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Introduction
I'm watching y'all, better behave.
- As you are all aware, I am a big supporter of universal Bleach, in the sense that I believe Yhwach can not only destroy the universe, but scales to said destruction as well. After spending months “away” from the subject on VSBW and talking about it with plenty of people off site, I’ve come to a few conclusions/arguments that I believe should be the primary focus to determine the rating of the God Tiers of Bleach. Funny enough, they are rooted in the two, what I believe/recall to be, main reasons universal Bleach was rejected all the way back in January. Those reasons being: Weakened Reio’s stability is unquantifiable because of a lack of time frame and there exists no supporting feats thus the rating is an outlier (depending on the person it seems this varies from wanting an on screen tier 5 to tier 3 feat). This will be the last attempt at a Bleach God Tier CRT until the anime, and hopefully supplemental material, is released. I will talk about the bare minimum interpretation before addressing the bolded points.
- “...Yhwach’s goal was not to rule over the three worlds but to remove the boundary itself between the worlds…” ~ CFYOW Chapter 14
- “Had he not defeated Yhwach, the boundaries between the three worlds would have disappeared…” ~ CFYOW Chapter 19
- “They are separated so they do not come in contact with each other, using a boundary called Dangai. If not, the balance of the two worlds would be disrupted and both sides would collapse.” ~ Bleach Chapter 492
- “And the Soul Society begins to spill into this world! Life and death are mixed together, creating chaos, in short the collapse of the universe.” ~ Bleach Chapter 46
- “The Living World. The Soul Society. Hueco Mundo. They all should have become one. Life and death were meant to be combined as one.” ~ Bleach Chapter 686
- “...to prevent the collapse of the universe.” ~ Bleach Chapters 45 & 46
- “If Reio dies, the Seireitei, the World of the Living, Hueco Mundo, all of it will collapse and disappear.” ~ Bleach Chapter 611
- “Now that [Reio] is gone, not just the Soul Society, but all that is connected to it, Dangai, Hueco Mundo, the World of the Living, it will all collapse!” ~ Bleach Chapter 615
- “...the Seireitei will, no, the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, even the World of the Living will cease to exist…” ~ Bleach Chapter 615
- “...when the boundaries between the Soul Society, the world of the living, and Hueco Mundo had almost been destroyed at the death of the Reio.” ~ CFYOW Chapter 3
- As we are told over and over again, if the husk of the Reio were to stop stabilizing Soul Society, it would cause the collapse of everything. Specifically, it prevents the destruction of the realms and all connected to them, which comprises the Bleach universe. Ignoring any type of extra information regarding whether this scales to statistics in some form or another, it is clear that the Weakened Reio keeps the universe from being destroyed. Its death also nearly shattered the boundaries, which we know would cause the universe to collapse as per Rukia and Kisuke. Thus, the bare minimum interpretation for Weakened Reio is 3-A to Low 2-C by removing Dangai (By ceasing the stabilization of Soul Society, the boundaries would be destroyed causing the entire universe to collapse).
- What we can glean from the above quotes is that Yhwach’s overarching goal was to merge life and death into one via merging the three worlds, the very Bleach universe itself, into one. His plan being extrapolated upon in CFYOW, stating Yhwach was going to remove the boundaries, which we know one of those boundaries is the Dangai, which separate life and death, World of the Living and Soul Society. Finally, by removing this boundary, the universe would collapse. Additionally, Yhwach absorbed the Weakened Reio who prevents universal collapse perpetually, and its very death threatened to destroy everything. Regardless of whether you believe Yhwach can destroy the universe with his raw power or via some chain reaction, the undeniable fact remains that Yhwach was going to collapse the universe. Thus, the bare minimum interpretation for Soul King Yhwach is 3-A to Low 2-C by removing Dangai (Planned on removing the boundaries which would cause the universe to collapse).
- VSBW has a Stabilization Feats page that chronicles what is needed to quantify a stability feat, when it pertains to scaling said stability feat to a character's statistics. I will detail each requirement and how it applies to Reio’s husk of a self.
- Requirement 1: Specify what exactly is being stabilized so that it is made clear what the character's sustainability is doing precisely.
- “Reio was created to stabilize Soul Society…” ~ Bleach Chapter 615
- Weakened Reio stabilizes Soul Society specifically; however, it can be implied that perhaps Reio stabilizes the entire Bleach universe, as Yhwach goes on to talk about how everything is connected. Regardless, Reio stabilizes Soul Society, a realm that is already accepted as universal in size.
- Requirement 2: Prove that the stabilized structure is being directly sustained by the power of the character and not from the character's abilities, life force, existence, magical properties or any unknown connection that is independent of their statistics.
