#also I do read people who are anti Orihime

[ichinoue]

In the lust arc, ichigo never said the "her" kanji in the original Japanese scan, this kanji: 彼 was nowhere to be seen. It was ichigos instinct to protect that made him get up; he didn't know who was calling, but since someone was, he ahd to protect, that's who he is.

The translation for the original Japanese scan is:

“呼んでる. 呼んでるんだ. 聞こえる. 立てよ. 立て. 俺が. 俺が. 俺が護る."

“Calling. They are calling. I can hear it. Rise. Stand up. I…I…I will protect.”

I don't know why viz chose to add a non existent her, but in the original scan, there's no her.

Now you can ship what u like, just don't mischarecterize ichigo for the sake of it. We know you want it to appear that ichigo was down bad for orihime, just don't do it at the cost of ichigos charecter. This was a moment for ichigo to show his instinct to protect, no matter who, and his will as a shinigami.

You also say that in terms panel that ichigo blasts orihime away and off her feet, that he wasnt attacking her because "his sword was on the other side". If he raised from the DEAD to save her, why wouldn't he more cautious of her? That blast flew orihime off her feet, you dont do deliberately do that if ur protecting someone.

I've seen some people use the data book as an arguement to say it was about orihime since it says he was "bound to orihimes screams" when that was 3rd person. That was from a readers perspective, because we as readers knew that orihime was calling out to him, ichigo didn't.

If vasto lorde/ichigo meant to protect orihime, he wouldve said the her kanji in the original scan, and he wouldn't have blasted her away after that. By all means, enjoy ur ship. I don't give a fuck abt that, what I do give a fuck about is ichigo mischarecterization or a false narrative being pushed in order to enjoy ur ship. Ichigo rose from the dead to protect who was calling out to him, because that's what he does. The ichihime ship doenst need this moment to stay alive, once again I know ichihime shippers love to use this as a basis of thir arguement as to why its canon, but it simply didn't happen the way u guys say.

Call me an ichihime anti, call me an orihime hater, I don't give a fuck. Stop pushing false narratives to make ur ship appear any better than it does, its quite frustrating to see mischarecterization happen because of shipping. And I say this too any shippers who want to twist the narrative or mischarecterize charecters in order to validate their ship or prove that their ship is good.

Well guys, it's 2023 and here's another dolt ranting about pronouns in the lust arc, just like the IH Fail essay that ended up being a fail in and of itself.

When will these people learn that Japanese doesn't require pronouns the same way that English does?

Hell, English doesn't even require pronouns when it's redundant and *this* incredibly obvious who is being talked to and/or about:

Seriously. Even if the only thing Ichigo were saying here is the word "protect"...or furthermore, even if we were not meant to know what he was saying at all, and it was just some mumbled, broken speech that the reader was not meant to decipher...It's still blatantly evident that whatever it is he's saying, he's talking to/about Orihime.

I mean this is just hilarious to me. Here's Orihime and Ichigo, literally placed together in side by side panels as Ichigo continues to chant about protecting...And ichiruki shippers are like, "hmmm well, it's not super clear who he's talking about because there's no pronoun so...I guess we'll never know 🤷‍♀️."

When literally, she's...she's right there on the page lmao. That's Orihime, she's right there! You can't miss her!! Like c'mon, dude. This is basic reading comprehension. You really need a pronoun to help you figure this out when her face is right there? Directly adjacent to his? When she's listening to what he's saying, so that it can then dawn on her that, "oh shit, it's my fault, he's doing this for ME."

This is the very next page following that last one, with a flashback of the moment in question, of Orihime screaming out for Ichigo, the moment he could hear HER calling before he rose up from the dead, chanting about protection. Confirming for the 47 thousandth time that yeah, he rose up from the dead for her.

You think Kubo drew this^ entire page, at such a pivotal moment, to show that Orihime's...wrong? Like some sort of gag? She's just *imagining* that Ichigo rose up for her, but it's not actually true? That's...certainly an interesting way to interpret things lmao.

Here's the page the flashback references, of Orihime screaming, placed directly next to Ichigo just as he begins to rise up. But yeah, it had nothing at all to do with Orihime. Just a total coincidence, I'm sure.

And if that weren't enough, here's the Bleach Unmasked Databook:

完全虚化した一護は, 織姫が発した叫びを反芻 しその目的だけに縛られた。

"The perfectly hollowfied Ichigo ruminated over Orihime's screams and was bound only to that purpose"

You...mentioned this? Kind of?

"I've seen some people use the data book as an arguement to say it was about orihime since it says he was "bound to orihimes screams" when that was 3rd person. That was from a readers perspective, because we as readers knew that orihime was calling out to him, ichigo didn't."

The readers aren't the ones who bound Ichigo to Orihime's screams (especially not you, anon, since you keep insisting it had nothing to do with her lmao). Kubo did that. That's how he meant for this scene to be interpreted: that Ichigo was bound to Orihime's screams. But you're still here fighting against it for some reason lol.

Ichigo did know she was calling out to him. It was part of his internal monologue, as she's screaming, before he hollowfied. Whether the pronoun is there or not (because again, the pronoun for her doesn't *need* to be there to make it clear who he's talking about when she's clearly the only person screaming, placed directly next to a panel of him rising him up...) he could hear her voice. He could hear her calling him. He ruminated over ORIHIME'S screams and was bound to ONLY that purpose. Only her.

You can try to downplay it and remove her from the equation all you want, but it's impossible. It's impossible because she was the only one on her knees by his side when he died, the only one screaming, the only one whose voice he could hear, the only purpose he was bound to. The only one whose face is side by side with his as he speaks about protecting. The only one featured in a flashback to the crucial moment of her screaming, placed side by side with a panel of him about to rise up, confirming it was for her.

Try to crop her out of all the pages leading up to the moment Ichigo rises up and see how much is left. Try to make sense of him rising up because he can hear someone screaming, without her there...literally screaming. Try to erase her when she was the catalyst to it all.

And I guess at this point I just don't understand why that's so hard to believe? That Ichigo rose up from the dead for Orihime? Considering Kubo has confirmed that he planned the final chapter revealing the endgame couples after writing chapter ONE.

Is it really that difficult to fathom? That Kubo wrote Ichigo doing such a thing.....for his future wife? Considering Kubo *knew* they would be married in the end when he wrote the lust arc?

Honestly like, it's been seven years. What is the point of digging in your heels and shouting at clouds that scenes like this between Ichigo and Orihime were not romantic when their relationship was literally...planned out...to be romantic?

It's over, it's canon. You can either accept the high likelihood that you were misinterpreting Ichigo and Orihime's relationship from the way Kubo meant for it to be interpreted all along, or continue to rant in my inbox on anon. The choice is yours lol.

[mshexley]

Question this is going back to the whole Giselle debate on bleach.

But how do you think how Kubo handles his lgbtq and trans coded character? Are they good or they could be be improved. I have been seeing mix reactions saying Kubo is anti lgbtq and transphobic because his characters. But to me I think he handle them pretty well. I can see how people can say why since how he handle Giselle and Charlotte but then you have characters like Soi fon, Chizuru, and Yumichika yes they don't get much spotlight authentic rest of the cast but in some ways they all have good personality

Personally, I feel like it usually depends on a person's experience. I also like to add the disclaimer that I'm not trans or Japanese, so take my stance with a grain of salt. I also want to make it clear that I'm not making excuses for him.

TLDR: He wants to clearly add more queer characters to his work but he doesn't seem to know anything about queer culture even in Japan which is where you would assume he gets most of his inspiration but he seems to take his knowledge from a very pop-culture view of queer people.

I don't think it's out of malice but he can definitely improve by putting in the research work especially if there's going to be another Bleach arc and especially for any added arcs of Burn The Witch and he wants to add more queer characters.

(The longer version is under the cut)

But in general, I feel Kubo has the same approach to writing queer characters in the way that early Togashi (HxH, Yu Yu Hakusho) did. In that way where he's trying but it's....just not good. It just reads that way to me.

And it very much paints the picture that Kubo wants to add queer characters to his stories because they tend to fit the themes of his works but he is not around a lot of queer folks and doesn't know much about the culture and what he does know is formed from a sort of pop-culture understanding of Japanese LGBT+ culture and when mixed with Japan's own queerphobia, it just doesn't mix well.

And its funny to bring up Soi Fon and Chizuru because I think they're a clear example of this as both fall into the "predatory lesbian" trope. Chizuru with Orihime and Soi Fon with Yoruichi. When Kubo writes well, he writes WELL but when he flops, HE FLOPS and he tends to drop the ball with a lot of characters. The only thing we know about Chizuru is that inappropriately touches Orihime a lot and the only thing we know about Soi Fon is that she's hardheaded and has been obsessed with Yoruichi since she was a child. And I can.....sort of give it a pass cause it was the early 2000s and...dear god those years were the worst.

In the cases of Yumichika and Charlotte, it feels like they can be read as deep but the whether it's intentional or not is up for debate just because of Kubo's track record. Like Yumichika and Charlotte are the best queer characters he's written because of how they both can be read. And again, there's no telling if that's intentional or not and that's what holds him back.

I already touched on Yumichika as a closeted gay man who lashes out on other queer people and I think the biggest issue is that there isn't a much clearer emphasis on Yumichika being the one in the wrong because Kubo has no issue with named characters getting told off for being wrong, especially when they're being backwards and narrow-minded. IMO, I think a small clapback of Giselle saying "you smell semen often" would've been way more relatable in terms of queer insulting and I feel like it would've put them on even ground somewhat but again, Kubo wouldn't know that because he doesn't know much about the cultures of queer people.

Charlotte gives strong drag queen vibes for me. Like compared to the drag queens I watch, Charlotte feels very much like them and everything about her personality is a campy bit right down to her super long attack names.

I also see some folks not want to claim Giselle which is their prerogative but it sets the precedent that queer people have to fit a certain mold in order to be queer and I feel like it's unfair to Giselle as a character because she's the not the only character that is morally bad. Mayuri exists and he shows no remorse for constantly abusing Nemu and takes pride in his experiments on other species like Uryu's grandfather and the Arrancar, Szayelaporro exists and he was so bad he went to Hell, there's also Nnoitora who actively attacks Nel because she was a woman ranked higher than him. Even among the Quincies, there's Quilge Opie who takes pleasure in ruthlessly murdering Arrancar prisoners and PePe who's power is to literally force people to "love" him, even using it on other Quincies.

I would understand if Giselle was isolated in that type of personality but the reason people "aren't talking about it" is because it comes with the food at this point. The Sternritters are literally modeled after Nazis (the guy that leads them literally built his power by killing the "mixed blooded Quincy), most of them are gonna have personalities that people may find deplorable.

In general, if Kubo wants to commit to it, he should put in the work and learn more about Queer culture because there are different implications when you write queer characters a certain way. Because I feel like with his style of writing, he can make it work.

[marunalu]

So I never watched the spiderman movie with miles, so I cant really say something about that but I agree with the rest. But I also want to ad a few things why bleach is such a great manga and why I would recommend everyone to read it. Is bleach without flaws? Surely not. But when it comes to character development, character depth, drawing and character styles, world building and story plot, bleach is AWESOME!!! Most importantly bleach is as much as a character AND plot driven story. In my honest opinion only the power scales and plot armor of a few characters are a bit over the top.

We follow a mc who is for once not portraied as an idiot, is not an comedic relief character, doesnt think about food 24/7 the entire year and doesnt have a great goal like most shonen mc have. Ichigos only wish is to protect people! Thats his only goal! His name literally translates into "protector". We have a mc who is not only very selfconvident from the start, but also has a more serious personality then a silly one. He suffers from past trauma of his mothers death, he got bullied for his hair colour but instead of just accepting how people treat him, he gives them hell in return. Ichigo is the biggest anti bulling mc in all of shonen! What ever you do, do NOT DARE to harm his loved ones or people under his protection! He can also be incredible kind and forgiving, even to his enemys. All in all ichigo is pretty much the most realistic written shonen mc ever!

