Who is the SOUL KING? A Guide to Bleach's BIGGEST MYSTERY | Discussion 

Quite a long video today for you guys, so I've included some chapters to allow you to skip around as you please - let me know what you thought of the Soul King though in the comments and how he was utilised in the Bleach universe! Enjoy the video and have a great Friday.

"Kubo realized some things needed to be cut" *shows a picture of the Soul King cut in half* Don't know if it was intentional, but that was entertaining

"The soul king, the closest thing to a god in the bleach universe" Juha and Aizen: *crying*

Mangaka's would be some of the best writers and have infinitely better stories if they weren't forced to work themselves to death for the weekly release culture.

The way Kubo designed Reio is just so cool. He's so scary and Divine with ao much authority yet the fact that he's trapped in a crystal is a great juxtaposition.

I always believed that the Hyogoku was created by pieces of the soul king and that's how Aizen and Urahara learned the nature of the soul king.

I liked that Aizen’s Chrysalis Stage kind of looks like the Soul King, I’d have to assume that’s intentional all things considered, but it was nice touch overall.

Well one thing. Urahara has obviously been to the palace since one of the squad zero guy says that he was allowed to analyzed the healing bath. And it's how he created his bath in that training space when ichigo did bankai. So there is a relationship between urahara and them

Interesting to note, the kanji for the soul king (Reiō) is a pun, meaning literally Soul King and Zero King/King of Nothing. Quite interesting given his position in the end.

Yeah my man. Being a weekly bleach reader was a different kind of hell

The soul king existence just shows how dark the bleach world can get

Mimihagi: *squints* Ywach: "And I took that Personally."

Truly the biggest victim of the saga, and to think Gotei 13 very nearly subjected Ichigo to this fate worse than death. In a way the Spirit King's mutilation and subjugation, particularly the ancestors zeal to make things their own way, sort of subverts the whole grey morality of the series essentially making the ancient heads of the five families legacy villains. Their actions are the reason why the world of Bleach is sharply divided. It's sad yet unsurprising that many of the nobles still advocate violently suppressing the truth.

I think the reason we never get to see Soul King's true personality is because you can never fully comprehend a God. He IS basically a God of Bleach world. We are only given some glimpses of his personality through his missing parts: Pernida, Mimihage and even Gerard.

Urahara has been to the "realm" of the Soul King. Where he got his idea and knowledge of the hot bath healing of Kirinji from. So he probably has seen the Soul King with his own two eyes.

I think the Soul King was a missed opportunity. he's kind of creepy and weird, but I think that had the concept of the "Soul King" turned out to be something else, not necessarily a being even, but something twisted and unwholesome, that would've really added spice to the soul society. it would retroactively make sense of Aizen wanting to destroy him and would bring the Soul Society's corruption and injustice back into the foreground, as it was in the Soul Society arc.

I think Yhwach was born similarly to how Yachiru, Lilynette, or the soul king monster things were. The Soul King simply created him using his monstrous spirit energy, and he became his own person, like Pernida or Mimihagi. That's why he was shown as being all black as a baby, similar to how the Soul King monsters were pure black.

Sounds like the soul king was the absolute opposite of yhwach. The soul king gave to everyone and never took whereas yhwach took from everyone and gave very little back.

Imagine saving the world from imbalance and then being murdered

I could def see Aizen seeing the soul king when he gained his final form and was somewhat omnipotent, like he could finally sense the king's reietsu (sp?) and instead of a person he sensed the fragmented being in a chrysalis, thus him being shocked at seeing that "thing"

I'm glad you've been making these videos discussing the lore and characters. Bleach's story got so convoluted that it was hard for me to care much about what was happening during the Thousand Year Blood War.

