APPLICATION
Character
Name: Aizen Sosuke
Fandom: Bleach
Gender: Male
Age: More than a couple of centuries. Probably around 300 or so.
Time Period: Just after chapter 395
Wing Color: Brown fading into red tips
History: Here
Personality: Aizen for all intents and purposes is a manipulator. There’s not much he wouldn’t forsake to justify his own means whether it be killing someone supposedly close to him like Ichimaru Gin or even his own lieutenant Hinamori Momo. He is, however, not solely reliant on those he uses but it does make his goal easier to reach. He does only find worth in a person who he can see true potential in, for example Ichigo Kurosaki whose entire life was apparently planned from the beginning by Aizen himself or so he claims. The thing about Aizen is that he likes to manipulate the emotions of those who are against him and not just that, he has a multitude of ways of getting under a person’s skin and breaking through their defenses. In terms of fighting Aizen never really lets on how much power he truly has. Like with most things he is calm and collected in the midst of battle, despite the odds being highly against him. Having proclaimed that he fears nothing Aizen rarely ever shows fear towards anything, possibly also because he can comprehend or understand everyone’s power that he faces. The one time he does get enraged is when Ichigo shows his “new” form and this is because he cannot comprehend how a mere human could surpass his power. Aizen never acts brash and will for the most part infuriate his enemies with small talk amidst a battle with them. In general his demeaning and otherwise pompous talk makes him infuriating to talk to.
Aizen has a mastery and knowledge over objects and science that far surpass most people in Soul Society and with it he created a deadly weapon known as the Hōgyoku. It is because of his intelligence that he seeks out to be the ruler of heaven. In his failed transformation Aizen is shown to have a very deep seated resentment towards Urahara Kisuke. He asks Urahara why he squanders and wastes his intelligence by living under the rules set by a being who the shinigami have never even seen nor apparently does it care for the shinigamis well being. Aizen wishes to take the throne for himself, because he sees his own amazing intellect as a good enough justifiable reason to do so and also he figures he can craft a better future which he can rule via fear and his unhindered ambition.
Aizen can also be described as a keen and very well skilled strategist. For a majority of his history Aizen is nothing more than an enigma and not many people knew of his true intentions or reasoning behind his goal to kill the king of Soul Society. This is made apparent by the fact that for centuries Aizen has crafted a façade which completely drew attention away from his otherwise sinister nature for most of his time in Soul Society. The only person to date who was able to out maneuver him and possibly knew of his true intentions is Gin Ichimaru and on some levels Urahara Kisuke, hence the resentment he holds for Urahara to some degree.
While in Soul Society Aizen showed his subordinates a kindness and compassion that was almost fatherly on some levels; coupled with his lecture of calligraphy at the Shinigami Academy this gave him a huge following with the students there, as it was very popular, and many students were saddened by Aizen’s leaving Soul Society. In his soul society façade he had a strong sense of morality and tried to do the right thing. But in truth he views both things as nothing but a weakness which one should expel from themselves completely if they wish to reach their true potential. Aizen will for the most part take on his Soul Society persona when around those he finds useful and capable of being manipulated. He finds that by gaining the admiration of people he can delude and use them for his own personal agenda like he did with Hinamori Momo. Comparatively Aizen ruled the Espada in Hueco Mundo through a varying degree of fear and earned respect. Espada being formed by creatures who feed off of fear, aka Hollows, found that because Aizen lacked such an emotion, that he was truly powerful if not interesting and followed under him willingly.
Aizen is also very arrogant; he sees all those below him, especially humans, as ants and when he finally reaches Karakura Town he has to forcibly control his reiatsu so he doesn’t kill the “ants”, which he is referring to Renji as, that are in his way. This line of thought can be attributed to his obvious disinterest in most people in canon. He also has a seemingly odd and detached thought process when it comes to other shinigami. He doesn’t care about them and frankly he turns on them and tries to kill most of them also he wants to rule over them for whatever reason. His thoughts on hollows and arrancar are much the same in that he merely uses them to justify his own means, like turning a hollow into an incomplete Espada known as Wonderweiss. He justifies that giving a hollowfied soul a meaning and purpose, besides hunting down other souls, is not cruel when in fact it really is. Aizen shows the vaguest of interest for most people he fights and hardly ever considers them to be much of a threat. However in terms of Ichigo he finds the boy to be extremely interesting and Aizen almost has a fixation on him because he feels that Ichigo is someone that cannot be easily comprehended as Ichigo is a human, shinigami, hollow hybrid. That alone makes Aizen feel that they are almost alike in some ways because Aizen himself has always been feared due to his outlandish power.
Aizen has a disinterested sort of air about him when it comes to people he can no longer use, Inoue Orihime for example was cast aside after he examined her powers. Even his own creations, the Espada, when they outran their use he simply killed the remaining ones despite the connection and supposed bonds he had with many of them, which of course, turned out to be another ruses developed by Aizen to gain their admiration and trust. Harribel, an Espada, was cut down by Aizen’s blade and afterwards he simply went on with his plans with no remorse whatsoever for what he had just done.
