a antithesis bleach

Bleach: Uryu Ishida Is a LOT Stronger Than You Think

Bleach's most prominent Quincy warrior started off strong but faded fast in the series. But by the manga's end, he became a force to be reckoned with.

The Quincies in Bleach are some of the most fearsome foes that have been ever introduced in the series. In the  Bleach  manga, fans got more of a chance to see just how powerful they are, and among them, Uryu Ishida is easily one of the strongest of them all.

When Uryu was first introduced in  Bleach , he was without a doubt a spectacular character. But it was made clear as the series rolled along that he wasn't as strong as others in the franchise. While he did have some impressive moments, such as taking down the Captain of Squad 12 , Mayuri Kurotsuchi, Uryu otherwise regressed as a character from his first appearance. Fans of the show and manga got to see Ichigo's frightening potential continue to skyrocket while Uryu seemed to fall further by the wayside. It wasn't long before he became an afterthought -- a sidekick at best for some of the most intense battles in the  Bleach  universe.

Related: Bleach: The Quincy, 'Monks of Destruction', Explained

Uryu has, without a doubt, shown himself to be a valuable and useful ally, but unfortunately, his value is placed more on his intelligence and not strength, which is too easy to overlook. But Mangaka Tite Kubo gave fans hope that Uryu would once again return and become an integral, action-oriented part of  Bleach  again when the Quincy finally regained his lost powers just in time for the "Hueco Mundo" Arc . He fought valiantly, defeating the powerful Arrancar, Ciruci Sanderwicci before being bested by the more skilled 8th Espada, Szayelaporro Granz. These two battles revealed that Uryu had indeed gotten much stronger -- but it also proved that he had a long way to go before he could be considered one of the strongest fighters in the anime.

In his next major appearance, Uryu was reduced to playing caretaker for Orihime while Ichigo fought to the death against the 4th Espada, Ulquiorra Cipher. While he did have some cool moments, such as momentarily taking down Yammy Llargo  -- who was considered to be one of Aizen's strongest Espada -- Uryu was once again proven to be mere cannon fodder. This cycle would continue on for some time as Uryu's true potential continued to be hidden from both the viewers and readers of  Bleach . In an almost annoying fashion, it seemed that battle after battle, Uryu was destined to forever play the role of scapegoat for the stronger and more important characters. That was, until the " Thousand-Year Blood War " arc.

Related: Bleach: The Powers & Symbolism of the Arrancar, Explained

With the arrival of the Quincies, fans saw a shift in Uryu's character. One of his fellow Quincies, Quilge Opie, even remarked to Ichigo that it was impossible for even his powerful Quincy abilities to even come close to Uryu's. This revealed that either Uryu had been holding back, or he didn't have access to his full abilities during the course of the anime. What is even more impressive is the fact that Quilge was able to lay waste to multiple powerful Arrancar while also almost successfully detaining Ichigo. Furthermore, when Uryu makes the decision to officially join the Quincies in their war against Soul Society, there are even more secrets about his strength that are revealed.

When the Quincy king, Yhwach finally made his return after centuries, he specifically chose Uryu as his successor. It was revealed that Uryu was a half-blood Quincy who survived Ywach's attempt on his life as a baby. This was so that the Quincy king could regain his powers, but Uryu was the lone half-blood Quincy that was unaffected, making him a very unique case, even amongst full-blood Quincies.

Uryu was the only Quincy in existence to ever be able to resist the king's immense power. This skill is known as Antithesis -- a dangerous ability that allows Uryu to reverse something that has already happened between two targets. The ability was so powerful that even Yhwach himself stated that Uryu's powers would one day evolve and surpass his own. The best example of Antithesis being used is when Uryu was mortally wounded by the king's Grandmaster, Haschwalth, where he was able to use his powers to reverse the damage and heal himself while transferring his grievous wounds onto his enemy. It is a terrifying feat to have at someone's disposal; one that essentially makes Uryu one of the most dangerous and powerful characters in all of  Bleach.

Uryu Ishida's character path in  Bleach  took many twists and turns, even the loss of his powers completely at one point. But though he has been vastly underpowered at some points in the series, he ended up becoming far more than just Ichigo's underappreciated sidekick by the manga's end.

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Screen Rant

Bleach: 10 quincy abilities to know before the thousand year blood war arc.

Ichigo Kurosaki has face a plethora of foes over the years. Now he must prepare to fight the sworn enemy of all Soul Reapers. The Sternritter.

Since his anime debut in 2004, Ichigo Kurosaki has faced a plethora of foes, such as Hollows, Soul Reapers, Arrancars and Fullbringers. Now, after a decade long hiatus, fans of Bleach will finally be able to watch as the Soul Society faces off against their sworn enemies, the Quincies.

After the decimation of the Quincies by the Soul Reapers, they were thought to be extinct, but now the Quincies are back and have formed the Sternritter, an organization whose goal is to purge the world of Soul Reapers. Under the command of the original Quincy, Yhwach, the Sternritter have been gifted additional abilities through Schrifts given to them by Yhwach. These abilities are powerful enough to rival even the most powerful Soul Reapers.

