Forum - View topicSoul Society
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Ichigo77
 Posts: 389 Location: California |
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I have been wondering this for a while and can't figure it out. Out of the people who live in the Rukongai and The Seireitei were they all alive at one point? I know some were because they talk about how all the people in the Rukonngai were alive at different times and Chad meets Yuichi. So does that also mean all the Soul Reapers were alive and normal human beings once? Or are some people just born into that life? If you take characters like Rukia and Renji it shows them as children and then growen up. It never talks about them being alive at one point and why do their souls grow older? Does this ever get explained or is it never mentioned? I follow the manga and anime by Viz so i have read up to vol 18 and seen up to episode 32 so don't spoil anything too much for me please.
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Hisdon
 Posts: 411 Location: Poquoson, VA |
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I don't believe its really ever explained - probably a glaring plothole that is overlooked usually. The storyline seems to infer that Rukia and Renji either A) were born there or B) came there after dieing at a young age. Which one it is, hasn't been touched yet. However last I checked there arn't any preggers in the story line, so I'm leaning towars the latter. As far as aging goes I guess people simply age "slower" in the Soul Society. Keep in mind, its not heaven - so death in the Soul Society is still plausible. I think the biggest misconception for viewers is mistaken Soul Society for Bleach's heaven - which I believe IS explained later (unless I read the chapter wrong  )
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RighteyeZ
 Posts: 4 |
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After watching over 100 eps of Bleach I would have to say that Hisdon is 100% right.
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Zoe
 Posts: 898 Location: Austin |
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Rukia was definitely born in the living world.
However, there's evidence to support that it is possible for people to be born in Soul Society. You have noble families that go back for generations, and there's a word for a "true shinigami"--somebody born from another shinigami. |
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LuckySleven
 Posts: 426 Location: Refer to page 2 |
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Well I think that people who aren't Shimigami do age but at a slower pace as Hisdon said but when one does gain the power of a Shimigami they don't age. Since they're like a "God of Death." Then again, I could be wrong. :3 |
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Zoe
Posts: 898 Location: Austin |
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Well, their hair will still grow... would that be considered aging? It's really hard to say anything definitive about the age issue because the timeline we've seen has been relatively short. |
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Mirrinus
 Posts: 230 Location: La Thiene Plateau |
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I'm pretty sure even Shinigami do age. It just happens so slowly, it's not even noticable. From what I recall, their natural lifespan in Soul Society can reach thousands of years. I don't remember there ever being mentioned a case of someone dying of old age, actually. But it's odd that they can still die from disease in Soul Society...I think...
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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Well, Soul Society IS Bleach's Heaven, just not the Judeo-Christian Heaven, which would be an unlikely place for Japan's mostly non-Christian populace to end up when they die anyways. It's moreof a Shinto/Buddhist heaven, a waiting-room between Earth and ressurection.
Some people DO seem to be born there, somehow, but that is not the norm. Rukia, for example, did die as a child to end up there. Time also seems to be relative there, with characters seeming to age at whatever pace they feel comfortable with, if at all. |
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Sarene
 Posts: 79 |
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Not to back-seat-mod or anything, but this conversation already exists in the Bleach post-filler thread.
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Ichigo77
Posts: 389 Location: California |
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So is the soul society run by higher powers then that on earth but yet there is some other higher power above the soul society? So basically when you die you go someone else and the soul reapers just manage the flow of souls between the living world and the dead?
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Zoe
Posts: 898 Location: Austin |
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Yes. Though it's probably a misnomer to call it a place of the dead. |
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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There is no evidence of a higher plane above Soul Society. So far as we have been lead to believe, when a human dies, there are three options, Soul Society, Hell, or annihilation (nothingness). When a Hollow is killed by a Quincy, for example, that soul is annihilated, whereas a Shinigami would send it to either Soul Society or Hell. If a Shinigami is killed,or a spirit destroyed in Soul society, it's unclear what happens. They might re-emerge elsewhere in SS as a blank slate, they might eb reincarnated to Earth (again as a blank slate), or they might be annihilated. |
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HikaruShindo
 Posts: 18 |
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I've been reading this thread since it started, I had thought that someone would come in here who reads the manga, and has far greater knowledge than I, but I was apparently mistaken. Anyway, here is, to the best of my knowledge (as of anime episode 124), how it works. There are four planes of existance in Bleach: the human world, soul society, hueco mundo, and hell. The human world is much like our own. Residents of the human world have two bodies, a physical body and a soul, or spirit body. The two are connected by the spirit chain. When you die peacefully, your soul automatically moves on to soul society (the heaven of Bleach). If you have sinned, or have died with regrets, your soul stays tied to the human world.
