BLEACH's Balancing Act: Does This "Fight" Set Up The Endgame? | First Time Reading BLEACH #92

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:11]We are barreling toward the end of the Bleach manga and we are very very close to the conclusion of the canon story.

[00:00:20]Originally, because they are halves of one another, it seemed fitting to discuss the battle with Yuabaha and the simultaneous battle with Hosfalt. Since both those fights dive a lot into a big part of Bleach's narrative makeup, the idea of balance, I was going to talk about all of that at once. But the problem is there was way too much to try to unpack if I was trying to talk about both those fights at the same time. I feel like I wouldn't have done either of them justice if I tried to shove them into one video. So, this video is going to focus mostly on the Hoshva side of things. Is that tipping the scales?

[00:00:54]Unbalancing what should be balanced?

[00:00:57]maybe, but we'll balance it out next video. For now, let's get into Yugram Hoshvalt's last stand. Obviously, the word balance is very directly connected with Hosvalt because we get confirmation here that his shrift is the letter B for the balance, which is something I guessed after seeing him use his scale thing way back. I figured it was probably something to do with the balance. He talks a lot about balance.

[00:01:21]It seemed like the pretty obvious thing when there's a big giant scale hanging over him. My original prediction though before that was that his shift would be the broken, which given his backstory wasn't actually too insane of a theory.

[00:01:35]The guy seems pretty broken at his core.

[00:01:37]So, I was close. But yeah, Ugram Hosvalt is all about balance. His very existence balances Yuba Baja's powers in a way.

[00:01:45]And we finally get his long-awaited fight with Eru. Fight may be a bit strong of a word here for what we get, but more on that in a little bit. Kubo did a great job throughout the Thousand-Year Blood War arc of building up to this inevitable confrontation.

[00:02:00]From the moment Uru joined the Vondenreg, this has been set up because the very act of joining seemed to put Hosshvalt's position as right-hand man and particularly as successor at risk.

[00:02:12]Yuabaha told everyone that Uru was his heir, and we were immediately told after that that Hosshvault was supposed to have that title. It was a way to instantly give them tension, even if this really was never going to be a fight over succession. It wasn't ever really going to be about that since it was obvious from early on that UA naming as his heir was for other reasons and not because he was actually going to take over. And that was something that Hoshvalt recognized. He wasn't being chosen over him. Not really. But it did narratively set them up to be at odds in some capacity. And they certainly are, especially in some thematically rich ways in this whole aggressive conversation we have here in these chapters. This fight was set up by Uru staying behind to hold off Hosvald, who at that point had Yuabaha's almighty transferred over to him because Yuabaha was sleeping. But since then it has transferred back and now Hosshvault has his B shift abilities back which you would think would make things easier for you since you know Hoshvault won't be able to see the future but doesn't really turn out that way. A lot of emphasis is brought to the idea of right and wrong and that weighing the right decisions you've made against the wrong ones is what defines what kind of person you are. The notion that these decisions you make are weighed made me think about Egyptian mythology where Anubis weighs your heart to determine if your soul is worthy of entering the afterlife. And this whole concept is perfect to have around these two characters in particular. We've seen them make decisions that others have questioned that may have been the wrong ones. And the fact Hosshvault can't see what kind of person really is was a great way to not only keep us guessing but show the limits of Hoshva's understanding. He struggles to understand other people fully. We've seen that before when he couldn't understand why Baz was so mad at him and couldn't be happy for him when he betrayed him and seemed to take his dream from him and completely turn his back on him. So, we know that he's not the best at recognizing other people's desires and hopes and dreams and understanding them in general. I don't know if that's a response to a lot of the trauma he grew up with where, you know, it seemed to be a family member who he should have been safe with. It seemed he was definitely not safe with them. So, I don't know if that's part of it. Once we get confirmation of the balance being Hosvolt Shrift, we also get more of an explanation of what it really does. And it may be one of the most abstract powers yet. So, he takes misfortune from people and can give it to more fortunate people. So it's balanced, you know. So looking back on when we first saw the scales when he executed Song Du way back, I guess he was taking the misfortune of their soldiers that were killed and gave it to a wounded survivor like Song Doo. Maybe like Song Du was fortunate to survive the battle and then Hosvald made it so he wasn't fortunate anymore and that he ended up dying. I think that's what I'm getting from this. I was looking back.

[00:05:12]I'm like, what did he do to him back then? Or was it the fact that Song Du could iron himself up to avoid being executed? So maybe he used that so that that fortunate thing of his abilities being able to keep him alive no longer applied. I don't know. I don't know. And it wasn't really shown clearly at the time and it it wasn't explained here, but something along those lines, I assume. Either he gave him the misfortune of the other dead Quincy or he reversed the fortune of having his iron shrift protect him. You tell me. I don't know.