Bleach is full of awesome characters, full of crazy fights, full of shocking twists! It treats its female characters with respect and its full of crazy strong woman! Yes it has a lot of fanservice, but tite kubo made at least sure that ALL his readers (not only the male) can enjoy all the eye candy.

And lets also not forget that till to this day bleach has the best poc and disabled people representation in all of shonen. Just to show a few of the poc characters:

And here a few disabled characters (cant post more then 10 pictures):

Shunsui Kyoraku: lost his right eye.

Jushiro Ukitake: chronical "ill" since childhood and has a very weak body. Coughs a lot of blood.

Kukaku Shiba: her right arm was ambutated. The anime cencored that and gave her an wooden arm.

Kaname Tosen: blind since birth.

Rangiku Matsumoto: not really disabled in her daily life, but a huge part of her soul was stolen from her when she was a child and that missing part is one of the reasons why she isnt more powerful then she COULD be, if her soul was still fully intact.

And there are more.

When it comes to manga vs. anime then yes, the manga is FAR better, espicially the first 2 arcs were butchered by the anime studio, by cutting canon stuff and including filler. Also ichigos relationship between rukia and orihime was completly misportraied in the anime too. The manga makes perfectly clear rukia = big sister, best friend and mentor for ichigo. Orihime = ichigos love interest. But the anime always highlights how special rukia is for ichigo with romantic/sad music in the background, while cutting all his moments with the girl that is actually in love with him and completly changing her introducion (in the manga orihime likes ichigo from the start and wants to interact with him, in the anime she is at first scared of him and is nervous around him, also ichigo doesnt really seem to pay attention to her). To be fair it gets better after the first 2 arcs, but only because tite kubo got VERY angry with the anime studio, changing so much from the manga. Can you still enjoy the anime though? Yes, you can. The anime makes it easier to understand what happens in a fight and the fights are really good. The art style is a little bit outdated, but it gets better over time. The animation of the final arc is FIRE!!!

All in all I would recommend, read the manga first and then watch the anime. Or read and watch at the same time. But do NOT watch the anime first, it can turn you biased to certain things which were never tite kubos intentions when he wrote the story!

Okay cool!!!Thank you so much everyone for encouraging my dumbassitude,this is all the motivation i need to actually make this post and try to come up with a Bleach x Spiderverse tag🤞🏼🤎

So the main thing that made me come up with this one was that like Hobie,the protagonist of Bleach is a dude who's an actual punk instead of just EdgyTM but is also even edgier than him in a way because he's also goth

Ichigo Kurosaki AKA objectively the best shonen mc because he has actual satisfying character development and logical power ups,as well respecting women especially his love interest instead of being a weird pervert or treating her badly :] A big chunk of the series' cast are part of a military system but Ichigo never even considers joining it because he thinks it's bullshit and only sides with members of it when it comes to helping out innocent people or he's manipulated into it(Actually same thing now that i think about it).If you're a Hobie stan and/or simp,i guarantee you'll love Ichigo too!!And if you're a Punkflower lover like me

I can't pinpoint exact moments parallels because one of them has SO MANY that it's hard to remember exact ones BUT Orihime is a lot like Miles and that includes how highly Ichigo thinks of her and him having her back all the time and them being super goofy together and really important to eachother,both in the feelings sense and character arcs wise!Fair warning that Orihime and Ichihime get a lot of bad faith critisism and straight up hate due to her being autistic-coded like Miles but with the addition of her also being an extremely feminine teen girl who's conventially attractive(and it's worth noting this is never used against the other girls in the series which makes it worse,although this could be because Ichigo never liked anyone except her).And!!!For people who have Gwen or Jess as their fave:

^^^Rukia,The deutragonist who's got a found siblings relathionship with Ichigo and can be described by that post i made that said 'Ideal gender:Femme but with the personality you'd expect from a tomboy' and his mentor,Yoruichi,who's canonically blasian with extremely realistic characterization for a black woman.I should state that Bleach came out in 2001 and ended in 2016 so sadly there is some dated stuff in it but it's definitely worth the read!!Keyword being 'read' because the og anime is an awful adaption in multiple ways and the only one i'd recommend is the ongoing 2022 one that's taking on the final arc!Hope this convinced you to at least look up Bleach things but if not then that's completely okay🙏🏼

[moonasheschevalier]

Wait a second

An Anti Ulquihime/Ishihime, who thinks that calling Rukia Abarai is “cute” when in the novel she’s  stressed/dread af, calls any other ship with Ori that’s not Ichihime “spiteship”? If Ichihime were like Nero/Kyrie (which I love and adore) I would’ve ship them asd well, but they are not.  Okay, I understand you dislike Ulqui, considering him a “bad guy” (which is childish af, cuz Ulquiorra’s gone through some heavy character development, thanks to Orihime and Ulquihime fans in Japan), but... Ishida? Who cared about Orihime more than anybody else (except Tatsuki), who was there for her, saving her, cheering her up, loving her wholeheartedly?  Seems to me you’re just pissed off that I don’t ship what you ship. An Anti Ulquihime/Ishihime who ships Renruki and keeps forgetting how Renji treated Rukia and was ready to kill Ichigo in front or Rukia eyes, choked her, almost cut her and took her against her will to be e x e c u t e d, dares to tell me who deserves who in the manga?  (Tbh, I like post SS Byakuya and Renji, but the way they almost let her be killed makes me so uncomfortable all these years later still, so I would prefer to forget that crap too at some point) An Anti Ulquihime/Ishihime who ships Sasuke/Sakura calls my Ulquihime an abusive and toxic ship? - After Sasuke’s leaving all people who cared about him and becoming a terrorist on his own free will? - After Sasuke tried to kill Sakura like what, 4 times? - After never having a kiss with Sakura? After having a date that lasted less than 5 minutes?! And yet they got a baby somehow? I bet Orochimaru helped. - After he abandoned his wife and daughter? NOT SENDING THEM ANY LETTERS, CONTACTING AND MEETING WITH NARUTO ONLY. - After he almost kills his own daughter? GOOD JOB ON RESTORING ERASING UCHIHA CLAN, SASUKE.  (I love Sarada and she deserves a much better father/or second mom, like two moms) - After he cared only about Naruto even when he’s got his own family? Omfg, he trains Naruto’s son, not his own child! - That list seems to be endless...

W H A T

That’s just disgusting.  Don’t you dare to say you’re pro-female character if that means to you to care only about will the girl get the D of the first guy in her life or not. That should never be the prime goal for female characters. This is wrong.

[recurring-polynya]

What’s your opinion on pre-canon Renruki?

I think that they already had a romantic or almost romantic relationship back in the Academy, maybe even back in Rukongai, and the reason it wasn’t explicit is because firstly it would have spoiled the endgame couples, and secondly it’s a shonen, so it’s implied.

I think they fooled around when they were orphans in Inuzuri. They grew up together, they were always together in their “teenage” years (however adolescence works for souls😅), I think it’s not impossible that they had their first experience, if just their first kiss and make out session, with each other. When they joined the Academy, they spent less time together due to their different courses, and I think Rukia’s sad expression when Renji leaves for the mission in the real world depicts that (along with worry for him, and maybe even jealousy for his achievements compared to hers). By then I think they were quite intimate, they fooled around sometimes (with the little time they had) and knew the other’s and their own feelings, but never said anything like “I love you”, or talked seriously about the depth of their relationship. If they were “just friends”, as some antis like to claim, they wouldn’t have been so heartbroken, have so many regrets and felt so guilty during their separation. And why that separation in the first place? It’s not a matter of class difference, because Rukia did talk to people of inferior status, like her Squad mates. What’s actually forbidden to people from different classes is relationships. If Renruki was just a friendship, there would have been no problem, but their bond was beyond that. Rukia wanted Renji to tell her to stay with him, but his feelings of inferiority and belief that Rukia deserved better (maybe even better than him) prevented him to do it. Their separation doesn’t feel like an end to a friendship to me, it feels like a breakup. They avoided each other because it hurt so much, and they couldn’t bear to have any relationship other than a romantic one, which was impossible once she became a Kuchiki.

After the Soul Society arc, they got back together. They were physically too comfortable around each other to be just friends, like when he basically hugged her to encourage her to go back to Soul Society when Orihime is kidnapped (and maybe he was also comforting her), or when, during the fight with the Fullbringers, he casually placed her head resting on his thigh. By then they were secretly dating, in my opinion. In the last arc they were always together, it’s so easy imagining them as a couple.

What do you think? Is my interpretation far fetched? I’d like to hear your theories about their feelings, when they blossomed, when they confessed, if they had something going on during their Academy years…

Thank you if you decide to answer!🤍

Well, as you say, Bleach is a shounen, and also I don’t think Kubo was particularly interested in including romance in the story, so I don’t think there is a correct or incorrect interpretation. It’s left to the reader to imagine what they like. I don’t think “spoiling the endgame” has anything to do with anything.

I don’t think your interpretation is “too far-fetched,” although I don’t happen to agree with it. There’s very little to go on in canon, people can fill in the gaps in whatever way makes them happy/makes sense to them. I have exactly 0 interest in arguing with people on the internet about stuff like this. I enjoy reading fanfiction that has wildly different interpretations from my own, I generally love to hear a variety of ideas, although I generally prefer the format of a narrative over Tumblr posts (funny, since I do seem to write a lot of them).

Anyway, here are a bunch of opinions. This is way, way too long, so I'm gonna throw it under a cut.

That being said, you have some really amatonormative ideas in there that I do take issue with. Friendships absolutely can be as deep and important as romantic relationships. I categorically reject the idea that a romantic bond is stronger than a friendship one or that acts of physical affection necessarily imply a romantic relationship. I actually have no beef at all with people who want to read Rukia and Renji’s story as a very strong friendship. I do think it was still reasonable for Renji to avoid her during their separation, even if his goal wasn’t romance. He wanted to see her live a better life, and didn’t want to drag her down. Yeah, sure, if he just wanted to be a casual workplace friend, he probably could have joined Squad 13 and seen her once in a while. But, especially in the early days, it would have been a bad look for Rukia to continue socializing with people deeply below her station, and I feel in my heart that Byakuya would have forbidden her from seeing Renji if he found out she was hanging out with someone from her Inuzuri days, even if it was just casual. Yeah, there exist people who say Rukia and Renji are "just friends" for the sake of other preferred ships, but also, like, so what? Who cares? That’s a lot better than making Renji out to be a bad person or trashing his character. To be honest, I am generally happy to read a fanfic that had some other Renji or Rukia pairing if it actually contained some solid Renruki best friend content (I have found a few 369 fics that do this, and maybe also in the little bit of RenIchi content I have read, so, uh, good job, my gays. This is sometimes touched on in ByaRen fics, but usually not as much as I want, althought I also tend to hold these to a high bar, because if I have to deal with Byakuya in my fanfics, they should have to deal with the Rukia-Renji friendship 😂)

Anyway, you asked for my interpretation, so here it is . These are all just, like, my opinions, man:

Life in Inuzuri just really, really, really sucks, and Rukia and Renji both have a lot of trauma and emotional hang-ups from that time. I think they forged a deep emotional connection during this time that was probably a little too codependent to actually be healthy. They had no models of healthy families or relationships. I also think they were incredibly close to Fujimaru, Kosaburou, and Mameji, and that even if they wanted to have a romantic relationship, they wouldn’t have, at the risk of ruining the more important bonds of the larger group.

In my fanfic, in their last days in Inuzuri, I do have them fool around for a brief period. It coincides with the deterioration of the bond with their last surviving friend, leading to his death. I did this for trauma reasons, because that’s how writers are.

“Communication” is probably the most important theme in my writing, and a thing I bring up all the time is that young Rukia and Renji had a thousand ways of communicating survival-based things between each other, and 0 ways of communicating how they felt about each other.

