Bleach

[Serra]

Wait a sec.. so Ichigo is in the Soul King's Palace, and when he returns, there's a chance he'll have reached a level where his powers will adversely affect the human world, but before the final battle, they're going to send him back to Earth to unwind with his friends?? I don't understand..

[Correction]

Wait a sec.. so Ichigo is in the Soul King's Palace, and when he returns, there's a chance he'll have reached a level where his powers will adversely affect the human world, but before the final battle, they're going to send him back to Earth to unwind with his friends?? I don't understand..

Bleach makes no sense while wasting 20 pages worth of panels? Ya don't say.

[Souj]

I assume he'd only be able to affect it in his spirit form?

[kuronosan]

He said there's a chance Ichigo will obtain a power that will prevent him from *living* in the human world, not visiting it.

[Milkster]

Kubo just gave his out for how the series will end. Ichigo becomes the new Spirit King.

[Nullibicity]

When all this started I was thinking he would probably become the next spirit king. They even say the spirit king is interested in him.

[Uzor]

"There's a remote chance", and of course it will happen. Otherwise it wouldn't even be mentioned... That was such bad writing, seriously Kubo, it's probably a new low even for him. There's no logical reason for him to come down and give the tickets now. I can somewhat understand him warning them before hand, but there's no reason at all to give them tickets before it's even confirmed whether or not he can't return to the living world.

And seriously, if he obtains that power (which he will) they'll still send him back to "relax" with his friends, even though he can't go there because of his powers? Fine, I can accept the reasoning someone used earlier in the thread where someone said he can't live in the human world, but he can visit. Sure. But why bother giving them tickets to Soul Society then? He could just come visit them every so often.

[Karbuncle]

"There's a remote chance", and of course it will happen. Otherwise it wouldn't even be mentioned... That was such bad writing, seriously Kubo, it's probably a new low even for him. There's no logical reason for him to come down and give the tickets now. I can somewhat understand him warning them before hand, but there's no reason at all to give them tickets before it's even confirmed whether or not he can't return to the living world.

And seriously, if he obtains that power (which he will) they'll still send him back to "relax" with his friends, even though he can't go there because of his powers? Fine, I can accept the reasoning someone used earlier in the thread where someone said he can't live in the human world, but he can visit. Sure. But why bother giving them tickets to Soul Society then? He could just come visit them every so often.

I'd say it makes sense they'd be able to visit him even if he can visit them. I mean, logically, Do you call your friends and say "Heres how it works, I'll visit you every so often, But if you even step foot near my house i'll cut your goddamn eyeballs out"? No, I'm willing to bet somedays you visit them, other days they visit you. So him giving his friends the opportunity and even the ability to visit Ichigo on the times he's not in the real world isn't exactly as far fetched as you make it out to be.

Now, that aside I don't disagree with many of your points. Yes, the "Remote chance yet revealing it to us as foreshadowing" type thing is pretty lame, giving them the tickets now also seems like "They'll show up mid fight to either f**k it up or give him the heart of the cards" deal... Lastly, Him coming to relax with his friends may be a "Respite" from the training where before he meets the spirit king/obtains his power-up he'll be giving a moment to head back to the real world... Or as the poster a few above says it may simply be he can visit on a limited basis but never for too long.

[Alarial]

What's the purpose/job/impact of the Spirit King anyways?

[Uzor]

I don't it's been revealed what the Spirit King is, nor what he does, other than him being some kind of royalty in his own dimension.

[arus2001]

And Aizen hates him and feels Urahara should, too. Beyond that, fuck all.

[Xno Kappa]

Well, Urahara made it sound like all existence depends on him for whatever reason. I don't know, maybe Kubo will use some Xenogear'ish type explanation for the Spirit King and Ichigo will be all like "we dont needz a king no more! I wants to live wit mah friends."

[Nullibicity]

Anyone notice bleach comes back 09/09? ninth day of the ninth month and everything the quincy guy talks about on the last page deals with 9's

[The Blackrose]

While Shunsui was handing off the tickets, he mentioned that he had already given a set of tickets to Ichigo's family.

... So what exactly happened when him and Isshin ran into each other? That must have been awkward.

[Xno Kappa]

First thought that ran through my mind, he just gave it to Ichigo's sisters. Isshin being the horrible father that he is more than likely wasn't even there.

EDIT: Better question, why use hell butterflies when you got soul tickets son!

[Gredival]

... So what exactly happened when him and Isshin ran into each other?

Shunsui congratulated Isshin on shacking up with Masaki and said he wished he could find some human girl to goof off with because Nanao is mean to him.

[Uzor]

Do we even know if there's a roal family? Like a queen, princess etc? Or does he live there all alone save for the staff and 0 squad?

[Souj]

And Aizen hates him and feels Urahara should, too. Beyond that, fuck all.

Yeah, I think we're supposed to get the impression that while Urahara agrees with Aizen that the spirit king is a horrible monstrous thing, just not with Aizen's methods that include trying to dethrone said horrible monstrous thing.

[Uzor]

Wonder what's so horrible about him, does he demand tribute in the shape of unborn Soulreaper fetuses? Does he demand to drink the blood and devour the soul of their first unborn children?

I mean, what does he do except sit there and look creepy?

Wonder if Ichigo will be chosen to be adopted by the soul king like Uryuu was adopted by Yhwach (sarcasm at him being his successor)

[Alarial]

Well they appeared to be going down the Full Metal Alchemist route in that each of the Zero Squad had a Key (that you allegedly need to sacrifice a city to make..), but I haven't seen anymore progression down that path.

Honestly, I could see a story where there was no Soul Society or Hollows. Where human spirts just re-incarnated as people lived and died, for eons. Then comes a powerful person/force/spirit that learns to harness that power, and thereby creates the Soul Society, where spirits start being filtered out of the process. Since re-incarnation is no longer automatic, souls that don't automatically pass to the Soul Society (often times stronger spirits), start turning into Hollows.

The Soul King then sacrifices a few hundred thousand human souls to create the soul keys, and thus moves to his palace dimension, leaving some Soul Society thugs in charge to run the place and continue his spirit siphoning/re-routing plan.

Aizen, understanding all of this, moves to transcend the barrier between hollow and soul reaper, and de-throne the evil soul king.

Bach figures out similar ways to control the spirit power and starts the Quincies, humans capable of harnassing the spirit power, and commences war against the Soul Society. The Quincy method of Hollow extermination also bypasses the Soul Society's re-routing, thus the Soul Reapers determine the Quincies must die.

Ichigo fights Bach, and the truth of it all comes out. Ichigo ends up destroying the mechanisms that the Soul King put in place, re-establishing the old cycle of re-incarnation. No more hollows, no more need for Soul Reapers. And Ichigo stays behind in the other dimension to ensure it never happens again, acting as the new Soul King/Overseer.