History Headscratchers / BleachHollows

** Inner shinigamis? I think in any case they'd end up developing zanpakuto spirits otherwise, and the closest thing that happened was Stark's fraction (I picture her as his power source in the same way, just that she wasn't inside his spirit world just because he felt lonely).

* During Halibel's release, it looks like all her clothes disappear. If she goes back to her normal form, do they come back?

* Where did Nell go after Noitra got beat? [[NeverFoundTheBody And did Grimmjow die for good]]?

** Volume 39 shows tthrough the mini-comics Kubo puts in the blank page corners that Nel has recently woke up, and thinks she's having a nightmare because Zaraki is there.

* Why didn't zonmari try to dodge Byakuya's bankai? seriously he went on bragging about his incredible speed that he was the fastest espada(that right the fastest!) even called it a "miracle" yet didn't use it to escape byakuya's attack like he did before he release in fact he barely use his speed at all.Nor did he try to combine his speed with his armor,with that combo he should basically be the strongest espada so why is he only number 7? He embodies intoxication and everybody says that he is intoxicated by his own power so why don't he use his power to it's potential.

* Most of the arrancar's releases seem to be animals, i.e. Halibel is a shark, [[spoiler: Nell is an antelope/horse]], Grimmjow's a jaguar, there was a tiger, elephant, hawk, snake, and lion fraccion... So why the hell was Zommari a PUMPKIN?

*** Cue Barragán Luisenbarn standing menacingly over Soi Fon. "Each of the Espadas embody an aspect... of the Circus Industry."

*** Well, I'd peg Nel as a Sacrifice type, possible Cirucci too (Given her willingness to cripple herself to win). Dordonii, eh, he could be "Descruction", he sure acts kinda like a mild Grimmjow. Assuming of course that the theme isn't set for each set of Espada, or all the aspects are constant.
*** My personal theory is that Barragán is just making crap up. He's incredibly arrogant, and could have easily made up the whole "aspects of death" thing just because it meant he got to give a cool sounding speech.

** It is mentioned in chapter 197, page 16 and 17, that Vasto Lords are more powerful than captains. So, depending on how many of the Espada are counted as such (in this tropers opinion, ALL of them since every Espada is human size, the one stated characteristic of such) it either makes sense or is complete BS.

*** And Aaroniero claimed to have been a Gilean.

*** Yammi goes from being an Espada when Numbered 10 to being the 0 Espada. It's a stretch in the first place given the ambiguity of the statement, but that doesn't change the fact that even when sealed he was still ranked among the espada. Remember, only the espada have their numbers Tatooed on their body, that he has a tatoo of that number at all is a pretty huge kick to such claims. He's simultaneously the 10th and 0th, weakest and strongest, espada, varying on when he's sealed or released. Which mind is all kinds of stupid ''by itself''.

* Aizen knows precisely where the intruders are, and has an entire army of arrancer at his command, ten members of which are able to give the protagonists a run for their money, why is he holding back?

* How is it possible that Szayel and Ilforte consider themselves brothers when technically Arrancars are just a bunch of Hollows put togheter? And the "by adoption" thing, like in Soul Society, doesn't aplly, since Szayel shows to really dislike his brother.

* I'm a little unsure about Aizen and his hollow army. Are all the current Espada made by him or what? How long has he been established in Heuco Mundo? Are the arrancar numbers designated by him or was there a system in place before he was around? IIRC it is stated that the Privaron were kicked out when Aizen started making his own arrancar (or something like that) but didn't he need the magic sphere thing to do that which he only got after Rukia's execution. Also, if he wanted hollow powers, why didn't he just Hollowify himself since he knows it works (Shinji and the others).

** Starrk and Ulquiorra became Arrancar under their own power. The other eight all needed Aizen's help, though it's not directly shown for all of them -- it's why the Privaron Espada were demoted, as they became obsolete once Aizen made the "new" Espada with his Hogyoku. Starrk and Ulquiorra were just so strong that they could easily stand alongside their "improved" counterparts. It's also possible that Aizen used the Hogyoku on them retroactively to "perfect" them, just like Urahara used his on the Vizard, albeit with other intentions (he meant to reverse their Hollowfication, rather than stabilize it.)

** The Zanpakuto filler arc may not be canon, but it can still express a canon concept. In the filler arc, both the Shinigami and the Zanpakuto spirit had access to the sword, so there were two of each sword. If Starrk were a Shinigami or Vizard, rather than an Arrancar, that fang-like sword would probably be Lilynette/Los Lobos's Shikai.

