#anti arrancar (except Nel and her friends)

[smol-yet-stupid]

I just wanted to rant about Orihime

I absolutely HATE the way she was treated in Hueco Mundo, especially for such a sweet and caring girl like her. She was kidnapped against her will, with Ulquiorra making the sick decision to threaten her with the lives of the people she loves, called a traitor for literally being blackmailed, she was physically abused by Loly and Menoly so badly TWICE, with loly punching her in the face, leaving her face disfigured (And there was even BLOOD coming out of her mouth!), for no reason, yet she still healed her abusers out of kindness and Loly and Menoly threatened to tear out her eye and fingernails OVER SOMEONE ORIHIME DIDN'T EVEN LIKE, she was completely psychologically broken by Ulquiorra when he KILLED the man she LOVED just to torture her more, which she even blamed HERSELF for, threatened to rip open her skull and chest and threatened to force feed her and give her intravenous therapy, Nnoitra suggested that he could... you know... and was such a complete vile and disgusting creep to her, calling her his "pet", (Ulquiorra was very hypocritical regarding this, because he called out Nnoitra, yet he himself still was very willing to psychologically torture Orihime) Grimmjow strangled her twice, dragged her around in chains, manhandled her and only wanted Orihime to heal Ichigo so he could hurt him again, and called her names that I don't want to mention. It physically pains me to see someone as kind and gentle as her suffer so much... Aizen and the Arrancars are complete sadistic monsters and they make me sick that they'd do this to poor Orihime. And Aizen didn't even want her powers at all, it was just to distract the strongest fighters while he took over Karakura, so all the trauma she went through was all for NOTHING.

Yet people hate her because of stupid shipping wars. I definitely don't ship UlquiHime (which people ship just to get her out of the way of IchiRuki) because he was manipulative and psychologically tormented her to past breaking point. They're shipping her with her LITERAL MENTAL ABUSER whom she has never even met or even had a single thought about until the fight with Yammy and when he kidnapped her. (And even after that, the only memory she had of Ulquiorra after the Hueco Mundo Arc was when he murdered Ichigo) A gentle girl like her deserves someone who doesn't abuse and torment her so much all the time. People say that she cared more about Ulquiorra than she did Ichigo, but that is definitely not the case, hence all the, "Kurosaki-kuns". (Y'all really want her to stay in HM forever?! With those awful Arrancar monsters and Aizen?!)

People also think that Orihime is far too obsessed with Ichigo, yet with IchiRuki, Ichigo CANNOT FUNCTION without his true love Rukia? He doesn't care about protecting people who aren't Rukia? And all these Yanderes, like Loly, Jaguara (Wolf's Rain), Shiro (Deadman Wonderland) and ESPECIALLY Yuno Gasai (Mirai Nikki) get away with literally harming or MURDERING anyone who even so much as looks at their love interest, or even their love interest themselves because it's 'cute?' They're the ones who are too obsessed if they're going to resort to such extreme lengths for their love interest, or out of jealousy towards their love interest. They're literally saying that a normal, sweet, kind girl is WORSE than these psychos. Orihime was just experiencing a normal crush, which developed into GENUINE LOVE for Ichigo, while these yanderes are complete psychos regarding their love interests, which Orihime is not. Excuse me, Yanderes, resorting to killing for love is not cute in the slightest. Orihime would never murder anyone over Ichigo. She even felt bad for being jealous of Rukia because Orihime LOVES Rukia as a friend and thinks she's amazing. Orihime was even happy for Rukia when she got married to Renji, and cried tears of joy for her (And no, it's not because Orihime finally could have Ichigo all to herself). Not to mention her love for Ichigo was what broke her out of Tsukishima's brainwashing.

