Bleach/WMG/Shikai Jossed

This is a page for wild mass guesses from the series Bleach Shikai Edition which have been Jossed by the series or Word of God. If a WMG on one of the open pages is Jossed, please move it here.

Please add new Jossed entries to the bottom of the page.

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Urahara is the King of Soul Society.

It seems a bit odd to me that Soul Society, as harsh as they are, would do something as lenient as banishing someone to the human world when usually, shinigami who stay there longer than they have to are considered criminals. Also, most shinigami seem to know where he is and don't really care that he's dealing in contraband. There's also the fact that Soul Society has been cooperating with him closely, and still seems to respect his opinion. My theory is that after becoming a captain Urahara wanted to change a lot of how Soul Society operated, and since Central 46 wasn't very happy with this, they exiled him on mostly trumped-up charges (since, being the king, they couldn't legally execute him). Most of Soul Society doesn't know this, since Urahara was "undercover" as a regular captain at the time. Now, since Urahara can't do anything within Soul Society, he's trying to keep going from the outside by using Ichigo and his friends, and working with Soul Society from the outside.

• Dealt with in the recent manga arc "Turn Back the Pendulum." Yoruichi and Tessai (who is actually Badass) helped him escape execution when a younger Aizen framed him for using captains to perform hollow-transformation experiments. This is also the source of the Vizard. Presumably, they've more or less forgotten about/ forgiven him in the hundred years since.
  • Actually, since it was Central 46 that did the banishing it's possible that no one else even knew why he was banished or approved of it.
    • And Central 46 could have then decided it was less embarrassing to just sweep the whole thing under the rug than to try to have Urahara retrieved for execution.

Yammy is not really the Zeroth Espada. He's been fooled into thinking that he is due to the Hogyoku.

With the recent revelation that the Hogyoku "makes real what is in the hearts of those around it", I thought back to the other revelation about Yammy being the Zeroth Espada. So far, we've seen nothing that suggests he's anything other than an annoyance to Kenpachi and Byakuya (heck, we haven't really seen him at all for a bunch of chapters). Maybe Yammy's ambitions to become the greatest of all the Espada were actualized by the Hogyoku...

...Then the question is, "why isn't he powerful?" Later on in the same chapter containing the secret of the Hogyoku, Aizen states that it "cannot work if that possibility does not already exist within them." Well, unbeknownst to Yammy himself, he had the potential to be the Zeroth but was not given the full power behind it because he cannot possibly be as strong as he desires. Basically, he gets the rank, but none of the power. Aizen would know this, letting him have his fun in order to create a sort of diversion.

Poor Yammy...

• Jossed. The Espada are ranked by their reiatsu level. Yammy reall is the 0th.

Aizen doesn't have Bankai

When he discovered he hit the jackpot on the super power roulette he didn't need to unlock bankai, when the time came for him to become captain he just used his good old complete hypnosis.

• • Completely Missing the Point. Aizen's Shikai is so broken that he can fool everybody, including Yoruichi, into thinking that he has a Bankai. When it comes to the Captain exams, Aizen just shows off his "water illusion" bullshit as a Shikai, and then pulls something out of his ass for a Bankai.
• Jossed. We'll never know since his Zanpakuto gone for good now.

The Hogyoku is the King of Heaven.

• Jossed. The Hogyoku is just a thing Aizen and Urahara made prototypes of, before Aizen fused them together. "Heaven" is technically the Soul Society, which has its own King, a separate entity from the Hogyoku.

Aizen's Bankai turns everyone within a certain radius into Aizen.

The only way his power could become more confusing bar making the illusions real (too predictable!) would be to make it impossible to know if you're hitting the real Aizen... or just another victim of his Bankai. Add a couple of flash steps to the mix and you're in for one confusing fight.

• Jossed. We never see what he Bankai does before the Hogyoku removed it.

Quincies actually send souls to the true afterlife.

The Shinigami killed them all because the Shinigami King really wants to keep as many souls as possible in Soul Society for some mysterious reason.

• Soul Society is really Purgatory, everyone is being purified of their sins. How bad you were in life determines which district you end up in. Seriousy, this one should have been obvious.

Orihime is about to use her powers for something big.

Whether she kills Ulquoirra or not, (which would be incredibly awesome, by the way) the arc has had her getting progressively bolder with her powers. She's basically the Scarlet Witch with more fairies, and if she ever started using them to their full potential, we could have serious a Reality Warper on our hands. The question is whether she snaps or not before she does it.

• Of course, if this turns out to be true, then it will all be a part of Aizen's master plan.
  • Jossed. Ichigo kills Ulqiorra. Still, I sense impressive things in Orihime's future. Or at least there'd fucking better be some impressive things in her future. Kubo, please!! She can reject time! Please, please, please let her do something awesome!!

Unohana Retsu will kill Aizen

If Kubo continues to make her avoid strong enemies, that'll be the probable outcome. And we know how he likes to pull surprises out of nowhere. I can even imagine the scene: A worn out Ichigo, almost dying, is being cured by Orihime, due her lack of will to fight at all; everybody else is too busy challenging other enemies (from Hell, perhaps; or Tousen and Gin revealed themselves to be stronger than we thought); also, Yamamoto, apparently, was eaten by Aizen. Then, Retsu appears, with a new power above Bankai, that was only revealed to be known by Aizen yet, and is ready to kick *** . That would be awesome.

Of course, unless she dies anticlimactically for a minor enemy. Then, Kenpachi will do the kickage.

• Jossed. Being able to beat Aizen is the main reason Soul Society let Ichigo live.

Halibel has a Sepgunda Etapa, which makes her naked.

Just take a look at her most recent fight, in which she seems to be steadily losing her clothes with each boost in power. Upon activating her Sepgunda Etapa, she'll become stark naked (and this being Bleach, where almost everyone is a Chaste Hero) all males will be too embarresed to fight her, leading her to be defeated by a combination of females, including Yoruichi and Unohana.

• Meanwhile, Soifon will be unconscious due to severe blood loss from a bloody nose.
• It'd be funny if Chizuru appeared from nothing, showed to have enormous spiritual power, and defeated Halibel... By molesting her. In public. Cue to Aizen smirking and whispering: "Just. As. Planned."
  • Again, she did have super molestation powers in that filler episode...
    • Jossed. Damn.

The next arc will be

After maybe another 20 chapters of drawn-out fights the Espadas are going to bite the dust, when Aizen reveals he had the Vasto Lordes all along... and while SS was busy with the Espadas, the VLs were attacking the real Karakura Town. Cue Big Damn Heroes moment for Urahara and the Vizards.

• That idea kinda got shot down a few chapters ago, with the Vizards showing up in the fake Karakura town to try and kill Aizen.

Vasto Lordes never existed.

It's just stuff the studious people at Soul Society invented to make captain-level shinigami continue their training, as an excuse to get stronger. Aizen fell for it too, it seems.

• • • jossed. The top 4 espada were all vasto lordes

There are no Vasto Lorde among the Espada

• Nnoitra, Grimmjow, Zommari, Szayel, and Aaroniero are either explicitly or implicitly not Vasto Lorde.
• The biggest evidence for Yammy being a Vasto Lorde is that he is technically the strongest Espada, but there are several strikes against him. One would assume that a Vasto Lorde would always be stronger than Adjuchas, even in his sealed state. Also, in his released he is large and very dinosaur-like, which is a stark contrast to the small, more human Vasto Lordes. Furthermore, he introduced himself as arrancar 10, not the 10th Espada. According to Shawlong, the arrancar's numbers (with the exception of the Espada's numbers, which apparently go from 0-9 rather than 1-10 as we thought at the time he explained this) indicate the order in which they were shinigamified with the Hogyoku, plus 10. Given Aizen's apparent penchant for starting with the number 0, this would make Yammy the first arrancar he created with the Hogyoku, likely at a time when he had no access to Vasto Lorde.
• Ulquiorra had a fairly human release, which could have as easily been interpreted as a bat-winged demon (suggesting a Vasto Lorde) than simply a bat (suggesting an Adjuchas). However, the fact that he's already dead would make it far too anticlimactic if any Vasto Lorde or Vasto Lorde-derived arrancar were to show up and Ichigo had already beaten one of their own.
• Halibel's release could likewise be interpreted as a human with shark attributes (Vasto Lorde) or just a shark (Adjuchas). The case for her being a Vasto Lorde is hurt by her getting owned so badly by Hitsugaya when Vasto Lorde are supposed to be stronger than an average captain (though it could be debated what exactly "average captain" means and what Hitsugaya's power level rates in relation to it) and if she indeed is dead, the same problem arises as with Ulquiorra and his death.
  • Turns out, Halibel was completely unharmed by Hitsugaya's ultimate attack.
• Barragan has an extremely non-animalistic release, a big point in favor of being a Vasto Lorde. In this case, it seems to go against his characterization that he wouldn't say something like, "this is the power of a Vasto Lorde," or something to brag on himself. The death problem could also become a factor if Soifon's Bankai did kill him, but we can't really say for sure at this point.
  • Barragan came out completely unharmed too.
• Stark is still a bit of a mystery given that we haven't seen his release and we know very little about his history. The only thing I can say is that his mask fragment looks like an animal's jaw bone, which admittedly is tenuous evidence at best.
  • Or alternatively, if we are going with the fact that Stark's aspect of Death is Loneliness, Stark has no release at all. He was, amongst all the Espada, born hollow.
    • Nope, he has a release. And a pretty unanimalistic one judging by the one spoiler pic I've seen
    • Or it could mean that he's the only Vasto Lorde to ever exist and/or serve Aizen, turning his condition into a lonely one.
    • Even so, judging from the spoiler picture Stark's release is still animal themed. He's best described as a "wolf-type" in the same way Halibel is a "shark-type".
    • Going by current evidence, Barragan is probably the only one we could feasibly describe as Vasto Lorde, but the fact that he's number two makes it pretty diffiult if Stark is actually just a particularly powerful adjuchas.
    • It could be that Barragan's release isn't human-like, but ape-like, as most monkeys' skeletal structures are similar enough to the human one to cause some confusion in untrained eyes (or untrained mangakas).
    • jossed. Halibel was a VL.

The day when Gin or Tousen are shown as a spy...

This page will drown in gloating tropers.

• Jossed for Tousen. We await Gin's actions.
  • Not quite spy...but gloating nonetheless

The new filler arc will be an AU of the first Bleach Arc

Based on episode 227, we know that the newest filler arc takes place before the first few episodes. Since Mizuiro was narrating the Karakura Town part of the episode, maybe his narration is foreshadowing him taking the place of Ichigo as the main character in an AU of Bleach? After all, out of all of Ichigo's Karakura Town friends, he hasn't shown any spiritual powers or starred in any fillers (unlike Tatsuki, Chizuru, or Keigo in the Karakura Riser filler).

• Actually, its based on an omake in one of the volumes, can't remember which. Its just a small thing Kubo made to show how he and Keigo met Ichigo and Chad as well as a small veiw of his backstory.
  • It's for Volume 12. Episode 228 is based off the between chapters extra story in Volume 26.

The recent filler arc will have Tobiume deliver a Les Yay Yandere rampage on Hinamori

The next filler arc is about Zanpakutou manifestations rebelling from their masters. Since Zanpakutou is a personification of one's soul, and Hinamori is a Yandere... Tobiume may be the same way, in this case, she is super jealous that Hinamori getting her attention to Aizen all the time. So perhaps in her moment of rebelling, Tobiume will deliver a Yandere rage to Hinamori, which MAY double as a What The Hell Heroine for her obsession on Aizen. If you do not believe me, take a look at this image, especially the little girl with a certain plum hairpin, which definitely must be Tobiume. Look at the shades on her forehead. Doesn't that just scream "Yandere In Plain Sight??"

• Not quite- she gives a What the Hell, Hero? speech, and then afterwards waxes Deredere about her with Haineko.

The Vizards' reliance on their masks has reduced their abilities to use their shikais/bankais.

During Ichigo's vizard training, his hollow told him the he is Zangestu as he is now the dominant spirit. As the hollow goes stronger, the zanpakto spirit goes more and more distant. It hasn't affected Ichigo yet, but since the vizards have had them for aroundd 100 years, the abilities of the other vizards have decayed so much that the four ex-captains have lost their bankais.

• Nope, Kensei's shown he still has his bankai. Chances are Shinji's going to show off his too, seeing as he's about to fight Aizen.

Arrancar males are impervious to groin attacks.

Because of their hierro. Don't ask.

• Already Jossed by Lilynette using this method to wake up Starrk.
  • Damn. Totally forgot about that.
• She's a arrancar and part of him at that i doubt a non arrancar would have the same level of success

When Kubo wrote the Arrancar Arc, he didn't know that western cultures put the given name first.

You'll notice that when he named the Espada after archetects, he used their surnames as the Espadas' given names. For example: Starrk is named after Phillipe Stark, and Ulquiorra is named after Patricia Ulquiorra. If a Japanese person heard someone introduce themselves as "Phillipe Stark" they would think Phillipe is their surname and Stark their given name.