Strengths:
Physical: Aizen has been known to be one of the strongest shinigamis in the bleach universe. There are not many people who can out maneuver or overpower him. He has mastery over Kido, which is a type of spell that uses an incantation to work. Aizen however can use them without saying their incantations and he can use the highest levels 90 and above without incantations as well.
❶ Immense Strength: Aizen can stop captain level bankais (the strongest form a sword can take in canon) and lieutenant level shikais with his bare hands. He has also been shown to know just where to cut to disarm and disable other zanpaktou shikais, for example cutting Renji’s shikai in such a way that it completely shattered. He was also able to cut down four captains, two of which were using their bankais, by himself.
❷ Immense Spiritual Power: Aizen’s own reiatsu has been said to be overwhelming an example is that he can nullify abilities of another captain level shinigami and he brought the sixth espada, who is also known to be extremely powerful, to his knees.
❸ Shunpo Master: Shunpo is an ability that can cause a shinigami to move faster than the eye can see. Aizen has mastered it to such a level that most people don’t even register he has attacked them until a few seconds after the fact.
Mental:
Aizen has been shown repeatedly to be able to manipulate almost anyone he’s come in contact with and through various ways as well. Whether it be emotional, physical, or simply acting like he cares about the other person. He is amazingly cunning and crafty. He’s also a master tactician almost always turning the battle to suit his favor and never once being caught off guard. For example he was able to figure out Shinji Hirako’s shikai ability’s true nature, conclude it creates optical illusions and then was able to counter its effects all in the span of a few seconds. There have been instances of when Aizen has been caught off guard but Aizen usually turns the tide in his favor soon after the fact. Aizen also has shown us that he is very well versed in the history, strategy, tactics of the Soul Society, and is shown to have knowledge previously unknown to many.
Emotional:
Aizen shows no fear towards anything. He also seemingly has an apathetic view towards anyone and everything that’s in his way. He lacks morals, a sense of justice, and has an almost cruel sense of humor, like having Hitsugaya stab Hinamori through with his sword. Aizen is never once taken advantage of through his emotions and he has all but displaced them making him virtually inept at showing them. Aizen only shows the emotions of a kind and caring individual when he needs to, such as keeping up his otherwise harmless appearance as a good natured individual.
Additional: Aizen’s zanpaktou Kyōka Suigetsu has a unique ability known as Kanzen Saimin (Absolute Hypnosis) in which the person that has it used upon them misinterpret another person's form, shape, mass, feel and smell to be that of the enemy. Kanzen Saimin can only be initiated by the subject being exposed to Kyōka Suigetsu’s release, with the words ‘shatter’ spoken in its shikai form. Kanzen Saimin will then be instilled on the people who were exposed to it. The hypnosis is long lasting since the Visoreds have been under the effects for over 110 years. The illusions that Kyoka Suigetsu can create make in a valuable tool in combat. It allows for Aizen to create complex illusions such as replacing himself with his former lieutenant, Hinamori, and in turn he looked like her instead.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Despite Aizen’s prowness he has been overtake before. The one time he has been overtaken was when Soifon and Yourichi caught him off guard before he departed Soul Society. He’s definitely not the strongest physical by any means and he often uses decoys and means of deception to avoid physically fighting.
Mental: Aizen’s own mentality towards others is a weakness in and of itself. He cannot grasp or understand when someone manages to surpass him power-wise. His demeaning thinking towards others cause him to get sloppy and careless at one point, letting himself get hit by a level 60 kido which he would not have let happen otherwise. Also the fact that he has no true allies pits everyone against him. This in turn might be the reason to why Aizen tries to obtain the position upon the throne in heaven. Because of his immense power which many find frightening Aizen choose to place himself above all else so that he may rule others with this fear.
Emotional: Despite Aizen’s proclaimed lack of emotions he becomes amazingly enraged when he learns that Ichigo Kurosaki has surpassed him in power. It’s something Aizen cannot comprehend and therefore it angers him to an amazing degree. Anything which he cannot exactly pinpoint or ascertain the notion of apparently distresses him to a certain degree and he therefore lashes out in whatever way he can. Urahara’s morals and the fact that with his amazing intellect he still works for the king of Soul Society also enrages Aizen.
Additional: Kyoka Suigetsu’s shikai ability has two major weaknesses. One: if the subject cannot see they are immune to Kyoka’s dominant ability Kanzen Saimin. Additionally Kanzen Saimin can be detected by those who are skilled and powerful enough to notice the slight difference in the illusion compared to the real thing, even if they cannot exactly pinpoint what it is that is different. Retsu Unohana was able to detect something odd about Aizen’s corpse even though she could not pinpoint what it was until she saw Aizen alive and well. Kyoka Suigetsu’s reiatsu is another way of being able to sense the difference between the illusions and real thing. However one must have a keen sense of detecting such subtle changes and mastery over reiatsu detection in general. The final and most important weakness to Aizen’s zanpaktou is that the way one can completely overcome Kyoka Suigetsu’s abilities is for the person to touch the blade itself before absolute hypnosis is completed.