too well.
 * Though whilst not all the time... * ahem*

The Vizard were a dead-end.
The Vizard/Arrancar were created by Aizen (yes I know some 'wild Arrancar' existed before Aizen showed up in Hueco Mundo) to overcome the power-limits inherent in being just a Hollow or a Shinigami but from what we've seen so far the main benefit of the Shinigami/Hollow Hybridization process is a terrific increase in strength, speed, resilience and power. These traits lend themselves to formidable direct-attacks, but direct combat is just one compoent (and not neccesarily a chief component) in the Shinigami's arsenal. Most Shinigami's Shikai and Bankai manifest as some great force or creature or other effect that can be directed to attack an opponent on it's own, and then there's Kidou on top of that. If Byakuya for example were to be Visored his hollow-mask would greatly enhance his abilities as a swordsman, but all that power would go to waste if he were to sit back kick your *** with flour-petals. This is likely why most of the Vizard tend to rely entirely on one set of powers (Shinigami or Hollow) rather than trying to mix and match them, Ichigo is a rare example of a Vizard achieving full potential since his Zanpaktou is a formidable direct attack type. Hollows by contrast are all about direct confrontation, contrasting with Shinigami the hollows with more subtle powers are the exception rather than the rule, thus becoming Arrancar is not only a phenomenaly potent power-increase it is a phenominally Useful one as well.

Hitsugaya is in fact, Kubo Tite's least favorite character
Unfortunately, the fans love him too much, and Kubo Tite is a bit reluctant in using his least favorite character too much. In order to relive stress, he made Hitsugaya get hit with lots and lots of Worf Effects, hoping that it will make people see that Hitsugaya isn't as strong as everyone hyped him to be. It has succeeded in several regions, where Hitsugaya hatedom is formed here and there, all who hoped that he dies for NOT being a Badass. Unfortunately, the legions of fangirls who only cared about how cute he is are still around, and Hitsugaya is in for more and more punishment. OUCH.
 * I always thought it wass Ishida, since he's the Butt Monkey or anything, but then, he could be just Tite Kubo's homage to an unlucky highschool friend (that probably was a girl, but he could be accused of sexism, so, he created Ururu, another homage, but of when his friend was a kid and with her real name, thus, being really shy, but yet, sorta nerd (he probably was Jinta himself and hated to admit, with reason). The names' resemblance and excessive feminine traits from Uryuu's part led me to believe so. Then, I noticed that Chad Needs More Love, and have seen he could be Kubo's least favorite character, for being so unlike him (Naoko Takeuchi syndrome, she had the same problem with Michiru from Sailor Moon). But then again, Hitsugaya could be what Kubo dreamed to be when he was a kid, so, frustration leads to dislike. Possibly.
 * It can't be Ishida. Now that It is clear that he hates Hitsugaya, that he doesn't want to give him an opponent that he can win. For ONCE. Kubo always pit him against opponents out of his league, thereby setting him up to always be WTFPWN'D.
 * At least he's not character derailed and humiliated at every opportunity. :/ Unlike poor Ishida.
 * Losershipping anyone? (Well, some Yaoi Fangirls already did this one, believe me.)
 * Check chapter 356. . Kubo might not like him much, but he clearly doesn't want   to look that that much of a wuss.
 * On the contrary, I think that Kubo likes Hitsugaya almost as much as Hitsugaya's fans but doesn't want to make those who aren't his fans to think that Hitsugaya is taking over the story (unfortunate lack of success there) and has Hitsugaya get beaten around a lot so that he doesn't seem like a story breaker (considerably greater success there). This can be seen that in the most recent chapters, Of course, there's no telling how things will turn out until the entire battle is over.

Unohana Retsu is not as nice as one may think.
First things first, she's the only one in the 4th Division strong enough to kick serious asses. Then again, Four Is Death, this number just can't be hers by accident. Then, being in the Medical Division can give one a lot of useful info. And when I say a lot, I mean things compromising enough to put the whole Shinigami Academy at check. Then, Aizen could not have forged his own death so perfectly, but she could have given a helping hand. The last thing that bugs me is how the MD can cure many injuries and diseases, and yet, can't cure Ukitake's. He probably knows her secret, and she might be slightly poisoning him, pretending to others she didn't find the cure; if he tells anybody, he dies. So, he doesn't tell anybody, to not make his division short of a powerful captain, and to not worry anybody else, probably not knowing the importance of that (also, it'd be a Take That to UkiRetsu shippers). It should be noticed that if the King's Key is in Hanatarou's soul, according to above theories, she pretends to pull pranks to make him suffer (possibly mortal) dangers, and take it off from him in an easier manner. Perhaps she might be the Big Bad even behind Aizen, or everything else, and has the perfect disguise for now. Why? I don't know, but she has too much knowledge to be just a nice Team Mom, and Tite Kubo already pulled a Beware the Nice Ones with two treacherous captains. (I bet she has something similar to Aizen when she takes her bad side, but with releasing her hair from the motherly braid instead, of course. But it would make people at the Fetish Fuel go nuts to her new evil, long-black-wavy hair looks.) You can hate me now.
 * You might have a point there. There's something in the meaning of her name that I don't remember right now that has to do with red or being bloodthirsty as all hell...
 * "Retsu" means "fervent"... A word with the same character, "retsujo" means a woman with fiery temper and strong sense of justice. Hm.....
 * Her first name is a funny meaning, refuse from tofu. Perhaps she is an evil mastermind because she got refused from a greater position...

Urahara is secretly the most powerful character in the series.
From a certain perspective, he could be the most powerful character in the series. He decided to mask his reiatsu, so he put himself into one of his energy masking gigais. He realized that he didn't have enough reiatsu left over, so he just weakened the sealing. That would explain why he could have lost an arm to Getsuga Tenshou. Plus, you know he doesn't always fight at full power. HE fired a Sing Benihime that removed the sixth Espada's tentacle, because he didn't feel like killing him. He's got spares! But against Yami, he only fired a burning one so that it wouldn't do anything to damelatg.
 * Alternatively, he's just in a regular gigai. Remember, when he touched the reishi gate it gave off sparks to repel his finger. Think about the power difference between Ichigo in and out of his body. SUCH POWER!

General, short Bleach theories

 * Kon wasn't a Modsoul after all, but a true soul converted in Soul Candy by accident
 * Uryuu was planned initially as a Harry Potter fan character, hence his Ravenclaw-lookalike tie
 * Orihime is a Stepford Smiler
 * Rukia does feel something for Ichigo, but holds on, as it would cause many problems.
 * Again, Uryuu will reveal a really an impossible slender and feminine body under his robes, and it's going to be a Running Gag, for Kon's misfortune.
 * But we've seen Uryuu's bare chest before, and while really slender, he's (un?)fortunately obviously a male. Unless Mayuri did something to him...
 * But there was never any mention of chests here! The whole gender confusion joke is when barebacks are seen. And don't expect Mayuri to not abuse the poor boy, afterall, it's Mayuri.
 * Ichigo never was fighting for Rukia, but for his own pride
 * He said it more than once that he owes her for saving his life and giving him power to protect. As being too weak used to be his biggest complex since his mother's death, he probably wasn't lying.
 * Sometimes, retributing someone a favor can be also considered some sort of gentleman pride, so, both theories are right, he was fighting for Rukia and for his pride as a good member of our society, since if he didn't retribute, he'd be just a jerkass.
 * Not to mention that Byakuya wanting to kill Rukia pressed Ichigo's Big Brother Instinct Berserk Button. (See "You're her brother, right? Why don't you save her?" and "You want to kill your sister with your own hands? Are you fucking serious? I don't care about your excuses, I won't let you say that again in front of Rukia!")
 * Quincy archers don't really destroy souls, but trap them in a pocket dimension, and if Tatsuki's theories become true, she'll be the one that'll rescue them.
 * Speaking of Tatsuki, she is Tsundere for Ichigo. And Orihime is Yandere for him, but Tatsuki wants Ichigo and Orihime to be happy.
 * Orihime? Yandere? Are we talking about the girl who cries alone so she won't bother anyone with her feelings, hates herself for being jealous of Rukia, couldn't bring herself to kiss Ichigo when he was asleep, etc.?
 * She just will turn something along these lines over time (or continuous Aizen torture), as she manages to get stronger and see worse things happen around her. Until now, the only Yandere is the overly cute Yachiru... But Tatsuki is still tsundere. Perhaps not for Ichigo, but...
 * Well, she just saw Ulquiorra blow a huge, gaping hole into the chest of the guy she loves... maybe seeing Ichigo turn into a monster will be worse, but if that happens it'll be more like a test of her love for him (especially knowing her history with hollows and people she loves).
 * Chad is going to unlock a Kenshiro-like power
 * But aren't the guys at Soul Society and Hueco Mundo... Already dead?
 * Then again (and probably because of his new power), Chad is going to be the true protagonist at the end
 * Impossible, unfortunately...
 * There will be a Time Skip
 * Alternatively, there'll be an After the End, with the main characters' kids. Ishida will probably have twins, Ichigo and Orihime will have a boy, and Chad will have a Sakaki-esque girl. What happens to Tatsuki? She probably will marry one of the two remaining guys, or, in more probable ways considering her personality, she'll stay single, to become the Martial Arts Champion she dreams of.
 * Uryuu will be hired by Don Kanonji as his assistant/sucessor, being a Quincy and earning money for it. Take That, Ryuuken!
 * ... Okay, several tropers here are in dire need of a nice new jacket and a padded room. Chad and Ishida are going to team up to start a line of wildly popular dolls and stuffed animals.
 * Their first product will be a line of dolls based in their fighter friend Tatsuki and her not-so-fictitious assistants Ken-chan and Yachiru, of course.
 * Nell will sacrifice herself, appear in Soul Society as a spiritual gifted human soul, and convert to the Shinigami ways
 * Aizen will be revealed to really be working for someone else? Who you may ask? Rick Astley.
 * I still think the Big Bad is Unohana Retsu. She's cruel enough to send Hanatarou to a mission with fake pills.
 * Chad will get trained by a Vasto Lorde level Arrancar on how to use his Hollow-like abilities better.
 * Possibly by Nell.
 * After Aizen is defeated the series will end by cutting to a scene of Ichigo, Ishida, Chad, Orihime, Keigo, Mizuiro, Rukia, and Renji all at a tabletop with a battlemat and dice. Mizuiro is the GM of the campaign and Aizen was the Big Bad of the campaignomalt needed to be defeated. They will then go out for Pizza.
 * Keigo and Mizuiro would be traitors of themselves, though. They think nerds are traitors, and RPGs are, well, things for nerds.
 * Perhaps that's Ikkaku and Yumichika playing as Keigo and Mizuiro at the start, and then, revealing themselves as the bald and the narcissist punks.
 * They seem to think that academic nerds are traitors, though. Keigo apparently really likes video games in the manga, completing around 5 in the 10 days Ichigo is training with Urahara, and depending on the type of game that they play, they might qualify as video game nerds.
 * All of group 4 will be killed. Because Four Is Death, and Bleach doesn't already have enough genocide as it is.
 * And they'll probably be killed by their own capitain, lulz
 * Urahara is going to be millionaire after he manages to develop his spiritual laser surgery.
 * And it hurts just in the soul! You can get it for a small fee of 666,666 Yen!
 * Tite Kubo himself is writing some of these theories to confuse the readers
 * Or, at least, someone will do a really elaborated fanfiction with such ideas.
 * There's no King, it's all a figment of Soul Society's collective imaginations.

