YAMAMOTO'S DOWNFALL - How the Captain-Commander's Leadership Fell Apart | Bleach TYBW Discussion

prior to the thousand-year blood war arc captain commander shigakuni gen-ryusai yamamoto has always been depicted as a staunch defender and symbol of everything the gote 13 stands for an unshakable icon of authoritarian power yamamoto reflects both the most traditionally held values of the seoul society and also its more progressive nature after having been exposed to ichigo kurosaki either way since his introduction into the bleach story yamamoto has always been this revered and highly respected leader who has led the goatee 13 for over a thousand years and yet at the start of the final arc of bleach something so terrible happens so tragic that it transforms the captain commander forever and begins what would be a very sharp descent to his eventual downfall in today's video there will of course be spoilers for the final arc of bleach as we dive into the character development that culminated into the eventual downfall of the captain commander of the goatee 13. before we begin however guys if you haven't hit subscribe yet make sure to do that now we're edging closer to 70 000 subs which is just amazing i would really appreciate your support so if you hit that button you'll get bleach content like this every single week also don't forget to give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it because it really does help with exposure across youtube and helping to make sure more people get to see it and if you want to take that support for me a little step further we do now have a patreon for the channel as well where you can support me there for as little as a dollar a month and i would really appreciate it and of course a massive thank you goes out to everyone who has become a patron so far now up until now yamamoto's characterization has remained pretty steadfast he is a stalwart defender of the goatee 13. and the seoul society arc is introduced as being very traditionalist very much on the side of the law very willing to just prosecute rukyakuchi without a second thought not willing to question the supposed judiciary powers of the central 46 because that is yamamoto's character he is the soul society he embodies the goto 13 and its military might in perhaps the most staunch way possible now in many ways seoul society ark yamamoto is yamamoto in his purest form he's obviously not the same ruthless thug he was a thousand years ago but he's matured and developed into still a pretty stern leader of the goatee 13 willing and ready to enforce its laws at the first moment but of course yamamoto would undergo a slight change after having been introduced to ichigo kurasaki and the ryoka and working alongside them to take on eisen during the war with the iran cars now having lived for over a millennia any kind of character development for yamamoto would feel forced if it had such a dramatic impact on him in such a short amount of time this guy has lived through it all he probably has seen it all as well so for him to really just immediately become a totally new person after having met ichigo and in some ways having his eyes opened um would be unrealistic but yamamoto's character development is handled pretty well i would say throughout it's subtle it's small but it is there and it is remarked upon by a number of characters throughout the story yamamoto overall becomes more lenient allows characters like the vizard to return to soul society removes the banishment he had on kisuke orihara and yoruichi shihoen characters like that can now come and go freely as they please because yamamoto has mellowed out in some ways after the deception of eisen revealing the truth behind the central 46 and in some ways i suppose smashing the illusion many people had about the current state of the soul society yamamoto has changed ever so slightly to meet the times now of course yamamoto still embodies that crotchety grandfather trope in the story where he still admonishes characters who are younger than him who's just about every single character there is including characters like kyoraku and ukitake to whom he is a father figure but he really has changed in a number of ways you know he actually actively helps out the vice captains against ion in the fake karakura town arc giving them simply a light chiding about how he's a little disappointed he's had to step in but regardless he has their backs and this kind of change in yamamoto grows and exemplifies as we move through the eyes and fight obviously the vizards show up they have a pretty cordial meeting and they realize that they are actually allies which then leads to yamamoto reinstating them what i always found to be fascinating about yamamoto was that kind of clash between the more progressive ideals of the younger generation and him still being rooted in some of his older ways for example he sacrifices his arm to use the hardo ito casso against eisen and then doesn't want to have or he may heal him again presumably out of some kind of concern of involving the humans but also maybe even appearing weak himself very much a traditionally held belief and then of course yamamoto's biggest change really up until the thousand-year blood war arc is exemplified in the lost asian arc where he works with urahara to get ichigo's powers back actively breaking the law of the soul society to give a human shinigami powers again clearly believing that they owe ichigo a massive debt which they did and yamamoto actually honored it which i always thought was a really nice moment for his character him basically saying if we didn't help