#i can give him pizzazz. it can be *understated* pizzazz.

[tyrannuspitch]

thanos could be such a good character if he was a good character...

[solitariusdeluna]

Opinion time: Whether or not Coyote Starrk is deserving of his rank as the PRIMERA

Spoiler alert: he’s completely deserving. 

As the title of suggests, this is going to be a very very very long part rant part facts piece about why Coyote Starrk deserves to be the Primera Espada, contrary to what sp many in the fandom think. Brace yourselves, fam. 

So it’s no real surprise that way too many people have taken it upon themselves to question if he was ever worthy of being the first Espada and that’s simply because he’s super underrated and hardly got any screen time except when he duked it out with Kyoraku. 

Let’s begin with the guy himself. I mean he’s not your regular baddie now, is he? And that makes him rather original in the bleach universe tbh. For a “villain” and given his stature, he’s not all that antagonistic. Like at all. Not even a tiny bit. Out of all the characters in bleach, he’s practically the only guy who actively doesn’t give a sh*t or even care about the HUGE battle that he was taking part in. 

And it’s because of that very sentiment that people often mistake him as being lazy and just wanting to get it over with so he can go nap since well, that’s like the only other scene that we saw him in. By design, he’s also quite the understated character and given his position as the first Espada, he’s meant to come off as the underdog. 

Especially when you consider that Barragan is the second Espada. Okay, and we all know that Barragan is supposed to be that ALL POWERFUL RULER OF HUECO MUNDO! We’re supposed to think that Barragan is supposed to be number one then and when it turns out that Starrk actually is, it’s supposed to subvert your expectations as to what makes a powerful character within this army. 

But going back to his design, even if it looks less flashy than most, I think he has the best design among many in the series. He’s definitely quite the looker, i mean look at those cheekbones! And that wavy brown hair and his striking grey-blue eyes and his tall stature. He’s not flashy but he’s definitely handsome. 

He’s also the forgotten Espada, unfortunately. Because despite his position as being numero uno. He really doesn’t show up quite a lot in the Arrancar arc and his fight with Shunsui actually doesn’t take that long either. Not only that, he doesn’t get a volume cover, and he’s also one of the only Espada, it’s only him and Aaroniero that don’t face a single bad guy in the story. 

And this is just one of the few reasons that people seem to think that maybe Starrk didn’t really deserve his position at the top. When compared to Espada like Barragan and Ulquiorra who have very extravagant attacks and abilities, Starrk in comparison comes across as a wee bit plain. 

So when think cero attacks, they’re so over the top and cool, right? But even though Starrk can practically wield his ceros in manner that none of the other Espada or arrancar can, no one seems to notice. I mean he just has to stand there and it just happens, all on its own. No pick up your finger and point like pew pew pew the way Ulquiorra does, or just rage shoot it out of his entire hand as though he’s shoving someone into oblivion the way Grimmjow does. 

As noted by Shunsui, unlike other Arrancar, he can apparently fire a Cero without a "fighting pose", meaning he can fire it without any warning from body gestures. Starrk can do it without any gestures. He can fire it from various points on his body such as his chin or chest and he also charge and fire it rather quickly without any warning, leaving even less time for his target to react. 

Starrk’s got guns. Big guns. and they’re pretty badass too especially when you consider the details on the sides and all. But when you compare them to a skeleton with a crown that can dissolve you to the bone, well... it can pretty much be hard to justify why starrk is numero uno while barragan is number two. 

Now yeah we all heard the age old argument that all over the fandom that Barragan is actually meant to be number one and is only number two because Aizen put him there to insult him and wanted to deflate his big fat ego plenty. I can see that and it might make some sense but it totally and completely isn’t doing Starrk as a character and a fighter any justice.

Now in spite of his relatively short amount of panel and screen time and given that his abilities are not as impressive as some of the other Espada and by impressive you know i mean showy as heck, I’m gonna lay the facts why Starrk is deserving of his rank at the top of the Espada ranks even if he was not the most memorable character ARGUABLY. 

