#because i believe that 'power scaling' and 'narrative function' can't actually be separated from each other

[snurtle]

The weirdest thing to me is Orihime is so... Seperate from everyone else. At first she got her powers from Ichigo, same as Chad, but then wait, Chad's actually just a fullbringer, shuffle him off to a different category, so Orihime's very unique and yet... It's unexplored? I know she has like two fights she REALLY gets to participate in (and one's in the FILLER) but she's made so special and so unused it makes for the weirdest vibe. Honestly all Ichigo's human friends get wasted but her case is special to me.

Oh god, don't get me started on the rest of the human crew. My tears, endless. And yet! Ripe and fertile grounds for plenty of fanfiction/ fan speculation! So it's not all bad, i suppose.

Anyway, I believe??? We get a crumb of validation vis a vis Fullbringers and their generalized weirdness in the novels...

[ lore spoilers for CFYOW and TYBWA if you're invested in keeping up with the anime + extra canon novels in order. Light spoilers under this note, heavy (picture/manga) spoilers under the cut]

I think that it's in CFYOW that Fullbringers are explained as actually having Tiny Mincemeat Pieces of the Soul King in them, which is what makes them so deliciously enticing to hollows. It's also said that you can have bigger/smaller pieces, leading to differentials in power.

And yet. Aura has a full organ (the soul chain/ power amplification organ) , and while she can put Kisuke Urahara on the back foot, that's still not quite the same as what Orihime does. Even for a fullbringer (if she does actually fit into that category along with Chad), she's pretty weird.

I don't beef super hard with her not participating in fights; it's cool that by the fullbringers' entrance, she's not afraid to get into the down and dirty of it, though. I mean, she does this to Ginjo:

and that's just some regular-degular boundaries and self-defense in in the day of a lady who can--

tank hits from Ywhach by the end of TYBW???

After he's absorbed the Soul King, no less. Her shield doesn't even crack.

Like. What's up with that? Weird vibes in fucking deed.

Husb also added an interesting aside, to the tune that souls in Bleach can be overwhelmed by spiritual power that far supersedes their own. It crushes them, renders them sweaty and unable to breathe- lays them flat out on the ground, in the case of Nanao with Yamamoto, or pulps them into paste outright (sometimes without them even being aware of it), such as Hyogoku! Moth-Aizen and that poor random human in Karakura.

It's not that Orihime is going to get 0hko'd, or that she couldn't sense Ywhach's reiatsu. If that were the case, her shield wouldn't be able to block a blow. Which leaves another scenario open to possibility....

So yeah. Weird vibes!