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I don't know about the others, but ever since we caught a glimpse of the Soul King, I've been very curious about what he is, and what purpose he serves.
I'm sure others have noticed it too. If we compare Aizen's appearance after having fused with the Hogyoku, he started looking more and more like the Soul King. By doing this, it seems like Kubo gave us a hint as to what the Soul King is given that Aizen's motive was to become a being that transcends both Hollows and Shinigami. Based on this hint, I think it's safe to say that the Soul King is a being that transcends Shinigami and Hollows. In fact, I'm willing to go as far as to say that he's the God of both Hollows and Shinigami. It is interesting to note that Aizen and Urahara, the only two characters (as far as we know) that did any research on beings that transcend Hollows and Shinigami, also seem to be the only two characters that have any idea of what the Soul King is. I think this is another hint by Kubo.
Before we can go further into depth, there has to be some sort of understanding about what hollows are. As we learned in the beginning of Bleach, hollows are essentially souls that weren't 'cleansed' by Shinigamis and because they stayed in the Real World as dead spirits for too long, they turned into hollows. On the other hand, we know that when hollows are killed at the hands of Shinigamis, their souls are cleansed and they go to Soul Society. In other words, the final destination of soulsare always meant to be. That applies for the Shinigamis as well. If you think about it, this isn't strange at all. The name is Soul Society - the society of souls - after all.
As for the Soul King, I'm pretty sure that he is the most absolute God in the Bleach universe. Based on the above, I'd say that he created both Shinigamis and Hollows. Why? The best motive that I've been able to come up with at this point is that he uses the pure souls scattered around the worlds to retain his power & position. He created Shinigamis for the purpose of bringing back the souls to Soul Society - and consequently back to him - and the hollows to embody the lost souls until they are killed by Shinigamis. Shinigamis and hollows seem to be programmed to fight against each other and that doesn't make any difference to him because one dying at the hands of the other would still result in the soul going to Soul Society. Perhaps that is why he sent the RG to stabilize the Gotei 13 - to ensure that their daily affairs can still effectively be carried out.
Furthermore, we know that hollows react to reiatsu. If a strong reiatsu is felt, either many hollows appear, or a few strong ones do. In other words, it seems like the strength of hollows is proportional to the strength of Shinigamis. This is once again deliberately done in order to ensure that the balance isn't broken. If the hollows were to significantly overpower the Shinigamis at any point (which they seemed able to do - at least in the beginning of Bleach - by attacking with many Menos Grandes for example), that would result in the demise of Shinigamis and consequently, there wouldn't be anyone around to deliver the souls back to SS.
This is where the Quincies come in. We know that Quincies, unlike Shinigamis, obliterate hollows when they kill them and that their method disrupts the balance of the worlds. We've also been told that this could result in the destruction of both worlds. But what if this is just a myth and that it's not the imbalance in itself that would destroy the world, but that the loss of souls would anger the Soul King (a lá the wrath of God) who, in turn, would destroy the worlds (i.e. a Judgement day). By doing so, all the souls in the world would return to Soul Society and he could restart the process. Maybe the Soul King, via Central 46, issued the annihilation of the Quincies.
Having said this, I think that the Soul King will turn out to be the main villain in Bleach. Ichigo's Quincy background and the Vanderreich could be designed to provoke a reaction from the Soul King. What I do find odd if this were to be the case is that the Soul King didn't send the RG down to Seiretei to help defeat the Vanderreich if Quincies are the biggest threat to his "soul-sucking" affairs (in a lack of a better term). Then again, it could have been done out of a story purpose - wouldn't have been much fun to see the RG come down, kick the quincies asses and then end it there - especially given the possibility that Juha Bach will be revealed to be related to Masaki.
Thoughts?
PS: A lot of the stuff came to me as I was writing (I was only planning on including the first two paragraphs at first) so I've likely missed out on a few things.
I'm sure others have noticed it too. If we compare Aizen's appearance after having fused with the Hogyoku, he started looking more and more like the Soul King. By doing this, it seems like Kubo gave us a hint as to what the Soul King is given that Aizen's motive was to become a being that transcends both Hollows and Shinigami. Based on this hint, I think it's safe to say that the Soul King is a being that transcends Shinigami and Hollows. In fact, I'm willing to go as far as to say that he's the God of both Hollows and Shinigami. It is interesting to note that Aizen and Urahara, the only two characters (as far as we know) that did any research on beings that transcend Hollows and Shinigami, also seem to be the only two characters that have any idea of what the Soul King is. I think this is another hint by Kubo.
Before we can go further into depth, there has to be some sort of understanding about what hollows are. As we learned in the beginning of Bleach, hollows are essentially souls that weren't 'cleansed' by Shinigamis and because they stayed in the Real World as dead spirits for too long, they turned into hollows. On the other hand, we know that when hollows are killed at the hands of Shinigamis, their souls are cleansed and they go to Soul Society. In other words, the final destination of soulsare always meant to be. That applies for the Shinigamis as well. If you think about it, this isn't strange at all. The name is Soul Society - the society of souls - after all.
As for the Soul King, I'm pretty sure that he is the most absolute God in the Bleach universe. Based on the above, I'd say that he created both Shinigamis and Hollows. Why? The best motive that I've been able to come up with at this point is that he uses the pure souls scattered around the worlds to retain his power & position. He created Shinigamis for the purpose of bringing back the souls to Soul Society - and consequently back to him - and the hollows to embody the lost souls until they are killed by Shinigamis. Shinigamis and hollows seem to be programmed to fight against each other and that doesn't make any difference to him because one dying at the hands of the other would still result in the soul going to Soul Society. Perhaps that is why he sent the RG to stabilize the Gotei 13 - to ensure that their daily affairs can still effectively be carried out.
Furthermore, we know that hollows react to reiatsu. If a strong reiatsu is felt, either many hollows appear, or a few strong ones do. In other words, it seems like the strength of hollows is proportional to the strength of Shinigamis. This is once again deliberately done in order to ensure that the balance isn't broken. If the hollows were to significantly overpower the Shinigamis at any point (which they seemed able to do - at least in the beginning of Bleach - by attacking with many Menos Grandes for example), that would result in the demise of Shinigamis and consequently, there wouldn't be anyone around to deliver the souls back to SS.
This is where the Quincies come in. We know that Quincies, unlike Shinigamis, obliterate hollows when they kill them and that their method disrupts the balance of the worlds. We've also been told that this could result in the destruction of both worlds. But what if this is just a myth and that it's not the imbalance in itself that would destroy the world, but that the loss of souls would anger the Soul King (a lá the wrath of God) who, in turn, would destroy the worlds (i.e. a Judgement day). By doing so, all the souls in the world would return to Soul Society and he could restart the process. Maybe the Soul King, via Central 46, issued the annihilation of the Quincies.
Having said this, I think that the Soul King will turn out to be the main villain in Bleach. Ichigo's Quincy background and the Vanderreich could be designed to provoke a reaction from the Soul King. What I do find odd if this were to be the case is that the Soul King didn't send the RG down to Seiretei to help defeat the Vanderreich if Quincies are the biggest threat to his "soul-sucking" affairs (in a lack of a better term). Then again, it could have been done out of a story purpose - wouldn't have been much fun to see the RG come down, kick the quincies asses and then end it there - especially given the possibility that Juha Bach will be revealed to be related to Masaki.
Thoughts?
PS: A lot of the stuff came to me as I was writing (I was only planning on including the first two paragraphs at first) so I've likely missed out on a few things.
