Bleach/Headscratchers/Soul Society: Difference between revisions
Bleach/Headscratchers/Soul Society (view source)
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* Soul Society currently lacks three captains, correct? They've got a captain-level shinigami that they seem almost too happy to just throw away. WHY THE HELL DON'T THEY MAKE ICHIGO A CAPTAIN?
** The Soul Society has no real authority over Ichigo and he probably would refuse because it would require him to live in the Soul Society, away from his family and friends. Besides, just because he is captain-level in terms of strength doesn't mean that he is ready to take on all of the responsibilities of a captain. He's only 15, as compared to the other captains who are [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]].
*** Also? He's NOT DEAD YET. Er, we think. I'm pretty sure being dead is a basic requirement. (Not to mention what that would do to his school attendance, which has to be pretty bad already.)
** OK, what about Renji? He's been through the Shinigami academy and everything and has been an officer for a long time. The only reason I can think of is that he won't take the job until he's beaten Byakuya, kinda like Ikkaku's reason.
*** There's also the fact that he's been a vice-captain for under a year.
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*** They could both very well have a Bankai, and Kubo just hasn't said anything else. Then they'll release it, with a convenient excuse for why it's been a secret so far, and they'll get out of whatever "impossible" situation they're in.
*** I don't know, the way Ichigo's been acting reciently he could fit in with Squad 3. They hate fighting, but see it as a necessary evil.
*** Ichigo doesn't hate fighting, he realized during his fight with Grimmjow that he likes to fight and part of the reason he came to Hueco Mundo was to fight strong opponents.
** Keep in mind that if you just need them to ''fight'' - and that's what Soul Society does at the moment - it does not really help anything if you promote them, it's not like that would make them stronger. Being a captain is about leadership, experience and perhaps most of all trustworthiness, as these guys also have a lot of authority to abuse. Even though he turned out to be justified in the end, don't forget that only a few months ago Renji openly rebelled against the authority of Soul Society, for the sake of a personal relationship. So he is probably not that high up on the trust-scale. And the same but more goes for Ichigo, along with the reasons mentioned above.
*** But Zaraki became a captain simply by killing another one, which is in no way a test of any of the qualities you described above.
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** In the Soul Society arc, the captains were just following orders from the Central 46. A few even questioned it and rebelled. Now that they know that the Central 46 were dead, that the order was given out by Aizen as part of his plan, and the captains are now presumably the ruling power, they're just doing whatever they want. They were not adamant at all on killing Rukia.
** It was explicitly part of Aizen's plan: He killed the Central 46, and since the Central 46 don't make contact with anyone outside of Hell Butterflies, and their living quarters are strictly off limits to EVERYONE except the Central 46 (much like the Forbidden City in ancient China) AND they were sealed off from everyone else when the ryoka entered the Soul Society, Aizen was able to easily kill them all and pose as them for the sake of giving out orders.
** That was the Sleepy Fans translation; a more reliable translation by Binktopia has him saying "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100528081111/http://read.mangashare.com/Bleach/chapter-339/page006.html I shall give your souls mercy and simply burn them away]," indicating that rather than give them a horrific death by burning up, he wants to incinerate them as painlessly as possible.
** This was a major Wall Banger for this troper. Is giving power to another human to create a substitute THAT big a deal that you have to execute an officer? No trials? No investigation as to the reason why? Not a peep of objection from the military - is their organization that spineless? Generally, you let the army do its own sentencing - ivory tower civilian meddling from Gotei 46 would rarely be tolerated by the military in any setup. What's more, all the captains except for 13th and 7th squads just accept the order without quibbling. Even shittier is Byakuya's reasoning for not protesting: "I went against the law when I married her sister, so I decided to blindly follow the law for the rest of my life. Even though it goes dead against the promise I made to my wife to keep her safe." Kubo messed up big time.
*** It is possible that Aizen was already controlling Central 46 at the time they decided to kill Rukia. I believe Aizen said he had to use the soukyoku to get the hougyoku out of her.
