On that sentence thingy, I think I might concur now with the notion of Aizen being eternally imprisoned rather than killed. It's a better torture that way, not being able to move, speak or see, just capable of breathing and thinking, doing nothing, for eternity. It seems so... empty. For eternity.

After reading what others have said, though, I might rethink about concluding that Gin is dead. For all we know, he 'left' Matsumoto in a literal sense, i.e he kind of just... left, not died.

It's just the way it was set up... I mean, she was stabbed through the chest. SURELY that would've killed her, considering how long it was since she (assumingly) got help.

I'm not sure if that was Kubo saying that, or the mangastream guy guessing.

I had a feeling that, in this sense, immortality more meant "will not die of natural causes (such as old age)". I mean, if Aizen really IS immortal, then he wouldn't still be alive if I ripped his heart right out of his chest.

As far as we know, I think, the Hougyoku is still inside him. It's only "no longer sees [Aizen] as its master".

But his sentence wasn't eternity. And isn't that a risky idea? We have a man, who was smart enough to dupe the whole Soul Society by killing the previous Central 46 and taking over, as well as splitting the Soul Society effectively in half by taking 3 of its captains, and sending 4 others to Hueco Mundo, AND creating an army of super hybrids to destroy the Soul Society, and even ascending to the levels of a GOD (of which his powers, presumably, still exist). This isn't the time to selfishly torture him, it's the time to absolutely PREVENT him from doing any more.

Mhm, but he's bound with Kido. He could barely move. I doubt he would have been able to achieve anything. AND, all the things that he did in the past was accomplished with the help of Kyoukasuigetsu and the Hogyoku. But now it seems that Kyoukasuigetsu has somehow diappeared, and the Hogyoku no longer sees Aizen as its master, he'd be as helpless as a child.

And yes, the punishment is not eternal. It's only for 20k years. Well, what would they do after that? Set him free? XD

I think that immortal in this sense meant that he could not be killed by any means, because if then, they can just easily sentence Aizen to death, Sokyoku or whatnot.

...I forgot. What happened to the Sokyoku, eh? Was it destroyed by Shunsui and Ukitake or did it merely return to its sealed state?

Yeah the first half was ok, but the second part about the Zanpakuto who killed their master was a bit.... too much.

I wonder how ichigo will handle the loss of his powers, since he has had them for a while and made a huge impact on his life. His relation with his friends will probably change, since they still have powers.

I think the next arc will begin with isshin finally explaining what just happened, which we will see as an flashback. That would an awesome flashback.

I hope he gets powers somehow. Ichigo's the main character, so he needs powers. Aizen looks smug as usual, and Kenpachi's reaction to the haori was funny.

"What do you think those haori are?"

"A pain in the ass."

Priceless.

I hope so, otherwise it will be rather boring. He can't even see spirits in his current condition. I don't that Urahara is going to leave it like that.

Aizen was the cause of a lot of things, now that he is gone things hopefully will change. The vizards could return to SS; Urahara could continue his work on the hougyoku, if he removed it from Aizen; Isshin can finally tell the complete story. I wonder how they got Aizen from his seal into that chair.... he was already regenerating when he was sealed, the moment he was released from the seal he would have tried to make a break for it. Unless Urahara made the seal to prevent him from doing so.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting that...
Probably because they don't have the power to do so or something like that. Maybe because the hougyoku is still in him. Who knows? Maybe Urahara is working on a way to remove it, it looked like it was fused into his body. Thanks to Gin we know that even if it is removed, it still has a connection to Aizen. If I remember correctly. Then again, this connection could be broken because it doesn't recognize Aizen as his master anymore.

Maybe.
XD
We don't now for sure. Since nobody actually said "Gin died". Rangiku said he left her again without leaving her anything to remembering him by. This could mean that is simply lurking around somewhere. He wounds weren't all that lethal if you think about it. People who were far worse injured survived. Unless the SS people refused to heal him or something, but I doubt it.

Actually;You know; something like that.

Yes, we need Moar Nel dammit!
I wonder were gin would go if he survived, maybe he and Nel and other Arrancar are hiding somewhere in Hueco Mundo. But probably not in Las Noches, because Mayuri and his people are working there. Then again, it is a big place...

I already did.

Ah, the many questions we have....
Most likely quite a few should be alive. Besides the guards of las noches, former Espada, That guy who could spawn himself and the Espada and their Fraccion, nobody else died. Some fraccion even still lives. So nobody actually knows how many arrancar there are.... It should be quite a few. Las noches is a big place.