I did a post on this recently, but their whole gang was incredibly powerless in Inuzuri. They lived on the fringes of society and stole scraps to survive. I think that their number one duty to one another was to survive. In the anime, Rukia swears that she will never leave Inuzuri, that she will always stay with her friends. I think the reason she does an about-face is not just because their friends are gone, but because she realizes that she will lose Renji next, and the only way to prevent that is for both of them to get stronger. Neither of them actually wants to become a soul reaper. They do it for each other.

I think that Renji would have remained in Inuzuri and tried to make a life as best they could, but Rukia knew this was futile, and where Rukia goes, Renji follows.

I think they purposely maintained distance at the Academy. Just as in Inuzuri, their primary duty to one another is to survive and thrive. They were rejected and mocked for their low origins, and hanging out together would have made this worse. I think it hurt Rukia that Renji made new friends, but on the other hand, they were exactly the sort of people who would help him get a leg up in the Gotei. Rukia’s Academy days were very painful because she saw Renji succeeding, just as she wanted, but leaving her behind in the process. Conversely, Renji got super focused on doing well, with the idea that he could pull Rukia up behind him, except for the part where he never actually told her that.

I feel like I’m in the minority here, but so much fanfic focuses on Rukia and/or Renji being “wrong” in the scene where he tells her to go to the Kuchiki, but I disagree! Everything they have done is in order to get to a better life! It is Renji’s duty to encourage her to leave him behind. He doesn’t want to be an anchor holding her down. Likewise, Rukia knows that if she doesn’t go, she’s just gonna be a burden on him. Their relationship has always been about each of them surviving separately over having happiness together. Up to now, they’ve always managed to find each other again, although this kinda looks like it might be it for them. Do these kids need to go to therapy? Yes! Did they do anything wrong? No!

I think about this a lot, but even if Rukia had turned down the adoption (which… I’m not actually sure she could have), even the offer would have ruined their relationship. Imagine that Renji asks her to stay, and she does. Maybe they even get together at this point. Every rough patch, every time there’s money troubles, this spectre of “Rukia could have been a Kuchiki” is going to hang over them. In fiction, there is often an idea of sacrifice being a one-time romantic gesture, but in my real life experience, this sort of thing hangs around like an unwanted ghost. I can, in fact, envision a scenario where this is exactly how Aizen manages to get his hooks in Renji, by offering Rukia an unseated spot in Squad 5, even though she “isn’t really good enough to deserve it” and “taking care of them.”

I am really fascinated with Rukia’s crush on Kaien/Miyako. Bold proclamation here, but I think there is something developmentally healthy about young people having crushes on the older people in their lives, provided that said older people treat them with respect and dignity and don’t take advantage of it in any way. Crushes are, by their nature of being unreciprocated, a safe way for young folks to imagine the sort of people and relationships they want to have in their lives. I headcanon Rukia as bisexual, and maybe also a little bit genderfluid, and she had these two extremely cool people in her life, whom she maybe wanted to be and maybe wanted to kiss and maybe to have a marriage like that some day. I… like to think that their role in her life healed some of her trauma before their death caused even more.

Fully into headcanons now, but I like to think that Renji had a parallel experience, with, of all people, Ikkaku and Yumichika. Like him, they came from the ass-end of Rukongai, but they stuck together instead of bowing to the social mores of the Seireitei. It is critical to note that they were able to do this through strength. This is literally not a thing that Renji and Rukia could have done, but at the same time, Renji sees this as the kind of relationship he wants to have with a partner. He doesn’t want to look after Rukia and protect her, he wants to fight back-to-back with her and then make out afterwards. He’s still convinced that he needs to go through the proper class channels to see Rukia again, but without their influence, I don’t think he ever would have been able to say “fuck it” and turn on his captain during the Soul Society Arc.

Meeting Ichigo and dealing with his unreasonable need to protect everyone he cares about, personally, was also a huge blow to Rukia and Renji’s “I cannot allow the other person to take any risks for my sake” hang-up. Ichigo has his own traumas, which are entirely different from Renruki’s, but the one thing he had was growing up in a loving family. (Isshin has his problems, but I feel strongly that he always made his kids feel like his love was unconditional). I’m not saying that making friends with a shounen protagonist is a good replacement for therapy, but it does have healing properties.

Entirely off-topic, but I feel like Ichigo is incredibly selfish in the way of Terry Pratchett’s witches: “All witches are selfish, the Queen had said. But Tiffany’s Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours! Protect them! Save them! Bring them into the sheepfold! Walk the gale for them! Keep away the wolf! My dreams! My brother! My family! My land! My world! How dare you try to take these things, because they are mine!

Where were we? Oh, yeah. I honestly think that it is unknowable when in canon Rukia and Renji confessed. I already covered this pretty thoroughly in this post. I hate the idea that they were secretly dating. Renji worked incredibly hard to get his post and I think that both his job and Byakuya’s respect are very important to him. I do not think he would put either of those things at risk like that, nor would Rukia want him to. I tend to prefer a slow-burn approached, and I honestly think they got together during the 17-mo timeskip at the earliest, and more likely post-canon entirely, although I think them confessing in the Royal Realm is the spiciest possible outcome, so that’s what most of my fanfic cleaves to.

[hashtagartistlife]

kr bleach twitter is a cursed place and people keep putting up screenshots of their favourite ship moments from wdkaly, and it just keeps reinforcing to me that ih’ers and rr’ers genuinely just, cannot read....? Last year I saw two pages of the novel where RR go to lodge their official marriage certificates, and it was a pretty chilling read. Today I saw a screenshot of the ih page (the ���give me some time inoue’) page, and while it’s not quite as ‘what the fuck’ as the RR pages, it’s still. Uh. Y’all, I just feel sorry for them. THAT’S all they get??? THIS is their pinnacle ‘ih is canon’ moment??? I JUST FEEL SORRY FOR THEM SAKDJFHKAJSDFHAJHFDA

“Kuchiki-san was so pretty...” 

Orihime, who had no idea of Ichigo’s current mindstate, murmured seriously. 

“And the veil looked so good on her, too... haaa.....”

As though she was reliving the emotions of the moment again, Orihime had tears in the corners of her eyes. 

“Kurosaki-kun, thanks for taking the camera today! I’m looking forward to the photos.... I’m going to make an album and send it to everyone!” 

Orihime said, while smiling. Ichigo just replied “Mm,” with a hard expression. 

“.... What’s wrong, Kurosaki-kun?” 

Orihime asked with a worried expression. Ichigo shook his head and told her it was nothing. 

As they made small talk, the senkaimon came into view. The other three who had gone on ahead were already chatting in front of it. 

Ichigo took a deep breath. 

“Hey, Inoue.” 

He stopped, and looked at her. 

“Hm?”

Orihime tilted her head, and looked back at him. 

“I have.... something to say. Will you give me some time later?”

MA’AM. Granted, this is not as fucked as the rr excerpt that I saw, but MA’AM. THE AMBIGUITY.... THE DOUBLE MEANING...... i mean obviously ichigo being Gruff and Pained and A Man Of Few Words is supposed to show just how PRECIOUS she is to him and how he’s so afraid of fucking this up or whatever trite nonsense, but THE FACT THAT THIS COULD SO EASILY BE READ AS ICHIGO IN PAIN BC ORIHIME KEEPS MENTIONING RUKIA AND THAT VEIL AND THEN HE’S JUST STEELING HIMSELF TO DO SOMETHING UNPLEASANT.... AND HE COULDN’T EVEN GO THROUGH WITH IT SO HE JUST ENDED UP PUTTING IT OFF TO LATER WITH SOME AMBIGUOUS PHRASE. 

I mean i just don’t get it. I am really SERIOUSLY contemplating actually getting my hands on this novel because SURELY, in 200+ pages or something ridiculous, SURELY these pages aren’t the ‘GOTCHA’ that the ih’ers and rr’ers are losing their minds over???? in 200+ pages you saw THIS and you thought ‘ah yeah, the most IH page in the whole novel, showcases how cute they are together PERFECTLY, I’ll fangirl over this in public so other shippers can also see how perfect they are’???? If, in over 200 pages, THIS is your pinnacle IH moment and THAT was your pinnacle RR moment, then I’m not sure this novel is IH and RR at all. There’s a phrase in Korean, ‘intelligent anti���, and it basically means someone who pretends to fangirl over something but does so in an over-the-top manner that 1) puts other people off the thing and 2) points out the flaws of the thing, thereby subtly putting it down and honestly??????? WAS THIS NOVEL WRITTEN BY AN IH RR INTELLIGENT ANTI BECAUSE THE EXCERPTS SURE DO READ LIKE IT!!!! 

(I mean, I’m joking about this, but considering matsubara-san wrote honey dish rhapsody...) 

I think what I’m most incredulous about is the fact that they thought THIS was the moment most worthy of being screenshotted and put on twitter. Like I keep saying, I haven’t read the novel, I don’t know if the rest of the novel is chock full of them making gooey eyes at each other or something. But if it is, why would you screenshot this part and fangirl over it???? Would you not screenshot the blatant gooey-eyes scenes??? Would you not want to rub it in our face that look, yes, they’re in love! after years of being told otherwise?? Would you not want the most obvious confirmation of their fatedness or whatever other bs???? And instead, you screenshot this? Orihime prattling on as usual and Ichigo acting constipated and barely replying to her???? You really thought in 200+ pages this was the BEST interaction they had, worthy of being screenshotted and fangirled over????????

anyway man at this point i genuinely just am sorry for them. Like damn. my condolences for the loss of your reading comprehension. I know it died like 20 years ago, clearly, but damn. Shit still sucks. 

[ichihime]

ANONYMOUS ASKED: I was following along a thread on twitter and an anti said when Ichigo laid dead on the ground with a hole in his chest in the Lust arc, that he didn’t say “I can hear her..stand up..I will protect her” before hollowfying. They claim he instead said “I can hear..stand up..I have to protect” using no pronounce directed at Orihime, hence NOT coming back from the dead because he wants to protect her specifically but because of his instincts to protect and he would’ve done it for any of his friends. They also said that Orihime didn’t scream “help me” but instead said “help” which triggered Ichigo’s instincts to protect, making him rise from the dead, hence once again making it clear this was never about Orihime specifically but about Ichigo’s instincts responding when hearing a voice in need (and this voice could’ve been from anyone amongst his friends) and how the hollow would not allow him to die regardless. Basically the English translations are incorrect and the raw version in kanji never used pronounces during these scenes. Is this correct and how would you respond to this?

There are a couple really important factors to address in this translation and why its English counterpart would supplement with pronouns specifically referring to Orihime; first, that Ichigo’s speech is meant to be broken and fairly incoherent because it’s conveying the idea that he as a human is focused on this sole objective as he’s dying. Second, that in Japanese, there isn’t necessarily a requirement for subject pronouns to form a sentence talking about a subject (the subject in question being Orihime) —this is a particular grammar rule that has no translatable equivalent in the English language, because they’re ultimately different structures entirely. I drop this phrase a LOT on here, but again, cultural context is important. Since you also sent this ask to my friend @ichinoue​​, there’s been some really excellent fan feedback about the structure of Japanese language and how it differs from English —this post in particular.

Now — onto the actual question:

I think there’s definitely a possibility that Ichigo would have done this for his other friends, but only if this moment had also been preceded by Ichigo vowing to “definitely protect” or “protect without fail” those other friends. Kubo did write a scene like this, and made a pretty big deal about it, but that scene involves one specific character —not all of his friends.