== Kubo originally intended for Ichigo and Rukia to be the Official Couple, but changed his mind when he accidentally made Orihime's feelings for him too sympathetic and deep. == Reading the latest story arc gives at least This Troper the feeling that Ichigo and Orihime are the endgame ship, yet it's also completely incongruous with the beg werng of the story, which teased Ichigo/Rukia a great deal and crafted this really fun, yet deep and interesting relationship. However, around the beginning of the latest arc, Kubo seemed to strongly imply that he considers the relationship more familial now, with Ichigo's father joyfully declaring he has three daughters now. (Among other things.) At this point, it's really hard to imagine how Kubo could pull off sticking Orihime with Ishida as a consolation prize without serious Character Derailment and (however unintentionally and incorrectly) making Ichigo look shallow. (Loving the same person every lifetime, people. Her words.)
 * Actually, if you look at the pilot chapter (not "chapter zero" but the actual pilot) he apparently intended for Ichigo and Orihime to be the Official Couple. Of course a lot had changed during transition from pilot to series (too bad, This Troper would've loved to see mini!Rukia), but we have no way to know if his basic idea of who is going to be paired with whom changed or not. The problem is that during the Soul Society arc a crapload of new characters were introduced and Orihime (along with Ishida and Chad) was completely pushed aside for the sake of the shinigami, which created less chances to develop or explore the relationship between her and Ichigo. Incidentally, This Troper has never really felt any Ship Tease vibes either for Ichigo/Anyone or for Ishida/Orihime, at least in the manga - yet felt it coming in spades for Rukia/Renji in chapter 0 and the relevant chapters in the Soul Society arc. (As for Ichigo, I'm just waiting for the moment when he screams "GIRLS HAVE COOTIES GAAHHH" and make a beeline for the mountains. The guy needs some more time for his hormones to start working..rt a
 * Perhaps Ichigo already had his hormones to work, but is so grumpy that suppressed every single one of the teenage urges. Even his father becomes wary of this, and thinks he could be using his own sisters, but nothing; he's just plainly asexual. Or maybe he's one hell of a Tsundere, even more than Renji.
 * He had clearly gotten flustered over Matsumoto's body before. (and he said something about not giving in and losing his self-control.) Perhaps it's foreshadowing that he's not quite as aromantic/asexual as we've been lead to believe?
 * But being flustered by Matsumoto's body is part of the joke of Matumoto being, well, Matsumoto. Someday, even Ishida will react in a similar way. Only Chad won't, he's worse than Ichigo in these matters; although his growth hormones are already doing their part, other kind of hormones are missing...
 * Well Hell, maybe Everyone Is Asexual.
 * Mind you, most of the IchiRuki Ship Tease actually comes from the anime. The anime writers made up a lot of Ship Tease that is not present in the manga at all. They've rewritten scenes and lines to have an IchiRuki flavor, inserted original scenes into the story, not to mention all those fillers and movies. So while Ichigo and Rukia are close in the manga as well, it's more of a Platonic Life Partners type relationship (Kubo Tite himself said that their relationship is not romantic), while the anime has been pushing the 'ship since day one.
 * To This Troper, this always felt like the moment where the two of them changed from the potential ending couple to their "more-than-friends-less-than-lovers" status. Guess you could say it's where they missed the Ship.
 * Course, nothing is over yet.
 * Hate to rain on your parade, but the animators have been doing that with just about everyone. There's been artificial IchiHime, IchiRuki, RenjiRuki, IchiTatsu (a couple of these were in the openings and endings, so not sure if they count), the list can go on. The animators jerk us around just as much as Kubo does (only they don't get bonus points for it, because when they innovate, they deviate from the formula a Pluiss us off.)
 * From what I've seen of the anime (first two seasons) yes, the anime inserted some Ship Tease with other pairings as well (though frankly I don't remember seeing any IchiHime Ship Tease, but I do remember them removing at least one line in the beginning in which Ichigo is being protective of Orihime), but not nearly to the extent that they've done with IchiRuki. As the other person said, they've inserted random ship tease scenes into the manga story, rewritten scenes and lines to give them an IchiRuki subtext, and the Bount filler is full of random ship tease-y moments. And from what I see from the movies they continue with the trend (hell, the third movie is basically one long IchiRuki ship tease, and Orihime, the girl who is canonically in love with Ichigo doesn't even get a cameo), despite Kubo Tite himself affirming that their relationship is not romantic at all. Ah well, not like I care - most of the pairings I care about wouldn't get deliberate Ship Tease in as shounen anime, anyway (well, RukiaxOrihime did get one in the manga, yay).
 * If we count the manga, hell, even Ishida shows a less brotherly (although still chivalrous) concern for Rukia for once than Ichigo... If the anime is to be considered canon, IshiKon (one-sided from Kon's side, as he loves all girls in anime, and imagined Ishida as a princess) would be on the run, you know.
 * The Anime isn't canon unless one of two conditions are met: 1.)The Anime came first. 2.)The Anime has the Author's name as part of the title (Kubo Tite's Bleach for instance). And even if the second condition is met, it's Alternate Continuity Canon, rather than actual canon.
 * Guh, I hate it when anime adaptations add random Ship Tease that changes the actual relationships. It's like they care more about baiting the shippers than telling a quality, coherant story...come to think of it, it seems to happen a lot to popular Shonen in particular...Naruto and One Piece are guilty of this too. WHY?!
 * Pandering to the Vocal Minority?
 * It happens because insanely popular Shonen titles tend to develop fanbases that have a bunch of really crazy older fans who have specific shipping preferences, but who also buy a good chunk of the merchandise because they have more money to burn than the younger fans the stories are actually aimed at. Hence all the various shipping fanservice and odd tendency for possible foreshadowing of certain couples to get removed lest it offend delicate sensibilities.

The King of the Soul Society isn't the king of anything.
He's actually something evil (possibly an Eldritch Abomination) sealed away in a pocket dimension and Yamamoto is the only person in the Soul Society who is aware of it. The members of the Zero Division actually act as guards to insure that he doesn't break out of his confinement. However, he was able to sense Aizen's innate abilities and lust for power and has been manipulating him for the past hundred or so years. The ruse is kept up because there has always been a fear that someone would try to release him (Kenpachi would probably want to fight him, Mayuri would want to study him, Aizen would want to become a hollow and eat him to obtain his power, etc.) Evidence:
 * What exactly does the supposed "King" do? The Central 46 was in charge before Aizen slaughtered them and Yamamoto appears to have taken over now.
 * No one in the Soul Society but Yamamoto has ever seen him. Even a powerless figurehead should get out to address his people every once in a while. After all, what's the point of having a figurehead if no one sees him?
 * What's the point in Aizen going after him first if he isn't being manipulated into doing so? It makes much more sense to overthrow the Soul Society first and then use the fully released Hogyoku to add loyal Vizard/Vaizard/Visored (however you want to Romanize that) and more arrancar to his army before tackling the Zero Division, which is composed entirely of former Captains.
 * Loyal Vizard? It makes the Momo manipulation theory gains some credibility. If she wasn't just the second weakest vice-captain or so, it would have worked pretty well.