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*** Actually, the movie said that it would be a (extremely one at that) rare occurrence for a shinigami to recall much of any of their memories as living humans (if they weren't born in the SS first, that is). This type of amnesia occurs when the soul had died in the living world. Given some few examples (The boy spending most of his earth-bound time searching for his mother, Hisana dying during war together with an infant Rukia, etc.), souls probably have most of their memories of earth of how they died and what they had done during the time they were earth-bound (given if the soul didn't pass on right after death).
** Rukia started as a baby because she died on Earth as a baby; she had an older sister Hisana who died along with her at an older age. People seem to join families by adoption; it's explained that finding your Earth family is very unlikely.
*** Of course, none of that explains why the afterlife is so crappy - a single, feudal Japanese city floating in the middle of nowhere. It would really suck for a German guy to die and end up having to spend the rest of eternity in the middle of a crappy version of ancient Kyoto, except with streets that go nowhere and with the world's most boring landscape. Hopefully, there's an afterlife for every culture/country. But probably not, since [[Tokyo Is the Center of
*** This troper is of the opinion that there indeed is an afterlife for everyone. Remember, Ichigo et al. exited the ghetto to meet Kukaku Shiba. And outside the ghetto are grassland, forests etc... It's not much of a stretch to assume that beyond said wilderness are other Shinigami cities. All the protagonists end up in that Japan-themed part of Soul Society because they're japanese. (Are there gaijin in there down the line? This troper hasn't seen the show past the middle of the second arc).
*** There are foreigners in there but with Japanese names (Tousen's who is black, Yoruichi who might be Middle Eastern(or a really tanned Japanese) and Rangiku and Kira who're pretty obviously white). They're a minority though, so theyre probably Westerners who died in Japan and took Japanese names to fit in/were given Japanese names by the families that adopted them/Soul Society wanting to increase conformity, rather than an indication that Soul Society is the afterlife for everyone.
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*** After his fight with Ichigo, Renji flashbacked to his childhood with Rukia. Both of them seem to age normally for the ten years after they meet, and it seems as though they only stopped once they became shinigami. Rukia was probably just over-exaggerating her age in the first chapter.
*** Or maybe it has something to do with reincarnations. The VIZ release has her saying she's lived "ten of your lifetimes".
*** But if we do say that Rukia spent 80 years as a street urchin, the last 10 was spent living with Renji and his ragtag group of boys before they decided to become Shinigami. So she met him as a 70 year old kid. But, seeing them both standing on the hill with the graves, we see that they have aged "normally" as you say, into teenager-dom. Why would Rukia's physical appearance accelerate in so little time compared to before? It took her 70 years to physically age approx. 10 years (from a baby) while it took only 10 years to physically age approx. 5 years more? She even had spiritual pressure while at that age, so using the excuse that shinigami age slower than Rukongai's ordinary inhabitants, she should've aged more slowly than before.
*** Kyoraku and Ukitake have been shinigami for over 2000 years, possibly including their training persiod. Clearly, at some point, aging can just STOP.
*** This troper always assumed that the rate at which you age in Soul Society is inveresely proportional to the amount of spirit power you actively use. Meaning, the more you use, the slower you age and the other way around. That would explain how Renji and Rukia were able to grow up relatively fast as kids - since they used only small amounts of spirit power - but stopped almost completely once they were accepted into the academy. It is also the only way to explain how the world is not MAJORLY imbalanced when it comes to living humans vs. dead people. That is, if dead people have such long *cough* life spans *cough*, and a new human only is born when a soul reincarnates...major mathematical issue, anyone? (Then again, how to account for population growth is really beyond this troper....)
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* Why did the events of the Soul Society arc have no impact on the involved high-ranking Shinigamis at all? Kyoraku and Ukitake plus their subordinates destroyed the legendary execution blade, Zaraki helped a bunch of invaders just to have fun, and Renji went against his captain. Mind you, none of them did this to thwart Aizen's plan, but just to save Rukia (or, in Zaraki's case, to battle). Don't tell me a Knight Templar like Yamamoto would let that all go unpunished.
** Here's the thing- Ukitake, Kyouraku, and Hitsugaya were all in the right. They believed that Rukia's execution was unjust and unlawful. When it turned out that it ''was'' (since Aizen slaughtered those 46 dudes), they were proven right. Zaraki...well, I think everyone in Soul Society just sort of tolerates him.
