On the first point; could that be the sickness? If his body can't contain a spirit, then maybe it could have been rebelling.

The explanation given was that he was born with the sickness, and the spirit was put into his body to keep him alive, so I don't think that's it.  I guess his periods of recovery are supposed to be taken as signs of the spirit's work, but I don't recall there ever being any indication that it was anything more than the disease coming and going.

Hmm; well, that would be a point.

I think a lot of the fact is that sometimes people think of things after the fact; so stuff from the Soul Society arc could have foreshadowed it, if it hadn't been for the fact that it was thought up later, maybe?

Planning only goes so far, after all. ^^'

Rose and Kensei got randomly killed by some random mook.

Like.

What was even the point. Why. Did Kubo just have to let off some random-death steam after not killing anyone for the first bazillion chapters? At least the other deaths served some kind of purpose. These guys were just like "lol I killed them." It just baffles me.

I'm not so sure Aizen's free yet... His mouth was the only thing released by Kyoraku. That's all it might have taken to activate his Shikai and presuming Kyoraku saw it before, he would now be under its spell and just think Aizen is free and walking around.

But he probably legitimately is. *facepalm*

I believe Kubo did admit to making things up as he goes along--which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when it's something like pulling out a new deity it becomes a little more glaring.  Though I think you do have to make it up as you go along to some extent with any long-running thing.

Part of me is expecting someone (probably Kurotsuchi, unfortunately) to find a way to rework the zombie thing to make them actually alive again, so I haven't gotten too bummed about many of the deaths.  If they are dead, though, then yeah, that's a pretty unceremonious way of doing it. (Also it's bugging me that we don't know what's happened to Yachiru, especially now that we've finally seen her shikai and it was pretty awesome.  ALSO, I'm ticked that Unohana got killed off, especially since freaking Byakuya gets off scott-free once again, but I'd need a while to properly sort all those thoughts...)

Hm, I hadn't considered that.  When Aizen's zanpakuto went away I thought he might've lost those powers, but it's possible he still has them through the Hogyoku rather than the sword.  Or, maybe the Hogyoku is generating a similar effect?  That is possible.  I saw someone propose the possibility that King Quincy freed Aizen when he went to speak with him two years ago or whenever, which is possible considering how broken that guy is, but...even for Aizen, I think waiting in his dark hole that long is a bit much.  He's not Makuta, after all.