Bleach - Hado 99 Ichigo?

[BarryAllen2.0]

II'm not sure if this was brought up before but, one of the tbings at the end of bleach that puzzled me was the final battle where Aizen used Hado 99...was that really Aizen or Ichigo? The reason I asked is because Yhwach states All Bankai are broken in the future which would imply Aizen was in Bankai...but we know Aizen didn't have a physical Zanpakuto any longer after the ichigo fight (Not that he probably couldn't remake it) but what really puzzles me is, if it was Aizen, why would his Bankai be broken exactly the same as Ichigo's Bankai:







What's more is Aizens Supposed "Actions" in protecting Renji. That would be a massive OoC showing.

The way the event played out was:

• Renji attacks from behind, gets his arm cut off.

• Yhwach attempts to blast Renji

• "Aizen" interrupts Yhwach's attack, uses hado 99 (For whatever reason), then goes for an attack being distracted by his "Bankai" only to be knocked away

• "Ichigo" goes from behind to attack but ends up geting his arm cut off, a hole blasted in his chest

• Aizen reveals it was really him and that Ichigo cuts Yhwach in half.

Basically, was the Aizen that used Hado 99 actually him or Ichigo disguised as Him through KS? That was never clear to me.

 

[Reppuzan]

More than likely to be Aizen, since Ichigo doesn't possess the necessary knowledge to use Kido, much less high-level Kido.

 

[BarryAllen2.0]

That's what I thought as well, but Ichibei did train him, so would it not be conceivable that he could?

The bankai thing really has me questioning that.

 

[Reppuzan]

@Barry

I highly doubt it. Considering the fact that Ichigo had exceedingly little time to train on top of his lack of patience for learning Kido, Occam's Razor states that Aizen did it, since it's the train of thought with the fewest possible assumptions.

 

[AppleLord]

If you watch closely Aizen is fighting Yhwach alone, Ichigo arrives at the end. "Renji" or at least the real one wasn't envolve in this at all, you can see parts of Renji's Bankai attire on "Ichigo's clothes, which was Aizen. You can also see the part that covers Aizen's eye on Renji when he went Bankai for the first time. It was all Aizen, the Hado just destroyed the ground to distract Yhwach.

 

[AppleLord]

@Barry

About Aizen using his bankai, that makes more sense than just a broken sword to prove it.

I think 683 showed us Aizen's bankai. His usage of Kyoka Suigetsu (KS) against Ywach is just too different from his past uses of KS, for several reasons.

1) Aizen has limited control over the form of his illusions against Ywach. In every previous occasion, Aizen was able to fully control the form of his illusions (e.g. the executed court judges and his dead body double in the soul society arc, his body swap with Hinamori in the arrancar arc, etc.) so that he knew what those affected by KS were seeing. In the Ywach fight, Aizen expresses surprise that Ywach was seeing Ichigo, indicating Aizen didn't know initially what Ywach was seeing.

2) Aizen himself has never seen Ichigo or Renji's bankais, yet he somehow perfectly recreated their bankais in his illusion against Ywach? Aizen is a genius but he's not psychic.

Therefore, from these two huge differences in his illusions compared to previous illusions, I think Aizen used a new power. I would go as far to say that we've just witnessed Aizen's bankai.

In shikai, Aizen chooses the illusions. In bankai, the illusions are formed from the memories of his target.

The result is the truly perfect hypnosis since the victim sees what he wants to see, unlike in shikai where Aizen must be careful in forming the illusion so as to not raise suspicion (e.g. Unohana was suspicious of Aizen's dead body double). As a bankai ability, this is consistent with the principle that bankai reveals the true potential of the shikai/user.

Shikai hypnosis could raise suspicion with imperfect illusions, but bankai hypnosis can never do so because the victim sees what he wants to see, and will rationalize inconsistencies on their own. E.g. Ichigo/Renji illusions arrive -> Ywach uses Almighty to shatter Ichigo's sword -> Ichigo's sword shatters only partially because Aizen commands KS to stall Ywach, so KS on its own adjusts the illusion to encourage Ywach to fight (if Ichigo's sword shattered completely, the illusion fight would be much shorter) -> Ywach should've realized something is clearly wrong, since his Almighty is infallible, but his psychology rationalizes the moment and proceeds to fight, dragging him deeper into hypnosis.

The only weaknesses of Aizen's bankai are that Aizen will have to learn what the illusions are on the spot since he doesn't form the illusions, and that making contact with the victim will deactivate the hypnosis.

Plotwise, Aizen using his bankai would make sense. Aizen is up against the most powerful being who is about to change the universe, and his pride would never accept defeat or inferiority. He is unable to release his godlike reiatsu to the max since most of his body is still wrapped in the reiatsu sealing cloth. Aizen might as well drop all stops and use his most powerful abilities given his limited situation.

As for his bankai's name, I think it's Kyoka Suigetsu. Unohana's Bankai had the same name at its Shikai, and Ichigo has done Bankai without actually saying, "Bankai" before.

Sorry for the long post.

 

[LordAizenSama]

First, Aizen makes himself appear as Renji and uses his Bankai. (This is why Yhwach made the comment about bankais)

Then, after losing his arm, he makes him appear like his original self, and casts Goryuu Tenmetsu.

Then, after being blown away, he makes himself appear like Ichigo, but cleverly makes it seem as though Renji from earlier was actually Ichigo, and puts in a few flaws to make that clear to Yhwach (you can see parts of Souou Zabimaru falling off Ichigo, as well as his arm being missing).

Finally, Aizen removes all illusions to show that it was him all along.

Renji isn't in this chapter at all, and Ichigo isn't in it until the second last page. Before that, it's just Aizen using illusions to make himself appear as the other two.

 

[PaChi2]

So.. close this?

 

[BarryAllen2.0]

I guess you can say...I was Kubo'd.

Seriously, I guess you're all right. It's just, putting the exact same break on KS is weird and If we really do see Aizen's Bankai, Kubo swerved us with that portrayal.