Bleach has never had a shortage of captivating villains with Tite Kubo’s imagination bringing to life antagonists that can hold their ground and the audience’s attention better than anyone else. Characters like Aizen and Yhwach set up the root of what villains can really be but there was another who could shine in his own melancholic life.
Michael B. Jordan had once admitted that it wasn’t Aizen who was his favorite villain in Kubo’s series but Ulquiorra. He was a character plagued by his own past, haunted by what he couldn’t escape. He was the personification of nihility and was fascinated by Orihime because of the life she never let go of. She was the complete opposite of him in many ways and the difference made him a complex character.
Bleach Gave Ulquiorra a Tragic Fate
Tite Kubo made Ulquiorra a character who despised humans from the very moment he was introduced. Bleach saw him as a character who developed as the story went on. From a being who hated humans with a passion to one who was gradually fascinated by them, he grew step by step until the very end. To him, the world was a spectrum of things that he understood and those that he didn’t.
Those who know despair, once knew hope. Those who know loss, once knew love.
Out of those, the biggest to stand out was his understanding, or the lack thereof, of the heart. His pessimistic outlook on life has always resonated with fans while also fascinating them at the same time. He saw humans the same way people saw him, a peculiar being with a perspective so different from their own.
Ulquiorra also happened to be the character who killed Ichigo and that alone takes immense power. It was only through that Zangetsu’s true power was unleashed and Ichigo’s Hollow form took over. With no end to his fate, he met his end in the same way he tried to inflict it on Ichigo.
Actions Alone Cannot Justify Redemption
Orihime’s optimism was the exact opposite of that of Ulquiorra’s nihilism. He was the darkness and she was the light. Naturally, there were many who also believed him to have fallen in love with her by the end of it. There were also those who argued that the end he got wasn’t one he should have endured. Rather, Tite Kubo could have redeemed his character, seeing how Orihime sympathized with him.
Comment
byu/fukytsu from discussion
inbleach
For people to grow, it takes a lot of learning. It is a slow process, one that is extensively pushy. Throughout his arc, he yearns to understand what a heart is and why humans cherish it so much. Not just the physical organ but the metaphorical value of a heart. When he meets his end, his last words are of him finding that heart.
Many think that the very end of his life marked a change in him that no one had seen until that point and that alone could count towards his redemption. However, one act alone does not justify an entire lifetime’s worth of abuse and the horrible deeds done by him. His fate may have been bittersweet but the truth remains concrete, not everyone deserves a happy ending.
Bleach is available to watch on Hulu.
