#illager arc

[asktotallyhuman]

"Let alone more than one?"

@orchid-151

[asktotallyhuman]

"If it works as you say...then perhaps...evacuation will not be necessary!"

"Quite nicely indeed."

With a rare genuine smile, she hands back the charm.

Mason pulled out a bracelet like trinket. "My friend made this for our journey. It's an item that allows the user to change into their opposite form; AKA turn a Villager to look like an Illager and vice versa... He warned us that it has a 15 use limit and that the more it is used, the harder it is to remove it..." He held it up to show Sarah and the Captain. "I've been saving them for an emergency... And considering the circumstances in our situation, this seems like an emergency to me..."

@asktotallyhuman

[orchid-151]

I had some ideas for the journey Orchid and her group were going to take, I haven't fully planned them out but if any of you all like this idea involving your OC's do let me know... Or if you don't like the idea then also let me know because I can change/shorten the 'Inner Evil' arc...

I will list a small summary for each picture...

Again, these are just ideas... if any of you don't want your OC to show up for a mini arc just let me know... I won't do it if you ask me not to.

Under readmore because long...

@lilium2034 Amicus and Fidus

The idea is after they reach land, Mason stirs up an argument with Orchid about not needing to be so reckless with her actions with her firing comments back at him about trying to be a team player... After she walks away to blow off steam when she runs into the Duo. Amicus heals her shoulder while hearing her out and tries to give her some good advice...

I might add more when I get to that part but that's it for that mini arc...

@asktotallyhuman Sarah

To be fair, I have been reading all I can about this girl and her village, and thought of a good arc where Orchid goes alone and tries to make a bargain with Sarah to help her brother and the group. Orchid would stay and make a few double chests of 'God Apples' and Sanah would allow Mason and the others to pass and continue (Valkyrie and Archie would be given two of the 'rings' to make them look like villagers)...

I don't think Sanah is evil but I think she would rig a double chest to drain the apples into another dozen double chest below Orchid cell making her work even harder to make more apples then offered... Only later finding out more about the strange Illager and finding that Orchid is literally going to kill herself trying to fill the last chest to fulfill her end of the bargain...

In the end, Sanah does a good deed and finally lets Orchid go after letting her recover... But Sanah's mindset of Illagers doesn't change. And Orchid understands that, tell Sanah she can keep the extra 'God Apples' for an emergency with no ill will to the human...

Not fully planned out again but again, I don't think Sanah is evil... Just untrusting of ANY Illager that comes to her with a bargain...

@ask-wretched Wretched

(Damn is Wretch hard to draw for me... Even if it is just his foot 😓)

Ok, this idea was running a mug through my head for a while now so here is some of the idea...

As Orchid's group continues on, they start running into some of Drake's forces... While Orchid goes looking for some ingredients for a few potions a small party of four ambushes her in a cave mouth and chases her into it. One uses a tipped arrow with blindness on it and aims it at her. Orchid suddenly notices that she had blindly ran into a Wardens territory and stops to hide and be quiet... Only to get hit by a tipped arrow in the back and knocked down... The 4 are then 'mowed down' by the warden of the area, obviously being loud and aggravated when they found their target and almost lost her... Orchid tries to get up but realizes she is low on health and is blind for who-knows-how-long...

Wretch would be humongous next to Orchid and if he did try to help would probably be scared to even hold her, she so smol... (I don't have her exact measurements yet... Maybe 4"6' or 4"10' somewhere in that range of shortness...)

(originally I was going to have her a few weeks pregnant with Smith's child but I might not do that... Unless y'all like the idea of more drama but I don't think I'll do it.)

And there you go, four ideas I had for mini arcs in the comic, I still plan to put the few OC's in the background in some panels so be looking out for the small cameos~

[powdermelonkeg]

You know what? I'm gonna make a Minecraft movie

This is a plot I banged out over the course of like three hours at work so bear with me.

Movie starts. Main Guy just got fired from his job or something. He goes home to his house, greets his dog, agonizes over how he's going to pay for said dog with this development. Dog comes up wanting to play fetch, has a mcguffin in its mouth. Main Guy takes it and fiddles with it that night.

Mcguffin activates.

Guy winds up in Minecraft world. Spends a day freaking out about everything. Finds a dirt house someone else made and spends the night there to escape the monsters.

There's a map there. Takes that to a village

Meets Alex. She doesn't speak.

Alex is in the middle of saving a village from an Illager raid. Main Guy helps.