"Z-The Zombie"

The Schrift of Giselle Gewelle "The Zombie" grants her the ability to create and control, as the name suggests, zombies. Anyone who comes into contact with her blood runs the risk of falling under her influence. Additionally, Giselle also has the ability to heal herself and her zombies making her nearly impossible to kill.

The only limitation of "the Zombie" is that, in order to control more powerful foes, Giselle needs to use more of her own blood. But her ability to heal herself using pieces of dead corpses nullifies this weakness, allowing her to take over the bodies of powerful captains and lieutenants of the Gotei 13 and repurpose the carnage that they cause to heal herself and control more zombies, creating a vicious cycle.

"X-The X-Axis"

There are some people who would say that a gun doesn't belong in a world of magic and swords. Those people haven't heard of Lille Barro, "The X-Axis." Lille's skill with his rifle coupled with the Schrift gifted him by Yhwach make him a considerable foe on the battlefield.

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Lille has no need for bullets, instead it simply penetrates anything and everything between the muzzle and the target. This attack is impossible to block and Lille's skill as a marksman makes it nearly impossible to dodge. However, his secondary ability is even more terrifying. "The X-Axis" allows Lille to "pierce" his enemies attacks, essentially keeping him from being hit at all. Luckily, Lille's pride prevents him from using it because it would be "unfair.

"V-The Visionary"

Of all of the Sternritter, Gremmy Thoumeaux ranks as one of the most powerful. His Schrift, "The Visionary," allows him to make whatever he can imagine into a reality. He can use this power to create or destroy matter, transform his opponents or even create entire beings.

As powerful of an ability this is, Gremmy is limited in what he can create and has to be extremely careful. If he imagines something dangerous that may benefit him without also imagining safeguards to protect himself, the results may be catastrophic. For example, imagining that he has incredible strength, without imagining bones strong enough to use those muscles can cause his bones to break.

"S-The Superstar"

While he may seem to be a simple brute with immense physical strength, Mask De Masculine has one of the most unique powerset of all of the Sternritter. His Schrift "The Superstar" grants him even more power when he has an audience cheering for him.

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This boost can be negated by destroying his audience, but that might prove to be difficult given that Mask's No. 1 fan, James, is immortal as long as Mask is alive. If ripped into multiple pieces, James can reconstitute his body from each of the individual pieces. Each of those James clones add to Masks audience, increasing his strength exponentially with each clone.

"L-The Love"

While there are multiple Quincy who have the power to manipulate their foes, only one can do so with the power of love. PePe Waccabrada, designated with the Schrift called "The Love" has the capability to make anyone fall in love with him to the point where they will follow his every order.

PePe's abilities aren't limited to just living breathing creatures, but anything that has a soul. While this may seem like a strange caveat, the danger of this statement becomes much more apparent when one remembers that Zanpakuto possess souls of their own. By causing an opponents Zanpakuto to fall in love with him, PePe can turn a Soul Reaper's most trusted ally against them.

"E-The Explode"

In the world of Bleach, nearly every ability can cause some sort of explosion, but none in quite the same way as Bambietta Basterbine. After receiving her Schrift, "The Explode," Bambietta gained the ability to transform anything that comes into contact with her reishi into a bomb.

Because of her unconventional explosives, Bambietta's attacks can't be blocked. If someone attempts to deflect her reishi, the object used will simply turn into a bomb and explode. If the target dodges the reishi but doesn't get out of the blast radius quick enough they will be caught up in the explosion. In spite of this, the Explode is not unbeatable. Bambietta's explosions can be delayed if intercepted by an object that can suspend reishi, if only momentarily.

"D-The Deathdealing"

Potentially one of the most intelligent and terrifying Sternritter, Askin Nakk Le Vaar has the potential to end even the most powerful captains of the soul society. His Schrift, "The Deathdealing," grants him the power to alter the lethal dose of a substance in his, or his enemy's body by ingesting the substance himself.

This may seem like a somewhat niche power that would be great if used for covert assassinations and poisonings, but too much of any substance can become a "lethal dose." So, if Askin were to ingest some of someone's blood and then use the Deathdealing to lower the amount of blood that his opponent can healthily have in their body, they will overdose on their own blood.

"B-The Balance"

As Yhwach's right hand man, Jugram Haschwalth was gifted one of the most poweful Schrifts to help maintain balance in his master's domain. "The Balance" alters the fortunes of all of those in Haschwalth's vicinity. Those who have misfortune are granted fortune and those that are fortunate receive terrible misfortune.

While this may seem like it would cause all battles to end in a stalemate, Haschwalth has an ace hidden up his sleeve that will almost guarantee his victory. When the Balance would cause misfortune to befall Haschwalth, it is instead absorbed into his Freund Schild. As if that wasn't enough, he can that take that misfortune and deal it to opponent, dealing massive damage.

"A-The Antithesis"

When Yhwach gave Uryu Ishida his Schrift, he declared that Uryu would succeed him as the ruler of the Sternritter. His Schrift, "The Antithesis,"(the same letter as Yhwach's own Schrift) is meant to symbolize this and give Uryu an edge when dealing with other Sternritter that might attack Uryu before his actual purpose is fulfilled.

