Bleach: How Can Gremmy Be Defeated & Who Can Defeat Him?
Gremmy Thoumeaux is known as Sternritter V – “The Visionary,” and his unique ability allows him to manifest anything he imagines. And although he has his weaknesses, Gremmy calls himself the strongest Sternritter of them all, and his power is truly an example of how ludicrous and ridiculous the powers of the Sternritter can become. But, aside from that fact, his powers are also quite interesting. That is why we have decided to dedicate this article to Gremmy and his powers, as you will find out how this seemingly limitless ability can be surpassed and who could defeat Gremmy in Bleach.
Gremmy’s The Visionary has three important weaknesses: Gremmy must be concentrated on what he wants (if he loses his concentration, the imagination disappears); Gremmy has to be careful as he can imagine his own death; Gremmy’s powers can increase, but the limit is his own physiological and spiritual boundaries, as he cannot imagine or control more power than he or his body can actually handle. This is why he died during his fight with Kenpachi and would also probably die at the hands of other powerful characters from the series.
The rest of this article is going to be dedicated to Gremmy Thoumeaux and his powers and abilities. We are actually going to explain what The Visionary is and why it is so dangerous, but also what its most pronounced weaknesses are. We will also tell you who could defeat Gremmy Thoumeaux in a fight, as the Sternritter can only be surpassed by a very powerful enemy. This article will contain many major spoilers, so be careful if you haven’t actually read the Bleach manga, as this article will reveal a lot.
Gremmy Thoumeaux is not invincible, but it takes a pretty powerful opponent to defeat this little boy
Although he is an important and powerful member of Yhwach’s Sternritter army, Gremmy Thoumeaux was introduced during the second, and not the first, invasion of the Seireitei.
He first clashed with Yachiru after seemingly killing Otoribashi and Muguruma, but his new opponent soon became Kenpachi Zaraki, Yachiru’s Captain and the Captain of the 11th Division. And while Gremmy knew who Kenpachi was, Kenpachi neither knew nor cared who Gremmy was – he decided to kill him, which was enough for him. He also did not care much for Gremmy’s ability, although they would soon cause a problem for him during their fight.
Gremmy’s ability is called The Visionary, and it is an amazing skill, really, as it allows Gremmy to manifest anything he imagines. Be it a natural phenomenon, a physical object, or even a person, Gremmy can use his ability to manifest them if he imagines them; he can also intervene on himself if he imagines it.
The power is seemingly limitless, as Gremmy’s imagination is quite vivid and rich. For example, he sent Kenpachi into outer space and even conjured a giant meteor to kill him. His influence also extends to others he touches (like when he turned Yachiru’s bones into cookies) and the surrounding area (such as when he altered the Seireitei to prepare for his fight against Kenpachi).
But, his power had three major limitations, aside from the one that he could not imagine the unimaginable (like a new color, for example), but that one was not relevant in this context.
The first limitation or weakness of his was that Gremmy had to be absolutely focused on his target for the power to work.
The changes he would make are not permanent, and if Gremmy lost focus at any one point, the change would simply revert back to its original state. This happened when he started fighting Kenpachi – the changes to Yachiru’s bone structure reverted back to normal, and Yachiru was free from his influence, as she was no longer the focus of his imagination.
In that aspect, characters that tend to confuse their enemies, such as Shinji Hirako, Sosuke Aizen, or Shunsui Kyoraku, would be quite efficient in a fight against him. Pernida Parnkgjas would also have the upper hand due to his special abilities.
The second major issue here is that Gremmy could simply kill himself if he imagines it. Now, since his power reacts to his imagination almost instinctively, if Gremmy were to imagine himself dying or being dead, he would immediately die, and there is nothing he could really do about it.
Now, it has to be noted that Gremmy was a narcissist and that he thought of himself as being superior to others, so – with that much self-confidence – Gremmy did not need such dark thoughts as, from his perspective, there was no enemy he couldn’t defeat.
In that aspect, characters with powerful Spiritual Pressure and who can induce fear in their opponents – such as Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, Kenpachi Zaraki, Szayelapporo Granz, and As Nodt – would also have a proper advantage against Gremmy in a battle, as they could make him doubt himself and imagine himself dying.