- “Hundreds of binding seals were placed around the corpse [of Soul King Yhwach] which still contained a vast amount of Reiryoku (Spiritual Power) even after death, by storing it as the new lynchpin in the Soul King Greater Palace area, the world was spared from collapse.” ~ WDKALY
- Kisuke explains how one’s spiritual energy is what enables their soul to physically respond better, showing that your spiritual power correlates to your statistics. Additionally, to confirm that spiritual energy is Reiryoku (霊力), you’ll see in the raws he uses the aforementioned kanji for Reiryoku when talking about spiritual energy in the VIZ translation.
- Rukia also implies an inherent correlation with one’s life force and their spiritual power. Meaning the fact that Reio’s death triggered the universal collapse, which one could falsely interpret as the stability being tied to Reio’s life force, it would not change anything in terms of satisfying this requirement as Reio is part Shinigami.
- Furthermore, if your body cannot withstand your spiritual power it is torn apart, as seen with Kenpachi’s Bankai, again we see that Ichigo’s own spiritual pressure is harming his body because it is too immense (spiritual pressure/reiatsu is the pressure exerted from spiritual power/reiryoku), and through Kenpachi we are told spiritual energy is what you use to attack.
- All of this proves that your Reiryoku/spiritual power/spiritual energy determines your physical statistics (movement/speed, attack potency, and durability). Thus, Reio’s stability is a direct result of his power.
- Requirement 3: Prove that the character's stabilization is comparable to the scale of the structure they are stabilizing. Preferably, it should be proven that the character's sustainability is comparable to the destruction of the structure to best show that their power rivals the destructive output of what would destroy the structure in the first place. Please keep in mind that this may vary depending on how the structure's destruction would occur. For example, if a character sustains the existence of a universe that would not be instantly or immediately destroyed when no longer supported, the power of their sustainability would not be comparable to destructive output that completely and immediately destroys a universe, and would not be sufficient enough to be given a 3-A or Low 2-C rating. However, their sustainability could be given either rating if the universe they sustain would be completely destroyed instantly or immediately without support.
- To trim down the lengthy third requirement, it is essentially asking to demonstrate to what extent is the stability scaling to the size of what is being stabilized. For example, if you stop stabilizing a planet and it is destroyed in 1 second vs 1 hour, the 1 second would award the 5-B tier for immediate destruction, but the 1 hour would require us to divide the 5-B tier energy by 3600 seconds (1 hour) to properly tier the feat as we do with all overtime feats.
- In CFYOW, which takes place 6 months after the end of the TYBW, we are told that had Reio stayed dead and no one took its place, the Bleach universe wouldn’t exist. This gives us a maximum time frame of the universe’s destruction without Reio’s support. Since 6 months is half a year, I will assume that 182.625 days have passed (a full year has on average 365.25 days), or 15,778,800 seconds. The energy required to destroy a visible universe comparable to our own is 2.825e92 joules, dividing that by our time frame gets us 1.79e85 joules per second or 3-B. Therefore, the quantifiable extent of the Weakened Reio’s stability is Multi-Galaxy.
- Requirement 4: Prove that the power of the character's stabilization consistently scales to their regular statistics, similar to our standards for creation feats.
- This requirement is basically an “outlier” check, as in, “prove said character scaling to their stability feat is consistent in the verse”. I will do so by discussing the Reio and the limited few who scale.
- Consistency check for Reio: given this is Weakened Reio’s sole feat within the entire series, this would be his most consistent showing. Prime Reio also created Soul Society and the other realms of existence, and is rated at 3-A to Low 2-C; so, despite being only a husk of his former self (10^7 times weaker), Reio being this strong isn’t far fetched.
- Consistency check for Yhwach: he one shots Ichibe after opening his eyes, stabs Reio, burns True Shikai Ichigo and blocks his attack (albeit Yhwach implies Ichigo isn’t going all out as he isn’t resolved to kill), and Yhwach states he is far superior to Reio before absorbing the Weakened Reio and Mimihagi. After becoming the Soul King, Yhwach off screens Liltotto and Giselle, plans on destroying the universe and creating a new world, blocks True Shikai Ichigo’s Getsuga Tenshou and makes him bleed, states he will destroy Soul Society and World of the Living, catches True Shikai Hollowfied Ichigo’s blade and crushes his Gran Rey Cero Getsuga Tenshou, claims he will crush Soul Society and World of the Living, says he will make Soul Society perish, punches a hole through Muken Aizen, against his raw power Soul Society and World of the Living will lose their form, decade old remaining spiritual energy from Yhwach’s corpse are enough to warrant the concern of multiple Captains, his corpse is powerful enough to serve as the Soul King, either the direct descendent or very power of Reio itself, and at his peak Yhwach held all of Reio’s power. Yhwach sharing the Weakened Reio’s level of power is hyper consistent, as he even absorbed all of Reio’s power himself (very likely all in this context refers to more than just Weakened Reio as Yhwach had absorbed all major split pieces of Reio as well), is clearly demonstrated to be the top of verse, untouchable by anyone save two characters, and has no anti-feats, only suffering demise at the hands of a weapon tailor made specifically for defeating the Quincy King.