It takes a turn into a rescue mission for captured Villagers. The Illagers are hunting for a Trial Chamber with a legendary weapon (the mace).

After that arc is complete, Main Guy has an Allay as a pet and a new friend in a Villager he saved. Gang's all there, all adventures from here on out will be with MG, Alex, Villager, and Allay.

They go to Alex's home base. It's neat, but it's very clear she's not the only one that's lived there.

MG manages to convey to Alex that he needs a way home. And she's got the Ender Dragon egg, but doesn't have the rest of the equipment to get to the End and make the portal home.

Trip into the Deep Dark, ancient city, Warden fight while getting diamonds.

Villager takes the diamonds and makes a pickaxe for them.

They get obsidian and make a Nether Portal. Trip to the Nether to find a fortress and get blaze rods and ender pearls.

While they're in the Nether, they come across the Wither Briar. It's a new biome that's spreading, wither roses everywhere, with a Wither at the center.

They get the supplies they need, but the Wither catches them and attacks. They barely make it out alive; Villager gets zombified.

Rush to a witch to get Villager healed.

It gets revealed that Alex and her friends once took on the Wither, but it turned out too destructive and they lost the battle and several friends. They split up then. The Wither's been terrorizing the local Piglins and spreading the zombie infection ever since.

MG gets up, determined, gearing up and reentering the Nether. Epic battle against the Wither. The Wither Briar dies, the Piglins rejoice.

MG, Alex, and Villager start gearing up to find the Stronghold, with help from the village, Piglins, witch, etc. MG gets a unique armor trim that's not in the game.

Melancholy travel. Alex and Villager are gonna miss MG a LOT, and he's considering whether or not he wants to leave.

Stronghold leads to the End, End City fight for an Elytra.

Final fight with the Ender Dragon, hesitation, then final goodbyes. The group all jumps into the portal together.

MG winds up back home in his bed, in the real world, but he still has his gear and the sword he used to slay the Ender Dragon with.

He gets the mcguffin that sent him to Minecraft in the first place and is about to destroy it. He second-guesses it. Epic montage of him grabbing the things he needs to go.

He puts on a blue shirt and dark jeans. He packs his bag with apples, a slice of cake, and a map. He grabs his dog, a fluffy gray one with a red collar, then he activates the mcguffin again.

End poem plays, followed by the credits rolling.

Post-credits at the end with Minecraft music playing, Steve rolls up to Alex's house as she and Villager are building a beacon out of the Nether Star the Wither dropped. He helps them finish it, the beacon shoots into the sky, then they go into her house.

Alex looks at the map hopefully, waiting for her friends as the sun goes down, but all it shows is hers and Steve's icons on it…then someone else's shows up, just barely at the border. It's one of the other "default" players.

End of movie.

[wjbminecraft]

Ok so I agree that the Minecraft movie looks bad. But also like almost every alternative idea I've seen including my own one feel more like fanfilm ideas than something I can imagine a major studio making. So, here's how I imagine a good (or at least not terrible) "mainstream" Minecraft movie could work (please bear in mind that I'm thinking from the perspective of what I, personally, believe a studio would approve, while also trying to make it at least somewhat Minecrafty, also sorry if this sounds bad, I'm not a writer or director or whatever):

Make it animated, obviously. Go for the Minecraft trailer style, but - and I cannot stress this enough - make it have dialogue, like yeah a movie with no dialogue might sweep the film festivals, but cinematic releases of dialogue-free movies are rare. In regards to face animation, they could just flap around the characters' mouth-pixels or whatever. No 3D modelled mouths, like I'm probably in the minority here but I do not like how Minecraft characters look with 3D modelled mouths.

Keep the isekai aspect. You can do a lot with that, especially if it has an ensemble cast (more on that further down), since you can then have some of them actually know the mechanics and have like. A character arc of teaching their parents or whatever how the game works. And there's maybe like two live-action sequences? Like one at the start and one at the end.

Make. The antagonists. Illagers. Other people have said this and I agree. It makes more sense than Piglins and also it means that the Nether could be saved for a potential sequel. However,

The movie should break away from just including stuff that exists in/works like the game, like this is the one criticism of the Minecraft movie that I 100% disagree with. Like people are like "Lol, this thing isn't in Minecraft! This isn't a real Minecraft movie!" then turn around and go "Minecraft Story Mode is the real Minecraft movie!" when like, that game has so much fucking stuff that isn't in the actual game. Let the Minecraft movie have made up stuff in it, but make it actually good made up stuff (and not like. Ghast hot-air balloons or chained buckets or whatever the Minecraft movie actually has in it). Give us whales and giant smashy-smashy Illagers and one (1) Redstone-powered mech and stuff.

