#and she's got 1) ichihime 2) ulqui/hime 3) tatsu/hime 4) ishi/hime

[zabiume]

it's 2025 and orihime is still my favorite bleach character ever because of just. everything she is, all of it. from the very first peek we get into her life, we learn that she's so fundamentally unlikeable that even her parents despise her (a literal baby), and this pattern repeats yet again into middle school, where she falls victim to bullying. her own brother turns into a monster and resents her for trying to bounce back from grief. everything she does is wrong. even from a meta standpoint, orihime has never been widely liked, and even when she has, it's sometimes followed by a disclaimer or an 'i like her, BUT-" which is soooo congruent to how she is in canon as well? in a way, perhaps, no other bleach character is? what she is and goes through in-universe is exactly what she is and goes through out in the real world as well. of course, in canon as well as outside of it, there has always been a small group of people who fiercely love her too (in-universe, it's her friends, and outside it's...well. it's us, those of us who love her). but the point is. i've never seen a character who is so meta in her existence, who is always going through things on a double-layer - how other characters respond to her in the story vs how fans respond to her in their discourse. there's no separation from Orihime The Character (as she exists in text) and Orihime The Topic (the discussions we have about her as a character). there is a certain type of bleach fan who is a loly and menoly equivalent in the real world, there is a certain type of bleach fan who is a shishigawara/kon equivalent in the real world, there is a certain type of bleach fan who is an ulquiorra, challenging her worldviews, pushing her into corners to prove herself, and of course, there is a tatsuki or an ichigo, fighting for our lives defending her and it's just. so interesting. it makes orihime more real, more grounded to me than any other bleach character. how characters respond to her in the story is often EXACTLY how people respond to her in real life. plenty of times, we've gotten to see characters' inner thoughts and their POVs, but we haven't gotten much insight into the ways other characters see them, how they're perceived by several other characters, but orihime is. she is so discussed (BOTH by the other bleach characters, AND the fans), and the diversity of these discussions is so present too. her powers, her love life, her flaws, her personality,,,,,all of it is a major part of the storyline, as WELL as the discourse. it's inescapable. SHE is inescapable.