Chapter 485: Foundation Stones

[clotrun]

Discuss about Chapter 485 here. Theings are getting interesting now regarding the war.

[captain 0]

Just read chapter 484 ..
And it was....
Super
duper
mega
Incredible
Perfect
Amazing!

One of the best chapters soo far.
The new boss was really cool! .....he sliced the dudes arm and then he said"I hate fights" ...= LOL

Can't wait for next chapter...
I really wanna hear their report.

[MarcoPR1]

They aren't Quincy... if they can Bankai... which means my obscure theory in another post might be... they're the vizards Isshin was referring to when he was speaking to Urahara all those days past...

I said that Isshin didn't have the right perspective on those vizards... and Isshin doesn't waste words...so... it looks like my theory could be correct...

If those are the vizards that Isshin was referring to, SS is in some serio trouble, because I got the feeling that those guys went the whole way and not the partial way that Shinji and the rest had....

This is gonna get good... now I hope whats his face lives...lol... and I'm thinkin we're gonna see a whole lot of Bankai's from the SS crew... because if Isshin didn't feel the need to unseal his sword and he did that much damage to Aizen, what does that say about these quys...

Holy Architecture Batman, we got us an arc...
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Ohh and don't tell me we got a Kuchiki involved in this... lol...can anybody say Byakuya's dad is here...this is gonna be quite the reunion... and why does their king look like a stressed out Zangetsu...

TK you got some splainin to do!!!!

[khia]

And and and that one guy, who looks like a cross between Ginjo and Tsukishima? What's up with that? And I agree... the bossman looks like a really stressed Zangetsu... >.>

[Willster328]

My reaction and prediction from the 484 thread:

After seeing their powers and judging from what I've read in recent weeks, I'm going to make a bold prediction:

I've recently been making the argument that Quincy powers are the pre-mature form of a fullbring. And from Ivan's fight with Ichigo, it looks like he's trying to make Ichigo's bankai disappear, but I'm going to go one step further and say he's trying to "steal" Ichigo's bankai. That's why I think when Chojiro claims they can use bankai, I'm going out on the limb to say it's because they've stolen his. He was impaled by the arrow, and when Yamma cut him down from it, it was then that he claimed, "They can use bankai". The reason why he'd know this, is because he could already use bankai, but now he can feel that his zanpakuto has been stolen.

I think it's also heavily implied that their strategy is to steal all shinigami's bankai. When the Emperor says he doesn't like fights and is doing this for "Peace", I think it's because his plan is to steal all the bankais so that the shinigami cannot fight. Hence no fighting, hence they have peace.

And finally, I think they might have the power to potentially wield the bankai. And I think this is where Ginjou's backstory will be revealed. From what I gather from what Soi Fon said when Ichigo visited SS to get the body, that Ginjou "stole shinigami powers". Recently I took this to mean he just received the powers, but now I think she meant it literally. And that Ginjou took his newly acquired shinigami powers, and using his Zanpakuto, stabbed these Quincies (maybe not all of them, but definitely the emperor) and gave them shinigami powers.

Why do I assume the Emperor has shinigami powers? Because he CUT off the arm of his associate. Not shot an arrow at him. He CUT the arm off, meaning he uses a sword or has a shikai that can cut things without him moving.


And the last thing that I noticed, that I think this could give credence to the "power stealing" theory. Is the appearance of two of our Quincy friends. Ivan and the unnamed one who's arm got cut off. If you split them down the middle, the left side of them looks different than the right side of them. And this could be a result of whom they stole the powers from. If you split Ivan down the middle, his right side his the "arrancar" version. So maybe he stole his powers from an arrancar and received the appearance. And the one who got his arm cut off, maybe his right side is the appearance of somebody whom HE stole powers from.


Finally.... Everybody is talking about the Quincy emperor looking like Isshin, or Ginjou, or Aizen, or whomever, but I'm surprised nobody commented that the "left" side of the guy who got his arm cut off, looks VERY very similar to Tsukishima:

http://www.mangareader.net/bleach/484/15

[cp1983]

You may be right. That would totally explain that "portal" or "rift" that Hiyori noticed when they were walking down the street. If you look closely it totally resembles the rift/method of transportation Ivan used to return to his comrades. But taking on the appearance of another individual after doing away with some power or ability is kind of a stretch. Suppose that mask fragment belonged to an arrancar - which arrancar? And why would Ivan say what he did when the term "arrancar" was used as if not knowing what they were, yet wearing the fragment anyway.

I see Kuchiki semblance. I even see the stressed out Zangetsu semblance. Ivan kind of resembles Grimmjow and maybe a little Aizen. Where bound to get answers from Isshin, or Urahara, or someone sooner or later because Ichigo is going to return back to his home and may I say Isshin might already be there waiting for him; or Urahara, or both.

Saying, "they can - bankai," kind of means he forgot what he was going to say then continued where his train of thought left off - finishing with "bankai." That could mean he confirmed their use of bankai or saw him perform bankai perhaps. Power pirates? Royal Guard? Ex-Vizards with full potential? Quincy possess the ability to gather reishi and use it for all kinds of means. I guess it isn't farfetched to say that it can't absorb or drain spirit particles from a soul and convert it into an attack. Going bankai would only increase those chances of you losing your primary form of offense.

Something bugging me is the location of where they are at. In-between dimensions somewhere? Hell? Where the Soul King resides even? It is cold and it is primarily at night. Next chapter should be good.