And she's even been VILLAINISED too, just because she's in the way of IchiRuki (Which is NOT OK because of the huge age gap, and that Ichigo would have to die in order to be with Rukia, which would be devastating for Orihime because she wants to keep him alive and safe). But that doesn't mean I don't love Rukia, nor do I think that she's in the way of IchiHime. I definitely support RenRuki, which makes way more sense than IchiRuki. Side note, I also don't understand all the bashing that Renji gets, he's still a nice guy. Rukia was very supportive of Orihime and understood her captivity situation, and she's so funny 😄 People have said that Orihime healed more enemies than friends, but Orihime is many things, and a villain is NOT one of them. She healed Loly and Menoly because she just can't stand people getting hurt, no matter who they are, and she only healed Grimmjow's arm because Aizen told her to. And the haters ignore that she always heals her friends ALL THE TIME. That does not mean Orihime is a villain. I mean, Aughra (The Dark Crystal) paid her respects to SkekMal the Hunter, a violent, malevolent beast, even calling him the most 'beautiful' of the Skeksis, but does that make her a villain? No way. She still sacrificed her life/essence in place of Brea, Seladon and Maudra Fara. Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star) made a grave for his friend Shin, who literally tortured Ken by scarring his body and tormented and enslaved innocent people to build an entire city for Yuria, Ken's fiancee, who Shin had kidnapped. Does that make Ken a villain? No way. People claim Orihime is a villain, yet they let the ACTUAL villains get away with what they did to her just because they're attractive. Yes, Orihime healed her enemies, but she also NEVER ATTACKED HER FRIENDS.

Also, Orihime has been called selfish and manipulative, among other things. But here's the thing: She's NOT. She's far from all that. The reason she slapped Ulquiorra, which she had every right to do, was because he taunted her that Chad was supposedly dead, and he was dissing her friends by saying they were stupid and reckless to charge straight into Hueco Mundo. Ulq KNOWS that Orihime cares for her friends, so he deliberately used her love for her friends to kidnap her, manipulate her and completely psychologically break her. Orihime even literally begged to be let out of her cell to go and help Rukia, one of her BEST FRIENDS. When she was restrained by Nnoitra, she didn't care that she was being held back in a really creepy manner by one of the most vile Arrancars in existence. She really cared about Ichigo's and Nel's safety. She even shielded Uryu from Ulquiorra while completely breaking down, tried to help Yachiru, and even tried to heal Zaraki after the Nnoitra fight before getting rekidnapped. Victim blaming or what? (And also someone said that just because Orihime doesn't get a job at a clinic helping people means she FAKING her kindness? It's all an act? Like WHAT?! She can only get a job at a clinic because if not it means her kindness is an act?! She can still have other jobs AND still heal people all the while!!!! I'm not saying that helping people is wrong or bad, because it's not. I'm saying that just because she doesn't work at a clinic doesn't mean she doesn't like helping people!!!)

And there's also the whole Damsel in distress thing. That wasn't Orihime's fault. Aizen and Ulquiorra forced her into that position by threatening the lives of her friends. What else could she do? Not to mention her escorts were horribly killed right in front of her just to prove Ulquiorra's point. Even then, Orihime told THEM to run, because she valued their lives more than her own. Orihime didn't plan her own kidnapping, abuse and trauma, Aizen did. He was the one basically making her submit due to his spiritual pressure. If someone more mentally hardened was kidnapped, and was the type of person to kill their captors and escape from captivity instantly, they get so much praise, but if it's a sweet, pacifistic person like Orihime, who doesn't like to even WOUND people, and only had to comply with their captors because the people they love would have been killed, and having been traumatised to the point of breaking down in tears, they get the blame just for, "being a Damsel/Dude in distress"... like WHAT?!

And then there was her screaming to Ichigo for help. She was completely psychologically broken and traumatised by seeing the man she loved practically dead, so much so, that she couldn't do anything but cry because she loved Ichigo so much, and didn't want him to get hurt. She's left in pain and horror and guilt, yet it's ULQUIORRA who is really to blame here, not her. Captivity and abuse, especially someone as gentle as her, does that to you. He was the one who killed Ichigo and MOCKED her love for him while doing that just to break her even more, and Ulquiorra left behind his Reiatsu on Ichigo, which was too strong for Orihime to possibly reverse. Her LITERAL MENTAL BREAKDOWN was what awakened Vasto Lorde Ichigo. She didn't even blame Ichigo for dying and not protecting her, Uryu for not protecting Ichigo or Ulquiorra for killing him and torturing her - she blamed HERSELF. (I don't blame Ichigo and Uryu, they were literally killed and injured because of that stupid batboy).