- Consistency check for Ichigo: held enough power to take the place of the Soul King had Reio stayed dead and not been absorbed by Yhwach and possesses all the qualities of the Soul King (implying Ichigo holds Reiryoku comparable to Reio), Liltotto believes he’s the strongest person alive during CFYOW, stronger than base Hikone and can defeat Resurreccion Hikone (Resurreccion Hikone can fight Kenpachi, the strongest Soul Reaper during CFYOW, putting Ichigo above everyone else alive in the verse), casually tosses around the Femritter, accidentally lops off Voll Stern Dich Candice’s arm, unphased at the prospect of facing down 8 Stern Ritter at once, perfectly fine after taking Meninas’s punch off guard (keep in mind Ichigo doesn’t even want to hurt the Stern Ritter), cuts down Weakened Reio and Yhwach claims Ichigo has the power to kill Reio, blocks Yhwach’s arm (albeit both are implied to be casual/not using their full power), and can slash through Soul King Yhwach’s spiritual energy and even Yhwach marvels at True Shikai Ichigo’s full power. True Shikai Ichigo’s only potential anti-feat is being dropped by Askin’s hax; however, there are several issues with assuming Askin dropped True Shikai Ichigo’s full power: Ichigo never wanted to harm the Stern Ritter, the first time True Shikai Ichigo uses his full power is during his final fight with Yhwach, and Askin displays no feats that put him physically comparable to True Shikai Ichigo, he merely caught Ichigo off guard with hax. Luckily from here on out, all of Ichigo’s power-ups (Hollowfication and Bankai) only scale to Soul King Yhwach, meaning Ichigo’s most consistent showings with these forms is being able to scrap with Yhwach. True Shikai Hollowfied Ichigo forces Soul King Yhwach to draw his sword, penetrates Yhwach’s defense with Gran Rey Cero Getsuga Tenshou, and forces Yhwach to always remain on guard. Ichigo’s True Bankai is so powerful that it frightens Soul King Yhwach to the point of using cheat codes, cleaves Yhwach in two with a Getsuga Tenshou, bifurcates Yhwach with the Zangetsu concealed within the outer shell of his True Bankai. True Shikai Ichigo possesses power on par with, if not greater than, the Weakened Reio, and is easily above everyone in the verse with statements, being able to casually handle multiple “beyond Captain” level threats, and even scrap with Soul King Yhwach without getting immediately washed. With his Hollow powers and Bankai, Ichigo is able to do real damage to Yhwach, only ever displaying any feats against Yhwach, making this Ichigo scaling extremely consistent, as it is his only scaling.
- Consistency check for Aizen: stronger than base Hikone and can defeat Resurreccion Hikone (Resurreccion Hikone can fight Kenpachi, the strongest Soul Reaper during CFYOW, putting Aizen above everyone else alive in the verse), grew above his previous self that was defeated by Mugetsu, able to cut through Yhwach’s spiritual energy similar to True Shikai Ichigo, survives a fight against Soul King Yhwach being able to hold his own, and can potentially influence Ichigo’s inner Hollow. Aizen’s only scaling after being released from Muken is above his past self, relative to Yhwach, and comparable to Ichigo, meaning his scaling is hyper consistent, being it’s his only scaling.
- As you’ve most certainly noticed by now, the only characters who scale to Weakened Reio’s stability only scale within themselves. Weakened Reio’s only scaling is to his stability feat, and Ichigo, Aizen, and Yhwach’s scaling is only between themselves and above Weakened Reio. Every other instance is either them being extremely casual and still demolishing people, or being stated to be above anyone else in the verse. Next begs the question, are there any supporting feats outside of the stabilization?
- Currently, the God Tiers scale above this calc, which assumes the dimensions of Soul Society and World of the Living to be merely planets. This is due to an infamous quote from Toshiro, “There’s no way a tunnel connecting two hoshi (celestial bodies) can be created naturally!!” However, there are multiple issues with this statement that I will now go into.