The more I think about Aizen, the more I think of him as a tsundere. When he speaks of his own motivation and ambitions, he talks about how he has always been peerless. He talks about how he's just so naturally gifted that he could never connect with anyone because no one else was on his level mentally or physically. However, he then goes on the praise multiple people as being as gifted or more gifted than himself. Urahara is praised as being the only person more intelligent than him. He states that he could not have defeated Yamamoto in combat until he's made years of preparations. It feels like he's saying these things about his motivations in order to hide the fact that he's just socially awkward. Even the people whose lives he's willing to take or have taken by his subordinates is pretty specific. Even if you wanted to maintain secrecy and work within the confines of his plan there are several high ranking shinigami that he could have eliminated throughout the decades without changing much. It didn't feel like he wanted to destabilize the Hotel 13 so much as reform the way that they interact with their governing bodies (The Central 46 & the Soul King) He feels that something is wrong with the structure of Soul Society and he states that he wants to change it for the better, even threatening that he wanted to destroy the Soul King, but it seems like hubris for a character that is supposed to be so incredibly intelligent and talented and fortuitous to choose a plan that takes so much time and basically create ideal circumstances for someone to defeat him. Truly, if you think about Aizen's goals has more general statements, it is not unfair to say that he succeeded. After the arrancar arc, there are many noticeable changes in how the Gotei 13 is managed. Although some of the changes are more subtle or are hidden, you even have characters like Yamamoto willing to reward humans or ask for help. The Soul King was not transformed, but the Central 46 is an entirely new group. Even Aizen himself is not destroyed or entirely removed from Soul Society. He is imprisoned, but we see that even when locked away he still has influence within Soul Society and his power is still terrifying. Aizen was kinda a nice guy.

Brooke was never the same after finding the one piece

I love the long discussions because it always gives me more things to realize and think about

It's basically sad The soul king is a tragic character

The Soul King may be mysterious but this guy gave me the answers and now I am looking forward for the TYBWA. Thanks, Tom.

I always wondered if this whole thing, from Aizen, to White, to Ichigo, to Yhwach was created and manage by the soul king to be killed in order to be reborn, quietly and free.

I think the Soul King was such an interesting concept, and I love that it was fleshed out more in Can't Fear Your Own World. Not having read it, I'm glad you've covered so much of that here. It explains a lot more about Mimihagi, Pernida, Gerard, and Yhwach, as well as just explaining why he was a creepy dude with no limbs stuck in a crystal. Great video!

One of Kubo's biggest mistakes with Bleach was omitting the basics of the world's creation myth and the Soul King's place in it, and Yhwach's (and Aizen's) opinions regarding it. Those omissions keep Bleach from being a complete story in and of itself within the manga. I don't know if Kubo felt indebted or not to the authors behind the yet-to-be-released novels and decided to provide them with some content so he held back in the manga.

I think Yuha considers anyone with quincy blood/powers to be "family". He calls Ichigo his son, despite that obviously being Ishin. Considering that the SK is the source of Yuha, Yuha calls SK "father" Just my own speculation though

I think bleach's very end showed that perhaps Juha Bach may have been the good guy and SS may have been the bad guys. Sure we want to believe SS is unquestionably good, but the reveal that noble families mutilated the Soul King and created the 3 worlds makes it seem like Juha's intentions may have been altruistic itself: End suffering and the 'artificial' cycle of life/death the noble families created.

My theory is that aizen and urahara got a vision about the soul king because of the hogyoku

I think we are owed a Pernida vs Ukitake fight

Every time I read about the soul king I get so sad, frankly, he didn't deserve what they did to him.

I really hope Kubo adds thing to the final arc when the anime returns. More fights, show the off panel fights, more backstories for some Quincy and more story with Chad and Orihime in Hueco Mundo with Urahara and Grimmjow. Show that group overthrow the rest of the Quincy there to save Haribel maybe. And the anime REALLY need to include the Can’t Fear Your Own World. They can use that story to further explain the royal families, and the structure of the soul society and its dark history.

Never knew about that backstory, since I hadn't read the novels, but that is hella fascinating. I love mythologies like that

Great video my friend, your uploads always make my day, thanks tommo

Yhwach; The Sight of the King Mimihagi; The Right Hand Pernida; The Left Hand Gremmy; The Mind of the King Gerard Valkyrie; The Heart of the King Lille Baro; The Soul of the King

I really hope Kubo makes a new arc that tackles around finding the rest of the Soul King's body fragments for his Bleach Universe, in the future. Be it a new arc for Bleach/Burn The Witch, or another spin-off from Kubo.