• Except considering the amount of Western influence over the entire world, Asian countries' integration of English into their public school curriculums, and Kubo's fairly good English, I would say it's pretty unlikely that he doesn't know that Western cultures put the given name first. As an Asian troper currently living in Asia, I'd say even the older generations living out in the middle of rural nowhere with basically no English skills know that Western cultures put the given name first, which gives me no doubt that Kubo knows as well. Not to mention, Harribel is named after "Harry Bell Measures," which doesn't fit the whole Western surname = Arrancar given name.
  • Yes it does. Harribel is her surname. Her given name is Tia.
• The only exception would be Szayel, but mainly because of the whole sibling thing, as Ilfort also had the surname.
• Apparently, Starrk's given name is Coyote.
  • And Kubo proves a WMG wrong less than a month after it comes out. This settles it, he reads TV Tropes.

Starrk's wolf pack are actually all the souls he consumed to be a powerful Hollow.

That's why there are so many of them. And it would give an interesting twist to the whole "soul consuming process" theory.

• No, they're werewolves. Flying werewolves. $20 says they have lasers too.
• Seems like I wasn't completely wrong. They were, in reality, fragments of Starrk and Lillynette's souls.

Byakuya won the fight with his Zanpakuto

And is now disguised as it. Think about it, we know Byakuya survived, and that he's up to something. We also know, or can at least guess that he hasn't informed the other captains, as they would probably at least tell Rukia he's alive (if not what he was doing). He must have somehow survived the fight and gone into hiding, and what better way to hide than right in the middle of the enemy camp. His Zanpakuto is perfect for hiding, his face is obscured, he has the same build as Byakuya and he doesn't talk much. And it's the perfect way to get a cool scene out of this filler, the Zanpakuto are fighting their shiningami partners when one of them gets hit by senbonzakura's knives. He asks what senbonzakura is doing, only to have byakuya pull off the mask and state that he's not senbonzakura (then shunpo out of the disguise of course)

• Didn't Ichigo state that Sode no Shirayuki had a different reiatsu than a Shinigami or a Hollow? This can only work if the manifested Zanpakuto are unable to sense reiatsu or Byakuya is somehow changing/concealing his reiatsu without arousing suspicion. Both of these options seem unlikely. While it's almost certain that Byakuya is doing something I'm not sure it's a switch with his Zanpakuto.
  • Jossed at the end of Episode 240, when Byakuya is standing with his Zanpakuto.

Grimmjow will recover from being Put On A Bus, and...

Perform a dramatic, flashback-laden Heel Face Turn in order to get revenge on Kaname Tosen for the loss of his arm. Ichigo will arrive, and team up (grudgingly) with Grimmjow in order to fight Gin Ichimaru and Tosen (with Grimmjow taking Tosen).

• Jossed, Tousen's dead.

Las Noches used to be the the site of an ancient Hollow Kingdom.

Thousands of years ago, before the Shinigami Academy was even founded, there thrived a Kingdom of Hollows in Las Noches. The Vasto Lordes were the rulers. Over time, it decayed into what Barragan ruled over. Aizen built it back up to some of its former glory.

How Aizen will be defeated

We can be pretty sure that he will be, maybe not so soon but it will happen eventually.

• Tosen betrays him. Either he pulls a Heel Face Turn, he is revealed to have been working for SS or the king all along, or he becomes The Starscream. This would actually be a pretty obvious choice, as it has been established that Tosen is the only one who is immune to Kyouka Suigetsu. What makes it unlikely is that a) Aizen is well aware of this, so either he made sure that Tosen would stay on his side, or he has precautions. Anything else would be out of character. And b), this is still a Shonen fighting manga, so the Big Bad has to go down in a fight, preferable with the hero or at least with one of his allies (although this could be averted with Tosen becoming the new Big Bad - then he is the one that has to be defeated.
  • Perhaps, when Aizen said that people would be affected by seeing the release, he didn't only meant "see", but maybe he meant "hearing it being unsheated", too. Aizen's too powerful of a villain to be defeated by such a flaw.
    • Disproven as Unohana states as long as you don't see it, you are invincible against it
• Aizen succeeds in getting to the king, who is an Eldritch Abomination that obliterates him with a look. That's what you get for megalomania. If thats the end, same problem as above, and if not, well, than we have an even bigger Game Breaker to defeat.
• Orihime uses her Reality Warper powers to negate the effect of Kyouka Suigetsu, which enables Ichigo to fight him.
• In a fit of megalomania Aizen does something that makes himself even more powerful, but at the cost of losing his old zanpakutou powers. Then he can be defeated in the oldfashioned way, with My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours.
• It is revealed that the illusion has a flaw which can be exploited (this one has it's own WMG somewhere above)
• He starts to destroy Karakura Town, which Orihime doesn't have enough energy to restore, and so she goes crazy and in a panic wills away his existence.
• His Bankai gives him an extremely flashy ability, but he loses the ability to create illusions, making him a Clipped-Wing Angel and allowing Ichigo to defeat him.
• Given evidence with Tousen- Just because using hollowfication makes you physically stronger doesn't mean you get to keep the same cool abilities you had as a shinigami.

muramasa is ashido's zanpakuto

We never see ashido release and muramasa is in the forest of menos currently

• • As of episode 248 this is wrong. Apparently his master is a guy named Koga Kuchiki who was sealed away by SS by attempting to lead a coup.
  • If you know he's Kouga Kuchiki, then you know the leading a coup thing is a load of bull.

Ukitake's Bankai will take the form of a storm

IF the games are to be believed, then his powers are over water and lightning. Then, his bankai will give him power over a large storm. My personal theory is that it would be either a hailstorm, a hurricane, or a blizzard, gaining the appropriate elemental abilities for that and changing his weapon. For the hailstorm he would gain a power rangers grade gunsword as a weapon, for the blizzard he would gain metal fans, and for the hurricane he would get a short sword on his sword for him to use as like a kusarigama.

• I mentioned this above, but it has since been pretty much Jossed, as the games are not accurate regarding Ukitake's or Kyoraku's powers. Ukitake's powers are actually based on absorbing his opponent's attack and firing back at him, as seen against Starrk.

Unohana's big fighting scene will be against Tousen.

He has something he judges as "stronger than Bankai", and she's more powerful than the average captain. It'll be an interesting fight. Hope Unohana slaps him into sense, and shows him his sense of justice blows so much he'd hide himself in shame.

• As of Chapter 386, looks like Hisagi beat her to it.

Ichigo will be the first person to tell Aizen to shut up.

Aizen is LONG overdue for one with his talks of Godhood and invincibility.

• Actually, Isshin does this.

Gin's Visored mask will be ultra freaky

How? It will be his normal face, complete with dopey grin and half shut eyes. His real face will be underneath with an actual expression.

• Jossed. We never see a Hollw Mask from Gin.

The towers in the fake Karakura town will be destroyed...

Probably by one of the Espada's resurrécion attacks. However, the real town won't rematerialise from the Soul Society, because Urahara is using Keigo, Mizuiro, Tatsuki and Chizuru to stabilize the barrier in the place of the wrecked towers.

• Don't forget Ryou-san, the second best student and best runner in entire Karakura!
  • What about Karin? She seems a perfect choice. Possibly Yuzu as well.
• Prison. Aizen and Gin just went to the real Krakura Town instead.

Gin Ichimaru's Bankai is a gun.

Not just any a gun, but the world's most accurate rifle.

• I can already picture this guy being the spirit of Billy the Kid, or Jesse James. Or better, he could have shot both Lincoln and Kennedy! If he shot two American presidents, what would stop him from killing Yamamoto, or even the King? Dammit, someone needs to write a fanfic about that.
  • I would so read that.
• It was in the initial plans and stuff... But I wouldn't be surprised if it's a bow/sword/whatever that shoots arrows, according to other theories in this very same page.
• Or it could be a gun that shoots swords.
• Or a bow that shoots axes.
• Or a gun that shoots dogs with bees in their mouth, so when the dogs bark, the bees fly out and sting you
• Or a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning.
• Or it is A really damn long sword. Jossed.
  • Technically, it's still involves a piece of metal travelling to almost 13 kilometers in the fracture of a second, AND leaving behind a highly corrosive compound. That's kinda like a gun that shoots poisoned bullets (there is or at least was such a thing in real life).

Mayuri will kill Aizen

Mayuri has shown that he is basically evil Batman with how he killed Szayel. And since Aizen is Evil Superman, Mayuri will be the one to kill him.

• Aizen's nickname may be Evil Superman, but his powers are also Green Lantern's. If anything fails, Mayuri can call Unohana, our Yandere Wonderwoman, and the incredible duo called Captain Grabass and Captain Tuberculosis! If anything fails, he'll probably reveal Arrowpops behind his sleeve, too.
• Jossed.

Ichigo is under the influence of Kyoka Suigetsu

I'm still smarting over Aizen's stalker line about knowing Ichigo since birth so here goes: Ichigo was exposed to Kyoka Suigetsu as an infant, and so does not remember.

• Jossed. If he was, then something would've happened once the Hogyoku removed Aizen's powers.

Mugetsu is Ichigo's real Bankai

Anyone else under the impression that Ichigo's shimigami powers were misclassified (deliberately maybe)? Ie: his shikai and bankai weren't actually what they were called.

When Ichigo first got his shimigami abilities, he absorbed rukia's reiatsu, and so his initial form was not truly how his base form should have looked like, it was just a manifestation of his shimigami powers with Rukia's spirit pressure. He then had to go back and forge his shigimami powers with his own reiatsu. Though when training with Uruhara it was said that he has already achieved shikai and that his sword was always going to be in shikai. But what if, due to his power his base form simply was just "as powerful" as a shikai rather than being a shikai. But it was just claimed for some reason to be an actual shikai.

The duration that Ichigo can use his bankai is absurd, and in terms of progression of power, it doesn't seem to be that great, it's essenitally comparable to the boost that other shimigami get when they use shikai. The amount of time Ichigo put into obtaining Mugetsu seems genuinely akin to the amount of time other shimigami put into obtaining their bankais. It's a final form, something else comparable to shimigami's bankais. The reason why it could only be used once is possibly because ichigio is truly human, if he were actually a shimigami, perhaps he'd have the durability to use it more like a bankai. At this point in the series it would make no sense for there to be a "third" release or final ("sword/shimigami fusion") ability that no other shimigami would have mentioned, or that only one shimigami has. That's the only reason why I'm questioning the terminology.

• Jossed. Mugetsu is just an ability used when he fuses with his Zanpakuto.

Orihime destroying the Hougyoku would have created a paradox

Think about it. Aizen states that Orihime gained her powers thanks to the Hougyoku's influence. But if Orihime destroys it, her exact plan being to make it to where the Hougyoku never existed, that would also mean that she would never have gained her powers, and would never have had the ability to wipe the Hougyoku off of the plane of existence to begin with. So if Orihime takes out the Hougyoku, she is also taking out her ability to destroy it.

• Seconded. Maybe this is how Orihime goes back to a normal life? Maybe it comes with memory removal?
• Jossed. The Hogyoku is stuck with Aizen and Orihime never had the chance to destroy it.

Nanao will show up in the real Karakura Town.

It’s the only explanation I can think of for why she wasn’t in the fake Karakura Town. Maybe Shunsui was being overprotective of his Nanao-chan again and thought that leaving her behind to guard the real Karakura Town would be a less dangerous assignment.

• Jossed. She never appeared in either Karakura Towns.

Ichigo will be able to defeat Aizen because his friends cheer him on.

Think about it. Ichigo's power levels have been going up and down; one minute he's beating Soul Society Captains, the next he's getting his ass handed to him by Espada who could be beaten by said Captains. And now he's expected to somehow take down Captain Broken himself. So what gives?

It's because Ichigo's strength derives from the emotional support he receives from those close to him. Ever since Orihime was kidnapped, he's been bummed out. Rescuing her was supposed to fix that, but none of it went according to plan, and now he feels even worse. Going to help the Captains in Fake Karakura Town shot his confidence to hell when he saw all of these heavy-hitters being torn apart and Aizen steamrolling over everyone Ichigo has ever trained under or looked up to.

And yet, just recently, Don Kanonji stood his ground against Aizen. Don freaking Kanonji. How could this buffoon do what almost anyone posing a threat to Aizen could not? Because he had confidence and self-assurance. Ichigo's been lacking that for a long time now, and this troper thinks that being reminded of why he fights, to protect his friends and family, will be just the kick-start he needs to be The Hero again and stand up to Aizen.

• I think it would only work if Aizen kidnapped all of his friends. Then his mind would kick into MUST SAVE NAKAMA mode as it did in the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo arcs, only even more since now there's more friends to save. He would powerup into a ball of pure energy and eat Aizen alive.
• Jossed. He defeated Aizen on his own, several kilometers away from the town, without his friends cheering him on.

Aizen is going to win.

Kubo is just stringing us along to screw with our heads. Ichigo will do his hero thing, and there will be an epic battle of epicness, a real smack down drag out fight, and Aizen will be the last man standing.

• Jossed. Aizen was an Anticlimax Boss, defeated by Ichigo and sealed by Urahara, who showed up to explain that he sealed Aizen.

Harribel was actually a man with really convincing falsies.

Jossed. She's always been a girl - she has a womb, which is where her Hollow hole is located in, according to Unmasked.

If there is another arc, it will feature Chad fighting an overly cute enemy.

