Now for Kyoraku, he doesn’t appear to have an eye patch and he offered tea, is he Aizen? In what world would Kyoraku offer tea over sake, think back to the time he met Chad, no lets not fight lets drink instead. That makes me wonder…
Over, I liked the chapter…. BUT NO! NOT CANG!!!! Please let him live…
10 reasons Kyouraku's missing eye patch in Bleach Chapter 559 isn't a big deal
I've seen some theories around suggesting that the omission of Shunsui's eye patch and his facial injuries in Bleach Chapter 559 are a deliberate choice by Kubo to suggest that Kyouraku is an illusion being projected by Nanao or Aizen in this chapter. Here are some reasons that I don't believe the theory stands up well to scrutiny:
2. The theory relies on Nanao or Aizen being incompetent. If creating an illusion of Kyouraku to fool Haschwalth was an important part of the invasion plan Kyouraku and Nanao had, why would Nanao make such a huge and obvious mistake with his face? Especially since his injuries were correctly shown in 547, in front of Haschwalth, which would suggest that when Nanao substituted her illusion she screwed it up enormously.
Would Nanao, who is working so hard in these minutes to create a second barrier within her first barrier, who has obviously prepared very seriously for this battle, make such a blatant mistake? It's not getting the wrong shading on his sash or the tie of his sandals wrong. It's his face, the part of Kyouraku that Haschwalth is most likely to focus on. But it's possible to say that Nanao is inexperienced and trying to do too much, and that's why she's screwed up.
But then what about Aizen? He's the most trolltastic villian in Bleach, and his competence and planning skills are top-notch. Did Aizen swoop in mid-confrontation, see Kyouraku's new face (because remember, the injuries were correctly drawn in 547), replace him, and make a major error in his illusion? That seems unlikely at best. Neither does the idea that Aizen has been Kyouraku since the confrontation began and slipped up in his illusion work well, for the same reasons.
Aizen and Nanao are both characters with competence as a major character trait. I just can't believe that either of them would make a mistake of this magnitude.
3. Aizen's illusions work (almost) perfectly. Aizen has shown time and again, his illusions are all but flawless. People only realize Aizen has deceived them after much study and reflection, as with Unohana with Aizen's "dead" body, or when Aizen wants people to know he's deceived them, as with the stabbing of Hinamori in FKT. The error with Kyouraku's face is a serious and obvious mistake in his illusion, which he hasn't been shown to make with any frequency.
4. Aizen's illusions depend on showing off his shikai, which Haschwalth has never seen. This is an obvious one, but we do know that Aizen messed up Ywach's sense of time when he went to visit Aizen in Mugen, so perhaps Aizen has retained some illusion powers without his sword. Creating a walking and talking illusion of Kyouraku, however, is on another scale altogether, and in the past would have required Aizen to use his shikai.
5. Aizen is still in prison. Sure, he could have escaped without anyone noticing, but he's been in prison for a while now and refused Ywach's offer to join him, so his lockup is still an obstacle to him showing up in this scene unexpectedly and unannounced. He likes to make an entrance, you know?
6. Haschwalth doesn't notice any change. If this was a deliberate change in Kyouraku on Kubo's part, shouldn't Haschwalth have noticed something? He's been standing in the same room, a few steps away from Kyouraku this entire time. If a part of Kyouraku's face suddenly changed, shouldn't he notice that? He has no outward reaction or dialogue to suggest anything is amiss or altered.
7. Offering tea isn't that weird. Kyouraku likes sake, and he offered to drink sake with Chad. But Chad was a young man with motivations Kyouraku could sympathize with, and Chad was someone Kyouraku chose not to kill at the time. Kyouraku's intentions towards the Quincies are likely much darker. They killed his father figure, Yamamoto; they've also killed thousands of shinigami and laid waste to Seireitei. Perhaps Kyouraku reserves sake drinking for enemies that he doesn't have any personal vendetta against.
Tea is also something Captain Commander Yamamoto was fond of--in one of the character books I believe it said that he held classes on the tea ceremony. Perhaps Kyouraku is shifting into his role as the Captain Commander by switching his offer to tea. But I don't think there's any question that what he's actually offering Haschwalth is a death at his hands, so perhaps the beverage Kyouraku chose to offer to him doesn't matter much.
8. It's not only Nanao's perspective that shows Kyouraku's undamaged face. I've seen the suggestion that only Nanao sees Kyouraku's undamaged face, but the evidence for this is ambiguous at best. Kyouraku's injuries are entirely missing in all of his panels in this chapter, and there are things that should be showing: the straps for his eye patch that cross his face would still show even with his hat down, for instance, the missing piece of his ear, the gunshot scar that runs from his eye to his ear, are all absent in his panels.
9. Would Kubo ruin an important illusion surprise by showing us the trick in advance? This one goes back to Aizen's illusions. Kubo doesn't usually telegraph that an illusion is being used, so that the shock is increased when it's revealed that oops, Hitsugaya just stabbed Hinamori and not Aizen. Kubo uses illusions for big shocking reveals, so why would he show his hand in this case, creating suspicion and ruining a thrilling moment later? He probably wouldn't.
10. Kubo has made art errors like this in the past. Kyouraku's eye patch has been a wandering or missing accessory since he first gained it. Ichigo showed up in the wrong clothes in an earlier part of this arc; the robot Sternritter's face mask has flipped from side to side in his appearances. In the HM arc the Espadas' Hollow holes would go missing and reappear when the next volume was released. It's entirely possible Kyouraku's face is a drawing mistake that will be corrected for the release of the next volume of Bleach.
Bonus: What's the point? At the end of the chapter Haschwalth leaves to go to Ywach, and Kyouraku lets him go. Why bother with a deception in this chapter at all? What was accomplished?
All that being said, this post could be proven entirely wrong in the next chapters of Bleach. We'll see what happens!
