The Thousand Year Blood War – Which Quincies survived the Auswählen?

Key recommendations

• Auswählen is the Quincy King's power to redistribute soul fragments, reviving some while killing others.
• Despite being fatal, some Quincies survived the Auswählen, such as Uryū Ishida. The reason remains a mystery.
• Uryū Ishida survived due to a theory involving Quincy heritage and possible Fullbringer lineage.

Auswählen is a devastating feature of the Quincy King's prophecy and his power to give away pieces of his soul. It had huge consequences for the lives of several characters in WHITENINGincluding Ichigo Kurosaki, whose greatest trauma is feeling guilty for his mother's death when he was nine. Auswählen is shown as a blinding light that strips the Quincy powers of everything it touches, often tearing the flesh from their bones as it does so.

Despite the process being supposedly fatal, there are a few Quincies that survive the Auswahlen, the first of which is Uryū Ishida. Which Quincies survived the Auswählen and what do they have in common?

The first Auswählen

The truth behind the death of Masaki Kurosaki

According to the prophecy known as Kaiser Gesang, the King of Quincies will return after 999 years. When Ichigo was nine, nine years old before the events of BLEACH: The Thousand Year Blood Warhis mother died after an encounter with the famous Hollow, the Grand Fisher, after Ichigo fell for his bait. On June 17, 1995, Yhwach took away Quincies' powers that he deemed “impure”, resulting in a number of deaths, including Uryū Ishida's mother, Kanae Ishida (née Katagiri), who was a frail woman.

Auswählen. It absorbs energy from those the Quincy deem useless and sends it to those who need it. A redistribution of power. Those taken from will perish, while those on the receiving end are revitalized with even greater power than before.

– Sternritter B – Balance, Jugram Haschwalth

Masaki Kurosaki's death was caused by a failure to deploy his Blut Vene, which was top among the Quincies. The word “Auswählen” is German for “Selection” and is so named because Yhwach chooses those from whom he takes back fragments of his own soul. Yhwach is a rare type of Quincy who can distribute power, and when those who have gained power from him perish, it returns to the sender.

King Quincy closed…

It regains its pulse after 900 years.

His strength after 9 years.

And the world… in 9 days.

During the events of BLEACH: The Thousand Year Blood War Part 2, Yhwach and his elite guard, the Schutzstaffel, attempt to invade the Soul King's Palace and successfully defeat Team Zero protecting the Soul King, partly due to the massive increase in power gained after Yhwach led another Auswählen. This time, columns of light erupted across the battlefield, stripping the powers of those deemed useless and resulting in countless deaths. Sternritter N, Robert Accutrone can be seen in complete despair when he saw Auswählen because he knows what it means: those who are struck by the light were deemed surplus to requirements, thus abandoned by His Majesty.

Being struck by the light is fatal, but several Quincies manage to dodge or hide, avoiding the Auswählen strike. Despite not being directly struck by the light, all those not deemed necessary by Yhwach still lost their Quincy: Vollständig and were therefore much weaker than at their introduction. The difference between this Auswählen and the one that took place nine years before is that this Auswählen was specifically for redistributing powers to Yhwach's Schutzstaffel, which gave them enough of a power boost to allow Uryū not only to get rid of Shutara Senjumaru. Bankai but also kill her in one hit.

Who survived the selection?

The interesting case of Uryū Ishida

When Masaki Kurosaki and Kanae Ishida died, Uryū was supposed to have his Quincy powers removed as well, but that didn't happen. He will continue to live, believing himself to be the last Quincy after the death of his grandfather and mentor, Soken Ishida. Uryū is the only “Gemischt” Quincy to survive the Auswählen from nine years ago, and also saw no loss of his powers as others did during the events of Part 2. Why he survived is never directly stated, but there is something. particularly special about Uryū because besides surviving the Auswählen, Uryū has never shown a weakness to Hollow Reiatsu, even with extensions. exposure to these during the Hueco Mundo arc.

We know very little about the Ishidas, but they were Echt Quincies, therefore unaffected by Auswählen; however, there may be a theory that explains Uryū's situation and involves his grandmother, Ryūken Ishida's mother, Izumi. During the events of Everything But the Rain, June Truth, we learn that Ichigo's mother began to suffer Hollowfication sometime after meeting White. Ryūken, who had been set to marry Masaki, another Echt Quincy, took her to Urahara, but his mother tried to stop him from taking her.

We briefly see a gruesome scar on Izumi's leg, one similar to the one left on Orihime's leg when she was attacked by her Hollowfied brother, Sora. There is evidence that Izumi knew what was going on with Masaki, clearly because she had been attacked by a Hollow at some unknown time in the past. Here's where it gets crazy: If Izumi had suffered the Hollow attack while pregnant with Ryuken, then Ryuken himself would not be an Echt Quincy, but a Quincy and a Fullbringer, making Uryū a second generation Fullbringer.

If exposure to Hollow Reiatsu is a prerequisite to giving birth to a Fullbringer, and the resulting Fullbringer was already a Quincy, then the power emanating from Yhwach will have been tainted and thus toxic to the Quincy King. Uryū's survival of the Auswählen led Yhwach to crown his successor and subject him to the Schrift bestowing ritual, which imbued Uryū with a certain letter not yet revealed in the anime. It is assumed that Yhwach could see in advance what Schrift the assignee would receive ahead of time, although it is unclear if this is only the case after the Almighty's activation. The reason for Uryu's survival could be related to the Schrift he eventually received, meaning that the power in question was latent within him.