#and there's also his time with shinigami to take into account

[pixelatedraindrops]

Yuma Month: Day 18: Future

“Thank you for coming... Makoto.”

“Oh come now... Discard your emotions.

You are my homunculus are you not?”

"...You are cruel for this...shouldering me with yet another burden…

Kurumi...is still looking for you..."

“I know…I’m sorry.

Tell her…my journey has been extended.”

[nanjokei]

further guidance for newcomers coming from reddit

hi arriving redditors. here are some things i don't see most posts mention. this is for people who conquered the baby steps of joining the site. i think they're pretty important! also me clarifying on some stuff i've seen people word very vaguely consistently in their guides

under the cut because it's a chunky set of bullet points! with a few that also discuss how to keep yourself in a safe and fun browsing environment for yourself and others (mostly quality of life)

if you have any questions either send me an ask (anonymously is ok too) or reply to the post

you can enable a custom theme that shows on the web in your blog settings, if you so wish (blog settings > visibility) and then (custom theme toggle to on) this is the classic tumblr experience, but it's ok to want to hide your blog from the public. however you won't be able to link stuff on your blog to people without tumblr accounts

you can find custom tumblr themes by searching resource blogs like theme hunter or just in the tags in general (like "tumblr theme" or just "theme" and see where the other tags you may find to refine your search takes you)

tumblr is currently trying to enact changes to appeal to "new users" that make the website less friendly to its current inhabitants, such as fucking with quality of life and muscle memory and even stuff integral to the culture of the site. if you see people complaining, i highly advise against going "this sounds kind of nothingburger" and assisting in sending tickets to support the drive against such changes

there is a 250 post per day limit. you probably won't hit it though.. maybe? but people used to make post limit blogs (seperate email) for that. but that is for heavy usage users.

you can make as many sideblogs as you want. you are free to divulge whether or not it's you. of course use common sense to gauge whether or not it matters. but side blogs can be anything: maybe you want to categorize things, maybe you wanna make one into a huge fan page/blog for a specific hobby/celeb/show/game/etc, maybe a quieter space, maybe posts you feel don't belong on your blog, maybe even a blog where you reblog resources to exclusively. the possibilities are endless! (maybe not for porn, it's a little harder to skirt by these days even with muh community labels)

a lot of posts are incredibly vague about whether or not you can leave comments on reblogs. i think it truly depends. for example, if it's praise for artwork, i feel like it is truly best left in the tags. the artist can see it still! it shows up in their notifs when you reblog. in comparison, when it comes to funny text posts and pictures, you can comment as you like, but consider TPO (time place occasion). it helps to check the notes (comments only filter) to see if the quip or comment you wanna make has already been made or if OP made further comments later. again, it's a call to use your judgement and everyone has a different tolerance for this kind of thing

i see many people or perhaps most came from LGBTQ+ centric subreddits so i am surprised i'm not seeing this mentioned often: there are unfortunately a lot of terfs here. please stay safe. install shinigami eyes and engage in blocking sprees whenever possible.

in account settings, not blog settings, there is a section called "content you see". it has filtered tags and filtered post content. the difference is filtered tags is specifically for tags, for example, if you want to hide a certain show you don't like, you can have the site apply a peek-a-boo filter on it (this content contains #TAG, as in click to view). you ask, what if the person on my dash doesn't tag it as that? that's fine! it also takes into account the original poster's tags. the OP didn't tag it? then filtered post content might help. MIGHT. it's pretty helpful and unlike twitter's mute list, as far as my experience, it is not broken. for example, if you write [SHOW NAME THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE] in plain letters (with aliases as seperate entries just to be safe) it will filter any post that has the words in the body of the post. pretty useful! use this to curate your dash further or even filter out triggers.

speaking of tags. a lot of people are also vague about this. i'll say it clearly. you can add whatever tags you want to a reblog. there's no limit (aside from character lim per tag)! there's no social faux pas, unless you're being backhanded at someone's creative work, like reblogging just to dunk on it or going "i like the art but not the character" etc. when it comes to your own posts, try to avoid tagging irrelevant tags (for example, if you're making a lot of posts that are tangentially about cardcaptor sakura, think about if it belongs in the tag or not. think of it as whether or not it deserves an OC flair on reddit). again, people's tolerance differs, but especially on older media and slow tags people do not appreciate random tangential text posts (for example "i wanna watch ccs!" and nothing else)

in terms of culture, tumblr has a weird balance between "you can ask for context" and "lurk for 10,000 moar years". i would not know myself. i've been here for 12+ years *shrug* you'll have to gauge it for yourself. most things you can google "[tumblr user] callout" and figure out from there LOL (yes that's usually what happens). i DO encourage trying to garner it from context, especially for terms.

due to the looser moderation(?) on here, LGBTQ+ and other minorities use their own discretion reclaim slurs freely. join in, or put the slurs in your filters. it's fine not to join in as that's your personal comfort, but this is a heads up that the culture is like this since i'm not sure how the moderation is in places like r/196 are. (sorry i used reddit for entirely different things ><)

DO NOT TAG D0NATION POSTS WITH #D0NATION OR ANY OTHER VARIATION. this is SO important. it's best not to tag donation posts AT ALL. tumblr internally flags them and suppresses the post. just reblog silently (d0nate if you can) and move on (censoring just in case lol)

search is useless for finding specific posts. give up before you even try. your best bets are google, asking for help on the dashboard, or just hoping it shows up on your dashboard one day (it probs will, maybe not immediately when you need it though)

i called old tags "slow" but not dead earlier: tags Do Not Die (though some just kind of randomly get wiped or lose posts, idk, it is some post-2018 indexing weirdness) so you can find fanart and posts from 2012 and it's ok to reblog! the essence of tumblr is the continued circulation of people's creations

please do not repost screenshots of tumblr posts unless they are no longer accessible (reblogs locked for example) 😭 i am seeing this happen already. this is the one thing from reddit you're gonna have to let go of. twitter and other place screenshots are OK (probably, some people don't like them). but don't let your page look like one of those r/(etc) post aggregate bots on twitter is what i'm saying. once you explore a tag enough times you'll know what is usually appropriate to post (usually derivative meme templates are OK, but don't overdo it (tho this just falls under "dont spam") (also this is MY personal preference, so if the climate of the tag houses a lot of memes, go ahead!)

in general reposting content that isn't your's is kinda eh. especially reposting people's art without explicit permission. there are art reposters who in the modern day usually ask for permission, of course there are internet spelunkers who repost content from old web and dead sites. there's a lot of nuance, but i highly discourage reposting things you didn't make yourself unless it's stuff like official art and whatnot. photography and other stuff from other people, use your judgement. and as an aside i know "stolen memes" are r/196 and other meme subreddit cultures but it's not exactly appreciated here and i feel like if the reposting gets out of hand tumblr users might get real tired of it. the humor isn't really the same here in that sense, i suggest posting them in a sideblog that archives such things so they aren't lost and/or keeping them in your community tags. ofc no one can stop you!! but the whole highly derivative fried meme thing is very reddit. the culture could not be more different even if we are similar in many ways. i mean this in the nicest way possible >_< if you're not sure, DON'T REPOST.

this is just advice from me, but when liveblogging a show, it's nice to tag it with a unique tag, such as #[your name/nick] plays [game]. i find it's ok to tag series name to some posts that are more substantial, people are happy to see others enjoy what they love, but using a unique tag also helps people track YOUR liveblog since they may save the tag to look at :)

put your age or whether or not you're an adult somewhere where people can see, (and your pronouns too or lackthereof). whether or not if it's on your bio, or an about page, or a carrd. please. it's a matter of curation and safety. some people don't wanna follow minors by accident and vice versa, just as a means to curate their space

people write alt text and image descriptions in the post bodies pretty often. yes it's built into tumblr, but either some people forget or the feature... refuses to work that time. yes it's BROKEN. if you feel like you can contribute alt text for an image in an adequate fashion, go ahead!

try not to reblog people's personal posts. asking people never hurts!

you can restrict non-followers from replying to your posts, or turn off replies all together. as far as i know it's not possible for seperate posts unfortunately, just a blog-wide toggle. when replying to someone specifically, be sure to @ them so they can see it!

for a long time, only the first 5 tags you used in an original post mattered. a lot of people still repeat this, but in my experience this seems to have... changed?? i can't say for sure, but my posts appear in tags beyond the first five. just to be sure, tag the most relevant things first! (or not, if you have your own strategy LOL)

you're free to not tag trigger warnings (it's nice to do it for others tho especially if they ask) but please tag flashing images as such. #epilepsy warning, #flashing, #flashing image, #flashing, etc.

REPORT BOT BLOGS. it blocks them for you anyway. just blocking doesn't do anything for anyone

you can add other people to a sideblog to make it a group blog. this is how blogs with mods work, or even collectives, it has a lot of uses in general so have fun with it! be wary it requires getting someone's email so be safe about that and try to do it with people you trust.

this is advice from me since i noticed after publishing this post that a lot of reddit users don't tag things. you don't have to btw!! but my advice that brightens up the website: if you reblog cool art, writing, music or photography (taken by OP) and you like it a lot, i highly recommend leaving compliments in the tags. we live in an age where creative creation is increasingly unappreciated and people are quiet silent— creators get no feedback therefore no encouragememt to keep creating. this is more like a personal plea, but like to reblog ratios have become DIRE. people are apathetic and scared to interact with people's creations even though on here they are actively ecouraged to. if you like art or fic etc i even more highly recommend you reblog it. likes don't do anything! reblogs = more eyes on it. let's support each other's creative endeavors 🩷

don't fall for the trap of trying to make tumblr into reddit, or trying to recreate the feeling of a subreddit. it's not gonna work. try to adapt. it's easier said than done but lol. rome wasn't built in a day. operate your blog like your own space rather than trying to recreate a hub. the tolerance for trying to change tumblr culture is super low and a lot of people who are much meaner than me will probably try to bully the idea into the ground. and people DO get mean. (like playground namecalling, but people have no reservations about it, so it's stuff that would probably get you banned on reddit)

if your post gets traction and the note notifications annoy you, deleting the original post will make the notifs stop coming. a lot of people reblog the post to keep it on their blog then delete the original to effectively "mute" the notifications permanently.

[thekingofwinterblog]

There is one detail were I think I need a second opinion on:

So during the manga ending, there is that detail of supposedly Lord Death, with his "madness of order" being able to control everyone on earth - basically being able to solve all crime/evil things from happening.