Ultimately, the final major weakness is that Gremmy’s The Visionary is limited to how much he can endure in terms of body resilience and Spiritual Pressure. As we’ve said, Gremmy can imagine everything. This means that he can imagine himself being healed, that he can imagine himself being difficult to cut with a Zanpakuto, and that he can imagine himself being as strong as his opponent.
He could probably imagine himself being immortal as well, but since maintaining that fiction would require constant focus, he couldn’t use his other abilities. But, while he can do almost everything, there are some physical limits to his body and what he can actually do. Namely, the fight against Kenpachi showed us that he couldn’t imagine himself looking different.
This doesn’t change things too much, but even when he created a clone of himself, Gremmy looked absolutely the same. This is a practical downside, but he is inside his boy-like shell, despite his True Form looking significantly different.
Another downside is that his defensive abilities came to their limit when faced with a series of extremely powerful attacks. Sure, Gremmy was able to heal himself and make his body harder, but he had to imagine it, and if he did not have the time to imagine it, he could be hurt. This means that exceptionally fast characters (e.g., Yoruichi, Soifon, Aizen, Byakuya, Yamamoto, Baraggan) or characters that had enormous penetrative power (e.g., Lille Barro, Ulquiorra, Kepnachi) would also have an advantage in a fight against Gremmy, as the kid was not actually invincible. All you had to do was be faster than him.
Ultimately, Gremmy had a limit on how much power he could actually give himself. Sure, he could mimic the level of power of his opponents, but his body was not able to handle that much power, and while he could imagine a more powerful body, he would then lose the focus on the first imagination, and that was a vicious circle he could not get out of. This is why Kenpachi ultimately defeated him – he did mimic Kenpachi’s level of power, but his body couldn’t handle that much power, and he simply died.
This is why characters that have powerful Reiatsu (e.g. Yhwach, Yamamoto, Aizen, Kenpachi, Baraggan, Kyoraku, Ukitake, Hyosube, Unohana, Gerard Valkyrie) would also have the upper hand against Gremmy as he simply couldn’t handle their power or he would be unable to mimic it, which would make him lose the fight because of a major difference in power. All of these characters would be able to exploit the limits of Gremmy’s ability and would be able to defeat him.
Can Gremmy kill himself with his own power?
Now that we have explained his powers and abilities in detail, all that remains is to answer one final question – is Gremmy immune to his own power’s negative effects? Or, more precisely, can Gremmy Thoumeaux kill himself with his own power?
We have seen that Gremmy can give himself all the benefits of The Visionary, i.e., he can make himself stronger using The Visionary’s powers and abilities. But that is not what we are talking about here. Because we know that Gremmy can kill people just by imagining them being dead if they are not strong enough to resist such a basic reaction (this is probably why he never even tried to simply kill off Kenpachi, as he was too strong, while he supposedly did it with Muguruma and Otoribashi, who were significantly weakened from their battle with Mask De Masculine). But can Gremmy kill himself as well?
Well, this is a complex issue, as far as the Sternritter are concerned. Namely, we’ve seen that As Nodt is immune to his The Fear, while Mask De Masculine was able to kill off James with a manifestation of his own powers. Askin Nakk Le Vaar was immune to everything, including himself, while, on the other hand, Lile Barro could be killed only with his own power. So, where does that leave Gremmy? It is now obvious that there is no rule related to this, so we can actually confirm that Gremmy is not immune to his own power, i.e., that he could easily kill himself off with The Visionary. How do we know?
At one point during his battle with Kenpachi, he managed to trick him into believing that he could actually lose that fight, so Gremmy lost confidence. At one moment, he even pondered the possibility of himself dying, but he then quickly stopped himself as he realized that if he actually thought that he could die – he would end up dying. This was the ultimate in-universe piece of evidence that Gremmy Thoumeaux was not immune to his own power. This, of course, means that he could actually kill himself using his own power, which is quite intriguing.
If Gremmy were to imagine himself dying or being dead, he would – of course – die, as per the effects of The Visionary. This is why he had to be very careful with his thoughts, as they could literally kill him. And with this, our thorough analysis of Gremmy’s powers and abilities is over, as we have now analyzed and explained every relevant aspect of his powers and abilities to you.