YMMV / Bleach The Thousand Year Blood War Arc

• Complete Monster:
  • Yhwach is The Emperor of the Vandenreich, the King of all Quincies, and the Greater-Scope Villain of the entire work. Yhwach attacks the Soul Society, killing numerous Soul Reapers, while personally slaying the Gotei 13's commander Genryusai Yamamoto. It is then revealed Yhwach was responsible for the Auswählen nine years prior—stealing the power from Quincies he deemed "impure"—for all intents and purposes killing them—to restore his own power, which led to the deaths of Ichigo and Uryu Ishida's mothers. Furthermore, Yhwach maintains his power and life by harvesting the souls of those slain in the war, on both sides. On his second invasion, Yhwach callously uses the Auswählen on his elite Sternritter forces, save his own personal guard, when he deems them useless to the coming battle. Finding the Soul King, Yhwach destroys him, nearly sundering the separate worlds, while not caring about the innocents or even his own soldiers caught up in the destruction. Said soldiers offer their aid to the Shinigami once they understand the extent of Yhwach's threat to existence; this Enemy Mine also includes various other factions, demonstrating how dangerous Yhwach is. Absorbing the Soul King's power, Yhwach later uses Auswählen a third time on his Royal Guard, including his trusted second-in-command Haschwalth, before defeating Ichigo himself, stealing his powers and declaring his intent to bring ruin to Soul Society and the human world, while threatening to kill Ichigo's friends in their happiest moments should they interfere, all to create a world where he won't have to die. Brutal, callous and unrelenting in his selfish belief that everything exists to benefit and empower him, Yhwach stands as Bleach's cruelest and most dangerous villain.
  • Pepe Waccabrada is Sternritter "L", the Love. One of the most depraved of all the Quincies, Pepe is considered a disgusting monster by his peers for his power of tearing apart someone's soul and mind, before reconstructing them to love only Pepe to the point of trying to kill their allies. Pepe initiates a massacre at the research facility with his power, and later surfaces to turn Shuhei Hisagi into one of his dolls to try to kill Byakuya Kuchiki. Pepe also catches his own allies in his power, openly stating his intent to murder them all so the glory can be his and his alone.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Jugram Haschwalth is Sternritter B, for "The Balance" and Grandmaster of the Sternritter is the second in command to Yhwach who leads the Quincy to attack Soul Society. Once a boy abused by his uncle who joined Yhwach as a child and rose to become his chief subordinate, Haschwalth contains the power of the Almighty when Yhwach sleeps and supports Yhwach implicitly. Outsmarting even the peerless barriers of Nanao Ise, Haschwalth later receives a vision from the Almighty of the future that remains unknown to all but him. To secure the future of the Quincy, Haschwalth sends Yhwach a vision of the future Ichigo cutting down the Emperor, but disguises it as a nightmare so Yhwach will disregard it and fall prey to Ichigo in the end. Facing Uryu Ishida, Haschwalth allows himself to be taken by Yhwach's Auswählen and sends Ishida to help his friends by transferring Ishida's wounds to himself, musing to the end how it must be to live life without regret and reflecting on his lifelong friend Bazz-B.
  • Askin Nakk Le Varr is Sternritter D, for "The Deathdealing". A laid-back, affable man who attempts to lure Mayuri Kurotsuchi into his trap, Askin proceeds to enjoy the chaos of the battle with a nice picnic before he is chosen by Yhwach to become one of his elite Schutzstaffel. Using his powers to manipulate lethal doses, Askin almost defeats one of the elite Royal Guard himself and later lures even the talented Arrancar Grimmjow into a poison trap, doing the same to Ichigo Kurosaki himself soon after. Facing Yoruichi Shihoin and Kisuke Urahara, Askin proves himself a skilled match for both of them with his powers and skill, even using his final breaths to reveal a last trap on Urahara while idly wondering how the Soul Reaper might escape it.
  • Ichibē Hyōsube is the head of Squad Zero. A jovial, cheerful man who carefully masks a very dangerous side, Ichibē gave everything in Soul Society its name and is a chief perpetrator of the great sin that created the Soul King. Using this propaganda to shape Soul Society many millennia later, Ichibē guides Ichigo Kurosaki to become stronger, even after Ichibe is bested by the Quincy leader Yhwach. Ichibē uses Ichigo to reassemble himself and sends him against Yhwach, with full intent to sacrifice him and use him as a new Soul King to preserve the order, proclaiming that is "What peace is all about".
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Orihime/Chad/Ichigo's a murderer!" ^ExplanationFollowing the premiere of the anime adaptation of the "Thousand Year Blood War", the scene where Ichigo's team fights the Huge Hollow became the subject of a meme. Orihime blasts a Huge Hollow back into several others with Shiten Kōshun, followed by Chad punching them with "La Muerte" — causing them to be sent flying into a nearby apartment building, which implodes into the attack's signature skull-shaped crater. To finish off the ones not destroyed by Uryū's Licht Regen, Ichigo unleashes a Bankai Getsuga Tenshō that produces a mushroom cloud — the joke being that they not only caused massive amounts of collateral damage while fighting the Hollows but accidentally killed everyone in the surrounding buildings.
  • Ebern's over the top Nightmare Face has become a popular reaction image to express excitement among Bleach's fans.
  • "So I tore out his throat" ^ExplanationKenpachi killing the Sternritter Berenice Gabrielli by literally ripping off his throat with his bare hands after the Quincy wouldn't shut up quickly gained notoriety among fans, who usually employ the meme with Berenice used to say an argument they find dumb.