Thread:AbysmalShadows/@comment-1493741-20151117010054/@comment-18812574-20151117053853

As usual I'm throwing in my nose where it doesn't belong but...

I agree with Z when it comes to Soul Society being the only "heaven" out there. Why? Well... because if you try to incorporate a couple hundred different afterlifes into the same story-universe, things start to break down. In screen and novel writing there is an adage known as "One Piece of Magic Per Story." Obviously with Bleach that's not literal, as we've got half a dozen types of magic already but that being said, the more elements that are included, the more unbelievable it becomes, imo. Let me explain: if you add Valhalla as a separate afterlife (separate as in, distinct in location and function than Soul Society) and then add heaven and Mictlan and so on and so forth, we're going to end up with quite a convoluscence of souls going here and there and which-where. What was the original purpose of the Balancers though? Why were they established to begin with? It was to regulate the cycle of souls and help humans pass on to the afterlife. While I'm not saying that Soul Society is the ONLY thing out there, you do have to take the KING OF SOULS into account, who resides in Soul Society. And Quincy eradicate a large handful of Hollows? Mayuri waltzes out to kill Rukongai citizens. If there were alternate afterlifes the Soul Society could just start raiding and purging to even things out, but they don't. My question is this: if there is more than one afterlife then why is the Lynchpin of Souls located in Soul Society? Kind of places the SS on a level above any of the others in that case. And what purpose would the others even serve then? A purgatory of sorts where souls wait to be reincarnated into the Soul Society and/or human world?

Of course then the problem is the VAST difference between average Human World death rates and the low population seen in the Soul Society. I have a theory on the plot-hole, but won't bore everyone with it here. Point is, it DOES seem rather limiting. But to me this is a good thing. If you want to write about spirit vikings that is, there are plenty of other RP universes outside of Bleach. I know many people here tend to consider Bleach universe to be an infinite sponge that can suck in any and all mythology, but I tend to disagree. Call it personal preference if you want, but there is also the history of Quincy to consider, as well as the Great Universality of Reishi that can encompass literally any kind of human-world spiritual arts you can think of. I do like consistency, but you might be different. In the end it's not the hugest of issues.