Point#1 Let’s talk reiatsu:

Going off the main canon reason we have to go off the ranking of the Espada is that they are ranked by their reiatsu. Starrk has an abnormally large amount of it compared to almost every other character in the series. His reiatsu was so vast that it killed mountains amounts of hollows and that’s even after he split his power into, an entirely second person, Lilynette. And unlike every single other arrancar and that goes for mister surprise bullshit twist zero espada yammy, Starrk’s zanpaktou is not his power. That was more of a prop for him as wiki states; Sheathing his sword, Starrk, calling Lilynette over, reveals he and Lilynette are one: while other Hollows split their power into their sword and body, they split into two bodies instead, and once they are one again, their full power will be released. 

Now whether it was starrk or lilynette that was the original body -- which is going to be a case of the chicken or the egg type of deal tbh. but my headcanon in this regard would be that their hollow being was a huge collection of souls amassed over time and it existed for ages upon ages. but then starrk and lilynette’s souls seemed to be the strongest out of the whole bunch so basically that’s why it’s them who’s the representative power of that original hollow they were a part of and now with starrk being the stronger one of the two since he’s the older one. 

But getting back to Starrk’s zanpaktou, lilynette is his source of power and basically his zanpaktou. While every other arrancar turned their power into a blade. According to bleach lore, the size of a person’s zanpaktou is relative to their reiatsu. Going off of that, starrk has managed to condense his reiatsu into the smallest form that it could be and that is that of a human child. But also again the two them combined even after being split up, are enough to kill mountains of hollow. That’s how powerful they are. 

special note: when starrk decided to follow aizen, he did it out of his reasoning that, hey i know this guy isn’t going to die because our killer power so yeah, why not? let’s do this. 

Anyhoo, since their reiatsu is absolutely and utterly crushing for any hollow that comes within their proximity. hollows that aren’t particularly powerful but still okay. still. no one else can do that so suck on that, haters! Not even this guy:

the self proclaimed and all powerful king of hueco mundo aka barragan louisenbairn. who just so happened to be sat in a court of hollows, like a whole bunch of them. and yet, none of them were getting killed. none of them. not with his reiatsu alone. so. yeah. 

moving on.

Point#2 Starrk’s battles:

So this is where the real meat of the argument of why he’s deserving of being the primera espada comes in. Putting aside the fact that starrk wasn’t the least bit interested in the whole battle thing and didn’t have the blood lust or duty bound attitude like the rest of the espada -- and that’s because he’s pretty much indifferent to things in the first place. We know that he’s unmotivated which comes across as very lazy to most people aka that whole omg starrk is a fucking lazy bitch thing that most of the people in the fandom go on about...

He’s not lazy. He’s unmotivated. There is a difference. It comes with his nature of being very apathetic and uncaring. I personally like to think that he doesn’t care to exert energy into things that don’t really matter.  But I digress. 

At the start of his fight, starrk is very clearly not even trying and he says so himself a bunch of times. Even though kyoraku was trying to pretty much kill him and get this thing over with, starrk not once retaliates in kind. Which makes this INCREDIBLY UNUSUAL for a bleach fight and villain. And a top tier bleach villain at that, and that’s what makes him interesting. He’s not your regular sort of villain. If one can even call him that really. 

Anyhoo, let’s stop and actually consider the caliber of opponent that starrk is up against. It’s one of the oldest captains of the gotei 13 and a disciple of old man yama-jii himself. So that’s something in itself, okay? 

Let’s take a quick detour though:

And bring back barragan into the picture, mostly because he’s the one who’s supposedly meant to be the primera espada right? (psst, wrong. like really.) Barragan is all about the pizzazz and show and bling bling. I mean look at him, he’s pretty much decked out in the best gold complete with a little crown on his head too. 

Barragan is powerful, there’s no denying that. And he knows it. That’s the contrast between Starrk and him though. He knows his power and his unrelenting about his use of it. Because he wants people to know that he’s strong unlike starrk who just doesn’t give a flying monkey’s arse. And when barragan activates his release form we get a tremendously awesome and stunning display of power in the way in which he manages to reduce Soifon’s hand into nothing but it’s bare bone. That was frightening and it was one of those moments that was meant to stay with you as a observer. Because it oozes the sentiment that, this guy should not be trifled with. 

The difference is however, unlike starrk, barragan is not consistent. Barragan’s fight goes downhill right after that kickass moment of him dissolving soifon’s hand muscles away. and that was the best part of that fight.

detour over. 

