#also I know a fic like this exists for ichiruki but I’m deep into my grimmichi era so

[kingofanemptyworld]

hey you know what would be fun? a fic where the Royal Guard follows through with their plans to make Ichigo the new Soul King and Grimmjow promptly loses his shit because what the actual fuck Ichigo has already given these people literally everything, twice, and this is how they repay him? recruits Nel and Harribel and Urahara and Yoruichi (after Nel sits on him for a while because Jesus Christ Grimmjow you can’t storm Soul Society by yourself no matter how much you’ve powered up) and it’s the Ryoka Invasion all over again except with pissed off arrancar instead. I just think it would be neat

[bleachbleachbleach]

Do either of you like any bleach ships? Which ones if so?

@whipplefilter's answer: I’m not a shipper, and a lot of that probably has to do with the fact that I’m unclear on the concept of romance just like, generally, lol, and shipping tends to imply some kind of romance. But I am very invested in relationships! It just doesn’t really matter to me whether the relationship is romantic or non-romantic, and I really love it when non-romantic relationships get focus and airtime. But I’m certainly not anti-ship! I probably consume more fannish shippy content than non-shippy content, by pure virtue of the fact that there is more shippy content, and I’m perfectly happy about that because if it’s about characters I like—and to have my cake and eat it to, about relationships between characters I like—then I’m probably excited about it.

Personally, I don’t feel strong distinctions, or a strong need to identify distinctions, between what’s a ship and what’s a friendship. I think that’s part of the reason why shipwars always take me by surprise. I don’t feel like a character not being in a romantic relationship with someone automatically devalues the relationship they have. I mean, I think if the character thinks about their relationships in that way, then that’s what happens. Or if the character tends to be a single-minded kind of person, such that they really can’t imagine themselves having multiple intense relationships of varying stripes. These aren’t Bleach examples, but in Nana, Hachi treated her friends like complete shit in pursuit of/focus on her romantic partner. In that case, yeah, she was totally the one devaluing her friendships! Or in Chihayafuru, Taichi ends up heartbroken because Chihaya doesn’t reciprocate his confession of love, and he knows that Chihaya is a one-track-mind kind of person.

By contrast, I see Ichigo as someone with huge capacity to have, well, a mountainload of intense and meaningful relationships, in ways that distinguish him from a lot of "one goal to rule them all" 15-year old manga protagonists. (No shade to single-minded love! I mean… We run a very monogamous and single-minded Bleach blog.) I’d say the same is true of many of his friends.

Beyond that, I do think my level of excitement re: shipping varies in terms of how central romance feels to [my interpretation of] a character. Like, in terms of how important *I feel* their love life *feels to them*. XD (And also how proximal the "things that make this pairing tick" are to the "things that excite me personally about this character.") So like, I am very excited by the idea of Hisagi/most fucking anyone, because, paraphrasing @ippoddity, his desire to make connections and be perceived is both important to him and to my investment in him. I think Hisagi is thirsty for any kind of connection, but I think he’d really like it if some of them involved romance. Also sex.

As a writer, I’m pretty committed to gen, because it’s my fave and there doesn’t tend to be as much of it in fandom spaces and I want it to exist. In one of my other fandoms, I have run a gen fic exchange for over a decade and people are still unclear on what "gen" even is! People constantly confuse gen for "anything that’s not porn" and submit shippy stuff lolol. Though, on the flipside… long long ago in a kingdom far far away, I did once run, like, THE Naruto porn meme of its time. XDDD Which is weird to look back on, but I think that was really because I happen to be pretty good at organizing things and it was a way of hanging out with my horny friends, LOL. Porn itself does nothing for me outside of its potential aesthetic value, and/or its potential to show me things about the characters/their relationship. And while a lot of porn is interested in both those things, if it weren't also very interested in the actual fucking then what would be the point?

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@ippoddity's answer: I'm on a similar page as @whipplefilter when it comes to shipping. It's not like I don't ship, because I certainly do have preferences, but I am more invested in (and interested in) relationships (whether they be romantic or not).

I really love that in canon, Ichigo's relationship with Rukia is deep and meaningful, but not necessarily romantic. I really like the idea of soulmates (or twin stars or twin flames or whatever you want to call them), but like, not romantic soul mates. I think what makes IchiRuki so appealing to many people is that they have a close connection. And I'd love to see more of that explored (not just in regards to IchiRuki, but all relationships in general), sans romance.

This isn't to say that I don't also consume shippy fanworks! I do it all the time! I am sort of an equal opportunity shipper, and will try out anything at least once. I feel like I can appreciate a good piece of content, whether it's for something I ship or not. Like GrimmIchi works?? SO MUCH GOOD STUFF OUT THERE (y'all are amazing). It's not necessarily a ship I'm actively sailing on or contributing to, but I'm there for the fun ride. Like my co-blogger said, I also think that Hisagi can be shipped with almost anyone. The poor man is just so desperate for connection and acknowledgement. So if someone is gonna give him a relationship that gives him what he wants, I'm down for it. And something else I've gotten into since starting this blog? Akon/almost anyone. He has so much potential and I've really gotten onto this Akon stan train.

When it comes to shipping or not, for me the most important thing is "does this relationship make them happy?" And that's really all I care about. For example, I think Renji's happiness very much weighs on his connection with Rukia, so I'm happy that he's happy with her (if that makes any sense at all). For the same reason I'm down with IkkaYumi, because I love Yumichika and think he deserves to be happy and I think his relationship with Ikkaku makes him happy. LOOK I JUST WANT HAPPY ENDINGS FOR EVERYONE.

(ngl I was scared of writing this post because I didn't want to get stuck in between some kind of shipwars. The fervor of shipwars honestly baffle me because I do not think I could ever feel so strongly about a ship that I get dragged into hateful discourse, especially for series that ended a long time ago?? But I am also very against confrontation to begin with, so I would probably just apologize and bow out anyway.)

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