I cannot stress enough. Ensemble cast. It could just be my bias but I do think it should have an ensemble cast. Like maybe two and their parent(s). Like a lot of the Minecraft Movie overhauls/preemptive rewrites I've seen are all like "it's just Alex and Steve surviving" and like. No, that would be too "boring" for a feature-length mainstream animated family film.

The soundtrack is cool cinematic covers of the Minecraft soundtrack, but specifically the more recent tracks for rights reasons or whatever.

Herobrine shouldn't be referenced.

"Defending the base" sequence during the first night in the Minecraft world, and then at some point later on there's a brief bit where all the characters are using the skills they've learned throughout the plot (e.g one of them is really good at Redstone and has set up like piston traps or whatever).

Sculk is used as a Chekov's Gun; there's a vein of it growing under the main village, and as the characters fight and defeat Illagers, it grows, and then when the protagonists are on the ropes, the sound of the Illager leader unsheathing their sword or whatever alerts an entire chain of Sculk Sensors that activates a Sculk Shrieker, which then causes a Warden to appear and save the protagonists.

I am mostly out of ideas but uhhhhh the Ender Dragon is also saved as a potential sequel thing. Ok bye.

[ninjacat1515]

Matias does end up reforming. I've always wanted his character arc to go in an unexpected direction and @vee-vee-the-starchild helped me flesh him out over the years through various interactions.

He's an old beast of an illager that finds himself a much better place in Overworld. Decades of wars with rival illagers, battles with Heroes, and untold hardship and loss Matias finds healing not only for himself but he works to repair the damage he and his kind have wrought. He is never forgiven for what he has done in the past but he is not seeking to be forgiven.

Matias reforms for himself and to show other illagers that another kind of life is possible and worth doing.

[odiabonecessario]

I like Minecraft's way of storytelling but I can't deny its arbitrarily of whether something is gameplay/game design or lore related makes me pull my hair out. For example, is experience a actual thing in-universe? We have Mending which only works with experience and Bottle of Experience, yet for me it doesn't feel clear enough to conclude if it's either game or lore related

Don't even get me started with Mobestiary because its premise was about being some kind of guide to mobs written by an in-universe researcher — except it confirmed that the only Minecraft book to be canon is The Rise of The Arc-Illager. Like, what are we supposed to do with it then?

For example, I know it's merely a gameplay choice to eat enchanted golden apples because no human could ever eat approximately 154 kg of raw gold - let alone in less than two seconds. But what about Evokers being unable to use a Totem of Undying while other beings can use it - including undead beings? Should we think it's also a gameplay design since a Evoker round 2 would be quite stronger or it's to imply something else but in-lore?

I also think Minecraft lore suffers from the fact it's a sandbox. Knowing it has endless potential to create endless combinations, it's also terribly hard to decipher if something's not only lore-related or gameplay related but also the fact Mojang didn't think about it

[lil-purple-mouse-writes]

Hantengu Clone Modern Day AU Headcanons Part 1, Aizetsu

So I re-watched the Swordsmith V illage Arc recently and had an idea; what would all the demons be like in a modern setting?

So here we are. We are starting off with Aizetsu.

Please ignore spelling/grammar mistakes.

Personally I don't follow the headcanon that the Clones would be quadruplets in a modern AU, but I do agree that they would be siblings. Aizetsu is the third sibling, around 18-20 years old.

I'm sorry but this guy seems like his favorite animals are rabbits and axolotls. He thinks they are adorable and had a secret pet bunny he hid in his room when he was a kid, due to Sekido being allergic. Sekido eventually found the bunny and Aizetsu was forced to get rid of it.

Aizetsu will be getting a rabbit or axolotl when he gets his own apartment.

Aizetsu babysits for extra money, though he will never babysit any of the Shinazugawa kids. They bite.

Aizetsu prefers quiet places but can't find them very often living in a house with Sekido, Karaku, and Urogi. So, he prefers to sit in his room and listen to music or play video games to decompress.

You may use your imaginations to think of what games Aizetsu plays, but I think Stardew Valley and Minecraft are definitely on that list.

I think Aizetsu would be a fine arts student, specifically studying music composition and conducting.

Aizetsu is planning on moving out of the house the moment he gets the chance.