Okay, now back to starrk (the one and only and deserving primera).

Starrk in his battle with Kyoraku manages to stay consistent. Something that Barragan failed to do. Barragan is just not on the same level as starrk for a number of reasons.

1. Starrk has a personality that is just not seen among all the other arrancars. He’s cool. He’s calm. And he’s collected. But he’s also incredibly intelligent and ridiculously observant, on a level that we just don’t even see in the series. He was quick enough to observe that Kyoraku was actually ambidextrous despite his trying to hide that as best as he can. He was also able to figure out that Ukitake’s zanpaktou was able to do after seeing it three times in action. 

2. He is strategic. That’s exactly why he was able to figure out how to best beat Rose and Love WHO BY THE WAY WERE ALSO CAPTAIN LEVEL OPPONENTS SO STARRK FOUGHT NOT ONE BUT FOUR CAPTAINS -- Again, suck on that, haters! Ahem, anyhoo. A battle is won not only by force and power but also by strategy. But also in one’s ability to keep a cool head and be quick enough to able to adapt to the situations as they arise. Which starrk was able to do throughout his encounters with those four different captains. 

3. He is not an Urahara/Askin type of character, those guys are more known for being able to continually use their wits and are something of deus ex machina in their own right in that regard. The type of characters who you know are really really powerful but are downplaying it or hiding it so much. 

4. From the start of his battle with kyoraku to the time ukitake (the other discipline of yama-jii and old timer captain of the gotei 13)  turns up, Starrk didn’t take a single hit. He doesn’t get hit, once. And that is just badass, especially given the fact that he was going up against ukitake, kyoraku, rose and love. In his resurreccion, starrk was able to keep a level head and access the situation all while dodging every single attack he was thrown with. And despite kyoraku’s tendency to fight dirty and sneaky. Still, starrk managed to dodge, everything. Starrk’s ability to control the battlefield with his ceros and simultaneously dodge everything these two old and very high level captain class characters throw at him is pretty much nothing short of impressive if you ask me. But wait, there’s more. 

5. Once ukitake and kyoraku are taken out of the fight, starrk goes up against Love and Rose. You know, the hollowified and presumably strengthened tremendously because of that fact captain level guys that were exiled to live in the world of the living. So that’s back to the point I made early which is pretty badass in its own right and NO ONE ELSE HAD TO DEAL WITH MIGHT I ADD! He was dealt with the TOUGHEST fighters around. Clearly. But you know what was cool? Starrk was literally toying with them, the entire time. He did take a hit because of Love when barragan died but it was like him just laying there and being something of a comedic moment and he wasn’t the least bit hurt. He wasn’t even being serious the entire time and then his awesome bomber wolves wiped them out -- even though it’s still highly doubtful he was fully into the fight even then but. that was that. 

Speaking of those awesome bomber wolves;

His resurreccion’s other special ability aside those mad cero shooting skills and he summons his army of spirit wolves and that was his moment to shine pretty much. These wolves decimated Rose and Love with ease and starrk didn’t even have to move from his spot. not once. 

Now if we go back to barragan though, he was pretty much freaking out and got half his skull clearly wiped out of his head when he got hit and he was pretty much losing his mind. But that’s because of his personality and that pompous being he is that ended up holding him back. Compared to starrk who remained in control and completely so, the entire time he fought with all these strong opponents. 

BUT CONVERSELY;

Okay, so he held his own against four captains but then he didn’t fight a bankai and ended up losing to a shikai. When we take that into consideration, well, yeah. that does sound really bad. not gonna lie. Being the first espada in Aizen’s army killed by a shikai.

Except, we have to take into account with everything that was mentioned thus far, Starrk was winning the fight with ease. He was in control of the entire battle from start to finish, hardly took any damage even though he went through kyoraku, ukitake, love and rose. He was always on top of his game throughout and he wasn’t even into the whole fighting thing okay. that’s the main point here. 

He was crushing it. Starrk was winning it. Especially after he wiped out Rose and Love. Until Kyoraku emerged from the shadows and took a stab at him. It was in this battle that we learned more about Kyoraku’s personality when in battle and we find out that he’s pretty much not afraid to be sneaky and low-ball his opponents. And that’s because according to me, he’s pretty much got that mindset that “all is fair in love and war, baby.” 