Ichigo will have a stereotypically gay friend, who is currently in the closet.
Not a new friend, but someone already introduced. Think about that: Slender physical features? Check. Usually feminine habits and hobbies? Check. Worrying much about what to dress when going to fight? Check with force. Being always excessively gentle with girls, but not showing a drop of interest for them? (TOO CLOSE TOO CLOSE was the reaction for Ichigo to Tessai's closeness, but also his for a well-endowed girl.) CHECK. His fisrt cover had him doing a limp wrist? SURE, WHY NOT, CHECK IT TOO. Saying he's the Last of His Kind, despite being a teenager, thus, prone to think in ampliate such kind a lot and in many ways, but never even mentions it? WHAT'S GOING ON, DUDE? Sorry, Ishida, you got in the worst side of the deal, get out of this closet instead. Unless he truly falls for Tatsuki or some other living world girl (a Shinigami/Arrancar one would be risky, or just plain OOC), his closeted gayness will soon turn as, at least, fanon.
 * Please, Ishida is straight as an arrow. (I'm sorry! It was just begging to be said!)
 * But he puts the arch in archery, especially back when he was showing off for Ichigo in the hollowbait kill contest.
 * Nah, that's just how he is. He was acting all show off-y in front of Orihime too in SS arc when he was fighting that projectile expert guy. And...Basically any time he's fighting he tends to be kinda over dramatic. He doesn't show off for anyone, he just thinks it's cool. And I have to disagree with pretty much all of the initial post's arguments, 'cause we all know real men sew pretty pink clothing.

Heaven is different from the Soul Society.
Anyone who dies in the Soul Society disappears, they never have memories when they go back to earth. Hell is a different place from Hueco Mundo. And the Quincies are really the ones sending souls to heaven by breaking their concentration enough to release their hold on this plane (the shinigami just send them to a crapsack afterlife. See, it's funny because it's ironic. And it's not (entirely)ne doke, I truly expect the real story to be this depressing. The souls of humans who die in the Shinigami Realm may in fact be the reiatsu that forms all their buildings, and the amount of soul energy may or may not go to power the Soul King's immortality generator.
 * I proposed a similar theory upstream. I think it would be cool if this was true. Soul Society is a terrible afterlife.

Nel, her 'brothers', and Grimmjow will end up joining the Eleventh Division
By joining, of course, I mean that they'll be press-ganged. You know that Grimmkitty, at least, belongs there, even though he'll probably be hissing and spitting about it until someone tells him how Ichigo hangs around the Eleventh while in Soul Society. You know that he belongs there. As for Nel-chan, and she's probably getting along scarily well with Yachiru (RUN, BYAKUSHI, RUN!) while Ichigo and the other ryoka are off fighting, and her 'brothers' wouldn't let her go off to Soul Society alone. Gantenbainne doesn't seem to be the right kind of crazy for that division, though, so maybe he'll end up in the Eighth?
 * Maybe Soul Society will form a special "Hollow Squad" that will recruit reformed Hollows. Their job will be to help the Soul Reapers hunt down other Hollows. I imagine that they, being Hollows, will know where other Hollows like to attack, and where they frequently hide.
 * Well, the only problem I see there is that Nel doesn't like fighting without a reason, and the whole theme of the Eleventh is bloodshed and violence. Maybe the Fourth, because she can heal?
 * I could see Kenpachi going up to Grimmjow and saying "I don't have a 4th seat because Yumichika's an idiot. You want the spot?" But I have to agree with the above, that Nel probably wouldn't fit into 11th at all, personality-wise. Furthermore, if Grimmjow DOES Heel Face Turn, I expect a lot of The Only One Allowed to Defeat You vibe to continue between him and Ichigo... and since Kenpachi's thinking the exact same thing, there being a few skirmishes between them over it.
 * Alternatively, Nel will join the Third Division, since they don't like war. She may not be as depressing, but Gin wasn't very negative either. Plus they're still missing a captain.

Nel will be set up as Queen of Hueco Mundo.
After Aizen's defeat, the Soul Society will have the perfect opportunity to put hollows under their control and after the Espada are dealt will, Nel will n hely be the most powerful denizen of Hueco Mundo, making her the perfect puppet monarch. Grimmjow and the Vizard will become her Espada, enforcing edicts against eating human souls and putting down the inevitable rebellions caused by forcing cannibalism upon the hollows.

Aizen is actually an escaped Kitsune Demon from Hell, and...
... he wants to destroy "the King" for locking up all the demons in Hell. (Whether this makes him evil or not might vary based on interpretation, as he could be a servant of Inari or something) Whether good or bad, it does fit. Use of illusions to trick enemies? Check. Clever, drawn out plans? Yes... Think about it, it makes sense.
 * It would also fit the demon-powers Ichigo theory, as he'd fight someone similar to him, power-wise. Also, if we think too hard, Chad and Ishida will return to their importance, if Tousen is really a Vizard (a loyal one, just as planned), and Gin is really a renegade Quincy (that probably helped on the clan's fall because he thought they were weak - his precision-based sword is probably related to such techniques); they'd fight their power-related counterparts, in a battle made of epic and awesome.
 * A battle made only more awesome by the revelation of Gin's "Bankai" - actually his fully-manifested Quincy powers (I'll leave its form and capabilities to your imagination, but I'd like to see a projectile version of Shinsou as a part of it)
 * A lot of these theories are starting to sound better than what is actually likely to happen on the show. Aizen being a Demon, Tousen a Vizard(Okay, this one has the most chance of happening), and Gin as a Quincy would be totally awesome!

Hell will have a Biblical/Dantesque setting.
If we take in consideration that every part of the afterlife had a theme according to certain mythologies in the world (Soul Society being Japanese/Chinese mythos, Hueco Mundo being Me- ban/Indian-Latin-American ones), Hell would have a strong Biblical/Dantesque connotation. The only hint of how Hell would look like, the portal, already looked a hell lot like Gothic architecture, which was based in such works. If Heaven is a different faction, it'll probably be based in African orishas, which would explain a bit Tousen's "Holier Than Thou" attitude, as he probably knows a lot more about orishas than everybody else in Soul Society, or even his gang, due to his African heritage. Also, how awesome would it be to see the true Big Bad being Lucifer him/herself?
 * And the Demons will speak Gratuitous Italian, Dante's Inferno was written in Italian, so it only makes sense for the Demon's to speak Italian. We already have Gratuitous Spanish and Gratuitous German, so why not add Italian to the mix?
 * Which makes me think if Kyouraku Shunsui isn't a demon, too. He looks physically like an Italian, at leat like the buff ones; about the Italian model types, there's another history.
 * His release command does mention a "Heavenly Demon"...

The whole story is really being written by Ichigo's mother.
Ichigo was really the one who died when he thought he saw the little girl near the river. He ran to her and fell in and drowned. After this, Masaki went crazy and started writing a story about her son, and how she was the one who had died. She makes Ichigo the hero, because, well, he was her son. The world Ichigo lived in was an entirely mundane one, and the little girl he thought he saw was just his imagination. So, there are no Hollows in the "Real World" Masaki is writing her story in.
 * Given the bust size of most of the female characters in Bleach, that theory says something very strange about Ichigo's mother.
 * She wanted to have him surrounded by plenty of beautiful women because she loved him of course.
 * Bleach was written by Isshin, of course. He couldn't stand the fact that both his wife and kid died, and have put his wife as a martyr that would sacrifice her life for her son (and succeed), with his kid as the main character because he wanted the boy to be a great person in the future. Karin and Yuzu's personalities are what he wishes they had become; Karin became a literal delinquent, prone to robbing other people and everything, and Yuzu became a cold girl, with some Yandere tendencies. It would explain the teenage girls' sizes, and how Orihime looked a bit like a younger, straight-haired Masaki. It would also explain why he had put Ryuuken as someone that returned after abandonment after many years; he didn't want to believe his best friend (which he disguised as just an acquaintance) abandoned the only kid he ever had to helplessness (and possibly starving to death, too) to die effortlessly at some Hollow's hand.