The fact that he doesnt use this power is presented as a positive thing, basically an indirect way of answering the problem of evil with "actually God gives us free will and thats why evil happens, because denying us the free will would be more evil than anything else"

So ok, what is the sticking point to me? Well Lord Death was kinda hinted as being deeply flawed, and even his death at the end is framed as tragic but as the time necessary and a positive thing, a new generiation taking over creating a better wolrd, ect.

But isn't including such a huge revelation - a revelation that only makes sense with an All Good, kinda absolute God?

Basically, maybe I'm just looking for nitpicks, but to me these two things clash - like the story and Ohkubo couldnt decide between if Lord Death was holding the world back and needed to pass the torch or if he actually was the wacky all knowing force for good all along -

Like if instead it was revealed that Lord Death was pressured to make Kid be an automaton to avoid an Asura situation, but he refused because he didnt sucumb to the despair of failure and had hope in humanity and freedom, it could work as "wow Lord Death had past sins and couldnt steer the world into the future, but here is an action that proved that the flame of his vision was still good and know Kid will be his resurection, like that old NAS song"

Idk, maybe this is all just nonsense to normal people but to me its the best example of Soul Eaters (more the mangas) unwillingness to commit to the "Death is not all good thing" - like the whole WMD's parrelel and shit seems even more out of place and ironically as a way to say "well Bush made mistakes, but American imperialism is a good thing overall!"

(Ok i probably shouldnt have included "politics" here lol)

Anyway I think the anime in the end was better with its more simplistic worldview - cause atleat it didnt break itself - the shadyness of Death was worked into Kids isuess of trust and accepting that he isnt perfect and can place his trust in his partners and is more simmilar to his father in this way etc.

So yeah, if you are still reading and didnt delete it out of boredom, Im interested in a response, cause I'll admit I'm not sure about it 100 percent myself so if you go and say "Nah, thats wrong cause-" I'll probably open to listening

Eh, i'd say that you're looking at this from a wrong perspective.

Shinigami was a good, if very flawed individual, but the thing is that the reason why he could not lead the new age was not because be was flawed... It was because in chasing perfection, he made an error so great that he could never recover from it.

That error being the way he created his first son, not to create a successor, but instead as a byproduct of ripping his fear out of his own self in order to become a "better" God of order, a desciaion that had enormous consequences in that it laid the groundwork for the first Kishin, but also because it left him utterly incapable of feeling fear, and thus incapable of feeling bravery either, and drastically affecting his descision making.

As such, he was incapable of decisively defeating his son, and had to resort to sealing him away, something that also required him to stay in one place forever afterwards.

The school that he founded afterwards to replace his team of immensely powerfull warriors that Asura and Excalibur was a part of, came as a consequence of his own failures shattering that group, and with him no longer being able to move around, he couldn't even uphold his actual purpose in the world.

And thats withouth taking into account how much getting ridd of his own fear screwed him up as a person. Through the series, shinigami is utterly incapable of showing real, true fear, no matter how dire things get. All of his angry moments happens in the moment, as things are happening around him.

He was incapable of truly feeling any sense of urgency when Asura was about to escape, and only after he is free is he able to confront the very real consequences on an emotional level.

Similarily at the end of the series he isnt actually afraid of the witches betraying them despite thinking this is the likely outcome, but when he thinks they do, he flies off the handle to reveal just how much hate he truly has for them.

Hia philosophy debate with his son near the end of the anime is all about exploring how these two family members are unable to feel fear and by extention understand bravery.

Ultimately what Shinigami came to realise and finally accept, is that as a consequence of chasing utter perfection, he ironically made himself too fundamentally broken to lead the way, both as a person, and as a king/god who should be leading his organization by example, rather than being trapped in his city.

Fundamentally Shinigami was a good person... But by his own actions, while chasing perfection he crossed a line that he was never able to uncross. Very much like his son, he believed that if he was the strongest, withouth "flaws", he would be able to see his vision through. Only where Asura wanted to feel completely out of any possible danger, Shinigami wanted keep the word orderly and safe for the good people of the planet.

A good goal. But as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[littleeyesofpallas]

Bleach’s Issue with Queer characters (1/3)

[1][2][3]

So, someone recently(when i started this draft anyway) left a kind of incoherent rant on one of my posts.  It wasn’t actually related to anything I’d said in the post, and just came across as disjointed babble, so it didn’t warrant a direct reply at the time.  But it did bring up a subject I would actually like to talk about:

How Kubo handles gender queer characters.

I think it’s a little easy to look at the most glaring cases, come to the conclusion that he doesn’t handle representation well, and leave it at that.  That’s valid.  And he’s clearly not well versed or tactful in how he portrays these characters, and it’s really not that unreasonable to judge him for it.  But I also think there’s more going on with it than that really accounts for, so let’s pick at it a little...

By and large what Kubo does is some pretty by-the-books queer-coding villains, and what amounts to casting effeminate men in adversarial roles.  In the big picture, it’s not a good trope to be falling back on: it comes from a bad place historically, and even if Kubo doesn’t mean anything bad by it (and I’ll get into why I think he genuinely doesn’t) it contributes to the momentum already behind it that other, less well intentioned creators and readers inevitably stand to do more direct harm with.

The earliest case of this is actually from Zombie Powder.  Very early episodic villain, Ranewater Calder is a youthful and even girlish looking man who is actually an old man sustained by a youth restoring drug.  He’s a villain of the week type, so the fact that he’s pretty and evil is literally all there is to him.  Moreover, his fixation on youth, his vanity, and his deception (he pretends to be a frail, dainty victim at first) all link directly to his moral character.  Although Calder is himself never made out to be gay, the archetype he's clearly based on is a pretty classically homophobic characterization at face value

But even here it’s not totally black and white...  

There’s a snag in that Kubo’s not writing some 1950s American pulp novel where the perils of homosexuality spell self-destruction or divine/dramatic irony on the loathesome villain; he’s writing a shounen action manga, and it operates on the Rule-of-Cool first and foremost.  Calder isn’t a vehicle for moral preaching by religious conservatives, he’s a highlight character taking up valuable print space in a popular comic.  He’s attractive, he has a cool name, he has a cool weapon with a unique fighting style, and even his vanity and deception aren’t there to make him unappealing, they’re there to make him compelling.

And herein lies the root of Kubo’s problem.  He just likes having cool characters, and he crams them in where ever he can fit them, and that often means in villain roles.  Moreover, although some characters get more vilified than others, even within the scope of villain roles, not all of them get to stick around long enough to be developed as either something other than queer and villainous, or to get the full turn around.  After all...

Yumichika was a villain at first.

And you’ll noticed I hesitated just now at calling it a “turn around” and not a “redemption” or “turning over a new leaf” because frankly, the Shinigami never actually changed alignment.  They were circumstantially the villains of the Soul Society Arc until Aizen turned on them to be the bigger "real” villain.  Technically it was Ichigo & co. that changed alignments from fighting against the Gotei13 to fighting with them.  But relatively aside, Yumichika became a good guy and his favorable portrayal got to outweigh his villainous introduction.

Speaking of which, there’s not a whole lot to go over with it, but Yumichika’s original appearance pretty closely mirrored the profile of Ranewater Calder’s bit in Zombie Powder: a kind of “sissy” prettyboy is obsessed with his looks, and other than just being a guy with a sword pointed at the established heroes making him a villain, that vanity and narcissism make them mean, judgy and vindictive.

But Yumichika came back, and stuck around, and frankly became something of a fan favorite.  And I think this particular development says a lot about how Kubo looks at these situations.  You’ll notice, he didn’t actually have to change Yumichika’s character much to shift him from villain to hero.  Yumichika gets a little less prickly, but he’s still vain and it’s not even something that anyone ever frames as a problem he needs to work on.  In fact, the introduction of his shikai brought into play a new facet of his vanity: Deception.  So we’re back to that Ranewater Calder framework, where the prettyboy has something to hide with his looks, but in Yumichika’s case it’s shown as an almost endearing quality.  He hides his sword’s powers, a reflection of his true self, to fit in.  But this isn’t shown to be a thing to pity, his willingness to sacrifice a part of his own identity is portrayed as a kind of noble restraint.

Now, granted, I don’t think those elements all play nicely together. (In fact, the nobility of his self-restraint is a very dangerous thing to uphold as a virtue) But when it comes to trying to draw a line between message and intent, I think the most pertinent thing to consider as context isn’t actually the villain or hero dichotomy, or even your own personal feelings about the themes in play, it’s the attitude ("attitude" as different from “intent,” mind you) of the creator towards his creations: Kubo seemed to enjoy making Yumichika.

He had fun with his design (the feathers and the weird sweater collar thing) He had fun with the sword, with giving him a secret power.  He had fun writing his vanity rants.  He didn’t have to have Yumichika, he didn’t have to bring him back, and he didn’t have to add to his character, but he did.  He invested his own time and effort and space on the page to him and to making him interesting to have around.

But like I said, Yumichika’s the lucky one.  He came in early, got to have a comeback, and had time to stick around.  But consider that when Kubo was floundering around trying to figure out how to salvage the mess that was the late TYBW arc, he didn’t need to bring back Arrancar, and he didn’t need to bring back the ones he did. (in fact, only the Privaron even make sense in-world, Luppi and Charlotte weren’t convenient choices, they were just Kubo’s personal picks.)  And when he did finally get around to cleaning up the Sternritter?  Bazz-B was an obvious choice to keep, sure (following that Renji/Grimmjow mold of the hotblodded rival who bucks his own organizations rules) but Giselle and Lilttoto?  That was Kubo playing favorites.

Luppi was so short lived, it’s hard to really say anything about him.  He was basically just reusing notes from Yumichika’s first appearance, which again also refer back to Ranewater Calder in Zombie Powder for basic aesthetic and demeanor.  (It’s actually kind of weird that Yumichika never really had any kind of dynamic with Luppi when they fought.)

Side note here, but Kubo really loves to build some of his recurring character types around a certain kind of scene or dynamic.  Byakuya and Ulquiorra both do this thing where they’re supposed to be the stoic unflinching types, but they actually get shocked and surprised almost constantly.  Kubo seems to be going into it with the mentality that he thinks it’s cool when the character who predicts everything and always has everything under control, can’t predict something and doesn’t have it under control, and just reverse engineers a stoic person for the purpose of having them “break character” later.  In this vein Kubo seems to have a real love of very pretty characters shifting into a kind of sinister “ugly mode.”  It wouldn’t serve his purpose to just have them ugly or obviously meanspirited all the time, the ugliness has to be served up in its reveal as that “breaking character” moment, even though that “breaking” moment is itself the core of the character.