Kyoraku’s unapologetic and that’s pretty awesome of him. Plus, given that he was up against starrk and he noticed how things were going, he decided to up things and go all out without using his bankai. Which he was actually considering by the way, but Ukitake was all no, man. don’t you dare at him so he didn’t. But this was why Kyoraku decided to literally...

...stab starrk in the back. 

And just end this once and for all. And there was no way starrk could have gotten out of that scenario because it played perfectly into kyoraku’s hands. And even Rose and Love didn’t expect it, because in the world of bleach, it’s just not etiquette to come crashing into someone else’s fight -- which was exactly what Kyoraku does. 

Love and Rose were just superbly outmatched and kyoraku saw an opportunity and he just goes ahead and stabs starrk in the back. And it was that stab that finished it. Game over. 

It takes starrk right out of the game. Because from that moment onwards, starrk’s head just wasn’t in the fight anymore. It was so dirty and he didn’t like and he was supposed to be the bad guy. 

Tut tut, kyoraku. 

Anyhoo, Starrk didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to fight. He gets a little bit into it and takes out Love and Rose. But when Shunsui stabs him in the back and rattles him. It caused Lilynette to step up and sacrifice herself for his sake but from then on it was just what was the end all for him at that point. He was thrown into an emotional tailspin that shook him to his core, ended his reasoning and that entirety of calmness he had throughout his battle. 

That was seriously heartbreaking to watch too. He lost the other half of his soul and one can only imagine the type of pain that brings about. It weakened his resolve and when your opponent’s resolve to fight is weak, well then, of course you’ll be the victor and that was exactly what happened. 

Shunsui won. But he won dirty. 

But if you consider that he went up against two of the oldest and high level captains and two hollow strengthened captains and still held his own until he was dealt that unfortunate blow, starrk is pretty damn well deserving of his rank as the primera espada. He is not the primera because barragan was slighted by aizen. He’s the primera because he held his own pretty darn well despite not feeling it at all.

 And that’s the end of that, friends. Show respect for starrk. He’s the primera and he deserves it. 

#PROTECTSTARRK2020

[danganronpedits-archived]

i am once again asking for a kinmatch 👉🏻👈🏻 but not for me!! it’s for my sister. we have an ongoing joke that she’s irl kokichi, and i just wanna see what you think about her. danganronpa as the source, if you could !!!! okay to start, she has a short temper, brags a lot ( especially about her height ), LOVES to lie for her entertainment, and loves to take advantage of little things ( like my flinching LMAO ). she also loves to debate. ( i might need to continue this WHOOPS )

she HATES loosing/being wrong, and gets really into an argument. so much so that she might say some mean things. she usually feels bad after it, though. she might be a jerk on the outside, but she cares. she just might not show it. that’s all! thanks so much and once again have a nice day LMAO ( i might come around just to chat sometimes if you don’t mind ) -👉🏻👈🏻

i’m gonna cry, this is my second time writing this post out because i accidentally closed out the tab,,, note to self to keep backup copies haha. but anyways! i can totally get this done for you! actually, i think i’ve seen a similar ask on another profile... small world hehe~ you and your sister seem really cool! i don’t mind at all if you stop by and chat sometimes! oh, but... without further ado, let’s give it everything we’ve got!

first off, i match your sister with...

kokichi ouma!

you probably saw this coming, haha... your sister is very reminiscent of kokichi, though. the two definitely have short tempers, though in kokichi’s case, it’s more understated since a lot of stuff actually goes his way ingame. at least, at first- jumping a bit later into your ask, a strong example of kokichi’s short temper as well as notes of him caring about the people around him come out in the ch4 trial. so, spoilers- i’ll put a * at the end. but, whenever his plans aren’t going how he wants them to, not only does he get the angriest we’ve seen him all game, but this is also partially because of what many speculate to be his guilt for manipulating gonta. he isn’t showing it as actual guilt, of course, since i’m not gonna write a whole kokichi essay here, but still. * tying it into your sister, trial four in v3 really strongly shows a lot of traits both her and him share. hating losing/being wrong, being a jerk on the outside but caring deep down, having a short temper, loving to get into debates/arguments, saying mean things but feeling guilt afterwards, i mean. your sister is kokichicore. i’m not gonna go into detail since it would just make the post redundant and even longer than it probably will be, but all of these traits align almost perfectly with him!