Aizen did everything for love.
If we stop to think for a second, it'd make lots of sense. As we know of, seems like he wants to take over all afterlife dimensions to change something; which kind of thing, we don't really know. Ichimaru Gin left a lover (or at least something similar) behind to follow him (but unlike him, Gin is just plain nuts), and everything Tousen wanted was peace. Now, if we think about that, he got either confronted by an impossible love, or the strict rules of Soul Society made it impossible for such person to have time to even tell him if she (there are no serious gays in shonen, remember) would retribute it or not. Now that we think about that, there are two possible lovers for him in that story: If it doesn't make sense, I don't really know what does. Most revolutionaires and extremists did what they did for love to someone or something.
 * Nell, that would fit perfectly the "impossible love" theory, and since she ran away from the Espadas and is clearly against all the bloodshed he's causing, his reaction was to become crazy by the rejection, even if she never knew how he felt;
 * Unohana Retsu, which would fit the "strict set of rules" version; we don't know what she ever thinks, and since she's the only one that's apparently without any major injuries, it could be that he's trying to protect her, both by giving her weaker adversaries, and giving them at all, since if she didn't have any, people at Soul Society would accuse her of being a traitor, too; which would make him not power-crazed at all, but love-crazed. He didn't even have the chance to declare for her, and probably wants to do it only when reforming everything; if he dies, those will be his last words, giving it all a Bittersweet Ending.
 * Masaki Kurosaki, whom he was always in love with. However, she chose Isshin instead and for that, Aizen lost it and killed her. After all, we never did see how she died; perhaps we're just assuming that Grand Fisher did it.
 * And to add extra Squickness to the formula: they were actually siblings, both in soul and in previous life's genetics. And they knew it; that's why Masaki wouldn't ever like him the same way, she'd probably be squicked as well with the possibility that her brother gets hard just by thinking in her.

Wonderweiss Margera and Hanatarou Yamada are counterparts of a same soul.
They do look alike; Wonder-kun does look like a bleached, hollowfied Hana, but yet, is extremely powerful, as (apparently) opposed as Hana himself. If things work this way, both kids were probably Aizen's son, that he was modified since the poor thing was born, but the part that wanted to stay with his mother/didn't want to fight was making the experiments go awry, and then, Aizen have painfully spliced his soul, taking off the apparently powerless side, Hanatarou, and possibly sending him to his mother, and staying with the sucessful part of his awful experiment. Whether Hana's mom is a Muggle that sent him to be a Shinigami out of spite or Unohana Retsu herself, it's a doubt.
 * Or Hanatarou and Wonderweiss were twins when they were alive and this will lead to a showdown where we find out that there's more to both of them than meets the eye.
 * Shota Showdown? I need some popcorn! And I don't care if it's a manga fight! ... Oh. Everybody knows that Hanatarou is hiding something, and Wonderweiss just looks innocent. They'll reveal to be as powerful as Ichigo, as soon as Hanatarou learns, with the most difficulty he could, to possess a very dangerous Bankai.
 * According to The Other Wiki, Hanatarou already has a very nasty Shikai. A crazy powerful Bankai isn't stretching it very far.

Yammy isn't the strongest Espada.

 * Stark will reveal that he can also use Resurrección: Segunda Etapa and a negative sign will appear in front of his tattoo, revealing that he is the -1st Espada. However, Halibel will then use Resurrección: Tercera Etapa and her tattoo will turn sideways, grow another half and a negative sign, revealing her to be the -?th Espada.
 * And then Grimmjow will come out of nowhere and become the 6i- ?/0 th espada.
 * And then, Ulquiorra will come, alive, unscratched, and reveal to be the Numberless Espada. Because he's too strong and emo to have a number.
 * And then Aaroniero will reform as the Xth Espada. Las Noches, Karakura Town, and the Soul Society all implode, and everyone inside dies...Except Kenpachi, who achieves Bankai. Except there is no one left for him to fight.
 * Or, in an alternate, less off-the-wall theory, Yammy's the only Espada whose number changes after release because he's the only one that still has a Tattoo. This implies he is indeed stronger than any of the other Espada...IN THEIR SEALED FORMS. I believe the top 4 were always stronger than Yammy, but he can match their immense power when he releases through an absurdly strong Release that takes forever to build up to its proper strength, compared to Stark, Barragan, Halibel, and Ulquiorra, who are just that strong all the time and then have a release on top of it. As evidence, I point out the fact that Yammy's release, despite making him the Cero Espada, is not strong enough to destroy Las Noches like Ulquiorra merely releasing his sword is. Yammy's much more powerful than imagined, but he's not stronger than the other remaining espada. Not by a long shot.
 * Yammy is, in reality, the weakest of all Arrancars, because.
 * Ulquiorra has explicitly stated that there are 3 espadas stronger than him. Three, not four. That means that either Yammi is bluffing or his power-up is temporary and/or comes with a big price.
 * It's possible that the Arrancars are secretive about their own abilities, since Ulquiorra didn't tell anyone, not even Aizen, about his Segunda Etapa. As for Yammy, it's possible that he, like Aaroniero, has the ability to increase his own spiritual pressure (even though Aaroniero claimed to be the only one to do so, it could be a secret).
 * Here's something I've noticed; when Yammy released his sword, his number changed from a 'ten' to a 'zero'. However, when Halibel releases Tiburon and Ulquiorra uses his Segunda Etapa ability, their numbers disappear completely. Furthermore the only espada with visible numbers in both sealed and released states - Nnoitra, Luppi and Aaroniero - retain them in the latter form (Grimmjow's can't be seen under his released outfit, and we don't see where Szayel, Zommari and Barragan had theirs').
 * Also notice that when Barragan listed the aspects of death he did the Espada in order...with the exception of himself (for dramatic effect) and Yammy who was last of the other Espada.

Hanataro will save the day
Think about it. His zanpakutou has the ability to heal wounds until it reaches its limit, at which point it unleashes a concentrated blast of all the injuries its healed. With all the injuries being inflicted to everyone during the battle in fake Karakura Town, that sword can build up a lot of power before unleashing its attack. Probably enough to take down a big enemy or two.
 * Alternatively, the entire conflict has been masterminded by him in an attempt to cause as much pain that he can heal as possible in order to grow stronger and stronger.
 * In reality, it's all part of Aizen's plan. When he said Orihime wasn't needed anymore, it didn't mean that he really didn't want her, but wanted to cause so much pain on the poor girl that Hana's Zanpakutou would awake. He probably knows the Shikai-Bankai pattern, so, he probably have guessed that Hanatarou's Zanpakutou feeds on pain. So, the most pain he inflicts, bigger the chances of Hana having a (painful) chat with his Zanpakutou, know his (or her) name, and learn to use his Bankai, which would destroy the world with all the concentrated pain it was feeding on since it existed. It would also reveal one hell of a Yandere side that Hanatarou Yamada, the nice but bullied boy, tried to hide for all these years, to avoid such outcome (that Unohana probably warned him about).

Uryuu will destroy Ichigo's Inner Hollow
Sometime during the series there will come a point where Ichigo's Inner Hollow will go even more out of control than in his fight with Ulquiorra, and Uryuu will use some special Quincy technique to destroy Ichigo's Inner Hollow.
 * It'd be one hell of an Ass Pull, but would be even funnier if he decided to fight fire against fire, ollodecided to reveal his ultimate, desperate card: that he's also a Vizard (sort of). It kinds relates with who could be his mother, but hey, you know, Kubo is perfectly capable of doing this.

Orihime will separate Ichigo from his inner-Hollow.
Using Tsubaki's cutting-shield in a new, non-lethal Reject ability.

Hitsugaya is Ukitake's son
His surname sounds fiery, but yet, he has water (and ice) related powers (Ukitake, according to the game canon, has water related powers as well). He has white hair, and Jyushirou appears to treat the boy really well. Perhaps our beloved Ill Capitain lost his wife, and since he was already sick, couldn't take care of the kid, leaving him with the Hitsugaya clan instead. Or something like that. Even their first names have the "shirou" part in common (which is mostly a pun in their hair color, but yet), which is even funnier. Also, how hilarious could be Toushirou's reaction upon such reveal?
 * Plus, in the Omake, he kept giving Hitsugaya presents for having the same hair color.
 * Although Ukitake apparently has a big family. If he had a child he couldn't look after himself, it may - depending on what his numerous siblings are doing - make more sense for this Nice Guy who likes kids (even if they don't like him terribly much) to give his child to someone close so they wouldn't be separated.

Gin was a Visored the whole time.
Related to the "Gin couldn't really be evil becaiuse of how obviously evil he is" guess, but taken in a different direction. Either he inspired Aizen's use of the Hogyoku sphere, being an incredibly rare natural Visored, he was affected by the breakdown sphere in the first place before anyone realized that the "perfectly useless trinket" was really the Sphere of Ominous Legend-ness, or (less likely) he was a natural Arrancar that managed to slip through the security thanks to nobody thinking of testing applicants for Arrancar traits (and somehow missed noticing the hollow hole).
 * Or perhaps Tousen was the one that was the natural Visored/Vizard. He probably managed to control his powers at the cost of his sight, in an Equivalent Exchange.
 * Well, he does wear a visor all the time.