ichigo now in his moment of need it would bring great eternal shame to the goatee 13 and i think he's absolutely right and i think it was definitely the right thing to do as a leader so we very quickly explored yamamoto's character trajectory throughout the first three major arcs of bleach and he doesn't change too much he kind of mellows out slightly as the story goes on the big changes for yamamoto and what we're really going to look at in this video however happened in the thousand-year blood war and yamamoto's not around in this arc for very long due to him being brutally killed off however he experiences some of the most important character development he ever has in the story during this section of the ark as i've mentioned on this channel before the thousand-year blood war arc has many themes and one of the biggest is digging up old bones and old secrets and there aren't many older characters than yamamoto and his his closet is filled with a number of skeletons perhaps the biggest one being a quincy king by the name of you harbach who now comes back to haunt him what i absolutely love about the start of this arc i love many things about the start of this arc to be fair i think kubo is pretty much on the ball right the way from chapter 480 all the way through to somewhere and second invasion um and yamamoto is a recipient of that great writing and you really see him change and suffer the consequences of this new slightly more progressive yamamoto that we saw in the lost agent arc and it's a dramatic change and it's a believable change and one that really helps to humanize the character overall i think so you have to remember that prior to this arc yamamoto really has been depicted as this guy who can just walk into a fight end it in a single swing and really he's remained above most conflicts and he kind of is is presented as the figurehead of the goatee 13. things get very intimate and personal with yamamoto in the thousand-year blood war arc however right at the start of the arc the enemy breaks into his office the vanden reich declare war on him and they do so by brutally impaling his vice captain sasaki bay chojiro into his office wall with a massive javelin it's a great scene that completely blew my mind when i first saw it sassakibe is down somewhere miles away fighting driscoll bersie who impales him with his huge javelin and he goes flying through the soul society and happens to land in yamamoto's office obviously that's pretty lucky it's done in a very cinematic way i don't mind that at all i think it works well i can't wait to see it in the anime because i think it's going to be a dramatic moment but sasuke bay is just impaled into yamamoto's wall and then the vandanright leave and sasakibe is killed here which i think a lot of people were genuinely really surprised about chojiro has always been given a bad wrap in bleach but for him to actually die signaled a immediately different tone for the final arc kubo wasn't messing around and unfortunately yamamoto is the first recipient of this and he immediately begins to change now one thing we didn't really know prior to this arc and it is kind of posthumous storytelling in a way most of sasakira's development happens after he dies but that development directly impacts yamamoto as well and contributes to his eventual downfall now when i say downfall in the title of this video i'm actually talking about a amalgamation of different factors yamamoto's literal downfall his obvious death but also his political downfall as well and the way his character changes to incorporate this difference sasakibe and yamamoto turn out that they've actually been very close and it makes a lot of sense sasakibe has essentially been his right-hand man for over a thousand years and for suddenly him to not be there anymore to be taken away from yamamoto and the soul society in such a sudden and brutal way obviously really hurts yamamoto and it offers us a glimpse into this character who isn't just this soldier who can stand firm he's actually a real human being after sasaki bay is killed we get this really moving scene which in my opinion signals the change in yamamoto that would afflict him until his death where we get a a funeral scene for and he's burnt atop this pyre as biakia reads out a eulogy and it's a really it's a sobering moment because we've never seen anything like this in the series before no good guy has actually died yet in the present timeline and biakia kind of mentions to renji as they watch sasakib's body be lowered onto the wood he says um us peons we we couldn't possibly imagine the pain that the captain commander is currently experiencing and of course he's right you know no one has known yamamoto for for this amount of time if yamamoto has a best friend chojiro's the closest thing to it and yet there's just this incredible drawing of yammer that just is an amazing example of showing and not telling which is just a wonderful writing where he just looks destroyed you know he looks absolutely destroyed and in it you have to put yourself in yamamoto's shoes everything's been going pretty swimmingly up until now then suddenly out of nowhere the quincy show up in seoul society chojiro is immediately killed along with a hundred other officers and you as the captain commander the buck stops with you not only have you let down a hundred shinigami you've let down your best friend as well because he's ultimately responsible for the goat a13 and not only that but the enemy that has waged war on you you've got a pretty good suspicion that you know who's causing this who's behind it and yamamoto simply says