Bleach’s Worst Arc Secretly Set Up TYBW’s Greatest Twist - Fans Just Missed It

Daksh Chaudhary
Apr 12
3 min read

This arc hid Bleach: TYBW greatest surprise

Let’s be real: Bleach’s Lost Substitute Shinigami arc, also known as the Fullbring arc is nobody’s favorite. Sandwiched between the epic Arrancar saga and the explosive Thousand-Year Blood War, this arc felt like a weird detour. Ichigo moped around, fought humans with psychic powers, and cried about losing his Soul Reaper abilities.

Fans called the Fullbring arc slow, boring, and pointless. But this “worst” arc quietly planted the seeds for Bleach: TYBW’s greatest twist - the truth about the Soul King and Yhwach’s god-tier plan. But we just didn’t notice.

ALSO READ: Bleach: Why Yhwach Considered Ichigo A True Threat From The Start

Why The Fullbring Arc Felt Like A Letdown

First, let’s recap why this arc gets so much hate. After Ichigo sacrificed his powers to defeat Aizen, the Fullbring arc focused on his struggle to live as a normal human. Enter Xcution, a group of humans with Fullbring abilities - powers born from trauma caused by Hollow attacks. Their leader, Kugo Ginjo, offered to help Ichigo regain his powers, only to betray him later.

The problem? The stakes felt low compared to fighting Espadas or saving the Soul Society. The villains like Ginjo and Tsukishima lacked the menace of Aizen or the Espadas. The pacing dragged, and Ichigo’s emotional arc felt repetitive. Fans tuned out, dismissing it as filler-tier content. But buried in this mess were clues about the Soul King’s true nature - clues we all missed.

Fullbringers & The Soul King: The Hidden Connection

Connection between Fullbrings and Soul King

Here’s the bombshell: Fullbringers exist because of the Soul King. Their powers come from pieces of the Soul King’s essence lingering in the human world. When a Hollow attacks a pregnant woman, traces of the Soul King’s power fuse with the baby, granting them Fullbring abilities. Ichigo’s Fullbring appeared as a chain, which quietly hinted at the Soul King’s role in holding the world together.

In TYBW, we learn the Soul King isn’t a benevolent god, it’s a mutilated corpse used by the Soul Society to maintain balance. Yhwach, the Quincy king, wants to destroy the Soul King and reclaim its scattered power to reshape existence. Suddenly, the Fullbringers’ powers aren’t random, they’re fragments of the same god-like force Yhwach seeks.

How This Foreshadowed TYBW’s Soul King Twist

The Fullbring arc’s true purpose was to introduce the idea that the Soul King’s power isn’t confined to the heavens; it’s everywhere. Fullbringers like Chad, Orihime, and Ginjo were living proof. When Yhwach reveals in TYBW that the Soul King’s body parts (like the heart and right arm) have wills of their own, it mirrors how Fullbringers channel the Soul King’s residual energy through personal items.

ALSO READ: Bleach: TWBW - Are Yhwach And Ichigo Kurosaki Related?

Even Ichigo’s role as a hybrid takes on new meaning. His Fullbring training forced him to confront his human side, the same side tied to the Soul King’s influence. This set up his TYBW revelation as a Soul King candidate, a being capable of replacing the linchpin. No doubt, the Fullbring arc was a filler, but it was also a stealthy prologue to TYBW’s existential crisis.

Why Fans Missed The Clues?

So why did everyone overlook Bleach's greatest twist? Two reasons:

The Arc’s Reputation: Fans were so bored by the slow pacing and small stakes that they ignored lore drops about Fullbring origins.
Kubo’s Subtlety: The Soul King’s role wasn’t fully explained until TYBW. Without context, Fullbringers just seemed like quirky humans with superpowers.

It wasn’t until Yhwach’s plan unfolded - absorbing the Soul King, declaring war on existence - that the dots connected. The Fullbring arc wasn’t a detour; it was the first chapter of a saga about who really controls life, death, and reality.

Final Verdict: The Fullbring Arc Hid Bleach: TYBW's Greatest Twist

Yes, the Fullbring arc is messy. Yes, Ginjo and Tsukishima are mid-tier villains. But without this arc, Bleach: TYBW’s greatest twists would’ve felt unearned. By tying Fullbringers to the Soul King, Kubo laid the groundwork for a story about cosmic slavery, inherited trauma, and the price of godhood.

So next time you skip the Fullbring arc on a rewatch, remember: it’s the ugly duckling that secretly grew into Bleach’s most beautiful swan.