Not to get too heady about this little observation, but it honestly feels like something that applies even to Kubo’s broader writing habits; wanting the payoff of a twist, and planning said twist first but then reverse engineering the supporting ruse only as a matter of course.  Just a silly little thought...

[1][2][3]

[my-my-my]

Loved your answers to the meta hcs on Aizen. Any chance that you can include more? Thanks!!

Sure! I feel like many of these are hcs several others also share, so it may not necessarily be new, but these are things I think about when it comes to him. He's a complex character imo, and there are so many tidbits I like to overanalyze haha!

I also apologize because this isn't very meta - but more of a word dump about how there are little references that add to Aizen's complexity (even if it's from me overanalyzing everything lmao).

This is incredibly long, so thank you to those who take the time to read this! I really appreciated how responsive people were to my last meta post, it means a lot.

I apologize for not replying to comments (I can't on this account), but it truly means a lot that people also feel similarly about Aizen!

👓 NAME 👓

I'm not fluent in Japanese AT ALL, like super basic, rudimentary skills, but I'd like to think Kubo put thought into the names of his characters.

Let's breakdown his last name: Aizen (藍染). I think many common assumptions is that his name is tied to the god of lust and wisdom (Aizen-myoo) but the kanji is completely different from that mythical figure (愛染明王).

The kanji in our Aizen, represents indigo dye. It also shares the same kanji as a Japanese-native psychoactive mushroom (Psilocybe subcaerulipes [藍染芝生茸]).

I find indigo an interesting colour. I always saw it as leaning towards blue, but other times I've seen it lean towards violet. In a sense, it blends between the two - you can interpret this as how Aizen blended between being a wonderful captain, to a murderous traitor of Soul Society. Or going even further, an excellent and skilled shinigami, to an even more powerful, dangerous transcendent being.

Indigo dye, purple, deep violets, etc. are family of colours perceived as royalty in historical Western kingdoms - what did Aizen want to do? Become the Soul King.

Aizen's own reiatsu is depicted as being a violet colour.

In Japan, the shades of indigo have a different meaning: benevolence/virtue (again, this is where you can interpret indigo as more blue or more purple). He saw killing Tosen, attempting to kill Hinamori, etc. as "benevolent" acts (even if his perceptions are deeply skewed). He was also known to be a virtuous captain before his betrayal. Here is a link to traditional Japanese colour theory.

This is more of a stretch, because the likely reason the psychoactive mushroom has the name "Aizen" in Japanese is because it bruises into an "indigo" like colour, but again - psychoactive mushrooms cause hallucinatory effects. When you're tripping, your senses are deeply affected.

There's something to be said about tripping on shrooms. From personal experience, you want someone you trust, to be sober and watch over you, you want to be around people you trust, etc. This is from the concept of "set and setting" - your emotions are deeply affected by shrooms. The hallucinatory properties of kyoka suigetsu deeply affected many people's emotional responses. Aizen, who would be the "sober" one, is untrustworthy and pushed people further into his hypnosis until he undid it, leaving many mentally scarred for a time being (Hinamori). This is also a massive risk when taking psychoactive drugs.

Another way to see interpret his name is that it could be a reflection of his family's status. Many cultures, historically, had names based on family's main occupation. Indigo dye could be interpreted into many facets: were his family merchants? Were they silk weavers? Indigo is a very difficult colour to create, so it would be expensive - it could be a fair assumption that Aizen grew up comfortably, but still very, very far off from the nobles.

This could explain how Aizen understood the meaning for birthdays - as even Hitsugaya pointed out, being in Rukongai 1, birthdays were not important. Again with Aizen, you can interpret him as being knowledgeable about everything, or it could reflect that he grew up in an environment where birthdays were celebrated, making him "better off" than those in all of Rukongai.

You can interpret that the association of his family having some mercantile occupation, giving him insight as to how the noble families operated, and him growing his disgust towards them. "These people rule over Soul Society? They're complete idiots." or something of that effect haha!

On the other hand, there are similarities between Aizen, the god Aizen-myoo, and divinity.

Within the Japanese Monarchy, there are 3 items tied to it and the royalty's associated godhood: Kusanagi (sword); the Yata no Kagami (mirror); Yasakani no Magatama (jewel). KS represents both the sword and mirror - the hogyoku represents the jewel. Aizen held both at one point in the story, but were "destroyed" - thus stopping him from reaching the royal palace ("godhood").

The hogyoku was revealed to be a "wish-granting" item, which is very similar to the "hoju" in Japanese Buddhist mythology. There are certain gods and goddesses associated with this jewel: Kannon (who is the figure in Urahara's sword/bankai); Jizo Bosatsu (Mayuri's Ashisogi Jizo) and Aizen-myoo. It could be that Kubo wanted Mayuri to also be involved/have a connection to the hogyoku too!

Both Aizen and Aizen-myoo open their third eye, associated with beings of a higher consciousness, spiritual awareness, and enlightenment.

Aizen and Aizen-myoo can be seen as foils in their depiction, aside from having similar sounding names. Aizen-myoo's skin is flushed red, while his hair is wild and unkept - which is tied to passion, rage and lust - raw emotion. Aizen Sousuke is the opposite, his skin is stark white (devoid of passion), his hair is slicked back (composed). He's controlled in his emotions until Urahara seals him in bright red seals. His hair also becomes wild!

Another thing about Aizen-Myoo: he is the patron god for many occupations, one of those are trades relating to fabric-dyeing, going back to the indigo aspect :).

So Sousuke/Sosuke, as Kubo wrote it is: 惣右介

The 惣 represents:

A historical term for rural, self-governance (and what did Aizen want to do again…). Specifically referring to the "Muromachi period". Interestingly to note, this period is where Zen Buddhism flourished, especially in the arts (like calligraphy!!).

右 represents "right-hand side" (as in "turn right at the corner") 介 for being "concerned with one's self".

Sousuke/Sosuke is a popular Japanese name, which adds another layer to Aizen's deception. His name is very common, almost like he's an NPC - he's so innocuous in the world of Sereitei. Mild-mannered, disciplined, refined, he doesn't stand out too much, but enough to be recognized for his work ethic.

At the same time, I'm not taking too much stock into this interpretation of his meaning :). For example, Kisuke (喜助) also has the same suffix in romaji (-ke), but different kanji associated with it (介 vs 助).

🪞 🌸 🌊 🌙 KYOKA SUIGETSU 🌙 🌊 🌸 🪞

I'm not doing a breakdown on the idiom kyoka suigetsu represents (as there are countless, and better explained posts breaking that down better than I can). What instead I'm bringing, is how kyoka suigetsu is a tool to show how ambitious and focused Aizen is. This section is very much thanks to this Reddit post and additional "research" I wanted to know more about lol!.

One of the most prominent books on swordfighting, strategy and warfare in Japan is "A Hereditary Book on the Art of War" written by Yagyu Munenori in 1632. This book is split into three arches: 1) The Killing Swords; 2) Life-giving Sword; 3) No Sword.

In this book, Munenori breaks down the same idiom kyoka suigetsu represents, but ties it to sword fighting.

Munenori takes the idiom "moon in the water" but equates it as the moon's ability to instantaneously cast its reflection on the water's surface, and how a warrior must do the same.

A warrior must be able to "see" far ahead, like the moon, and "cast his reflection" (killing strike, his ambition) on where he wants to go, just like the moon reflecting on the water. His ambition will guide his "body, hands, and feet", thus without ambition, your physical strength is useless.

To be able to utilize their ambition and physical strength effecitvely, the warrior must be focused and disciplined. Aizen (prior to his loss against Ichigo and Urahara), exhibited a lot of Zen values/attitudes, even in his fighting.

Munenori also discusses that the warrior, who is able to mimic "the moon reflecting on to the water", must be unreadable, mysterious, to his opponent - the opponent should be confused on when to strike (the warrior's "inscrutable sword").

What Munenori states as "body, hands, and feet" is just knowing/being able to read your opponents

"Sickness" isn't the literal physical ailment of being sick, but in the Zen meaning of "being free of fixations".

Zen teachings explain that true freedom comes from "freeing the mind of fixations without losing concentration, attention, or control". Aizen's own focus is an great example of that - his ability to make near perfect illusions is not a testament to kyoka suigetsu, but of his own mind.

Aizen was constantly focused on the "present", while being very aware on what he needed to go "further ahead". His ability to continuously wield his strength/reaitsu, with his high intelligence and tactical mind, made him probably one of the strongest enemies Soul Society ever faced. We can argue that Aizen's "fixation" on being the Soul King led to his downfall.

Combining this, kyoka suigetsu is powerful because Aizen is the one wielding it. Even Gin said so himself, it's not KS that's powerful, but Aizen - his focus, his ambition, intelligence, etc. make him fearsome. Applying Munenori's tactics to Aizen's own sword fighting ability, also adds an additional appreciation of Aizen's immense strength.

🤫 APPEARANCE 🤫

This is a shorter section lol, but Aizen having glasses as part of his attire is a very deliberate choice imo. It's pretty much the same reason the protagonist of Persona 5 wore them:

it creates an "unassuming" appearance; Aizen appears as a non-threatening, and ✨intellectual✨

Without his glasses, he has a intense, even menacing stare. I'm sure the students at the Soul Academy were curious to see what he looked without them, but they would probably be very intimidated if they saw him without his glasses.

Shaggy, almost unkept hair, gives a sense of approachability.

I think Aizen was very aware about how he looks/is meticulous about his apperance. His disguise as "Lieutenant/Captain Aizen" had to be very believable - he was deliberate in how he presented himself.

Even in a modern AU setting, I can see Aizen having a wardrobe that leans towards timeless, classic pieces, and pieces that avoid him standing out. He is an observer, and he also likes to take people by surprise. Maybe the nice, cashemere sweater he's wearing, costs $500 haha! Something like that.

It's not that he cares what other people think of him, but he has goals he wants to achieve, and showing is "true" self, will not yield him that reward. He's aware that he can further his agenda by playing into the hands of how the public treats and reacts to him.

👩‍🔬 🧑‍🔬 👨‍🔬 SCIENTISTS 👨‍🔬 🧑‍🔬 👩‍🔬

Aizen, Urahara and Mayuri are the three (in)famous scientists in Sereitei. I would also argue Shutara Senjumaru of the Royal Guard also deserves a spot for that, so I'm going to include her in this as well.

We see that Mayuri and his sword, if you were to "categorize" what science he fell under, it would be "toxicology" which is more chemistry and biology driven. Mayuri is focused on poisons, their effects, and his tolerance/immunity to them. Urahara on the other hand, would be biological engineering. He also invented the hogyoku, as well as the untraceable gigai, and many other tools. His bankai is also representative of anatomical dissections, which is pretty prominent in many applications of biological engineering.