After Aizen is defeated, Soul Society will take over Las Noches
Soul Society will form a special Hollow Squad and base it in Las Noches. Anyone who is a Hollow, Arrancar, Vizard, or someone with Hollow abilities like Chad will become a part of the Hollow Division.

Uryuu will start up an Academy for Quincies in the World of the Living
Just because Soul Society has killed most of the remaing Quincies off does not mean that there could still be some people out there who have the potential to become them, but have never learned how due to having no one to teach them. So Uryuu will travel the world and find as many of these people as he can and gather them all in one place to train them.
 * So, after being trained by ArrowDad, the ArrowLad will create an ArrowSquad?

Hollow have their own verion of Kido
No Hollow character has just seen the need to use it yet.
 * Or maybe the Arrancar can cast Kido spells because they are part Shinigami. The Vizard are part Hollow and can use Cero, so why not have the Arrancar able to use Kido?
 * It's been shown that certain Arrancar powers can be accessed with rather excessive kido incantations, so it's not implausible.

Chad will become an Arrancar
At some point he will be killed, and will dissappear for a little while. But then he will come back as an Arrancar. In his sealed state he will look like he normally does, except with a skull type mask somewhere on his face like all the other Arrancar, and he will now have a sword of course. In his released form he will have his two arms, The Right Arm of the Giant, and the Left Arm of the Devil, out again.
 * Alternately, he'll have both arms more like in his normal being, but with a thin-looking piece of armor. And such armor will cover all his body. And he'll have a mask. Chad will become the first living human Vasto Lorde.
 * And when he comes back it will be a Big Damn Heroes moment for him.

The Bount could have attained a Bankai like form with their Dolls
Now, none of them ever reached this state, but it could have been possible. The Bount were Mod Souls based off of Shinigami souls instead of Human souls, and their Dolls are sort of like Zanpakutou. So, it is possible that they could have acheived a Bankai like state of power with their Dolls.

The first Soul Reapers were Quincies in life
Quincies actually came first. Before the first ones began dying, people in Soul Society just had to fend for themselves. The Quincies spiritual pressure carried over into the afterlife and they began to manifest Soul Reaper powers. This whole theory hinges on the idea that Quincies do not retain their powers in the afterlife(except for their reiatsu).
 * In reality, they could be sorta like Orihime, or just people that could have random spiritual powers in life. Quincies were formed because their clan, before turning into Quincies, were just a bunch of mediums that didn't have any spiritual control, and turned into the first Hollows when they died. It would explain the color similarity. (Except if...)
 * Didn't Yamamoto found the Gotei 13? If so...then Old Man Genocide killed off his own race.
 * No, he just founded the Soul Reaper academy, and was one of the original captains.

Hell's color scheme will be black and red, or black and orange.
Of course, you'll say: "But black and red? That's Chad's right arm's color scheme!" Well, maybe he have a bit of demon, who knows. But bear with me: Shinigami's color scheme is black with white details. Their polar opposites, Hollows, are white with black details. Quincies intended themselves to be the true Heaven's soldiers (hence the crosses), so, the demons might be the polar opposite, at least colorwise. But since black and red was already used (sort of), they'll be black and orange. Hence a huge Shout Out to Halloween, or similar stuff.
 * Maybe Demons were the Quincies original foe. They later started fighting Hollows when the Demons quieted down. Their powers could have been made to fight Demons and not Hollows originally, and that is why the destroy Hollows instead of purifying them like the Shinigami do.

General Bankai speculation

 * Yamamoto: Considering the amount of fire involved in his shikai alone, what's the only way for him to top that? He becomes fire.
 * Magic nuke. They don't call him Old Man Genocide for nothing.
 * Hell. Not metaphorically, but the actual big double doors with the fire behind from the early chapter.
 * In keeping with the fire theme and Yamamoto's Knight Templar status, I put forth the notion that his Bankai, rather than being a large and showy item, is a small object that simply makes people's heads burst into flames.
 * A Ford Pinto
 * Unohana: The creature shown to be her shikai grows into a massive leviathan capable of healing or utterly destroying anything it puts in its mouth.
 * My vote goes towards it being an Eldritch Abomination.
 * Since her Shikai heals, maybe her Bankai is something that makes the victim's (victims' ?) bodies go haywire in a torturous seizure of pain... the perfect weapon for a healer so feared.
 * It overheals them, giving them cancer.
 * My vote goes towards it being a multi-stage Zanpakuto, like Byakuya's operating like this: the Manta-ray becomes some HUGE, kaiju-like monster, that can spew poison, which painfully, very painfully, kills the target, and/or acid, burning the flesh right off the opponent's bones, and even those. The second stage could be sealing all that power into a serrated sword, that causes an poisonous/acidic effect when it hits opponents, capable of burning through any defence, ghastly ripping them apart simultaneously.
 * We already know that one Zanpakuto effectively becomes a Humongous Mecha (Komamura's Tenken). Therefore, I posit that Unohana's Manta Ray becomes a transforming mecha manta ray. Her Bankai? "Maximize, Minazuki Depthcharge." I can't be the only one who can see it!
 * Urahara: Makes his opponent's blood forcibly exit their body and start fighting them.
 * I'd go for a blood rain/mist. Whether his blood would be acidic or multiple blades of death is something I leave unstated.
 * Well, we do know that his bankai isn't well suited for training. Perhaps it's a one-hit kill shot, or it's something incredibly painful. Either way, something involving blood seems likely.
 * Given his propensity for neutralising his opponents' attacks by basically using a copy of their attack to counter, this troper thinks his Bankai is something like a field that mirrors everything his opponent does and thus completely neutralises all their powers. And it'll be called something like "Mirror of the Crimson Princess". (If it really is, I'm SO going to come back and gloat.)
 * His excuse for making Renji train with Chad is something like, "My bankai's not much good for training people." Also, Urahara was the former third seat of the second company (the special forces, from what we've seen) as well as captain of twelfth company (the science squad). Considering these facts - and that a Mad Scientist Heroic Sociopath like Mayuri thinks he's an "unpleasant person" - it's likely that his bankai will be some kind of one-hit-kill Nightmare Fuel.
 * Like maybe...instantly and completely draining the blood of all opponents within a certain area? Which I guess would be absorbed into the sword and used to fuel more attacks..
 * Ichimaru: Gains the ability to limitlessly manipulate his zanpakuto's size and shape in any way he pleases, potentially growing it to BFS size.
 * Maybe it's like that, but a spear? It would fit with it's name's meaning.
 * Perhaps it's a BFG or a giant crossbow that can shoot spears. If it's a crossbow, some theorists would be delighted.
 * If not the above, then I'd go for his Bankai being a reflection of his Shikai's simplicity and deadliness: a wave of death.
 * Partially Jossed. It's gains a much longer range, greater speed, and the abbility to leave behind fragments of itself that disintegrate everything around them.
 * Ukitake: If the games are accurate about the nature of his zanpakuto's powers, then something big, water and lightning related. Maybe some kind of storm?
 * Given recent events, this troper thinks it's a big tank (the storage kind, not the vehicle) so he can absorb and control really huge amounts of power. So when  (I mostly just find the idea of a big tank floating behind him kind of funny. I don't know why.)
 * Turns out he can deal with Starrk's ceros fine without any bankai or further shikai abilities, although they are cut off abruptly by Wonderweiss. This troper wonders if 'redirection' can be extended to spiritual pressure in general. Not well enough to zip around cutting/blowing up/freezing people like the others? Just turn the source of their own power (?) against them with minimal physical effort. (Even sillier - Wonderweiss took Ukitake out deliberately because whatever his shikai does, it would have screwed with Aizen's spiritual pressure).
 * Kyoraku: His ''shikai' seems to be wind-based, so maybe his bankai would be some kind of Blow You Away Razor Wind hurricane or (flowery pink) tornado.
 * His shikai . His Bankai is probably a wide-range equivalent of his Shikai, and/or   are so dangerous, that one mistakes kills you.
 * With the 'rules' as arbitrary as they are for the games (we don't even know 'she' only plays 3), Kyoraku's bound to have some limitation to his Superpower Lottery win. The Starrk fight made it look as though once Kyoraku's zanpakuto wanted to play, the 'games' were in effect simultaneously (Starrk noted it was dangerous to get too far below Kyoraku, or stay on the ground), so it would be an absurd advantage (in this series? Never.) for his shikai to be as broad as 'children's games' could be.
 * On both Ukitake and Kyoraku: when the only major fight/s (if you count Yamamoto's 'execution' attempt) are team-ups against a single enemy, chances are they'll do it again. With other shikai powers/bankai. Probably because they find more laws they dislike, or battles they feel obligated to participate in.
 * Aizen: Kyoka Suigetsu's Shikai can hypnotize anyone who sees its release so that they perceive reality the way Aizen wants them to perceive it. What's the next step in the Sorting Algorithm of Evil? This troper believes that his Bankai will be able to actually warp reality in a limited space, effectively making Aizen God in his Bankai's area of effect.
 * Or his bankai is capable of fully controlling all people around him that have seen the release or heard the command. Which would make Ichigo have to fight entire Karakura, specially his friends in the final battle.
 * Or it's the ultimate Lotus Eater Machine with a huge range.
 * In this troper's opinion, his Bankai will force the opponent's mind into Aizen's Inner World, where he has absolute power, and full control over the environment, and everything he creates will be real. On the outside, it would only take an instant, and the injuries taken in the illusion will immediately reflect on the opponent's body when the illusion is broken, making the damage look instantaneous.
 * Yoruichi: Either something that is cat related (no idea what that could be), or something that complements/supplements her shunko. It's hard to guess, since we haven't even seen her shikai yet.
 * Maybe it gives her some sort of super electric Catgirl powers?
 * Mayuri's Konjiki Ashisogi Jizou can undergo metamorphosis and become a giant moth.
 * Which would spread powder from its wings with the same effect as the caterpillar form's poisonous breath, only covering a massive area with it.
 * Possibly supported by the actual zanpakuto spirit- it's a tiny bankai butterfly.