This hollow transformation was written as a climax in Ichigo’s narrative arc for the Hueco Mundo saga —as the ongoing theme during this arc was about his struggle with his identity against his inner hollow as an ever-present threat. This could not be a more clear theme throughout this specific arc. There’s a lot of specific focus placed upon this struggle, his cooperation and subsequent training with the Visoreds, his lack of control despite his best efforts, and his juxtaposition of this struggle for control in his actual fights against the Arrancar and Espada. This is important to note, because in response to this, there is only one scene with one character that both:

Involves him promising to “definitely protect” or “protect without fail” a friend he cares deeply for (using the same character for “protect” that’s his namesake, no less —I’ll get into this tidbit more further down).

Functions as a foreshadowing tool, and is later double-downed upon as a foreshadowing tool by the same character as mentioned above.

When it comes down to it, the grammatical inconsistencies that come from translating between languages don’t have any particular bearing on this specific scene, because the intent was already made clear as early as Chapter 196. That’s how foreshadowing works —even if we as the reader don’t realize it’s happening until after the fact. What’s more, this is how Japanese functions as a language; it’s constructed around making sense of the context, which is why it doesn’t necessarily need subject pronouns to function or convey meaning. (Though I can understand why this goes over most Anti-IHs heads... their arguments depend almost entirely on pulling things out of context, which obviously doesn’t work.)

That said —

This scene says a lot. And even though Ichigo is speaking directly to Orihime so we understand she is the subject of what he’s saying, there’s a lot of additional meaning we can derive from this scene by reading (you guessed it) the context. 

Ichigo is characterized early on by somewhat brash, irritable (though this is conditional), impolite, “punk”-like mannerisms. His speech tends to be informal (cultural context) as does his body language. However, we also know that he doesn’t say things lightly when it comes to promises and protecting others. These words carry weight, but there’s an additional sense of conviction conveyed through his respectful and formal gesture of bowing, his unwavering eye contact, and we as the readers can understand this without needing an explanation.

This is especially interesting because if IRs want to get smart about raws, then they should also already understand the additional importance placed on this scene when it comes to Ichigo’s word choice. Ichigo uses the character “護” (mamoru / ”to protect”) to convey his intentions. There are a lot of different ways to write “protect” in Japanese, many of which Ichigo uses when he makes these promises or talks about protecting others throughout the series. What makes his choice of “護” especially significant and piles on more and more contextual importance is that this is the same character for “protect” that is his namesake and the basis for his core character motivations. This is also only time throughout the entire series Ichigo specifically uses “護” to refer to protecting someone. 

If the intention of this to act as a foreshadowing tool wasn’t clear enough, it is again referenced by Orihime later —just at the beginning of the fight between Ichigo and Grimmjow. 

Already, we have a precedent set by Orihime’s direct involvement. This is the second scene in a pattern of foreshadowing the events of the Lust Arc. 

The intent is clear; this is a theme in Ichigo’s narrative arc that involves Orihime, because it also involves the development of their relationship. Her fear of hollows, her fear of Ichigo losing himself to his hollow side, Ichigo’s struggle to expose himself to this power he relies on to win in battle while also trying not to lose himself. There’s an underlying theme of Ichigo and Orihime struggling to communicate with each other, desperately wishing to protect each other and going to whatever ends to do it, but ultimately thinking its a burden they must shoulder alone. They are both concurrently struggling with feelings of uselessness (Ichigo isn’t strong enough, Orihime can’t do anything) throughout this arc, acting as foils even if their individual journeys take different shapes. Even so, these conflicts are juxtaposed by the theme of “The Heart” (the bonds between people) that also keep appearing. They’re both frightened, they’re both feeling weak, feeling desperate, and yet still — they can understand one another.

So we have this pattern now:

Ichigo vows “Next time... I will protect you... without fail!” to Orihime with a sense of personal importance conveyed through the use of his name that is unmatched throughout the rest of the series.

Later, Orihime notes very plainly that “Whenever he uses strong words, it’s like he’s making a promise. I believe that he makes a promise to himself. I think that he expresses his words in feelings so that he will follow through.” The important takeaway being of course the forthright meaning, but also “When Ichigo says he’s going to [do something], he will [do that something] for sure.”

We all know what happens next —the character conflicts, the miscommunications, the belief that these are fights that need to be handled alone, the struggle against the powers of a hollow, the fear of exposure to that power... all culminate into The Lust Arc.

— CONTENT WARNING for canon-typical gore, blood, impalement, and body horror.

With the above established foreshadowing, we can see how it leads to this; When Ichigo says that “he will protect you without fail”, he will protect you for sure.

“To be clear, a total transformation to a hollow, is neither evil or good; it’s more like pure power .. so I made a voice of pure-hearted power that is unrelated, beyond the concept of good and evil so I screamed from a clear pure heart yet, at the same time there is some sadness and thought of Orihime in my head.”

— Masakazu Morita (Ichigo Kurosaki’s Japanese VA), on how he voiced Hollowfied!Ichigo during the Lust Arc.

 “The perfectly hollowfied Ichigo ruminated over Orihime’s screams and was bound only by that objective.”

— Bleach UNMASKED

If what I outlined above wasn’t clear enough, Ichigo goes as far as to stab Ishida, his friend. It couldn’t be about anyone else. This specific theme has always very clearly been about Ichigo, Orihime, their relationship to each other, and their relationship to hollowfication as a concept.  

I want to also be very clear here as well; with the established theme of Ichigo always fighting against his hollowfication, and Ichigo’s Hollow being motivated solely by self interest — it isn’t Ichigo’s Hollow responding to Orihime’s plea, it’s Ichigo’s humanity. Ichigo’s Hollow finally getting an opening to take over his host (to become The King and Ichigo, The Horse) is what revives Ichigo. But his vow to Orihime and his desire to fulfill that promise is what allowed him to cling to his humanity. The Hollow is motivated by survival instinct, not any desire to protect —that’s all Ichigo, just as it’s always been.

I think anyone who is still willfully misinterpreting this and holding Japanese language structure to English rules and conventions is seriously pathetic. Even in English, the pronouns have zero bearing on what’s being conveyed here. They can try and disprove IchiHime as much as they want as far as I’m concerned. The fact remains that at the end of the day, giving the Ichigo/Orihime relationship as much attention and dissection as they do goes to show that (a) they still perceive it as a threat and (b) there’s such a large volume of Ichigo/Orihime content to comb through to begin with —a fact they’ve vehemently denied for years.

Also like, IchiHime is canon. They’re happily married. They have a family together. Just tell them to take the fucking L. I get secondhand embarrassment from watching them rehash the same old bullshit time and again.

[captainsupernoodle]

@wolfsrainrules @north-peach IT’S HERE!!

This is very long????????????

(also writing this really drove home another one of those moments where i'm just like “what the FLIP I have FAMILY as young as this hero WHAT ARE THE GROWNUPS DOING”)

Ichigo is immediately like “a person who Knows Things! Who's willing to Tell Me Those Things!” and sits down and lays out everything he's been mentally and not-so-mentally screaming about since he got STABBED with a SWORD and got up with MAGIC POWERS. Byakuya eventually meanders them to his estate and orders tea and half of soul society feels Judged even though they're not sure where it's coming from. Byakuya is massively unimpressed with Everything.

Whether this is right after the first invasion or later would change some things, but in any era what the fallout mostly boils down to is the Gotei freaking out because suddenly! The super-powerful kid they've had running around is asking questions! And doing things!! Legally!!!

Ichigo puts Byakuya on speed dial on his soul phone and calls him up every time he thinks of a problem or someone tries harassing him or Isshin says something that just. Doesn't add up.

And eventually he just starts calling Byakuya to yell about shinigami nonsense around town (his bedroom is no longer marked as a safe house, has the esteemed Gotei 13 fallen so low–), about theories and experiments he's doing to adapt kido to his reiatsu levels, about history and science and reishi architecture and whatever else catches his interests, and Byakuya pretty much always picks up, even if it's just to tell him that he's in a meeting and setting a time for them to talk, and when he visits soul society he has friends who are eager to see him but he always spends some time at Byakuya's.

(more under the cut!)

Byakuya is quick to invite him into the Kuchiki library, and they spend many afternoons and evenings just sitting quietly, Ichigo tearing through scrolls and records, Byakuya doing paperwork or reading, and sometimes Ichigo will ask a question or Byakuya will point out that this author over here expounds on that point in the book you're reading, and they'll have intellectual debates over hasty bites out of their dinner and the staff is Scandalized by the young lord taking books to the table but after the first three times they got up in the middle of eating bc byakuya was trying to enforce Decorum ichigo just brought his books with him and then byakuya had to get up to reference something and it was just too much trouble. The head servant whatever is just like fine! fine, at least they're not eating in the library, who knows what might happen with a Shiba in the works, at least the young lord still has a grip on his temper.

And it is funny to anyone who sees them together -- it took a little while because Ichigo isn't actually in SS all that often, he usually trains in the bunker and Kisuke is about all the mad scientist he can handle, but he comes to hang with Renji & other friends on some weekends -- but they actually do get along like a house on fire after byakuya flipped the "mentor" switch and let his guard down enough to keep getting sucked into heated debates. Ichigo's not a rebel, necessarily, in that he's not out there constantly looking for reasons to pick fights with anyone, he just doesn't let anyone pick fights with him or his friends and also goes "well that's stupid" with... pretty much any kind of unjust authority and law. It drives Byakuya a bit bonkers but he channels it into "educate the unfortunately misinformed future clan head" instead of immediate senbonzakura-ing. Trouble is that Ichigo is entirely ready for friendly debate throw-downs and yeah, maybe he doesn't have a law degree, but execution without a trial for trying to protect people, byakuya, really?

And this is where a little of the cultural confusion comes through, because Byakuya is intellectually aware that Ichigo is human but it doesn't really affect much beyond Ichigo being from somewhere else and being unfamiliar with soul society. And he's like, mostly adult-shaped, right? He's bigger than Toshiro, and most souls that look like Ichigo are already out doing things, even if they're still pretty closely connected with home, and he acts young sometimes but most of the time he's at Byakuya's level, just less experienced, which is to be expected given shinigami aging. So Byakuya answers any questions he has and applies pressure in ichigo's favor when needs be in the background, and otherwise lets Ichigo come to him and generally be independent.

And this works for Ichigo! He's been independent for years, wrongfully so, but he still has more life experience than most kids his age and is fiercely independent on top of that, so having someone to lean on is both novel and avoids being suffocating or condescending. A lot of the time he wants help – he already has more independence than he really wanted, and he's mostly adjusted to it, but it doesn't stop him from wanting some of that support that he's been lacking for so long, and that Byakuya is freely offering.

And eventually he figures out that he's started telling Byakuya things he hasn't told anyone else – questions about hollows eventually led to offhand mention of his hollowfication, and oh right, he'd actually kind of attacked Byakuya with his hollow mask, he'd probably want an explanation for that and even as chill as he's been so far the soul society anti-hollow rhetoric has gotta come into play somewhere with a noble –

Except Byakuya doesn't push. He never pushes. Even with that first offer, he was just laying out an option that Ichigo could take if he needed it, and he followed through when Ichigo took him up on it.

So he has a bit of a crisis and is a little more scowly than usual, but his sisters and friends know what it looks like when he's thinking really hard about something and leave him be, and he takes some long walks with Chad, just turning over what's been happening in his head and considering.

(Byakuya's been one of his people since he got his head screwed on straight, but Ichigo knows he has a tendency to latch on in ways that most people don't reciprocate, and it's okay. His friends have gone to war with him for someone they barely knew, they trust him, and he can lean on Chad most times, and it's good, it's good to have friends and precious people to protect.

But Byakuya isn't looking for his protection, or for someone to follow, or to spar with or experiment on or manipulate.

He's just – there.)

His thinking doesn't change much. He's already confided more in Byakuya than he has with anyone, because before hollows and Soul Society his friend group was all human teenagers doing teenager things, and Chad was sorely needed relief from a chaotic home life but he was still Ichigo's age, didn't have answers to a lot of the questions Ichigo's been shoving deep ever since his mom died. Byakuya doesn't press, doesn't judge, thinks deeply before speaking, but Ichigo always knows he's listening.