*** I always had the impression that Ukitake did not really save Rukia because he thought the execution was wrong, but because of genuine sympathy for his subordinate. And Kyouraku helped him because of their friendship. The only one who really suspected that there was more behind it was Hitsuguya.
*** Would you want to get in the way of somone who's at Captain level without even being able to use Shikai? I sure as hell wouldn't.
** And that Komamura is not Lawful Stupid. You don't fight your three captains when three others just defected to enemy and other three would stay neutral at best and more likely side with first three... given that two other most likly will stay neutral and in this situation divisions would likely follow they captains. If you do - it's Lawful Stupid of epic proportions.
** I think you mean Yamamoto, not Komamura.
* The Shiba house (or houses): Giant chimney/cannon and ridiculous banners aside, how does Kukaku manage to keep finding huge tracts of undeveloped land on which to build her houses, when most, if not all of the Soul Society districts are extremely overcrowded? Do they blast out the area with their spells and explosives, then plant a bunch of grass and build a house? Or are there just giant fields all over the place that nobody is noticing?
** Kukaku just takes those huge tracts of land wherever she goes.
** Don't even start asking yourself how Soul Society works, your brain might explode.
** [[Ghibli Hills]]
** I don't recall it ever being said that SS was overcrowded, just that some areas were more populated than others. Seireti isn't crowded at all, and the upper Rukongai districts don't look that bad either[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091218064722/bleach/en/images/3/3a/Rukongai-bleach.jpg\]{{Dead link}}. We also see lots of greenland in SS[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100921134061/bleach/en/images/4/41/TosenMeetingHisagi.jpg\]{{Dead link}}. Seireti seems to have less than other places, but it's still there. The Noble families have grass and trees around their manors/compounds[http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100825161617/bleach/en/images/d/d7/KuchikiFamilyCompound.jpg\]{{Dead link}} and their own rivers, apparently. There's some areas around Sogyoku Hill that look like small forests [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100903084237/bleach/en/images/d/dd/Senzaikyu.png\]{{Dead link}}. There's also some mainly green areas around the Second Division barracks[http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100825144051/bleach/en/images/9/94/2ndBarracks.jpg\]{{Dead link}} and the Nest of Maggots [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090226111527/bleach/en/images/b/b7/The_Maggots_Nest.jpg\]{{Dead link}}, the Eleventh Division barracks[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110316212061/bleach/en/images/3/38/11th_Division_Barracks.jpg\]{{Dead link}}, and Ugendo (where Ukitake recovers when he's sick)[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100825185729/bleach/en/images/f/f5/UkitakeRecoveryRoom.jpg\]{{Dead link}}. Outside of the Seireti is the Rukongai, which contains mountains/trees/large green areas. In fact, we see Kenpachi find Yachiru in a forest-like area. Grass is common in SS, just not in the parts we're used to seeing in the story. Most of the Soul Society Arc is about Ichi-crew running through this[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100825143453/bleach/en/images/f/fe/Seireitei.jpg\]
* With everything Soul Society and the Soul Reapers can do, why can't they cure Ukitake's tuberculosis? I mean, they can create artificial souls and bodies, but not antibiotics?
** Maybe he doesn't actually have tuberculosis, just the symptoms left over from when he died from it. This would create a lot more [[Fridge Logic]], of course.
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*** Fatal wounds aren't much of a problem to shinigami because shinigami heal at a faster rate than an average human, so to them, wounds that are fatal to humans is probably, at best, a battle scar that might reduce into a smaller one over time. What's probably considered fatal to shinigami is probably Rangiku's entire right side of her abdomen getting ''torn'' right off by Allon as a good example.
*** Since Ukitake was born in Soul Society, maybe he can develop rare spiritual ailments with physical syptoms.
* Why is the justice system in Soul Society so piss-poor?
** [[Crapsack World|Crapsack Afterlife]]?
** Perhaps it's because a lot of death within the Soul Society is actually conducive to keeping the balance of souls. If death inthe Soul Society means reincarnation in the world of the living, then all the pointless deaths are their way of keeping the natural order.
