Fai said:
hungry_bunny said:
But I'm not really sure about anything anymore... no longer sure what this guy is, what he wants, where he is, how he promotes people to his "guard"... is this really "the thing" that Urahara defended?
The word used in japanese for Soul King was not just for inanimate objects but for, literally monsters. This guy does qualify as quite a monster.
Just saying that I don't think he's a "king" in the traditional meaning of the word.
If Urahara protects him, it's not because the Spirit King is doing good, it's because the existence of him and his world is essential for the current mapping of the Bleach Universe.
Crazy theory incoming:
If this arc is as huge as some people have guessed (8-10 years) then every question mark in the Bleach Universe has a chance of getting an explanation.
They might go so far as explain where the Soul King came from, how the 13 divisions were founded, maybe even what existed before humans and hollows came into the picture.
He doesn't look like a "king", not the kind of king that acts like a servant of the people at least, it doesn't even look like he has any type of control of things... which makes me suspect that maybe he WAS a king once, but now he's only a king in name. There might be a group of fighters we haven't seen yet... the true royal guard. And their job might not be to protect the Spirit King, instead, it might be to protect the world from the Spirit King and keep him locked away in his prison.
Crazier theory incoming:
Soul Society and the Hollow world might have been split up just to shove the Spirit King inbetween. And now the Spirit king is trying to fuse his worlds back together so he can be freed.