Shutara would be associated with materials science since she created the Shinigami uniform, which has built-in defense properties. She also created the Shutara scale to detect hollows and their frequency (again, dealing with the material, physical world).

Aizen on the other hand? Neuropsychology. His powers and skill are focused on the person's brain/mind and soul. He's skilled at reading people and observing them - to the point in strategizing and using their emotions for his own plans. I mean, there's even a whole subset of how psychology can be used in warfare...

WOW. This was massive. Thanks again for those who read this!!

[mrs-barnes-library]

That's Right I Win Or I Thought I Would || Naruto characters x fem!Light!reader

Including : Kakashi Hatake, Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Uzumaki

A/n : Okay now this is really interesting, I'm affraid it'll turn angst but I love angst so tha'ts cool ahah. Also dear and everyine please if you have request I prefer to receive them on @moumouton4 which is my main account where I post my fics whereas @mrs-barnes-library is just a library where I gather fics of hundreds of amazing writers. That being said thank you and let's go

A/n 2 : Also dear @pinkienoobie I'm sorry I wrote a LOT but I got inspired I hope you'll like it

A/n 3 :  The quote from Light should have been in red but Tumblr didn’t let me post it this way I’m sorry for this

Warnings : Death Note graphic scenes of death, angst, betrayal, extreme sadness, mistrust, god complex, reader is a brain, mention of loss and grief, death of reader only in one, spoiler for a character death in Naruto Shippuden season 4 for Shikamaru's part, chronology not respected for Kakashi and Naruto's part, Shikamaru and Naruto are the same age as in Shippuden S12

Masterlist ⚜

I don’t give permission to repost my work, if you want to share it just reblogue it

Words count : 4086

Kakashi Hatake :

You were very close to the Uchiha clan and you were devastated by the events of that famous night which had deprived you forever of your two best friends Shisui and Itachi.

It seemed to be a twist of fate when you stumbled upon a strange black notebook that you had found in the forest under a bramble bush - ouch

Once you got to know the God of Death, whom you discovered was called Ryuk, you decided to use the extraodinary power of this find to avenge the death of your friends and the Uchiha clan

The first person you used it on was of course Danzo Shimura, the one who caused the situation to go wrong

Of course you didn't do this in the normal way, you could have just written his name down and made him die of a heart attack but you made a show of it, you made him go to the public square, explain his crimes, show the eye he had stolen from Shisui and the eyes he had grafted in his right arm, after that you made him tear out his eye and cut off his arm before cutting off his tongue, the tongue that had caused so much harm before he stuck the kunai in his lung and let him die of asphyxiation

Of course everyone - or almost everyone - had witnessed the scene and was almost more shocked at what he had done while he was alive than at the violence of his death

Kakashi had noticed that day that the atmosphere in the village had changed, a climate of fear reigned

All thought it was made by a Genjutsu but Sasuke had disappeared, only Kakashi remained, who of course knew that he had done nothing. However he noticed that you didn't seem to be really upset, dare he even say that you seemed happy about it. After all it was legitimate but still

So he decided not to worry but to keep an eye on you, not because he suspected you but in case the author of this act tried to come after you

But if only he knew

After that you started to go on missions for the Hokage, without telling him, you always took missions that would allow you to be in the same area as the enemies that you wanted to get ride of with your Death Note and thanks to the power of the Shinigami eyes

No one ever made the connection between your missions and his unexpected deaths

Well, nobody except Kakashi, who noticed that the deaths were taking place during the same periods as your absences, he just didn't know where you were going or where the enemies you were killing were

He had also noticed a strange change in your aura, a kind of melancholy associated with eagerness but what he didn't know. It also seemed that on the rare occasions when you were in Konoha and he came to spend time with you, you refused to go out all the time and even did everything to get him out of your house as soon as possible, as if you had better things to do

He would have advised you to sleep, because of the dark circles under your eyes that showed your lack of sleep

But EVERYTHING went wrong one evening, when he was walking in the forest to clear his head, he stumbled upon a familiar figure lying on her stomach on the ground behind a bush, writing frantically and laughing psychotically

His eyes widened and he stepped on a branch that cracked making you stop moving before whipping your head towards him

"Y/n what are you doing here ?" he asked his voice shaking as if it knew something more than he did. He held his hand out to you to help you up, but it didn't have the desired effect at all

"Don't touch it ! Stay back !" you yelled clutching the Death Note against your chest, he took another step in your direction, resuming in you throwing a kunai at his feet made him stop his advance

"Y/n what the hell are you doing ?" he asked surprised in his voice clear and noticeably out of breath

Another noise was heard and Anbus ninjas, which obviously took you in tailing for a while already, unfortunately your measures did not allow you to escape

"L/n Y/n you are under arrest" one of them shouted at you but you didn't listen to anything

You quickly wrote their names while avoiding their attacks, they all started to fight again one another and the last one fell down dead of a heart attack in the next 30 seconds under the frightened eyes of Kakashi

"I'm ridding the world of evil and creating a utopia. No matter how much time I have, it won't be enough. I have no time to loose on you"

He couldn't believe his eyes, his legs were shaking slightly and his breathing was shallow "Oh no not again" he thought, he felt like the day he had seen Obito again after all those years thinking he was dead

Your wild eyes locked on his, and he took a step backwards for fear that you would decide to attack him if you felt rushed by his proximity

"Please Y/n put that down we'll settle-"

"No ! I did this for all of us ! I have avenged the village and I will continue to purify the world as a vengeful and protective deity-"

"Protective deity ? Can you hear yourself talk ?!?" his brain was working at full speed, how should he handle the situation, should he arrest you or let you execute criminals at all, should he go as far as killing you- no no it's impossible, he already lost everything, he can't afford to lose the person he cares about the most to die, not by his hand, not again ( I'm not saying that he loved Rin only that he killed her with his hand )

"Don't you find life in the village better now that I have blessed it with my power ! Don't you feel the serenity of the place ?

"Y/n..." he said sadly, his voice low, "You are rambling. You are not in your right mind. Let me help you-" he took another step slowly towards you

"Not one more move or I'll have to clean the village of your presence as well !" your trembling hand holding your pen, holding it perpendicular to the page of the notebook, your voice echoed in the moonlit forest in a frightening manner

Kakashi couldn't believe his eyes you were going to coldly kill him, but he couldn't let you do that, however he couldn't bring himself to kill you either, but little by little he realized that it was either you or him, and who knows what you would be capable of doing after killing the man you had shared your life with for all those years

Suddenly you saw him put his hand in the pocket of his bag and you rushed to write his name on the notebook

"Kakashi Hata-"

Too late, an erasure coming down from your "A" scratched the bottom of the page as your hand jerked uncontrollably as the pen - your weapon - slipped from your hand, as the kunai in your throat made you choke, so that you spat blood on the open page of the notebook and dropped it to the ground

Kakashi had acted without thinking, out of survival, he didn't think either when he set fire to the damned book he thought was cursed

He took you in his trembling arms, tears forming in his eyes, he uttered apologies expressing all the regret that consumed him secondes after what he did, but nothing reached your ears which could only hear a white and continuous sound, like a whistle

You continued to flail frantically in his arms as you watched your Death Note burn, until exhaustion forced you to close your eyes

You wondered if it was the kunai that would take your life first or if it was the burning notebook that would have the upper hand, but wasn't it you who started it all ?

"It was the right thing to do... you'll be more useful to them than me" you coughed blood on his chest leaning over you, as if the old you wanted to speak one last time

"Don't wear yourself out, I-I'll take you back to the village, you'll be fine, I-I love you please stay with me" he was talking so fast, but yet he was slowly realizing what was happening and that maybe you wouldn't make it

You closed your eyes in exhaustion, feeling his love surround you, it almost didn't hurt anymore with his warmth against you

He panicked as he felt your body relax in his arms, he repeated your name over and over frantically like a mantra, tears flowing from his eyes like streams

And just like that it was over, after a lifetime together with each other, you were going separate ways for the first time

Kakashi would continue to curse himself for the rest of his life for not knowing how to handle the situation in a better way and for not realizing it before

However what was done was done and he would have to live with it, he just hoped that once everything was over he would be able to find you, in heaven or in hell

During his next battle he will be informed that his pupil has changed, thanks to you he developed the Mangekyō Sharingan

Shikamaru Nara :

Let's say that if you found the Death Note and got the Shinigami eyes 5 months ago, well he was suspecting it since the first month

Actually you knew each other since your first year at the Ninja school and you were dating for almost 3 years now

His intelligence helped him a lot but contrary to what we can think it's not a change of your behavior that made him have this intuition

In fact, your intelligence was neck and neck with his, so you always pretended to be less intelligent than you were, so that those who thought were manipulating you would be caught in their own trap

However in this case you got caught in your own trap, at first you only used your eyes to know the names of the people you had to kill for the sake of the Ninja World - you were convinced of that, after all who could have done it if you didn't

But it only lasted a month and soon you turned to bigger and bigger criminals, which of course attracted the attention of Konoha's intelligence services

It was Shikaku, Shikamaru's father, who realized that the killer had to be from Konoha, because the deaths happened just after the said criminal had harmed Konoha in any way

Of course to complete your mission you had to infiltrate the Intelligence Service to keep up to date with everything that was going on and so you know about their progress on the investigation

Shikamaru noticed the dark circles under your eyes, or the twitch of your eyes the moments when someone made you angry, you could really look mad in those moments but being the relaxed boy he is he didn't pay more attention to it but he smtill kept it in a corner of his mind... just in case

The moment you got caught was the moment you let your feelings show the most

Indeed, Azuma sensei had been killed by Hidan's hand with the assistance of Kakuzu his Akatsuki companion. Shikamaru, Ino and Shoji were devastated

Shikamaru's eyes were full of sadness and hatred, which made you do what would start the process that would end your reign

Just two days after this tragic event you returned to your room and retrieved your Death Note which you had cleverly hidden in a wall in your room. You had been on the said mission which had ended with the death of your boyfriend's sensei, so you had thanks to your Shinigami eyes been able to see the first and last names of Hidan and Kakazu, and it was a piece of cake for you to remember them

You began to smile unhealthily as you wrote down the little story you had prepared for their grand finale

You made sure to manipulate Naruto ( sorry bro but I had to ) so that he asked the 3 ex-team members of Team 10 to go near the Konoha village gate

