The following contains major spoilers for BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3, Episode 12, “friEND”, available on Hulu and Disney+.
Summary
- Bazz-B vs Haschwalth’s tragic battle sets the stage for a powerful finale in BLEACH.
- The emotional backstory reveals the brutality of Yhwach’s reign and the rift between former friends.
- Bazz-B’s somber death marks a poignant exploration of loyalty, jealousy, and friendship.
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict set up its one-hour special finale with an extremely epic yet immensely tragic battle between former best friends, Jugram “Jugo” Haschwalth and Bazzard “Bazz-B” Black, who began their journeys headed towards the same goal but wound up separated by the subject of that goal, the Quincy King Yhwach.
We learn about the brutality of Yhwach’s regime through flashbacks that give insight into the friendship between the two Sternritter, and after the beautifully animated fight, Bazz-B loses his life in what might go down as one of the hardest deaths to watch in the entire series. Overall, it was a brilliant precursor to the finale, and continues the third part’s incredible direction and storytelling.
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Bazz-B vs Jugram Haschwalth Is Another Animation Masterclass
Before the episode gets into the thick of it, we see a brief flashback to the first meeting of Bazz-B and Haschwalth as children. At the time, they believed that Bazz was the talented one and Jugo was the one who worked hard despite not having any visible facets of the power boasted by Quincies. In their first meeting, Jugo tries to use a conventional bow to kill a rabbit and misses his shot, with Bazz making the kill using his crossbow-shaped Heilig Bogen.
The visuals abruptly switch back to their battle location in Welt, where Bazz confronts Haschwalth about knowing that Yhwach was planning on applying the Auswählen on all those he did not take with to the Soul King’s Palace. Haschwalth’s cold and mildly sarcastic response only stokes Bazz-B’s anger. Bazz declares that he will kill Yhwach’s power along with the traitorous Haschwalth, with a brief flash to a memory from Bazz’s childhood, one of a city burning with bright blue flames.
The Bazz and Haschwalth fight is incredible from a choreographic perspective, and throughout, we get flashes of their childhood together. Bazz and Jugo became friends because the former felt bad about a “pathetic kid” like Jugo being all alone in the woods. Haschwalth was a gloomy kid who didn’t have friends or parents, and had an immensely abusive home situation living with his uncle. Bazz took pity on this strange kid his age, and took him in as his “underling”. Haschwalth tries to get Bazz to agree to change the venue of their battle, but Bazz is unrelenting. He sets their arena ablaze using his Burner Finger 3, and in the brief lull in the battle, the focus is on his and Haschwalth’s eyes, the flames reminding Bazz of a much darker time: the time when Yhwach and his forces laid waste to the castle that his clan once called home.
You don’t have to understand. You will be joining my Sternritter as my advisor.
Bazz-B’s Reason For Being
Bazz’s Backstory Reveals Just How Brutal Yhwach’s Regime Was
Six months after meeting Jugo, Bazz-B returned to the castle where his clan lived, only to find it ablaze. From a safe point, he witnessed Yhwach’s forces kill everyone in sight and then raze the castle to the ground. Hiding behind a rock nearby, he managed to get a glimpse of Yhwach as he left the scene of the slaughter. Jugo found Bazz mourning his entire clan, and together they vowed to dedicate everything to killing the Quincy King Yhwach. Even the forest where Jugo lived was razed to the ground.
They lived off the treasures they found in the rubble, and over the next five years, they trained themselves every single day. Early on in the journey; however, Jugo was getting discouraged by the fact that he couldn’t produce a Heilig Bogen, but Bazz was like an older brother figure and promised he’d teach Jugo how to make one as long as he didn’t give up.
Over this five-year period, Bazz, who believed himself to be a genius and Jugo the talentless, gained even greater power and mastered wielding his Heilig Bogen. In the meantime, Jugo put everything into mastering his swordsmanship, finding the very sword that is currently in his possession among the ruins of Bazz’s castle. It was around this point that Yhwach began enlisting Quincies for his new military force: the Sternritters. His generals would go from town to town looking for those who are worthy, so a teenage Bazz and Jugo headed to a nearby town where the selection was taking place.
Bazz was desperate not to let this opportunity slip away, so even after being ignored by Hubert, one of the very generals who decimated his people, he taunted and talked a big game to get the officer to engage him in battle. As soon as it began, Bazz was overwhelmed by the intense Reiatsu of Yhwach, who claimed that he was only there to collect something he needs: Jugram Haschwalth, his other half.
The Truly Talentless
When The Rift Formed Between Bazz and Jugo
To the shock of everyone present, Yhwach announced the young Haschwalth as his advisor. Bazz’s mind was abuzz with jealousy and a feeling of insecurity over not being chosen over the one he thought he had been carrying for the past five years. When Haschwalth sees the envy and fury in Bazz’s eyes, he laments the fact that his friend couldn’t just be happy for him, and even tries to say Yhwach must have made some kind of mistake. It is then that Yhwach explains that like he, Jugram Haschwalth is not a Quincy that takes in Reishi from the environment, but a super rare kind of Quincy that can only dole out Reishi. When Yhwach tells Haschwalth that he needs him, it unleashes a fierce loyalty in him, while the furious Bazz-B overcomes the effects of Yhwach’s heavy spiritual pressure to fire an arrow his way, hoping it’ll kill him, but Haschwalth coolly plucks the arrow before it reaches his new master, in a way that is paralleled with their current fight as Bazz’s arrow is caught by Haschwalth once more.
Red-haired child… in the time you spent with this one, you surely must have felt your power growing by the day. Did you believe that it was your own talent?
You should thank this one. The one who turned you, someone with no talent, into a genius.
Bazz-B’s Death
Very Few BLEACH Deaths Have Been This Sombre
He slashes at Bazz, sending him flying through a wall, bleeding profusely. It becomes clear who will win, but Bazz is relentless despite Haschwalth’s attempts to talk him down from the fight. Bazz activates his Burner Finger Four, which forces a blade of pure flame that emanates from his arm, and he continues trying to provoke Haschwalth into battle in the same way that another flashback reveals he did when he eventually got enlisted into Yhwach’s forces. It turns out that Bazz just really wanted to be acknowledged by his friend even though things had changed so much for them.
After having his arm slashed off and a killing blow is struck, blood sprays from Bazz’s chest and his last words confirm Haschwalth’s victory, and despite lamenting the fact that the battle didn’t go his way, he’s surprised that he isn’t sadder about dying by his best friend’s blade. He dies in a pool of his own blood as Haschwalth ascends the nearby staircase, his mind playing back his (presumably) most treasured memories of the friend he just killed. To call this episode an exploration of a tragic friendship would be an understatement, and the whole episode was elevated by the sombre “realism” of Bazz’s death, setting up for the hour-long finale to cap off a brilliant cours for BLEACH.
