Byakuya Kuchiki vs Zommari Rureaux: True Love

Chapter 299

In a somewhat curious manner, Byakuya Kuchiki has two fights with opponents whose power revolves around love. Captain Kuchiki’s first love-related fight is his fight in the Arrancar Arc against the 7th Espada, Zommari Rureaux. His second love-related fight is one in the Thousand Year Blood War Arc against the quincy PePe Waccabrada who has the schrift “L”. In this post, I will discuss Byakuya’s fight with Zommari. The fight with PePe will be discussed in a different post.

I see Byakuya vs Zommari as a fight that showcases Byakuya’s growth after the Soul Society arc. Through this fight, we see that Byakuya (1) has changed what he takes pride in, and (2) has learned to some degree that love is not controlling.

Pride

The change in Byakuya’s understanding of pride is stated at the conclusion of the fight (Chapter 302). Byakuya states that he is not fighting Zommari out of his duty as a shinigami, but because Zommari hurt Byakuya’s pride. As Byakuya says this, we are shown a panel of Rukia. This implies that Byakuya has come to view Rukia as his pride. In other words, Byakuya duels Zommari because the Espada has hurt Rukia.

Chapter 302

Byakuya, then, has truly learned something from his fight with Ichigo. Soul Society Arc Byakuya rested his pride on all-things-shinigami to the point of losing his own personal sense of self. But now, he takes pride in Rukia, with whom he has a brother-sister relationship. Byakuya now sees the value of personal relationships. This is exactly what Ichigo was demonstrating back then. By relentlessly pursuing after Rukia, Ichigo is sending the message that personal relationships are worth far more than anything else. I think there is also this idea that identity is formed in relation to other people rather than in isolation.

It is not a surprise to see such a message here. Bleach is a shounen manga, after all, and shounen mangas like to showcase the importance of relationships – perhaps more famously known as The Power of Friendship trope. Friendship is even one of Weekly Shonen Jump’s values [1] [2] [3].

Love and Control

I think a thematic reason as to why Byakuya emerges victorious over Zommari is because Byakuya has overcome Zommari’s idea of love. Zommari represents the idea that love is controlling. Meanwhile, Byakuya has come to (at least) some degree of understanding that love is not controlling. I’m not claiming that this is the only reason why. Of course there are other valid analyses and explanations for Byakuya’s victory, but currently this one stands out to me the most.

The idea of love and control is introduced in the fight through Zommari’s power. To begin with, Zommari’s resurrección has a power called Amor. Amor is the Spanish word for love. The original Japanese text also uses the kanji for love to refer to Zommari’s Amor. Moreover, the hilt of Zommari’s zanpakuto and the bottom part of his resurrección are colored pink – a color associated with love. (Interestingly, Senbonzakura is also associated with pink.)

So what does this Amor do? Amor allows Zommari to take control of anything that his eyes see. If an object is originally under the control of something else, Zommari’s Amor will override that control. We see this from how Byakuya loses control of his left arm and leg. They were once under the captain’s control – but Zommari’s Amor steals that control from him. Therefore, the name of Zommari’s power and its ability associate love with the idea of control. To Zommari, to love means to control. He represents a kind of love (if it can be called love) that forces itself on someone.

Chapter 302. Zommari forcing Byakuya to receive his love.

This controlling love is even referred to as a curse. The title of chapter 300 is “Curse Named Love”, which outright calls Zommari’s power a curse. The kanji for his resurrección, Brujería, also contains the character for curse – 呪 (which is a character you might recognize from Jujutsu Kaisen :p).

That is exactly one of the behaviors Byakuya had when dealing with Rukia: controlling. I’m sure a part of him did love for Rukia for Rukia’s own sake (and not simply because of Hisana), but it was a controlling kind of love. Perhaps losing Hisana to an illness out of his control and nobility issues made him this way. Anyway. There are three instances of Byakuya’s controlling behavior toward Rukia. First, Byakuya made Rukia graduate immediately from the Academy (chapter 98). The shinigamis in chapter 134 also note that Rukia did not have to take the graduation exam. Second, Rukia was also exempt from taking the enlistment exam (chapter 98 and 134). She was directly put in the 13th division.

Chapter 98

Chapter 134

Third, Byakuya discreetly made sure that Rukia would not become a seated officer in the 13th division (chapter 202). Although he did this out of love (for he did not want Rukia to be exposed to danger), this controlling act had a negative impact on Rukia. Rukia was not aware of the strings Byakuya was pulling. As a result, (and made worse by Byakuya’s cold attitude) she thought she had disappointed him by not becoming a seated officer. Rukia also became the target of her peers' dislike, shown in the snippet from chapter 134 above.

Chapter 202. The Rukia speaking here is Chappy, a Gikon.

Chapter 134. Byakuya, you could've told her "it's okay,"
 or something comforting than simply "I see"!

Nevertheless, Byakuya has learned to become less controlling. Prior to the invasion of Hueco Mundo, Byakuya and Kenpachi were sent to collect Rukia and Renji from the Human World. This was done to stop Rukia and Renji from storming Hueco Mundo with Ichigo in order to save Orihime. But once they return to Soul Society, Byakuya lets them go (Chapter 302). He justifies this by saying that his orders were simply to bring them back. Nothing was said about what to do after. Furthermore, Byakuya even supplied Renji and Rukia with cloaks to help them deal with Hueco Mundo’s sandstorms.

After the Arrancar arc, Byakuya even gets less and less controlling. He lets Rukia become a seated officer – a vice captain, even! And then, in the Thousand Year Blood War arc, Byakuya lets Rukia deal the final blow on As Nodt. So I think it’s safe to say that in the Arrancar arc, Byakuya already has some level of understanding about how love cannot be controlling.

Thus, from a meta point of view, it can be argued that Byakuya emerges as the winner of this fight because he has overcome Zommari’s ideology.

Zommari’s View

There’s something worth noting about Zommari’s view of shinigamis that ties in with his Amor power. At the end of the fight, as Byakuya points his blade at Zommari’s throat, the espada launches into a kind of breakdown. Who gave shinigamis permission to deem hollows evil and destroy them? Who gave shinigamis consent to protect humans? Doing all those things out of the shinigamis’ own accord is the epitome of arrogance, he says.

Interestingly, Zommari’s worldview is his power! He complains about shinigamis doing things without anybody’s consent, yet Zommari’s power does the same thing – stealing control without the victim’s consent. Perhaps his power manifests this way because he wants the give the shinigamis a taste of their own medicine.

Conclusion

Captain Kuchiki’s fight with 7th Espada Zommari Rureaux demonstrates the growth he has undergone since the Soul Society arc. Byakuya who once defined himself through his pride as a shinigami now takes pride in his personal relationship with Rukia. He is also shown to understand that love doesn’t mean control, which is thematically the reason why he is able to defeat Zommari’s controlling “love”.

And that is all for this post! Thanks for sticking around, even after my year-long hiatus. Honestly, this was a draft I’ve had for so long but apparently forgot to post. (I added some things before posting it though.) I’m glad to have it out in the world now. I plan on making a post on Byakuya vs Pepe to complete this Byakuya series, but I can’t say when I’ll be able to do that. A post I’d also like to make is one on the words “arrogance” and “pride” that get thrown around a lot in this fight. I’ve seen English translations that use the same word (“pride”) for both of them although the distinction is important. The original Japanese makes that distinction too. So yeah, I hope I can work on these posts asap! See you around :)