Filler? I don't even know 'er! aka the fuck-Bleach [SPOILERS] megathread!

[Grimpond]

Originally Posted by greed

First soul reaper to have a kid with a human... maybe. The soul reapers have noble families with generations, and Iba has a mother, that suggests that they do have kids among themselves. Just none of the Captains or Lieutenants are family men/women.

Speaking of which, would soul reapers pass their zanpaktou from parent to child? Or does each generation choose their own?

[Aerozord]

while with some its questionable, zanpaktos are a part of your spiritual power, being a soul reaper creates one from you.

now about the families, thats not nessicarily true. People in soul society live in adopted families. Noble houses may just adopt people with high spiritual pressure. Lets use best know example, Rukia. She calls Byakuya brother, treats him like one, and is part of a noble family. But is in no way biologically related.

[Sithdarth]

First soul reaper to have a kid with a human... maybe. The soul reapers have noble families with generations, and Iba has a mother, that suggests that they do have kids among themselves. Just none of the Captains or Lieutenants are family men/women.

They adopt them from the new souls coming into the Soul Society. No one actually has kids. Or at least I remember it being explained like that. Basically what happened to Rukia is what is supposed to happen for every "family". You get separated from your real life family and form a new one with random strangers. Of course this is Bleach where the rules don't exists except to be violated repeatedly by the author.

[Aerozord]

though there are rare examples where they find biological relatives. Isane and her sister for example are biologically related

[Yumil]

Rukia was only adopted out of a favor to her sister, who married the Captain. She seemed to be an exception.

[Aerozord]

one of the first things they explained when they entered the soul society was explain that isn't the exception, its the norm.

[Sithdarth]

The only thing Rukia's appearance did for her was get her adopted into a much more important family than her spiritual powers would have on their own. Of course she later remedied that with training but when she was adopted her spiritual powers were certainly not sufficient for the family she was adopted into.

[Ecks]

From what I understand, spirits (or at least Soul Reapers) are capable of having children in the Soul Society. Ginrei Kuchiki is Byakuya's grandfather, presumably biological.

Soi Fon is a member of a lower ranking clan whose members always enter the Stealth Force. It is mentioned that she is the sole survivor of many siblings (also presumably biological) who entered the Stealth Force and were killed in action. It is told that her original name, Shaolin, was given to her in honor of a family member (not sure if mom or grandmother).

Then there's the Shihouin clan. The leader of the clan passes down his or her titles to the next in line, presumably their biological heir.

Byakuya mentions during his rant about why Ichigo's bankai can't possibly be real that the noble houses sire children with far greater spirit energy than those who come from lower clans or Rukongai citizens.

In character descriptions, it's mentioned that several Soul Reapers, including one or two captains, are Soul Reapers to pay the bills, and support their families (Ukitake and Kyouraku are notable examples, as it is mentioned that they're from lower ranking noble families).

Though this is the first I've heard of a blood relative having similar abilities... might this perchance be more Hogyouku fuckery?

[Sithdarth]

All of that is perfectly capable of happening with the adoption system described because being adopted in the Soul Society seems to be a lot bigger a deal than in the real world. Obviously the noble families would tend to adopt those spirits of higher spiritual pressure and it seems that when you are adopted you are expected to immediately adapt and use the familial titles. But once again this is Bleach where the rules exists simply to be screwed with.

Heck just think about the explanation of why the Quincies where killed. Apparently there are only a fixed number of souls and people that are born in the real world come from souls leaving soul society. Otherwise the whole balance of souls things makes no sense. So the question is if souls travel to and arrive in soul society in exactly the same state they leave the living world then where do the souls of any baby born in the soul society come from? Applying logic to Bleach is like trying to make it snow in a blast furnace.

[Aerozord]

I think how it goes is, human dies, soul goes to soul society, dies and is reduced to blank soul stuff that then forms new souls. So its not like human soul will always be a human soul, or that its a strict one to one ratio. More like proteins. My body is made up of the organic matter from a variety of different organisms. So something simular with the soul, made up of various types of reishi reduced to a blank base and then built into a new soul.

Which isn't purely inductive reasoning. It is said that all the matter in soul society comes from remains of being that die in the soul society.