He prefers Urogi to his other brothers.

I plan on doing something like this for all of the demons, so I will eventually get to all of them at some point.

Hope ya liked this one, what are some headcanons you all have about the clones?

[ask-tdw-0666]

Alvar vs Asher (The Great Mob War 2 Arc)

Alvar Thornburn returns to get his revenge for the first war, he faces his own son, Janis, his great grandson, Asher, great granddaughter, Lovina, Daughter-in-law, Beatrix and granddaughter Tobi. After Alvar seems to have defeated Janis, he goes on to Asher for revenge on Asher's mother, Natalie getting with a Illager and destroying their pure Nether-Being royal bloodline.

[spectrum-studios]

Vono the Smithery "hero" (she acts more like a mom with a justice filled villain than a hero)

Vono's son ARCHIE <3

Vono dispite looking like an illager is not one but she took the time with her personal villagers to learn their tounge way before Archie even ends up at her smithery base.

She was ditched by her camp as a child and built her own house. She's not one to trust others but with assisting younger folk who are traveling the world.

She lives in a world before illagers even existed and has never met or was told of them. (Heros who hop between vanilla and modded worlds)

So she just scooped up the disoriented Archie and just took him in. Her appearance probably made this encounter less stressful.

At some point after a year passed, Archie was dragged back to his world without warning, and Vono started her true villain arc to reunite with him, and she dragged her two besties who 100% who wanted save her kid. (They are the badass aunties)

Also, Smasher (Karl) gets his ass whooped by her so hard that he didn't even know she was a "hero."

The others caught on that Vono is a "hero." But it is just an interesting one.

Also fun fact about Vono!

She works with dangerous metals that could explode at any given minute. So she has a huge fire resistance. And she is strong!

[crystalartsandanimation]

Finally have the time to give my own two cents to my own question:

Underrated:

I would say the Titan Ravager village, especially the villagers who were willing to fight back against the Illagers and help protect the village, along with the Titan Ravagers after making peace with them when the whole King arc was resolved. They put up a great fight, thanks to the training given by Blue and enhancements given by Yellow. I remember the comment where they were briefly compared as the Three Musketeers, but I don't remember the person who said that.

Speaking of the whole Season 3 conflict being resolved, has anyone talked about the nether portal Blue made in the beginning so he could get more nether wart? Did the stick figures ever end up destroying it like last time? Or did they keep it so if they want to, they can go back and visit the places they've been in, or just do some more exploring? I would believe in the second option because some of the Actual Shorts featured them in the Minecraft dimension. But does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Overrated:

... Yeah, I have to agree with the thoughts about Second being perfect. He's not always that.

In your opinion, what are some things in the franchise you consider to be underrated? Anything you think is overrated?

A character, an episode... this can be any aspect of your choice! You can be broad or go into the specifics.

[asktotallyhuman]

//I feel obligated to let y'all know I am workin' on stuff.

So here's an out of context preview

[veevee-the-artist]

Now that the Arch Illager Arc is over, the gang is trying to figure out what is the next big adventure by eavesdropping the meeting room of Mojang Inc.

[orchid-151]

Karl I think an endersent is somewhere in the woods can you please find it the villagers are scared of it

"With sword in hand, I shall slay this beast that terrorizes The village..."

"You mean like the monstrosity I made when I was the Arc-Illager?"

"WILL YOU CUT THAT OUT! DON'T YOU HAVE A VILLAGE TO TERRORIZE?"

"I'm sowwy, I'm no longer Evil... Remember?"

"DO YOU ALWAYS SAY STUFF LIKE THIS WHEN I'M MONOLOGUING!?"

"... maybe... 😏"

(reformed Karl likes to pose and sound like some super hero... And Archie sometimes likes to sometimes play devil's advocate.)

[betweenlands]

I posted 2,459 times in 2022

770 posts created (31%)

1,689 posts reblogged (69%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@autisticlalna

@betweenlands

@fluffy-papaya

@sequoiainthebox

@fearforthestorm

I tagged 2,459 of my posts in 2022

#yt - 1,914 posts

#txt - 1,040 posts

#art - 878 posts

#orig - 868 posts

#hermits - 851 posts

#misc - 552 posts

#dominioners - 445 posts

#ask - 342 posts

#pic - 207 posts

#not mc - 188 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#hey remember like a year ago when there were minor dsmp issues with the egg arc and a friend of ours compared it to the start of yogs issues

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

actually i’m bored and i want to invent a brand new ask game, so:

send me a flower emoji + a character name, and i’ll make up a fic about them that doesn’t exist and include a snippet from that nonexistent fic!