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The Antithesis reverse events that have already happened between two points. For example, if Uryu is wounded, he can reverse events and cause his opponent to be wounded instead. Yet because this power reverses events and not attacks, Uryu has the potential to steal events that benefitted his foes or even grievously wound himself and then reverse events with a foe whose defenses are too strong for Uryu to penetrate otherwise.

"A-The Almighty"

As the leader and progenitor of all Quincy, it is no surprise that Yhwach has what is possibly the most powerful ability in the Bleach canon. "The Almighty" gives Yhwach the deadly combination of omniscience and nigh omnipotence.

Unlike many characters that see one inevitable future, Yhwach sees all possible futures and by extension, all incoming attacks. He uses this knowledge to get an advantage over his opponents by setting traps and attacking where he knows that they will be. But the greatest power of the almighty is the power to actually re-write the future and erase his own death. With this power, Yhwach posses a massive threat to Ichigo and the Soul Society .

Next: The Main Characters Of Bleach, Ranked By Likability

The Almighty

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Yhwach and Haschwalth share The Almighty , with Yhwach having it during the day and Haschwalth possessing it at night after Yhwach falls asleep. [3]

• 1 Description
• 2 Weaknesses
• 3 Known Users
• 5 Appearances in Other Media
• 7 References
• 8 Navigation

Description [ ]

When a Quincy such as Yhwach or Jugram Haschwalth activates The Almighty , their irises and pupils split in two. [4] [5] After Yhwach was sealed away, it took 900 years for his heart to begin beating once more, 90 years for him to regain awareness, and 9 years for him to regain his power. If he were to open his eyes before those final 9 years had fully elapsed, he may have been unable to fully control his power and accidentally stolen all of the power from his loyal Sternritter . With this power's activation, Yhwach achieves his full strength. [6] Yhwach gains an additional pupil in each eye after nullifying Ichibē Hyōsube 's Futen Taisatsuryō . [7]

• Omni-Precognition : With The Almighty , Quincy such as Yhwach and Haschwalth can see everything that is to occur from the present moment into the far-flung future. They can "know" everything that lies within that gaze. [8] Rather than seeing a linear future, Yhwach observes all possible futures at once like countless grains of sand in the wind, and can thus act accordingly using the knowledge he has gained to anticipate and counter his opponents. [9]
• Future Acausality : Yhwach states that the true power of The Almighty is the ability to alter the future into whatever outcome he desires. [10] He utilizes this power by setting up traps where he knows his opponents will be [11] and preemptively attacking them before they realize. He can also outmaneuver any defense and countermeasure they use to protect themselves in order to facilitate his attacks. [12] He can even rewrite his own death. [13] However, only Yhwach can use this aspect of The Almighty , not Haschwalth. [14]
• Connection to the Soul King : While possessing The Almighty , Yhwach can see the Soul King 's humiliation in the Soul King Palace , as well as his father's state as a mindless and hideous lump of flesh to be worshipped. [15]

Weaknesses [ ]

• Power-swapping : The Almighty switches between Yhwach and Haschwalth, but it is significantly weaker while it is in the possession of Haschwalth. Haschwalth cannot change the future with The Almighty . [14] According to Bazz-B , killing Haschwalth while he has The Almighty will also destroy The Almighty . [16]
• Soul King : The Soul King , as well as his body parts such as Mimihagi , are immune to the precognitive abilities of The Almighty , which keeps them from appearing in any of Yhwach 's visions, even when they are in the same room in the future. [17] The Soul King's left arm was also capable of sealing away The Almighty when used by Ichibē Hyōsube . [15]
• Illusions : Powerful illusions such as the ones created by Sōsuke Aizen 's Kyōka Suigetsu can fool the precognition of The Almighty . [18]
• Past manipulation : The Almighty can alter the future but it is susceptible to abilities that alter the past. After Yhwach rewrote the future so that Tensa Zangetsu is broken, Shūkurō Tsukishima uses his Book of the End to rewrite the blade's past, allowing it to be fixed. [19] Jugram Haschwalth speculates that Uryū Ishida 's Antithesis is capable of countering The Almighty because it switches events that have already happened between two targets. [20]
• Still Silver : If Yhwach's blood makes contact with the silver created in the hearts of his Auswählen victims, The Almighty is temporarily disabled. [21]

Known Users [ ]

• Jugram Haschwalth
• When Jugram Haschwalth activates The Almighty , his green-colored irises become red, like those of Yhwach. [22]

Appearances in Other Media [ ]

• In Ryōgo Narita 's novel Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World , the The Almighty is revealed to originally be the Soul King's signature power, which Yhwach inherited due to being the King's son. Read more...

Gallery [ ]

References [ ]

• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 610, page 7
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 614, page 11
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 659, pages 11-12
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 609, page 12
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 635, pages 4-5
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 610, page 2
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 610, pages 15-16
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 677, pages 14-16
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 678, page 16
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 677, pages 8-10 & 13
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 678, page 12-15
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 684, page 7
• ↑ 14.0 14.1 Bleach manga; Chapter 675, page 3
• ↑ 15.0 15.1 Bleach anime; Episode 390
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 630, page 17
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 617, pages 6-8
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 683, pages 1-17
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 681, pages 15-16
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 679, page 9
• ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 684; page 11

Navigation [ ]

• 2 Ichigo Kurosaki

Bleach: The Almighty, Explained

Allowing Yhwach to look into the future and potentially change fate, The Almighty is one of the Quincy Emperor's most powerful weapons.

