First things first...
The trio that rushed Yamamoto are definitely alive. So, why did they rush Yamamoto if it apparently achieved nothing (from both their end and Yamamoto's)? I'm more convinced than ever there's something about Yamamoto's final fight (with both Juhabach and Royd) we haven't been told.
There's clearly more to the letters than simply the unique ability it might name. As theorised by the fandom, it does appear to also denote hierarchy, and hierarchy tends to represent something else: a prioritising of value. Now, what that value seems to go beyond the power - at least that's the subtext I'm getting from both Manga Panda and Mangastream. What it is, however... well, I suspect that would reveal too much at this point, so I'm not expecting clarification for a while.
There's something I've been theorising from the start and it's part of my theory that I'm not convinced the quincies (as a group) are the final enemy, even if Juhabach was the final enemy. In fact, it's something I wanted to see for my theory to continue to be viable for any length of time: that the quincies following Juhabach do not fully know what Juhabach is up to. In this chapter, for the first time, we get a very strong indication that these quincies - even the top ranking ones - are not privvy to their emperor's motives and goals. And they apparently don't know everything there is to know about quincies.
There's a stark contrast at work in this chapter when comparing it to the quincy assault on Seireitei. They had data on the shinigami. It's questionable how much they knew about appearances, but they knew about names, ranks, powers (or at least those who bothered to read the reports did).
Nobody recognises Uryuu. Even when they're told he's the last quincy survivor in the world, that is not a source of recognition for them. That doesn't automatically reveal Uryuu's identity to them. More importantly, Juhabach outright states Uryuu's full name... and it still means nothing to the Stern Ritters. Even more importantly, they didn't even know Juhabach was planning something like this - given the shock, it looks like even Uryuu's recruitment was a secret until his 'reveal' to the troops. He's a bolt out of the blue, a complete unknown, something that have precisely no information on.
And that is downright bizarre. In fact, it's utterly suspicious.
Quick aside: last quincy alive in the world/lone quincy survivor in the world. This is either support for the theory that the Vandenreich quincies are dead (leaving the Ishida duo the last living quincies) or it means the quincies withdrew from the World of the Living to a secret location beyond the World of the Living and the Ishida duo are the last quincies left outside the Vandenreich.
So, for now, this statement does not tell us whether the Vandenreich quincies are living or dead (or even a mixture); it does, however, given the question even more intrigue than it originally had. I'm therefore going to move on from that.
Now, Juhabach's announcement. How much more suspicious can this announcement get?
Not only is it strange that there's so little knowledge on Uryuu within the Stern Ritter given that the arc has built them up as a very efficient data collectors, but Kirge knew things about the Ishida family (things he both was and was not willing to discuss) and, given the way the Stern Ritter have reacted, the Ishida name means nothing to them. So, who was Kirge? Why did he seem to know more than the Stern Ritters do? What was his place in the hierarchy (and, no, pointing out he was the letter 'J' doesn't answer the question)?
And yet Juhabach clearly knows all about Uryuu. He knew about his existence, he knows his name, he knows the status of how many quincies are alive in the World of the Living (ignoring the fact that we don't know what definition of 'alive' we're using here). He even knows the truth about Uryuu's power... which apparently will be revealed now that Juhabach has awakened that power.
And this brings us to the big meaty crunch... the subject I've been banging on about ever since Kirge's fight with Ichigo: Kirge knew about Souken. He knew about Uryuu. He was willing to talk about Souken, and he was willing to talk about Uryuu. To a point anyway. And it was like Ryuuken never existed. Not even a whisper. Why? Why was Ryuuken blanked so completely?
It's just happened again, clear as day in this chapter and even less subtletly than in the Kirge/Ichigo conversation. Ryuuken does not exist to the Stern Ritter. Juhabach said Uryuu was the last quincy left in the world. Either there's a giant hole in Juhabach's knowledge or he just lied through his teeth. Given that it shouldn't be possible for Juhabach to know about Uryuu's existence without knowing at least something about the lineage he's come from, and especially since he seems so knowledgeable about Uryuu's great power, he has to know Uryuu's parentage.
And that means the most likely possibility is that he's just lied through his teeth to the Stern Ritter and, apparently, the Stern Ritter aren't allowed to know Ryuuken exists. Now, a week or so ago, I posted that there seems to be a deliberate contrast going on between Juhabach and Ryuuken. I even concluded with the comment that the contrast leaves me feeling like there isn't one quincy king, but there's actually two (or, perhaps more accurately, there isn't one person with the power of the quincy king, there's two people with the power of the quincy king). And now Uryuu is Juhabach's successor?
This brings us to an important question: what is really meant by 'successor'? What's meant by 'emperor' for that matter. What is the Quincy King? I have theories on that, theories that connect to the idea that perhaps there's more than one quincy with the power of a Quincy King and which therefore make Ryuuken's flashback desire to protect the future of the quincies very important and Souken's absence during the flashback arc also very important.
The other important question is... why. Why does Juhabach need a successor? What's the limitation on his future that makes him feel he needs to have one. And why the hell is he putting on such a display with a quincy that the story has indicated to the reader is a mixed-blood after the story has also told us that he's engaged in purges of mixed blood quincies and even impure pure-bloods? As red flags go, that's a huge one. The kind you can see planted on the moon. With the naked eye.
In short, to go back to my original question... what on earth is this 'successor' business?