As you expected, Hidan and Kakazu arrived, all your friends who attended the scene mouth agape for some and jaw clenched for Shikamaru, he tried to use the Shadow Possession Jutsu to stop them but nothing happened for the good and simple reason that the power of the Death Note was greater

The two men continued to walk with ease, in an almost robotic way until they reached the group. Once they were at a decent distance, they bent down to 90 % and in a monotonous voice apologized for what they had done. Kakazu gave a kunai to Hidan, everyone jumped backwards but Hidan turned the weapon towards Kakuzu and pierced all his hearts and he died in a pool of blood. Then Hidan ( I'm so sorry baby T.T ) took the kunai and after apologizing one last time he stuck it in the throat, under the astonished eyes of everyone

Of course you knew that because that's what you had written, for obvious reasons you couldn't risk going to blow your cover on the field

Of course this was hidden from the other members of the village and the Intelligence Service started to do the necessary research to find the origin of what had just happened

After this eventful night, Shikamaru went to the Intelligence Office reluctantly, he went to get the information about the serial deaths. Of course it didn't take him long before he was caught by a colleague of his father and was thrown into his office. His father half-heartedly made it clear to him that you were the prime suspect and Shikamaru reluctantly explained what he had seen change in you over the past 4 months

And so in the same way that L found out that Kira was living in Tokyo, it was broadcast on your television that Shikamaru had died, killed by the same cold hand that had perpetrated all these murders, and you had run to his house, losing all notion of your plan, forgetting that it could only be a crazy scheme, and you had screamed that you it wasn't possible, taht something else must have killed him and that the killer was going to pay from your hand

But as you were about to go home to think, you felt that you had lost control of your body and you were completely frozen in place

"Shadow Possession Jutsu now complete"

When you recognized him you burst into tears, not only out of relief but also because you realized that you had they must have found out

"No I-I-I did everything for the good of the village y-YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME ! NOT AFTER ALL I'VE DONE !" as you started to scream your voice had changed in a frightening way and you started to shout to - it seemed to someone that nobody else could see - to do something

Shikamaru was frightened and disconcerted by the situation, he grabbed you in his arms as if he suspected that it might be the last time he could hold you like this, he understood why you did it but he couldn't validate your way of doing it

"Ryuk you FUKCING PIECE OF SHIT I'M YOUR MASTER YOU MUST OBEY-"

"Shhhhhh Y/n please don't make it anymore difficult" Shikamaru's voice slightly broke which made you look up at him, your crazy eyes staring into his, a pang in your heart was felt when you saw the tears rolling down his cheeks

You tried to bring your hands to his cheeks but you couldn't move any more "I did it for you Shikamaru, for us, for the village" as you spoke you thought of everything, maybe you could give up the Death Note and get the Shinigami eyes back until the division of your life expectancy would be not enough to keep you alive but unfortunately it was impossible the Death Note was still in your house

You were thrown into the dungeon, of course they tried to make you talk, but nothing happened as they expected, it seemed that you had found a way to get a piece of a page of the Death Note with which you proceeded to assassinate Ibiki, his screams were almost hidden by bursts of voice as you stood over him "I am righteous ! I'm the Hero who's liberating people from fear. I'm the Savior who's going to be like a Goddess of this perfect new world !"

Then everyone agreed on the fact that you were a threat to Konoha and they chose to end your life as quickly as possible

Of course back in those days no one knew what had happened to you and Shikamaru didn't learn this until years later when he was hired as the Hokage's right hand man.

The news took him back to that very dark part of your childhood and he was once again devastated

But did he know that you managed to escape just in time ? How could he ? Konoha had been so ashamed that they preferred not to mention anywhere this important information In any case you were still there preparing your return. Oh yes, it was going to be a blast "That's right. I win !"

Naruto Uzumaki :

Naruto is a smart boy but in this case it's not him who will realize it, not by himself, maybe Shikamaru will tell him or he will realize that Tsunade is hiding something from him, if for example she would ask him to keep an eye on you for your safety, when he is already doing it, or if she would ask Yamato or Sai to follow you

You used the Death Note to get rid of the Akatsuki members who were stealing their lives ( except Itachi  because he deserves the world )

Of course nobody understood and everybody was chocked when they learned the news of the death of the powerful nunkenins who formed the Akatsuki

Your behavior had also changed a lot, dark circles had appeared under your eyes, you fidgeted a lot, but most of the time you managed to keep the act of the happy girl you used to be, wonderfully foolinganyone who crossed your path

Finally the only problem was that you didn't think that Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox spirit that Naruto had just befriended, would have the ability to see the God of Death that had been with you since you had found the Death Note. And of course he had told his host

Naruto couldn't believe his ears, how could he believe that you, his sweet and compassionate girl, would be able to kill in such an arbitrary way

"They say that love makes you blind Naruto, not stupid" Kurama had warned him and his words were still echoing in the head of the blond after 3 good days

Naruto being Naruto he didn't bother to think about it and just confronted you

Of course he didn't lose sight of your objective and refuted everything he said with a big smile painted on your lips

Of course convinced that you would never do any harm in this way he left your house reassured and serene

While you quickly went back to your room to add some names in your Death Note

But if you thought you were alone now that Naruto was gone, you didn't count on a ninja sent by Tsunade who had totally disappeared his presence to spy on you

Of course you were caught, and taken by force to the office of the Hokage, your Death Note forgotten on your desk, too bad Tsunade should have taken an Anbu rather than a vulgar jönin

Of course your screams had alerted many people and Naruto had found himself in less time than it takes to say it in the 5th Hokage's office

"Grandma Tsunade ! Where is Y/n ?!? Why did you take her ?!?"

"That's none of your business Naruto !!" she roared at him

He immediately understood that if she didn't want to tell him it was because you were in a bad situation

He rushed into the dungeons, once in front of it he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard your screams, he panicked thinking that you were being tortured, he moved forward discreetly to be able to hit from behind whoever was hurting you but when he arrived in front of your cell he only saw you and he could hear clearly what you were saying, and it was as if his world had just collapsed

"I order you to let me out of here you subhuman. I've never been so humiliated in my entire life"

"Y-Y/n ?"

"Naruto ?!? Please come and help me ! I'm the only one who can save the village !"

He didn't understand what you had to save the village from and obviously his lack of action made you snap at him

"Naruto write her name in my notebook ! Don't listen to anyone and write her name ! Don't let her keep us apart like this !"

He shook his head as he took a few steps towards you "Y/n what are you talking about-"

"I'll tell you how to do it ! Just get me out of this cell !"

"Sorry I can't-" you didn't listen to the rest of his excuse and invoked your Death Note ready to manipulate anyone - even him - to get you out of that damn cell

"Hey no ! Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu !" a clone of Naruto caught you in his arms and kicked the notebook out of the cell

Held in his arms you were fussing around like a wild animal "Don't you dare touch me I'm your Goddess !

"Dattebayo Y/n calm down ! What's wrong with you !"

You started to shake and suffocate in his arms, he was going to ruin everything you've been doing all this time just like that with a stupid clone when you had the power of a God of Death on your side

"Y/n ! Oh fuck ! Dattebayo breathe !" he prayed as he ran his hand reassuringly over your back "It's okay we'll get through this together ! All is not lost !"

And finally by dint of talking you were forced to listen to him and breathe calmly, his words gave you hope, but not like he would have wanted

 If you were thinking well the Death Note was not the only way to come to your ends. There were great ninjas out there who had left the village to try to become more powerful - cough cough Orochimaru - that you could try to find and try to be the student of

You looked up and met Naruto's eyes, he had succeeded in making peace with Kyubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox spirit so why couldn't you succeed in leaving the village and following the teachings of these great ninjas

You couldn't give up on the Death Note though because if you did you would forget the fight you had now decided to lead

"Fine" you let your body clamor in the arms of his clone as he brushed your hair with his fingers, far from thinking that now and with half of the life you had left you were going to do everything to reach this divine power in another way than with the help of Ryuk

Whether you like it or not, you will get out of this cell, you will leave this village and you will become powerful and you will purify the world of the filth that poisons it

And they would fear the wrath of a Goddess, they would fear you

Cut to Naruto following you all around the country like he did with Sasuke

~

~

A/n : I hope you liked the angst 😏 Again my requests are open 😘

Taglist : @foxxymunson, @cl0vr, @ilovemanypeople, @glossy1pearl, @jane57sstuff

[tobiasdrake]

Okay, let's meet the new team.

SHINIGAMI! That's fucking RUDE, Ghost Junko. These are going to be our colleagues and they deserve to be treated with some respect and reverence for human life!

...but also, same.

Very nearly misgendered them on account of visibly being a mid-thirties Chiaki Nanami. Fortunately, their bio spells out that they "have no specified gender".

Plus side, enby rep. Downside, oh god, Kodaka's writing an LGBT character again. The guy who brought us Chihiro Fujisaki, Teruteru Hanamura, and Korekiyo Shinguji is taking another swing at LGBT rep. Can't wait to see how he fucks this one up.

In any case, all we know so far is that they're a cold and calculating mastermind who coolly analyzes the circumstances around them while giving away nothing emotionally.

Roughly the same age as me and a hot-headed jackass to offset my calm and understated persona. This kid's definitely here to be my Shonen Rival and then maybe we gradually become friends over time as our rivals-to-bromance plot overtakes the story and shunts other characters out of the spotlight.

You know how that goes.

Incidentally, when I typed Desuhiko's name in to tag it, the second result that came up on the autocomplete was "Desuhiko x Yuma". So. Yeah. You know what this dynamic is going to be.

She's in the running for fave right now but a lot's going to depend on when and how the other shoe drops. Fubuki is an air-headed noblewoman who can't count past three and struggles to comprehend basic concepts. She thinks chocolate grows on trees already in its silver wrapper.

But she's also a Master Detective. She can't actually be stupid if she's not only a member of the international League of Best Detectives but also talented enough to be one of the few survivors to skate past Amaterasu's murder-wall. There has to be something more to her beyond what seems readily apparent. Right?

You can't see it in these shots but he's chilling in the fireplace.

I don't know why he's chilling in the fireplace. The more pressing question is where he found all that leg room. My guy, did you sledgehammer open the interior wall of the fireplace so you could have a comfy place to lay?

His bio says he likes fluffy pillows and dislikes hard pillows (and living) but he's choosing an architecture-defying fireplace lounge when there are all these comfy surfaces around the room so I don't know if I trust it.