This is where the shinigami come in. It is their job to put to rest the souls unable to move on, through spirit burial, and to send those souls that have sinned to hell. So far, the only know offense that will send you to hell is murder. If you remain in the human world too long as a soul, your spirit chain will desolve and you will become a hollow. Hollows are souls who have lost their heart, signified by a hole in their chests, who reside in hueco mundo. Hueco mundo appears to be the equivalent of purgatory , which exists between soul society and the humman world. The shinigami's second duty is to slay the hollows, which frees their souls and sends them to their rightful place, either soul society or hell. Once in soul society, two major changes occur. First, your aging slows down dramatically. We know that General Yamamoto started the shinigami acedemy 2000 years ago. He appears to be around 60 human years old now, so, if we assume that he was 20 human years old when he began the academy, that would mean that for ever 50 years in soul society, you age one year. This may not be right, but it is a pretty good estimate. The second major change that occurs is, as long as you don't have spirit power, you no longer get hungry. Other than that, soul society appears to be very similar to the human world. You get thirsty, you can be injured, and even get sick. Now, this is mostly speculation, but both souls in the human world and in soul society appear to be able to give birth. The existance of noble families almost depends on the ability to give birth in soul society. Also, with souls being lost due to sin, or even due to the quincy, there needs to be a way for new souls to be created. If birth were possible in soul society, then it would offset these lost souls. I personally think that reproduction is an ability only for those with spirit power. It is said that shinigami have the ability to absorb spirit particles to heal themselves, though not as ridiculously fast as the bount. I would think then, that maybe a shinigami could absorb spirit particles in order to produce a child. I hope for female shinigamis that fetuses dont age the same as other souls, because that would mean, based on our time comparisons, that they would be pregnant for 12 years or so. Ouch! Plus, as has already been mentioned, there is a term for "pure blood" shinigami. When you die in soul society, you are reincarnated to the human world. This maintains a constant flow of souls between the worlds. There has not, as far as I know, been any talk of a higher power that created the different planes of existance, but I would assume that one exists, otherwise there would never have been a "first" shinigami. Some who knew the workings of the world must have given them their task of manging souls. Well there you go. Hope that answers your question, as well as about 50 other questions, lol. edit: added paragraphs, man that was tough to read in one giant chunk, lol |
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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Sounds about right. Three things I have quibbles with though. One, I think aging is not so simple as "slowed down", because while I think characters like Rukia are older than they look by many decades, I don't think she's 700-odd years old. So I think that either aging slows exponentially (ie babies age almost normally, kids age twice as slowly, teens age four times as slowly, etc.), or it's a mental thing, and you can age, or not age, at whatever pace you care to.
Two, I don't think it HAS been established, although it has been hinted at, that souls that die in Soul Society return to earth. Souls DO return to earth form Soul Society, but it's not clear that "death" has anything to do with that process. Three, there wasn't necessarilly anyone to "get the ball rolling" with Soul Society. It could have just devloped as a natural civilization among the various spirits, that some learned to harness their spirit energy, travel to Earth, create zanpukutous, etc. and then taught it to others, much as normal humans learned to forge weapons from iron and ships to sail the world in. Not to say that there isn't some higher power, just that that isn't evidence of one. |
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HikaruShindo
Posts: 18 |
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I just finished watching episode 125 and ironically, it dealt with this very topic. There is indeed a higher power, of sorts. spoiler[Soul society has a King called the "Spirit King." The spirit king resides in yet another plane of existance separate from soul society. According to the episode, he is more of a figurehead, and no one has actually seen him (at least that is still alive), but he does rule over soul society.] |
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