Then there's her pacifistic nature and inability to fight. Again, she hates seeing people, friend or foe, being injured. Just because Orihime only heals and shields does not make her weak or useless at all. People are seeing her overkindness as weakness, uselessness and/or even villainy, and want her to have a more aggressive personality. Pacifism is seen as villainy, but aggression isn't? She's even being compared to Sakura. Orihime is WAY nicer than Sakura could ever be. (I'm sorry to those who like Sakura, I understand why you do). Orihime would never stoop so low as to beat up her friends or even say a single mean word to them over the smallest things like Sakura does. (Beating up your friends isn't funny at all, it's just mean).

She mostly gets a bad rep for yelling, "Kurosaki-kun!", but guess what? It's because she CARES about Ichigo, because he's being injured and killed right in front of her. If she didn't care about him, she wouldn't be saying his name worriedly.

And finally, there's her being scared of Ichigo's Hollow Mask. It literally brought back traumatising memories of a Hollowfied Sora/Acidwire, and she was scared FOR Ichigo, not OF Ichigo. She didn't want him to lose himself to his Hollow side like Sora did. That doesn't mean I hate Ichigo for scaring her, I know he was trying to protect her, which he has been doing the whole time. We love you, Kurosaki-kun 💖 (And people said that Ichigo didn't heed Loly's threat to tear out Orihime's eye and Ulquiorra "protected" her by stopping Ichigo, but... Ulquiorra didn't heed Loly's threat either! He told Loly (Who was HOLDING ORIHIME) he didn't stop Ichigo to save Loly, which extends to Orihime as well!)

I'm sorry for this long rant, but I just feel upset with the way Orihime is treated in- and out-of-universe. She's just so sweet. I'm just trying to think about all of this in a logical and pathological way.

TL;DR: I'm upset that Orihime gets so much hate because she has suffered so much and is a sweet girl.

[orenonahaichigoda]

Ichigo (and Chad, and Uryu) and Skinship (Platonic Physical Affection)

For what it's worth, it'd be easy to picture Ichigo as longing for physical affection like hugs. Any kind of skinship, really. First canon, and then what him being trans adds:

Canon: When he was young, he was quite a crier, and his mother, a living sunray, would always comfort him. She's almost always seen at least holding his hand. It's not hard to imagine she was a hugger. Sure, Ichigo is seen hugging Yuzu a couple of times, but he's the one there for her. It would take care of the completely neurophysical aspects of touch starvation, he wouldn't get as bad as I've seen some people put forth that some of the non-Nel Arrancar might be (seen one or two fics about Grimmjow, in particular, and it wasn't hard to imagine).

Issin cries crocodile tears as a gag, but we never see him exactly look Ichigo in the eye and tell him earnestly... anything, except in S1 at Masaki's grave. So he might tell his son his *mother* loved him *once a year.* It's clear he loves his kids, and that they don't doubt that (like they do his sanity), but again, he's not emotionally open in any honest way. Just manic gags.

Chad and Uryu are probably the people he would be most likely to feel he could fall back on. If you want to envision that literally, that could work, too. There's an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoff Rhoda that...most of you are too young to know, but the main character and her husband are made to do a trust excersise where this is literal, and slapstick ensues. And this fits somehow.

But anyway, yeah, in a way, Kubo told a story that was coincidentally very American Gen X-esque. The kids, none of them really has a parent *there for them,* for that age group in Japan (20 year generations are not universal, so there's a couple in those years, but I'm Post Dankai Juniors,and so is Kubo), latchkeyism wasn't really a thing. But anyway, these kids, Kisuke and Yoruichi are really their best adults from the beginning. Kisuke will make sure they go forth as prepared as possible, and Yoruichi tries to go along to watch them. Others come in and out. Hachi almost takes on Orihime,But this is quickly ditched/forgotten by the narrative. The Vizards mostly only support Ichigo for a time. In the epilogue, wecan assume that Hiyori remained supportive of Ichigo when the rest went to Soul Society (leaving her after 100+ years herself...), as Kazui knows her by name and they seem to have a banter routine. But the epilogue was two chapters. For that matter, we don't see what became of Kisuke's family or Nel and Grimmjow at all.