Lovin these longer vids because they always go into so much detail. Keep up the good work tommo you gonna get to 100k soon

I’m not gonna take credit for this bc I saw it on a Tekking101 video. But there’s a theory that bc Kyoka Suigetsu allows Aizen to control the senses of his opponents so they see whatever he wants. His Bankai is actually kinda the opposite and it allows him to see whatever he wants within reason. So he basically used his Bankai to see the Soul King and saw that he’s basically a vegetable and wished to overthrow him. I absolutely love this theory.

Kubo is a prove that sometimes less is more. The amount of mysteries in bleach make it so much more interesting.

Perhaps Mimihagi's support of the shinigami reflects that part of the Soul King was supportive of the noble families vision to stabilize the worlds and understood them, but the other parts were infused with the parts that resented them.

I think it's likely that Yhwach is either the actual son of the soul king from back in the day, or he is another portion of the soul king. He could possibly be the soul kings eyes or some other bits.

Have to say first of all, Bleach is one of my favorite anime/manga but I've watched many of your videos and I am constantly impressed. Literally your videos alone make me want more content from Kubo and yourself. Keep up the wonderful work bud!

...I gotta say after seeing this video and etc on the Soul King...the Soul Society is gray as hell lol. Sure, they seem to be on the "good" side of things but their hands are tainted in blood. From what they did to the Soul King, to them thinking of fucking trapping Ichigo to be the next king lol....

Sounds like the Soul King suffered a lot , i mean they freaking tortured him by cutting his body

You just provided so much more depth and intrigue into a character I basically found myself not caring about when I read through the manga. Thank you I appreciate the insight

I think Gremmy might have been the brain of the Soul King. Since his Visionary makes most sense for a brain, always thinking and dreaming. The heart typically represents vitality so it makes sense that the heart cannot die. The right hand Mimihagi has the power of progression, while Pernida is stillness or stagnation. In the Bible, during Jesus’ crucifixion there are men on either side of him. The one on his right accepts Jesus and progresses towards Heaven while the one on his left, remains stagnant in his disbelief and his sent to Hell for denying God

The Soul King for me is a selfless being but not without any emotions. With his foresight it's impossible for him to be ambushed or sealed away unless he himself allowed it. It could possibly that the Soul King would already foresee his death and who's going to replaced him. Seeing that the world he saved would still be intact due to this event possibly made why he gladly accept his fate. The interference of Mimihagi probably for buying time in order for the event turned out just like the end we see. In some what deep down the Soul King never let go of his responsibility.

I admit I was disappointed with Soul king, I expected something more than a torso with a head. I kind of understand why Soul king is what he is but I expected him to do lot more than just be. Having said that, the whole thing with Soul king is interesting and having inspirated me as I created this imperial family which is being separated from the rest of the world due them being too dangerous to the rest of the world.

I love your channel. I’m new to watching bleach (I know I’m hella late) and this channel actually really helps me understand all the convoluted (but amazing) storylines

I can’t believe I never realized that Ichigo is the same as the soul king as far as they both are born from the three races hollow Shinigami, and Quincy.

This video was surprisingly fascinating, wonderful job. I noticed some strange things, concerning those eyes ; 1 eye for mimihagi, 2 eyes for pernidas, 3 eyes for yhwach and 4 eyes for the soul king. I'm wondering if there is a particular meaning to this. After all those years, Bleach still has so many layers...fascinating 🤩

it's contradictory that the zero division says the soul king selects candidates who have the potential to stop Juha, but he holds a grudge. The soul king might've accepted and preferred the way of the shinigami. If he had the almighty, then he's probably foreseen the future in which he is involved; which means he probably saw Ichigo's effort to stop Juha. It could be that Juha misunderstood the soul king.

Your videos are always so informative and helpful and it always answers all the questions I have your so awesome

well articulated, excellent quality, detailed. Excellent work 💪

I am now imagining Oetsu murdering a bunch of Gillians while making poses

So considering the soul king could see everything it would be safe to assume he saw Yhwach ultimately taking his place. Which could explain how Yhwach was born in the first place. The soul king manifested him as his one and only selfish act, so he could die and have his son take his place.

