Bleach: Why Muken Aizen is Stronger than You Think

While lacking the grand and mad abilities of his original Hogyoku form or the freedom to move from Chair-sama (for now, anyways), Muken Aizen is actually Aizen at his strongest, as proven several times throughout the Thousand Year Blood War arc.

Even More Monstrous Reiatsu

According to Mayuri Kurotsuchi in Chapter 623:”Against the Judgement”, a Shinigami will continue to produce Reiatsu until its heart stops and every prisoner in Muken is placed there because there is no way to stop their hearts.

Because of the Hogyoku, Aizen was rendered immortal and therefore nothing could stop his heart from releasing tons of Reiatsu over time

After seeing how his current form’s CHANTLESS Hado No. 90: Kurohitsugi, Urahara concluded that it was much stronger than the full incantation Kurohitsugi used by Hogyoku Aizen against Dangai Ichigo.

As the Kido spell could warp space and breakdown matter, it is an expression of Aizen’s crushing force that was able to not only pierce through the Soul Shield Membrane with ease but have the clear possibility of being able to break down the Soul King Palace or even completely destroy it.

If Aizen could unleash the full force of his Reiatsu, it might potentially damage some, if not all 72 of the barriers between the Soul King’s dimension, which is outside the Balance of the Three Worlds, and the Seiretei.

This monstrous Reiatsu was also expressed through Hado No. 99 Goryutenmetsu, the strongest offensive Kido in the series, which was able to erase Yhwach’s Reiatsu around Soul Society.

We already saw how it was only through Aizen’s Reiatsu that the Soul King’s own Reiatsu was crushed and this happened consistently throughout the arc.

There is a reason why Aizen’s Monstrous Reiatsu is the cause for Yhwach and the Wandenreich to label him as one of the Five Special War Threats.

Harmony with Kyoka Suigetsu

When he fused with the Hogyoku, Aizen gradually fused with his own Zanpakuto, allowing him to have a sword hand tied to him but also to use

Interestingly, Aizen has never used his Kyoka Suigetsu ever since he gained his Hogyoku powers, likely due to how his Reiatsu was enough against most opponents.

However, Aizen has been subtly using Kyoka Suigetsu to guide the events of the Thousand Year Blood War to a desired direction.

First, Aizen manipulated Yhwach’s perception of time.

The condition to be under Kyoka Suigetsu was to see the blade itself but it seems that Yhwach, who has probably only met Aizen in Muken, was under Kyoka Suigetsu’s influence just from being near Aizen or in seeing him.

This illusion is beyond Aizen’s control and seems to be a randomized effect, with illusions constructed depending on the target’s view of reality.

Yhwach vs Aizen was a one-on-one fight but Yhwach assumed Renji and Ichigo were present, likely due to the Almighty anticipating their arrival in one future point mixing into his mind.

The only way Yhwach broke free from Kyoka Suigetsu was pushing his actual arm into Aizen’s body, unwittingly breaking the spell the same way Yamamoto avoided Aizen’s attacks before.

While Aizen has no control over Kyoka Suigetsu at this time, this can still be to his advantage by using his silver tongue speech to manipulate people’s perceptions of reality or to let them focus on specific details to subtly let their minds produce the illusions themselves.

Another Soul King?

Fusion with the Hogyoku was the reason Aizen was considered a being of similar nature to the Soul King that you could even say that he was one of the few beings immune to the Almighty (in some capacity).

To be a Soul King candidate, one must have the Reiatsu of all five races: human, Hollow, Fullbringer, Shinigami, and Quincy.

Ichigo was constructed that way through Aizen and Yhwach’s machinations and meeting with Kugo Ginjo.

However, the Hogyoku also reconstructed Aizen’s being into something that “transcends boundaries”, in other words, a Hybrid just like Ichigo and Kugo Ginjo.

God the callback to ranbu no melody.
Hogyoku-Reio is so GOOD #BLEACH pic.twitter.com/XVzO9CWF7c

— Tandrin (@Wind_ofDeath) October 4, 2024

As shown in Opening 3 of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War, the Hogyoku and Soul King are essentially treated as the same thing, objects of power that maintain the boundaries of reality.

That is because the Hogyoku, which means “Breakdown Sphere”, has the essence of the Soul King.

Initially thought to breakdown the boundary between Shinigami and Hollows, the reality is that the Hogyoku actually breaks down the boundary between thought and reality, where wishes can come true provided the target has a strong will and strong Reiatsu to realize it.

With Reiatsu twice or more than an ordinary Captain, Aizen was able to momentarily awaken it and was in sync with the Hogyoku

In “Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World”, we learn that Aizen created his prototype Hogyoku by feeding his device fragments of the Soul King.

One of these fragments was inside a young Rangiku Matsumoto’s body, the whole reason why Gin betrayed Aizen and tried to steal the Hogyoku.

With Soul King fragments, the Hogyoku was able to grant Aizen a portion of the nature of the Soul King, the progenitor of all species, and to even gain Hollow powers.

Aizen was not a simple a fusion of Hollow and Shinigami but beyond the species themselves.

Although Ichigo has the specific traits of Human, Hollow, Fullbring, Quincy, and Shinigami, his unnatural growth rate has allowed him to surpass both Aizen’s perception of species and their boundaries and the actual biology behind them,

Ichigo’s Mugetsu form, for example, shows this fusion in motion, with the red eyes of Zangetsu/Yhwach, the ability to fully harmonize with his Zanpakuto like Aizen, such that he “becomes Getsuga itself”.

While he was vanquished by Ichigo, his imprisonment in Muken maintained that fusion.

When Kisuke Urahara applied that seal on a weakened Aizen, even as Aizen was losing his Hollowfied shell and eyes, Aizen remained an anomaly not simply for his monstrous Reiatsu growing without ceasing but also from a unique nature

By fusing Zanpakuto with Shinigami, Aizen’s Perfect Hypnosis was able to trick the Almighty, the very power that acted as the foundation of the Three Worlds, and secure Ichigo one perfect moment to crush Yhwach at one point.

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