[artificial-ascension]

I like to imagine Beyond's hypothetical shinigami dad (mom? I just find it more likely he was human born since he's... clearly a human with at least one shinigami power and if he was birthed by a shinigami he'd probably be more like a nerfed shinigami just by like... Pokemon breeding logic I guess) is a shinigami we haven't seen rather than a pre existing character simply because 1. That's another character oh boy how fun and 2. I feel like there'd have to be some ramifications of making such a beast. Like if extending human life is a crime punishable by instant death how is making another human also not a punishable offense? Like at the very least put them in time put for that. Don't just let them hang about with everyone else.

Anyway my personal take is that B's shinigami dad was summoned (I imagine there has to be some way to summon a shinigami, or at least ask for one to come down or something) by some shinigami worship cult or whatever and for whatever reason, decided to bone some human women and create Beyond Birthday. The shinigami king was like hey, what the fuck dude, penis privilege revoked for all of you and Beyond's father was permanently shunned by the rest of the shinigami because jacking off was the only other thing to do besides gambling.

The shinigami king had to make a whole bunch of rules about how Beyond should even function and assigned his father to look over him to make sure he wasn't being too much of an issue. Beyond's dad was already a very finicky and active shinigami so following some guy around earth wasn't ideal but he got to spend time with his kid I guess.

He never actually showed himself to B, kinda just doing paranormal shit like dropping things or moving things in his room when he wasn't in there. The reason why was that he didn't need B going full crazy and trying to convince everyone he was haunted by some freaky monster because B was already something of an outcast and didn't need another reason for people to hate him.

One interesting little idea I had was the concept of shinigami eye inheritance. My idea going that the eyes are a recessive trait and can only be introduced into the gene pool by someone having a child while they had the eyes. If both parents have them when the kid in conceived a child with be born with the eyes. B's mom made the deal and his dad was obviously a shinigami so he has the eyes. Now an interesting side effect of carrying the gene means there is a chance to recognize the vague visage of shinigami without touching a notebook. Not being fully capable, but still understanding that something was there. Basically, A happened to carry the gene because someone in his family had they eyes in the past meaning he could see B's dad following him. Now obviously B's father didn't account for this because honestly the chance of a human carrying that gene is so extremely slim and he only made an effort to hide himself from B so A got to see the distorted face of death and maybe that may have acounted in his unfortunate demise but hey he was gonna die young anyway and at least the visage of a death god haunting your friend helps inspire you to make cool horror art.

Oh also the reason B wasn't killed instantly is because the shinigami king was curious as to how his life would go. It went bad but he was amused by the LABB murder cases (obviously shinigami kid would not be in trouble for murder, it's literally in his blood.)

[fushichoumomo-arch]

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒 ━━  dispositions of  a  𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐱.

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥.

about  momo's  𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲  𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞:  momo is an elder sister in a japanese household , with all that entails . she was responsible for raising her brother since their grandmother , at that point , was weak and frail . she was also responsible for ensuring that the family had money for basic necessities . for that reason , she would work many odd jobs in the many districts of the rukon-----she had an affinity for KIDŌ even then , so most of her jobs entailed chaperoning important individuals . 

she didn't muck up , she didn't complain ; she simply knew that this was the life she was expected to live — period.

.

about  𝐭𝐡𝐞  𝐬𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐢:  the seireitei was something of a culture shock for momo . even her INFATUATION (at that point) with captain aizen sōsuke couldn't overshadow how there was something deeply wrong with the opulence here , whilst many rukon districts were left to rot-----if she didn't take into account the fact that becoming a shinigami was typically reserved for nobles , as most souls lacked both the reiatsu and talent to make it in the thirteen court guard squads . 

the fact that her brother-----a child----- had been forced to become a shinigami to keep their entire district safe from his latent reiatsu , never sat well with momo . and it never will-----no matter how much time passes . 

the last straw , for momo , is the revelation that the seireitei sends its fallen comrades to HELL for the crime of being too strong . 

.

when 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬:  momo , generally speaking , is polite && respectful , always doing her due diligence to address people properly .

when speaking to acquaintances — momo will address them as “mister/miss”, followed by their surname . 

when speaking to friends or comrades — momo will address them by their first name only . but in front of subordinates / superiors , by their rank . 

when speaking to superiors — momo will address them as “captain [surname]” , even the captain-commander . 

  there are two notable exceptions to this .

aizen sōsuke , whom she will ALWAYS address as “captain” , or “lord” in the hueco mundo au . only (and ONLY) when they are courting one another , will she refer to him by his first name (&& only when they are alone) .

hitsugaya tōshirō , her brother . momo will NEVER refer to him by any honourific , simply because their status as family (and her being the elder sister) , in her head , supersedes any captaincy status . 

finally, enemies or those worthy of her disrespect get addressed as  “[last name] [first name]” — just like in canon . 

[rdbrainz]

Do you have any headcanons for how Nnoitra would act in a romantic relationship? I think he’d have a lot of trouble being honest about his feelings (he’d be so fucked up simply by crushing on someone, let alone dating) and he’d deny loving someone till his last breath lmao

Or nsfw thoughts if you’re up for it, since I can’t not think about fucking him 24/7, also my delusions are telling me he’s a sub who’ll never admit to it, but loves it

I don't have a favorite ship so let it be just some hypothetical "you"... I think I was a bit scarce here because imo the way he behaves depends on the situation (for example if his S/O is an arrancar, a human or a shinigami, if it's before his loss to Zaraki or after, etc.) so the h/c's can be a bit flavorless but I tried my best. And... I mean you guys can always ask me for more wink wink lmao. Might as well also make an account for xReader things like I wanted sheesh. Totally agree with what you said btw!! SFW:

Yeah he'd deny having any feelings even to himself but he'd be so terribly obnoxious with it that it's literally impossible not to notice. He's too clingy, too possessive, too annoying, too prone to jealousy and likes to get in your face both literally and figuratively. There's no such thing as personal space for this man I fear. Grabbing you by the wrists? Yes. Tugging at your ears? Yeah. Leaning closer to grab you by the face or annoyingly lick it if you're not paying attention? Sure

He's in a constant battle with himself and gives mixed messages all the time. At some point Nnoitra can hint at something or make a borderline romantic/sexual comment but once you confront him or make your own move he'd just hit you with his usual "What the hell are you saying?!" bs. The gaslighting is so real

Calling someone he doesn't hate by their name is very intimate to him. So usually it's just "hey you", "idiot", "woman", "human", "shinigami", "quincy", etc.

Nnoitra suffers from cute aggression. There's nothing he'd actually consider cute in this situation of course but if something you did made him feel a little too much or he just happened to be next to you for too long his first immediate response is to want to squash you, break one of your limbs or bite a chunk out of you. Both because he can't deal with his own emotions and because "how fucking dare you"

Both him and Jaegerjaquez are very sensitive to smell and to Nnoitra your scent is very calming. I don't think he's desperate enough to constantly follow you and sniff you lmao but he's definitely stealing something that belongs to you for later. If you're fortunate/unfortunate enough to have the fifth Espada as your roommate and you're away for too long he will rummage through your closet to make a nest out of your clothing or occupy your pillow

The way he sleeps in front of you and whether he does or not in general is very telling. Imo he's a very light and restless sleeper. Constantly on his toes even in his slumber. Eons in Hueco Mundo can do things to you. So if he doesn't take fetal position to hide his stomach with you, won't literally jump up at the slightest of sounds and naps in your presence sometimes - congrats

I think he'd confess only if the situation is so dire he'd rather die than not do this. Like for example if you're having a huge fight and you're so close to leaving he's almost shaking and ripping his hair out out of stress which doesn't happen a lot. Or if there's someone showing interest in you and they're very much successful at making you happy. Then it's a question of defending what he thinks is his even though he won't admit it. Would he actually try to kill the other person? I mean it depends really but if it's Grimmjow or Szayel then fucking sure. Any day. Anyone else is not that big of a competition. Even Ulquiorra. "I mean have you seen him? What a fucking nuisance. He makes me sick. As if he has a chance with anyone at all"

Speaking of which - would brag in front of you all the time

Once you're together he'll never leave and will always make sure others know you're taken. Well not at first of course but still

NSFW (heavily afab leaning because I need this man too oh my god):

Tbh I too can't imagine him as an aggressive alpha-dom-top (tm) if he actually has any feelings for the person. So a service top or a damn bottom it is

The worst size kink ever. He may constantly talk shit about people who are weaker, smaller or frailer than him but once feelings are involved he's aroused by the thought all of a sudden. I think his fingers are not the only thing that is unusually long so not fitting all the way in is not a problem for him - it's even better in fact

As fascinating as the thought of penetration may be to him I think foreplay is his favorite part. Mostly because making you squirm is fun but also because only here he can actually assert domination. After that he's just too soft

I don't care what anyone says this man is a MUNCH

So so painfully slow sometimes. If he's on top would just stop to tease and watch your reaction. Other than that making the process as long as possible is one of his goals. It's not like he has no stamina - he has a lot of it actually but during sex he can be as intimate and as close to you as he wants to be because under normal circumstances he can't afford to put it into words without having to grab himself by the throat

Talks a lot. It's not exactly dirty talk (I don't like it I'm very sorry babes) but he loves saying nasty things and comments on everything that is going on. Otherwise he's nervous

I'm convinced all of the arrancars must be infertile since they don't reproduce this way so. He likes finishing inside. He won't have it any other way. It's special to him because how are you even letting him do something like this but he also shows affection this way

The more vocal his partner is the better. Everyone must know

I mentioned that he loves your scent before so yeahhh. I hope you don't mind stains on your clothes ANYWAY THANKS

[crazy-dark-rainbow]

A survey about Zangetsu and his name - summary

47 people took part in the survey voting.

I was supposed to write a summary a long time ago, but life likes to ruin my plans. Again.

Ok. It took me way too long to write a summary. Anyway, the name Zangetsu/Shiro, whatever, is an interesting "object of study" for me. It's an interesting phenomenon. Ok, let's call it a phenomenon. A fandom phenomenon or something. Why I think so: because I read a lot of fanfics, in different languages ​​(even those I don't know - thanks for inventing a translator!) and I have the impression that each person writing it uses a different "version", writes it differently. Regardless of whether it's an AU or a ff set in the canon world.

In general, I see again that I've ruined the survey… Because let's face it - I'm not a fan of Ichigo-Quincy. I believe that he got rid of this power and is only a Shinigami and a Hollow. I guess I forgot to mention that I'm not talking about Zangtesu-Quincy BUT about the Real Zangtesu, i.e. Hollow. Nevertheless, I think it's important to mention it. The second thing I messed up - I didn't take into account the name issue when it comes to AU…

More summary at the end.

