‘Bleach’: Why Did Nnoitora Want to Kill Nel?

The Espada were a group of the ten most powerful Arrancar under the command of the deserter captain Sōsuke Aizen in Tite Kubo’s Bleach. Although Espada existed before Aizen found the Hōgyoku, he created a new and much more powerful group of Espada who became secondary antagonists in the Arracnar Saga. All of them were quite interesting characters, and in this article, we are going to discuss the relationship between the two of them. Namely, in this article, you are going to find out why Nnoitora Gilga, the then-Octava Espada, wanted to kill Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, the then-Tres Espada. In this article, we are going to tell you what happened and why it happened as it did.

Nnoitora Gilga was a monstrous character who only cared about getting stronger, which is why he indiscriminately killed Hollows and Arrancars alike, not caring about weaker enemies. He constantly challenged Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, who was the Tres Espada at the time, because he detested her and her way of thinking, but also because she was a woman, and he could not stand the fact that a woman was more powerful than a man in battle. He failed to kill her every time they fought, which is why he tricked her with Szayelapporo’s help and turned her into baby Nel, effectively banishing her from the Espada, which led to her losing her rank.

The article in question is going to explore the relationship between Nnoitora Gilga and Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck but from a historical perspective. The series gave us an insight into the rivalry between these two characters, and we are going to use this article to provide you with a proper explanation as to why it happened and why Nnoitora hated Nel so much. If you haven’t seen or read all of Bleach, we have to warn you that this article will have a lot of spoilers.

Nnoitora hated Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck because she was more powerful than him and because she was a woman – so he wanted her removed

The relationship between the Espada were quite intriguing. Although all of them answered to Aizen and were allies in the fight against the Shinigami, there wasn’t much love between them. They did not care much for one another (save for Harribel and Starrk, but the two of them have unique stories), and some of them openly hated each other. One such example is Nnoitora Gilga, who was introduced as the Quinto Espada and was the former Octava Espada, and Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, who was the former Tres Espada in the series.

Although, at the time when we actually do see Nnoitora for the first time, Nel is a baby that followed Ichigo around, as Nel manages to regain her true powers for a short time, not long after Ichigo defeats Grimmjow and is attacked by Nnoitora, we find out that the two of them have a pretty brutal history between them. We are now going to tell you that story here.

Like almost every arrancar in Aizen’s army, Nnoitra was originally a Hollow that Aizen turned into an Arrancar and later an Espada because he saw some fighting potential in him. For an indefinite period after that, Nnoitora held the rank of the Octava Espada and, at that time, was constantly trying to prove his strength by taking on dangerous missions, killing his fellow Hollows and Arrancar alike (he even committed a massacre against a Hollow village, which outraged Nelliel), and constantly challenging the then-Teres Espada, Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck.

But, as Nelliel was an exceptionally powerful Espada, Nnoitora lost each of their sparring matches, and almost every time, Nelliel would defeat him easily. He kept coming back, but Nelliel kept defeating him every time. At one moment, Nnoitora challenges her to a fight to the death, and when he loses, he asks Nelliel to kill him.

She refused to, which further enraged Nnoitora as he demanded an explanation. Nelliel then said that after death, they lost their humanity and became beasts, but after becoming Arrancar, they regained their reason. As reasonable beings, they had to have a reason for fighting and, even more so, a reason for killing.

She told Nnoitora that he did not have such a reason and did not respect him as a warrior, which is why she refused to kill him and fight him anymore. He completely destroyed all the respect she had for him, and she would not waste time fighting him anymore.

You can imagine how furious Nnoitora was because he was defeated and humiliated by Nelliel, who disrespected him and showed him how irrelevant and lowly he was. He then yelled that he had a reason for fighting her, telling her that he simply hated her and that that was enough for him, but Nelliel ignored that as a reason.

We then also found out that the fact that a female held a higher rank than him, a man, regularly drove Nnoitra out of his mind. Seeing how he lost an opponent, Nnoitora decided to eliminate Nelliel once and for all.

In order to finally be able to defeat her, he allied himself with Szayelaporro Granz, who was not yet an Espada at this point and almost completely ripped off the Hollow masks of Nel’s two Fracciónes, Pesche Guatiche, and Dondochakka Birstanne, which left them in a near-death state. Nelliel was looking for them, and she met Nnoitora, who teased her.

She would soon see what he did to her Fracciónes, which made her furious. As a result, Nel starts a fight with Nnoitra, but this is where Szayelapporo’s trickery kicks in. Namely, Szayelaporro had constructed a new device he wanted to test and that device seemingly could create a false image of someone.

When Nelliel attacked Nnoitora, she soon realized it was only a mirage, obviously created by the device that Szayelaporro invented and wanted to test out. Nnoitra saw his chance and injured the completely unprepared Nel in the head so badly that her mask broke in half, and she lost consciousness.

The unconscious Nel was thrown out of Las Noches along with her two Fracciones, and Nnoitra wanted to use the time to be strong enough to defeat the former Tres Espada when Nel returned. But, the damage to Nel’s mask resulted in her leaking much of her Reiatsu and changing from adult female form to child form.

Neliel was expelled from Las Noches and became the quirky baby we, along with her Fracciónes, who kept the truth from her but still protected her, saw when Ichigo first entered Hueco Mundo. Nnoitora, on the other hand, seemingly suffered no consequences for his vile move.

He would go on to improve his rank, and he became the Quinto Espada later in the story, while his ally from that time, Szayelaporro Granz, would go on to become the Octava Espada, thus taking Nnoitora’s former position in the hierarchy of Aizen’s army. Nnoitora was later killed by Kenpachi, while Mayuri killed Szayelaporro.