Yhwach is not the villain who needs one ridiculously powerful ability to make him terrifying. Even when The Almighty was not with him, Yhwach was already strong enough to kill many great characters in Bleach.
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Bleach TYBW Part 4 Anime Director
Murata Hikaru, Taguchi Tomohisa
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Original Title
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity or Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen – Kashin-tan (BLEACH 千年血戦篇-禍進譚-)
The Almighty’s True Power
Yhwach Is Ridiculously Powerful Even Without His Special Abilities
The easiest way to understand Yhwach is to forget his more complicated powers for a moment. He is simply an absolute monster in a fight. His spiritual power is immense, through which he could easily overpower his opponents. He can also keep up with Ichigo while he is using his Bankai.
Plus, Yhwach was physically strong enough to handle attacks without much of an issue. Yhwach is also a skilled swordsman and a capable hand-to-hand fighter. He can fight opponents at close range and beat them physically.
The Almighty Makes Fighting Yhwach a Nightmare
Every power that the Quincy King had made him powerful enough. Then there was The Almighty. When activated, The Almighty allows Yhwach to see into the future. However, that is not all; he does not simply see one possible future. He can see through countless possible outcomes simultaneously and anticipate what his opponents are going to do before they can even do it.
Still, the biggest issue is not him seeing the future, but also being able to change it in real time. If he sees a future where an opponent manages to defeat him, he can alter that outcome. He can effectively choose a different future where their attack fails, their strategy falls apart, or Yhwach survives a deadly attack. One of the biggest examples of this was when he managed to escape being wiped out by Orihime’s rejection. He simply changed the future where she erased him and brought both himself and Orihime back to life.
Even Ichibe and Ichigo Struggle Against Yhwach
Yhwach’s ability to manipulate possible futures makes even the strongest opponents struggle to defeat him. Ichibe can drastically weaken Yhwach and alter his abilities, but Yhwach eventually finds a way around his techniques and kills him.
Ichigo literally faces the same problem. Even when one of his attacks can beat Yhwach, the Quincy King can simply choose a different outcome where that attack fails.
Just Killing Yhwach May Not Be Enough
The Almighty also makes conventional countermeasures against Yhwach ineffective. Yhwach can learn an opponent’s strategy before it gets used against him. This leaves his enemies with little opportunity to develop an actual way of stopping him.
The fact that he can rewrite his own death raises the stakes of the final battle considerably. Ichigo and others need more than a powerful attack capable of defeating Yhwach once. They essentially need a way to make that defeat stick.
Aizen and the Powers Yhwach Cannot Simply Overcome
However, this did not mean Tite Kubo did not give some cheat codes to defeat Yhwach. Aizen’s Kyoka Suigetsu can distort Yhwach’s perception, preventing him from reliably interpreting what he sees. Uryu Ishida’s Antithesis can reverse events that have already occurred, giving Uryu a way to undo an outcome created by Yhwach.
On top of that, Tsukishima’s Book of the End operates on the past. It allows him to alter events Yhwach has already changed. This also made Orihime bring Ichigo’s sword back.
All in all, Yhwach’s defeat would only be possible with joint efforts, and the anime so far showcases just that with all the anime-original content. In the recent episode, the Arrancar and the Soul Reapers came together to fight Yhwach. Similarly, in the next episode, Aizen and Tsukishima would come to do their part.
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