Spoilers for Bleach: The Thousand-Year Blood War Episode 4The action is heating up in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, as the Quincy Wandenreich begin their invasion of the Soul Society in earnest. The Soul Society may have plenty of powerful warriors on its side, but the Quincy came prepared to deal with their strongest weapons: the ability to steal Bankai.
In Bleach, each Soul Reaper has a Zanpakuto, a special spirit sword that's a signature of the Soul Reapers. Each Zanpakuto has several forms it can take: its base, "sealed" form typically resembles a simple sword, often a katana. The next normally only used by Soul Reaper Captains in Bleach.
With the Bankai known to be so powerful, the Quincy definitely needed a way to deal with them, if only to minimize their own casualties. In their first fight with First Division Lieutenant Sasakibe, the attacking Quincy was somehow able to "seal" the Soul Reaper's Bankai, although since Sasakibe died, no one had a chance to learn how. When the Quincy Sternritter attacked in force in episode 4, several Captains, including Byakuya Kuchiki, Toshiro Hitsugaya, Sui-Feng, and Sajin Komamura all summon their Bankai, despite having been warned not to, and subsequently see their opponents steal the Bankai away using some strange medallion which features a Quincy cross. A similar device was used in the first episode on Ichigo as well, although it failed to work on him for reasons that have yet to be discovered.
Quincy Could Use the Stolen Bankai, Too
The distinction between "sealing" and "stealing" a Bankai is a pretty important one--the latter implies that the Bankai can now be used by Bleach's villainous new organization, the Quincy, against its original master. Stealing the enemy's weapons is of course a classic strategy, and far more effective than destroying them. In addition to the possibility of these Bankai being used against the Soul Society now, there's also a hit to morale. Most of the captains who had their Bankai stolen reacted with disbelief, anger, and fear, all emotions that can lead to mistakes on the battlefield. And of course, that's if they're even still capable of fighting, as the connection between Bankai, Shikai, and Zanpakuto make it a bit unclear as to where the line is drawn.
Things are looking pretty grim for the Soul Society right now in Bleach, with a thousand regular Soul Reapers killed and now a third of their captains missing their greatest weapons. Figuring out how the Quincy did this and what they can do to reverse the theft is going to be key to turning this battle around, so it's all up to the Soul Society's brightest to do just that in later episodes of Bleach.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is streaming now on Hulu!
