Summary
- Aizen’s manipulation of boundaries between Shinigami and Hollow led to the creation of more Arrancar.
- BG9’s visual and thematic similarities to Shawlong, along with data collection, sparked theories about their connection.
- Uncertainty exists on how Arrancar like Shawlong could be turned into Quincy like BG9 due to purification and rebirth complexities.
The BLEACH universe is expansive and complex, with various configurations of the main states of being introduced over the course of the series becoming possible in part due to Sо̄suke Aizen’s (and to some extent, Kisuke Urahara’s) meddling with the boundaries between Shinigami and Hollow. Using the Hо̄gyoku he extracted from Rukia’s soul in the conclusion of the Soul Society arc, Aizen would go on to create more Arrancar, Hollows that have gained Shinigami powers from tearing off parts of their masks.
In the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, we learn that Yhwach’s Wandenreich advanced on Hueco Mundo, taking many Arrancar to be in their ranks in the wake of Yhwach’s defeat of the de facto ruler, Tier Harribel. This use of Arrancar in the war against the Shinigami is partly what has inspired fans to draw parallels between the Quincy robot BG9, and the Arrancar Shawlong Koufang. Is there any weight to the idea that BG9 is Shawlong?
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Bleach: The Evolution of an Arrancar, Explained
The evolution of the creature known as Arrancar is actually a lot more elaborate than you might think.
Who Was Shawlong?
One Of Grimjoww Jaegerjaquez’s Few Allies
The Undecimo (11th) Arrancar in Aizen’s army, Shawlong Koufang was one of Grimmjow Jaegerjacquez’s five Fracción. His number denotes that he was the oldest Numeros in Aizen’s Arrancar army before his death in Karakura at the hands of 10th Squad Captain Tо̄shirо̄ Hitsugaya. At some point, Shawlong was a Gillian with a personality that eventually evolved into an Adjuchas-Class Hollow and led a small group of other Menos Grande consisting of Di Roy Rinker, Octava Espada Szayelaporro’s brother Yylfordt Granz, Edrad Liones, Nakeem Grindina and two other unnamed Adjuchas, going around devouring any Hollows they’d come across, until they one day encountered a tiny Adjuchas. That incident led to the group being eaten, with Shawlong declaring the tiny Adjuchas, Grimmjow Jaegerjacquez, their new leader.
The group had ambitions of evolving into Vasto Lordes; however, they didn’t realize that a Hollow’s evolution stops when they are eaten by another. Upon realizing this, they gave up and gave their bodies to Grimmjow to eat so they can be part of his evolution, eventually becoming his five Fracción. Shortly after the first appearance of Ulquiorra Cifer and Yammy Llargo in Karakura , Shawlong and his friends were dispatched by Ulquiorra to kill anyone who has high spiritual pressure in the area, which is how he wound up engaging in battle against Hitsugaya. Initially, the Arrancar had the upper hand in their battles, but after the Shinigami officers received the permission to release their full power in the Human World, they were quickly defeated. Shawlong was adept at using Pesquisa, translated to “Investigative Nerves”, a technique that enabled him to send out a pulse that then reacts to Reiatsu sources in the area and gauge how powerful they are.
Why Some People Think BG9 Could Be Shawlong
The Evidence is Quite Damning
In the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, we see the Quincy robot BG9 engage in skirmishes aganist a number of Shinigami Captains, with its battle against 2nd Squad Captain Soi-Fon being the one moment in the spotlight for the Quincy. Over the course of the second cours of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, BG9 uses needle-like extensions from its body to impale enemies and gains all kinds of data from its victims. This happened with 2nd Squad Lieutenant Omaeda’s little sister Marechiyo, who BG9 learned was related to him and a number of other Reiatsu readings in the nearby area, and even after skewering Soi-Fon, BG9 gained some insight into her abilities.
This data collection has inspired theories that BG9’s designation, K, stands for “The Knowledge”, but we might never know. Like Shawlong, BG9’s head is shaped like a knight’s mask, with vertical slits across the face, and interestingly, BG9’s needle extensions are reminiscent of Shawlong’s long feeling claws in his Resurreción. Combining the visual similarities of Shawlong when he was an Adjuchas and BG9 with the link between the former’s mastery over Pesquisa and the latter’s “data collection spines”, it becomes evident that there is some level of overlap between the two, including the fact that the two characters share the same Japanese voice actor, Hideyuki Tanaka.
What Reduces the Likelihood of the Theory
Didn’t Shawlong Get Purified By Hitsugaya?
We learn in the very beginning of BLEACH that Shinigami purify Hollows by defeating them with their Zanpakutо̄, enabling them to return to the cycle of reincarnation. However, things get dicey with stronger Hollows and the Arrancar. At some point, a soul becomes far too powerful to return to the cycle of reincarnation without greatly affecting the balance of the realms. It is for this reason that when Captain-level Shinigami die, they are sent to Hell via a special kind of Konsо̄.
In the BLEACH: No Breaths From Hell one-shot, Unohana, Ukitake and Yamamoto are sent to Hell where they receive epithets based on their lives as Shinigami. The key figure here is Szayelaporro, the only character we actually see after emerging from Hell, which means that after being killed by Kurotsuchi, the Hollow did not return to Soul Society and was instead sent directly to Hell. On the other hand, given the fact that Arrancar are essentially part Shinigami, the idea that they would go to Soul Society upon being killed by a Shinigami falls into question.
When a Shinigami is killed by another, they become part of the makeup of their surroundings as they are simply turned back into Reishi. The only way the Quincies could have turned Shawlong into BG9 is if he didn’t actually die in the battle against Hitsugaya (very unlikely), or if his Arrancar makeup is something that interfered in the usual cycle of purification and rebirth Hollows are subject to when killed by Shinigami.
If he was too weak to be sent to Hell, and too much of a hybrid to be subject to complete purification, instead becoming part of the Reishi in his surroundings, perhaps by some mechanic of the Quincies’ manipulation of Reishi could he have become part of the Sternritter in a manner similar to how Kaien Shiba became part of Metastacia, which then became part of Aaroniero Aaruruerie. It’s an interesting theory supported by the Quincies’ documented conscription of the Arrancar, but it isn’t clear how Shawlong could have been turned into BG9 despite the visual and thematic similarities.