[00:05:44]Also, apparently Hosshvault is protected from misfortune himself because of a shield he has that absorbs it instead. A sword having an accompanying shield is in itself helping to balance a warrior with both offense and defense. It also makes him appear even more like a knight. And that's essentially what Hosvalt has forged himself into. A dutiful knight serving his king where his vows and his oaths of feelalty outweigh everything else in his life.

[00:06:12]And then we also have a chance to finally see Eru's shrift. For most of the arc, we've known that he'd been given one and that he shared the letter A with Yuabaha. I wondered if he also possessed the Almighty or if it was something else. And the further we went into the story, it seemed less likely that he had the Almighty. And sure enough, it's a different word with an entirely different power. Eru Shrift is a for the antithesis, another abstract power. The moment he revealed this was pretty hype since we see it immediately bring some misfortune down on Hosshvault after all of his talk about being protected. That was pretty satisfying.

[00:06:51]But what does the antithesis do exactly?

[00:06:54]Well, he can decide on two things and whatever has happened between them and then reverse that event. So since he was badly wounded and Hosshvalt wasn't, he reversed the event between them and now Hosshvault took on all of the injuries and Uru is as healthy as his opponent just was. So it's a bit of this crazy reversal actually. And I've got to ask, how does Yuabaha decide on these powers?

[00:07:19]Or when he gives them the shrifts, do they naturally manifest based on the person? which is what I assume because so many of the shrifts have to do with their like personalities and stuff, you know, like who they are at their core.

[00:07:31]It's just something I've really been thinking about because the spectrum of shift powers is wild. You have incredibly hacks abilities like these two or my boy Nlavar or Gmy. But then some shrifts are like I punch hard or I throw fire or I yell loudly. It's just crazy how different some of them are as far as, you know, capabilities and power. But hey, I guess that's not that different from say like X-Men where people can control minds or manipulate magnetism or even warp reality. And then you've got like I can change TV channels when I blink. It's a very groovy mutation. So anyway, we get some emphasis on just how powerful this is and how the antithesis might be able to stand up to the true power of the Almighty even. And when he found this out, it seemed like Uru was about to run off and go hit Yuabaha with the antithesis before he was stopped. So that's intriguing. Whether that'll come into play later, I feel like that's set up to become a big part of defeating Yuab Baja, I assume. But honestly, the antithesis feels like the closest thing we've gotten to the potential level of Oraheime rejecting phenomena thing. He can reverse phenomena and give it to someone else. Like she can make it go away completely, I suppose, like reject it from ever happening, but he can like he can send it back. Like she can heal people, he can heal them, and then make the people that hurt them need some healing. It's like instant karma. But it turns out these powers kind of cancel each other out in a way since Hashvault can transfer the fortune the antithesis gives Uru back at him as misfortune, and the bad things that happen to Hoshva go to his shield. So, this isn't so much a fight or a physical clash as it is two dudes just saying, "No, you no you, no, you at one another." And that's part of why it's hard to really consider this to be a proper fight between them because it's really not, at least as far as choreography or tactics or move sets or anything. This quote unquote fight is more of just a showcase of these two crazy abilities.

[00:09:38]We're just kind of throwing them at each other. Is this a bad thing? If you were looking for a real battle, yeah, this probably would be a bit of a let down.

[00:09:47]If a real physical showdown is what you were hoping for between them, it doesn't help that it ends with Hosvault being defeated by the House Veilen either.

[00:09:55]Yep. He ends up beaten just like Gerard Valkyrie was with a divine intervention, miraculous saved by the bell moment. But I think overall it works better here than it did there for a few different reasons. For one thing, the real driving conflict of this fight between Uru and Hosvalt comes down to the loyalty of the characters rather than the actual fight itself. The combat isn't the focus.

[00:10:22]Whereas combat is kind of all Gerard Valkyrie was as a character. That was kind of the point of him. That battle was about the fights and the physical struggle and the transformations to try to overcome him. While this fight was more about the emotions and philosophical perspectives going on beneath the nonduel. Because when it comes down to it, this whole faceoff between Uru and Hosvault is all about loyalty, friendship, and how far you will go for the ones you support. A few videos ago, I dove into the doomed friendship of Hosshvalt and Baz B in depth and how Hosshvalt chose being the right-hand man of Yuabaha over his friendship with Baz. He chose this new purpose where he was finally wanted and needed and given value, which was something he never had before. He threw away all those years of friendship for something that he believed to be more important, for something that he thought would be more beneficial to himself. The plan was meant to be him and Baz joining the Stern Ritter to get close to Yuabaha to kill him. But when Hosshvault was the only one chosen, he seemed to discard that plan entirely and betray his friend. Unless this is the most convincing long game scheme of all time, and we're about to get another Guin Ichimaru, but I don't think so.