[goke]

The report will be key to the direction of following events. Especially Ivan's, they will have to take stronger measures towards {Ichigo-of-the X-Factor}.
Hopefully that would mean deploying more, perhaps stronger men?

Wonder why they're waiting 5 days... clearyly they could have taken on Yama-jii there and then.........

[sketchum]

Now that I've seen this newest chapter, I have some blanks filled in on where I think that this is all going.
I think that these guys are what Urahara and Aizen were attempting to recreate with their separate productions of Hogyoku. I always kind of suspected that they were attempting to reproduce something that they didn't understand. Like the "Cargo Cults" of New Guinea and Micronesia. Something that was so far beyond their understanding that the best that they could do was attempt to put it into their paradigm. These are transcendental beings that have bridged the divide between Shinigami and Hollow, or beings for which that divide is meaningless.
Perhaps they are the Vasto Lorde. Though at that point I suspect that the moniker is more an attempt to describe and categorize something that was not understood by the Shinigami. They are what Aizen was seeking to employ, and what he attempted to create with the development of the Espada and the Vaizards. Pale copies, at best.
And Aizens fusion with the Hogyoku was an attempt at becoming a perfect assimilation of all forms of power in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We'll be seeing that with the Emperor/ New head bad guy. And have gotten a glimpse of it with Ichigo (Human, Shinigami, Hollow, and Zanpakuto). This dude is going to be Bad News, with a capital B. I suspect that he is much like Ichigo, and depending on his state of mind he looks different. Hence, the "How can you serve that Thing" statement.
I think that his appearance being simialr to Zangetsu is no accident, and that Zangetsu's image may be a manifest memory from Ichigo's past, or a latent image of an ancestor from which his power stems.
I am no longer convinced that the Vandenreich are the royal family, though the head bad guy may be the "Soul King". But, I am leaning more toward the "Royal Guard" being more "Prison Guard" than "Body Guard".

I haven't been this excited about the possibilities of where the story could lead in years.

[MarcoPR1]

I've been thinking about that portal... something Ivan said kinda bothers me... he said "this shadow... only hides the chosen ones..."

He did a move right out of Shunsui's playbook...

Personally, I don't think they're all Quincy. Neither do I think Ivan was trying to steal Ichigo's bankai... just like shinigami zanpakuto powers, the fullbring powers were different and exclusive...

I think Ivan was trying to erase Ichigo's bankai... like completely negate it... but didn't have enough power...Ichigo being the stronger of the two...

This shadow thing is interesting though... stepping completely outside of the realm in an instant...makes me think that the King doesn't like being jailed and those *enter German word here* are corrupted Royal Guard who wanna help him...

I don't think all the Royal Guard are involved so we may see the return of Byakuya's grandfather...

All this action is making me wonder something fierce... lol...

[Emperor_Kon]

I'm really loving this chapter so far.
Can't wait to see Ichigo get back home! I want to see Ishida's reaction, hear what Isshin and Urahara have to say, and hopefully see Ryuken make an appearance.

Since Sasakibe didn't finish his sentence we don't know for sure what he ment. It could be that they have their own bankai or it could be that they steal people's bankai or it could be something else.
I'm personally leaning to the stealing bankai part, it could be something similar to how Ginjou took Ichigo's powers. I think Ivan was trying to steal Ichigo's bankai.
Sasakibe actually might have had a bankai and they stole it. Well that or he witnessed them stealing someone's bankai because if Sasakibe really had a bankai it makes me wonder why he got one-shotted by a barehanded shikai Ichio in the SS arc just like that. If he did witness them stealing someone's bankai then there comes the big question: who's bankai did they steal? So far the only people in SS we know that have a bankai are the captains(minus Kenpachi), Renji and Ikkaku. Man imagine if they stole some of the captains bankai. O.o
Guess we'll find out soon enough.

Man I'm dying to find out who they are. xD
I still think they're dead quincy who for some reason didn't go hollow/go to SS and instead somehow got a power that can steal the powers from other specie, somehow created a new realm gate thing like the garganta, discovered a new realm and made it their new home.

The Emperor really does look like Zangetsu, heck Zangetsu was the first thing that popped up in my mind when I saw the guy.
Crazy thought: Ichigo, Isshin, Aizen, the Emperor are actually all relatives and at the end of the arc well see an epic Ichigo & Isshin VS Aizen & the Emperor fight. O.o

Another crazy thought: these "beings" are the "ultimate being" Aizen was trying to achieve with the hogyoku. Something that has the power of both humans(quincy, to be more precise. and maybe even fullbring too? O.o), hollows and shinigami. But Aizen "only" had/has shinigami and hollow powers.
But Ichigo on the other had has all 3. His fullbring for human powers(if he still has it?), Zangetsu for his shinigami powers, and Shirosaki for his hollow powers(if he's still there?) so maybe Ichigo is now also one of the "chosen ones" and is the only good guy that can beat the Emperor? O.o

Another crazy thought: they're one of Aizen's early experiments with the hogyoku who Aizen thought were a failure but turned out to be a succes in the long run. Now they're out to destroy the SS because they think Aizen was ordered by the SS to experiment on them. Though I really doupt this is true. It would be kinda lame I think.

I don't think they're the Royal Guard. In the 100 years flashback arc one of the captains got promoted to Squad 0 so surely Yamamoto would have recoginzed them right? I don't see why the Royal Guard would want to destroy the SS. And the bad guys are an Empire which means there has to be a lot of them. I doupt if you'd put all the promoted captains together it'd be enough to call them "an Empire".