It's. It's good. It's really good.

And I guess I have a timeframe after all because Ichigo's really been there and back by the time of the Winter War. Byakuya sent his sister and his lieutenant to support Ichigo before he'd even been denied help to rescue Orihime, and came to Hueco Mundo himself, and listened again when Ichigo came to him, glaring and stiff, and slowly, quietly told him about dying and coming back less than human, fear in the faces of his friends and enemies, about seeing a soul – a person – crumble at his own hands.

Byakuya gets a hint, then, that Ichigo isn't quite the same as a soul. Souls might go entire lives only in soul society, from birth to death, but even souls who grow naturally rather than coming from the Living World are in some ways static, slightly less flexible in some fundamental way than those in the Living World. He does a little asking around, and Ichigo is so young even by human standards – Soul Society has been leaning on him like he's as old as his power levels suggest, in a place where passive reiatsu output is often more accurate than physical appearance, and all this time he's not even fully developed as a person, is still soft and learning how to exist in the world.

Byakuya has his own crisis right about then, and I'm playing fast and loose with timelines because I don't even remember most of the show, so in this au we're in a waiting period after clashing with the Espada just enough to get Orihime back – all the shinigami are alive, Grimmjow is licking his wounds-presumed-dead, tragic batman is dead, harribel and the tres bestias are not wearing battle bikinis cool, uuuuuuuum I think???? the vizard already happened before the grand desert slaycation??? Byakuya has a few belated heart attacks when he hears about training and the dangers thereof even though he's been privy to & helping with Ichigo's solo experiments with the hollow mask, and after Orihime is back and the shinigami do whatever sneaky sneak they've been planning or however it was they figured out about the time limit or whyever they wait for the Karakura pillars fiasco instead of, idunno, trying to prevent the megalomaniac from keeping hold of the magic rock….

ANYWAY there's a quiet period and Byakuya has his oh crap i'm a dad crisis and eventually is just like this is a literal child but he's proved himself time and time again that he's capable and wouldn't appreciate anyone butting in on his business uninvited, so instead he's sneaky about it. Most of his sneaking reveals that things are about like Ichigo's described, he has school and friends and training (urahara probably notices his snooping but he's certainly not the one filling in for Isshin's catastrophic failures in parenting, and maybe he sees the need or maybe he just isn't bothered enough to do something about being spied on, and he never interferes or tells kurosaki). Okay, this is fine, if everyone else is a complete and utter failure of a parent then he'll have to fill in whatever Ichigo hasn't covered himself. He gets an actually competent shinigami to cover Karakura, gets a copy of his school schedule and keeps people from harassing him near tests, is even more stringent with fronting central 46's stupidity and Very Firmly, At Risk of Murder cuts off all possible contact between Kurotsushi and Ichigo's people (and may start quietly grooming nemu to take over the 12th but nobody can prove it).

Things are bopping along, and then we have whatever permutation of the winter war that happens in this AU. Byakuya's been busy with the Grand Karakura Relocation or whatever the plan is and reinforcing his division, whipping them into shape after centuries of nothing but low-level hollows, and he knows that Ichigo's doing the same and he isn't concerned when they have less time to communicate.

Then Aizen.

I never actually watched the interim between the hundreds of episodes of vs arrancar fights and the butterfly beatdown but i'm assuming that everybody's tied up elsewhere or else they wouldn't have let a SINGLE 15YO fight aizen on his own, right? RIGHT???

Anyway in THIS fic that's the way it works, and while urahara and some of the other captains/ whoever's fighting fit, free, and not gonna die just from standing near the powerhouses lends a hand, so Byakuya is busy but not really worried bc Ichigo is a proven warrior and he has backup and for all his unexpected fondness, byakuya is still a military man and he Compartmentalizes.

Except then Ichigo's power rises and rises and rises again, and then all at once disappears.

Byakuya promptly flips his lid and Aizen goes into the box a bit more shredded than he did in the og timeline.

Everybody else gets the idea pretty quickly and flings Ichigo at Byakuya, who figures out what happened very fast and immediately decides Isshin has lost all rights to anything, ever. Ichigo is kept abreast of all developments in the efforts to get his powers back and NOBODY leaves him to his own devices for two years because Byakuya is persistently present and Isshin is on his shit list big time so he takes great joy in thwarting him at every turn.

I haven't watched or read the Ginjo arc at all but from what I gather they sneak in while Ichigo's isolated so there's a solid chance all that mess gets cut off at the knees.

Byakuya may or may not have an apartment and double life as a reclusive rich businessman in the Living World so that Ichigo has a place to stay when Isshin is Too Much, maybe the welcome eventually gets expanded to Chad and Orihime and the twins, but whatever goes on after Aizen, Byakuya is there and backing Ichigo up.

[harrowscore]

16 17 18 for the ship ask?

16. Are there any ships you just can’t/don’t understand? What are they?

Yes. Usually they bore me, or I find them bland, or simply the dynamic isn't my cup of tea/is too vanilla/I don't get it. I have a few NOTPs, usually of the "I wouldn't touch this with a ten feet pole" kind that trigger my fight-or-flight response (no hate for the shippers, tho). The first ones that come to mind are Joker/Harley (I love them both, but not together. Just no), Littlefinger/Sansa and Th*amsay from ASOIAF, then blander stuff like Jo/Laurie from Little Women (apparently there's a 150 years long war going on in the fandom lol), F*nnrey from SW (I am a Reylo, and in another world I would have even liked them, but alas, antis exist and the shippers ruined the ship for me), Ichigo/Orihime from Bleach (I used to be a staunch IchiRuki fan, so you can guess my feelings about the manga ending lol, even if I've not been in the fandom for many years and now I don’t care that much tbh), Eleven/Clara from Doctor Who, Harry/Ginny from HP, Alucard/Seras from Hellsing (especially the manga/OVAs; the anime, maybe that’s a different story), Matt/Karen from Daredevil… But they're very few. I'm a multishipper and can get behind almost everything, especially if a fic is well-written. Believe me, I've read and enjoyed some weird stuff. Usually it's not that I hate some pairings or I am anti X ship, I simply don't care lmao. It's more of a *shrugs* whatever reaction than anything else, really. I don’t even block content, I genuinely don’t even care when they cross my dash. Go figure lmao.

17. Are there any popular ships that you just don’t like? What are they?

There are a few, yes! I deliberately avoided to mention them in the previous answer, so I wouldn't have to repeat myself. 

First of all, Jon/Daenerys from ASOIAF; I like both characters (I especially love Dany to death, she's one of my favorite female characters ever), but… I swear it's not for the incest (that should've made it a little more interesting in my eyes), it's just that I don't care lol. Also Dean/Castiel from SPN; I remember that when I watched the show I couldn't understand the hype. Also, most recently, Geralt/Jaskier from The Witcher.

And… please, please, @villainsmatter, don't shoot me, but I first got into the Hannibal fandom through The Silence of the Lambs when I was 14 and back then the NBC show wasn't a thing yet, so I've never cared much for Hannibal/Will. In the books their relationship is very different from the show; basically, it's Clarice Starling who plays this role for Hannibal (and again, the last Hannibal book where the titular cannibal and his favorite FBI agent hook up and live happily ever after was published in 1999). That said, no hate for the show, the shippers, or even the ship itself. (Also, multishipping is a thing! And it's great.) Hannigr*m is one of those cases of “I get it, I really do, but for some unfathomable reason I can't get behind it”. Probably because Clannibal has been such a formative OTP for me in my young teen years, so I can't ship them with anyone else but each other. Which is rare for me, I assure you that I can ship almost anything.

I also don't care for most of the usual romcom/YA pairings (for example, The Hunger Games love triangle was the least interesting thing about the whole trilogy): I love romance, but apparently my tastes are weird, and most of them are so boring anyway.

18.  What is your favorite unpopular ship?

As in, rarepair that nobody gives a fuck about? I have a lot of those, so I won't talk at length about them all, but if I'd get to choose only one… Tyrion/Daenerys from ASOIAF. I've been shipping them like crazy (me and like, 2 other people in the whole fandom) since the ADWD release, well before they officially met up in the show. They're probably two of the ASOIAF characters who share more parallelisms with each other, and in GoT it got confirmed that Tyrion harbored romantic feelings for Dany in the shitty last episode, but God, it was handled so badly (like everything else). It was also insane that no one could "see it" when Peter Dinklage had clearly stated in the interviews that Tyrion was "smitten" with Dany, and kept looking at her like that. I don't want to sound like the general anti and be like "if you don't ship this you're x-ist!!!!" because that's not the case, but I can't shake the feeling that had Tyrion looked more like his able-bodied brother, everyone would - not ship it, but realize that yes, he was falling in love with her, and no, it wasn't platonic. The general quality of the show's writing didn’t help, though, and D&D can’t, like, write romance (see also how they kept erasing Tyrion's sexuality and general complexity from Season 5 onward). But the subtext was there.

GRRM is famously a big fanboy of Beauty and the Beast, and Tyrion is his favorite character, so I wonder how different their relationship will be in the next books (if they ever get released, that is, which I'm starting to doubt). I don't expect any kind of happier or kinder resolution, though; I'm just curious.

Thank you, dear! ❤ (I hope my Hannigr*m reveal didn’t upset you lol)

[gunnerpalace]

Hi! Same anon as the previous one. Tbh, I agree wholeheartedly with you. Y'see I do ask rhetorically,too but i could really accept and understand how and why ppl can be oblivious to IchiRuki, and somehow felt that the 'canon' should suffice, even the most excruciating of all is the fact a number found the ending even acceptable (ships aside, too). Again, I could respect that. But it's my greatest bane when ppl ask 'why' and not be clear they are asking rhetorically because I literally will

provide you an actual answer. And I get it, it’s the reason why ppl find shipping wars toxic and silly. But then again, as human, conflicts are always part of us (partly because as social psych explains so, we are gravitated to the negative for that allows us to change and survive), and the reason why “logical fallacies” are coined in the first place. Human will always debate, and argue about something; the only thing we could change is how we approach the opposing views.

Again, I dont condone any way, shape or form of abuse and harm. In some certain extent, I could perhaps understand it’s much harder for some IH to approach the actual argument being there’s either too much noise, and trapped in their own island between sea of salt. Thus becoming too acquianted w/ few IH who shared the same thought until it became their views as the only truth (see, that’s why its important to have debates! it is what keep us grounded and fair! Just like you said)

Who am I to speak though? I never ever challenged anyone anyways. And as you said, you just have to understand things in every way you could possibly think of–endless ‘whys’. Which is where I agree in your reply the most–this silly fandom wars is just the black mirror to every truth that lies beneath human psyche–the dark and the grimy. Heck, being a psych major is like staring at dark hole–at times, good, but most just plain confusing, revolting even or just heartbreaking.

Sorry it’s been long, but for the final of this ask: let me tell how glad I was with IchiRuki fandom I found in tumblr. It was the saltiest I’ve ever been (im not generally a fandom person anyways) but it’s the himalayan salt–expensive and actually nutritive it really deepened my desire to become wiser in general. And you for your wonderful essays, critiques and whatnot. I definitively would love to talk with you more not only about IchiRuki but the wonders and nightmare that us humans! Kudos!

I have sitting in my drafts a post spelling out my thoughts on “canon” (and thus, the people who cling to it) in that as a concept it privileges:

officiality over quality when it comes to validity (thus violating Sturgeon’s law)

corporations (intellectual property rights holders) over fans, and thus capitalists over proletarians

hierarchical dominance over mutualist networking within fandom

curative fandom over transformative fandom

genre over literary content

plot over characters

events over emotions

It is notable that (1) generally degrades art as a whole, (2) generally advances the capitalist agenda, and (3–7) generally advances the dominance of men over women (as the genders tend to be instructed by society to view these as A. dichotomies rather than spectrums, and B. to ascribe gender to them and make them polarities). These form the sides of a mutually reinforcing power structure (in the typical “Iron Triangle” fashion) designed to preserve and maintain the status quo.