The results won't be pretty. They may be very funny, though.

• Jossed. Chad's been turned against Ichigo, who's back as a Shinigami. No fighting yet, but no overly-cute enemy either.

Ichigo is the Key to Aizen's plans.

Sure, it was made rather obvious in the last chapter that Aizen has something to do with Ichigo, but what this is has yet to be revealed. It is also obvious that Ichigo plays a significant role in Aizen's evil villan plot. And what role is that, you ask? Why, it's simple:

Ichigo is the King's Key.

Think about it. In Soul Society, the Soukyoku was said to have the power of one million zanpakutou, yet Ichigo blocked it with one. If we go by the soul count of each zanpakutou, that's one million souls. And this was before Ichigo fought Byakuya, underwent Hollow training, and even knew that Aizen was a threat. Besides, who ever said that the Key was composed of only one hundred thousand souls?

But Aizen already knew this. Surely he heard about Ichigo's little run-in with the Soukyoku, and got curious. It's possible that he had no idea that the little Ryoka that he crushed effortlessly was the one object that he was looking for (that, or he was bluffing). And way, way back at the start of the Hueco Mundo arc, when Ichigo and the others entered Hueco Mundo, he could have detected the Key's reiatsu within Ichigo's own. At this point, having lured Ichigo into Hueco Mundo with Orihime as bait, Aizen just had to sit back and watch while things unfolded on their own and Ichigo grew even more ridiculously powerful than he already was.

Add all of this to Urahara's faith in Ichigo's ability (he and Aizen are basically dueling against one another, with Ichigo as the experiment of both), Isshin's unknown background (for all we know, he could be the King himself), and Aizen's analysis of Ichigo's reiatsu in the most recent chapter (to confirm that all was according to plan), and you have the perfect storm of exposition.

Now that Aizen has Ichigo right where he wants him, he can reveal all this to him, creating another ludicrous Wham! Episode, surprising all of Bleach's readers, and launching his attack on the now-vulnerable fourth wall, as detailed above.

• Problem: If you look at Ichigo during the scenes when he's repelling the Soukyoku he's wearing an odd cape with large clasp on it. It looks very similar to the Shihouin family symbol. Soi Fon later confirms that it is when confronting Shihouin Yourichi about why she's assiting Ichigo. Ichigo repelling the Soukyoku is not that impressive.
  • Yeah... but then Yoruichi confirms on that same page that flight was necessary for saving Rukia. The cloak only helped Ichigo get to the top of the Soukyoku. And Yoruichi never said that the cloak stopped the Soukyoku, if that's what you're trying to say.
    • True. But that's not my point. The Soukyoku was destroyed by a relic of the Shihouin family, which Yourichi is a part of. These are facts, substantiated by the manga. It is also a fact that Ichigo was wearing the crest of the selfsame family when he repelled the Soukyoku. The simplest explanation (In following with the principal of Occam's Razor) is that the crest repelled the Soukyoku rather than Ichigo, otherwise you have to start creating thousands of smaller theories about why Ichigo, who is stronger than 1,000,000 soul cutters, ever lost to anyone at all. Especially considering what Ishida said way back in Chapter 49 (and the next two pages).
• Ultimately Jossed from the above post.

Aizen was formerly a Royal Guard

This relies on all of those "King is a bad dude" theories, but work with me here.

So the King is this great and terrible Cosmic Horror and the Royal Guard are former Captains tasked with making sure it doesn't get out. But even more secret than their existance is how they opperate; by being placed in an involuntary stasis so that their massive Captain-level souls can power the seal. Nobody is aware of this until after their "promotion", and by then it's already too late.

...except that one escaped. Aizen Sousuke, who likely went by another name at the time, managed to escape his fate as a living seal and flee the King's realm. Infuriated by what he had witnessed, he vowed to end this atrocious tradition even if it meant bringing Seireitei to its knees to do it. He trained in both body and mind during his period of seclusion, meanwhile dabbling in research concerning the very makeup of Hollows and Shinigami in the hopes of finding any edge over his new adversaries. He eventually slipped back into Soul Society after much time had passed, with a change of name and likely appearance.

Though he walks a dark path his ultimate goal is merely to free his fellow Shinigami, no matter what the cost.

The only way to defeat Aizen is with a Gurren Lagann level epic speech.

I can see it now.

Aizen reveals some sort of jacked up convoluted plot to become god, or create one conciseness, or dress up all of Soul Society as poodles.

Ichigo looks about ten seconds away from slashing his wrists.

But instead of wangsting like a tosser and letting it happen.

Cue Theme Music Power Up.

Ichigo gives a World of Cardboard Speech to put Kamina to shame.

Then suddenly "What the fuck makes you think you'll be doing it alone ya bastard." and Kenpachi, Grimmkitty, Gentenbainne and Byakuya all come out of a Garganta. Urahara, Ryuuken, Yoruichi, Isshin and Tessai all flash step in like "sorry we took so long" and then Ichigo goes into his Reserection.

And not just any Reserection, that one with the Leather Pimp Longcoat, Chainsaw Zangetsu, Magic Flying Motorcycle and Biker-Chick Rukia and Orihime from the last page.

And then Aizen would shit bricks.

• MUST HAPPEN!
• Didn't happen.

Ichigo has in fact already fallen under Kyoka Suigetsu's illusions

If one looks closely at Barragan's flashback, Barragan had already fallen to Kyoka Suigetsu's illusion when Aizen asks him to look at it, as seen in here. In other words, just Aizen mentioning his Zanpakuto's name releases it.

• Aizen releases it not 5 pages after the one linked to. He got the sword out and showed it to him so he'd be sure to see it when it was released.
• I agree. How? Why? Simple. We learned a long time ago that a Bankai user doesn't have to call out the name of his sword to release shikai(Renji vs Byakuya fight). So, Aizen doesn't have to do anything flashy to release - at any moment when Ichigo is looking at his sword(and he has to if he wants to dodge any attack) he can release Kyoka Suigetsu and put Ichigo under his hypnosis.S o, barring an enormous Idiot Ball or Villain Ball(or an alternate method to beat Kyoka Suigetsu) on Aizen's part, he's already won.
• Aizen says he's known of Ichigo since his birth. Either he's lying his arse off to screw with Ichigo - and us - some more, or he's got Ichigo under his control already. If this isn't the case, I'll eat every single one of my socks.
• Jossed. He lost his Zanpakuto after Ichigo defeated him, and he stopped using his Zanpakuto once the Hogyoku started morphing him. If Ichigo was ever under his illusions, something would've happened after the Hogyoku took them away. Nothing ever did, though.

Aizen's true goals

Ok. A popular fan theory is thus: Aizen killed the Espada/ let them die for there several hundred thousand souls. Canon states that he'll get the souls from Karakura. Wrong. He needs BOTH batches of several hundred thousand souls. The Espada are to create the Ouken. Sure. But it's been stated that Aizen wants to create "perfect beings." It has also been stated that Kurosaki Ichigo has "abnormally high reiatsu." The captains are wrong. It's not Ichigo that has the reiatsu. It's HICHIGO. HICHIGO was the one who owned Uliquorra. Aizen has recognized this since the very first time he met Ichigo. He might have done some background research, and figured out how Ichigo got his powers. Now, it's been stated that Karakura is the most reiryoku-enriched place on earth. As such, every single one of its citizens are exposed to this reiatsu daily. So what does Aizen do with every single one of Karakura's citizens? He replicates Urahara's shattered shaft hundreds and thousands of times and throws EVERY SINGLE ONE of Karakura's inhabitants in one. He waits. Somebody's BOUND to develop a hollow in an Ichigo-similar way, and then Aizen has his army.

• Jossed. Aizen never created the Ouken throughout his time in the real town. All he ever wanted was to find an equal, which he found (and more) in Ichigo.

The mysterious shinigami seen with Urahara and Isshin is the missing tenth division captain during the TBTP arc.

If it's not Isshin, then it's this person.

• • Jossed. It's Rukia.

Tsukishima is not the enemy, Ginjo is.

Tsukishima's power is based off his bookmark, which Ginjo tells Ichigo allows Tsukishima to insert himself into someone's memories. But a bookmark doesn't change a story, it just lets you recall your place in it later. As in restoring lost or sealed, yet still real, memories. On the other hand, Ginjo's Fullbring comes from his X pendant and is called a Cross. And crosses and the letter X have a history and connotation of sealing things. What if Ginjo sealed everyone's memories of Tsukishima, and Tsukishima has just recently mastered his fullbring enough to break the seal?

• Tsukishima seems Affably Evil, but he could just as easily be a real, nice guy.
• Ginjo does a bit too well at playing the cliched villain in chapter 451.
  • Aaaaand now....yeah, I think with Chapter 456 we can be certain Ginjo isn't the bad guy.
  • They both can still be the bad guy(s). Just not on the same side. Remember, someone from Soul Society (my manga source removed the chapter) tried warning Ichigo to not be an idiot just when he was hanging around Ginjo.
  • Note that it is still possible to consider Tsukishima a "good guy". Ginjo was already stalking Ichigo. He already knew where Ichigo worked, for one. It would be a gutsy move, but Kubo could make it so all of Bleach we've seen so far was an altered memory. Ginjo changed everyone's memories to get Ichigo on his side. Tsukishima is just restoring things to the proper place. He is just facing down an angry, homocidal, powered up Ichigo and is forced to see him as an enemy until his memories are restored. Plus, look at Ichigo's friends. Many of them are rivals beaten into joining him. If Tsukishima was the same his "affably evil" might just be him enjoying this opportunity to knock Ichigo around a bit like old times.
  • Jossed. Ginjo is an enemy, but he's been in cahoots with Tsukishima from the start.

Ichigo's Fullbring will become a wakizashi after he gets his powers back

Letting him keep his fullbring and his zanpakuto would be a good way of increasing his power. He already has a katana in the from of Tensa Zangetsu, so his fullbring could be some form of off hand item. He is not really the type for a shield, but Dual-Wielding is an option.

• Jossed. He lost them before he ever used a wakizashi.

The Espada ranks were chosen my Aizen to troll the Hollows

Basically, they really weren't about power. Like Barragan, ruler of ALL Hueco Mundo & wielding the kill-all, Respira, gets deposed & stuck below a do-nothing who takes naps & prefers to avoid fights. Starrk, took down Rose & Love, but after he's killed, they get up & immediately face Aizen. If they were REALLY beat, they'd be on the ground still like thse Allon beat. Harribel was ranked above Nnoitra since he refused to believe a woman could beat a man... turns out Kubo agres w/ him! Luppi was promoted in place of Grimmjow to further humiliate what is probably one of the strongest of Hollows. (He survived multiple Bankai hits from the main character for crying out loud!) We saw just how long Luppi lasted once Grimm Kitty made the decision to kill.

Real Espada Levels: 1-Barragan, 2-Ulquiorra (Killed Ichigo TWICE), 3-Wonderwyce (Beat Captain Kensei & Captain Tuberculosis w/one hit!) 4-Nnoitra (slashed several times in chest by KENPACHI but kept fighting), 5-Grimmjow (Survived multiple Vaizard Bankai hits while able to continue high level aggression against & wound main character), 6-Starrk (Wounded 3 Captains), 7-Yammi (beat 3 Lieutenant Class, Rukia, Renji, Chad, Massive Atack Power & Durabilty/Regeneration) 8-Zommari (he DID survive a hit from Gokei Senbon Zakura, plus his Amor was broken), 9-Szayel (Killed by Bankai, then sealed Zanpakuto, but his Voodoo Doll & Gabriel, brr!) 10-Harribel (no special ability, no aggression, no hits on even lieutenant class shinigami, Hitsu GA Ya just feared her Tattooed Marshmallow Hell) 11-Luppi (actually out fought multiple Lieutenants & made a Captain bleed, might actually outrank Harribel) 12-Arronierro (killed in single hit by severely wounded Lieutenant) The Privaron espada, except Dordoni, were a sad joke. Why were they Espada at any point anyway? At best they were Lieutenant class.

No way Harribel was ever a Vasto Lorde (unless there was GROSS inbalence in power between males & females!) Ulquiorra was without a doubt (Silhouette!), Barragan quite likely, same w/ Wonderwyce (Only Captain Genocide could handle him) nnoitra might be the pinnacle of adjuchas evolution, grimmjow might be at the point where Vasto begins, Starrk might hasve been one once, but after splitting, never regained his former power, a bit like Nel.

Too bad we didn't get to see what happened in Las Noches after Yammi 'died' & before Mayuri took over. The Hollows as a plot device are finished.