* Watching the recent Bleach episode with Allon made me realize something. How do Apache, Mila Rose, and Sun-Sun get their arms back after they create Allon? They said that Allon never listens to them, so that confirms that they've done this before. And it's not like they keep their arms so that they can get them sown back on like with Yammy, or have someone like Orihime to give them back their arm like with Grimmjow. You could say that Orihime did it for them offscreen when other things were happening, but I seriously doubt that she did ''every'' time, or that she was always there to heal them.
** Perhaps when they dismiss Allon he turns back into their arms, which reattach themselves.
** In the manga they actually tear their arms off, so I'm in favor of the "they get them sewn back on" but the "Allon never ever listens to them ever ever" thing just makes me wonder if it'd even listen to an order to change back
** It's possible their initial creations of Allon were when they were masked Menos, meaning their arms could just regenerate. This still doesn't explain whether or not it would obey a command to disband though.
** Maybe they can force Allon to 'disband' back into their arms whether it wants to or not? It wouldn't be much use as a weapon if they didn't have some method of shutting it down if it ever went berserk. Er... more berserk than usual, I mean.

* Why is it that Dordonii - an Arrancar stripped of his rank, fallen from Aizen's favour, and relegated to what essentially is an empty dungeon section of Las Noches to quietly while away his days - knew about Ichigo's hollow transformation, but Uloquirra, who is one of Aizen's direct subordinates and by all appearances his ''Chief Information Gatherer'', didn't?

** Perhaps it's possible that Aizen was popping in and out of Hueco Mundo prior to his defection, or having Gin or Tousen pop in and out of Hueco Mundo making incomplete Arrancars all the time. So, all the Espada prior to a few months ago are incomplete Espada made by Aizen without the Hogyoku, including Nnoitra and Neliel.

** Grimmjow is more human-looking than nnoitra. hell, zommari is more human-looking than nnoitra. and szayel as well.

* Aizen's origins and how he established himself seem like an interesting idea, but so far, they've only been hinted at, even in 371. It would have been nice to see why the Espadas besides Barragan joined him, how he established his army in secret (he took "Las Noches" from Barragan). It bugs me that this hasn't been explored in more detail.
* Is Barragan a Vasto Lorde class Hollow, then? Judging from chapter 371, his release form and original Hollow form are pretty much identical, and before he became an arrancar he appeared to be the most powerful Hollow around. Of course, at this point, it seems as though the Hollow classes have kinda been forgotten about entirely...

*** There's a good case to be made for Ulquiorra and higher being Vasto Lorde(not counting [[AssPull Yammy]] into this). What we know about the Vasto Lorde is that they are "stronger than an average captain". We know that Ichigo is captain strength. He got utterly curb-stomped by Ulquiorra(before Uber-Hollow form) - so he fits the bill of being more powerful than a captain(if we assume that Ichigo's Hollowification and Ulquiorra's Shinigamification essentially cancel each other out, then what we're left with is a comparison of Ichigo's Shinigami power and Ulquiorra's Hollow power). The ones above them fit the bill as well - Barragan couldn't be brute force killed by a captain AND a vizard-kido master. Hitsugaya landed, at best, a few scratches on Harribel and [[AuthorsSavingThrow ice clone]] aside, he'd be dead. Starrk is doing pretty well against TWO captain class Vizards. Really, how powerful do they have to be for people to believe that those guys are VL?

*** It would appear that they might not be Vasto Lorde after all. Based on chapter 375, it would seem that [[spoiler: Starrk is a naturally-occuring Arrancar: when Aizen met him, his mask had already been removed and Lilinette was with him (he states in 361 that she was created when he became an Arrancar).]] Barragan could have been [[spoiler: a more imperfect natural arrancar, a little bit human but not much, who was subsequently improved by Aizen. The top three could basically have been adjuchas bordering on Vasto-Lorde with some natural-Arrancar thrown in extra.]] Besides which, the top three Espada being Vasto-Lorde doesn't make much sense story-wise; Vasto-Lordes are touted as being stronger than Captains to begin with, and Shinigamification ramps up a hollow's power something chronic. Vasto-Lorde Arrancar should be godlike, so it really would be senselessly anticlimactic for Kubo to go "Oh yeah, those three dead Espada were actually the most powerful entities it's possible to have in the Bleachverse so far." Then again, considering what happened to Superchunky...
*** actually No ulquiorra was more powerful than the top 3 epecially with his secret second release, the top 3 were only as strong as a captain while ulquiorra was several times that like ichigo, the top 3 went down like that because they weren't as strong as we were lead to believe.
*** Barraggan is a VL, it's pretty much confirmed. Halibel was.
* If Stark is the Arrancar [[spoiler:personification of 'loneliness']]...why does one of his powers involve [[spoiler:summoning a horde of wolves?!]]