586 notes - Posted February 25, 2022

#4

and here’s the thing about cycles:

it’s not the first time you’ve been here. it’s not the first time you’ve put on this face for their sake. maybe this time, maybe this time. smile. straighten your jacket. there is no need to fret. they will escape. you will not allow them to escape. you will not allow them to stay,

and here’s the thing about cycles:

you are stuck in a box. they are stuck in a box. their box is larger, more spacious, more room to grow. your box is- smile. look at the camera. you know your box is falling apart. the walls are closing in on them (the walls are closing in on you),

and here’s the thing about cycles:

they’re all so, so stupid, you want to bang your head against the wall, they’re doing the same thing again and the sun is setting (the sun doesn’t set) and the maze will eat them alive (it isn’t hungry) (it’s always hungry). and you’re hungry,

and here’s the thing about cycles:

they’re free! they’re finally free! but they didn’t do it right, they never fucking do it right, they’re all idiots and fools and they never fucking do it right,

and here’s the thing about cycles:

they repeat.

639 notes - Posted February 11, 2022

#3

illagers are the best thing ever to happen to minecraft lore actually

691 notes - Posted March 31, 2022

#2

underrated hermit duo dynamic is “they’re going to scam you but not in a typical way in a sort of strange esoteric way. you’re just talking to them. it feels like a scam though”

835 notes - Posted April 5, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

we talked at @sequoiainthebox​ for like several hours last night and came to a conclusion regarding This Post -- it’s not xb’s fault. the Hypno Laundry Radius is a known phenomenon.

have you ever known someone who was happy and willing to do the dishes, and really good at it, but they only seem to do them either at 11pm at night or while you’re in the middle of taking a shower or while you’re having lunch? the Hypno Laundry Radius is a similar issue.

here’s the thing: hypno’s good at laundry! like, genuinely very skilled at it. he can get pretty much any stains out without damaging the fabric, if your coat or shirt has fiddly bits on it or needs a specific wash cycle or even needs to be dry-cleaned he’ll figure out a way to get it clean with zero issues. 

here’s also the thing: he will do laundry for the people around him. if you have a separate laundry pile and you are within the Hypno Laundry Radius when he decides it’s laundry day, your clothes are going in the washing machine with everyone else’s.

a side-effect of the Hypno Laundry Radius, however, is hypno either doesn’t know or just doesn’t pay attention to whose clothes are whose, so for the first couple days after he does laundry, you’ll still have the same amount of jackets, (paired socks, shirts, pants, et cetera) that you gave him, and they’ll probably even be in your size, but they will not necessarily be your clothes.

jevin’s used to this and will usually catch hypno before his hoodies get swapped with someone else. xb doesn’t care and will just wear whatever he gets back from the Laundry Radius, even if it’s the wrong pants. wels thinks he’s immune to the Laundry Radius and then will end up with pearl’s hoodie instead of the usual tunic shirt he wears under his armor.

and as for hypno himself? for the first couple days after he does laundry, he will be wearing whatever fits him unless you ask him for it back. doc’s labcoat. the Joe Astley shirt. sometimes his bandanas get mixed up with other square things in the wash and he’ll be wearing keralis’s hat or cleo’s sports headband until he gets his stuff back.

this season the Hypno Laundry Radius is operating at peak chaos due to how many people there are in the same area. hermits have tried hiding their laundry so they can do separate loads, but really, it’s no use. when hypno decides it’s laundry day, your outfits are going to eeby deeby.

1,145 notes - Posted April 6, 2022

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[littleeyesofpallas]

Bleach - Name Games

Not a family by name or blood, but a kind of found family. (at least the way they were originally presented)  This time I’m tackling the Visored! And while I’m at it I want to address some of the broader thematic elements going on with their original character designs.  Buckle up, this is a long one... 