• • Point on what Starrk did to Rose and Love. He offered to let them leave, and only when they did not back down did he intend to actually aim to kill them ('finishing move' or the like was said). We don't get to see that killing attempt because Kyoraku's shadows got in the way. He also got lucky shooting Kyoraku, who was distracted by Wonderweiss's similar chance attack on Ukitake. Starrk was opportunistic and reluctant to kill (but like Shunsui, only to an extent). In the case of one-shotting Ukitake, Wonderweiss was certainly opportunistic, having the element of surprise (plus, he's apparently a child, which is ironically significant given the two captains' reaction to Lilynette). The 'power' of each had little to do with it.
  • Jossed. Word of God says that the Espada are ranked based on reiatsu levels. Yammy being the "strongest" one just means he has more spiritual pressure than any of the others, it has nothing to do with actual abilities. Although that's just as absurd as ranking martial artists based on who can bench press more.
  • That being so, then Starrk's tendency to inadvertently kill Hollows weaker than him in his attempt to find friends would indicate his reiatsu was high enough for him to warrant the '1' position. Turned out to be irrelevant, to the extent that perhaps Aizen used it as a justification for the look of the thing, because it ostensibly give his army a neat structure (in practice I gather there was lots of in-fighting)? In that, Aizen putting Starrk at the top made sense because he had no interest in fighting against either those 'below' him or his boss, because he considered them Nakama.

Being a Fullbring user is a mutant power.

Ginjou said he and the other members of Xcution were born with the ability.

• Jossed. They're not superhumans; they just have remnants of Hollow energy within them, since their mothers were attacked by Hollows.

Sora will kill Aizen

Because Aizen is a Heartless.

• Aizen isn't a Heartless; he's Xemnas.
  • Jossed. Aizen's immortal now, throwing all of the below and related guesses out of the window.

Exdeath will kill Aizen

By making him overdose on hurfing durf.

• • Jossed. Aizen's immortal now.

Sephiroth will kill Aizen

To prove he's the better villain.

• • Jossed. Aizen's immortal now

Lelouch will kill Aizen

It's all part of his massive Xanatos Gambit to unify everything in peace. Jossed. Aizen's immortal now.

Aizen has planned his own version of the Zero Requiem

Jossed. Aizen just wanted to find an equal.

Ichigo will gain familiar demon powers next

Thus Nero's origin story

• Jossed. His Shinigami powers are back.

Ichigo is the new master of the Hogyku

Self explanatory. It's found a new master, and Ichigo just beat the stuffing out of Aizen. Plus this'll be a way to repower Ichigo.

• Jossed. It's stuck with Aizen.

Ichigo will lose all his shinigami powers, but keep his hollow powers.

With his shinigami powers gone, he will use only his hollow powers until he becomes a vasto lord. Then he break his mask and become an arrancar and regain his shinigami powers.

• I agree with you. No one ever said that just because Ichigo will lose his Shinigami powers if he uses the final Getsuga doesn't mean he can't retain his Hollow abilities.
• Hollow Ichigo has flat out stated that he and Zangetsu are two sides of the same coin. Zangetsu vanished when Hollow Ichigo first took control, and the two of them were fused when Ichigo learned the Final Getsuga Tensho. Everything is pointed toward a total power wipe.
  • Yes that is true, but Isshin must have retained some power to later revitalize. This means that it cannot be a "total power wipe". It is still entirely possible that he could retain his hollow side, since when he was losing his power he said that he could feel his shinigami powers leaving, not his spirit powers. But on the same token it could very well go the other direction. However the story demands.
    • "Total power wipe" in the sense that everything goes, both Shinigami and Hollow. It's obviously not permanent, as you pointed out with Isshin. (Besides, it's shounen. There's no such thing as a permanent de-power for the hero.) What's more, given Ichigo losing any semblance of spiritual awareness, the latest chapter seems to be telling us that he lost it all, both Shinigami and Hollow. He can't feel any pressure anymore.
• Dammit, beat me to it. Great Minds, huh?
• Jossed. His Shinigami powers were restored first.

Of the Espada, only Starrk and Harribel were Vasto Lorde.

Take a look at their Ressurrección: Los Lobos and Tiburón, respectively. Notice any similarities? No Hollow parts, apart from their clothes (Starrk's eyepiece, Harribel's bone armor). Being a Vasto Lorde!Arrancar means that when you go Resurrección, you retain your humanity and actually just look like a human wearing funny clothes. By this logic the levels the Espada were at before becoming Arrancar could be:

Starrk: Very powerful Vasto Lorde.
Baraggan: Powerful Adjuchas.
Harribel: Average Vasto Lorde.
Ulquiorra, Nnoitra, Grimmjow, Zommari and Szayelaporro: Powerful-to-average Adjuchas.
Aaroniero: Powerful Gillian.
Yammy: Average-to-powerful Adjuchas.

Although, going by this logic, some of the weaker Arrancar would also have been Vasto Lorde, including Charlotte, Luppi, Gantenbainne and Mila Rose. Maybe there's more to the Gillian/Adjuchas/Vasto Lorde level system than we know...

• I thought the description of a Vasto Lorde was a NON-arrancar that looked human.
• Yes it is. But what I said was that the Resurrección of an Arrancar!Vasto Lorde looks human.
• Ulquiorra was a Vasto Lorde. When the concept of Vasto Lorde was explained the first time you could see the shadow/shape of one. Guess like whose resurrección number 2 it looked like?
• Yeah... only reason I put Ulquiorra as an Adjuchas was because he didn't fit into the "Vasto Lorde!Resurrección looks like cosplayer" theme of the WMG. Segunda Etapa simply doesn't, and his regular Resurrección has his horned helmet. Plus it was never officially stated that Ulquiorra was a Vasto Lorde. Like Bleach wiki states, only Harribel has been confirmed to have been a Vasto Lorde (also, Grimmjow was an Adjuchas and Aaroniero was a Gillian).
• Jossed. Unmasked confirmed that most of the Espada were Vasto Lorde.

The Final Getsuga Tensho will make Aizen stoned out of his mind.

That's why it's going to be introduced in issue 420.

• Jossed. It only freaked him out.

== Hanataro is going to get the kill on Aizen == Wouldn't that be the real pisser? Aizen has to be hurting from all the fighting and the poison damage he just experienced. He's weakened. Hanataro can destroy when his healing scalpel removes enough damage. Plus he's the last one anyone would expect with heavy hitters running around still. Plus, it would anger you, yes you.

• Jossed. Aizen's immortal.

Aizen will be killed by a Clap Your Hands If You Believe moment.

Think of it this way:

• The Hougyoku has the power to effectively grant wishes.
• It grants wishes to multiple people, not just it's owner.
• It remembered that it's owner was Aizen as of 415. Theoretically, it would remember everyone.
• It has been exposed to the most of the cast in bleach.
• It is linked to Aizen, currently, who is incredibly powerful.

So what happens? Someone wishes everyone back. Next to the Hougyoku.

And so the Hougyoku, quite literally, revives everyone. Guess whos Reisatsu is the power source for all this?

• • An alternate theory in the same vein would be having someone scream that they don't believe in fairies. Conflict stops right there.
  • Jossed. Aizen's immortal.

The 'hogyoko' that Aizen has embedded in his chest is not the real hogyoko.

Why, why, why would he bring it into battle if it makes the will of people around it real? (This could be to set up the 'He might think he has complete control over it and such, but he actually doesn't and Ichigo's willpower enables him to win a battle over whose will controls the hogyoko'-type scenario, but I think Aizen is too careful to fall for this.) So, simple: he doesn't actually have the hogyoko with him, and it's hidden someplace else.

• So, how does he do his nifty regeneration?
  • He already received that power. It is now a part of his arsenal, continued contact with the hogyoko is unnecessary.
• It's hidden in Hell. Those Hell Gates at the beginning can't have been shown just for fun; they're a Chekhov's Gun and this new realm is going to come into play. After all, Shinji and several other as-yet unrevealed characters show up in the title page for the very first chapter. Everything has been planned. Those gates are going to be important.
  • Hell arc, maybe?
    • If the hogyoko was hidden in hell, wouldn't it be manifesting the will of hell's inhabitants?
      • Aizen's creating a demon army!!1!11!!1! =D
• Jossed. Aizen and Urahara made separate Hogyoku prototypes. Aizen fused them together.

Don Kanonji will power up from Hougyoku exposure

• He sincerely wishes to be a hero, and no human could possibly survive touching Aizen. The solution is to make him something beyond human!
• Jossed. He never did.

Aizen's entire evil plot was to grow a mullet.

Now, he's just making stuff up as he goes along so he doesn't look like an idiot.

• Jossed. He wanted to find someone equal to his power level, according to ichigo.

Gin is not betraying Aizen because he is Axe Crazy.

Let's face it; if you're not a Shinigami, you live in a Crapsack World known as the Rukongai. Whether you have powers or not, unless you actually go become one of the Elite. Quite frankly, this arrangement sucks. One of the Fillers made this a plot point. And, because it sucks, and because Gin cares about Rangiku (and possibly others in their leaky boat), he decided to go and change this. And, because he inferred that Aizen is the boss, he decided to go and attempt this little reform through his awesomely sneaky little ways. Once he found out the full Seireitei system, he decided to go along with Aizen even more, probably to use the Hogyoku as a bartering chip or something. Watch this be his little monologue as he dies in Rangiku's arms. And after he dies...

• Jossed. He only wanted to get Rangiku's reiatsu particles back from the Hogyoku.

Aizen killed Hiyori

• And framed Gin using his illusion powers. (I can't remember if Ichigo saw the attack). Alternately, Hiyori once bumped into baby Matsumoto and didn't apologize.
  • No, I don't think Ichigo was shown to have seen that attack, at least, not in the manga, so it's entirely possible. However, I still think Gin was responsible, because he doesn't need to be a nice guy to have tried to kill Aizen to avenge Rangiku.
  • Actually, I'm pretty positive that Ichigo was not present when that occured. I vividly remember Shinji screaming for him to return.
• Jossed. Hiyori's still alive.

Rangiku was the previous host of the Hougyoku before Rukia.

• Just putting it out there. And providing an alternate theory to why the front of her yukata was loosened when we saw her in chapter 415, though I do fear that that wasn't all of it. And it would explain what the Hougyoku was doing in that flashback.
• Jossed. He had his goon steal parts of peoples' souls to feed to the Hogyoku.

Aizen is planning to eat Gin.

• In doing so, he will gain yet another power boost, and possibly Gin's shikai and bankai abilities.
• And thus Gin will pull a Kimblee.
• Jossed. He only planned to bring Gin along because he was curious over when and how Gin would attempt to kill him.

Orihime will be the one to kill Aizen, after seeing all he's done.

He'll finally set Orihime to the breaking point, after seeing that nearly EVERYONE is dead, she's finally gonna lose it. Travel to the human world, despite Ichigo and Co.'s pleas, she will confront Aizen on her own. Aizen will obviously think this is just Orihime being stupid; until he finds himself Out Gambitted by Orihime.

All I can say are Two Words. Everyone, say it with me! I...REJECT! And thus, Aizen will cease to exist. The Hogokyou will cease to exist. The world will be back to normal. ...Until a new villian comes around.

• • Jossed. Aizen's immortal.

Aizen is turning into a Hell Butterfly

Their existence and lack of use set up a Chekhov's Gun. They are generated whenever a soul is sent to Soul Society and allow passage between worlds. They are also valuable and unique in their power, since they have to be kept in SS for later use. Their species isn't Shinigami, human, Hollow or anything in between, just as Aizen claimed he was. If he gains the rare passage-powers of the Hell Butterfly, he can easily pass between any worlds, including whatever traps the King's Key may open up. Since they are their own species, it also explains what the energy Aizen uses is. It might still be spiritual energy, but it's the energy of an insect, which nobody has seen in the amounts Aizen possesses.

• Jossed.

Despite Ichigo's latest powerup, Aizen is still going to win.

We've had too much build up over squad 0 and the King to never see them.

• Jossed. He lost his powers and he's been imprisoned.

Kenpachi will come

And after he sweeps away Aizen with his Double-Handed-Thing he'll fight with Ichigo again, because he is now in one league with him. The burst of Reiatsu will be so fricking hardcore that it will revive the dead and thus the strategy of the manga 'no one ever dies' will be kept. Also, Kenpachi will have a drink with Ichigos dad, probably full of flashbacks of how they trained together or something.

• Jossed. He returned to the Soul Society after he helped Byakuya beat Yammy, while Ichigo defeated Aizen.

Before Ichigo can deliver the final blow, a Hell Gate will appear and drag Aizen into Hell, exactly like Satan planned.

The whole idea of the Hogyoku was implanted into Uruhara's mind by demons under the orders of Lucifer as part of some ultra convoluted plot to get a shinigami to become evil enough to be inducted as a member of Hell's legions. Aizen was the shinigami that took the bait, but his plans coming to fruition with the level of detail and sheer amount of blood spilled and lives ruined exceeded the expectations of many of the generals of Hell. In the end, however, once Aizen's in Hell he'll be reduced to being Satan's little bitch, the Hogyoku being merely a Red Herring rather than a MacGuffin, and Aizen is just the final puzzle piece need to complete his army of the Damned to march straight into Heaven.

• Jossed. Aizen's immortal now, thanks to the Hogyoku.

Aizen's own transformation will be his undoing.

As Ichigo is about to finish him off, Aizen will use Kyouka Suigetsu to try to escape. However, thanks to his own transformation, his reiatsu is so incredibly high that he can't hide it anymore, making his illusion powers worthless to anyone who can sense spirit pressure.

• Jossed. ichigo beat him, Urahara sealed him and the Hogyoku took away Aizen's powers.

Momo will kill Aizen.