• Yhwach's power, The Almighty, grants him the ability to see and alter the future, making him nearly invincible.
• The Almighty allows Yhwach to outwit his opponents by setting traps and attacking before they react.
• Despite its formidable nature, The Almighty can be countered by killing Haschwalth, using illusions, altering the past, or temporarily disabling Yhwach's powers.

The greatest threat to Soul Society and the Gotei 13 in their collective history, Yhwach is the Father of the Quincy, Emperor of the Wandenreich, and the son of the Soul King, wielding power beyond imagination. Although the list of abilities he has at his disposal are incredibly fearsome in their own right, not to mention his immeasurable reserves of Reiatsu , there is one power he wields which is the source of his near invincibility.

Known as "The Almighty," which is also his designation with the letter "A," this ability grants Yhwach the power to plan and account for any unforeseen circumstance that he may encounter. He himself has described it as "the mark of a true Quincy," and it is easily one of the most overpowered techniques seen throughout Bleach . No single Shinigami or individual in the series can hold a candle to its all-encompassing might, which is why Yhwach was able to bring Soul Society to its knees on being revived.

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What Is The Almighty?

Simply put, The Almighty grants the power to peer into and potentially alter the future depending on the user wielding it. It is shared between Yhwach, who wields it during the day, and Jugram Haschwalth, the Wandenreich's Sternritter Grandmaster, who gains access to it at night when Yhwach falls asleep. When either of them activate The Almighty, it splits their irises and pupils, which take on a red tinge. After absorbing Ichibe Hyosube's Futen Taisatsuryo , Yhwach gained one more pupil in each of his eyes.

The powers it grants when active are two-fold. Both Yhwach and Haschwalth can perceive countless futures extending from their present with omni-precognition, and choose how to act accordingly. The futures they see are not linear, but a collection of every potential outcome that could transpire. Next, The Almighty allows its user to alter their future to fit the outcome they desire. According to Yhwach, this is the true power of The Almighty , and only he can use it, with Haschwalth unable to tap into this aspect of the ability.

Following his defeat a millennium ago, Yhwach took 900 years to regain his heartbeat, 90 years to for his self-awareness to return, and nine years to obtain his power once again. It is said that if he had attempted to open his eyes prior to the conclusion of these last nine years, he would have been unable to control his abilities, and might have stolen power from his Sternritter without intending to do so. Being able to fully control The Almighty indicated that Yhwach had returned to his full strength after falling against Soul Society 1000 years ago.

Why Is It Such A Formidable Power?

With The Almighty, Yhwach can look into the future at any point and choose to alter it in order to achieve his objectives. In doing so, he can set traps and maneuver opponents into them, attack enemies before they can even react, or devise moves to deal with the countermeasures devised by his adversaries. This makes the act of outwitting him nigh on impossible, as he can see and react to everything even before it happens.

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The greatest aspect of The Almighty is its capacity to undo Yhwach's own death. As such, even if he is defeated, he can nullify the event and rewrite it, reviving himself. This makes him invulnerable to nearly every attack that is thrown at him. He can avoid any potential future that would end in his death. Going up against such an ability would mean certain defeat for nearly anyone, and there are only a few ways in which this can be avoided.

How Can It Be Countered?

Despite how it may seem virtually impossible to deal with, there are a few ways to nullify certain aspects of The Almighty . To begin with, The Almighty is significantly less potent when it is in the hands of Jugram Haschwalth, and killing him while he possesses it will essentially result in the destruction of the ability itself, preventing Yhwach from using it again. Such a proposition would be considerably easier than taking on Yhwach himself as Haschwalth cannot use its power to alter the future, he can only view it.

Next, the Soul King and Mimihagi are both immune to the effects of The Almighty. As such, they do not appear in any of the visions of the future produced by this ability, making their interference in any event an anomaly that cannot be accounted for. Techniques such as Sosuke Aizen's Kyoka Suigetsu , which produces powerful illusions, can be used to deceive a user of The Almighty, to take advantage of the lack of coherence in their vision of the future and the actual course of events that will occur.

The Almighty also cannot account for abilities that alter the past, as seen when Shukuro Tsukishima was able to was able to rewrite the past of Ichigo's Bankai, Tensa Zangetsu , after Yhwach used his ability to break it. He did so with his Book of the End, which allowed the blade to be fixed. Similarly, it might also be possible for Uryu Ishida's "The Antithesis" to counter The Almighty with its capacity to switch the effects of an event or action between two targets. Lastly, The Almighty will also be temporarily disabled if Yhwach loses his powers for a time, in case his blood comes into contact with the Still Silver produced in the hearts of Quincy chosen to become his Auswahlen victims.

BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 – The Separation is available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ .

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Review: Ralph Fiennes, an older Macbeth, builds sympathy for a killer with soulful weariness

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“Macbeth” is littered with casualties — and not only on the fictional battlefield. The tragedy has taken down a battalion of the finest directors and actors, who have fallen victim to the play’s real curse: its deceptive dramatic difficulty.

