Warning: Spoilers for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3, Episodes #13 and #14Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War's epic season finale contained a peculiar scene, which raises some serious questions about Uryu's origins and how he came to be the last surviving Quincy outside of the Wandenreich. The scene in question shows Uryu as a child, and could reveal how he survived a tumultuous situation.

Episodes #13 and #14 of Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 revealed that Uryu has, despite appearances, actually been working behind the scenes to defeat the Quincy and Yhwach, and that he, for some reason, believes he's the only one capable of defeating the tyrant. He encouraged Ichigo's group to return to the world of the living, but it was soon revealed that Haschwalth had expected his betrayal, thanks to the Almighty's foresight ability, and had already rendered that path of escape unusable. Uryu agreed to hold off Haschwalth while Ichigo's group attempted to take out Yhwach while he slept.

Uryu's Auswahlen Scene Explained

What Happened to Uryu During Yhwach's First Auswahlen?

Roughly nine years before the present day of Thousand-Year Blood War, Yhwach initiated the Auswahlen, a technique which he can use that draws power from all the Quincy around him, often killing them in the process. To help recover from the wounds he suffered in the war a thousand years prior, Yhwach initiated an Auswahlen on the entire Earth, killing off every non-pure-blooded Quincy--except Uryu. It's known that while Uryu's father, Ryuken Ishida, was a pure-blooded Quincy, his mother wasn't, and thus Uryu himself isn't as well. Why did Uryu alone survive?

Uryu's situation during the Auswahlen is one that's never been very clear. One could make guesses about why he survived--perhaps he was too young to exhibit Quincy powers, thus leaving nothing for Yhwach to take from him, for example--but the fact of the matter is, Uryu is the only known mixed Quincy to have survived. However, the final episodes of part 3 add a new scene, which shows a child Uryu and a maid falling victim to the Auswahlen, while his mother is seemingly unaffected. The scene then cuts to young Uryu standing before his mother's grave, with him having somehow survived while she didn't.

How Does Uryu Survive the Auswahlen?

There Are Many Possible Reasons for Uryu's Survival

The scene has sparked no small amount of fan interpretation, hoping to reveal the secrets that the scene must be hinting at. Some fans have speculated that Uryu's mother did something to sacrifice herself in Uryu's place, although exactly what that might be isn't clear. Others have proposed that Uryu actually made unconscious use of his Schrift power, the Antithesis, to reflect the Auswahlen's effects off of himself and onto his mother. Some fans have even suggested that Uryu's mother used the Antithesis to swap the effects of Auswahlen onto herself.

Some fans might argue that Uryu wouldn't have had access to the Antithesis as a child, but there are some characters who exhibited Schrift powers before being granted them by Yhwach: specifically, Pernida Parnkgjas and Gerard Valkyrie, two of Yhwach's most elite soldiers. Yhwach also sought out Jugram Haschwalth for powers that he already possessed before their meeting. It's not impossible that Uryu (or his mother) had some sort of special ability without coming into with Ywhach, and that this ability may have protected Uryu from the Auswahlen.

Whatever the case may be, the scene is definitely designed to set up a mystery and remind fans that we still don't know why Uryu survived Yhwach's Auswahlen. This is never addressed in the manga, but could become a key element of Part 4, which many fans expect will have substantial new content additions that weren't in the manga. The fact that Uryu was seemingly affected by the Auswahlen, but survived, is extremely noteworthy--it's not as if he were simply untouched, the way his father and other pure-blooded Quincy were.

Hopefully, Part 4 of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War will help to illuminate this situation, and this information may even factor into Yhwach's eventual defeat, especially since the Auswahlen is already tied to how Yhwach is defeated in the manga. Uryu even says that his blood may be essential in defeating Yhwach, so perhaps that was meant in a less-literal way, and it's an inherited ability he's referring to. It's certainly interesting that the fate of Uryu's mother nine years prior could be so essential to defeating Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War's biggest villain, revealing how his fate may already be sealed.