Skilled as she is in Kido, Momo will be able to save herself. It will take awhile, which is why we haven't seen her yet, but any second now we will all hear "Snap, Tobiume!" in the middle of the current fight. Aizen will fall, gibbering, to a beautifully Karmic Death, Ichigo will wonder what the Hell just happened, Gin and Rangiku will burst out laughing, and the residents of Karakura will still be clueless.

• Jossed. He's immortal thanks to the Hogyoku.

== Aizen wants to become a Vasto Lorde without having to consume thousands of souls ==. He wants the power of a Vasto Lorde, or as close to it as he can get. The Hougyoku tries to grant this wish by constantly making him evolve: Aizen -> Sockpuppet!Aizen -> Mullet!Aizen -> Butterflaizen -> Cthulhu!Aizen.

• • Jossed. If the anime and power level guidebook are to be believed, at least Tia to Starrk were Vasto Lorde already. This would make Base Aizen/Yama/Current Ichigo stronger than most Vasto Lorde.

Gin will recieve a hollow form similar to Ichigo's.

He's in almost the exact same scenario Ichigo was in the Ulquiorra fight. This will happen immediately when Aizen attempts to finish him off. He'll get a new animalistic, silent, and Ax Crazy hollow form that overpowers Aizen, stabs Ichigo in the chest, and defends Rangiku at all costs.

• Jossed.

The next set of villains will be humans given powers by the Hogyoku.

We've fought Hollows. We've fought Shinigami. We've fought Hollowfied Shinigami and Shinigami-fied Hollows. What's next? The answer has been staring us in the face the whole time, in the form of Chad and Orihime. Orihime's healing power is literally god-like, and theoretically her offensive and defensive powers could be just as strong if she actually wanted them to be. Likewise, Chad had superhuman strength and endurance ever before getting his power, but he was so used to being an Actual Pacifist that his power manifested as defense-based right arm, meaning that up until the Hueco Mundo arc he's been fighting by punching people with a shield. As soon as he decided he actually wanted to attack, he became strong enough to one-shot an Arrancar. Now imagine what would happen if someone with Orihime's power decided they wanted to 'reject' an opponent's body parts. Or imagine someone with Chad's natural strength who decided that they liked using their strength to hurt people, then give that person a Power Fist.

• Jossed. Fullbringers got their powers from reiatsu remnants from Hollows that attacked their mothers.

Ichigo will become a Quincy.

WARNING: This whole WMG is a spoiler. After the Final Getsuga gets rid of Ichigo's Shinigami powers, he still has a keen understanding of how to manipulate reiatsu, right? Why couldn't Uryu teach him how to gather spirit particles from the air?

• Not likely. There was the disagreement in the early episodes about how Ichigo doesn't approve of the way Quincy methods erase Hollows from the cycle of life altogether.
• Jossed. He's back as a Shinigami.

The Final Getsuga won't kill Aizen, but it will depower him

This will give Ichigo the opportunity to beat the crap out of him with his bare hands. Come on, you know you want to see that happen.

• Jossed. Aizen lost his powers because of the Hogyoku.

Ichigo won't defeat Aizen, Hichigo will.

As soon as the final getsuga tenshou runs out, Hichigo will exploit Ichigo's weakened state to take total control. Aizen, having had his ass mostly kicked, will get devoured by Hichigo and he'll become the most powerful Hollow in history. The next arc will be Chad, Orihime and Ishida trying to bring Ichigo back.

• Jossed. Ichigo really did defeat Aizen, but Urahara sealed Aizen away.

Bleach will end in chapter 432

For no real reason other than it being 108 times Four.

• Jossed. It's on 460 right now.

Ichigo will gain his spirit powers.

Notice it's not Regain. Because he took Rukia's powers, Ichigo has yet to unlock his own powers.

• Actually, he already did that the first time he trained with Urahara.

Inuyasha will kill Aizen

To get at the Shikon Jewel.

• Jossed. Aizen's immortal.

Ichigo will regain his power with help from Chad and/or Orihime

Considering he's the reason they gained their powers it seems like they're his path to regaining his. Chad's have a strong hollow feel and Orihime most likely has a shinigami kidio thing going on with her fairy's. plus she can reject reality and reshape it. wouldn't surprise me if she found a way to heal him.

• Of course there is. Reject his having used the Final Getsuga Tensho.
• Jossed. Rukia, Renji, Byakuya, Isshin, Kosuke, Hitsugaya, Kenpachi and Ikkaku did it.

There will be a time-skip

And not a little one either. It will probably focus on the children of the main cast (Ichigo/Orihime (because Rukia's invisible), Uryu/Tatsuki, and Chad adopted some kid (parrot-kid?)) to deal with Aizen when he breaks out. Rukia will be the childrens guide in the Spirit World.

• Jossed. It was a 17-month Time Skip with no real changes to the characters.

It's over, two weeks from now there will be more of the epilogue

Look, we've had people complaining about how long this series has gone on for several years. Maybe Tite Kubo just got fed up with that and decided to drop a Bittersweet Ending on us. Just putting it out there, I really don't believe it.

• Jossed Two more arcs are on the way, with the current already in the midpoint.

Urahara did not create the Houkyoku

The Houkyoku is actually the Shikon No Tama. Kisuke stole it from Japan 500 years ago.

• Jossed. Aizen and Urahara created their own versions of the Hogyoku, before Aizen fused them both.

Yugi will kill Aizen

After fusing with Yammy to form Yammy Yugi. He will then challenge Seto Kaizen to a Shadow-children's card game, which Kaizen will lose and be sent straight to the Shadow Realm.

• CARD GAMES ON HUECO MUNDO!
• And Shunsui will host the game!

Jossed. Aizen's immortal now

Luffy will kill Aizen

Because Aizen has the Houkyoku, which is One Piece Jossed. Aizen's immortal now

Negi Springfield will kill Aizen

• Jossed. Aizen's immortal now.

Altair will kill Aizen

Killstealing it from everyone else. Because Altair is the ultimate killstealer.

• • Jossed. Aizen's immortal now

Aizen will kill Aizen

Somebody had to say it.

• • Jossed. Aizen's immortal now

Ichigo won't regain his powers for a long time

Instead Tatsuki will develop spirit powers and become the new main character. Also the rest of the Karakura gang will develop powers to. And Mizuiro will be kidnapped or Chizuru who if her captors are female she will molest to death.

• Jossed. They're back now.

Grimmjow will show up in the next Arc as a mentor

This is a combination of several Guesses I liked. Here we go: Zangetsu specifically stated that Ichigo's SHINIGAMI powers would be lost but said nothing of his Hollow half. I believe that Ichigo's Inner Hollow will make a comeback and try to become King once again. Grimmjow will then show up as an "exchange student" at the troubled teen's school(all facilitated by Urahara, of course) and begrudgingly teach him how to control his powers through many weeks of rigorous offscreen training. Due to the teen's established ridiculous learning curve, this training will inevitably bring him back up to a level of power comparable to his original but as an Arrancar instead of a Vizard or Visored or whatever you want to call it. Then plot will occur, Kubo will troll, and there will be a rather unsatisfying conclusion that causes a wave of fanfics to flood the internet. The end.

• Jossed. He's still missing in action thus far.

Stark and Harribel's fraccion Apache will be revealed to be the only Arrancar survivors.

Together with Nelliel, the three will plunge into despair over the deaths of their comrades, Aizen's betrayal and that HM is now in the hands of a Soul Reaper mad sciencist worse than Aizen. Eventually, they'll form a cross-dimensional evil law firm.

• • Okay, you got the Wolf, you got the Ram, where's the Hart HEART? Oh, never mind. I answered my own question.
  • Jossed. Harribel and her fraccion all survived. Starrk and Lilynette are dead. Nel's unconfirmed.

This new arc is going to be really short

It will end with the lost shinigami representative forcing all of his powers onto Ichigo restoring Ichigo's powers and loosing his own because he's sick and tired of seeing spirits and crap. Why? Kubo has learned from making overly long arcs and has decided all future arcs will be super short.

• Jossed. Rukia gave back Ichigo's powers, with help from Isshin, Renji, Byakuya, Ikkaku, Kenpachi and Hitsugaya.

Ichigo has been working for Urahara for the past six months

Mainly because his new boss speaks like Urahara from the beginning of the series, back when things weren't so serious. And why would Kubo bother adding in the phone call if it weren't relevant somehow?

• Jossed as of chapter 426, his boss is a woman named Unagiya.

The Post-Timeskip characters led by that ramen guy that just met Ichigo are more Vizards

Either previous victims of Aizen before the incident with the Captains and Liutenants shown in Turn Back The Pendulum, or else subseqent victims. It is even possible that they are trapped in the prototypes of the reatsu-draining gigai Urahara offered Rukia back at the beginning of the storyline. The Butler-type guy's cane could even be a cane sword style zanpakuto like Benihime.

• It's also possible that Kubo-sensei decided to bring in some stuff from the filler arcs and these guys are Bounts that didn't join up with Kariya Jin.
• For that matter, they could even be Mod Souls in gigais!
• Jossed. They're a new race, called Fullbringers.

The mysterious ramen guy is a Quincy!

• Well, if you look here, he does appear to be wearing a Quincy Cross. And he obviously has some connection to the spiritual world. And it would be kind of funny, what with Ishida constantly procaliming to be the 'Last Quincy' in the early volumes of Bleach.
• Jossed. He's a Fullbringer.

The human who attacked Ishida is Hiramaru Kazuya

• Don't you see how much alike they look? Maybe this is a zig-zagged Show Within a Show.
• Jossed.

The Fullbringers have an English/European style motif

The terms 'Fullbring' and 'Xcution' are based off of the English words 'full', 'bring', and 'execution' (I know, I know, Captain Obvious, but stay with me). If they follow the precedent set by other groups, then all terminology and techniques associated with Fullbring will be in English, or at least Engrish. The fact that Ginjou's weapon is a clearly Christian cross that transforms into a Western-style broadsword supports the 'European' motif.

• Jossed. Fullbringers don't seem to have any special terminology or techniques, beyond the catch-all term fullbring. Their unique power has it's own name, and everything else falls under the umbrella of fullbringing.

The Fullbringers all have either partially or fully armored forms.

Basically the inverse of the above WMG; if Chad can copy Ginjou then Ginjou can copy Chad. The idea is that a fully decked out Fullbringer will have both a personalized weapon for offense and a hollow-mask like exoskeleton to protect their squishy human organs, creating a fighter with the weapon skills of a shinigami and the brute power of an arrancar.

• Seemingly Jossed; Chad's armor is basically him using Fullbring on his own skin, which he can only do because he's particularly proud of his dark skin.

The 'Lost Shinigami Representative' actually refers to Ichigo.

Kind of self-explanatory, really. Especially after 433. Ichigo isn't going to have to save anyone, as the 'lost Shinigami Representative', Ichigo will simply have to regain his lost shinigami powers and take up the role of Shinigami Representative once more. Which is when he really will have to rescue somebody.

• Still doesn't explain why Kuugo had a substitute soul reaper badge. And no, he didn't steal Ichigo's because a) Ichigo still has his, and b) Ichigo's badge is covered in cracks and scrapes and has no chain, whereas Kuugo's has a chain and looks brand new.
  • Jossed. Turns out the badge belonged to the first Shinigami Representative Xcution approached, who was killed by Tsukishima.

Tsukishima is the new Big Bad

Ok come on!He's injured Uuryu,he apparently wants Orihime dead,he kinda looks like Aizen,and he just gives off that vibe.

• Jossed. He shares it with Ginjo.

Ichigo's fullbringer ability is a Morph Weapon

There has to be more to it than a swastika made of rieatsu he should probaly be able to make it into different shapes like a BFS,Axe,Hammer,Flail, Scythe etc.

• Jossed. Only used that katana-like sword, and he's lost his Fullbring for good now.

Arrancar lose their hollow hole as the get stronger

Vizard and Arrancar are counterparts more or less. Looking at Ichigo, it seems that a Vizard gains a hollow hole as the become more powerful and more hollow like. Using that logic, shouldn't Arrancar lose their hollow holes as the become more powerful and more like shinigami. One should also notice that the strongest Arrancar; Primera Espada, Segunda Espada, and both Tres Espada; don't appear to have hollow holes. Szayel could've also used this to rise to the rank Octo Espada, my guess is he was originally around Aaronierro(Did I spell that right?)'s strength this could be supported by the Hell Chapter were Aaronerro believing he could take Szayel.

• Jossed. Yeah, about that...

The Final Getsuga Tensho

In addition to my previous WMG above, I believe that both Vizard and Arrancar can use their own version of the Final Getsuga Tensho or at least something similar. Since Ichigo had to fight Hollow Zangetsu in order to learn it, I believe that the release that the Final Getsuga is a result of fully mastering ones inner power, both ration and instinct, and reaching the epitome of growth.

• Jossed. It involves merging with ones' Zanpakuto. No formal training.

Ichigo's Fullbring mirrors his past so there should be at least one more level to it.

So I noticed how his Fullbring developed first as the Badge(Sealed), then the Tsuba(Shikai), then the Cloak(Bankai), finally his complete Fullbring(Hollow) but since Ichigo had one more level of power before he lost his power his Fullbring should mirror that.

