Bleach – Thousand-Year Blood War 1×28 Review: “Kill the King”

Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Part 3 Episode 2 ‘Kill the King’ featured an intense battle between Ichigo and Yhwach as well as a major revelation.

With Yhwach having impaled the Soul King during the previous episode, ‘Kill the King’ had Ichigo and his crew reach the Soul King Palace a bit too late. However, that didn’t prevent Ichigo from going all out against Yhwach. The animators did a good job of keeping the fight fast-paced. Ichigo’s recent training with Squad Zero really did give him an immense power boost. But even though our young hero did his best, he wasn’t supposed to win yet (I mean, we still have a bunch of episodes left!).

The moment Yhwach decided to use his All Mighty power to look at the future, it was over for Ichigo. Yhwach easily dodged all of Ichigo’s attacks and even countered Yoruichi’s trap. And while it was disappointing to see our heroes being treated in such a manner, it was understandable. The good guys weren’t supposed to succeed at this point in the story.

The fight did give me a favorite scene, though. It’s the one where an injured Ichigo got up to strike Yhwach again knowing that Orihime would be right behind him. She’s able to quickly heal all of his injuries just in time for Ichigo to land a good hit against Yhwach. I mean, Yhwach was able to block Ichigo’s attack, but still, yay! Teamwork!

Certain fans don’t want to accept it, but Orihime’s reaction speed continues to be amazing. She’s easily one of the top speedy characters in Bleach.

‘Kill the King’ allowed Yhwach to share his thoughts regarding his hate toward the Soul King. According to Yhwach the Soul King Adnyeus could see thousands of years into the future. He knew what was going to happen to the Quincy and yet he didn’t do anything to stop it or get rid of the darkness still found in the fictional world of Bleach. Yhwach’s speech reminded me of how certain people in real life happen to have a bone to pick with “The Creator” (depending on which religion you believe in) and why doesn’t such a powerful being simply gets rid of misery and other unfortunate events from reality.

Yhwach was ready to knock the Soul King off the board and create a new world. Of course, that meant that the world of the Living, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo would need to be destroyed first. And Ichigo and the rest couldn’t allow that to happen. The Soul King being stabbed was already sending tremors across the three planes of existence.

The major revelation in ‘Kill the King’ involved Yhwach manipulating the Quincy blood in Ichigo’s body to deal the final blow. Turns out that Yhwach had seen everything that transpired during the course of Bleach. A unique being like Ichigo (human, Soul Reaper, Quincy, Fullbringer, and Hollow) was required to kill the Soul King and Yhwach set the plan in motion to make Ichigo do just that. The moment Ichigo grabbed the sword Yhwach had impaled the Soul King with, it triggered Ichigo’s Quincy side and forced Ichigo to split the Soul King in two. In a sense, as far as Yhwach is concerned, Ichigio finally fulfilled his destiny.

Having the hero of the story be the one to bring forth everyone’s destruction opens interesting doors for character development. So, I’m looking forward to seeing how the creative team will handle Ichigo’s emotional state after what he’s just done.

As for the rest of the characters, the world of the living showed Ichigo and Uryu’s dads being concerned about the constant earthquakes. Ichigo’s school friends also suspected the tremors likely had something to do with Ichigo’s mission. So, yeah, you know these folks are going to show up to help Ichigo in some manner down the line.

Over in Soul Society, Urahara was busy trying to come up with a strategy to aid Ichigo, especially after wondering why Yhwach decided to travel to the Soul Palace without killing all the Shinigami first. The previous episode also had Aizen being involved in some kind of plan. So yeah, even though things had become worse for the good guys, there’s still hope to turn everything around.

What did you think of Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Part 3 Episode 2 ‘Kill the King’?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary