Long live ‘Bleach’! The ‘Thousand Year Blood War’ has come to an end

Bleach is dead! Long live Bleach! Well, it’s not dead, dead, the series lives in our hearts, but its run has ended. After hundreds of (mostly) glorious episodes, the long-running series can now sleep soundly in its Crunchyroll tomb. But what’s up with the ending? Here’s the finale of Bleach, explained.

Here’s the skinny …

Bleach ends with the epically titled Thousand Year Blood War arc. It’s the final battle between the Soul Reapers of the Soul Society and their sworn Quincy enemies, led by the all-powerful Yhwach. But hold up, I thought Yhwach’s almighty powers let him literally see the future? How could our hero Ichigo Kurosaki strike the final blow? With a little unexpected help from the very Quincy that Yhwach led! And even MORE unexpected help from one of the OTHER worst villains in the series: Aizen.

Aizen was able to conjure an illusion in front of Yhwach during the final battle, a trickery that gave Ichigo a split-second opening to give the ol’ Almighty a good SMACHOW with his sword. It was a particularly lethal cut, which led to Yhwach’s destruction. However, Yhwach is just so impossibly GOATED that even after death, his powers STILL WORKED. Bro literally launched a posthumous attack against reality itself, which would merge together the Soul Society, the human world, Hueco Mundo, and the dimensions between into one super-reality where all living things would be free from death. That … actually doesn’t sound all that bad. If the process wasn’t going to kill everyone already alive, that is.

But it was not to be, due to the efforts of the Quincy! One Quincy in particular: Uryu Ishida. Ichigo’s homie! See, Uryu was gifted a powerful arrow made of … well, Quincy corpses. Every time a Quincy dies from Yhwach’s powers (which is pretty often) a silver residue is left over. This silver was fashioned into the “Still Silver” arrow that was able to temporarily nullify Yhwach’s God-tier powers. And bam! Problem solved! Yhwach isn’t able to re-alive himself after death and merge the world, and the realms remain separate and safe!

Epilogue time!

The epilogue of Bleach happens 10 years after the final battle. Ichigo and Orihime get hitched, and they have a kid named Kazui. Rukia and Renji also tie the knot (much to Ichigo/Rukia shippers’ chagrin) and have a kid named Ichika. Rukia has also been promoted to captain of Squad 13, a huge honor. Chad is now a pro boxer, Uryu works in a hospital as a doctor, and as for Yhwach? He momentarily existed as some weird black goo, but Kazui, using his newly manifested Soul Reaper powers, touched it and destroyed it, marking the end of the Almighty for good and bringing about everlasting peace.