light the pyre um with just this terrible look on his face he just looks absolutely distraught as sasakibe's body is burned and you know that's quite symbolic as well yamamoto is all about using flames and to watch flames just consume chojiro is pretty difficult for him and it's my belief that yamamoto is never the same again now of course he doesn't he doesn't live for much longer after this point but it's crucial to see yamamoto's changing character development here after this we have a typical captain's meeting except it's not typical the air is very different yamamoto is a totally different leader now to how he has been previously throwing all caution to the wind and you get this great moment where mayary and akon are giving a report on the vanden reich soldiers who invaded the amount of damage that was done and yamamoto just instantly interrupts mairie midway through his speech basically being i've heard that's enough be quiet i don't care about any of this where is the enemy base yamamoto's mind is preoccupied with only one thing invading the enemy base and exacting a bloody vengeance on the people who murdered sasakibe and it's just phenomenally well drawn myori of all characters and this is why mairie was used i think is uncomfortable you know he looks at yammer and he's just like i don't know what to tell you we don't we don't know yet i i i don't have that information yet i'm sorry and yammer just looks so menacing he looks evil and i think this is probably a small window into the man he once was a thousand years ago his eyes just looking at mayri like you will tell me everything you know now or i will probably just burn this place to the ground and maya is like i'm you know we don't have that information yet and it's like myrie of all these characters is so brash so loud and here he's just like turned into a mouse in front of yamamoto and you can tell there's an awkward feeling in the air and cuba was just on a roll here with uh showing and not telling yamamoto it's very much yamamoto's trademark thing when he gives an order in a captain's meeting to slam his cane on the ground that's the signal that he's giving an order and kubo just shows that the cane doesn't move it just remains on the floor and you can you can see it you can play it in your head how this scene goes when mairy delivers the news they don't know where the the vanden right headquarters are yamamoto you can just imagine him standing there like like just everyone quiet waiting for yamamoto to say something else and he's just like i see like you know just the serious rage this is no longer the same man who you know helped out ichigo in the lost agent arc this is now a guy who's out for blood and he just basically says we cannot let these cowards get the better of us again prepare for war um and yamamoto is just you know immediately out for blood um and so already here we're seeing a change in his leadership we're seeing that he's no longer the sort of calm no longer no longer composed you know he's interrupting his officers he's not giving out normal orders he's making the whole situation feel kind of awkward and this is exacerbated by his conversation with mairie when they get a chance to be alone and i think that this scene was put in here by kubo to do multiple things obviously it's to drop the major plot revelation that yamamoto knew youhar bach from a thousand years ago but on a slightly more subtle level this this point is included here to show that people are losing faith in yamamoto that his leadership is starting to slip because you know yao has been around for a thousand years at least he's the man is at the top of his game he knows how to run the goatee 13. yet when he gets marry aside he's like you know how did this happen when he talks about the disappearing souls in rue kong he's like what's going on here you know why why why didn't you tell me and kubo purposefully doesn't show you yama's face during pretty much any of this scene um and you can tell that maya has kind of been summoned there and maya is like you know well it's not really my fault we we detected um that the worlds were shifting so you know yeah we sacrificed all these rukon citizens because it was an emergency situation and yamamoto is like well you know if it was an emergency you know you would have been given it you would have been given permission and maya is like yo okay and then yamamoto actually tries to put the blame on him which is not something you've necessarily seen yamamoto do in the past he basically turns around and says if the research and development division had actually done their job um you know we might have been able to catch this earlier um and it's at this point where myrie snaps and he actually talks back to yamamoto in what is one of the most brazen displays of essentially insubordination we've seen post-soul society civil war um that really shows that some confidence in yamamoto is slipping because mairie is actually right here as well maiari says that is absolutely not true you you are the one i came to you after the soul society fight to tell you about uryu ishida and that if he still existed there's a great chance the vanden reich existed still as well the quincy were not dead and you brushed it off as being something that we didn't need to worry about and now these people are dead because of you because you failed to kill youhabak a thousand years ago and you see just the sh the profile of yamamoto's face and everything myrie is saying is true yamamoto dropped the ball and is now trying to blame it on somebody else that's not a thing a leader does certainly not a