#there was some ichiruki i guess

[forcebookish]

whumptober no.7: (alt) forgotten

[violetnaps]

hate how being quiet and unobtrusive are desirable traits for girls

[tanishark]

My IchiRuki headcanon ft. Renji Abarai, Orihime Inoue, Tanisha Chōdhori.

(Rukia and Renji visiting the Kurosaki Household after her appointment at the Saisei no Mori medical institution.)

Rukia: "Hey guys, guess what? My headache is finally beginning to wane after I took those strawberry-flavored pills Tanisha gave me back at the Saisei no Mori!"

Renji: "Yeah, those pills work wonders for stressed-out captains. I gotta visit Tanisha for some more."

Orihime: "I'm just happy Rukia is feeling better, especially with how busy she is these days."

Ichigo: "Uh, Rukia...? Did you read the note? It's quite...the message. About your cravings..."

The note in question:

"Dear Kuchiki-San, I hope you'll feel better once you start taking the medication. I've personally added the strawberry touch to the pills I've prescribed—knowing how much you've been craving a specific type of strawberry—but knowing it wasn't in reach for you— I've taken the liberty of satisfying your cravings." - Sincerely, Tanisha Chōdhori.

Rukia: Chokes on her water.

help, this is so creative! how did you even come up with this lmfaooooo. and tanisha's note is just...she knows, the WOMAN knows, Tanisha knows how badly Rukia wants Ichigo, but she can't do anything abt it cuz Ichigo is married and she's married to Renji...😭😭😭😭

[exo-raskreia]

what do you have to say about when ichigo was fighting grimmjow and was getting beaten up but he won bc of orihime pleas and cries? im not saying ichiruki is bad bc it is true you could say they have more time together (and emotions, feelings) but i think you can't deny either that ichigo won against grimmjow bc of orihime that time

Uh, what? You mean when she was scared of him & little Nel had to give her a push to cheer him on? 😒

Meanwhile, Rukia was never scared of him, never doubted him, & would've given him an encouraging speech right before he even started 😌.

I considered not answering this ask cuz it just sounds so... dumb.

But, I guess I can entertain this a bit...

Yeah, Ori contributed so much that Ichigo forgot to thank her, but he did thank little Nel.

Also, notice how he gave Nel AND Ori the same look 🫢

🤣

He's given the same look to his sisters too. Meanwhile, the way he looked at Rukia was so vastly different... 😩 Check out this post for example.

The funniest part is that the reason Ichigo fought Grimmjow in HM (and one of his main motivations to even go there—Ori getting kidnapped was the excuse he needed) was because he had a personal vendetta against him for hurting Rukia. But, Ichigo was in denial & claimed he only came to save Inoue until Grimmjow called him out on it.

It's basically like:

Whoa, what? 👀

You're onto something...

Hmm...

Ah, so it's true! 👀

This screenshot with the bonus databook info from this amazing post, though 👀:

I also think it's funny how he asked her to heal him before the fight. He didn't face her directly & basically came off as: "Just heal me already." 🤭

Ori simply did the bare minimum in cheering for a friend risking their life. Anyone else in her place doing the same would have given some encouragement to Ichigo (I remember being so annoyed at her for fearing him while he was fighting the enemy. When she finally snapped out of it, I was like, "About time." 🙄).

(Btw, there is an interesting interpretation of Ichigo's reaction to Ori's words here. What she said may not have been the words Ichigo needed nor wanted to hear...)

You might think after this, Ori would have finally started to develop; if Kub0 had wanted, IH could have started to get somewhere... but what happened later at the dome & then the Fullbring arc told us otherwise (what happened at the dome should've solidified for everyone that IH do NOT work together & bring out the WORST in each other 🤷‍♀️). Ori did not learn a single thing... she even got worse in TYBW...

(This post pokes fun at this part 🤪)

You think this is what Ichigo needed to hear at such a crucial moment?! Rukia would've never said such a thing! 😤

There's an interesting IR post here about Ichigo's potential love language being Words of Affirmation. And Rukia was the perfect person to fill his little love tank; her words always meant so much to him 💞.

Also, canonically, Ichigo spent more time around Ori's vicinity than Rukia's, & yet they couldn't develop any special bond. Ichigo spent 17 months without Rukia, but him & Ori still. didn't. get. anywhere. Ori had no development from her experience in HM & was still pathetically simping over Ichigo while he was none the wiser (and couldn't care less) 🙄.

