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[🇯🇵]

それは敗者の理論だ！(Sore wa haisha no rironda!) 勝者とは常に 世界がどういうものかではなく どうあるべき、かについて語らなければならない！(Shōsha to wa tsuneni sekai ga dō iu mono kade wanaku dō arubeki, ka ni tsuite kataranakereba naranai!) 私は… (Watashi wa…)

[ENG]

That's an argument a loser would make! A victor must always speak of how the world should be, rather than how the world is! I…

[🇺🇸]

“That’s an argument only a loser would make! A victor should speak how the world should be rather than how the world currently operates. I refuse to accept a world ruled by that Thing; I am a victor! I shall decide how the world should be!!!”

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[🇯🇵]

なぜあんなものに従っていられるのだ！(Naze an'na mono ni shitagatte i rareru noda?!) (Why do you subjugate yourself to that thing?!)

[🇺🇸]

Why in the world is that you choose to subjugate yourself to that thing?!

[🇯🇵] [ENG] [🇺🇸]

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[🇯🇵]

浦原… 浦原 喜助！私はお前を蔑如する！(Urahara… Urahara Kisuke! Watashi wa omae o betsujo suru!) (Urahara… Urahara Kisuke! I despise you!) // お前ほどの頭脳がありながら、なぜ動かない！(Omae hodo no zunō ga arinagara, naze ugokanai?!) (With your great intellect, why won't you take action?!)

[🇺🇸]

Urahara… Kisuke Urahara! Do you know much I despise you! // With your great intellect, why is it you don’t take independent action?!

Aizen: “Urahara Kisuke… I despise you!" 

Aizen: "With your great intellect, why won’t you take action?! 

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[🇯🇵]

崩玉は、あなたを主とは認めないと言ってるんスよ。(Hōgyoku wa, anata o omo to wa mitomenai to itteru n su yo.) (The Hōgyoku, is saying that it does not recognize you as its master.) // バカな。(Bakana.) (That's absurd.)

[🇺🇸]

The Hōgyoku, is saying that it does not recognize you as its master. // You’re wrong.

[🦋]

そんなわけがあるか。そんなわけが！(Son'na wake ga aru ka. Son'na wake ga!) (That can't be. There's no way!) [That can’t be. It’s impossible. I control this power!]

Urahara: “The Hogyoku is saying that is does not recognize you as its master.”

Aizen: “That’s absurd!”

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霊王の存在がなければ、尸魂界は分裂する。(Rei-ō no sonzai ga nakereba, sourusosaeti wa bunretsu suru.) (Without the existence of the Reiō, Soul Society would split apart.) 霊王は楔なんス。(Rei-ō wa kusabina n su.) (The Reiō is the keystone.) 楔を失えばた、やすく崩れる。(Kusabi o ushinaebata, yasuku kuzureru.) (Without the keystone in place, it would fall apart easily.) 世界とは、そういうものなんスよ。(Sekai to wa, sōiu monona n su yo.) (That's how the world is.) // (🦋)

[🇺🇸]

Without the existence of the Soul King, the Society would split into pieces. The Soul King is the keystone to it all. Without that keystone in place, the system would fall apart. That, my friend, is how the world works. // (🦋)

Ha! And just after I wrote that post about Nietzsche!

Because wow, what Aizen serves up here is pure Nietzsche. Notice how he doesn’t really make any argument about how the world should be, besides implying that he really should be on top of it. He’s being bound by Urahara’s “slave morality”, which only serves to restrain great men like Aizen!

And, funnily enough, Urahara. Urahara is “in” on the noble lie of Soul Society. He knows what the Soul King is. He may even know how that came to pass. But, in the grand republican tradition, he accepts that perhaps there are some virtues to self-restraint.

Perhaps this whole Hogyoku disaster taught him that.

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[🇯🇵]

(overwhelmed) // それが崩玉の意志ッス。(Sore ga Hōgyoku no ishissu.) (It is the Hōgyoku's will.) あのとき撃ち込んだ封印が 今ようやく発動したのは、あなたの力が弱まったからッス。(Ano toki uchikonda fūin ga ima yōyaku hatsudō shita no wa, anata no chikara ga yowamattakarassu.) (The reason the seal that I shot into your body is only taking effect now, is because your powers have weakened.) 黒崎さん のおかげッスよ。(Kurosaki-san no okagessu yo.) (It was thanks to Kurosaki-san.) これほどまでに戦って追い詰めてくれたから 発動できたんです。(Kore hodo made ni tatakatte oitsumete kuretakara hatsudō dekita ndesu.) (It was able to take effect because he fought this hard and pushed you to your limit.) (🩸)

[🇺🇸]

(overwhelmed) // It is the Hōgyoku's will. The reason the seal I shot into you is only now taking effect, is because your powers has started to weaken. This is all thanks to Ichigo. The seal was able to take effect because he fought so hard and pushed you to your limit. (🩸)

You know, as unexpected as Aizen losing to a sneaky kido from Urahara is, I kind of like it? Ichigo still did his thing, but his victory isn’t in beating Aizen although I feel like he could have done that if he had just kept fighting him in the pre-Mugetsu state, it’s in standing up to him long enough for Urahara’s plan to come into effect.

Normally you don’t want somebody coming in and stealing your protagonist’s triumph– that’s bad storytelling. But here, Ichigo defeating Aizen doesn’t feel like a tremendous triumph. The stuff we care about with regards to Ichigo– his own mental state, and his relationships with his friends– haven’t been resolved, and him losing all his powers is probably just going to create new ones.

In light of that, I’m fine with the actual resolution here being to the larger story about Urahara and Hogyoku. Tying that up creates space for future stories to focus more on Ichigo, and it also serves as a greater condemnation of Aizen. Because in the end, he doesn’t lose to plot armor, or narrative inevitability, or some sort of deus ex machina. He loses because once again, he was outsmarted by Kisuke Urahara.

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Happy Halloween 2k24

Listen to Rukia Kuchiki's theme in reverse. [❄️]

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