Who really benefits from say, the policing of what is or is not “canon” in Star Wars? Disney, first and foremost. And then whomever (almost certainly male) decides to dedicate their time to memorizing the minutiae of whatever that corporation has decided is “legitimate.”

One can imagine a universe in which fan fic is recognized by companies for what it is: free advertising. (Much like fan art already is.) Instead, it is specifically targeted by demonetization efforts in a way that fan art isn’t. Why? Because it demonstrates that corporate control and “official” sanction has no bearing on quality, and it is thus viewed as undermining the official products.

In the same way, by demonstrating that most “canonical” works are frankly shit, it undermines the investiture of fans in focusing on details that are ultimately errata (the events, the plot, the genre), which is the core function of curative fandom and the reason for its hierarchical structure. The people who “know the most” are at the top, but what they “know” is basically useless garbage. And those people so-engaged are, of course, usually male.

To “destroy” the basis of their credibility, and indeed the very purpose of their community, is naturally viewed by them as an attack.

(This is not to say that efforts to tear down internal consistency within established cultural properties are good unto themselves, or even desirable. For example, efforts to redefine properties such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Ghostbusters, for the sake of a identity-politics agenda have largely A. failed as art, B. failed as entertainment, C. failed to attract the supposedly intended audience, and D. failed to advance the agenda in question. Trying to repurpose extant media in the name of culture wars is essentially always doomed to failure unless it is done deftly and gradually.)

(At the same time, this also shows what I was talking about last time, with regard to people seeing whatever they want to see. You will see people complain that Star Trek and Doctor Who didn’t “used to be so political,” which is obviously nonsense. These shows were always political. What changed was how their politics were presented. For example, Star Trek has, since TNG, always shown a nominally socialist or outright communist future, but was beloved by plenty of conservatives because they could [somehow] ignore that aspect of it.)

Of course, almost no one is seriously suggesting that one side of the spectrums outlined above be destroyed, rather merely that a new balance be struck upon the spectrum. But, as we have seen time and again in society, any threat to the status quo, whether that be 20% of Hugo Awards going to non-white male authors or the top income tax rate in America being increased by a measly 5.3% (from 28.7% to 34%… when the all-time high was 94% and for over 50 years it was above 50%) is a threat. This is why, for example, Republicans are out there branding AOC as a “socialist” when her policies are really no different at all from a 1960 Democrat who believed in FDR’s New Deal. (Which they, of course, have also demonized as “socialism.”)

(As an aside, all this ignores the fact that most of the “literary canon” of Western civilization, or at least English literature… is Biblical or historical fan fic.)

And this is when I finally get to my point.

Those people out there who denigrate and mock shippers and shipping, the people who hurl “it reads like fan fiction” as an insult, and so on, are the people who benefit from and enjoy the extant power structure. You will see the same thing with self-identified “gamers” complaining about “fake girl gamers.” Admitting that the hobby has a lot of women in it, and a lot of “casuals,” and is indeed increasingly dominated by “non-traditional demographics” is an affront to the constructed identity of being a “gamer.” They are “losing control.” And they don’t like it.

This exact same sort of population is what the “fanbase” of Bleach has been largely reduced down to through a slow boiling off of any actual quality. Of course they’re dismissive of people who are looking for anything of substance: their identity, their “personal relationship” with the franchise, is founded on a superficial appreciation of it: things happening, flashy attacks, eye-catching character designs, fights, etc.

(What this really boils down to, at heart, is that society at large has generally told men that emotions are bad, romance and relationships of all kinds are gross, and that thinking and reflecting on things is stupid. So of course they not only don’t care about such things, but actively sneer at them as “girly” or “feminine,” which is again defined by society at large as strictly inferior. And this gender divide and misogyny is of course promulgated and reinforced by the powers that be, the capitalists, to facilitate class divisions just like say racism generally is.)

(The latest trick of these corporate overlords has been the weaponization of “woke” culture to continue to play the people off one another all the time. “If you don’t like this [poorly written, dimensionless Mary Sue] Strong Female Character, then you are a racist misogynist!” They are always only ever playing both sides for profit, not advancing an actual ideological position. It is worth noting that there was a push by IH some years ago to define IR as “anti-feminist” for critiquing Orihime for essentially the exact same reasons [admittedly, not for profit, but still as critical cover].)

Which makes it very curious, therefore, that the most ardent IH supporters tend to be women. (Though there are more than a few men, they seem to tend to support it because it is “canon” and to attack it is to attack “canon” and thus trigger all of the above, rather than out of any real investment.) I think there are a number of reasons for this (which I have detailed before) and at any rate it is not particularly surprising; 53% of white women voted for Trump, after all.

What we are really seeing in fandom, are again the exact same dynamics that we see at larger and larger scales, for the exact same reasons. The stakes are smaller, but the perception of the power struggle is exactly the same.

Of course, the people who are involved in these things rarely think to interrogate themselves as to the true dimensions and root causes of their motivations. People rarely do that in general.

Putting all that aside, I’m glad that you have found a place you enjoy and feel comfortable, and thank you for the kind words, although I am not of the opinion that there is anything poignant about the non-fiction I write. It is, as I keep trying to emphasize, all there to be seen. One just has to open their eyes. So, it’s hard for me to accept appreciation of it.

Anyway, don’t feel shy about coming off of anon rather than continuing to send asks. We don’t really bite.

[shybre22]

Now for part two I will be doing Ichihime.

Honestly I knew Ichihime would be endgame from early on in the manga and series.

A lot of IR claim that Ichihime doesnt make sense or that they have no development..which at this point I think this is what any anti for any pairing in every anime say.. because that's obviously not true at all.

Even from the very beginning.. not only do we know that Orihime likes Ichigo, but Ichigo seems to pay attention to Orihime, extra close at times.

In this panel, he admits that he worries about her and watching her wears him out with worry, he even wonders if she's really alright. Now its important to remember that this is fairly earlier in the story and at this time Orihime is only an acquaintance at best..but here he is worrying about her.

Not only does he notice her getting hurt...but during the Fullbringer arc he said that she was more likely to get followed or stalked than him when Orihime asked if anyone has been following him.

Hell he's even offered to walk her home.

Weird considering they're only acquaintances at this point right? While I know it's rare for the shounen protagonist to have a crush right off the bat..for arguments sake let's say you look at ichihime interactions with the idea that Ichigo has some sort of crush on Orihime. I feel like his interactions with her make more sense throughout the series and keep this I mind through this post.

Now antis always love to say that Orihime didn't understand Ichigo or couldn't encourage him like Rukia could..but..

Here! Even Tatsuki who has known him since childhood couldn't tell it wasnt Ichigo or his other friends.. but Orihime does notice..she knows that's not him right away.

And here Orihime right away knew he wasn't acting like himself...even Tatsuki was impressed, she said it took her years to figure that out.

Oh yeah she cant encourage him right?? Not only did she give Ichigo the resolve to go save Rukia..but during the Grimmjow fight.. Ichigo was so afraid of frightening Orihime with his mask that he wasn't focusing on the battle.. know think about that..he was so scared to frighten Orihime he wasn't fighting..knowing he could die or get really hurt.

I also hear antis say that Orihime is horrible for being scared of Ichigo when he was still fighting to save her but they need to understand that in the first few chapters of bleach..Orihime was attacked by her brother..her beloved brother, the only family she ever had before he died and he attacked her..as a hollow..and now she's looking at the man she loves with a hollow mask and she's afraid FOR him not necessarily OF him..she's afraid he'll turn completely hollow( which is fair, considering he does later during the ulquiorra fight).

Then all she had to say " please dont die..you dont have to fight for me and you dont have to win..just please dont get hurt". And Ichigo was ready to fight for real..then beat Grimmjow.

She was also able to feel his pain somehow and knew he was crying when he got his powers stolen despite her being far away from him at the time.

Not to mention at this time she was brainwashed by Tsukishima making her and Chad think Ichigo was the one going crazy, but even though she was brainwashed to think it was Tsukishima who she loved..her heart knew better and still felt Ichigo's pain even without seeing him.

Not to mention she was able to see he had a plan to defeat Ywach just from one look into his eyes.

So yeah.. Orihime does understand Ichigo more than most..and just because Rukia does too doesnt mean he should be with her.

And on Ichigo's side antis also say he doesn't care about Orihime only Rukia..and if he does care it's only because Ichigo is protective of his friends.

Now it's clear through the whole series that Ichigo does care about all his friends..but it's also apparent that Ichigo does hold Orihime to a different standard.

This is not far into the story..at this point they are still only classmates and only a few pages ago Ichigo refused to take over Rukia's Soul reaper duties..until he found out a hollow was after Orihime.

Or when Yammy and Ulquiorra hurt Orihime..they also hurt Tatsuki and Chad but he was shown to be obsessing over Orihime ( despite the fact she could literally reverse her injuries) and the fact Tatsuki was a human with no powers should've made him worry over her more..but he felt so guilty for not protecting Orihime he couldn't even look her in the eyes..it got so bad that Rukia made him go to her and look her in the eye and he vowed to never let anyone hurt her again, pluse he didn't apologize to anyone else..just Orihime. I also find it funny how Rukia seems to be a ichihime shipper while her fans hate Orihime and want her to be with Ichigo..I find it funny.

Then we all know how hurt he was when Orihime got taken to Hueco Mundo.. Yes I understand he did rescue Rukia as well but he even said its because he owed her..and he did he owe her his and his families lives..and she was his friend and only on death row because of him. But with Orihime she chose to go to protect her friends and Ichigo had no obligations to her other than she was his friend..

He also walked around like a zombie not even caring when Tatsuki beat the hell out of him asking where Orihime was. He even yelled and threw a fit at the captain commander(you know the strongest soul reaper alive) for suggesting she was a traitor..

He even went against the entire soul society wishes (as a substitute soul reaper no less) to go find Orihime in Hueco Mundo.

One of my favorite scenes is when Ichigo was hurrying to go help Chad and Rukia who were badly injured at the time..when Ulquiorra appears and tries to goad him into a fight.. nothing works until Ulquiorra mentions he was the one who brought Orihime to Hueco Mundo ..which in turn infuriates Ichigo and he swings his sword at him in a blind rage..(remember he was supposed to be helping Chad and Rukia who were injured) but he was so angry that he was the one who brought Orihime there...he didn't say he hurt her or tortured her...he only said he brought her. And. Ichigo. Flipped.

One of my other favorite scenes is when he almost literally rises from near death to get Grimmjow's hands off of Orihime

LET GO OF HER! Was the first thing he says never mind he was almost dead a few minutes ago and still can barely stand. And look at that face his eyes mean business.

And of course one of the most epic Ichihime moments is when Ulquiorra defeats Ichigo and kills him.. he hears Orihime calling for help as Ulquiorra advances to her.. and as he's dying he hears her and tells himself he needs to help her and protect her..even in death he needs to protect her. And yes I'm aware that his inner hollow is the one keeping him from dying..but the only reason Hichigo doesnt completely take over Ichigo and lose his humanity was his will to protect Orihime. Ichigo was chanting " help her", "help her", over and over like a mantra..that's was the last shred of his humanity and even his last shred of humanity wanted nothing more than to protect Orihime.

Not only is Ichigo extra protective of Orihime..but he get flustered around her too.

Like during The Thousand Year Blood War Arc.. when Ichigo was asked by Chad if he liked Orihime's outfit ( Which was very revealing..especially in the boob area) and Ichigo was blushing like an idiot of course.

While most antis swear it's just because Orihime is very beautiful and has a very large chest..remember Chad or Uryu didn't react despite them being males as well..just Ichigo.

