Bleach: Understanding Byakuya Kuchiki’s Motivations in His Fight with Ichigo Kurosaki

Chapter 152

Ichigo Kurosaki vs Byakuya Kuchiki is arguably the climax of Bleach’s Soul Society Arc. I’ve written here that I’d like to do a post on Ichigo vs Byakuya sometime in the future, and (finally) this is that post. I’ve mentioned that I see Sui-Feng vs Yoruichi Shihoin as a fight mostly fueled by personal reasons. The fight’s main driving force is not so much Sui-Feng’s zealous passion for the law as Sui-Feng’s pain due to Yoruichi’s abrupt departure a hundred years earlier. On the other hand, I see Jushiro Ukitake, Shunsui Kyoraku vs Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto as a fight mainly fueled by impersonal reasons (that is, legal reasons). Yamamoto fights his protégés simply because he thinks lawbreakers must be punished. His fondness of them cannot cancel the necessity for punishment. These two concurrent fights can help us understand the Ichigo vs Byakuya fight. I argue that his fight with Ichigo, Byakuya is driven by both impersonal and personal reasons.

Impersonal Reason: The Law is the Law

Just like Yamamoto, a reason why Byakuya wants to fight Ichigo is because Ichigo is a lawbreaker. Ichigo doesn’t exactly have a great track record: He invaded the Seireitei, dueled other shinigamis, destroyed the Sokyoku, and saved Rukia – a prisoner on death row. It doesn’t matter how much Ichigo and Rukia personally mean to each other. The law-abiding Byakuya would naturally be impelled to punish the lawbreaker.

Chapter 167

This legal reason is explicitly made clear at the end of the fight, where Byakuya answers Ichigo’s question as to why he’s relentlessly pursuing after Rukia. Byakuya simply states that if the nobles don’t uphold the rules, who will?

You can argue that in the panels above, Byakuya is not stating why he is fighting Ichigo, but rather why he pursues Rukia. I argue, however, that fighting Ichigo is part of Byakuya’s pursuit of Rukia. Rukia’s execution cannot run well if Ichigo is around. I believe this is why Byakuya prefaces his admission of defeat with a promise not to pursue Rukia anymore. It is because he lost the battle with Ichigo that he will not pursue Rukia anymore, showing that Byakuya sees battling Ichigo as a part of pursuing Rukia.

Chapter 167

Apart from impersonal reasons, there is another reason why Byakuya feels the need to kill Ichigo. That reason is a personal one.

Personal Reason: Self-defining Pride

One of the things that always catches my eye in this fight is Byakuya’s rage. He gets increasingly angry as the fight progresses. Byakuya even goes so far as to use Senkei, a form he swears to only show to those he wishes to slay with his own hands. In other words, Byakuya only uses Senkei when he wishes to slay someone personally. This is fascinating for someone as coolheaded as Byakuya. Why is he so angry?

Chapter 164

Let us refer to a related fight for help. The concurrent Sui-Feng and Yoruichi fight tells us that Sui-Feng has problems with how she defines herself. She defines herself through strength. If she’s not strong, she’s worthless. Yikes. This results in a constant need to prove herself, which is one of the things Sui-Feng was doing in her fight with Yoruichi. (More on this here)

Similarly, the way Byakuya defines himself is the key to understanding his anger in the fight with Ichigo. Byakuya mainly defines himself through his pride as a shinigami. If you think that’s too big of a statement, I think we can at least agree that pride as a shinigami is something Byakuya values very highly. We can see this from the panel below.

Chapter 162

I think we can safely conclude that Byakuya gets so angry during his fight with Ichigo because Ichigo is a personal threat to Byakuya’s pride as a shinigami. Since this pride is the thing through which he defines himself, a threat to Byakuya’s pride becomes a threat to Byakuya’s person. We see Byakuya acknowledge this – that he was taking everything Ichigo does personally – in chapter 167. Byakuya thought that Ichigo was out to personally kill him too, but Byakuya then realizes that he was never Ichigo’s enemy after all.