• The final level will probably be where his fullbring merges with the remnants of his shinigami powers. Ginjo said this fusion would give him a power transcending the shinigami, and that's exactly what Ichigo had before using Mugetsu.
• Jossed. Ginjo took them away from Ichigo before he could evolve further.

The name of Ichigo's Fullbring will be...

...The Killing Moon. Fits with the name of his former Zanpakuto, the theme of the series,the song theme naming of other Fullbrings and, let's be frank, sounds awesome.

• Jossed. We never heard its name before Ginjo removed them from Ichigo.

Ichigo will finaly get his shinigami powers back thanks to Ginjo

He stabbed him in the chest(or rather...in THE HEART!?!)with that oversized broadsword,which is most probably fatal for Ichigo ,because he is in his puny and frail human body right now.But in Bleachverse death is just the beginning,and his death will somehow reawaken his lost shinigami powah.And after going into bankai and hollow mode he'll kick the fullbringers collective ass into the crub.

• • He won't die. The reason: Orihime.
    • Jossed. Rukia, Isshin, Urahara, Byakuya, Renji, Kenpachi, Ikkaku and Hitsugaya all had a part in restoring Ichigo's powers.

Kaien was never posessed.

• He was on meth. Hey his face looked all screwedup like real meth adicts and the hollow looks like the type to hook hot young men on its new batch it makes in a hotel bathroom.
  • No, he wasn't on anything at all! He just really liked orange sunglasses. Glasses, actually. He had a pair in his pocket and put them on right after he killed the hollow (his back was turned to Rukia, Ukitake, and the camera, remember?). His crazy laughter and taunting of Rukia and Ukitake were just for the lulz. However, he realized that his glasses could never be as cool as Kamina's, so he threw himself on Rukia's sword.
• Jossed. Aaroniero absorbed the Hollow that possessed him and claimed Kaien's powers for his own.

The one who will beat Captain Broken is a Dio Brando Expy in the Royal Guard.

The only thing that can be Captain Superman's broken powers is someone who has an even more ridiculously overpowered ability like time manipulation.

• Awesome

Captain Evil Superman: "Surely you did not think that you were a match for my pow-"
Captain Dio: "Time stands still. ZA WARUDO!" * Sword shatters and the shards freeze in the air just before hitting the ground.*
Captain Asspull: "Ffffffffffffffffffffffff-" * time stops*
Captain Dio: "Time has stopped."
Captain Xanatos: * crushed under a steamroller* "-uck."

• • That's assuming he didn't magically learn Orihime's ability, which he took great pains to point out as more powerful than time manipulation. Seriously it's like they try to foreshadow a way out of every conceivable situation for this guy.
• Ichigo defeated Aizen.

Yammy will reveal another form, but a completely different one

He'll start to grow again, but then get so big he starts collapsing under his own mass and implodes until he's smaller. But it's not the typical "big monster turns into a skinny dude" thing, he'll get even smaller that. He'll keep compressing until he's the size and shape of that dog thing he had a while ago. However, his actually mass and strength is the same (he may also be faster/more maneuverable), and being that size will focus his power making his reiatsu so dense as to be pretty much impenetrable.

• • Alternatively, this will collapse him into a reiatsu black hole. The captains will then have to escape Hueco Mundo before they are engulfed.
• Jossed. It was a Battle Discretion Shot and Yammy got Dropped A Brige On Him.

Gin is in league with the Royal Guard.

Not sure what led me to this conclusion, but it would explain that constant shifty demeanor and why he's off in the background doing... something while Aizen solos the entire cast.

• This would not surprise me in the least. It's something about that face that makes me think "Wow is he trying to look evil."
• Jossed. He was in it for himself, which is to say, to get Rangiku's soul particles back from the Hogyoku.

Aizen is planning something involving plots similar to a combination of Fullmetal Alchemist, Code Geass and End of Evangelion

The plot goes like this: Aizen's true objective is to overthrow the king of Soul Society, so he can replace him as God. To do this, he needs the royal key. In order to create the key, Aizen needs to gather 100,000 souls in Karakura Town, which has an unusually large concentration of spirit particles. Aside from killing the many souls used in its creation, creating the key will also vaporize most of Karakura Town. The Fullmetal Alchemist part: kill lots of people to make Applied Phlebotinum (Philosopher's Stone). The Code Geass part: overthrow God. The End of Evangelion conclusion: Technically, replacing God means destroying the system, reducing everyone to simple form and causing Mass Assimilaiton.

• To some extent, all of this is involved in the FMA plot anyway. Father's machinations involve taking in entire nations' worth of souls to make himself into an increasingly powerful living Philosopher's Stone to the point of taking over the power and place of God. In essence, Aizen and Father are among two anime Big Bads whose similarities are most underrated, because they are both major league deceivers with similar Satan-esque goals.
• Jossed. He only ever wanted to find an equal in the same power level as he was in.

Aizen is the king of Soul Society

He just wants his house back.

• He locked himself out. Why he doesn't tell anyone and instead acts as if he is a Big Bad and plans to kill hundreds of thousands of people? Being a king and locking yourself out of your palace is really embarrassing.
• Jossed. Aizen saw the real Spirit King. He hates it.

Ishida and Ichimaru will face each other in a showdown

Seeing as the majority opinion is that Gin's Bankai is some sort of ranged weapon, and that Ishida's specialty is in that, Ishida would be the only one that could effectively fight him. This would lead to an epic western style shoot out with them trying to get off the the first shot for an insta-kill.

• Ichimaru was killed by Aizen, and Ishida was stuck in Hueco Mundo for the entirety of the FK and Deicide arcs.

Ichigo is going to kill Aizen

And soon, because no one can plan for the unexpected. Thats why its the unexpected. Just putting it out there that he might, y'know, die!

• Jossed. Ichigo never hated Aizen enough to kill him, and Aizen himself was made immortal because of the Hogyoku.

The Hougyoku is an empathy/bond weapon and ichigo is going to get it.

given the most recent reveal in chapter 396. methinks its an intelligent device. and that Ichigo will gain it after this battle is over. maybe it already likes Ichigo since he saved Rukia (and consequently it) from destruction...

• Jossed. It's stuck with Aizen.

Aizen will call Ichigo out on who he has special feelings for.

In a continuation of the Mind Screw, Aizen will make every point that every Shipper called out throughout the series. Since Ichigo is the Chaste Hero, this will inevitably lead to a Heroic BSOD that will result in his stupidest Battle Cry to date. It will also initiate one of the biggest Shipping FlameWars in history, but those are just entertaining.

• Jossed. Aizen only ever talked about Ichigo's lack of personal motivation to fight him, along with Ichigo's evolution from a human to a Shinigami, to a Physical God.

Aizen will die soon.

His current from will not attract as much fangirls anymore, so it means that he is okay to die.

• Jossed. The Hogyoku made him immortal.

The Hogyoku is the final villain.

Aizen only thinks that he's managed to master it, because the Hogyoku wants him to think that. It reality, it is rewriting his mind at the same time it remakes his body, and once it finishes turning him into a perfect vessel for itself it will pull a full-on Grand Theft Me.

• Jossed. The Hogyoku turned on Aizen and got rid of his powers, partly because the Hogyoku no longer saw Aizen as a worthy master.

The Hogyoku is working for Aizen against its will.

The Hogyoku is sentient, so it has it's own ambitions. Aizen showed it to Orihime in order to demonstrate to the Hogyoku that it could be destroyed by her reality rejection powers. The Hogyoku, aware that Aizen could easily manipulate her into rejecting it, finally agreed to manifest Aizen's will in an effort of self-preservation.

• Jossed. The Hogyoku decided to turn on Aizen because he failed to be a worthy master.

The Hogyoku is the key to defeating Aizen.

It turns the desires of those around it into reality, so naturally, once all hope is lost, Ichigo will stand up, give some speech about his desire to win at all costs to protect his friends, and his desire to win will outclass Aizen's, thus giving him the edge.

• Jossed. Ichigo (mostly) silently defeated Aizen's last two forms, while Urahara sealed Aizen, but the Hogyoku got fed up and removed Aizen's powers, mostly because it didn't recognize him as its master, and partly because Aizen subconsciously wanted to lose.

The person who will strike the killing blow will be...

Chojiro Sasakibe! Yes, the one man nobody notices. Who better to sneak attack Captain Broken?

• Jossed. Aizen is immortal, thanks to the Hogyoku.

Gin is good and the entire series since Aizen's "death" is actually a dying dream.

It's really all what he planned on doing, so used his zanpakuto on himself to "carry out" his plan as he imagined it would go.

• Jossed. Aizen lost his Zanpakuto because of the Hogyoku.

Gin's bankai

Since now Gin has decided to release his Bankai, it will end up being very nasty and deceptive, like the ability to make a porcupine from the inside of whatever it strikes (Demonstrated by missing Ichigo, hitting a building, and making it look like a pin cushion). Along with this, he will also be able to shoot it into the clouds to make a rain of blades, and/or to shoot into the ground and make thousands of blades shoot up from below their feet. In either case, the blades will be able to curve or lengthen depending on what Gin wants.

• Jossed. He has poison as his Bankai's best ability, but he never made blade-storms, porcupines or blade-thornes, nor did he ever curve the blades themselves.

Ichigo will gain his Resurrecion during the fight with Gin, Just As Planned.

If Aizen is to be believed, he has planned EVERY fight Ichigo has been in so far specifically to force him to progress. This fight is likely no different and is probably the real reason Gin has been hanging back this whole time. After this, Ichigo's true fight with Aizen will begin, initiating the final step in Aizen's plan.

• Jossed. Ichigo didn't use Resurreccion; he used Jinzen to communicate and merge with Zangetsu (natural Shinigami evolution), while Aizen's last transformation was the most Hollow-looking of all four (artificial and forced Hollow-like One-Winged Angel). Quite ironic, really.

Gin has major Magikarp Power

As it stands now, both Gin and Ichigo are using just bankai, and Ichigo seems to have the upper hand. But if Aizen hollowfied Tousen, there's no reason to think he didn't do the same to Gin. The difference is that Gin is a complete sadist, so he's arguably better suited to Hollow powers than most Hollows. Once he puts on his mask its going to be Ichigo vs. Ulquiorra all over again, and once he unleashes his Ressureccion he's going to make Tousenfly look like a fluffy bunny by comparison.

• Jossed. Gin never used a Hollow mask at all, from his fight with Ichigo to his betrayal of Aizen.

The Hogyoku is a trap.

While it's true that everything has unfolded Just As Planned for Aizen, in reality, the entire plot has been a trap to catch and kill him, undertaken by Urahara. The Hogyoku, while it breaks down the barriers between Hollow and Shinigami, does something else entirelly when it's actually implanted in someone, the way Aizen put it in his chest. It's going to explode/transform him into something completely unstable, just as Urahara planned all along.

• This. Sooooo This.
• Jossed. Urahara planted a Kido seal within Aizen during their fight. Ichigo pushed Aizen to his limit in their fight, which allowed the seal time to work properly. In fact, the Hogyoku turned on Aizen and removed his powers right after the sealing began, because Aizen ironically failed to be a good master to it.

Gin will be defeated by Izuru or Matsumoto.

With their Shikai, or, even better, their unreleased Zanpakuto.

• Jossed. Before Aizen killed him, Gin's only on-screen fights were against Hitsugaya and Ichigo.

Rangiku and/or Izuru will be killed.

Kubo may well be sick of Gin getting the leather pants, and decided to show Gin's fans once and for all that he is evil (since Turn Back the Pendulum didn't do it). What better way to prove this than to kill off the only two people from the Gotei 13 that he still supposedly cares about. Doesn't explain why the rubble from Shinso's Bankai didn't just crush them (and instead must have intentionally avoided them), but this theory needed to be tossed out there. The alternative is that Aizen will kill them, hitting Gin's supposed Berserk Button. Either is sure to be a Tear Jerker, and make me laugh.

• Jossed. Gin died before Rangiku or Izuru, and those two are still alive at this point.

A Quincy will help to defeat Aizen.

By shooting right on the Hougyoku and making it break, just when it's in its more unstable phase, possibly making Aizen pretty... Broken. If it's going to be Uryuu or Ryuuken, it's unknown (could be probably Uryuu, after Ryuuken sacrifices himself to give him an extra power or something). The final blow will obviously be Ichigo's, but it'd be interesting to see his very first rival helping him in this one.

• Well, the hogyoku is currently shaped like a cross.
• Alterntatively, a Quincy will shoot it, it'll shatter into countless shards that scatter all over the world, Hueco Mundo, and Spirit World, Ichigo and company will have to gather them back up.
• If that happens, then we'll have an eternal Inuyasha plot that Will. Never. End.

Segunda Etapa is unlocked by coming close to death

Should this be true, Aizen's betrayel of Halibel was pre-planned beforehand . Once most of the espada were dead, or close to it, he pretends to kill her so she can sneak back to Hueco mundo and activate a device that will revive the dead espada , giving them Segunda Etapa. The wound is real, so that halibel gets the same benefit. Barragan isn't revived do to being in a different plane of existence and stark is revived through surgery.

• Jossed. Ichigo defeated Aizen.

Aizen's Zanpakutou was too powerful for him and has trapped him inside an elaborate illusion.