Not only that but all of Ichigos enemies always use Orihime to bait him into fights. Enemies like Grimmjow, Nnotora, Ulquiorra, and even Ginjo..they all taunted him about how he was so determined to protect Orihime that they would use her presence to push Ichigo into fighting them.

Antis also claim that they didn't develop.. they went from classmate acquaintances to friends fighting side by side in battle. Orihime went from being shy and stuttering and being nervous in his room to borrowing manga from him and just marching in his room and both teasing each other. Ichigo also went from wanting to protect Orihime by leaving her on the side lines and out of harm's way.. to trusting her to be his shield in battle.

IR"s also claim that Rukia is better than Orihime because she's stronger. Now I know Rukia is strong no doubt..especially when she finally releases her bankai. But for most of the series she hardly does anything..even my husband noticed she only won like two or three fight the whole series and most of the time she was so beat up after she looks like she lost the fight. I'm not trying to talk down on Rukia I love her actually.. it's just is you go back and read the manga..Rukia didn't do much either.. plus Orihime actually has a really really OP power she just doesn't have the heart to hurt anyone so she usually uses her shield or healing, but just like Rukia they didn't do much with her powers.

In the end Ichihime had quite a bit of development..I'm not saying Rukia and Ichigo didnt have a bond..because they had a strong one..but that doesn't always mean romantic..I always felt it was more brother/ sister type than anything. But if you go back and look at all of the Ichihime moments you'll realize their bond as well..you'll realize that Orihime was always their during the really important times and fights.. like the Grimmjow fight, Ulquiorra, fight, the Nnotora fight, his Fullbringer training, his Visored training, and she stood side by side with him in the Ywach fight.

He was actually separated from Rukia more than he was with her..even when they were in the same places..they were always separated. Kubo..I feel made it very clear from early on that ichihime would be endgame..I feel some people were just in denial.

[ichinoue]

Submitted: I sent this ask to another IH blog but I feel like asking you too. So I was following along a thread on twitter and a anti said when Ichigo laid dead on the ground with a hole in his chest in the Lust arc, that he didn’t say “I can hear her..stand up..I will protect her” before hollowfying. They claim he instead said “I can hear..stand up..I have to protect” using no pronounce directed at Orihime, hence NOT coming back from the dead because he wants to protect her specifically but because of his instincts to protect and he would’ve done it for any of his friends. They also said that Orihime didn’t scream “help me” but instead said “help” which triggered Ichigo’s instincts to protect, making him rise from the dead, hence once again making it clear this was never about Orihime specifically but about Ichigo’s instincts responding when hearing a voice in need (and this voice could’ve been from anyone amongst his friends) and how the hollow would not allow him to die regardless. Basically the English translations are incorrect and the raw version in kanji never used pronounces during these scenes. Is this correct and how would you respond to this?

Man, people will really grasp at straws to make it seem like Ichigo rising up had nothing to do with Orihime lol. The thing is, you don’t need specific “her” pronouns there because of the way the scene is set up---Orihime screaming and crying and Ichigo responding, panels placed side by side to demonstrate exactly what he’s responding to (Answer: Orihime). Take all the words away, and the meaning is still the same: Orihime crying and Ichigo reacting. And even if you leave the words in, if he’s saying “I can hear” what *exactly* is he hearing I wonder?? 🤔(Answer: Orihime crying out to him.) They really need a pronoun to figure that out? Stay in school, kids. (Also, as someone pointed out in the replies, Japanese doesn’t use the same pronouns and sentence structure as English does).

You would have to be...willfully obtuse to need the word “her” to be there in order to comprehend this scene lol. Like, “hmm I wonder what he’s responding to?? Welp, there’s no pronoun there so I guess we can’t know for sure 🤷‍♀️” lmaooo GOD it’s like they actively choose ignorance when it comes to IchiHime moments. A four year-old who can’t even read could figure this out! 

And if their argument is that Ichigo would have done this for any of his friends if they had cried out to him like that...maybe? We can’t know for sure because it didn’t happen. But what we DO know for sure is that Kubo chose Orihime to be the one who cried out to him, he chose Orihime to be the one Ichigo responded to. He could have rearranged the scenes and put ANY of the other nakama in that position, crying out at Ichigo’s corpse...But he chose to give that role to Orihime specifically. Why? Perhaps to demonstrate how special she is to him? After all, she IS the girl he decided Ichigo was going to marry after writing chapter one. Having him rise up from the dead for her would make for a *giant hint* at his underlying feelings for her. A hint that flew right over the heads of the anti-IH fans apparently lmao. The poor things are still out there making arguments against something that’s already happened.

And if Ichigo rose up for all of his friends and not Orihime specifically, then why did he literally attack his friend, and then, *on the very same page* turned to Orihime and chanted the word “protect.” Answer: Because he wanted to protect her, specifically. Not Ishida, the friend he just brutally attacked lmaooo, but Orihime. Whatever shred of his humanity was still intact was determined to protect Orihime. If he had risen up to protect all of his friends, and she wasn’t being set apart here as the special person he rose up for, then he wouldn’t have attacked Ishida. But he did. Point blank, period.

And, immediately after he attacked Ishida, he does this. Turns around to face Orihime while chanting the word “protect.” Again, I don’t know if the “her” pronoun is being used here, but it doesn’t need to be because of the way the panels are set up: Ichigo and Orihime’s faces placed directly next to each other, side by side, while Ichigo’s chanting the word “protect”---and his dialogue is even carried. over. to Orihime’s panel, to demonstrate that he’s speaking to and/or about her. Clearly, whatever mantra Ichigo is chanting here is being aimed at Orihime. That’s just basic reading comprehension, dude.

And it’s at this moment, the moment when he turns to Orihime, chanting his need to protect...this is the moment when she realizes that Ichigo is, in fact, doing this for her. How do we know this? Because it’s immediately followed by this page:

This is when it dawns on Orihime that Ichigo reacted to her voice and is doing this for her. Seriously, this page right here debunks their entire argument all on its own. Because if Ichigo rising up had nothing to do with Orihime specifically, Kubo would not have written this page literally acknowledging that it was about Orihime specifically. He acknowledges this via Orihime’s inner monologue. He even included a flashback of Orihime calling out to Ichigo a mere few chapters ago, a flashback from the first page I posted, the page where Ichigo starts to transform as Orihime screams---solidifying even more that it was her voice he was responding to, and then having Orihime take the blame for it...Because it was about her. “Because I said that, Kurosaki-kun is trying to help me.” It’s....literally right there on the page like, lmao. This is so blatant, why do they try so hard to deny it? 

But yeah, antis. Keep telling yourselves that the girl Ichigo rose up from the dead for was never special to him. It’s not like he ended up marrying her in the end or anything, right? 

It really makes me wonder if the reason they think IchiHime “came out of nowhere” is because their reading comprehension was so poor that they missed out on blatant, in-your-face Ichigo-->Orihime hints like this. Or, like I said, that they were so willfully obtuse to the point of ignoring the obvious because “there’s no pronoun!!!!” As they studied the raws, desperate for a way to debunk what’s right in front of their faces, clear as day.

Like Kubo obviously wrote these things to lay the foundation of IchiHime, which we can safely say now that it’s canon, and antis are still out there like “nope, IH had nothing 😤I’m clinging to all of my interpretations even though they’ve already been proven wrong.”

They spent the entire series’ run making arguments like this and twisting obvious IchiHime moments to make them seem less than what they were in order to convince themselves that IchiHime had nothing and would never be canon...and then it did become canon. And instead of just accepting that their arguments and interpretations were wrong, they’re still out there shouting angrily at clouds, trying to prove that all of this IchiHime evidence that led to it becoming canon, doesn’t actually exist. 

Oh well lmao

[orenonahaichigoda]

Again, I'm gonna meld my experience and something I just learned into Ichigo.

So, remember, I'm reading the whole "unusual haircolour" being of note as Ichigo being mixed, probably via Masaki, because Issin is coded VERY Japanese, either Yamato or Ainu, but not Ryukyuan. Masaki is not. Orihime's same colour of hair is not noted (only how pretty her hair is) nor is Chizuru's darker red. (Yeah, that one classmate has purple hair, but purple and blue are often stand-ins for shades of black, to differentiate, in a way of compensating for the lack of detailed faces. Brown is because brown to black is a scale--my own head and beard hair is very dark brown, and how black vs brown it looks depends on lighting, mostly. You can also read brown hair as "basically black" on characters like, say, Keigo, unless stated they're not Japanese/Asian, like Chad)

Some shows are pretty low on racial coding--these are often shows like...okay, I don't actually watch a lot of cartoons, but there are shows out there that might be slice-of-life or romance or something, where everyone's supposed to be Yamato Japanese, including the girl with lime green hair and purple eyes, which is basically for visual interest and easier character differentiation.

Bleach...is not that show. Not only are some noted in dialogue--again, Chad--but then Kisuke is inspired by a Scandinavian fairytale or something, and seriously, just hold Byakuya up against Tousen. I'm also pretty convinced Yoruichi's supposed to be Black, but Tousen or sea urchin guy is obvious.

I mean, I could go on about Shunsui convincingly reading European (or headcanoning him as Romani and growing out his hair in defiance of the Spanish), or how seriously no one ever read Grimmjow as Japanese, but canonically is pretty diverse. Kyouani kept it up with the Bounts who were clearly from Europe (remember the backstory of Cain and striped-hair guy and the boy that died?)

I mean, Soi-Fon, the Bount in the qi pao, Shaolong, and the fracción of Barragan (which is a real Spanish language last name, I forget what architect he was named for) with the braided hair are all super-duper Chinese-coded, but these are apparently codings the average Westerner misses. (I get maybe missing Barrangan's guy, but how the heck people miss the friggin guy named Shaolong...! Then again, I just saw keysmash fake-Japanese name in a Digimon 02 fic where it was really hard to take seriously a professor named "morning sickness." You can't make this up!)

So point one is that I've always felt like this was probably another thing that Kubo was stopped from doing by his editors, though "the world may never know" www but I've seriously long thought Ichigo was supposed to be mixed.

(of course, my nascent project goes ahead and diversifies further, including the aforementioned Chizuru and Orihime, but that's separate)

So I've known pretty much my entire life that sans hard leftists, Japanese/East Asian women 30+ (I used to say "older," but now I'm older, too!) are a heck of a lot less accepting of mixed people than the men are. I guess it skews opposite from orientation issue positioning. (Only the right 25% of the Japanese spectrum really kick and scream about binary trans. Non-binary is not something I have a whole lot of data on, period, as my generation grew up in the binary-insistent 20th Century)

Anyway, my experience as a kid and now alone reaffirms that this isn't limited to Dankai/Sirake and Boomer generations, unlike some other problems. Nor is it limited to the far-right Liberal Democrat voting bloc, as those types tend not to leave Japan, and it happens here, too.

I notice less of it among Dankai Juniors and Post Dankai Juniors generation immigrants, as I notice less of it from age-peers American born Gen X, but it's still there, and is present among people my dad's age (blanking on the Japanese generation, but second-wave Silent Generation is the American one for those years) and always was. In both countries.

I was hanging out after work at a nearby spot, and was talking to a half-Black Boomer.

The same thing where Asian men in-group me and many Asian women fiercely out-group me was found among G.I. Generation and Silent Black Americans.

So I feel like this would very strongly play into Ichigo's experience as I have him wherever he goes. Hanging out in some random town in Soul Society, anywhere (Seireitei just cares who can cut more people to bits www). This has clearly been going on in many places for a long time. Sure, racism as it was in 20th Century Japan, particularly even the idea of anti-Blackness, which was rightfully scrapped starting around '90, was brought, along with queerphobia, by Admiral Perry/President Filmore, but in-group and out-group dichotomy is pretty much everywhere.

And I have to think "us v them" style bigotry also comes in in Chad's story. Is he Zainichi Mexican? Is he from Okinawa because he's got something to do with the U.S. Army base (Futenma) there? Or is he Mexican and Ryukyuan?