Excellent run through, very enjoyable. Thank you!

Great summary and breakdown. Your channel will be a great watch with Bleach being back. Subscribed.

At the 6:10 about Menos Grande vs the royal guards. Kubo's problem for me has been stating definitives and his power scaling. You know exactly damn well that back than he was referencing them, but by the time he introduced them a Menos Grande became fodder.

Remember its still 'Aizens' story

Thanks for the video man! I definitely wish we had more information on the Reio, but at the same time his mysteriousness makes everything very interesting

Cool video. A lot of insight. I love a good back story & it seems we didn't get that unfortunately. Thx 4 shedding sum light on this character. Much appreciated

One thing that you may not have noticed is, the symbols on the Captain Haoris match the pupils of the Soul King, white star inside a black background. I thought it was a nice touch.

When I found out that the soul king had 4 irises it has been very weird looking at him, I thought it was a unique eye design and it made him seem like he was just in stasis and now its more off a hanging body since they look so vacant now, makes me wonder how ywach looks right now and also how far squad 0 is willing to go against the next candidate since they don't really need the whole body apparently.

I love being in the perfect place for content like this every week!

Great video bro! amazing work! Brilliant commentary!

That's Osiris. Cut up into pieces. It's all Egyptian.

Maybe the “key” aizen was going to create, was himself. Maybe what he was trying to do, was give himself that power through whatever method he came up with.

Just came across your channel I love the way you broke things down so perfectly please do a Prt.2

Awesome video. Great job explaining something we kno so little about .

I think its neat to think the Soul King appeared almost like an amalgamation of massive riatsu that contained all powers but ended up using the Quincy powers. Kind of like Ichigo if he never learned to be a Soul Reaper. Its also good food for thought thinking the Soul King and Ichigo had similar desires to protect

I strongly believe that the Ise sword was used to split the Soul King into Eight major parts, but I'm not sure what all of them are. Obviously the right arm became to Mimihagi, the left arm became Pernida, the Heart was taken in by Gerard, and I strongly suspect (though I suppose it isn't confirmed) that his brain was the brain that powered Gremmy. Two of the other limbs were clearly the SK's legs, though we have no information on what happened to them. Finally, I'm unsure what the last two pieces of the SK would have been (Is it simply his Soul Chain and nails? Or his ears? Perhaps his lungs?), but I still think this makes the most sense. As such, I think the Ise Clan is either the unrevealed family of the major Five Noble Families or is/was a retainer to one of them who played a large part in them splitting the Soul King apart. Really, I hope we get more Novels after CFYOW that further explains the lore of Bleach and its universe to explain these things as well as to get more information about the unnamed Great Noble Family, more information about the original Gotei 13, a deeper explanation of how Hell works and how it differs from the three major realms, and also just simply more stories with the great characters Kubo created in the Shinigami of Bleach!

Great video. The Soul King and everything surrounding him is one of the coolest aspects of Bleach imo, and it was so satisfying to finally learn the truth in CFYOW. 17:57 tfw you realize that Soul Society probably sacrificed 100,000 people each time they needed a new member of Squad Zero. Not surprising tbh.

Love the content. Super excited to watch this video and more!

Yeah I've always been looking forward to the Soul King's video. He's a really great take on God I think.

ahhh, this helps me understand the bleach manga even more thank you :)

This channel is what I've been looking quality 👌👏bleach information thanks boss excellent wrk

I actually like if the retcon idea would've been implemented in the story itself. Like what if there was an actual key at the beginning and the library archive actually documents this but then the soul king decided to change it and infuse it into the bones of his guards(or maybe the key was first and the guards were formed later) and thus making both versions true

Phenomenal video, it again shows that you're the best bleach RU-vidr. I would like to support you as a patreon but I don't have money to spare. Still people like you make my weeks brighter thanks to that!

Just subscribed! Love your vids Mate Tommy!

