Bleach: 5 Smartest Things About Aizen's Plan (& 5 Dumbest) - CBR

For the longest time, Aizen was the biggest and most threatening villain in the Bleach series. He always seemed to be not one, but dozens of steps ahead of everyone else, making it difficult for the Shinigami to figure out exactly what his plan was. He was cunning, capable of acting the part of a modest man, and had a frightening Shikai that could play with a person's senses.

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To summarize his goal, Aizen wanted to become the new Soul King, and it took years of careful planning and manipulating to get close to achieving his goal. However, like every plan, his was not without its flaws. After all, if it was truly perfect, Aizen would never have been defeated.

10 Smart: He Fooled Shinji With A Proxy

Shinji Hirako was the Captain of the Shinigami's 5th Division. He sensed early on that Aizen was not to be trusted, so he made Aizen his Vice Captain in order to keep a close eye on him. Like everyone else, Shinji had no idea what Aizen's zanpakuto was truly capable of.

Aizen used his Shikai to fool Shinji and other Shinigami into thinking that Aizen was always following right behind his Captain. In reality, it was a completely different person that was merely pretending to be Vice Captain Aizen.

9 A Mistake: He Allowed The Visored To Live

Aizen used many of Soul Society's Captains and Vice Captains to try his experiments on. He wanted to combine both Shinigami and Hollow powers, thus forcing his victims to go through hollowfication. Urahara intervenes and keeps Aizen from taking their lives at that moment, but Aizen did not seem to make much of an effort to go after them. Thanks to this, this group of Visored who each had the same power level as a Captain were able to join the fight against the Espada, turning the tide in Soul Society's favor.

8 Smart: He Sent Rukia To Give Her Powers To Ichigo

Rukia's appearance in the world of the living was a crucial moment in the series. This way, she was guaranteed to meet Ichigo, and was also likely to pass her power on to him in order to protect him. In turn, Urahara made Rukia a gigai in which he hid the Hogyoku.

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Although Urahara thought it would be the best place to hide it, Aizen managed to foresee this plan of action ages before it happened.

7 A Mistake: Kidnapping Orihime

Although Aizen split up the Shinigami army by doing this, he split up his own army as well. He was also running a risk by bringing Orihime to Hueco Mundo. Although this idea never came to fruition, Orihime speculated that with her power to reject certain events, she could reject the Hogyoku. This way, she would be able to remove it from existence and ruin Aizen's plans. As small as the chances were of that happening, Aizen once again showed his overconfidence by allowing that possibility to even be on the table.

6 Smart: Taking Control of Central 46

Central 46 is a group that is in charge of judging people for their crimes. They rule over Soul Society, but for a brief period of time, Aizen took that power for himself by killing them. Doing this allowed him to push Rukia's execution date up so that he would be able to take the Hogyoku hidden inside of her sooner. It takes a long time to gather new members for Central 46, which meant that the 1st Division's Captain was in total command during the final battle against Aizen. Central 46 was running normally once again in time for Aizen's trial.

5 A Mistake: He Made An Enemy Out Of Urahara

Aizen was more than happy to frame Urahara for the crime of Hollowfying some Shinigami. By doing so, he made a life-long enemy whose main goal was to keep Aizen from succeeding in his hostile takeover. Aizen continuously harmed people for his own gain, and even kidnapped Orihime, who Urahara considers a good friend.

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Karma eventually catches up to him, as Urahara plays a key role in Aizen's downfall. Aizen had gotten drunk on his own power, and was too distracted by his fight with Ichigo to see the other threat.

4 Smart: Merged Hollow and Soul Reaper Powers

By experimenting various ways in which he could combine these two powers, he found a way to not only strengthen himself, but to create a powerful army. He was so successful that his Espada were able to go toe to toe against the Shinigami Captains and Vice Captains. Some of them even won against some Shinigami members. Despite being so powerful, Aizen would have found it impossible to fight people like Yamamoto on his own, who was one of the biggest threats to Aizen's plan.

3 A Mistake: He Planned Ichigo's Existence

Aizen had a hand in Ichigo's creation. Using White, a hollow that Aizen made, he hollowfied Masaki. Masaki was a Quincy who would eventually become Ichigo's mother, while Isshin, a former Shinigami Captain, would become his father. Thanks to being bitten by White, Masaki passed on the hollowfication to Ichigo. As a result, Ichigo was a child that came from multiple powerful backgrounds. Aizen originally planned to eat Ichigo to gain his powers, but quickly found that Ichigo was far stronger than him.

2 Smart: He Kept Gin With Him

Although Gin's surprise attack did not work on Aizen, it caught him off guard a little. This scenario reflects the way that deception was used when Shinji kept Aizen close to him: once again, the person being watched closely was under less suspicion. Since Gin's betrayal had no effect, it was actually better for Aizen to keep Gin next to him, rather than to allow Gin to be an enemy fighting the Arrancar alongside the other Shinigami.

1 A Mistake: He Thinks Soul Society Needs To Be Actively Ruled

This way of thinking is flawed. The Soul King does little to interfere with the matters of the Soul Society. All he needs to do is exist in order to keep souls flowing in and out of Soul Society, keeping balance between the various worlds. As confirmed in the Thousand Year Blood War Arc, being alive is not a requirement for the Soul King either. Soul Society was running perfectly fine without any of Aizen's interference, and despite his claims of being justified in his actions, he was merely fueled by his dissatisfaction that no one could match his talents.

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