I'm not RPing Chad, though I'm seriously tempted. Look at how much I blather--it'd be an interesting challenge.

But for now, I'll focus on Ichigo.

Now, yeah, bullies pick on him a lot for looking different. But there are always bullies, and kids will pick if you can't afford meat in your lunch, or you like an "uncool" TV show, or you sneezed. Anything.

But this would really and strongly colour Ichigo's interactions with adults. I didn't reach high school there and *I* had this come up with teachers and school staff over there (although I really only did high school here, but anti-Asian racism from teachers/staff came up in a higher percent than anti-mixed sentiment in Japan from school staff. There's probably a conclusion I should be able to draw)

Anyway, with the anti-miscegination crowd, mixed people who are part-their demograph get way more scorn and coldness that someone 0% their demograph.

So if Ichigo's mixed and Chad's Zainichi Mexican, and they're talking to a teacher like this, she'll be way worse to Ichigo. That kind of crowd always wants to prove your claim to the demograph invalid. That you're not "real" demograph. Like they see you existing as a threat to their identity. It's a threat to nothing, but this is how they treat mixed people.

Learning the universality of this tonight made me realise this would definitely be a part of Ichigo's life, as unfortunate as that is.

Also, about bullies, the guy bullies tend to pick on the guys. The girl bullies tend to pick on the girls.

(Reason 465 why I say everyone knew I was male before I figured it out myself)

So I don't feel like this is something that would affect Ichigo's interactions with his peers, at least in youth.

But in adulthood, yeah, he'd start to get this from women his peers. The men, not really. I have no clue why the women are the ones doing this and men don't really care. Do not get the gendering of it. But it's apparently a thing. And really, really common, unfortunately, so there's no way he wouldn't meet it. A lot.

(Although frankly Karakura First Private High School staff is almost entirely banananas in their own special way. How is that school even still accredited/operating/ostensibly graduating people? Sure, high school isn't *mandatory,* but they're more of a minor plot device than a functional school!)

[serene-faerie]

Sorry if I seen like a stalker, but I read your ask to salzrand and I gotta say I fucking relate so much 😭 I used to LOVE Ishihime (IH was my 2nd choice for Hime), but then nasties came along & RUINED everyfuckingthing I'll never forgive those IRs, don't believe them when they say they don't spiteship IsH, fucking liars they tarnished our tiny fandom's name 👹 Their hate towards Hime (even when they swear to love her, BS I saw them LIKING & ENDORSING hate against her) & her ABSOLUTLY VALID LOVE

(1/3)

towards Ichigo is hideous AF, I loved ish cuz of their team up in Soul Society, she had good dynamics with Ichi too, but I liked Ishida more. Them? They want me to believe they give a FUCK about her when they wrote huge ASS essays about how her love is weak & other shit & how Ishida deserves her like she’s a toy. The worst part is they claim to be ish since “day 1” yet they ship Hime with everyone BUT Ichigo, they’re so fake. Not only are they ruining MORE ships nowadays, they act as if the IH.. (2/3)

R the ones spitehshipping, BS!! They HATED RukiHime but now they like it? Same goes for TatsuHime, both are my OTPs. I fking loathe them, they ruined the ish tag not they’re ruining RH/TH, im done seeing anti Hime ppl write anti essays THEN post stuff about my OTPs claiming to love them, fuck them. Same goes for RR, now they claim it’s cute but like to diss Kubo for it. RR & TH are my OTPs but I know they’ll force me to otp IH with their shitty ass behaviour, they want it to die? HOLD MY BEER (3/3)

No need to worry, anon~! You’re not stalking me :)

And I’m so sorry to hear that! I completely agree, it’s so baffling to see people who hate Orihime so violently, yet spite-ship her with either Ishida or Ulquiorra. It’s so bewildering to go through an anti’s blog search bar and see the Ishi/hime tag followed by an Anti-Orihime tag, because why would anyone ship something if they hated one of the shipped characters so much?

I have seen a couple shippers who do ship Ishi/hime because they like the dynamics and they genuinely love Orihime as well, which is cool and should be encouraged more. But I completely agree with you that the spite-shippers’ perspectives on Ishi/hime is absolutely disgusting: I do not like seeing Ishida turned into a Nice Guy who deserves Orihime’s bread buns because she was nice to him in the Soul Society arc. Neither Ishida nor Orihime deserve to be reduced to such a state.

And those spiteful, rabid I/R’s really have a huge problem with projection, to be honest. They claim Ichihime fans spite-ship Renruki, yet literally almost every IH shipper I’ve seen likes RR just as much as their OTP. They claim IH’s loathe Rukia, when pretty much all IH’s actually love Rukia and enjoy her character. Like, seriously. I’ve never seen a fandom project themselves onto others so much before, it’s stunning. They claim Orihime’s a villain and a selfish, weak crybaby, but let’s be honest. If they were in Orihime’s shoes during the Hueco Mundo arc, the Arrancars would’ve torn them to pieces for being so whiny and screeching so much. Orihime is so much stronger than they ever hope to be, and her breakdown during the Lust chapters was completely understandable because she’s only human. They’re truly awful people; they take complicated situations and turn them black-and-white so they can vilify Orihime and Renji, and it is disgusting to see them ignore their subsequent growth because they can’t get over the fact that Orihime and Renji are so much better than they ever hope to be.

Like you said, it’s really telling when spite-shippers focus more on Ishida than Orihime when discussing why Ishi/hime is apparently superior to Ichihime. Also, Orihime loving Ichigo never made her weak at all??? Ichigo helped Orihime become stronger, and her love for him is very sincere and genuine as well. The whole Five Lifetimes, One Love speech was one of the most beautiful love confessions in manga, and it saddens me when haters can’t see the beauty of that love. Orihime is not some vapid, shallow harlot like haters make her out to be.

And lastly, anon, don’t let the haters ruin those ships for you! In fact, just do what I do: if I see Renji hate, I create more Renji-centric fanfic so I can focus on him being awesome and amazing, because I know that he’ll always be better than those worthless anti’s~ I won’t let spite-shippers ruin Byaren or Renji for me, so it’s important to remember that for every hater there is, there’ll always be good fanworks on the hated characters~! （●´∀｀）ノ♡

Thanks for passing by, anon! It was nice to talk to you!

[bitchy-peachy]

So I'm a former Naruto fan, I started disliking it cuz the fandom is full of shitty ppl who want every1 to worship it & shit on any other series. I never cared about shipping & I don't care about N/H or S/S. But why are N/H acting all ichi//ruki now & attacking S/S? What did u guys do to warrant this hate, both of u r canon & there's a war going on? Srsly y r N/H fans shitting on Sakura (idc bout her) just like I/R shit on Orihime? Now I see y many N/H are also I/R

I'm actually getting pretty bored with this subject and I've been kinda drunk for the past couple of days on some flu medicine so I'll summarize some funny shit before I go back to reading my guro manga stuff. Well its like this:You can't praise or like Sakura more than their fave.You can't like SS more than NH or simply not ship NH (a mutual actually got told to die by an NH for NOT shipping their pairing)You can't like Sarada more than their own ship's kids. They're the "alpha pairing" cos its the pairing with the title character therefore you're obligated to love their pairing. "Don't hate NH! Hate SS instead! At least NH is 'healthy'!" (Lmfaooooooo, m'kay)Since their fave married Naruto, their fave is the prettiest, strongest, most important and has to have everything. Sakura's and the popularity of the SS ship is soooooo "unfair" cos of how absolutely perfect their fave is and how much better their fave is cos she "won" Naruto meaning that THEIR fave and ship deserve all the attention. 😂They cheat at polls and get busted. They edit fan sites to wank their fave and shit on Sakura. They're so pressed about Sakura that they fantasize about Sasuke secretly wanting to bang their fave out of some revenge porn against Sakura, which is even more pitiful since Sasuke is more likely to bang Naruto than their fave that Sasuke never gave a fuck about. The list goes on. But it's a group of people that have made multiple accounts. One I think even bragged about having multiple blogs to shit on SS. Its some insecure popularity contest tbh cos we're just here doing our thing while they jump on our posts with toxic shit and apparently spam the anti SS tag with NH cos they're so desperate to be acknowledged and worshipped by hating on another ship (I know some anti SS that are actually switching cos of it). Its all pretty depressing. If anyone wants to add in, idc. I'm reading manga rn.

[recurring-polynya]

Hey! Love your art and stories they are so cute! What did you think of the live action movie that came out in 2018? Did you see it

Thank you!!

So, for starters, I love comics and animation, like, a ridiculous amount, and I am, in general, anti-live action adaptations. I love the intentionality of a fight that is drawn, rather than rendered, the way a particular comic panel freezes the shot. I love a really fluid bit of animation. I love stylized things, exaggeration for effect. People give Kubo shit sometimes for not drawing backgrounds, but that sort of thing makes the action pop or makes a shot really dramatic, and is part of what makes Bleach so iconic. There are many, many live action films that I would like to see remade as animation, and absolutely zero animated films I would like to see made into live action.

That being said, I did watch the live action Bleach and, surprisingly enough, I liked it a lot! I watched it as soon as it hit Netflix, which was... two years ago or so? so please forgive me if this is mostly built on old memories. I would actually like to watch it again, but my husband makes a face at me whenever I suggest re-watching it, and we watch 98% of our tv together, so I just haven’t gotten a chance.

What I liked best about it was that it was obviously made with a great love for the original material. The casting was great, with a lot of attention on chemistry between the characters. It was weird to see Rukia without her characteristic haircut, but I liked they way they changed up her look, and I think it worked. They took care to include a lot of character moments, like Ichigo and Rukia training, the running gag where Keigo kept telling people that Ichigo had died, the part where they all went and got burgers. I may be the worst Renruki trash you’ll ever meet, but even I know that the essence of Bleach is the chemistry between Ichigo and Rukia, the 0-to-60 you-are-such-a-pain-in-my-ass-but-i-would-absolutely-die-for-you and they nailed it. If I were tasked with doing a Bleach adaptation that would fit in 90 minutes and appeal to a broad audience, I probably would have tried to make everything tighter-- to eliminate characters like Chad and Orihime that didn’t really have a role in the story they were trying to tell, or cut out some of the little side details, but they didn’t, and as a hard-core Bleach fan, I loved that. They made this movie for me. Chad had some random superhuman feat of strength and they never explained it and I approve. They also buffed up Uryuu’s role a little, and I enjoyed that very much; he was very snide and I loved it.

My brain doesn’t parse CGI fights very well, but the fights were fantastic and they did a great job with both Grand Fisher and Zabimaru. I knew everything that was coming and my body just quivered with anticipation and then I was satisfied. It was a very good movie watching experience and all those shithead directors who feel the need to put in plot twists you don’t see coming should take note.

Byakuya and Renji’s character designs didn’t hit quite right, although they tried. They’re anime characters, it’s just not gonna work. Renji needs his spiky ponytail. Byakuya needs an air of flowiness. They should have put him in rollerblades, I bet that would have worked. Also, they did not appear to have any budget for Soul Society, so sometimes the two of them would just go to a room with weird lighting and say ominous stuff, and I was here for it, I am so easy to please. Also, they kept that weird line where Renji mentions to Rukia that they were both adopted by the Kuchiki clan, and I am intrigued by it. I think about this all the time. The only reason I want a sequel is because I wanted to know if they were gonna run with that, or if they were just sticking close to the original translation. I read once that Kubo originally intended Soul Society to be built around families instead of squads, and I think that line in the manga is just a remnant of that, but then why didn’t they update it for the movie? As much as I love Squad 6, I want to know everything about that idea. Kubo Tite, if you come to my house and tell me about it, I will make you eclairs.

Also, every single production shot I saw on Tumblr made it look like everyone had a fantastic time making the movie. Have you seen the shots where Miyavi dressed his kids up like shinigami? It cleared my pores, for sure.