The problem is counterintuitive. Why does a play as spellbindingly theatrical as “Macbeth” excite an audience’s interest only to exhaust it by the end?

Macbeth’s path as protagonist is a strange one. At the start of the play, he’s a war hero with conspicuous scruples. But after he kills the king to secure the throne for himself, he becomes an unchecked tyrant, devolving into paranoia and butchery.

The theatrical lure of the supernatural dimension is irresistible. As a young reader of Shakespeare, I was enthralled by the soaring language, the diabolical atmosphere and the horrifying situation of a character getting his unconscious desire at the cost of his soul.

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I consider “Macbeth” Shakespeare’s most psychological tragedy, but in a way that is completely different from “Hamlet,” which centers on the most introspective character in all of literature. A man of battle, Macbeth isn’t particularly self-searching. His soliloquies come early and they probe his action plans more than they do the root of his feelings.

The psychology in “Macbeth” is externalized. The outer world reflects inner reality. Even the occult in the play is linked to Macbeth’s thoughts. The weird sisters who hail him with prophecies of his future greatness don’t instruct him on what he must do to attain the throne. They stir temptation, but ambition is already festering within him.

The test for the actor playing Macbeth is the handling of those moments in which the audience is granted a fugitive glimpse of the character’s moral and emotional struggles. In the theater, it’s easy to lose sight of Macbeth’s misgivings and regrets amid the thrilling witchery and suspenseful criminality.

“Macbeth” requires agility of focus. One of the reasons the play may have a better success rate on-screen than on the stage is that film has the advantage in being able to move effortlessly between special effects and close-ups.

The latest film version, which stars Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma, combines the best of both worlds. It began as a stage production that was filmed in London and plays in select cinemas on Thursday and Sunday. Fiennes (a distinguished classical stage actor who directed and starred in a film version of Shakespeare’s craggiest tragedy, “Coriolanus”) and Varma (who played Ellaria Sand in HBO’s “Game of Thrones”) are in the last week of their run in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s sold-out American theatrical presentation in Washington, D.C.

Directed by STC Artistic Director Simon Godwin, this modern-dress “Macbeth” relies on an adaptation by Emily Burns that largely sticks to Shakespeare’s text. Having watched the film on my laptop, I can’t say that I had the ideal viewing experience to appreciate the full effect of the staging.

I found the murder scenes more harrowing than the artificial wartime spectacle. The witches in their street attire suggest a troublesome girl gang. The way Godwin employs these women as a chorus, viewing scenes they have no part in, gives their watchful presence more significance than I was able to decode. What’s clear, however, is that the Macbeths are in over their heads in their pact with evil.

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Fiennes’ Macbeth is an old warrior, battle-hardened yet weary of spirit. Banquo (Steffan Rhodri), his loyal buddy on the field, seems even older. Caked in gore after a hard-fought victory, they both look ready for retirement, a more temperate spot on the Scottish coast perhaps, preferably not too noisy after all the clamor of their campaigns.

One of the early indications that Macbeth has long been dreaming about being king is his reaction to the witches’ news that he will “be king hereafter.” “Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear / Things that do sound so fair,” Banquo questions him in my edition of the play.

This note in the text is one of those small opportunities that Shakespeare provides to clarify that Macbeth is not merely a puppet of fate. Fiennes doesn’t emphasize the moment, but he does make the most of an early aside in which he is already contemplating removing the king’s eldest son, Malcolm, the heir apparent, from his path to the monarchy.

Lady Macbeth hasn’t yet gotten her talons into her husband. Harold Bloom took delight in the dark irony that the Macbeths have the best marriage in all of Shakespeare. He probably wouldn’t draw that conclusion were he alive to see this production.

Varma’s Lady Macbeth is clearly the dominant force in this household. Her tone is scolding, full of maternal frustration. Her husband’s vacillating nature infuriates her. When Macbeth’s qualms about committing regicide get the better of him, she reprimands him mercilessy. “Bring forth men-children only,” he tells her, kneeling before her and placing the side of his head on her womb, almost as if he might wish to return to such motherly safety.

Slow of speech, Fiennes’ Macbeth gives us a clue as to what Hamlet might be like if he had survived and learned to play the deadly game of power politics. Sigmund Freud no doubt would have chalked up Macbeth’s problems here to his unresolved Oedipus complex. Lurking beneath this military machine is a vulnerable boy who doesn’t want to cross his mommy.

Even before Macbeth lays eyes on the ghost of Banquo at the banquet, he adopts a version of Hamlet’s antic disposition, laughing strangely and behaving erratically. Lady Macbeth seems on the verge of slapping him. When the freshly murdered Banquo crashes the party, Macbeth’s crackup goes into overdrive, suggesting a psychotic break more than a bad conscience.

A Hamlet-spin on Macbeth is inherently problematic. While Hamlet is characterized by deliberation and delay, Macbeth moves through the world like an out-of-control freight train. The character takes pride in the way his violent temper outruns his reason. How else could he have become a decorated general?