I don't want to run off into a tangent at this point, but since I'm only discussing Juhabach's announcement right now, I have to make this observation: when Juhabach comments on Uryuu's true power, there's a big panel of Uryuu's face. And you know what his expression looks like to me? Sad. That does not automatically mean he's not brainwashed, but I think he's there of his own free will. I don't know whether it's the end goal he's hoping to achieve that makes him sad, or the path he's taking to achieve it that makes him sad. But, for someone who longed for so long to be a powerful quincy, who vowed to become powerful to change his father's mind about the quincies, the expression (during a conversation about him achieving his true power) should not be so sad. Yet it is. Solely because of Uryuu's expression, the entire page reads like an unfolding tragedy.
At this point, I'm beginning to come around to the idea that Uryuu has indeed learned the truth about his father's heart (I had it on the table from the flashback arc, but I wasn't sure I was entirely thrilled with the thought). Souken always said the truth would lead to him make an important decision about what he'd do with his quincy power, and Isshin's version of the tale isn't enough for that. It leaves questions. In fact, it raises questions. So I think Uryuu's been told something Ichigo has not been and, as Souken said, what we're seeing unfold is his decision.... what and why, remains a mystery. But suddenly, Uryuu doesn't look so happy to be a quincy anymore.
And then we have Buzby. He and Ikkaku were separated at birth, I'm sure of it. Except that Ikkaku isn't so nasty to his subordinates as this guy. That scene with the quincies is interesting for a lot of reasons. Not only because it reveals how in the dark they are about their leader, but also the kind of mistrust they're living under. There are quincies spying on the quincies? Juhabach does not trust his own men? Again, this raises the flag of the quincies as a group not necessarily being the final enemy, even if the leadership turns out to be. And there's not the indication they serve their leader out of the kind of loyalty that comes from love or respect or worship. They follow out of fear. That's the implication coming across... or at least, a lot of them do. That interesting fellow with the eye-on-a-stick might have genuine loyalty, or he might be the kind to have extreme loyalty from the 'subordinate bully' (remain in the bully's favour so other kids get bullied instead). That's fear, too. The pathetic kind. On top of that, he's spying openly... so not only is there the implication that Juhabach doesn't trust his men, but he wants them to know he doesn't trust them. That breeds mistrust and a culture of informing on each other. Familiar story, no? Considering the themes, it's hardly surprising, but it does keep an army fractured from uniting to oppose the leader (more on this in a moment).
And then we have Haschwalth, and even his first name, and a nickname! Boy, are we going to be dealing with him a bit in the future!
First thing to note with Haschwalth - the men assumed Haschwalth would be the Emperor's successor. So, nothing that's been explicitly announced, just an assumption. More importantly, we don't see any claim that Haschwalth himself believed he would be - what we're seeing is that the men assumed that Haschwalth assumed he would be the successor. Haschwalth himself is carefully not letting on what he might or might not have assumed and certainly not how he personally feels about Uryuu. Aren't politics fun?
More important than this, however, is the attitude of the men towards Haschwalth. There are two main types of general in a story - the kind that's abusing their power and trying to take over from the shadows, and the kind that's the loyal soldier, who has the respect and loyalty of the men, rather than the fear of them. And this is one of the things that makes this chapter so interesting: we see a the implication that Juhabach has taken Uryuu as his own and is personally grooming him, surrounded by an army that fear, rather love, the emperor and whose first impressions of Uryuu are very, very bad. And this is contrasted against the second-in-command who clearly has the personal respect, support and loyalty of the men who are getting angry with Uryuu because of their loyalty to Haschwalth. They feel Haschwalth has been insulted, and are reacting on that basis.
So, Juhabach's army follows Juhabach.... because Haschwalth does. And this again raises a flag with me that perhaps the quincies are not the final enemy. More importantly, the fate of the quincy army may rest on the decisions and beliefs of Haschwalth. I've already felt there's something going on with Haschwalth given his reactions to Ichigo's appearance in front of Juhabach at Soul Society. He seemed to care a great deal about how Juhabach treated Ichigo, and Juhabach did seem to notice. Even then, I felt we needed to know a lot more about who Haschwalth is and what role he's set up to play in this arc. I believe it's even more important now if this chapter's implication is right and that it's truly Haschwalth who commands the respect of the army, not Juhabach.
This is also important for another point: Kubo, in this chapter, is setting up Haschwalth as being a threat to Uryuu in terms of rivalry. And I'm not convinced by it at all. Haschwalth's men clearly want this to be the case and even are expecting this to be the case. They feel Haschwalth has been snubbed and that this cannot be ignored. With that other fellow spying on them (and so openly, too, see my earlier paragraph about the idea of Juhabach wanting a fractured army), Juhabach may even be expecting this. Perhaps he's even counting on it. We'll have to see.
However, appearances can be deceiving and, if Haschwalth is being set up from the start to look like Uryuu's rival and biggest threat, either Kubo's lost the ability to be subtle or Haschwalth is going to turn out to be Uryuu's ally. It already seems like Haschwalth has some kind of empathy for Ichigo and if Haschwalth is the key to the army's support for Juhabach, then what Haschwalth truly feels and what his true motives are for supporting Juhabach become very important. Especially for Uryuu. Especially if Uryuu is there of his own free will rather than through 're-education'.
So, we have names, we have letters, and I don't think we're going to learn what 'A' or 'B' represents for quite a while, since there's a lot of mystery surrounding the motives and behaviour of all three men involved with those two letters.
God, it feels good to have a chapter that's focused on plot in a political way instead of a fighting way.
But most of all, of the questions this chapter makes me ask, my biggest question has to be this: who the hell is Ryuuken Ishida? Why is it so important that the quincies don't know he exists? Because that's what I'm getting from this chapter: Juhabach absolutely does not want to admit to the other quincies that Ryuuken exists. And that has to beg the question, why?