[00:11:42]Hashfalt's loyalty to his king went so far that he even killed his former best friend. Something that did seem to quietly rattle him a bit after it happened. Then this was like 10 minutes before the chapters we're reading now.

[00:11:57]That's still probably very fresh for his psyche. At first, Uru seemed more similar to Hosvault where he was betraying his friends in favor of standing by the Quincy King's side. But now that the truth is out, Erdri is actually much more like Baz. He had family taken from him by Yuabaha and has remained focused on getting payback for that. Even his plan echoes what Baz B was attempting to do when Euru joined the Stern Ritter. Both Erdu and Baz became soldiers of Yuabaha in order to get close to him and hopefully kill him.

[00:12:32]Erdu needed to be convincing and he needed it to feel real in order to earn trust and all of that. But yeah, him actually being a mole that was still, you know, a good guy was what seemed like the likely outcome to me throughout this whole arc. I've said it since like pretty early on when he joined that he's hopefully just trying to get close. And yeah, that's what happened. I just I couldn't imagine that Uru had truly turned on his friends and joined someone like Yuabaha. Sure, he's a Quincy. And sure, he's mostly been alone with that fact his whole life, but no amount of gratitude or feeling like he belonged with his own kind would make me believe that Uru would throw away his friends for real. He did what Urum maybe should have done and what Baz was attempting to do ever since his family was killed. So to have him up against Hosshvault in this fight feels right and poetic in a way because again Uru is a shadow of Baz as far as how he went about this.

[00:13:31]Hashvalt had his own reasons to join Yuabaha and never had vengeance in mind in the same way that Baz and Uru did because he never lost family in the same way. Sure, his uncle died, but I don't think he was shedding tears about that.

[00:13:44]In fact, like I said in that video, I think he was very thankful for that. But hell, I would have loved to have seen Uru and Baz team up. They had the same goals in mind. They just neither of them was going to say it because there was way too much risk for both of them blowing their collective covers. That would have been nice. It would have been nice. But yeah, Hashfall doesn't understand that shared desire that he's now seen happen twice because Yuabaha meant something entirely different to him. Yeah, I love this. It's like Hashfalt can kill his childhood friend, but he can't quite kill the pain that Yuabaha caused others that drives others to try to put a knife in his back. The ghost of Boward Black lives on through Uru and remains to haunt Hashvault. And there's this wonderful climax to their conversation where Hosshvalt can't understand why Uru is so loyal to Ichigo's group because he doesn't see how they benefit him or help him grow.

[00:14:39]especially in comparison to the growth that Yuabaha provided when he gave him power and status. He talks about how years of friendship with them couldn't give him what he was given in minutes by Yuabaha. And this moment very blatantly ties back to Hashalt's own past after spending years with Baz, but then becoming something that was seemingly more the moment he was chosen by Yua Baja. It's an extremely telling moment of how Hashfold thinks. his idea of right and wrong decisions is based entirely on what is logically beneficial casting aside emotions that could hinder his supposed progress. Maybe he thinks that's balanced. And even mentions that he once believed that being calm and collected was a way of being balanced and that all of his friends might be fools, but he's happy to be listed among them, which was just such a full circle moment. Thinking back on Iru's journey throughout the whole series, it was so satisfying to see him admit to that finally, you know, to really finally accept being one of them, especially after this arc where he seemed to be against them. I loved that so much. But yeah, in the end, Uru believes it's not about right and wrong decisions when it comes to loyalty and interpersonal relationships. It's just about the joy that they bring to each other's lives.

[00:15:56]It's just about being friends, true friends. and the reaction Hash Vault has to this.

[00:16:05]This panel might be one of my favorite images in the series. As an artist, Kubo has shown time and time again how effective he is at being being able to convey characters emotions in very nuanced ways. And this is a prime example of that. There's so much here after Hosshvalt kind of gets a mirror held up to him and is shown what he could have been if he only made different choices and stayed true to his friend. Just look at this. Look at that face. There's anger. There's resentment, maybe even some confusion. But what I see most prominently right there is shame. And even more importantly, regret. Tit Kubo drew this. This was a drawing. And it shows so much humanity in that expression. Blows my mind. I wish I could draw a face at all, let alone actually show real emotions in there and real subtle facial ticks. That is the face of regret. Pure regret and shame. he threw away a friendship and maybe never realized how valuable it was until now when he's seeing someone else that actually values friendship and is willing to go the distance to protect his friends and help his friends even going against someone like you. There's also a great sequence in the other side of the battle where Byakuya lets Rukia and Renji go to try to help Ichig go because even he has come to recognize the importance of those kinds of bonds and that was just perfection and a great way to really drive home the message of these chapters in a different way with a different group of characters. A nice little cherry on top of Byaka's arc.