First place is Zangetsu. Zero surprise. As if… de facto his real name. And in canon ffs this shouldn't be up for discussion if we're talking about the Zanpakutō sword/spirit, not necessarily about Zangetsu/Shiro as a separate person. When it comes to stories happening in AU, the name Zangetsu is also fine. Although when Ichi and Hich are written as brothers it doesn't make sense (for me), but that's my personal preference. Because, come on, twins Ichigo and Zangetsu? It doesn't suit me. In any case, Zangetsu as a name in AU and Canon is a very cool option.

Number two in the poll results: Shiro. No surprise here either. Shiro as the name of Ichigo's Hollow fits him perfectly. This is probably my favorite version. Although Shiro with Shirosaki as a surname sounds quite strange, but I've never come across such a version, so we can assume that such an option is not possible. Shiro fits Shiro/Zangetsu perfectly. I don't know if Ichigo actually calls him that in the anime/manga or if it's just the official name of the Hollow he created. Generally, Shiro is Shiro.

Third place is Hichigo and Higo. I also like this version a lot. And this is the name that I have the impression I've encountered more often - but in the past. I may be wrong, but this name appeared in older FFs, or it just seems that way to me. I have the impression that this version was replaced by Shiro. It fits him, emphasizes his "albinism" if we're talking about AU, and in the canon it underlines his otherness - uniqueness.

Option number 5: Shirosaki as a first name, Zangetsu as a last name. In my entire career in the Bleach fandom, I've only encountered one FF with this combination. I find it incredibly funny - because while writing this survey I completely forgot about this FF and it's a complete coincidence xD BUT, I think this version is very okay! Although personally, I like it better in some modern AU.

And finally… an option that I haven't seen in the fandom for YEARS. (Or maybe I'm wrong again, who knows). But seriously - personally I haven't come across any FF written after 2010 that would call Shiro Ogichi. Maybe I just didn't come across one. Maybe this name really didn't stay in the fandom. Although that's very interesting. The Sword Spirit, which is part of Ichigo's soul and his mirror image. So a name in the form of a mirror image is a good idea.

The Zangetsu/Shiro name issue is… problematic for me. [ As I mentioned at the beginning - I'm not a fan of Zangetsu-Quincy, nor Ichigo-Quincy, so let's pretend that the poll doesn't concern this issue, and Shiro-Hollow-Zangetsu is the only Zanpakutō Spirit we're talking about. That's important in this poll. ] This is a personal problem for me for several reasons:

First, Shiro-Hollow is… a Hollow. Created from other souls, he looks like Ichigo, but he definitely has his own personality and demeanor. As a sword, Ichigo is Zangetsu, but does he personally have a name? He was named White, and that was only because of Aizen's ironic spite. Then he became Zangetsu, so did he think he had a name? In the manga/anime, he said at first that he didn't have a name. Then the line I love - "I am Zangetsu." I think I don't know how to explain it to myself logically.

Secondly: AU fanfics are a ton of ideas on how to "re-create" Shiro's name. I've seen different versions. I don't think there are good and bad versions, each author has their own preferences. I'm a big fan of the idea of ​​both being brothers, twins. I think it's cute. (Without any subtext in their relationship or anything). Ichigo and Hichigo fit great, Ichigo and Shiro too, considering the albinism. In general, Shiro's albinism marked in FF is something I'm also a fan of. Just like Grimmjw is rarely blond, Shiro is always an albino :3

This summary turned out to be much longer than I wanted it to be… anyway, if you have something to add, don't hesitate to write me a message or comment!

[ These are largely my personal opinions and preferences so not everyone has to agree with them. ]

[hydrangeyes]

Bleach Rambles

So if you don't know, Yes this already existed, my old account was deleted (accident but I can tell I won't be getting it back), and am reposting my old x male reader works!

I don't know if I saved all of them but here is one that was saved to my AO3 account.

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edit Nov.8.2023: THE WAY I MADE THIS JUST AS THE SHOW WAS COMING BACK

"I just reawakening my intense adoration for this series but for once I'm taking it slow here's a headcanon" headcanon

So I got back into bleach and am taking my sweet time rewatching it before I read the manga also, but hear are some headcanons as I read fanfic

Current 10/7/22: Back when I bout almost the complete manga series as an impulse buy when I had money lmao, I made this. Now the war is being animated and I'm HYPED (That and desperately looking forward to witch hat atelier anime)

Anyway I'm in love with most of the characters but i do have my fav 3.

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If you wanna romance ichigo, you have to be blunt about it

No beating around the bush, this dude is so oblivious unless your shoving a dick or tit in his face

💫Please don’t do that 💫👍🎉

But when you do confess, 100% no doubt in my mind he’s gonna be flustered and so confused

He’s got that “where such good friends.” While both of you are holding hands on a date vibe

Not saying he’s stupid but ya boi isn’t very bright either

It’s something you and tatsuki bond over in 2 ways. The first, “our orange haired babes are so oblivious and cute.” And the second, “God ichigo how dumb can you be?”

Don’t get me wrong it’s all in good fun but man, I feel like the whole confession scene will not go as expected, not even close

To add abit of drama maybe some tension between you and orihime? Before you both become good friends

Like there’s a jealousy over how close the other is to ichigo but in different ways

I think after a sorta awkward talk that turns earnest things smooth out and you’re best friends

Not a day goes by where anyone is able understand why you still try orihime’s off the wall cooking

Hmm ichigo can cook? But like he’s no master chef

Oh! Okay okay so confession scene

You both definitely get attacked by a hollow, up to you if you can see or interact with them

But I think it would be hilarious if you see ichigo trying to get away to fight, and you misunderstand, demanding him to just say he’s not interested instead of just trying to ditch you

Of course, of course that’s when the attack happens and you have bigger things to worry about

After everything ichigo gone over what you said, finds you, and before you can ask if he’s okay he kisses you

It’s actually really nice

Depending on some things I think you do get involved in the whole shinigami half life

Either as a fellow worker in Urahara’s shop or training to fight with ichigo (secret? On pay roll? Either works)

Oh! And Rukia surprisingly is the one to give you the “if you hurt my little brother/son/best friend” speech

It was horrifying and the art work she showed to demonstrate felt surreal

[unohanadaydreams]

we need more of that good old 00s insanity back in fandom because there’s not enough fic about mayuri hooking reader up to a sex machine For Science

As the 00s were my shiny introductory years to fandom and Bleach in particular, I absolutely agree.

RIP to the brave soldiers who got their accounts torn down on Quizilla for daring to give the Mayuri filth we deserved. You are lost but not forgotten.

When he feels empowered (ie, make-up on, clothed how he prefers, and bathed in an aura of never having a romantic inclination in his life), he is all too happy to be a sexual freak. I think you could take one of these variables away and he would still feel comfortable enough.

It's about the control. The messy, on-the-fly deductions. The portrayed detachment. Even when he displays enjoyment, it's not because of you. It's because of the act. The machinery. The way he can guess how this or that will make you feel and be completely correct. You could be anyone--that part's important. But you’re a squirming body, which is important too.

Here are some disjointed thoughts/headcanons that are not family friendly and get dark:

I think he would enjoy machinery that displays the unique abilities shinigami have and can utilize to get off. He relishes in any sense of superiority he can grasp on to, after all.

They can use kido for temperature play, restriction, and sensory deprivation without the need for physical props. Spiritual pressure could also be used as a form of restriction, breath play, ect. (On that note, the wiki says there are fucking VENTS on shinigami’s wrists for their spiritual pressure. Built in clit stimulators isn’t fair but whatever.) And SP can be built into shapes so like, we mere mortals can’t compete. Yes you have to be advanced to do that but with great power comes great orgasms without needing toys, apparently.

Machinery wise, I think he would play with these abilities. Not strong enough to shape your own spiritual pressure? That’s fine! He has a machine that molds your released pressure into a numbered set of shapes. You can literally fuck yourself. And it’ll look pretty too since he has color changing settings. If your pressure is purple, well now it’s a pulsing rainbow! Like LED lights but organic.

Or a machine that absorbs a Kido and disperses it in a more controlled way over time. With adjustments that can be made for intensity and location.

I also think he would be a big fan of machinery that blurs the line of you and the equipment. He loves synthetic organics. He loves repurposing organic material until it’s a farce of life. He’ll have you hooked up until YOU can’t remember where you begin and the machine ends.

I think this would also apply to machinery where he could feel apart of it as well. Interconnected to his creation and you in a mesh of intimacy that looks unnatural but feels organic.

The scientific papers this man is putting out on innovation in shinigami power specific sexual exploration & the machines schematics he’s patenting and selling are absolutely helping bank roll the R&D.

Some noble requests a custom machine and your ass is being used to quality check the entire process. For Science of course.

Also, 100% he would have a machine helmed by a mod-Soul. Yes it’s unethical. Yes it’s sexy & appropriately mad scientist compliant.

On that thought I ABSOLUTELY think he would keep a copy of you (think ala Soma) tucked in a mod-soul capsule that he can put in a gigai or whatever he wants at will. I think he would be a huge fan of having you in a way that no one, not even you, are aware of. He can’t be vulnerable with the you that exists freely in the world. But he can with the you who only exists when and where he wills it. This makes the concept of a mod-soul controlled machine even sexier. You are the machine. And he’s under your control. Even while you’re fully under his.

Literally Mayuri and sex machines are such gold.

[againstboredom]

How Ichigo’s resemblance to Kaien Shiba affected Rukia’s performance in battle, and why she chose to remain in Soul Society after her rescue

I think that Rukia, the beautiful soul that she is, would have given her powers to Ichigo even if he didn’t resembled Kaien. That’s not why she saved him, she did it because she takes her oath to protect ALL souls to heart. She would actually have done it without the oath, it’s the kind of woman that she is. For her the imperative to protect the weak, supersedes all other rules and regulations, it’s her primary drive.

She could have been at Keigo’s house that night, and she would have given him her power, if presented with the same conundrum.

If Ichigo being a swapt palette Kaien did something, it was trowing her off her game enough to allow a run-of-the-mill hallow to get the best of her. We know that getting rid of hallows, with the level of powers of the ones from the first arc was in her ball park, otherwise Ukitake would not have sent her to do it.

So I can only conclude, as the cause for her abysmal performance, the fact that Ichigo’s face triggered her unhealed trauma, of having killed the only person that gave her a place to belong in half a century.