*** It's never said how souls go from Soul Society to the world of the living, since Kaien says they break down into reishi. Additionally, the Sokyoku destroys the convict's soul.
*** One could interpret it as their spirit-bodies that turn to reishi, and the soul goes back to the living world since it's free again. Also, the Sokyoku may be a special case, in which the soul is just obliterated entirely.
* Why do so many people decry Soul Society as a [[Crapsack World]] when literally the only parts of it we've seen, besides the Seretei, are the districts that are clearly designated as the [[Wretched Hive|Wretched Hives]]?
** An ideal afterlife shouldn't have those bad areas to begin with. There's disease, poverty, the Central 46 is a terrible governing body, shinigami can act like [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]] or [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] without any real consequences, and the whole society basically functions like feudal Japan, which pretty sucks for anyone who didn't live in feudal Japan.
*** An 'Not ideal World' (or rather, a normal world which is what it sounds like) =/= [[Crapsack World]]. Also, we may never have seen the real Central 46 operating. Damn Aizen.
**** Actually we have seen the 'real' Central 46 in action. They're the one's who condemned Urahara, Tessai and Yoruichi on seriously paltry evidence, without giving them any chance to defend themselves. Noteworthy, because the condemned were all high officials, with Yoruichi being the heir of one of the Four Great Noble Houses. Other than that, Sereitei is demonstrably not a benevolent government. Urahara, before becoming a Captain, was in charge of a prison for 'dissidents', which is anyone who disagreed with the current system. Kurotsuchi Mayuri used his division shinigami as living bombs, obviously without consent, with no demonstrable consequence. Kon is a prime example of Soul Society's attitude towards sentient, if artificial, creations. Also, it should be noted that Aizen got away with impersonating the Central 46 because of the rigid, I-will-not-question-orders attitude of Yamamoto et al. The fact that districts like Zaraki exist mean one of two things - Sereitei cannot control all of Rukongai or Sereitei allows the situation there to persist. Neither imply good governance. So, yeah...Soul Society is a [[Crapsack World]].
**** No, it's not. First, Yamamoto not questioning his orders. Why should he? Other than how harsh it was, he had no reason to. Because of Aizen's abilities, it looked like it came from Central 46. He would have to assume they were just looking to make an example out of her, or make sure it didn't appear they were going easy on a highly important family. Alright, I'll grant you how harsh they were on Urahara and Yourichi. A bit agressive there. And how is the Zaraki district in any way relevant? The Soul Reapers aren't cops. They're soldiers. It's their job to protect the world of the living, and keep the Soul Society safe from Hollows and the like. They simply don't have the resources to do both. Do you expect the National Guard to patrol rough areas of Los Angeles? Of course not. That's not what they're there for.
You can't blame them for doing something that simply isn't they're job.
* Central 46: The entire Soul Society is governed by a group of 46 people without any kind of checks and balances? Excuse me? It only looks even worse in the light of the shenanigans pulled by the traitor Aizen and his co-conspirators after they killed them all.
** Its based [extremely loosely] on feudal Japan. King of Soul Society is the distant, functionally powerless emperor, Central 46 is the shogunate, only better because they're a council not with a single person in charge. Presumably, its formed by election among nobles and high-ranking shinigami, in which case it'd be a sort of congress, albeit probably closer to the House of Lords in membership than the House of Commons. It may be bad, but its better than just having a single-person type government. If you haven't noticed, Soul Society is kinda the epitome of "social conservativism", so its not surprising that their government is several hundred years behind modern Japan's.
** I'd consider the number of people to be checks and balances for each other, and even a single slightly dodgy execution had several captains ready to rebel, so its not like they could get away with anything.
** Another problem I saw during the Soul Society Arc was authentication of orders. You'd think there would be some system in place by which the Head Captain would be able to confirm that an order really came from C46 ''and not some scoundrel trying to pull a fast one.'' Going by what happens with Rukia's death sentence and the events surrounding it, they seem to lack that. Combine that with the fact that orders and decisions from C46 cannot be appealed, and you've got a surefire recipe for disaster.