[00:17:42]I've been complaining. I've been critical about not feeling like he's had a big enough moment since coming back like that to warrant him surviving. Yes, he had the great moment with Rukia, but this moment right here, I think really adds to whatever his ending is going to be in the series because he really really I keep saying it, but Byakuya has come so far from what he was. And this was just a great little moment. But yeah, even if Hosshvault regrets things, he immediately tries to justify it all by talking about sacrifice to his king and that now Uru has to give up his life since he refuses to sacrifice anything else. Obviously, he's really saying I had to sacrifice my friendship with Baz to become what I am now. I had to make the right choice and not the wrong choice, even if that's not really the case. And he clearly believes Uru is making the wrong choice by standing by Ichigo and the others. And just as he's about to strike down Uru, that's when the Villain hits. And again, it's a bit of a miraculous intervention to end another fight, but like I said, it's more effective than Gerard. Not only because of the way these fights played out, but also because of who it's being done to. Gerard was never shown to have a particularly close relationship with Yuabaha outside of, you know, being his dad's heart. I guess from what we saw, he was a good warrior for their side, but he wasn't the right-hand man and confidant like Hosvalt was. We don't know the backstory of the Soul King pieces becoming soldiers, but Gerard probably wasn't raised up in status by Yuabaha like Hashvalt was. There wasn't that same relationship. There probably wasn't that same admiration. Like, yes, Yuabaha was revered by a lot of his subordinates. I kind of doubt that Gerard viewed him in the same way that Hosshvault does, only now to have Yuabaha discard him just like all the others in the end. He used him for what he needed and then he threw him away. It seems Hashfalt wasn't really special in any personal way. No matter what he said before, he wasn't regarded really any higher than the others. It turns out he was just useful. And as crappy of decisions as he's made, that has got to really suck for Hoshval to realize that in the end, that he was just as expendable to Yuabaha as all of the other Quincy were, no matter what he told him all this time. And in his dying moments, Hosvald claims that he's not upset by the betrayal and he's happy to be useful and to be chosen to help his king. But given that he has Uru then transfer his wounds to his dying body in the end, I'm not too sure about that.

[00:20:16]Why would he do that? Unless, you know, he kind of wanted to stick it to Yuabaha a little bit. The last moment we see of Hosshvault's life is pretty beautiful where he's even thinking to himself that all that matters was he got to make his own choices. And we know how much he already puts faith in that, weighing his decisions. But most importantly, he tells himself he has no regrets. Not one. And that's when we see that his sword's hilt has Baz's symbol on it. and it presumably has had that symbol on it this whole time. And I'm pretty sure that's the thing Baz gave him like back in the flashback, which was that anime only edition. I can't remember. But yeah, obviously he's kept a token of his friendship with Baz this whole time. And that honestly says all we need to know about if he truly lived with no regrets, even if he couldn't admit to that. That friendship obviously meant something to him. And this moment makes it very clear what regret he is thinking about in his last moments. And it leaves him with a pretty tragic ending of someone that tried to live his life with his choices in mind, but in the end may still have made the wrong ones. And by his logic, his scale may have leaned in a direction he didn't think it would. It's hard to say, but Ugram Hosvault turned out to be far more interesting than I imagined early on. He could have so easily been just as sick of frantic. Yes, man. And while that still was the case, there was also a lot more underneath. And I look forward to doing a further deep dive on his character someday once I have this whole story beneath my belt because I feel like there's still a lot to dig into. So, while these chapters may not have depicted a proper fight in a traditional sense, I loved the ideas that clashed and perhaps even successfully transferred between two people with a lot in common, but who had been very different based on the decisions they made in life. I'm so excited to see this in the anime. And hey, maybe they'll even add more actual combat elements to it then. We'll see.

[00:22:15]But for now, I found this to be a very interesting confrontation that may have leaned a little too much into being a discussion over a fight. But maybe that was the kind of thing we needed for the final battle that was happening at the same time, that we needed this kind of confrontation to balance out the other fight that's going on.

[00:22:36]But we will get into that fight next video because there is a lot to talk about in the Ichigo and Yuabaha battles so far. So until then, thank you all for watching. Really appreciate it. If you want to see more, please join the Patreon. There's tons of manga readalongs, episode reactions, tons of things for you to enjoy. Otherwise, I'll see you guys soon as we are so close to the end of the Bleach manga. It's crazy.

[00:23:02]So, I'll see you soon. Take care. Bye.