but oh no, anon, i’m not done yet. the only thing that i see as a slight difference between kokichi and her is that kokichi lies for both entertainment and for his own ulterior motives, typically for the best, even if it comes out malicious. i of course don’t know your sister, and don’t know her specific reasons for being a liar- she could lie for the same reasons that i believe kokichi to or not. however, the two of them do seem to share that sort of peppy attitude, while being almost-jokingly condescending to others. he brags a lot, especially about his talent(different than his height, but you know), and i personally see him as very perceptive- that thought mostly being from how he can tell when others are lying at the drop of a hat. i wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the only thing he can pick up on, since he’s sort of a master manipulator when he wants to be, and again while i don’t know your sister both of them can take advantage of other people’s little nuances.

secondly, i match your sister with...

kotoko utsugi!

she’s been here a lot lately, huh? forgive me using the same sprite as the last one, i jus... love it sm. anyways, it was only when i was halfway done writing this post that i moved kotoko up to second place haha. first off, i think that your sister and kotoko are definitely both short-tempered, heck, the wiki’s first describing word for her is hot-headed! she isn’t a big bragger, however the persona she puts on makes her have a lot of theatre-based aspects to her personality, like being more loud and excited, as well as adding extra pizzazz to a lot of her speech and movements. kotoko and your sister are both big liars, and while a lot of kotoko’s lies are defense mechanisms, there are also lots of things she does purely for her own enjoyment. i won’t talk about it in depth here, but her chapter three interactions with komaru... yeah. she also takes advantage of small things about other people, as while examples aren’t specifically pointed out, she was able to lie to the other warriors of hope about her intentions and mindset while she was in the group- this requires at least a basic understanding of how to trick, or take advantage of, other people.

surprisingly, it doesn’t end there? kotoko is definitely the type to get into lots of debates and arguments- sometimes she doesn’t see them through to the end or get really riled up, but my lord, she is very passionate about peelings. plus, i mean, she is a bit of a bully, but it doesn’t seem to be out of a defense mechanism, she seems mean to her friends(despite probably caring about them, actually- after all, they were probably her first actual friends) just for the sake of her own enjoyment. she struggles to properly show when she does care, and i think that that’s a big coping mechanism thing- again, i don’t personally know your sister, but that’s just something i think the two of them can share. anyways! this post is already over 1,000 words and i’m not even done with the last major matchup... so! a!

finally, i match your sister with...

hiyoko saionji!

okay, i’ll be a bit more concise with this one. but fun fact! i was originally gonna do hiyoko as the first choice?? but ultimately decided not to, will elaborate in the tags. however, while your sister isn’t directly linked to hiyoko in some ways, i think that the general personalities of them are similar. first, hiyoko hates being wrong- in fact, a large part of her is that she’ll refuse to take care of herself or be around others, since she doesn’t want to be perceived as stupid or wrong, all for not being able to tie her own kimono. while hiyoko is more of a crier than a rager, like your sister is, i think that that’s a strong parallel- plus, with hiyoko being, um, kind of a bully, she’s very good at finding people that are easy to take advantage of. that’s for lack of a better term, though, i’m not saying that your sister’s a toxic person asdjfjsjf!!!!

plus, hiyoko and your sister both brag a lot- while hiyoko’s is more passive and setting up a sense of superiority(about her traditionalism, economic status and talent), they both establish a sense of “i see myself as higher than the rest of you”. also, this is probably the longest point, but hiyoko does care for people like mikan whenever she picks on them- she typically doesn’t show it, and only does for fleeting moments, but her steadily growing kindness towards them is a big indicator of this. there are lots of times in the manga where hiyoko, despite being a bit gruff on the outside, does show that she cares for others, even if she’s not open enough to really say it genuinely and honestly.