Chapter 167

In what way is Ichigo a threat to Byakuya’s pride as a shinigami? What Byakuya does to uphold and strengthen that pride is to embrace all-things-shinigami. The more “shinigami” he becomes, and the more he fits into the “model shinigami” mold, the stronger his sense of pride and self will be. However, here comes Ichigo, a boy who goes against a lot of the shinigami “tradition”. Let’s list some of them. Shinigamis are not humans, yet Ichigo is a human who managed to become a shinigami. Shinigamis are supposed to have zanpakutos with a sealed and released form, yet Ichigo’s zanpakuto doesn’t work that way. Shinigamis are supposed to only be able to properly perform bankai after a minimum of ten years of training, yet Ichigo does it in three days. Shinigamis are supposed to follow Seireitei’s law, yet Ichigo opposes it. These violations are unacceptable to Byakuya, who sees them as personal attacks on his pride and self.

Chapter 163

In this fight, Ichigo’s bankai is a major symbol of Ichigo violating Byakuya’s pride as a shinigami. The arc has been hyping up bankai as The Ultimate Technique, so a random boy being able to use it would naturally deal a heavy blow to Byakuya. This is why we see Byakuya initially proclaiming that Ichigo’s bankai is not a real bankai. He denies reality in an attempt to salvage his pride. After he finds that he couldn’t deny it anymore, Byakuya proclaims that he shall crush Ichigo and his powers. This, too, is motivated by the need to recover his pride. The fact that Byakuya responds angrily and desperately to Ichigo’s bankai – even going so far as to activate Senkei – seems to show that Ichigo’s bankai is Byakuya’s last straw.

Chapter 163

Which is Which?

At this point, some of you may point out that Byakuya’s personal reason sounds like an impersonal reason. He takes offense at Ichigo mainly because Ichigo does not fit with many of the shinigami tradition. Then, in one of the panels above, Byakuya also says that Ichigo violated “our pride” instead of “my pride”. These sound less personal than something like, “You tried to kill me!” or “You betrayed me!”, no?

I think this is because to Byakuya, the impersonal has become personal. As a result, the boundaries between the impersonal and the personal are not clear cut. If you think of “shinigami” as a job, we can say that Byakuya is making his work life too personal. Why did this happen? It’s because he defines himself through something work-related (pride as a shinigami) to begin with. This is why Byakuya is a great symbol of Seireitei’s law and system in the Soul Society Arc. His life revolves around shinigami traditions!

Chapter 162

Ichigo comes close to identifying this merging of Byakuya’s personal and impersonal life in the page above. Our protagonist questions whether Byakuya’s pride is part of the reason he supports Rukia’s execution. Though Byakuya doesn’t provide an answer, I believe the answer would be yes. Like what has been mentioned above, Byakuya has to follow the shinigami tradition in order to uphold his personal sense of pride. This includes following the law. It’s one of the things a proper shinigami would do. Following the law would mean supporting Rukia’s execution, and this is what Byakuya ultimately rolls with although he is later on revealed to have been suffering from a dilemma.

Conclusion

In this post, we have considered Byakuya’s motivations behind his desire to crush Ichigo in their climactic fight in the Soul Society Arc. The captain is motivated by impersonal (legal) and personal reasons. Successfully killing Ichigo would kill two birds with one stone: Byakuya would be abiding by the law that demands the punishment of lawbreakers (impersonal reason), and simultaneously he would be able to recover his pride (personal reason). Nevertheless, the boundaries between what is impersonal and personal are not very clear to Byakuya. He has become the personification of shinigami laws and traditions.

Hope is not lost for Byakuya. After his defeat in Ichigo’s hands, Byakuya undergoes character growth. A clear change in how he views his pride can be seen in his fight with Zommari in the Arrancar arc. But that’s another topic for another post (hopefully)! Thanks for reading! I hope this post was enjoyable!