Bleach 520 Discussion / 521 Predictions

^^ I dont know Paul. Unohana knows the "Art of Killing" and she's about to teach Kenpachi (should i start to call him Zaraki now since there are two Kenpachi's). I imagine that "the Art of Killing" is not related to a Bankai, so they wont have to worry about anything being stolen.

With that being said, you'll have a powered up Zaraki, that shouldnt get man-handled by Bach, unlike before. Plus, you have another Kenpachi, who is arguably the strongest Shinigami of them all.

If Mayuri or Urahara figure out a way to block the Bankai stealing tech. Then you still have Shinsui and his Bankai, which must be powerful since he was chosen new CC.

This was such a great chapter. Good pacing, humor, information, drama and a nice reveal all rolled up into one. This chapter felt complete to me. I particularly liked the banter between Shisui and Central 46. Nice to see the Gotei 13 have some decision making ability in the situation especially at a time like this and Shisui's rhetoric was pretty much spot on. Maybe next chapter we'll catch a glimpse of how those in hm are faring.

They attacked SS because they had a strategic opportunity to do so. Ichigo, who is one of SS most powerful/valuable assets, was essentially able to be trapped in Heuco Mundo. His unavailability weakened SS. They had the element of surprise, instead of waiting how long they had announced, the Quincies immediately launched their assault, with two purposes that we can discern: 1. kill as many of the upper echelon of the Gotei 13 as possible, 2. Attempt to recruit (or at least consult) Aizen. The only reason they weren't able to accomplish more is due to an apparent time-limit to how long they can stay outside of their territory.

Bach wanted to draw out Squad Zero. Why? Probably to gain access to the Soul King, since the "key" is written into their bodies. Since SS was so devastated, Squad Zero has no choice but to get involved, otherwise the Quincies would just keep chipping away at the Shinigami until there was no one available to stop them from creating their own key, like Aizen attempted.

The point I'm rambling my way to making is, realistically, everything is going the way that Bach wanted.

On the bright side, it's nice to get confirmation about Zaraki's survival! It'll be interesting to see how much stronger he gets.

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Originally Posted by paulbee

Thinking forward, looking ahead:

What can the Quincies be thinking right now. They Had the Shinigamis on the ropes, but the only Captain that died was Yamamoto. They would have done much better to kill off as many Captains as possible, they should have delayed their attack until they had enough forces to do this.

Now Quincies knew about Squad Zero, so it is obvious that they (Quincies) haven't revealed all their cards yet. For instance, they are Mass Manufacturing arrancars.

Obviously part of their ploy is to overwhelm SS with arrancars (like The Guy who tried to seal Ichigo's Bankai). WHy they did not Kill Kenpachi is beyond me.

If Juha Bach returned to HM without sending reinforcements to Opie's location, I'd be dissapointed in their strategic thinking/abilities.

I am not yet sold in th Shinigami's hopes, because losing Yamamoto Genrusai sets them back further than what I think that a Renewed Kenpachi or Unohana can make up.

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It seems Ichigo is part of their plans as well as the Soul Kings, perhaps he tried to take 2 birds with one stone and keep ahead of the Soul King. Perhaps he needs Ichigo to beat the Soul King, Ichigo was also part of Aizen's plan (and they wanted Aizen to join). If they grabbed Ichigo before their attack, SS might have been alerted, so they weakened SS and tried to grab Ichigo.

So yea, I've always had a hard-on for Unohana since we all knew she was a covert badass (her stats in the databook showed as much) waiting for the time to reveal as such, but now that she's been revealed to be the very first Kenpachi.... Never been harder for her in my life than this moment lol. So we've got two nice reveals this chapter, of course, the first being Unohana, but the second being that Zaraki is far, far more powerful (or at least has the potential to be) than we've seen to this date, which is really very scary.

The reason Zaraki doesn't know about Unohana being the first Kenpachi is likely because he's never actually seen her. Being on the outskirts of Rukongai, he probably only heard stories about her being the strongest shinigami, but never actually saw her appearance.

Doesn't anybody else find it unreasonable that Juha Bach did not Kill Kenpachi when he had that chance? Did Bach look down on Kenpachi so much that he didn't think Kenpachi might get stronger in the same way he thought/expected Ichigo to get better/stronger?

On a different note, I was rather impressed with the cover art from Mangapanda showing Unohana's Zanpakuto's spirit

Spoiler!

http://i996.mangapanda.com/bleach/52...ch-3747607.jpg

^ That's not the case. (Fake) Bach was about to finish off Kenpachi when a fire spewing old man fell down from the sky. You just can't play with meat, when fire is burning your ass, you know ?

Ok, now I'm starting to wonder if perhaps Zaraki isn't part of Unohana's Zan Spirit *DUM*DUMMMMM***. Think about it, if Unohana were to throw away her wild raging self, then of course her killing powers would have been thrown away/split as well. This would suggest that her original Zan's Spirit was a sword using flying mantis-like beast rider ;P. Nah, that would be too hax :P. Still it's quite strange that no one even attempted to give him a name if he didn't had any...

Zaraki and Yachiru (Unohana) must have met. You simply cannot care for a person you don't know anything about or you haven't met. You can admire someone from afar, but you can't care for someone without meeting and knowing that person. Especially when you mention that the person in question was the only one that you cared about... until he met the Lil Yachiru that is.

The art of keeling eh ? I'm not sure how much will that help. Sure, it seems like this will cover the same basis that Unohana taught to Ichigo (that every combo has a certain number of chains/hits and the like). I guess a better footwork could make him more effective, more evasive and accurate, but what does it actually cover ? If it's so effective, then why not teach it to others ? If we assume that everyone knows it, then shouldn't they at least teach that to Ichigo as well ?

They should have repaired Ikkaku's bankai as well, along the way... unless Mayuri have modified it somehow already.

Looks like Renji will return as the Captain of the 6 Division with Byakuya as his VC this time ;).

The Hot-spring guy shouldn't be so surprised about Ichigo's speed. He is still in his Speed boosting bankai mode after all.

So renji can take a super punch from a squad 0 guy but gets his ass handed to him from a Quincy -_-...

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Originally Posted by Shock

So renji can take a super punch from a squad 0 guy but gets his ass handed to him from a Quincy -_-...

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Not quite. Renji and the others should already be stronger than before from that treatment alone. In bleach not all scars remain, but the damage done to the spirit will hinder them/lower their potential over all (some parts/drops of reiatsu will remain rotten it seems). Renji was basically obliterated like 7 times in the series ? Supposedly a truly full recovery was never possible before (well maybe with Orihime, but not many were treaded by her and certainly not to this level), that is until now. Plus he partially survived that punch through his will power, which is seemingly on Ichigo's level, it's just that Renji wasn't as lucky as Ichigo to be born with all those secret powers. Then again, Renji's strongest stat seems to be defense and do not forget that the Blood Power Ups are simply that overwhelming.

I'm pretty sure that one of the Quincy will absorb one of the Royal Guard members along with their key to the Soul Kings Realm, just as Opie did with that Hollow-like monster.

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Originally Posted by Zero

Zaraki and Yachiru (Unohana) must have met. You simply cannot care for a person you don't know anything about or you haven't met. You can admire someone from afar, but you can't care for someone without meeting and knowing that person. Especially when you mention that the person in question was the only one that you cared about... until he met the Lil Yachiru that is.

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Zaraki only cares about strong people. If he heard that the first Kenpachi was really strong (strongest shinigami), then that's all he'd need to know to care about her. He need not have met them before to be that way. Methinks you're taking 'care' in the more intimate sense of the word, which is not the kind of 'care' Zaraki was talking about.