Chad... had his band mates in the beginning, but they get quickly forgotten. We have no idea who he has. Before he can work, there must be some financial support, but it could be as clearly distant as Orihime's. Uryu... Ryuken is an emotional wall, clearly loves his son, but only knows how to show it practically and financially. He is as warm and cosy as those new all-steel-and-black kitchen designs. Even when his son is unconscious and can't hear him.

But focusing on Ichigo, because that's my muse, he's the best off of the gang, but his role is mostly*giving* support. Giving support is kinda his happy place, sure, but he's still a kid, and also, everyone needs to *get* support, too. You can't invite a homeless person to a hot meal if you don't have any food yourself.

My stuff:

So, men don't tend to receive much physical affection. If you're cis, you may compartamentalise it as physical affection being hugs for small children, claps on the shoulder from friends, and sex as a adult.

When you're trans, and you transition, you suddenly notice hugs are harder to come by. One of the great things about always having had mixed friend groups is female friends will hug you (when they know you're really a friend and not a creepy grabber) Women are freer with skinship, period, because men are stigmatised against it by machoism/sexism against women (it makes you "girly," which is posited as worse than death. It affects men, but it's from anti-woman bigotry) so men with male friends are always a distance apart and more emotionally reserved. And you'll notice you're expected to be that.

If we're in my verse where Ichigo and Chad have a daughter,well, *they had a baby together, obviously touching is not off-limits* even if they're no longer an item, per se.

And Ichigo had two things happen during transition that I didn't: death of the emotionally open parent, and leaving childhood. I had both of those happen as well, not just one, but decades before transition. So it was very clear once I started passing where the sudden distance was coming from. And easy to place--remember, always mixed-gender circles. So he might not automatically be able to assign anything a cause. And also, I can't exactly be sure of the amount of skinship-type stuff in older-teen/adult female relationship in Japan, even if I can say the emotionally open part remains the same on both sides of the pond. I came to the US as a teen.

I still feel like he might notice the sudden drop in open affection from others in general, that are not young children that rely on him some way or another (including his sisters, Yuzu in particular, canon included. Karin has accused her of hero worship...)

Either way, it would have tanked when Masaki died. I just kind of added another reason for it to. And since he would have had it, from her, at least in canon, in my stuff, in spades before that whole time, and there would be a loss he would definitely feel. Again, less so if we're further from canon for him and Chad both, though, because they've broken past the no-touching with each other.

I wasn't really intending to *go anywhere* with this, per se. I'm just stuck at home again because of what is probably 退行性関節症 and live alone, and don't take work home, I opened Tumbler, and this is where my thoughts went.

One cool thing to think about is I'm sure the majority of modern fiction really wouldn't change whether a character was cis or trans. I'll tackle the epilogue in a second, but for example, in my project, Kenpachi is trans. He's AFAB... Nothing changes except it's as far from that transphobic thing on this site a few years ago "trans men are all soft little flowers" as you can get. Most of the characters, nothing would change. Even the younger kids, to go all out here, the girls could be on puberty blockers, and several years of HRT in the epilogue. I'm not writing that anywhere, but I'm trying to make a point. Nothing changes.

In the epilogue, or for any former or timeline couple with kids, obviously both parents would have to be trans, as these are all M/F couples. The only case against Orihime being flippable to trans is how the heck would she be getting her hormones. She'd have to, as I have Ichigo, been on them for some time pre-series. And puberty blockers beforehand. Sora could've done that much, but voices only naturally drop, so intense training or puberty blockers to estrogen, which, after Sora's sudden death, would be hard for her to procure.

It'd be just as easy to flip Uryu the same as I did with Ichigo. Doctor dad.

Chad, honestly, he is just such a blank slate in many ways. Anything with him needs to flesh him out more. You can really go banananas. Obviously, I write him cis, but I still had to add more for him than for any of the teen combatants. He's as unfleshed as Chizuru, who I also went banananans with.

But, I mean, honestly, though, other than the fact it would be very hard for some characters to obtain any treatment they needed, it kinda doesn't change anything...

This is the beauty of fandom overall. Fans all putting our own ideas and works out there.