Bleach: Thousand-year Blood War - Why Aizen refused to join Yhwach?

With the Bleach: Thousand-year Blood War premiere, fans were excited to see their favorite characters return to the series’ final installment, including Sosuke Aizen, who is still acclaimed as the best villain in the series.

With Aizen’s return in episode 6 of Bleach: Thousand-year Blood War, fans are immensely excited to see what he brings to the table this time.

While Royd Lloyd disguised himself as Wandenreich Emperor Yhwach to keep Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, Genryusai Yamamoto, busy, Yhwach took his time to meet Aizen at the Central Underground Prison with the proposal of asking him to join his Wandenreich army.

This could have been the perfect opportunity for Aizen to break free from prison and turn against the Soul Society once again. However, Aizen refused to join forces with Yhwach, and the reason behind this is not surprising.

Disclaimer: This article contains heavy anime manga spoilers for Bleach: Thousand-year Blood War.

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Yhwach and Aizen have polar opposite paths in Bleach: Thousand-year Blood War

Right from the beginning of the series, Aizen has proven to be the most intelligent antagonist who preplans everything he will eventually encounter in the near or far future. Aizen’s initial goal was to overthrow the Soul King and become the one true ruler of all three realms, which is why he plotted against the Soul Society and betrayed his brethren.

To pursue his long-sought goal, he fused himself with the Hogyoku and was about to sacrifice the souls of the people of Karakura town in the human world to create the Oken, using which he could travel to Soul King’s palace to kill him. However, Ichigo, with his Final Getsuga Tenshou, stopped him from his pursuit.

Later, Aizen was sentenced to serve 20000 years, imprisoned at the deepest level of the Eighth Central Underground Prison: Muken, restrained by Kisuke Urahara’s most powerful Bakudo seal, Ninety-Six Capitol Fire-Suspended Seal Destruction.

Despite being a ruthless entity, Aizen isn’t a megalomaniac. Aizen wants to take the throne to fulfill his duty as a true king, unlike the Soul King, who has been acting like nothing but a mere linchpin that keeps the realms from falling apart.

In contrast to Aizen’s goal, Yhwach wants to create a world by merging the Human World, Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and Wandenreich, an uncanny utopia where the word fear didn’t exist. Like Aizen, Yhwach wants to overthrow the Soul King to assimilate his powers and rule the three realms beyond his jurisdiction.

Unlike Aizen, Yhwach’s goal disturbs the natural order, so the former refuses to be part of the Wandenreich army. However, Aizen retains a god complex where he justifies his crimes by defining them as part of salvation. Considering himself to be morally correct, he doesn’t want to be anyone’s henchman, which is another reason for declining Yhwach’s proposal.

Moreover, Aizen knew that Yhwach would use him to his advantage and couldn’t be deceived easily. So it was the perfect option to stay imprisoned. Aizen even mocked Yhwach for following in the same footsteps as the shinigami. The former knew half of the latter’s goals were fueled by revenge.

During his fight with Ichigo in Bleach: Thousand-year Blood War episode 7, Yhwach realized that Aizen had messed up his awareness. Yhwach and the other Stenritters had to return to Schatten Bereich in Wandenriech to keep the Silbern (Silver Cross Fortress), Wandenriech’s base operation headquarters, from destabilizing and fusing with Seireitei.

Though it is still unclear why Aizen altered Yhwach’s senses and how he did that despite being under Urahara’s Bakudo spell, fans will soon get their answer as Bleach: Thousand-year Blood War progresses.