This is the real reason Aizen has been so overpowering and claiming that he orchestrated all those unlikely plans as of late, Kyoka Suigetsu has taken control of Aizen's senses and possibly his mind by feeding into his ever enlarging ego and playing out his Marty Stu dream of godhood.

• • Jossed. Unmasked revealed that Aizen was naturally powerful, and Kyoka Suigetsu is his repressed feelings of loneliness from it.

The last six titles are actually a corruption of the word "decide."

As in, Gin is trying to decide if he should save Rangiku or help Aizen.

• Jossed. He never wanted to help Aizen - he joined because he wanted to kill Aizen.

If Grimmjow changes sides, and Yammy is killed, he and Ishida yell at each other about being the last Quincy and the last Espada

Comedy gold.

• Jossed. Yammy is dead, but Grimmjow's fate is unconfirmed and Harribel survived.

Orihime will defeat Aizen

by rejecting the existence of Hollows. Thus, this will leave Aizen unable to obtain what he so desires, resulting in a Villainous BSOD (or whatever). All the Hollows will be turned back into humans or something like that.

• • Sorry, but she likes Nell too much to have enough resolve for this.
  • Ultimately Jossed. Ichigo and Kisuke dealt with Aizen.

Gin is a member of Squad 0 and was a plant so the royal court could keep tabs on Aizen

• Kinda like Tarantulas from Beast Wars. Only less crazy and more enigmatic.
• Jossed. Gin was never a double agent; he just wanted to get part of Rangiku's soul back and kill Aizen for it.

Aizen ate Harribel.

He just used his powers to make everyone think that he backstabbed her. In reality, her fate was far worse.

• Jossed. Harribel survived, according to Unmasked.

Alternatively to "Gin betrays Aizen" theory, Gin is essential to his plan.

His bankai is needed to actually kill current king.

• Jossed. Aizen only brought Gin up because he was interested in seeing if Gin would kill him or not, and he bought into Gin's lies about his Bankai's abilities.

Aizen is deliberately not killing anyone

He's Dangerously Genre Savvy enough to realize that if he ever loses, then he could beg for forgveness and mention the fact that nobody died. He'll get thrown in jail for a couple of years and get released later. Then Momo will go vigilante Yandere and kill him and herself.

• • Except Aizen already murdered 46 people back in the Soul Society Arc, and unless they're written off as a bunch of corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats that no one really gives a shit about, it's highly unlikely he'll get off lightly in the end just by surrendering.
  • Jossed. He was defeated fair-and-square in a straight-up fight between himself and Ichigo. Upon his defeat, all he ever said was that he found it comical that the Central 46 would pass judgement on him. They responded by adding 2000 more years to his already-high (18,000) sentence.

Alucard will arrive in Karakura Town, Big Damn Heroes style and attack Aizen, having FINALLY found a Worthy Opponent.

Granted, such a fight is guaranteed to make the situation worse and there is absolutely no basis for this guess, other than like Alucard, Aizen is Nigh Invulnerable incarnate and how EPIC would it be to watch these two throw down? The answer: VERY.

• • Instead, it will actually turn out that Zaraki's Bankai is Alucard. This will end the series.
• Jossed. The series continued even after Aizen's defeat, and Aizen himself was defeated by Ichigo.

Harribel will survive due to her fraccions

They'll all be revealed to be barely alive. Her fraccions will sacrifice themselves to heal her in a moment of cruel irony, especially in light of the anime-created flashback. Then she and a also surviving Starrk will pull a big Heel Face Turn. Ok, that more wishful thinking than WMG.

• Jossed. Nestle to Night revealed that Orihime healed Harribel, Apacci, Sung-Sun and Mila-Rose just after Ichigo collapsed in front of his friends, but they're roaming around Hueco Mundo on their own, and Starrk is confirmed deceased in the Unmaksed databook.

Ichimaru Gin isn't evil.

He is a double agent for Soul Society.

• Reason 1: Look at him. Anyone who appears that pointlessly evil can't be actually evil. That would be anticlimactic.
• Reason 2: Soul Society knows an awful lot about Aizen's plans and movements for people in another universe entirely.
• Reason 3: For his sinister reputation, what has he actually done on screen? Driving Ichigo away after he tried to walk brazenly through the front door of Soul Society? Taunting Rukia until she recovered her desire to live? Immobilising Ichigo's friends when they picked a fight with Aizen...? Hang on, these aren't evil at all!
  • Uhh...he just vivisected Hiyori with that same grin on his face. How's that for on screen evil? Still a fair track record better than Mayuri but still... he cut her in HALF!!!
    • Considering the idea that he's in contact with SS, it's not too far fetched to believe that he knew who was heading towards that particular time (am I the only one who finds Unohana heading back at that exact time to be a little convenient?), and wanted to affirm his evilness to Aizen, after all, it would be a little strange if Gin didn't hurt ANY of the resistance at that point in time.
• Reason 4: The author loves setting a character up as irredeemably evil right until five seconds after the hero beats them.
• Reason 5: Unlike Severus Snape, the girl he loves is still "alive", which gives him even more of a reason to be on/go to the good (or at least non Well-Intentioned Extremist) side.
  • So does that mean the author is going to pull a Uchiha Itachi on us.
• Reason 6: Even the makers of the anime seem to have a hard time remembering he's supposed to be evil. Observe his recent wacky omake hijinks, lecturing the audience on the workings of Hueco Mundo.
  • Problem: the manga recently showed that Gin had killed another Shinigami while he was apparently still in academy, so I guess Tite's remembered he's a villain after all (or is he? Naruto is making me question everything).
    • Solution: Gin really was evil back then, but made a Heel Face Turn later, and for obvious reasons isn't letting Aizen know. Alternately, Gin could just be doing it for the lulz, not caring about "good" and "evil".
    • Again, it's possibly done to gain the trust of Aizen, because Aizen only took interest in him after that, it's cruel, but still sorta along the line of the end justifies the means.
  • Problem 2: Kurotsuchi Mayuri also has his wacky omake hijinks...
    • and Kurotsuchi is considered the Token Evil Teammate of the group, coincidence? I think not! But I don't really think it's really a proof of anything, but still...
  • If you ask me, breaking Rukia's spirit by giving hope and quickly taking it away seems pretty evil to me. But yeah Gin killed the 3rd seat of 5th squad and it was only after this that Aizen took interest in him.
• Reason 7: The Shinigami are, at least superficially, inspired by the Shinsengumi. Their 3rd, 5th, and 9th division captains, respectively: Saitou Hajime, Takeda Kanryuusai, and Suzuki Mikisaburo. Now, obviously the Gotei 13 captains aren't 1:1 expys of the Shinsengumi, but the parallel is intriguing.
  • Now I fully admit that my sole knowledge of the Shinsengumi comes from Rurouni Kenshin. But the dichotomy between that version of Saitoh- incredibly badass, unflappable, and completely dedicated to justice, has at best minor connections with Ichimaru- the "thrust" of the sword- Gaoutsu and Shinsou, and the unflappableness. Other than that, they've got literally nothing in common.
    • Thing is - real historical Saito once leaved Shinsengumi under one of other officers... when that officer became a threat he got in to sudden trap and was killed - and after that Saito returned in Shinsengumi.
  • Au contraire, mon frere! They both have squinty eyes!
  • The Peacemaker Kurogane version of Saitou is also quite a bit more ambiguous, or at least a very, very good actor.
• However, there's this picture, which shows Tousen and Aizen eagerly jumping into battle with Ichigo while Gin is chilling waaay in back. Given what just happened to Tousen and the Japanese idea that the person who fights and is seen the least is the most important, it looks like Gin could become the Big Bad.
• Gin seems to not really want to help Aizen. He just kind of sits there, while Aizen fights alone. Not to mention he rearranged the passageways in Hueco Mundo so that the Ichigo and Co. ended up fighting and killing all of the strongest arrancar they had.
• Moved to the main WMG page to say CONFIRMED
  • Not necessarily. He may be making a grab for power to try and become Shinigami King himself.
    • Or he's just screwing Aizen over for the heck of it- or what he wants isn't actually to become Shinigami King.
      • That's a complicated one. He was planning on killing Aizen since he was a kid in SS right after seing Aizen for the first time and realizing that "he is THEIR leader" "they" could mean the Arrancar? Also he stated something around the lines of doing it for Rangiku.
• Jossed. He wasn't a double agent, nor was he trying to make a grab for power. Gin was obsessed with taking a small part of Rangiku's soul back, when he could've obtained a better life with Rangiku had he let the matter with Aizen drop. He could've killed Aizen at any time, since it was apparently Aizen himself that told Gin what Kyoka's weakness, but chose not to, either because he was worried the Shinigami would defeat him (anime's version), or because he relished in the knowledge that only he knew about Aizen's Achilles' Heel. The man is still a sadistic bastard, even if he initially put that on as a facade to get closer to Aizen, but like Snape, how much of a sadistic bastard is up for debate.

Becoming the King will be Aizen's undoing.

The theory behind this idea besides the Rule of Cool, is that apon obtaining the power of the King of Heaven, not only does he gains the King's powers thus losing his Soul Reaper powers in the process, but also the King's weakness, in this case, the King needs worship to keep his powers. Aizen will discover the hard way why the Throne of Heaven was left empty for so long when somehow, someone will use an undisclosed ability to rob Aizen of his new powers, I just know it.

• Another way he could lose is that Aizen will discover the hard way that while he is pretty badass, he will not be able to handle the powers of being the King for very long and the very power he seeked destroys him instead.
• Jossed. Aizen never obtained the Ouken.

General Yamamoto is in league with Aizen

While Hinamori is recovering from her Mind Rape, Yamamoto allows her a brief conversation with Hitsugya. It starts out well enough, but then she starts to get worked up and says something to the effect of "Aizen must be being controlled! Ichimaru or someone else must be behind all this!" ... and Yamamoto promptly knocks her unconscious. He claims that it's because she's getting so worked up, but really, she wasn't exactly jumping from the walls or anything; It didn't seem like nearly enough of a reason. Does he have an ulterior motive? Perhaps he doesn't want people blurting out the idea that there might be a Big Bad other than Aizen.

• Jossed. Aizen wanted to kill Yamamoto to damage the Shinigamni's morale, and Yamamoto called Aizen out on using Wonderweiss as a suicide bomb.

Ukitake's illness is a side-effect of the fact that he's a failed Visored experiment.

Given Stark's shock at what appears to be a cero, it's not as crazy as it sounds. Perhaps his inner Hollow and Soul Reaper/Shinigami nature are at war with each other, destroying himself from the inside out. Aizen has a track record of experimenting on high ranking officers. Perhaps Ukitake was one such subject. Maybe the flaw in his transformation was that his Hollow couldn't be mastered. Next to impossible, but this is Wild Mass Guessing.

• So Ukitake is like Raistlin? Raistlin has an evil spirit in him too, which causes his ill health. Both of them have white hair too!
• Well, it's one way to explain the cero, and it's a lot less infuriating than any of the other answers I could think of! And even if it wasn't an experiment, he could have still picked up an inner Hollow naturally like Ichigo did. I like it.
• Aizen maybe got the chance to use Ukitake as a guinea pig because the captain was genuinely ill (he's been ill since he was young, after all) and required treatment (...he'd have to get around Unohana, presumably, but this is Aizen we're talking about). Captains have high spiritual pressure, which is said to affect physical state (Unohana mentions it re Hiyori?), so perhaps that's why Ukitake's been able to survive as long as he has - he can handle a serious illness and suppress a hollow side that's no good for use in battle. If Yamamoto found out, he'd be forced to have his student executed, cuing a proper mentor vs student battle when Kyoraku decides he's having none of it...and avoids a fight entirely by just breaking not-exactly Visored!Ukitake out in an underhanded manner. Yes, it's late and, yes, I've thought about this too much.
  • Jossed. The cero was Starrk's own just being redirected by Ukitake's zanpakuto, and Ukitake's always had Tuberculosis.

The Vaizards will be the bad guys of the next arc.

Lets look at the evidence. For the majority of their appearance, the Vaizards have essentially been a comedy troop that does things for laughs. When characters are portrayed as comical by default, then moments when they are serious are really Serious. The most serious moment for the Vaizards is the extremely brief exchange between Shinji and Hiyori when he is carrying her away from Orihime and Chad. Hiyori states that she hates Shinigami and humans and Shinji says that he knows and asks her to be patient. Patient...for what (cue dramatic music)? In addition, they have a fairly serious set of grievances against Soul Society, particularly that part about Central 46's decision that they would be dealt with and exterminated as hollows. The reason they haven't joined the battle in the current story arc is because they are about to set their own plans in motion and are possibly already in Soul Society, getting ready to take their revenge.

• • Shinji told Hiyori to be patient because they would get their revenge on Aizen for forcing them to go through Hollowifcation (Something that was shown in the Turn Back The Pendulum flashback arc). And in the spoiler threads for chapter 364, it shows that the Vizards arrive in the fake Karakura Town.
  • Jossed. As of 365, the group apparently just wants revenge on Aizen and has no interest whatsoever in the Gotei squads. Hirako also adds that they are on "their own side... and Ichigo's side"

Ichigo's hollow side has become a Vastro Lorde by eating other hollows

It has been very clearly stated that hollow ichigo was always a part of the spirit of Zangetsu.