*** I was somewhat surprised when Kubo skipped Harribel after Barragan and went to Starrk. While the order of Espadas being defeated doesn't correspond to their power (9, 6, 7, 8, 5, 4, 2, 1, 3), I was hoping the battle against Harribel would conclude before the battle against Starrk did and I was hoping the two would go on for a little longer and show more of the Espadas' abilities (Harribel could have some nice water-based moves and Starrk could use Gran Rey Ceros or some other special Cero attack).

** Nonsense, Nnoitra was obviously boasting about because he was deeply insecure and afraid of the world. Ulqiorra does his whole 'what is a heart' and 'friends are meaningless' thing. It fits.

* Was Neliel just ''really'' unpopular among the Espada? You'd think at least one of them would take issue with Nnoitra back-stabbing and forcing out an Espada that was more powerful than him over a petty grudge.

* So, if the Big Bad Primera Stark can be beaten by Shikai, Yammy is still just a glorified Giant Mook (who Aizen left back home at his fortress), and Tousen, despite supposedly being above the Espada, hit the axe so quickly, how the heck did Aizen plan to make it past the cream of the crop Shinigami Captains of Squard Zero on his way to the Soul King if his entire army is just Cannon Fodder compared to the normal Captains? Yeah, Aizen himself could pose a threat, but if only he could do so in the very end, why did he even need to create a giant army?

*** If I had, in the past, dealt with Kyoka Suigetsu and heard of the duplicity of the widely trusted Aizen, which proves to me that alterations of mind and perception are real (meaning I would take EVERYTHING I see and know with a whole lotta grains of salt), and the trusted person never ''denied'' brainwashing me (or get offended at the idea) and in fact made statements that sound, while vague, suspiciously like confirmrations or mild corrections (as in, "its not changing the past, its creating a new reality" kind of thing), then yes, I would get suspicious of my best, most trusted friend, especially if the one doing the accusing was a friend I trust ''even more'', since its clear that Orihime is still in love with Ichigo and Chad still remembers learning to fight to defend Ichigo, so they still SHOULD trust him enough to not dismiss his statements automatically. Any one of these things wouldn't be enough, but all together? I'd take Tsukushima aside and do some hardcore interrogating, albeit interrogating interspersed with apologies. All of this goes, like, TRIPLE after ''seeing Tsukushima alter someone's personality and memories'' when he stabs Ginjo a second time.

*** Subverted the bleach wiki states that if the victim begins to realize inconsistencies with Tsukishima's presence in their past, and what has actually happened, they begin to suffer mental damage

*** Ginjo uses bankai because he absorved Ichigo's abilities, including bankai and getsuga tensho.

* Exactly how could tsukishima lose to byakuya, or fail to make byakuya as blindly loyal as orihime and chad? From what we've seen, he inserted himself into their memories as not only the most important in their life, but also as the one who saved rukia and soul society (''which means he basically took ichigo's place in their minds'').So, shouldn't byakuya's undying loyalty be toward ''him''? Byakuya should have fought against soul society to fight against ''tsukishima's'' ennemies. Or was he really okay with killing the one whom he owes everything, who saved his sister's life, his life and the gotei 13?

** But isn't it weird for tsukishima to make such a mistake? he made himself appear as the ultimate combination of the persons close to chad and orihime (ichigo's cousin,nakama,key preson in each of their fights,big brother or grandfather,...), but failed to do the same to byakuya? Especially since it seems he's quite used to his abilities. Really it seems more that kubo wasn't allowed to show byakuya being beaten, and made tsukishima grab the idiot ball.

* In the most recent chapters, [[spoiler: we've just found out that one of the Vandenreich that Zaraki killed had a twin. While Loyd (the twin Zaraki killed) could replicate powers as well as appearance, his twin Royd (the one who impersonated Bach and Yamamoto killed) could replicate appearances and memories and the like. If Loyd was the twin who could copy likeness and power, why didn't they just let him be the fake Bach? I know the memory factor that Royd has but still. If Loyd could replicate Bach's power, would it not have made more sense to just fill Loyd in on the basics of the past and let him fight Yama?]]. That just doesn't make sense to me.