Stark and Barragan are the only Vasto Lorde espadas
Halibel and Ulquiorra could be, but consider. When an arrancar releases their sword, they adopt features of their original Hollow form (this is more noticable in numeros, for whatever reason). Most of the espada so far have had an animal-like (Grimmjow, Nnoitra, Halibel, Ulquiorra) or just plain non-human (Aaroniero, Zommari, Yammy, Szayel) which would imply that they were all adjuchas class Menos. The highest level espada release we've seen (Barragan), on the other hand, results in a form. Presumably, Stark's will be similar. So, if these two have releases without any animalistic aspects, they're presumably the only Vasto Lordes Aizen has been able to locate and subject to the breakdown sphere.
 * Yammy could just be some sort of special case, which will probably never be explained.
 * Well, let's be fair to Ulquiorra and Halibel. Sure, they have animal-type releases, but if you look at them, their releases more just stack Animal Motifs onto their humanoid forms, unlike say, Grimmjow and Nnoitra, who, especially Grimmjow, gain serious animalistic parts. Sure, Ulquiorra grows wings, but those are 5th and 6th appendeges (Where as a more pure bat form would have his hands become the wings, though that would prevent his Hand Jab Of Doom (That Jab, with an a)). And since we've never seen a Vasto Lorde, we have no idea what they look like exactly, so we can't say that they don't still have an animal like element. Though I must say the idea of Halibel's previous hollow for as what was no doubt a Land Shark is both highly amusing and terrifying.
 * Ulquiorra's sword murciewhateveritsspelled in japanese means "big black winged demon" or something like that. i personally think >4 are adjuchas, 4< are VL. come on, ulq's release just tacks wings on and grows horns. his segunda etapa just makes him hairy. very human. nnoitra's too, for that matter. but the power gap between 4 and 5 lends strength to ulq being a VL. plus there's always that "OMG HIS MASK LOOKS LIKE THA EXAMPLE" argument.
 * Well looking at Stark's release I can honestly say he looks the most human of any so far. The only things that's changed is his coat and that he has a scouter.
 * Sorta. A Ll 4 were Vasto lordes

If Uryuu has a heir, such one will be a girl/have a girly name
If we take in consideration the name convention, the kanji that'll be used will be the rain one. And we all know that most names that use such kanji are, well, girly sounding (Uryuu itself is an exception due to the dragon kanji). If the kid is born as a boy, expect Ichigo's understanding and sympathy, while loathing Uryuu by giving the boy such a girly name. It'll be played for laughs, of course.

The reason Luppi was able to take Grimmjow's number was because he was the next best "Destruction" Arrancar.
When it just seemed like the Arrancar were only numbered by power it made no sense that if Luppi was strong enough to take #6 when Grimmjow vacated it he wasn't already #7. Now that we know the Arrancar represent an aspect of death it makes more sense that Luppi was chosen as a replacement just to keep up with the theme.
 * This actually seems pretty plausible now that we know the theme. He might not act to much like it, but you see it a couple times before he dies. When he grabs Matsumoto, he notes her, uh, talent, and then says he's gonna punch her full of holes for it. Later, he threatens to kill Orihime if she tries to heal Grimmjow and fails. Clearly the kind of "Destruction" mentality. Though Luppi seems to want to destroy pretty things, while Grimmjow is more insistent on destroying things that say they're stronger than he his.
 * Am I the only one that think Halibel only took Nel's number because she was the most powerful female?
 * Halibel probably took Nel's number because they both died for someone (as we know that each Espada represents an aspect of death and that Halibel's is sacrifice).

Aizen's Zanpakutou Kyoka Suigetsu is the real Big Bad, and The Man Behind the Man to Aizen
Zanpakutou do have spirits of their own after all. It'd be kind of funny if it turns out that Aizen was the first victim of his Zanpakutou's Shikai and only thinks he's the one calling the shots. This would mean that Kyoka Suigetsu is wielding Aizen, not the other way around. And it's not like the whole "Evil Weapon enslaves it's own wielder" concept (is that a trope already?) is a new one; look at Soul Edge, Stormbringer, Tokijin, etc.
 * I proposed a similar theory upstream. Except in mine Aizen is an illusion.

The Espada also represent the Seven Deadly Sins and/or their precursors, the eight evil thoughts.
I had a similar theory, and it even included former Nel in the lust part (although she redeemed herself when changed lust for love). I love you, almost as much as Nel.
 * Stark: Sloth
 * He is very lazy.
 * Barragan: Pride
 * Has a very proud attitude and his zanpakuto's name is Spanish for arrogant.
 * Halibel: Lust
 * Ulquiorra: Acedia
 * The Other Wiki describes acedia as "a state... of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world." Sounds nihilistic to me.
 * Nnoitra: Despair
 * It was also his aspect of death.
 * Grimmjow: Envy
 * As an adjuchas he took the desire to evolve to an extreme and seeks to destroy anyone who is stronger than him.
 * Zommari: Drunkenness
 * Admittedly not a sin on either list, but I'm still having trouble getting over the whole intoxication thing.
 * Szayel: Vanity
 * He constantly referred to himself as the perfect being.
 * Aaroniero: Gluttony
 * Ate to grow stronger and his zanpakuto's name was Spanish for gluttony.
 * Yammy: Wrath
 * Easily angered and his zanpakuto's name is Spanish for rage.

Urahara can't really use his Bankai right now because...
He spent so much time without using Benihime's power that he had to make some experiment to release the poor thing to the living world, with a Gigai, to awaken her powers just in case. No, it isn't Ururu. If we go by Meaningful Name, Benihime is... Tatsuki. Her name, in the kanji which are presented, means something along the lines of "noble dragon"; but, with other kanji, can be read as "proud moon"; Benihime is, technically, an allusion to the Moon princess in the Japanese folklore. Her surname is mostly a play as the old zen lesson "be the river". Either way, it's a funny epileptic tree, and it'd be impossible to be true.
 * Impossible?! Nothing's impossible!! This could very well be a huge plot point in the series that results in a massive upturning of the entire view of the universe! NEVER SAY "IMPOSSIBLE!!!"
 * So Tatsuki is a sword in a gigai somehow, and Sailor Moon?
 * More like Arcueid. Question is to know who is her Shiki.

The whole show is Aizen using Kyouka Suigetsu to run a simulation
He is using it to run a simulation to see how it would be like if he tried to take over Soul Society and Hueco Mundo.
 * Again there's people saying that Aizen is not really evil. So, you mean that Tite Kubo is Aizen? Always thought looked a more like Ichigo...

Tatsuki will become a shinigami.
Because it's one of the more well known Tatsuki theories out there that has yet to appear on this page. Oh, and there's offical art of her as one.
 * Creepy art. What kind of zanpakuto is THAT?!

Sora Inoue will become a Shinigami.
Because he's already in Soul Society, but since he received a chunk of Ichigo's powers (everybody that came in contact with Berry-tan did), he'll be able to take the Shinigami exams and will be an officer, probably at 8th or 10th Division, as we never hear anything about such divisions' officers besides Captain and Vice-Captain. (Nanao doesn't count, as she became liutenant.)
 * Technically, we see Tatsufusa, the 3rd Seat of the 8th division (defeated in one hit by Chad just before his fight with Kyoraku), and the 7th Seat of the 10th division appears to inform Hitsugaya of Renji, Izuru and Momo getting out of their cells.

Shun Shun Rikka general theories

 * Shun Shun Rikka's phases represent Orihime's perceptions of the people that are most important to her: Santen Kesshun is how Sora protected her from the world's problems until his death; Souten Kisshun is Tatsuki's friendship, that healed a bit the despair Orihime felt after Sora's death; and Koten Zanshun is due to the way Ichigo protected her against a Hollowified Sora, perceived as aggressive.
 * Shun Shun Rikka's phases represent The Three Faces of Eve: Santen Kesshun is the Child, enclosed in a barrier by their own imagination; Souten Kisshun is the mother, that heals and nurtures the injured; and Koten Zanshun is the Crone, that has an aggressive personality and attacks when necessary.
 * Its powers could recreate the King's Key, given that only Orihime would die in the process. Aizen failed to notice this, or he's abandoning the girl on purpose, to see if what's happening with her would make the Key.

