Prior to Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Episode 07 fans were treated to an image drawn by Tite Kubo of the original Gotei 13. They confronted Yhwach when he originally invaded Soul Society thousands of years ago. In the brief scene, the Gotei 13 slaughter the Quincy without mercy. It’s not made clear why Yamamoto didn’t kill Yhwach then. I would have preferred a more elaborate flashback. I can’t speak to the rest of this series or season but I find that this is a missed opportunity to show (especially manga readers) something we did have a chance to see in the previous anime.

After Yamamoto death, Yhwach chastises him for not getting Orhime to heal him. I’ve always found this criticism strange. Or to be more specific I don’t understand what the issue is. Yamamoto only needed one arm to fight and it didn’t seem that he was hindered in anyway. Yamamoto’s issue was wasting his energy on the fake Yhwach. With the destruction of Yamamoto’s remains, Yhwach orders his Soldat to slaughter the remaining Shinigami. They brutally cut, impale, shoot, and otherwise kill the unseated Shinigami. Elsewhere, Ichigo Kurosaki senses the dying Shinigami and begs them to live.

Ichigo’s mother was a Quincy

Enraged, Ichigo finally breaks the Reishi cage and arrives in Soul Society. He quickly gets the attention of Yhwach, the remaining Gotei 13, and the Wandenreich. As Haschwalth and Yhwach prepare to leave, Ichigo prevents them from doing so. He angrily challenges Yhwach, demanding to know if he’s responsible for “wrecking Soul Society.” Yhwach answers in the affirmative. What follows is a epic clash between the two. Yhwach gets the better of Ichigo of course, but Ichigo is then humiliated by Haschwalth, who easily cut his sword in half. Yhwach tells him to heal his wounds and wait.

During the conflict between Ichigo and Yhwach, we learn that Ichigo’s mother is a Quincy. I personally found the fact that Ichigo has basically all the main powers in Bleach. Main characters are often the most powerful and develop new powers later in the series to deal with the stronger enemies. That said Ichigo being in possession of the abilities, Hollowfication, Quincy, Fullbring, and Shinigami, feels lazier than normal. Obviously, the hero needs to win end the end or at least they tend to but it could be done in a subtler way.