It’s also interesting that if Ichigo’s rain stopped when he managed to save Rukia, Rukia’s rain was pouring heavily even by the time she went to HM, as we see in her interaction with the Kaien impostor.Her saving Ichigo the night they’ve met was not enough.  But where she differs from Ichigo, is that the rain doesn’t dominate her life, even if it continues to pour. She is now happy with her nakama , with Byakuya and has been reconciled with Renji, her oldest firend. Ichigo being her friend, sharing with her his own nakama, beating the stupid ideas out of Byakuya and Renji, finished what Kaien started, he showed Rukia that she was valuable and valued.

She gave him the power to protect, he gave her a place where she belonged.’’Let’s go home Rukia’‘, what other words can express belonging better than ‘‘my home is your home’‘, said in the most literal sense that those words can have?

Ishida even makes her a dress, as a testament that she now has friends in our world, a dress that will help her fit in, a symbol that she belongs, she doesn’t have to hide in closets and steal cloths anymore. When Rukia came out of her cocoon, it happened what Kaien knew it will, her beautiful soul touched the souls of others and now they are friends. Her kindness and her readiness to fight for what is right ,transformed into friends, even people that by all accounts should have been her rivals, a quincy and the girl that believes that they are rivals for Ichigo’s love.

She chooses not to go home with Ichigo and their friends, because although the months she spent with them were maybe the happiest of her life, she wants to get her power back. She chooses the power to protect her friends and indeed every soul everywhere, anywhere, over living the childhood and adolescence that were denied her both in the WOTL and in SS, first by dying as a baby, and then by waking up in Inuzuri, where every day of her childhood was a death game, with the only price being her life.

She will recuperate her power, hone it, do her duty and supervise if the reforms that Ichigo’s  rescue brought about are put into practice. She will not seek refuge in a second childhood/adolescence, she will do her duty as a shinigami, fallowing her conscience and her principles. In the middle of Ichigo shouting the word ‘‘PROTECT’‘ every 5 seconds, we forget that she was the OG protector of Bleach, and the one that got Ichigo to change his mind about what souls deserve protection, it’s all of them.

She is the protector’s protector. And his first teacher on his road to become the man that we see him growing up into. Even if the narrative pushes her aside in the latter part of the manga, she is the impetus and the prime mover of the story, without her it will be no Bleach.

[bleachbleachbleach]

I have some questions about seated officers in the Gotei 13 that I think you might find interesting. I always thought it was pretty straightforward in terms of strength or ability if it’s a special squad like the 4th. There are some outliers like Yumichika who cares more about aesthetics, and Omaeda who’s probably there because of his rich family, or Sentaro and Kiyone who are co-third seats because neither is quite qualified to be lieutenant.

And then I found out about this guy:

Who is apparently one of 15!!!! 20th-seat officers in the ninth! How does that work?? Are there just no officers in seats 5-19, or are there just 14 extra seated officers in the 9th? Is there a limit to the number of seated officers you can have? Are there some extra perks you get as a seated officer like improved health benefits and this is just Tosen trying to game the system??

(Also I find it funny that it’s the 9th, run by Tosen, the epitome of justice and order, that is taking advantage of this bureaucratic loophole.)

Anyways what do you think this means for the organizational layout of the Gotei 13?

Ah! Crusty administrative logistics, our beloved!!!! Thank you for thinking of us! To us, there being 15 20th seats actually feels normal, and I'm willing to bet it's common across all of the divisions to have multiple officers occupying the same seat--particularly the lower seats. I feel like multiple occupancy seats is by design rather than by loophole.

Captaincy, obviously, is a fairly singular role; it's a huge ask, to have a developed bankai and some baseline managerial skills. Especially since if the Gotei had an HR office its captains were accountable to, I think somewhat fewer than 13 captains could actually demonstrate both of these things. VC, same. But with exceptions like Hanatarou, Akon, and Ikkaku/Yumichika, anyone below VC-rank is basically completely outclassed for all of the high-profile Plot Stuff that happens in Bleach--that includes all the seated officers and all the unseated. Of course, these are exceptional times and the narrative is focused on exceptional shinigami who a lot of the time probably have more in common with tall tales than they do with the life of Joe Shinigami.

Delegation of Leadership / Building Capacity

Where all these seated officers are likely most useful is in the day-to-day delegation of leadership. Say, just as a for instance, your captain and vice-captain are both going off to sit around in the Living World for a few months. Before they leave, your captain might be like, Matsumoto, we have to make sure the Division doesn't simply collapse while we are away for an undetermined amount of time! Here's the Strategic Plan I wrote last April, please refer to the subsection for the Winter Quarter (revised edition). And your VC will call a meeting outlining to, say, Seats 3-10 how she wants this implemented. And Seats 3-10 will go talk to Seats 11-15 about which teams are going to take on which pieces, and they'll each go lead a collection of teams that are in turn led by leadership cohorts comprised of shinigami in Seats 16-20.

Multiple teams and multiple leadership cohorts with lateral status within the division. So you have seated hierarchies of folks doing different jobs at each level, but also lateral redundancy carrying out similar types of jobs in different areas/with different foci/etc. If you have fifteen 20th seats, then you have fifteen people who've been additionally trained in some way who can be in charge of stuff, and you can cover more ground/build more capacity.

Creating Opportunities for Advancement

Morale-wise, I think it also opens up more opportunities for advancement, which seems important during times when shinigami aren't getting killed off by the thousands during Blood War invasions. Most shinigami are never, ever in their lives going to wake up and realistically have a shot at ever becoming VC. But a lot of shinigami probably don't want to just be Joe Shinigami for the rest of their lives. If there are multiple openings for lower seats, that makes that more possible.

Enabling Lateral Moves & Specialization/Skill Building

It also makes possible, for example, doing X Shinigami Job for 50 years, getting bored, and making a lateral move to some other Y Shinigami Job, to continue building skills and doing new things, even if reiatsu/power-wise you’re probably topping out at being 17th seat. You’re going to be a highly-skilled, indispensible 17th seat.

--

I feel like the number of people who can occupy a given seat is largely dependent on 1) how the Division has decided to allocate its budget, and 2) where additional leadership is needed. As the seats rise in prestige, they get more expensive to duplicate, salary-wise, and also become more demanding in terms of resume, so you'll probably never have 15 3rd seats, say. There's also the matter of having too many cooks in the kitchen at a certain point, and ~fears of rank inflation/deflation, which I imagine was part of the question re: Kyouraku wanting two VCs and needing to justify why he should get both Nanao and Okikiba.

[doomxdriven]

@soulxfragments (continuing from x):

Cold. Depriving herself of anything but those pure, raw instincts as she grew rigid where she stood. She was waiting. He had used up whatever patience she was willing to give. Trap her, and be faced with something that detaches from humanity. A predator kept in check beneath a human facade. It was what she had become. What she had embraced. Live and die in the depths of madness if she must. Maximize survival potential. Nothing else mattered in moments like these.

She was vicious. Relentlessly cruel. Ready to strip him down - flesh, and bone, to the very core of his existence and dispatch the remnants in the most vile of manners. Nevermind that she was a guest here. He had intruded upon her purpose within the Seireitei. She would not be enslaved again.

As walls crumbled, she remained stilled. Calculating the next course this man may take in an effort to achieve whatever his agenda had been in finding her. His words are met with silence. Even at the clap of hands, her mind processing everything she’s gaining from her origami crane to try and understand the fullness of where this situation was heading.

He wanted to talk? Bright blinding light - she’s unaffected where blind eyes fail to experience it - and suddenly… she’s smelling the air. Tasting the wind. Feeling the sensation of cloth dance against her body as the breeze tosses it about. And he? Sharp ears listen to the sounds that naturally follow the presence of a body. Clothing. Breathing. The scent of his aroma on the air should she manage to catch it. She’s seething beneath that stoic exterior. But she is still far too new to being a Shinigami, to act. Too new with Muramasa to be able to work with him cleanly. It was better to subdue these tendencies, and allow him his opportunity to speak.  Even if her immediate response was raw violence.

At least now - she was no longer in a cage. She was stood atop a cliff overlooking the Seireitei. Her head turned just-so to collect all the information she can outside of what her little origami crane could provide. Fill in the gaps. Paint a picture within her mind so she could better act accordingly should things take even more of a turn.

“Whatever knowledge you believe you have of me, clearly has proven to be insubstantial.” Empty. Deprived of whatever emotion she may be feeling in that moment. All of it buried away. The inferno tucked carefully deep down. Waiting. Biding her time for an opportunity to strike. “I will not waste unnecessary time on someone so sub-par.”

Bansui stands there calm and languid as ever, despite the cold, vicious force that was Jezebel only a handful of feet away. Bansui knew of course that Jezebel wasn't all bark (he had watched her long enough to know that well), in fact, based on her body language and tone, he was almost certain that she was only a few nerves away from lunging at him right now, but he also knew that if he had to, he could handle anything she threw his way.

Bansui was still hoping the two of them wouldn't come to blows, however. That would be, as Bansui had stated before, unfortunate, not only because it could lead to other problems, but it would force him to put in way more effort here tonight than he wanted to…

"Insubstantial…. unnecessary… sub-par, what egregious words, my good Substitute Shinigami. How… far, from the… truth, thou be on… all accounts."

Bansui, in a slow, listless motion, cants his head to one side and holds up his free hand, pointing at Jezebel briefly.

"I am, certainly no… Urahara Kisuke, by any means," Bansui slowly points to himself, a deep, guttural, yet knowing chuckle emanating from behind his mask after mentioning that name, "but, I know… more than enough about thee, more than… enough."

Jezebel's Origami would likely bear witness to a sudden flash of, strange light a yard or so behind Bansui, and while it may have been too quiet for Jezebel to hear herself, her Origiami might have also picked up on what sounded like Bansui quickly speaking under their breath.

Mere seconds later, three figures would appear from the light, and once it died down, the three would begin approaching Bansui, or rather, two of them approached, with the third between them being forcibly dragged.

Two of the sudden arrivals were dressed in garb similar to Bansui's, but the third, the one being dragged, possessed attire that seemed more… Western,along with the sack covering their face and the ropes that bound them.

"I would not… engage events, such as those.. seen tonight," Bansui continued, now gesturing at Jezebel with his staff, his other hand orientated toward the sky, "were I, and our God, Our King, not… certain."

The footsteps approaching from behind Bansui get louder as he goes on speaking, until soon enough they cease. The two figures clad in Kido Corps attire then throw the third person onto the ground, right beside Bansui.

"I… however, expected thou may… require, more convincing, and perchance, a peace offering."

Bansui points his staff toward the ground, toward the mysterious, bound figure, "That is why I… decided, to bring this, wretched Soul; they are a very… naughty, visitor, from our.. estranged, Western Branch, and I… do believe, thou shall find them… interesting."