Hirako(平子) Shinji(真子)

Shinji’s name is actually kinda of a false start to this one.  His names read as “Flat-Child“ and “Real-Child“ but that’s keeping in mind that -ko(子) for “child” is actually just a really common suffix for names, and not one generally used to ascribe literal meaning.  (Typically because of its diminutive implications it denotes a female given name, but it applies neutrally to family names, and even generally is not uncommon in male names.)  So his name kind reads as “Flat Reality“ or “Flat Truth.“

But this one isn’t actually about the meaning of the words, it’s a different kind of name game.  As we all remember, when Hirako introduces himself to Ichigo’s class at Karakura High during his original entrance at the start of the Arrancar Arc, he writes his name on the board mirrored and mentions how he’s “good at doing things backwards.”  At the time it was a reference to him being a hollow (Remember that when Ichigo’s inner hollow was given a chapter cover, his “name” was Ichigo’s but written mirrored) and would later influence his zanpakutou, Sakanade(逆撫)

As an aside here, Sakanade(逆撫) has been kind of erroneously translated as “counter stroke” in English, which is technically accurate as a literal translation but is kind of needlessly vague; For one the word “Stroke” here specifically refers to the act of stroking as in petting, patting, or smoothing over, and not something like a sword stroke; secondly the “counter” here should read more obviously as “reverse,” “opposite,” or “inverted.”

Moreover, Sakanade(逆撫で) is an actual verb already, so it doesn’t actually need to be broken down in the first place.  The word actually means exactly what it sounds like as well as having a colloquial use as, “rub the wrong way.”  Yes, other than just meaning to literally “pet in the opposite direction” (as with petting a cat or dog from tail to head) it means “to irritate” or “to annoy,” (which the former action invariably does) and that is an apt description of Sakanade’s powers.

Anyway...  About Hirako’s name not being about the meaning: the joke is that whether you write the name forward or backwards 平子真子 -vs-  子真子平, you still get Shinji(真子) out of it.  As in, his name is still legible both forwards and backwards.  Plus both kanji, 平 and 真 have horizontal symmetry, so they don’t change when mirrored..

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

Okay... let’s do an easier one...

Sarugaki(猿柿) Hiyori(ひよ里)

My personal favorite Visored, has a nice straight forward name Saru(猿) as I’m sure anyone amply familiar with anime knows means “Monkey” and the Gaki(柿) is the word for the fruit “Persimmon.”  The image of a monkey in a persimmon tree references an old folktale present in various east-asian cultures about a greedy monkey who cheats other animals before eventually receiving its comeuppance at the hands of the animals it has wronged.  In this case it’s reflective of Hiyori’s general image, sandles, track suit, decidedly tomboyish and unladylike; the “mountain monkey” is a poor, rural character type in Japan, not dissimilar to the American hillbilly of the Appalachia.

In that same vein, the name Hiyori(ひよ里) has a peculiar rural slant to it, in that it uses hiragana in place of the first component.  The ri(里) is a common place indicator in surnames meaning “village” or “hamlet” but like many Japanese surnames that reference landmarks like -kawa(川)“-river,” “-yama”(山)-mountain,” and “-da”(田)”-field,” the important part isn’t actually the locale but the descriptor preceding it; Which mountain?  Which river?  Which field?  Which village?  In the case of Hiyori, it’s not clear...  The fact that the village she appears to be named after doesn’t have a kanji again lends to this impression that, like the peasants of Soul Society’s Rukongai, the person who named her didn’t know how to read or write kanji.

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ 

Muguruma(六車) Kensei(拳西)

I think this one has gotten pretty good visibility in the fandom already because of the relation with Hisagi Shuuhei.  The eventual explanation of Hisagi’s 69 tattoo would be that it was copied directly from Kensei’s, and that Kensei’s comes from a mix of his name Muguruma, and the fact that he was captain of the Gotei 13’s 9th squad. (Personally I don’t like this explanation, and I think there’s pretty reasonable cause to assume this was a later decision and not a part of Kensei’s original conception or design.)  But the reason behind that being Muguruma(六車) Mu(六) which is the Japanese numeral “6″ and Guruma(車) meaning “wagon” and later updated to mean “car.”  In the Turn Back the Pendulum sidestory, this name is played upon in how Kubo styled Kensei’s 9th squad as a Bousouzoku(暴走族) the term for a Japanese biker gang (although they often include sports cars), where the “Six Car” reading becomes emblematic of his gang.

There’s a lot about the Bousouzoku that is culturally specific to Japan, but much of the familiar American cliches do actually carry over.  One distinct aspect of how the Bousouzoku opperate however, is that they are predominantly a youth culture phenomenon, as any wide spread, organized criminal activity among adults quickly steps on the toes of the much better established Yakuza scene.  For this reason it is very rare for Bousouzoku to persist in direct group activity into their adult years, although often bikers become easy recruitment targets for Yakuza.

