Originally Posted by
Stev3child
Yama's death to me was executed pretty nicely(no pun intended). I really liked the ideas behind his death. It conveyed that his stregnth and power are truly sourced to the man he was during the chaos that came before the formation of the current soul society. To attain the peace that he envisioned as current ss, Yama had to, whether he wanted to or not, participate in the bloody conflicts that decided who could rule. To have the privilege to rule, one must be the most merciless, the most bloodthirsty and the most powerful.
I think Yama rejected this status quo of events, but accepted this as a necessary sacrifice of his character to achieve his vision of peace. His ultimate act of rebellion to this, but also consequently the act that more or less caused this conflict and his death, was showing Bach Mercy. This was probably at the point Yama was trying to put his past behind him including his past self. By putting his past self behind, he is also putting his true power behind. But the true Yama isn't the guy who loves the bloodshed and crushing his enemies beneath his feet or ruling with an iron fist. No that's the past he wanted to put behind. The true Yama is the compassionate old man who wanted succeeding generations to peacefully unite under a banner of protecting and preserving all souls in the universe which I think is the goal the current system they have today(to explain, I think the balance of souls was achieved through naturally occurring war and death on all planes of existence. I think the current system is trying to achieve the same balance but with more life preservative measures).
Being the one to lead the young generation down that path, he must symbolize these principles. The cost of that was his power and later, tragically his own life. He would not become the monster he once was and betray his beliefs and his vision of peace to satisfy Bach's revenge. He would not allow himself to risk soul society going back to such times by exemplifying the very ideals he denounced and have it imprint the minds of the younger generation. To make such a reversion, would be equivalent to death in his eyes. The ideals that he lived by were the ideals that he died by and I liked that the fear of death didn't drive him back to who he was. Showed a lot of stregnth in character, and that to me was more important than showing his battle prowess.