The truth is that if Macbeth had even a fraction of Hamlet’s philosophical turn of mind he never would have killed the king. But there’s an upside to Fiennes’ approach. My sympathy for the character grew — a rare feat in my experience of productions of this play. Even when Fiennes’ Macbeth orders the death of the Macduffs, as casually as if he were telling the cook what to make for dinner that evening, he reveals a character tragically lost to himself.

Both Lady Macduff (Rebecca Scroggs) and Macduff (Ben Turner) are devastatingly moving in their actor-proof roles. Shakespeare, a canny architect of the audience’s experience, releases a torrent of emotion in their separate scenes.

At the castle, by contrast, such natural feeling is bottled up. When Lady Macbeth sleepwalks into her culpable death, the most moving aspect is the gruff way her husband moves on with his business.

The paths of the Macbeths diverge with ironic antithesis. Lady Macbeth proves herself to be not a fourth witch impervious to guilt but a mortal woman unable to keep her sins buried.

Macbeth, on the other hand, has lost his capacity to feel anything. Fiennes allows us to register the enormousness of this loss. It’s easier in my experience to identify with and excuse the vaulting ambition of a younger Macbeth. But Fiennes and Denzel Washington in Joel Coen’s 2021 film “The Tragedy of Macbeth” paint vivid portraits of childless, death-haunted men with nothing left to live for except the empty pursuit of power.

'Macbeth'

Not rated Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes Playing: In limited release, 7 p.m. Thursday, May 2; 1 p.m. Sunday, May 5; 1 p.m. Monday, May 6 (Laemmle Film Center, Santa Monica only) Info: MacbethinCinemas.com

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Feb. 1, 2024

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Charles McNulty is the theater critic of the Los Angeles Times. He received his doctorate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from the Yale School of Drama.

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Guest Essay

Gardens of Good and Evil

By Olivia Laing

Ms. Laing is the author of the forthcoming book “The Garden Against Time.”

I’ve always thought of gardens as benign, even virtuous places. It wasn’t until the lockdowns of 2020 that gardens began to take on a more sinister aspect in my mind, as havens of sunny privilege to which the fortunate could retreat while the less fortunate were trapped indoors.

That unsettling feeling was powerfully reinforced in Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning British film “The Zone of Interest,” set in a lovely walled garden belonging to the commander of Auschwitz and his family. On the far side of the wall, audible but unseen, are all the horrors of the concentration camp. Inside, life is pleasant and calm. “It’s a paradise garden,” a visitor exclaims.

The film is a painful exposure of how easy it is to turn a blind eye to cruelty and injustice. So much for that most famous of moral injunctions: Voltaire’s “We must cultivate our own garden.”

The Auschwitz garden is an extreme example, but a startling number of great gardens were founded on regimes of brutality and cruelty that remain concealed from view. While researching their complicated history, I investigated the Anglo-American Middleton family, who used the grotesque profits from their slave plantations in South Carolina in the 18th century to fund exceptionally grand gardens, including Middleton Place, believed to be the oldest surviving landscape garden in America, and Shrubland Hall in England, visited by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, in 1851. The Middletons’ obsessive garden-making was apparently a way to cleanse their money and climb the class ladder, similar to how the Sackler family used art to launder their reputations.

The idea of the garden as a place of sinister seclusion has found its way to the world of high fashion. The theme of the 2024 Met Gala on Monday will be “The Garden of Time,” a reference to a short story by J.G. Ballard. In Mr. Ballard’s characteristically bleak tale, a desperate mob advances on an elegant garden, where Count Axel and his wife are living out a civilized, secluded existence. The count plucks mysterious “time flowers” to stave off the inevitable incursion, knowing the horde spells ruin to their cultivated life. Perhaps Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue and long-term co-chair of the Gala, was thinking about time and loss, but for me the story articulated the most dangerous aspect of the garden, as a place to hide from reality in a private paradise.

For a gardener like myself, these stories are hard to confront. While very few of us create gardens on a robber-baron scale, the experience of the pandemic made it clear that they can still be a privileged and exclusionary zone. According to a 2021 study , white Americans are nearly twice as likely to live in a home with access to a garden as Black or Asian Americans. The selfish gardener of the 21st century creates idyllic vistas that rely on fertilizers and pesticides that poison the wider ecosystem or demand water in a time of drought.

Gardens don’t have to be like this: sealed, exclusive and defended. Mr. Ballard’s story reminded me of Iris Origo, an Anglo-American aristocrat who made the exquisite gardens of La Foce in Tuscany in the 1920s and ’30s. In her gripping memoir of World War II, “War in Val d’Orcia,” she describes a similar tide of desperate humanity approaching her garden gate. Unlike Mr. Ballard’s Count Axel, she didn’t seek to repel them, retiring to the library to dust her statues. Instead, she converted her grand house and garden into a haven for refugees, partisans and escaping soldiers, despite the risk of imprisonment or death.

One of the most exciting things I discovered in my research was a study carried out at Great Dixter, a well-known garden in the south of England, established by the horticulturist and writer Christopher Lloyd and cultivated after his death by Fergus Garrett. In 2017, Mr. Garrett and his team commissioned a full biodiversity audit of the estate. To the amazement of the participating scientists, the greatest diversity wasn’t in the woods, meadows or ponds that surround the house, but in the formal garden itself.