Kensei(拳西) is actually an odd one for me.  It’s both super straight forward yet somehow together really obtuse.  Ken(拳) for “Fist” and sei(西) for “West;“ both are pretty singular in their meaning, so it’s not like there’s any uncertainty to what each one means, but I can’t make heads or tails of the two together.  For one,  Ken(拳) is usually something you’d see put on the end of a compound, and when it’s used that way it tends to denote a kind of martial arts style or technique.  It might still be meant to read as “Western Fist” or essentially “Western [style] Fist” and Kubo just liked the sound of Kensei over Seiken.  It might be a reference to the fact that Kensei’s original design was largely reminiscent of a kind of military look and feel, with a combat knife for a zanpakutou, short hair, combat boots, and pants that look like they could be part of military fatigues. (the tank top sorta throws the look off, though.)  But this was a theme that was dropped by the time the Visored got reincorporated into the story after their long absence.

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Yadoumaru(矢胴丸) Risa(リサ)

...is another odd one.  Her surname, Yadoumaru(矢胴丸)  has pretty clear implications, Ya(矢) means “arrow” and dou(胴) means “hull” as in the part of a ship, and maru(丸) doesn’t actually have an explicit meaning.  The kanji does generally mean “round” or “whole” both in reference to a circle, but it is most notably a suffix used in naming both naval ships, and frequently boys.  Given the rest of the name the imagery seems clear, Yadoumaru(矢胴丸) is meant to read as “Arrow-Hull Ship.“*  And although the uniform has heavy ties to school girl aesthetics and fetishism (which in turn link to her preoccupation with adult books) the tie here actually seems to be to the origins of the Japanese school girl uniform as a modification of the European naval uniforms introduced to Japan in the 1800s.

*edit: I’m an idiot.  A Yadou(胴丸) is the sleeveless chest plate and skirt piece in traditional samurai armor, which also carries over into kendo sports armor.

Adding to this, the name RISA (sometimes romanized as LISA) being written in katakana and not kanji or even hiragana works together with the naval associations would seem to imply she’s of mixed birth?  Possibly the daughter of a foreign naval officer stationed in Japan, hence a Western name and a ship as a surname?  In fact, most Japanese ships would be named after some mythical figure or indeed named like a person, so the literal descriptor of “Arrow-hull” actually sounds like what someone would call a ship they didn’t know the name of, tacking “-maru” on to the end.

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Let me also take a moment here to complain about the fact that Kubo originally wrote Rabu(ラヴ) and Roozu(ローズ) as katakana, pretty clearly denoting them as the English words LOVE and ROSE and while those seem pretty implicitly like nicknames it also implied in conjunction with their designs that they were both foreigners.  So the fact that he retconned them to being nicknames based on more conventionally Japanese when he decided to make them previously SoulSociety shinigami names bugs me...  But that being said

Aikawa(愛川) Rabu(羅武)

Man, what is it with Kubo and black people and “love” gimmicks?  Zomarri’s Amor, and PePe’s The Love, Love’s whole thing...  The name Aikawa(愛川) means “Love River,” and Kubo’s clever shorehorning of kanji into the phonetics for Rabu that he’d already used for the nickname Love use  Ra(羅) for “silk,” but specifically a thin or sheer kind, and bu(武) for “warrior”/”soldier.“  The associations with sheer silk and negligee seem very intentional, so his name really is basically “flowing love, [sexy] silk soldier.“  And that’s it, it’s actually super straight forward.  I dunno why he looks like an unemployed slacker, in a tracksuit and sneakers, lounging around reading manga, though.

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Otouribashi(鳳橋) Roujuurou(楼十郎)

This might be my favorite as far as name games within the Visored.  The given name Roujuurou(楼十郎) means “Watchertower 10 Son;” Rou(郎) being an exceedingly common suffix in boys names meaning “son.” (this is incidentally how anyone with a rudimentary familiarity with Japanese knew for certain Yuushirou(四楓院) was a boy at first glance, where as a bunch of other people thought he was a girl.  In case any of you were around certain fandom circles for that whole drama...  More on him later though, because he’s got a fun name too.)  It’s not super clear if the arrangement here denotes the “Son of the 10th Watchtower [family],” or the “10th Son of the Watchtower [family].”

The surname Otouribashi(鳳橋) is a great little work of poeticism, where Outouri(鳳) is the Japanese name of the Chinese Feng(鳳) which in the most colloquial sense could be translated as “Phoenix,” but there’s a little more to it than that...