Ukitake's tuberculosis-like disease is caused by a misdirection of his powers.
Although they are water/electricity based, the way he uses them is making his body overexerts itself, even before he became a captain. What he needs is to figure out to use his powers in a way that won't hurt as much. It was shown before that spiritual power, if badly used, can render injuries.
 * Actually, no. The tuberculosis is just a disease.

Ichigo's mother was a Quincy.
It would explain better how Isshin knew Masaki. She was Ryuuken's older sister, and had Quincy powers as well, but like Ryuuken himself, wasn't interested at using them. She'll appear as a (supposedly) low-level Arrancar to Ichigo and teach a bit more about his inner Hollow, as well as how to incorporate Quincy techniques into his own to defeat Aizen, since, much to her chagrin, Ichigo got involved too much into the battle. Also, it would add even more Squick to IchiIshi and IshiKarin shippings, as they would be cousins.

Turn Back the Pendulum will end right before the first chapter.
If the amount of chapters (108) and the negative numbers aren't any indication, the fact that most of the main characters' pasts and stories aren't that well unveiled might mean something. We'll finally know who they and their families truly are, and how Aizen managed to make the Espadas that existed before the Hogyoku as his allies. Not to mention that we don't even know what happened to 10th division's last captain (although everything indicates that he/she died of a bad case of Aizen's sword impaling his/her heart).
 * Weren't the three chapters or so (-3 through -1?) about the events directly preceding Rukia's mission where Ichigo got her powers?

There are natural Vasto Lordes hiding from Aizen
The only thing that supports this theory is that if there never were Vasto Lordes to begin with, the Shinigami wouldn't know their existence, even if it's just in theory, gossip, or whatsoever. They are probably hiding from Aizen because they don't agree with his plans, and, if they ever appear, they'll reluctantly help the Shinigami side to defeat Aizen. I bet that if they appear, they'll be a Five Man Band. Okay, four men and a girl. Also, it'd explain why Aizen ordered Nnoitra and Nell to find them. But he failed miserably because they probably have abilities that make them "invisible" to other Hollows when they want.

Ulquiorra was a spy for the Vasto Lordes...
...and the only Vasto Lorde among the Espada. They were lying in wait for Ulquiorra to manage to grab the Hogyoku and return to them so that they could become Arrancar and challenge the Vizard, who are far and beyond the Shinigami captains in power. The silhouette of a Vasto Lorde shown during Hitsugaya's description is definitely wearing Emospada's helmet. And why would he have a second release and not show Aizen?
 * YES! That's what I believe too! So that's why Ulquiorra can't be dead: we've still got to see him explain this.

Yammy's dog is the arrancar equivalent of whatever Komamura is.
They're both canines and they're both very different from others of their kind.

Mayuri is not as evil as he seems, and is in fact a Stealth Mentor for Uryuu
Soken Ishida made a deal with Mayuri that he would let himself be killed by Hollows and experimented on by Mayuri if Mayuri would make it hard on Uryuu when they met. Soken may have intended for Mayrui to meet up with Uryuu at some point in the future, but Ichigo's trip to Soul Society provided a convenient time for Mayuri to go and find Uryuu. Those Shinigami he blew up were just robots he made, that had pre-programmed responses and no sentience. Mayuri also has a special Quincy technique told to him by Soken written down that he will give to Uryuu when he thinks he is ready for it.

Arrancar have an Inner Shinigami
Visored have an Inner Hollow, so why shouldn't Arrancar have an Inner Shinigami? It looks like them, except wearing Shinigami garb.
 * This could be expanded; maybe they're Hollows that have been taken over by their inner shinigami, or perhaps that what Vastolordes are.

Quincy have their own version of Hand to Hand combat
It is practiced by gathering spirit particles around their hands and using them to deal damage to their opponents.
 * So, Yusuke Urameshi is a Quincy? Cool.

Aizen was a Quincy in life, and still has his Quincy powers.
He says that the only way for him to become more powerful would be to master Hollow powers as well. Now, he could not be the one with ULTIMATE power unless he also mastered Quincy powers as well. So, he was a Quincy as well in life.
 * It'd be one hell of a Seiyuu Joke (in the anime, of course), if he ever manages to tempt Uryuu to join his side. Also, looks do run in the family, it seems.

Tousen has another Bankai, due to having two Zanpakutou spirits.
Notice how he has two Shikai powers that are very different from each other. One just knocks a person out and the other shoots out a bunch of blades. Tousen has two Zanpakutou spirits, one is the one that was the Woman's who his sword belonged to originally, and the other is the one he formed. The Woman's powers are the one that knock a person out, and the Bankai he has used is based on her spirit's powers. His Shikai is the one that shoots out blades, and we have yet to see his Bankai.'
 * Alternately, he has two Shikai and one Bankai, and won't be able to access his own Bankai until he stops relying on his friend's sword and manages to accept her death.
 * Not too sure, but do the two shikai share the same name or not? Cause if not than it could just as easily be a case of his Zanpakuto not liking being called by a false name, and thus doesn't use its true form. And this can happen, since its what happened to Yumichika.
 * Semi-jossed, even if it's true, it never happens.

Ryuuken and Kurotsuchi will fight
Basically, Ishida will have an epic battle and get very seriously wounded (possibly related to the WMG up above about Ishida properly fighting Hollow Ichigo). Anyway, Ishida would pull off something completely awesome during the battle (maybe an improved/permanent Final Form?) and Kurotsuchi will get an interest in him, and try to kidnap him from his hospital room. Before he can do that though, Ryuuken will turn up dramatically, and tell Kuro to get his hands off his son, and an epic shinigami/Quincy fight will commence. Extra points if the death of Ishida's grandfather (by extension Ryuuken's father) comes up.
 * "My name is Ishida Ryuuken. You killed my father, prepare to die."

Ichigo and Orihime are related

 * Reason 1: The hair! Ok. Yes, it is an anime, yadda yadda yadda....but it's not like the characters themselves don't recognise the uncanniness that is a naturally ginger Japanese kid. Not to mention that earlier episodes of the show would suggest that if Orihime's hair had been dyed then she would have done so around the age of twelve which, one has to admit, is rather young for that sort of thing.
 * Reason 2: It would explain Orihime's crush on Ichigo...sort of.

Soi Fon is really in love with Marechiyo.
She just pretends to be in love with Yoruichi to throw other people off of who she is really in love with.
 * It'd be funny enough, but she isn't necessarily in love with either; seems like she respects Yoruichi, and thinks Marechiyo's a moron.
 * I think she's in love with Zaraki. Not really, but it'd be funny. Their foreplay would consist of almost killing each other.
 * Don't be silly, it's clear she's in love with Mayuri! It rather explains how Nemu is a bit similar to her in looks... (Well, the boobs and eye color were genetic enhancement, I guess)
 * She might be in love with Ukitake. It rather explains why she and Kiyone (who is openly in love with him) took Captain Tuberculosis' pictures for the calendar.

After Aizen is defeated, the new enemies will be The Undead.
I am not talking about spirits, but rather about a group of Humans who have managed to keep themselves "alive" by turning into Undead creatures. Their leader will be a Lich(Like from DnD).

Kirio Hikifune is the real Big Bad, or at least one of their group.
Okay, it may seem implausible, but think for a second. Remember when Aizen first appeared in the story, as a mellow captain that treated his liutenant nicely, just to "die mysteriously"? Tite Kubo likes to introduce his important characters as random people that manage to have something really uncommon happening with them, so, why not her? Before you come with a rebuttal, there's another clue! Aizen had a B plan in case Rukia's sacrifice went awry, and it did; he extracted the Hougyoku from her body just by creating a mini-portal of sorts. Now, if you can follow my reasoning, Aizen's group could have a backup plan to get the King's Key as well; they could have one of their agents, or even their boss, entering the Royal Guard, gaining the King's trust, and persuading him to get the original key, without the need for all this battle, as a side plan. Also, Aizen's expression when he knew about her entrance to the Royal Guard was a surprised one, but who knows if it wasn't a fake, too? And, as far as The Smurfette Principle goes, there's probably going to have a woman in their group; Four Is Death stabilishes that their group would look even more frightening with a fourth member as well. Unfortunately, it would put Momo Hinamori and Hiyori Sarugaki, opposites in personality, in a really similar position. Expect Hiyori feeling betrayed and outraged, if this happens. I can even see Aizen's dialogue. "Yamamoto: So, Aizen. Seems like your plan to get the King's Key just got botched. Prepare to face my punishment.

Aizen: Not so soon. We already got the Key.

All the other captains, in terrible conditions, looked with fear at what Aizen just said. The Vizards reached the place in time to hear it, too.

Aizen: We had an agent infiltrated in the Royal Guard, and you didn't even notice.

A mysterious figure appears, with a different uniform from the Shinigamis' ones.