Awesome vid as always

I always thought it was interesting that mimihagi had one pupil, pernita had 2, yhwach have three, and the soul king had 4 pupil. I didnt notice until watching your vid and seeing them one after the other it is a nice little detail kubo did there

"reiou" just means "soul king"

This the best video on your channel hands down

I didn't put all this together and ppl ALWAYS say Kubo misses but I seen the long game played since the beginning. Excellent breakdown bro

Soul King arms have different abilities, just like Chad.

Always felt it would have been really interesting meet more people in the story who have maybe been imbued with parts of the Soul King like his leg etc. Similar to Pernida, Gerard etc and maybe have a concept where the parts of the Soul King are kind of unconsciously being drawn back to the main body for a resurrection type event

I think you are right on that. I think they must have some sort of feeling link to the Soul King due to being connected and infused with his power. So for example that one guy who mentioned how he was interested in Ichigo may have just noticed that SK watching him more than anyone else and can feel the SK's fascination.

Great content as always.

More and more of these analysis and speculation videos I watch, I’m thinking more and more that Kubo didn’t put as much thought as we thought he did. It’s getting more evident that he was making some things up as he went along. It mostly worked wonderfully but when it didn’t, it really didn’t work.

I wish if Bleach ever got restarted, Kubo would design a proper, consistent lore and universe before fleshing it out in manga/novel/anime. I hope he reads fan theories about bleach, which could help him identify the inconsistencies and contradictions on the current lore.

I really appreciate these videos because you often take disperse pieces of information and bring them all together. From how it sounds, I think Yhwach being his "son" may not be a super literal designation. Yes, he could have literally gotten a woman pregnant before the events that bound him up (Yhwach and Yamamoto seem to have a peer-based relationship rather than a mentor-based one) but he also could have just as easily imparted his reiatsu into a woman, causing Yhwach to carry some very strong Jesus parallels. We've seen how reiatsu can literally become sentient. The Soul King healing a woman or reviving her dead child could easily explain how Yhwach's origin is the way it is. I also find it interesting how you mention that the Soul King is both an amalgamation of different races while also *actively being interested in Ichigo* . Is there a potential that Ichigo is (among so many other things) also the Soul King's child? At the very least, the fact that the SK sees everything, he knows that Ichigo pretty much is an orange-haired version of himself with tremendous potential and power. A fully realized Shinigami Ichigo (Dangai Ichigo) was easily the most powerful shinigami ever shown in the series while a fully realized Hollow Ichigo was far beyond Ulquiorra's Segunda Etapa (again, one of the most powerful Hollows in the series). I do think that Ichigo is at least tangentially connected to the Soul King. Finally, it does seem like Aizen and Urahara know about the Soul King based on the information regarding the "Original Sin". Similarly, it's not too difficult to determine that Yhwach maybe quite literally witnessed the Shinigami butchering his "father" which is why all three know the truth of the situations. This actually does make Urahara a bit more interesting if he knew what the Shinigami did and is still their friend while also making Aizen and Yhwach's actions seem easier to consider ("how can you judge 'me' when you butched the soul king?") All super interesting stuff.

You know why you are special? Because of the simple phrase "Which is absolutelyfair enough." at around 33:40. That shows just how much you care about the story. Not the characters. Not the good guys. Not the bad guys. The Story itself. That one little bit, spoken with true empathy from your own mind and heart, was beautiful to hear. You didn't sound like a spectator, you sounded like a witness. Spectators watch, witnesses understand. Maybe I'm getting sappy in my old age, but I find myself wanting to let people know when I see genuine passion instead of a glorified wiki reader. Thank you for that, man.

Should be a soul king movie, including the deception of the 5 ancestral soul society members along with a final glimpse into what could be coming into the TYBW. Just a thought

The Seireitei probably should have kept better track of all it's parts

Yes! Finally, been waiting for this Let me grab my drink and enjoy.

Amazing analysis , simply wonderful piecing together of this creation end game soul king jigsaw puzzle. I still have so much trouble putting together the hows and whys and whos but you certainly made some sense to what actually happened. I still think Bleach is the top anime of all time, its simply a work of love that seemed so rushed when Kubo was ill or not feeling inclined to put in the work.