This garden hadn’t been rewilded, or left to its devices. On the contrary, it was the human intervention that made it so biologically rich. Mr. Garrett had phased out pesticides and fertilizers, and had a relaxed attitude to rotting logs and weeds, which provided a habitat for a diverse array of species. But it was the sheer density of the ornamental planting, its aesthetic exuberance and abundance, that was the key. The borders, with their plumes of giant fennel, their riots of poppies and mullein, provided a constant supply of nourishment, while the regular disturbance by the gardeners created a rich habitat for insects and mammals.

It was the antithesis of the selfish garden, hospitable to many types of life. As Mr. Garrett observed in Gardens Illustrated , environmentalists had previously thought that gardens contributed to habitat and species loss, sterile spaces created solely for human pleasure. The Great Dixter experiment demonstrated that gardening could be both aesthetically satisfying and environmentally beneficial.

This February, a study led by the University of Surrey analyzed how green spaces in cities can have a cooling effect in heat waves. While street trees, parks and wetlands all had an effect, the most pronounced results came from botanical gardens, which lowered temperatures in adjacent city streets by an average of nine degrees Fahrenheit.

This is the kind of visionary garden state I want to see flourish everywhere. You can glimpse its potential in projects like the landscape architect Nigel Dunnett’s Grey to Green, which transformed a rundown, traffic-heavy area in the English city of Sheffield into a series of interconnected rain gardens and bioswales . These capture extreme rainfall, reducing the risk of catastrophic flooding. That area is now a luminous patchwork of foxtail lilies, alliums and yarrow, interspersed with trees and grasses. The garden helps cool the city in heat waves, provides a corridor for wildlife and gives sheer pleasure to a mass of people, whether they can afford to own a garden or not.

Olivia Laing is the author of the forthcoming book “ The Garden Against Time .”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Minnesota and other Democratic-led states lead pushback on censorship. They’re banning the book ban

Last fall, Shae Ross and fellow students in Bloomington, Minnesota successfully persuaded their district not to ban certain books dealing with sexuality, gender and race. Now, legislators are pursuing a prohibition on similar bans in schools across the state. (AP video: Mark Vancleave)

Bloomington Jefferson senior Shae Ross, center, joined Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, left, at an event promoting proposed legislation to prevent books bans based on ideology at Como Park High School in St. Paul, Minn., on March 21, 2024. (Chris Williams/Education Minnesota via AP)

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Bloomington Jefferson senior Shae Ross, fourth from left, joins Governor Tim Walz, right, and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, second from left, at an event promoting proposed legislation to prevent books bans based on ideology at Como Park High School in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 21, 2024. (Chris Williams/Education Minnesota via AP)

Shae Ross, a senior at Jefferson High School, pose for a photo April, 19, 2024, in Bloomington, Minn. Ross and other students successfully campaigned their district not to ban certain books dealing with sexuality, gender and race after some parents objected to their presence in classrooms and libraries. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A movement to ban book bans is gaining steam in Minnesota and several other states, in contrast to the trend playing out in more conservative states where book challenges have soared to their highest levels in decades.

The move to quash book bans is welcome to people like Shae Ross, a queer and out Minnesota high school senior who has fought on the local level against bans on books dealing with sexuality, gender and race. Ross, 18, said she is encouraged to see her governor and leaders of other states are taking the fight statewide.

“For a lot of teenagers, LGBT teenagers and teenagers who maybe just don’t feel like they have a ton of friends, or a ton of popularity in middle or high school ... literature becomes sort of an escape.” Ross said. “Especially when I was like sixth, seventh grade, I’d say reading books, especially books with gay characters ... was a way that I could feel seen and represented.”

Minnesota is one of several Democratic-leaning states where lawmakers are now pursuing bans on book bans. The Washington and Maryland legislatures have already passed them this year, while Illinois did so last year. It was a major flashpoint of Oregon’s short session, where legislation passed the Senate but died without a House vote.

According to the American Library Association, over 4,200 works in school and public libraries were targeted in 2023, a jump from the old record of nearly 2,600 books in 2022. Many challenged books — 47% in 2023 — had LGBTQ+ and racial themes.

Restrictions in some states have increased so much that librarians and administrators fear crippling lawsuits, hefty fines and even imprisonment if they provide books that others regard as inappropriate. Already this year, lawmakers in more than 15 states have introduced bills to impose harsh penalties on libraries or librarians.

Conservative parents and activists argue that the books are too sexually explicit or otherwise controversial, and are inappropriate, especially for younger readers. National groups such as Moms for Liberty say parents are entitled to more control over books available to their children.

But pushback is emerging. According to EveryLibrary, a political action committee for libraries, several states are considering varying degrees of prohibitions on book bans. A sampling includes California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, though some in conservative states appear unlikely to pass. One has also died in New Mexico this year.

One such bill is awaiting Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s signature in Maryland. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill last month that sets a high bar for removing challenged materials, especially those dealing with race, sexual orientation and gender identity. A version pending in New Jersey would protect librarians from civil or criminal liability.

Some proposals are labeled “Freedom to Read” acts.