leader who has been around and is so revered as yamamoto but he's losing his edge ever since sasaki bay died yamamoto has been on a downward spiral and it is kind of sad to see but like i said it really humanizes the character everyone can make mistakes yamamoto's not a robot he's not a statuesque leader after all now that his biggest vulnerability has been exposed he's starting to slip up and lose the respect of some of his closest confidence and i just love this scene i remember reading it and i was like this is a great conversation that's so thrilling thrilling to see yamamoto try and place blame for something somewhere else and myrie basically be like you are wrong this is your fault not mine don't blame this on me um and i just love that i think it's so good and it's such a big indicator that yamamoto is losing his grip um big time now unfortunately we don't get to see too much more of this because the vandam reich invades again quite quickly however yamamoto does showcase a new recklessness here um as soon as the vandenrike invaded yamamoto is like i'm going out there and while you can maybe believe that yes this is probably down to him wanting to protect the soul society definitely the ulterior motive is to find you har bark as quickly as possible and instantly exact revenge and of course yamamoto arrives at the battlefield with driscoll bersie to save his sagi and what i'm kind of assuming here is yamamoto can tell who killed sasuke bay somehow maybe he recognized the massive javelin perhaps even though that must have been a split-second decision but clearly yamamoto arrives on the battlefield because it seems like it would be way too much of a coincidence for him to arrive to just save his sagi and oh you're happening to fight the guy who killed sasuke bay although yamamoto is you know genuinely shocked when driscoll pulls out sasuke bay's bankai um but we do get you know a wonderful flashback from this fight where we actually get some insight into a slightly younger yamamoto in his earlier days with sasuke bay sassakibe is the reason he got the nickname genryusai and he played a huge role in both of their developments and it's a really nice flashback actually um and one one thing that's crucial about the thousand year blood walk again this idea of it paying special attention to the older generation of captains we get flashbacks for most of them ukitake gets basically nothing because he out of the four of them he is the one who is given the least but yamamoto gets a nice flashback here um dating back to literally some of the oldest times we've seen in the story and it's just really good to get this idea of his relationship with sasuke bay and why he is in this mental place he is now why he feels you know so lost um and obviously he just obliterates driscoll in a single move it's a great moment um driscoll's just charred to the bone and then even his bones disintegrate and yamamoto says to his sagi you know don't worry i will obliterate this enemy army immediately and he just races across the battlefield seeks out yuhabak and basically says i will kill you and you you don't have to look far to realize how different the characterization here is for yamamoto when yamamoto was going up against eisen at the climax of the fake karakura town fight there was still very much that idea of the crotchety old grandfather he grabs eisen's arm and he says you know like you're you're an upstart you're jumped up upstart who thinks he's good enough to take on the soul society saying things like you're so naive you punk still very much the same yamamoto that we've known all this time he's taking the fight seriously he sacrifices his arm just to use ito casso but he's still very much for the most part composed wise he's got all this experience behind him and he's very much showing that that he seems to be for the most part in control a lot of the time this is a very different frightening yamamoto who for sure hearkens back to his oldest days he lands on the ground with a massive explosion of fire and he just says you harbach i've come here to kill you very simple declaration similar to the vanden reich's earlier declaration of war yamamoto knows what he wants and he will get it um almost immediately uses baankai straight off the bat zanka no tachi again showing that yamamoto is maybe not quite in the right space mentally to be dealing with this right now instantly going for the kill but also toying with who he believes to be uh to be you hobart in a very cruel way you know yamamoto kind of shows himself in some aspect his true colors um but perhaps the monster that once lurked within you know he says things like um oh yeah without your sword i guess all you've got is your arrows all right well come on then i'm gonna catch you and kill you either way you know there's terrifying images of yamamoto's face phenomenal artwork um in this fight with who he believes to be yuha and yamamoto is just chasing him down the whole time he's basically just chasing him down like a predator to its prey um and you know with his barn kay active he's completely unstoppable and he's just attacking what he believes to be uh with prejudice um you know desperate to just kill him but also torture him at the same time um and uh starts screaming things at him like you know you know you can you can possibly know what it means you know to be the quincy essentially yamamoto is like i don't care you know nothing you say can make up for the screams of the shinigami you have murdered with your invasion and so because of that i'm just going to annihilate you without really listening to reason and