*** Two things, a couple of off hand references do indicate that there is authentication. Second, there was NO way to see through what was happening. Aizen used his zanpakuto to create the illusion Central 46 was still running normally. And as we know, there's no way to beat that. Basically, he short circuited the entire process by destroying the head and replacing it in such a way no one would even have a chance of noticing it.
* Central 46's judicial process and subsequent judgments: Even setting aside Rukia's sentence (which wasn't actually handed down by the Central 46), their "justice" system makes no sense. Tessai was sentenced to (extremely long, if not immortal) life in prison (at the "3rd level") for using a forbidden kido. Urahara Kisuke was sentenced to removal of powers and eternal banishment to earth for experimenting with Hollowfication on captains. In contrast, Kurotsuchi Mayuri has been unethically experimenting to his heart's content without a peep from the Central 46. This raises the issue that Central 46 (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the Gotei 13) seem to have the attitude that as long as it's not us/Sereitei, it doesn't matter. But the real headbanger is how they responded to Aizen Sousuke: the man who was discovered to have actually been behind the Hollowfication of the Vaizards, the man who killed the previous Central 46, who created most of the current Espada, who was trying to ''wipe out Soul Society'' was sentenced to 18,800 years in prison. That's ''less'' time than Tessai was sentenced to! Granted, Aizen was sentenced to the highest (8th) level of the prison, but the fact that Aizen could be released--without even having his powers removed--in the future just makes no sense to this troper, particularly considering Tessai and Urahara's sentences
** There's no indication shinigami are naturally immortal. In fact, given the way the Central 46 reacted to Aizen's immortality on top of the fact we've seen that shinigami age, the indications are strong that long-lived does not equal immortality. In many real life systems, a sentence of "life" does not mean "for that individual's natural lifespan", it generally means for the maximum possible sentence that legal sytem can dole out - in Japan, a 'life sentence' really means an imprisonment in which an offender cannot seek parole for a minimum of 10 years, but how long they actually remain in prison may vary depending on situation. Since they have a special term for prisoners who have a genuine life sentence (as in for the rest of their natural life), 'life' doesn't automatically mean that. Add in the complication of a shinigami's extended life-span and we have absolutely no idea how long 'life' actually is for a shinigami sentence. We therefore can't easily compare it to Aizen's sentence.
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* One million years? In chapter 476, Rukia had better be exaggerating when she says that [http://www.mangareader.net/bleach/476/12 Soul Society has not changed in one million years.] Forget the 2,000 years of Yamamoto when people first moved to Japan in the first/third century AD; forget the weird aging; and now forget that modern humans have only been around for about 100,000 years. Seriously, Kubo?
** It's probably a translation of an idiom for "countless" or "myriad" or something like that. When it's said that Japan has eight million gods, it doesn't literally mean eight million it means "more gods than we can count". "Myriad" is ancient Greek for "10,000". In a sentence saying "Soul Society has not changed in myriad years" someone could translate it rather literally to "Soul Society has not changed in 10,000 years". Of course, if Kubo did mean one million, that's another matter.
* I think the concept of the afterlife in Bleach Universe might be based off of the Six Domains of the Desire Realm in Buddhism[
** Perhaps Komamura is a clue since he seems trapped midway between animal and human, and it's at least hinted he comes from a family of these since apparently the reason he hates carrots is because his father told him it's not food for their kind.
** I just realized something. Byakuya has golden koi fish in his pond<ref>at least he ''did'' until Yachiru stole them and put them in Ukitake's pond as a get well present</ref>that are extremely rare and have been raised on the Kuchiki grounds for many generations[https://web.archive.org/web/20180307183930/http://bleach.wikia.com/wiki/Kuchiki_Family_Manor
* Why has no one in Soul Society thought to bring in Orihime to resurrect {{spoiler|Sasakibe,}} the same way she did with Loly and Menoly?
** Because the manga has never claimed Loly and Menoly were dead or that Orihime brought them back from the dead. The idea of her resurrecting them from death is [[Fanon]] only. At the current time, characters in-universe have no reason to believe Orihime can resurrect the dead and the fandom only ''speculates'' that she can.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Bleach (Manga)/Headscratchers]]▼
[[Category:Bleach Soul Society]]▼
[[Category:Headscratchers]]
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