First things first, y'all mrks for making me scroll through this goonery to get back up to the arguments. Second things second, Cortana huh
@AKM sama ?
Interesting choice. On to the actual argumentation lol.
I wouldn't put much stock in a databook when Yammy clearly says "if your soul wasn't sucked out by my Gonzui, then it must be stronger than I thought". There are literally no two ways about interpreting it. Yammy states a fact and then tells us the reason. As it stands, the databooks usage of the word "indiscriminately" is in direct contradiction since there is discrimination on the basis of soul strength.
There is not a discrimination on the basis of your AP or strength of your soul at all. Strong, like most words, has more than one meaning. And Yammy doesn't have to be referring to Tatsuki's AP strength in this instance at all, in fact it makes no sense for Yammy to think she's AP strong. Strong in this context can refer to her displayed resistance, what we are actually shown, hax and abilities are referred to as strengths and powers in Bleach and fiction in general. Objectively you cannot assert that Yammy was talking about Tatsuki's AP strength when he called her soul strong. So, yes there is more than one way of interpreting that scene. In fact, my interpretation is backed by the databook scans, where yours asserts it must be interpreted in a way to contradict the databooks, making my interpretation just objectively better than yours.
Did you link the right scan because I don't see a mention of "elbow's distance" there? Or maybe my eyes are having a bad day. But I think the following statement seems to imply that his EE is directly linked to his spiritual pressure, it's the same aura.
"
Such gross carelessness. These restraints do not eliminate my spiritual pressure. They only keep it near me. I don't have to tell you what will happen if you try to touch me."
Ah **** I did link the wrong scan...
here is the correct scan. As you can see, it is within roughly an elbows distance. Furthermore, spiritual pressure (reiatsu) is simply a phrase used to describe someone's spiritual powers in use. For example, a measure of a character's spiritual pressure is a measure of their AP. Spiritual pressure is not however, an exclusive term used to refer to your reiatsu crush aura. Your assessment of the quoted phrase doesn't imply that Aizen's EE is linked to his reiatsu crush aura at all. In fact had Aizen's spiritual pressure been eliminated he wouldn't be able to use any hax, kido, etc etc etc. Those scans are referencing the fact that Mayuri could only keep Aizen's auras near his body and not weaken him at all.
The "indiscriminate" part seemingly refers to just how Gonzui targets victims (which is to say, Yammy doesn't target it at all but just uses it on everyone nearby). That means that Tatsuki was targeted by it, just like everyone else, but the only reason why she didn't have her soul sucked out was because her soul was strong enough as Yammy himself says.
We have a direct statement on it from Yammy, so that is good enough for me.
Again refer to my response to AKM. Having a strong spirit does not inherently refer to Tatsuki's AP. Furthermore, this doesn't address this part of my argument:
first it mentions that the weaker the soul, the poorer the taste, this inherently means that it is possible to inhale strong souls, as the very mention of a taste gradient correlated to soul power objectively means stronger better tasting souls can be affected by Gonzui.
This portion of the databook supports my interpretation that Gonzui doesn't have some AP restriction.
AKM already provided the scan up above, but Aizen's EE is connect to his Reiatsu. It isn't a completely different ability that he developed solely out of a connection to the Hogyoku. There is nothing indicating that this is the case.
Every ability in Bleach is connected to reiatsu. Kisuke firing a kido is connected to reiatsu, Ichigo firing a Getsuga is connected to his reiatsu. Any ability or attack (excluding Fragor since that's explicitly stated to be made of reishi) is connected to Aizen's reiatsu. Being connected to reiatsu does not mean it is connected to his reiatsu crush aura whatsoever.
In the "I don't need to remind you what will happen if you get close" line, I think he's speaking generally not specifically just to Shunsui. Aizen saying Shunsui's name is the beginning of a new stence that carries on to the next page.
But the argument was never "Aizen's EE is restricted exclusively to humans". That wouldn't make a lot of sense and it is already acknowledged that Aizen partially erased a random Shinigami during the War arc.
Considering Aizen is speaking directly to Shunsui, I believe Shunsui is included in that warning. Although, you conceding that the ability is generally applicable would support my and OP's conclusion. As to be generally applicable, it couldn't be restricted by conditions such as "it only works on people with low AP compared to Aizen's".
I'll concede that this part is possible, if not definitive. The fact that Gin was erased as little as he was could be because of his higher spiritual energy compared to ordinary humans, or it could be because Aizen was holding back.
I'd say the Gin stuff at best supports my argument and at worst is neutral to both arguments, but I'm fine leaving the Gin situation as neutral to equal interp.
I start up classes tomorrow, so get ready for infrequent replies