See, the Feng is itself the male half of the mated pair of mythical birds together called the Feng-Huang(鳳凰).  The Japanese pronunciation Outori is actually directly taken from Ou(王) meaning “King” and Tori(鳥) meaning “bird.”  The mythical Feng-huang is in fact king of birds, but more broadly represents a union of yin and yang, and is a common visual element of Chinese weddings evoking harmony.  As a part of this theme of unity it is said to share features of many different birds, and also of the 5 fundamentally opposed colors associated with Chinese daoism and fengshui: Red, Blue/Green, Black, White, and Yellow.  This particular feature has been tweaked over time to depict the Feng-huang as more broadly multicolored, and associated with the rainbow.  (it’s also the basis of the Pokemon Ho-oh, if that wasn’t apparent)  For a number of different mythological similarities, the Feng-huang have become erroneously thought of as “the Chinese phoenix,” but I’m not going to get into all that here...

So, getting back to the name, Bashi(橋) means “Bridge.”  The, again false equivalence based, but more easily understood translation of Otouribashi(鳳橋) thus being “Phoenix Bridge.”  But what is shaped like a bridge and directly associated with the Feng?  A rainbow.  His family name is just a really fanciful and kind of poetic reference to a rainbow.  In conjunction with the “Watchtower” referenced in the name Roujuurou(楼十郎) I’m tempted to take to the meaning of “10th [Floor of the] Watchtower Son” as it implies a high floor, and in the common mythological motif of rainbows as actual physical structures, a high tower would be the sensible entry point to a rainbow bridge. 

Also this is why he has a bird mask.

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Kuna(久南) Mashiro(白)

Let me just come right out and say that I haven’t got a damn clue on this one.  Mashiro(白) means “White.” Ku(久) means “long time,” na(南) means “South.”  She dresses like a super sentai character, specifically one of the original Himitsu Sentei Goranger team, and her mask is a nod to Kamen Rider, with its antenna and big round bug-eyes.  I don’t really see a connection with the name and the tokusatsu theme though.

Small aside, Tokusatsu is a genre of Japanese TV and film that was originally named for its emphasis on special effects like camera tricks and editing in post, used most noticeably in children’s shows like Super Sentai and Kamen Rider.  That distinction became less and less relevant as special effects became more widespread, and so it is now used mostly to refer to live-action costumed super hero shows.

Super Sentai is btw the source material for the American franchise, Power Rangers, from which Saban Entertainment originally bought the footage that they would cut together with their own original footage, and later from which they would buy the costumes in order to shoot their own shows from scratch.

Also of note is that Ishinomori Shoutarou, author of the original Cyborg 009, was also the original show creator of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.  His work created the transforming(henshin) hero, the body suit and helmet aesthetic, and the heroic billowing scarf, effectively inventing the Japanese superhero almost single-handed.

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Ushouda(有昭田) Hachigen(鉢玄)  

Another funky one...  “[To] Exist [in] a Shining Field” might be the best way to read Ushouda(有昭田)?  Its really the U(有) that gives me trouble here, as it just means “Exist”/”Existance.”  And Hachigen(鉢玄) seems to read Hachi(鉢) meaning “bowl” and Gen(玄) meaning “deep,” “mysterious” and in certain contexts “occult.”  I’m not sure if that “deep” is really a physical deepness or just a sort of “profoundness” that would fall more in line with “mysterious” and “occult.”

Either way I think the general meaning is actually pretty clear, “bowls of rice from a shining field” evoke an image of kind of mythical field of magical produce, eating from which grants a kind of magical quality and sustenance.  In other words, his name is saying that Hachi is such a huge guy and so gifted at magic because he ate a lot of food that grants magic power.

I have no idea why he has the tux or the shaved hair though.  Stage magician?  Fancy gourmand?  But again then why the shaved head and the cross bones?  And Kubo did eventually come up with for him is strangely Balinese looking?  It seems reminiscent of Barong, king of spirits; A benevolent lion/bear monster that defends mankind from Rangda, the demon queen and master of blackmagic.  But apart from the superficial appearance and broad ties to magic, there’s not a lot really tying the two together.

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It’s hard not to just go off on all the weird little design choices, and loose ends, dropped plot points, and retcon’d details that surround the Visored in Bleach.  They really were just such a great concept utterly wasted by terrible pacing and some truly confusing priorities as far as publication goes, eithe ron Kubo’s part, editorial, or both...  But that’s a story for another time...