[Sabaku Kyu]

Originally Posted by ronin myael

if the real purpose of this arc is to get ichigo his powers back, then why does kubo have to introduce fullbring when all it really took was a reiatsu-powered sword from ichigo's shinigami friends? he could have written an arc that would delve into isshin's past and how he lost his powers and regained them. or maybe even something about the soul king.

He introduced fullbring because that's the story he's telling. Haak would call that a doylist answer but that's the simple truth.

In the SS arc, Aizen set up that super-elaborate plan to have Rukia executed by the Soukyou just to extract the hougyoku from her only to reveal at the end of the arc that he had a device he could've used any time he wanted to effortlessly remove it from her. That pretty much made his earlier plan pointless and a complete waste of time, but not too many people cared. Aizen's scheme was the catalyst for all the events in the SS arc and upcoming events depended on Aizen getting the hougyoku, so Kubo made it happen. I'm not saying you should just handwave bad writing, just realize that if you decide to break apart any work of fiction and analyze how every thing fits together, you'll find some things happen purely for the sake of plot and it's not always seamless with logic.

Another thing is here that you don't just seem to be dissatisfied with the quality of the manga, you seem to dislike the fact that Kubo's not focusing on the story elements you're interested in. You say you don't care about mysteries not being answered right away, but also talk about how Kubo didn't write about the Isshin or the Spirit King. One thing I've noticed is that when readers grow dissatisfied with a story they used to find engaging, they start comparing it to how they would write it (the characters they'd focus on, the relationships they'd develop etc.) I'm not saying you're doing that, but you seem to be eager for Kubo to start writing about the things you want to see.

Originally Posted by Haak

For example, Soul Society easily defeating the Espada is a retcon because we were led to believe that the "fact of the matter is that the Vasto Lorde's combat abilities are above that of our captains" (Chapter 197 Page 16) and we can interpret that as exposition but many of the those Vasto Lorde's were all killed by a single captain each. Contradicting something as exposition without clarifying why they were mistaken or giving an inadequate reason is assumed to be a retcon.

Only Stark was truly defeated by a single captain (though Stark actually faced a grand total of 4 captain-level opponents in close combat and held his own). You can count Halibel too if you consider being temporarily trapped a "defeat" and Ulq if you consider Ichigonator to be merely captain-level.

Also, you didn't mention the rest, like how Histugaya said that the Gotei 13 short 3 captains would not be a match for 10 VL led by Aizen. In other words, Hitsu was talking about the Gotei 13 (w/ maybe Ichigo & his gang) facing Aizen and 10 VL. It's been confirmed Aizen did not have that number, while the Gotei 13 had a number of powerful allies Hitsugaya wasn't considering like the vizards, Urahara & Yourichi.

Even if you dismiss all that, calling this a retcon is a severe stretch because just saying that one warrior's combat abilities are greater is not any way saying that it's 100% that the superior fighter will win, or even that the better fighter will definitely win 6/10 times, it's just saying that one side has an advantage.

Originally Posted by sayde

And as far as retcons go, look no further than Rukia's power. From the time prior to losing her powers to the moment she got them back, she went from being normal hollow level fodder to being on par with an arrancarized-adjuchas out of nowhere and for no apparent reason. I can't think of a more obvious one than that.

The only time we saw Rukia fight at full power before D-Roy (who was stated to be among the weakest of his group) was against Fishbone and she lost then because Ichigo did something incredibly stupid and she had to save him. There was nothing ever indicating Rukia wasn't capable against normal hollows. Her comments on gillans did reveal that a shinigami her level was supposed to be no match against a gillian. Gillians/adjuchas were retconned to be VC-level opponents by the time the arrancar arc started. Rukia was just revealed to be more powerful what was shown before.

Originally Posted by gaboratamer

I just realize, Ichigo finally killed someone.

Technically, he killed Ulq. Though this is the first time he's killed when in his right mind. And it was a human opponent. So I guess he's popped his killing cherry.