Hollows are required to devour other hollows to reach the higher levels. Hollows feed on the spirit energy of other beings, so it stands to reason, the more hollow energy they devour, the faster they can level up. An Arrancar would be like an all you can eat energy buffet.

Ichigo has a hollow in his sword. We can assume it hasn't been sitting there twiddling it's thumbs all this time. My bet is it's been gobbling up the energy from all the defeated hollows and possibly their attacks, in order to reach a level where it can usurp Ichigo's position as the master. Things went a little pear shaped when Ichigo up and died, unexpectedly taking all that power for himself, but it's a safe bet Zangetsu has been absorbing a HUGE amount of hollow energy while Ichigo has been making his way through Hueco Mundo.

• While that is a possibility, there is no way he could become a Vasto Lorde so quickly. According to Grimmjow's flashback, he had to have snacked on at least 1,000 hollows to power up. Ichigo sure as hell didn't kill that many.
  • Aha, but if he's been eating hollows that have eaten a thousand hollows themselves, then...
    • Except that he hasn't actually killed any Arrancar (except Ulquiorrabut he was already in full hollow form at the time, so it couldn't have counted) and only fought 3, none of which he killed. Dordonni was offed by the Equixas, Nnoitra was killed by Kenpachi, and Grimmjow is still lying in a ditch somewhere. In fact, Ichigo only killed one hollow since his hollow appeared, and that was the random mook he took care of right after Rukia & Co. showed up to help with the Arrancars.
• Jossed. A Hollow can only become a Vasto Lorde by cannibalizing other Hollows. Ichigo's Inner Hollow was spawned inside of him, so it could never become a Vasto Lorde on its own.

Aizen was never a villain at all

People have hinted at this elsewhere on the page, but always seem to tie it into the main plotline of well-intentioned extremism. From everything I've seen, Aizen never intended to replace the King or make the King's Key at all! Consider:

- For all his supposed chessmaster stature, and overpowering allies, his forces haven't killed a single shinigami! In fact, he's gone out of his way to order incursions into the mortal world that allow his forces abilities to be seen without actually harming the Shinigami.

- He had Hitsugaya, Ichigo, Renji, and Kommamura at his mercy while he was escaping Soul Society. He could have taken the extra fraction of a second to slit their necks, ending their threat to his supposed plans, without affecting his overall goals in the slightest. He didn't.

- All of his forces have been paired up against Shinigami just powerful enough to defeat them. He's intimately familiar with exactly how powerful all of the Shinigami in Soul Society are, as well as how powerful his Arrancar are, so their defeats were intentional. He's forcing the Shinigami to become stronger, while simultaniously destroying the most powerful hollows in Heco Mundo. The fights could have gone the other way, Shinigami could have died, but he's willing to take that risk.

- Yamamoto knew what was going on from the start, that's why he shielded Aizen, Tousen, and Gin away at the start of the battle.

- The incident with the Central 46 is the only flaw in this theory. It's possible the Central 46 were supremely incompetent administrators, and Aizen (not a villain, but still morally ambiguious enough to do something like this) - decided he needed to "clean house."

Aizen's goal was never to get the King's Key or sit in the throne of heaven; he knew the Hollows were becomming more powerful, while the Shinigami had become so stagnant that a rag-tag group of Ryoka gave the whole of Soul Society a run for their money. Even Super-Kill-Guy Zaraki Kenpachi admitted to being a little out of practice during his fight with Nnoitora.

Aizen, just like Hitsugaya explained, knew that if the Vasto Lorde got together and decided to put the pain down on Soul Society, they would win, so he took matters into his own hands. He concocted a story to convince the most powerful hollows to launch piecemeal assaults against soul society, whittled down their numbers, and forced the Shinigami to grow in power. Now, when the true threat of the Vasto Lordes show up, they'll lack a supporting army, and they'll face a battle-hardened Shinigami army fully capable of killing them off.

• Jossed. He tricked Hitsugaya into stabbing Hinamori to save his own ass - you can't disregard that as a villainous act.

Aizen is working with Gin and Tousen out of necessity.

In order to fall under complete hypnosis, one has to see Kyouka Suigetsu's release. Tousen is blind and can't see anything, and Gin walks around all day with his eyes closed. This makes them the only ones in Soul Society who can resist his hypnosis. What better way to keep the people immune from your power from interfering than to offer them a role in your master plan?

• You may have a point there. Gin may be one thing, but he would actually have to CONVINCE Tousen to join him. Revenge aside, Tousen could've believed that whatever the reason that Aizen is doing all this for is in fact the right thing to do. That being said, he's only one out of the three who's demonstrated a moral compass, albeit a warped one.
• Jossed. Aizen chose Gin because he wanted to see how Gin would kill him.

Not all Vizards will fight against the Espadas, Superchunky and Wonderweiss

Two of them will be with Komamura and Hitsugaya, possibly because they learned how to open Garganta, and might investigate how the others are doing in Hueco Mundo, to help kicking Zero Espada ass.

• Jossed. Komamura was joined by Hisagi against Tosen, and each of the Visoreds went against Wonderweiss or an Espada. Mashiro took out Superchunky.

Ulquiorra is Not Quite Dead.

Maybe I'm just in denial about his death because it was so bittersweet, but something tells me that chapter wasn't the last we've seen of him. Considering the mortality rate of Bleach characters, this isn't outside the scope of possibilities.

• • I wondered that myself, given that he tells Ichigo "If you don't kill me now, it'll never be over" while he's already dissolving.
    • He only says that in the (unreliable) Sleepy Fans translation. Franky House has him saying "If you do not cut me down, then this will go unsettled for eternity", and Maximum7 has him saying "If you don't kill me now, this conflict won't be resolved", indicating that he wants Ichigo to claim his victory before he dies.
  • This troper just had a thought: isn't Ulquiorra's eye able to scatter into dust and let other people view his memories? What if it's just his whole body that has done that, and he just does it to his eye because it's the closest, most convenient detatchable body part to do the memory dust shtick? He might be floating around as a cloud and somehow take over a stray hollow and implants his memories into it, therefore causing him to be "reborn" in a sense?
• Jossed, as per Word of God.

Seinosuke Yamada is the current Kido Corps' Captain.

And Hanatarou's brother, but that's another story. Thing is, Seinosuke was created and introduced by Tite Kubo as the 4th Division's liutenant before Isane Kotetsu, in Turn Back the Pendulum. Kubo never explained what happened with him, nor what happened with the captainless Kido Corps, so, there could be a chance; even more because everyone at the 4th are better with Kido than with everything else, and because it'd explain how Hanatarou's past is so mysterious; he probably wants to be like his aniki.

Zennosuke will be one of the main fighters in the Zanpakutou filler arc.

When the zanpakutou rebelled against Soul Society, it was confirmed that the only zanpakutou unaffected are the ones outside of Soul Society. That's not counting Ryuujin Jakka, of course, who was affected but refused to rebel. What this essentially means is that the only shinigami with working zanpakutou are Ichigo and Urahara, right?

WRONG! There's one more shinigami we can't forget, who, as my random theory states, will be of great importance this arc.

Of course, I'm talking about none other than the great Zennosuke Kurumadani. Yes, Afro-san will save the day.

• Since it's filler, there's a possibility that Isshin could be involved in the fight as well. Yoruichi and the Vizards, too.
  • Yoruichi is already helping, though she fights without her zanpakutou, so that's unlikely to change. Isshin could fight, as long as the characters who don't know his true identity don't see him (since only Kon and Urahara, give or take, know Isshin's secret, and changing that would change the status quo.) As for the Vizards, they could help, but why would they when they don't give a damn about Soul Society? All very possible, of course, just with varying degrees of likeliness.
• Jossed. He never appeared in it.

Aizen will all make the Vizards go Super Berserk Hollow.

Then he'll hypnotize them to make everyone but look like him, Gin and Tosen. He'll then just hide away while they go nuts slaughtering everyone.

• Jossed. He never did.

Ichigo's Hollow will be the hero of the Zanpakutou filler arc

Why not it would be funny if of all things it gets resolved because of Ichigo's hollow.

even more funny if Muramasa does the stupid thing and ALLOWS HIM TO TAKE A PHYSCIAL FORM outside of Ichigo oh wait it currently looks like thats exactly what he's trying to do at the moment.

• Jossed. Ichigo was The Hero, along with Byakuya and Senbonzakura.

Why do you want to fight?

Taking roots from Armour Piercing Question, this question could be asked to any of the current main characters who are in Hueco Mundo at the moment. It is pretty clear as to why most of them are fighting so this this would be a question primarily directed towards Orihime, the current Damsel in Distress. We've all heard that she just wants to help (namely one Kurosaki-kun), but what will happen if she is ever asked that question? Personally, beyond "I just want to help my friends and Kurosaki-Kun", I don't think she really has an answer to that, and could cause another breakdown. This could possibly come as courtesy of Ulquiorra Cifer, if the next WMG proves true...

• Jossed. It was never asked... in Hueco Mundo.

Ichigo will get one new form.

Ichigo's recent Uber-hollow form is his resurrección. We have learned from Ulquiorra that two such forms are possible. So by the end of the series he will learn the second one. After that his massive jumps in power will stop(this will also mean that he'll have reached the limit of power of a Hollow-Shinigami hybrid).

• Jossed. He lost his Hollo9w and Zangetsu after fighting Aizen.

Ichigo is reincarnated as Kaien, not the other way around.

Who says that reincarnation cycles—and time, for that matter—have to be linear? This troper isn't too fond of the idea that Ichigo is the reincarnation of Kaien, but wouldn't mind if somewhere down the road, after presumably living out his human and/or shinigami life, he ends up being reincarnated at Kaien. After all, it would explain Kaien's level of skill (before Ichimaru Gin, he held the record for graduating from the Academy in the shortest amount of time). Not to mention, Ichigo's fondness for Rukia might subconsciously manifest itself in allowing him to go "back in time" and help her out, allowing him to pay back the "debt" that he owes her.

• I thought Ichigo repaid his debt when he saved her, wasn't that his whole point of going to save her? (Other than the Nakama thing?)
• Jossed. Aaroniero stole Kaien's body and soul when he fused with Metastacia.

The Captains assigned to Hueco Mundo have secret secondary orders to assassinate Ichigo if his hollow proves to be a possible danger.

If Byakuya told Rukia about Ichigo's hollow, it's a good bet that he told Yamamato about it too. The SS is in no position to take the risk of having to deal anymore potential enemies or losing any like they did with the Vizard. Plus Kubo has said Unohana is supposed to get an important fight. Yammy, despite all his Cero Espada bluster,does seem likely to fall into the above mentioned pattern of big enemies getting taken down fast. Ichigo willing goes berserk hollow again and tears him apart, but then then no one can stop him any longer until Unohana steps foward.

• Jossed. Ichigo is instrumental to their cause because he never saw Kyoka Suigetsu. Furthermore, Ichigo got his powers restored by all of the seated officers, on order of Yamamoto himself.

The Bounto Koga will play a part in the new Rebellion Filler Arc.

Koga was revealed to have survived the Bounto arc earlier. With most of the captains' Zanpactou having gone AWOL on them, the list of available fighters is limited to Orihime, Chad, and Ishida for sure and possibly Ichigo and the Vaizard (since they beat their inner hollows into submission and the inner hollow is the same being as their Zanpactou). New characters or semi new characters (such as Tatsuki, Mizuiro, etc) could be brought in, but it would be a more impressive for Koga to make a reappearance, especially seeing as they took all that trouble to keep him alive.

• Jossed. Kouga Kuchiki is a different character than Gou Koga.

Orihime can achieve Bankai.

Her powers are "similar to a Shinigami's," after all. Her current abilities are basically like Shikai and the spiritual manifestation that precedes Bankai.

• Jossed. Her power is closet to Fullbring.
  • The manga hasn't once claimed her powers are fullbring or even close to fullbring. However, this has been jossed because the manga stated that she has "human power", a banner under which her power, Chad's power, Fullbring and Quincy power all fall but which excludes shinigami power and hollow power.

Tatsuki will be important after the time skip

She grew a mullet. We all know what having a mullet means in Bleach.

• JOSSED. The only role she has played is being part of the mind-rape of Ichigo, courtesy of Tsukishima and "Book of the End". If she was never given importance in Part I, what makes you think that Part II of Bleach will be different?

Urahara has been training Tatsuki

Since the beginning, she has been a totally useless, with the whole "Orihimes kidnap" is enough to make her decide to become stronger.

• • JOSSED. There is no evidence that she has gone through any 'training' with Urahara, and Kubo would have made sure that one of the Nakama would comment on something different with Tatsuki, but he hasn't.

Byakuya and Kenpachi will fail to beat Yammy, paving the way for Unohana to have her fight scene and the big reveal of her abilities.

KT has stated that he's going to have a big fight scene for Unohana, and what's bigger than Yammyzilla? It'll also really serve to demonstrate why her fellow Captains are "afraid" of her, if she effortlessly wipes out a monsterous opponent that even two Captains together couldn't beat.

• Likely Jossed now, as she's heading for the main battlefield with Ichigo.
• JOSSED.