of course this is all the culmination of yamamoto's eventual downfall he exhausts himself by using every ability of his bankai to just make sure there is nothing left of yuhabak turning his body to dust um and there's a there's a beautiful picture where the rain starts coming down just as yamamoto releases his bankai all the moisture in the air starts coming down and he looks like a sad tired old man and he has allowed his lust for revenge to completely consume him turning him into a monster similar to you har bark in that fight there's barely any difference between them yamamoto could be the villain in that bat in that fight the way he looks and the way he acts and the way he threatens yuha and just wants to kill him and what we're left with is a sad tired old man with rain running down his face and then of course the cruelest trick of all is revealed that this isn't uh bark at all but actually roid lloyd stern ritter why the real you harbach devastates the first division barracks and appears in front of yammer and they have a very brief talk not a particularly long one but uhobark makes light of the fact that he could resurrect but after stealing yamamoto's baankai he could resurrect yamamoto's own soldiers in the same way yamamoto had you know took pleasure in the fact that he was resurrecting old vandanrik victims of his to use against juha bark and you know that's a great it's a great insight into not necessarily yamamoto's true self as i said before but an insight into who he once was um when he's like you know why don't you take a close look at those skeletons you're destroying because you know they're people you know and it's like it's a pretty sick sick thing to do but yamamoto's not in the right frame of mind anymore but as we reach the end of yamamoto's story in the thousand-year blood war arc we are left with a frail resigned old man and uh summons his massive blade from the sky and it really feels like yamamoto is ready to accept his judgment his penance for who he's become and the mistakes he made a thousand years ago now of course we don't ever find out the truth behind their original confrontation which is a huge shame um but i think you can glean plenty from here you know yamamoto is standing there his bankai has been stolen and he has given up in that final moment he you you can see the resignation on his face and he's just like you know it's over you know and i think we don't know but i'm assuming his last few thoughts were probably that of regret you know regret that he allowed himself to be so consumed by revenge that he used up all of his power in a desperate campaign to just murder you hobart and in the end it got the better of him and he is cut down and cut down brutally in half just like his vice captain killed instantly nearly um and as uh leaves yamamoto sort of lifelessly grabs on to his cloak but you ha ha he's without mercy and just completely shreds the old man to pieces and it is a sad fragile end to yamamoto it's an end that i would never have anticipated until we started seeing that downward spiral escalate yamamoto changes completely after sasuke bay's unexpected death and the declaration of war from an enemy he long thought to be no longer a problem um you know we see that sadness at the funeral we see that kind of awkward change in his character in the captain's meeting where everyone is on tenterhooks around him you can tell and myrie is like getting berated and like you know it's not really my fault and then of course that one-on-one conversation with mairie later on where myrie flat out says to him how dare you say that about me and my research and development department it's your fault this has now come to us um these are your sins we're now cleaning up after it's essentially what he's getting at and yamamoto has no recourse because he's obviously in the wrong and it's this really fascinating down of yamamoto's character that kubo does and i think kubo probably got to the thousand-year blood work and was like i want to do something crazy with yamamoto i want to change up the way he comes across change the way people see him and expose the vulnerabilities in this in this millennia old shinigami if not older and yeah i i thought was really fascinating seeing that downfall and seeing just how yamamoto changes after the death um of his closest friend um and as i'm losing my voice i think i'll probably end the video there but i really hope you enjoyed it guys let me know in the comments below what you thought of yamamoto's quick and sudden and very real spiral into sadness and and madness you know into that crazed blood-thirsty monster who just wanted to murder you harbok who didn't care about the details just tell me where i can find them and i will kill them myself and when he finally does get that chance for vengeance his rage consumes him and he's got the better of and is killed so that's it for this video guys let me know in the comments below what you thought of yamamoto's journey in the thousand-year blood work and how it compares to how he was portrayed prior to this arc i'd love to hear your comments below and don't forget to subscribe for more bleach content just like this guys until next time i'll catch you later i'll see you then

Channel: MrTommo2304

Views: 51,192

Rating: 4.9533076 out of 5

Keywords: bleach, bleach manga, bleach discussion, bankai, yamamoto bleach, bleach fights, bleach anime, bleach tybw, bleach final arc, bleach new anime, ichigo, aizen, yhwach, MrTommo2304, MrTommo2304 bleach

Id: FKTIXi7N-TY

Length: 30min 34sec (1834 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 03 2021