- We accept those two aforementioned realms as pocket universes within the Garganta, yet in this instance with Memories of Nobody we contradict the accepted size of the realms and treat them as planets. This is due to mistakenly taking Toshiro’s statement to mean, in this instance, the realms are planets. That is not inherently the case, just because the Kyogoku is connecting the realms at two specific places (two planets), does not make the realms inherently planets. For example, if I grab someone by the hand and drag them around, I am pulling their entire being while only being connected at the hand, but if someone points out that two hands are connecting that doesn’t mean we are both only hands. Essentially, all Toshiro’s statement means is that the Kyogoku is connected to two planets, it does not prove in any way that the Kyogoku is only dragging planets.
- When Mayuri and Kisuke talk about the Kyogoku pulling Soul Society and World of the Living together, neither refer to them as planets. Kisuke states that both realms are in different dimensions. Then you’ll notice that when Mayuri asks for a status update, we are informed that it is the dimensions that are moving towards each other, not planets. This is further backed up, because Urahara informs us through dialogue and diagrams that this film sets the dimensions within the Dangai, and we see this in the camera view from Mayuri’s lab. Additionally, within World of the Living’s dimension we see the starry sky contained, opposed to the two red-black orbs being isolated planets which would indicate the stars we see are in some separate spacetime.
- To sum up everything that’s been said regarding Memories of Nobody, we are directly told that it is the dimensions being pulled together, not the planets within them, and this is supported by the visuals. Properly calculating the feat here, we see the potency of the explosion is Multi-Galaxy. Funny enough this is the same tier that Weakened Reio’s stability is quantified as, making everything all the more consistent. Currently, we scale the God Tiers above this explosion because Yhwach can destroy the boundaries (one of which is Dangai), and Dangai took no visible damage from this explosion, meanwhile Reio almost instantly destroyed Dangai and Yhwach absorbed that power.
- I believe I have proved the validity of Reio’s stabilization and quantified it, as well as provided a highly supportive calc to further strengthen this tier. To reiterate the above points, Weakened Reio stabilizes a universe sized realm with his own Reiryoku (spiritual power) quantifiably to Multi-Galaxy levels of power, and Senna’s explosion did not merely push two planets away but rather moved the very realms themselves. That is numerous statements plus two tier 3 supporting feats.
- Personally, I believe the weaker forms of Ichigo and Yhwach should merely scale above Weakened Reio’s and Senna’s feat, while their pinnacles should fully scale to universal as the statements indicate.
- Ichigo: 3-B with Mugetsu (Yhwach states this power is on par with his True Shikai) | 3-B (Cut the Weakened Reio in half, Yhwach believes this Ichigo is capable of killing Weakened Reio, capable of cutting through Soul King Yhwach’s Reiryoku, and is vastly above most everyone else in the verse), 3-A to Low 2-C with Bankai (Cut Soul King Yhwach in half, killing him twice, Yhwach admitted that he feared Ichigo’s Bankai) | At least 3-B (Hollow powers amp Ichigo’s stats), 3-A to Low 2-C with Gran Rey Cero Getsuga Tenshou (Pierced Soul King Yhwach’s defenses), higherwith Bankai
- Keys: Post-Dangai Training | True Zanpakuto | Merged Hollow Form
- Aizen: At least 3-B, likely 3-A to Low 2-C(Capable of cutting through Soul King Yhwach’s Reiryoku, put up a decent fight against Yhwach, and is comfortably above most everyone else in the verse)
- Keys: TYBW
- Yhwach: 3-B (Superior to Weakened Reio) | 3-A to Low 2-C(After acquiring all of Reio’s power, he is stated capable of destroying the Bleach universe multiple times, can destroy the Dangai which survived Senna’s explosion with no visible damage)
- Keys: With The Almighty | Soul King
- Reio: 3-B (Prevents the collapse of the Bleach universe, which at maximum would occur over 6 months), 3-A to Low 2-Cby removing Dangai (By destroying the boundaries between the realms, the entire universe collapses)
- Keys: Weakened
- Orihime: at least 3-B, possibly 3-A to Low 2-Cwith Shun Shun Rikka (Blocked Soul King Yhwach’s attacks and protected herself from True Shikai Hollowfied Ichigo’s power)
- Thousand Year Blood War Arc
- Ichigo: 3-B with Mugetsu (Yhwach states this power is on par with his True Shikai) | 3-B (Cut the Weakened Reio in half, Yhwach believes this Ichigo is capable of killing Weakened Reio, capable of cutting through Soul King Yhwach’s Reiryoku, and is vastly above most everyone else in the verse), 3-A to Low 2-C with Bankai (Cut Soul King Yhwach in half, killing him twice, Yhwach admitted that he feared Ichigo’s Bankai) | At least 3-B (Hollow powers amp Ichigo’s stats), 3-A to Low 2-C with Gran Rey Cero Getsuga Tenshou (Pierced Soul King Yhwach’s defenses), higherwith Bankai