“That’s what’s so critical here. The voluntary nature of reading,” said Martha Hickson, a librarian at North Hunterdon High School in New Jersey. “Students can choose to read, not read, or totally ignore everything in this library. No one is asking them to read a damn thing.”

Hickson recalled how parents first suggested her book collections contained pedophilia and pornography during a school board meeting in 2021. She watched the livestream in horror as they objected that the novel “Lawn Boy” and illustrated memoir “Gender Queer” were available to students and suggested she could be criminally liable.

“Tears welled up, shaking” Hickson said. ”But once my body got done with that, my normal attitude, the fight side kicked in, and I picked up my cellphone while the meeting was still going on and started reaching out.”

Book bans have been a sore point for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former high school teacher. The Minnesota Senate passed his proposal this month. It would prohibit book bans in public and school libraries based on content or ideological objections and require that the key decisions about what books will or won’t be offered be made by library professionals.

The state House is considering an approach with more teeth, including penalties and allowing private citizens to sue to enforce it.

“I’m working with stakeholders, with the Department of Education, librarians, school districts and their representatives,” said Democratic Rep. Cedrick Frazier, of New Hope. “We’re working to tighten up the language, to make sure we can come to a consensus, and just kind of make sure that everybody’s on the same page.”

Ross, a student at Jefferson High School in Bloomington, was alarmed when she heard last year that conservative groups were organizing in her community to ban books based on their content. So she and her friends got organized themselves, and they helped persuade their school board to make it much harder to remove books and other materials from their libraries and classrooms.

Because of her activism, Ross was invited when Walz went to Como Park Senior High School in St. Paul last month to view a display of books banned elsewhere. The governor called book bans “the antithesis of everything we believe” and denounced what he depicted as a growing effort to bully school boards.

At a House hearing last month, speakers said books by LGBTQ+ and authors of color are among those most frequently banned. Karlton Laster, director of policy and organizing for OutFront Minnesota, who identifies as Black and queer, said reading their works helped him “communicate my hard feelings and truths to my family and friends,” and helped him come out to his family.

Kendra Redmond, a Bloomington mother with three children in public schools, testified about efforts to push back against a petition drive by conservatives to pull about 28 titles from the city’s school libraries.

Pushback from Ross, Redmond and others succeeded. The Bloomington School Board last month made it much harder to seek removals. Parents can still restrict access by their own children to material they deem objectionable.

Many challenges in the district came from the Bloomington Parents Alliance. One of its leaders, Alan Redding, recalled how his son’s 9th grade class was discussing a book a few years ago when graphic passages about date rape were read aloud in class. He said his son and other kids were unprepared for something so explicit.

“They were clearly bothered by this and disgusted,” Redding said. ”My son absolutely shut down for the semester.”

Minnesota Republican lawmakers have argued that instead of worrying about book bans, they should be focusing instead on performance in a state where just under half of public school students can read at grade level.

“Every book is banned for a child that doesn’t know how to read,” said GOP Rep. Patricia Mueller, a teacher from Austin.

Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey. Associated Press reporters Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this story.

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Is Beloved Dive Bar Lucy’s Reopening?

The owner of Le Dive has filed a liquor license application for the East Village space

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Earlier this year, Lucy’s, a dive bar staple of the East Village since the 1980s, was facing eviction: Owner Ludwika “Lucy” Mickevicius had gone to a month-to-month lease, and her new landlords, who had purchased the building for $19 million, wanted to raise her rent to $25,000, which, she told EV Grieve , she could not afford. In February, Gothamist reported a sign dated January 29 to the front door stated she had 30 days to “vacate and surrender possession of the premises to [the] owner.”

This week, Jon Neidich’s hospitality group, Golden Age (Le Dive, the Nines, Deux Chats), has applied for a liquor license to take over Lucy’s bar space. If the LLC on the filing is any indication, the name will remain Lucy’s (the listing for Lucy’s on Google reads “temporarily closed”), but whether Mickevicius will stay involved was not immediately clear. A spokesperson for Golden Age Hospitality declined to comment. The namesake Lucy is after all, what has made the the dive bar worth visiting — a “one of a kind bartender,” a relic of a fading version of Downtown Manhattan, one with just a handful of dive bars left in the area, particularly one of Polish descent.

It’s an unlikely pairing, given that, at least up until now, Neidich’s businesses are just about the antithesis of Lucy’s in every way. Neidich — who recently was the subject of a New York Times profile, which describes him as a nightlife impresario, known for swanking up Millennial bars — is behind s pots like the Nines, with its caviar potato, where reservations are a must, and table service cocktails and a dress code are a given. He’s had success with the not-at-all dive, Le Dive, a wine bar fixture of the Dimes Square scene. Before that, he was involved with the Wythe Hotel restaurant Le Crocodile, and cocktail bar the Happiest Hour, and made a name for himself opening Acme nightclub on Great Jones Street.

Lucy’s was special precisely for remaining a dive bar — well drinks at a cheap, affordable price, appeasing both students in the area and longtime area bar flies, in all its sticky-seat glory. Whether Neidich plans to keep the space as is or transform it into a glossy, “modern dive bar,” a la Ray’s , remains to be seen.

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