-

your sister also reminds me a bit of miu iruma, and a little bit of junko enoshima! (er... as in, a nondespair junko with a similar personality. please don’t think i’m calling your sister the same as someone who’s caused as much destruction as junko has, haha.)

whew! i’m sorry this came out so late! it might’ve been a bit earlier, but when my kokichi description was accidentally deleted it drained my motivation a bit. none of that is your fault though, anon! so try not to worry,, thank you very much for requesting!! i hope that you and your sister like this sdjfjadfs

-mod tsu

[prettylittlearrowfangirl]

Final Thoughts: “Four Movements”

Terry’s right: it’s hard to imagine the precinct without Gina around. While we’ll certainly see Chelsea Peretti again in a guest spot, this is the end of her time as a series regular. As such, no one should be surprised that this is a Gina-centric episode. In the “Gina Moments” she gave to her friends, we really saw pillars of who Gina is as a person. Based on the structure of this episode, I’m going to break my Final Thoughts down by movement.

Movement 1: Gina and Holt

Gina’s relationship with Holt has been one of her strongest over the course of the show. She got to a first name basis with Kevin, she went with Holt to PR, and she has always helped him in her own way. Even if Holt doesn’t understand why Gina does what she does, he’ll still support her. When Holt says that chess and life are very similar, a lot of the implicit connections become explicit. Holt is very rules and structure-oriented, and he’s been teaching Gina this structured game for four years. But Gina has never been known to stay inside a box and follow the prescribed rules. She lives life one day at a time and always has. She understands and knows all the benefits that come from staying inside that box, including healthcare and a steady paycheck, but it’s not what she wants. She knows herself, and she knows that her best chance at success and living her best life is to be reckless and step outside of the box without a plan, making the rules up as she goes. This scene really shows the confidence that’s always been an essential part of the character.

Movement 2: Gina and Amy and Rosa

Gina’s relationship with Amy has always been mocking her for her nerdiness and emotions, but never with true malice. In the most backhanded way possible, Gina is encouraging Amy to stay true to herself, and that’s what makes this segment work. Gina has been there for all the times Amy’s been nervous or trying to prove herself or be someone else, like when the squad was staging Pimento’s death and Amy wanted to be badass like Rosa but couldn’t bring herself to notarize the certificate, so Gina just pushed Amy’s hand down to stamp it. She knows that Amy is not that type of person, and while she may make fun of her a lot, she secretly loves and appreciates who Amy is. Gina has always unabashedly been herself, and she wants Amy to do the same.

Gina’s relationship with Rosa is more understated. Here, it’s strongest in their parallels. They’re both seldom outwardly affectionate toward their friends, though they both care deeply. I can see why people ship them, Chelsea Peretti and Stephanie Beatriz among the top. There’s a reason Gina gives Rosa a flower in the fourth movement. Gina doesn’t try to pull a big Gina Moment on Rosa, because she knows Rosa is comfortably herself and they get each other.

Also, the hug that these three ladies share is one of my favorite moments in the episode. It just shows the love of the Sister Squad and is so pure.

Movement 3: Gina and Jake

Even though we got an episode that emphasized Jake and Gina’s friendship last week, it makes sense that this is the longest of the segments (it’s about 7 minutes, while the other movements are 4-5 minutes). There are likely two reasons for this: first, Jake is technically the protagonist of the show. But secondly and more importantly, though this relationship was long put on the back burner, it is one of the oldest friendships on the show. This segment ends with Gina valuing friendship over pizzazz. When the glitter and confetti fade, Gina wants her friends by her side. This segment also allows for an outlandish and fun adventure that culminates in Gina doing the blatantly insane act of turning Mario Lopez away.

Movement 4: Gina and the precinct

The Gina Moments in here were smaller and more classic callbacks. The Boyle family mother dough. Terry and yogurt. A video message. The other movements had narrower focus, while this was more about finality. Gina, while lingering to await the arrival of her statue, does many things to erase herself from the precinct: cleaning out her desk, showing Holt her “filing system”, removing her smell from the air. I think this shows that, while she’s clearly still attached to the people, she’s no longer attached to the precinct itself. She definitely won’t be forgotten. If nothing else, that statue won’t let anyone forget her.

It’ll be interesting to see what the show does without her. Whether Gina was a favorite of yours or not, this is a fitting and great sendoff. Until next time, Linetti. LinOUTti!