* We know from Rukia that people who have commited evil deeds in life go to Hell instead of Soul Society. So how come Tsukishima and Giriko weren't claimed by Hell's gates? One is a ManipulativeBastard who drove countless people to insanity, and the other murdered several people with his ability. Has Kubo forgotten there is Hell in Bleach's setting for people like those two? Or is it that they somehow aren't evil enough?
** The only character to canonically go to Hell was Shrieker, who was a sadistic serial killer with out so much as a reason for why he killed beyond just liking murder. these two at least have freudian excuses, though we do not know what they are yet. also it is implied that they were in the Rukangai, which judging from Rukia's and Kenpachi's back stories, could well be "Purgatory" while the Seireitai is "Heaven".

** Hmm, I'm pretty sure Nnoitra implied he wanted to rape Orihime, so it seems that the genitalia are fairly compatible between Arrancar and humans/Shinigami. The question then boils down to: do Arrancar produce gametes, and are those gametes viable? I'd imagine it's a tossup depending on how humanoid their bodies are (Aaroniero would have trouble I imagine), and whether there'd be anatomical issues (Harribel's Hollow Hole is on her womb region IIRC). If all that clears out, then I'd imagine they'd be capable of producing children, and the child would be, essentially, a Vizard (if it's the Shinigami part that's responsible for producing the life) or a castoff fragment of the parent's soul (Starrk and Lilynette, Szaeylaporro and Yllfort) since that's what most Hollows tend to do in lieu of proper offspring.

* If the Substitute Shinigami Badges are actually surveillance devices, and Ginjou is fully aware of this, [[WhatAnIdiot why is he still carrying his around?]]

** [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/bleach/v42/c363/19.html Here's the link, for those who are interested]].

** [[http://www.onemanga.com/Bleach/253/04/ Dordonii says he received a recording of Ichigo and his allies' fights in the real world]]. As for Ulquiorra, it's possible that he's surprised by the nature of Ichigo's transformation (and how it makes him akin to an arrancar) rather than the fact that he has it.

---

*** A "Cipher" is also a code. A complicated, secretive way of writing or coding a message. It would apply with his personality and goals in quite a few fights, especially with Ichigo. His true, for lack of a better word, emotions during they're final fight can be interpreted so many ways and we were never given a solid answer to his personality. He's a very cryptic person. I liked "Schiffer" too, but the implications for Cifer being better is solid.***

** Zonmari and Syzael should swap places, this troper thinks. Syzael is waay more into intoxication than Zonmari (his Zanpakuto's command is 'drink', its name translates to 'You will fornicate', and he ''deep-throats the thing and gasps in pleasure as he transforms'', for chrissakes), and Zonmari is less about intoxication than he is about being several spongecakes short of a picnic. Byakuya even calls him up on it, something to the effect of 'why are you being such a raving lunatic'?
* Why didn't zonmari try to dodge byakuya's bankai? seriously he went on bragging about his increadble speed that he was the fastest espada(that right the fastest!) even called it a "miracle" yet didn't use it to escape byakuya's attack like he did before he release in fact he barely use his speed at all.Nor did he try to combine his speed with his armour,with that combo he should basically be the strongest espada so why is he only number 7? He embodies intoxication and everbody says that he is intoxicated by his own power so why don't he use his power to it's potential.

** And has anyone else noticed that several spanish words used in bleach also have a meaning in Japanese? That's a real life ItJustbugsMe.

* WHAT THE HELL happened to Grimmjow and Nel? Is Kubo Tite counting on an Official TVTropes' ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Award for the Author who forgets about his own fucking signature Bad Guy and signature CuteMonsterGirl!?
** After reading everything above this post it is quite obvious that Kubo REALLY forgets his own continuity at times and just chooses which plotlines to follow by re-reading older volumes.
** Well, I seriously doubt they bothered to heal Grimmjow, so he's probably still bleeding in a ditch somewhere. As for Nel, who knows? She was pretty well tapped out, so they probably left her with her buddies/Fraccion to recover while they assaulted Las Noches. Still, if that's the case, they could have at least ''mentioned'' it. Even like, one or two lines of dialogue saying 'Nel is at X, doing Y' would have been nice.
** Nemu tossed Dondochakka and Pesche off into the distance, but they could come back at some point. Unfortunately, if they try a BigDamnHeroes moment against Yammy, it will probably be even less effective than the one they did against Szyael.