Hiyori: H-Hikifune-dono? IT CAN'T BE! YOU'RE LYING!

Hikifune: In reality, it was my idea the whole time. Sorry, Hiyori-chan. It's all to make our world a better place.

And then, the terrible trio, plus their higher-up, travel in another portal, before Yamamoto could get them.

Shinji: Crap, that sucks hard. Hiyori-kun! HIYORI-KUN!

Hiyori frozen at the reveal, and, if it wasn't for Shinji's quick reaction, she would have fainted and fall on the floor."

Or something like that.
 * So much of that makes sense that it would be a shame if even some of it isn't canon.

Mayuri's liquid form is essentially the Shinigami version of LCL.
The idea is that Mayuri's Zanpaktou serves as his personal Lance of Longinus which he uses to temporary revert to shinigami LCL so he can escape whenever he is too injured to run or fight. The assumption is that shinigami LCL is different from human LCL not only in colour but by the fact that it can move and reform its AT field within a few days.
 * So, Basically, he just discovered how to revert to LCL? I knew his character was a reference to various Mind Screw mecha anime, but didn't quite grasp it. Also, in another matter, Aizen probably wants the Instrumentality, as he said once something about unification...

Chad will enter Las Noches
And he'll find the Hogyoku, which he'll use on himself to become powerful enough to beat Yammy.
 * ...they're already in Las Noches. I assume you mean he'll enter Aizen's... palace, for lack of a better word, and go to the hogyoku room.
 * Las Noches is Aizen's palace; Chad, Renji and Rukia are presently facing down Yammy just outside the entrance.
 * I'm going to guess he meant "Aizen's throne room", but went a bit awry with that. To me, Aizen took the Hougyoku with him anyways (he's crazy prepared, remember), so, it wouldn't work.

Aizen is Masaki Kurosaki.
"He" always have been a female all along, the male looks are all Kyoka Suigetsu's job. Don't ask, I don't really know why I proposed such theory either.
 * Well,Aizen's zanpakuto create illusions so if she was the one to use it that would make sense but it doesn't make one why she would threaten her own son's life sending Arrancars after him

Kyouka Suigetsu is Masaki Kurosaki.
Well, it's weird, and she wasn't supposed to have a kid, I guess, but perhaps she loved Isshin so much that she overcame the impossible. It's the weirdest theory yet to come, but hey, you know that'd be cool.

Souls develop in a strange way.
As opposed as growing up like humans in the living world, people at Soul Society have an... Interesting development. Examples are provided below. Any questions?
 * They grow up from baby to toddler in a couple years (Yachiru, Shibata);
 * Then, when being a toddler, they take a while to grow up until being in their late childhood (Hitsugaya, Momo, Rukia, Renji, Byakuya, Matsumoto, Gin, Soifon, Nanao, Kira still not computed as we haven't seen his childhood yet, as well as Hanatarou);
 * They spend a short time in their teen years, if compared to the amount of time they spend as kids (Rukia, Renji, Momo, Kira, Byakuya, Matsumoto, Gin, Soifon, Nanao);
 * Once they become adults, it takes centuries, sometimes millennia, until they get to the mid-age (Unohana, Ukitake, Shunsui, possibly Aizen as well);
 * It might take even more centuries, or even millennia to get old, but once the spirit's old, if it's strong enough, it will stay old for a really, really long time (Yamamoto).
 * So, it's basically comparable an RPG, in that it takes less experience for a low level character to level up than it does a higher level person?
 * Exactly, including the boring mid-level quests after a while. The in-series explanation would be that the first RPG system to be created is inspired by the aging in SS, and was crated by a Shinigami.

Hollowification hinders a bit the aging process
Hollows might have different ways of appearing the age they, well, appear, but we can notice that they'll probably stay around the same age for a longer time than Shinigamis. It's noticed that something similar happens to Vizards as well; 100 years since the hollowification passed, and none of them changed one bit (it might be due to the Gigais, but yet). Most glaring example is Hiyori, that seemed to be at her early teens when the incident happened, but still appears to be... At her early teens, even though it was already implied that teens grow up rather fast in Soul Society.
 * According to Lilinette, hollows/arrancar don't age at all (or very slowly, otherwise Barragan's power couldn't have been turned against him) and their apparent ages are purely aesthetic. So it's possible this extends to the Visored.

Grimmjow, Nel, Kenpachi and Yachiru will have a Big Damn Heroes Moment.
We haven't seen any of them for awhile and everyone is expecting a Heel Face Turn from Grimmjow. Chad and the others can't defeat Yammy all by themselves. Also Grimmjow and Kenpachi are Blood Knights and Nel and Yachiru are both little girls.
 * Maybe not a Big Damn Heroes from Grimmjow. More an Enemy Mine moment. He does hate being indebted to people.

Aizen's Bankai is a Mass Mind Rape of Cthulu proportions...
...and is as such defeated by the release of Yachiru's Zanpakuto, which is essentially a Reverse Mind Rape, causing all damage to shift back to Aizen. Only accessible after the Big Bad in question attacks and severely injures Kenpachi, who has caught up with the other Captains.
 * Or it just summons Cthulu himself.
 * Or the SQUID from Watchmen.
 * Dead wrong. Aizen's Bankai will be a puppy and Yachiru will defeat him by eating it with lots of ketchup.

Ukitake is trying to make Linninette self-destruct or burn herself out
This otherwise kindly man is laughing at a crying child as he plays keep-away with her Zanpaktou. If she wasn't an arrancar, that would be amazingly out of character for him, and it's still a little unsettling. The only thing I can think of (other than Ukitake being a total *** ) is that he wants to defeat her without expending any of his reiatsu so he can save his energy for Gin or Tousen.
 * Or this could be the only way he can defeat her due to his apparent inability to harm those who are/appear young...
 * In reality, he's more like scolding her in a very odd way. If Lolinette recovers that sword, she's gonna release, probably turn into a grown-up looking form, and then will be thoroughly beat up by Ukitake's Shikai.
 * Coming to those episodes as a newbie, this troper saw it as the guy, in a old-fashioned ('you're a child, and what's more a girl!') and misguided but well-intentioned manner trying to distract Lilynette from Starrk's fight while (he sincerely thinks) encouraging her. He quite bluntly explains why she cannot hurt him during their 'fight' in a way a stern teacher might rebuke a student for simply not doing it right. And when she persists he retaliates by knocking her down without causing serious harm. Like Kyoraku, Ukitake was trying to put off actually fighting, and to be fair it initially looked to the pair of them that Starrk simply had a random kid with him. Other than not liking the thought of her on a battlefield, they didn't think Lilynette was an issue and as such neither were about to hurt her. The hypocrisy comes in when Ukitake still complains briefly after the Fusion Dance, only to then join in to save Kyoraku's arse. That was irritating.

Soi Fon used to be/is really a Genki Girl at heart.
Think about it. A zanpakuto is a manifestation of the owner's soul. Her shikai is a gold gaunlet with a sharpened cone on her middle finger. It's quick, small, and efficient, something that she is now (At least, something she would be now if Kubo could write her right). Her bankai however is a humongous compass-like object that loudly shoots rockets. Soi Fon was very reluctant to release her bankai. Therefore she has have been putting on a facade that could rival Aizen's this whole time. Before she joined the Onmitsukid?, she saw how the people in the organization acted, so in fear of getting booted from the family, she decided to change her personality to pass the test to get into the Onmitsukid?. Then, she decided to keep up the facade when she became Yoruichi's personal guard (and eventually the captain of the 2nd Division) because of her learning that she must act like that from now on. Also, Yoruichi might be the only person who knows how Soi Fon really acts seeing how she's the only person we see with whom Soi Fon doesn't really act so cold towards.

The Oldest Captains never use their bankais because they either cant, or it will hurt them badly to do so.
My current running theory is that at some point in the past each of the captains lost some part of themselves. Yamamoto lost his ability to change, hence him being an old man even while the others look young; he cant adopt to modern styles, no matter how hard he tries.

Shunsui lost his inhibition. Hence his incessant flirting and bad drinking habits.

Ukitake actually lost a part of his internal organs permanantly. Because its now normal for him not to have them, he cant be healed, and so he constantly coughs up blood.

Unohana lost the ability to fight. Thats why, even though she's the second most powerful captain, she never does anything but heal. At the same time, her smiling act is just a impression, put on because she doesn't think she can ever be cured.

If any of them use their Bankais, it either is impossible because they're missing a critical part of their body for using it, or because it will look like an Eldritch Abomination for the same reason, or because it will remind them exactly what they're missing, sending them into a spiral of self-destructive despair.

For that reason, the younger captains use their bankais all the time, while the older ones never use them at all!
 * Perhaps they caused permanent damage to themselves because they have really been around since the founding of the Gotei 13, and working out how to use their powers in a more organised fashion (each division is meant to have a speciality?) they made serious mistakes. Although in Kyoraku's case, especially given the erratic, rather childish nature of his shikai, one wonders whether 'lack of inhibition' would be much, much worse.