Anyway, even if Ori had contributed greatly to the Grimmjow fight, wasn't it nice of her to help Ichigo avenge another girl? 😊

[ichinoue]

In the lust arc, ichigo never said the "her" kanji in the original Japanese scan, this kanji: 彼 was nowhere to be seen. It was ichigos instinct to protect that made him get up; he didn't know who was calling, but since someone was, he ahd to protect, that's who he is.

The translation for the original Japanese scan is:

“呼んでる. 呼んでるんだ. 聞こえる. 立てよ. 立て. 俺が. 俺が. 俺が護る."

“Calling. They are calling. I can hear it. Rise. Stand up. I…I…I will protect.”

I don't know why viz chose to add a non existent her, but in the original scan, there's no her.

Now you can ship what u like, just don't mischarecterize ichigo for the sake of it. We know you want it to appear that ichigo was down bad for orihime, just don't do it at the cost of ichigos charecter. This was a moment for ichigo to show his instinct to protect, no matter who, and his will as a shinigami.

You also say that in terms panel that ichigo blasts orihime away and off her feet, that he wasnt attacking her because "his sword was on the other side". If he raised from the DEAD to save her, why wouldn't he more cautious of her? That blast flew orihime off her feet, you dont do deliberately do that if ur protecting someone.

I've seen some people use the data book as an arguement to say it was about orihime since it says he was "bound to orihimes screams" when that was 3rd person. That was from a readers perspective, because we as readers knew that orihime was calling out to him, ichigo didn't.

If vasto lorde/ichigo meant to protect orihime, he wouldve said the her kanji in the original scan, and he wouldn't have blasted her away after that. By all means, enjoy ur ship. I don't give a fuck abt that, what I do give a fuck about is ichigo mischarecterization or a false narrative being pushed in order to enjoy ur ship. Ichigo rose from the dead to protect who was calling out to him, because that's what he does. The ichihime ship doenst need this moment to stay alive, once again I know ichihime shippers love to use this as a basis of thir arguement as to why its canon, but it simply didn't happen the way u guys say.

Call me an ichihime anti, call me an orihime hater, I don't give a fuck. Stop pushing false narratives to make ur ship appear any better than it does, its quite frustrating to see mischarecterization happen because of shipping. And I say this too any shippers who want to twist the narrative or mischarecterize charecters in order to validate their ship or prove that their ship is good.

Well guys, it's 2023 and here's another dolt ranting about pronouns in the lust arc, just like the IH Fail essay that ended up being a fail in and of itself.

When will these people learn that Japanese doesn't require pronouns the same way that English does?

Hell, English doesn't even require pronouns when it's redundant and *this* incredibly obvious who is being talked to and/or about:

Seriously. Even if the only thing Ichigo were saying here is the word "protect"...or furthermore, even if we were not meant to know what he was saying at all, and it was just some mumbled, broken speech that the reader was not meant to decipher...It's still blatantly evident that whatever it is he's saying, he's talking to/about Orihime.

I mean this is just hilarious to me. Here's Orihime and Ichigo, literally placed together in side by side panels as Ichigo continues to chant about protecting...And ichiruki shippers are like, "hmmm well, it's not super clear who he's talking about because there's no pronoun so...I guess we'll never know 🤷‍♀️."

When literally, she's...she's right there on the page lmao. That's Orihime, she's right there! You can't miss her!! Like c'mon, dude. This is basic reading comprehension. You really need a pronoun to help you figure this out when her face is right there? Directly adjacent to his? When she's listening to what he's saying, so that it can then dawn on her that, "oh shit, it's my fault, he's doing this for ME."

This is the very next page following that last one, with a flashback of the moment in question, of Orihime screaming out for Ichigo, the moment he could hear HER calling before he rose up from the dead, chanting about protection. Confirming for the 47 thousandth time that yeah, he rose up from the dead for her.

You think Kubo drew this^ entire page, at such a pivotal moment, to show that Orihime's...wrong? Like some sort of gag? She's just *imagining* that Ichigo rose up for her, but it's not actually true? That's...certainly an interesting way to interpret things lmao.

Here's the page the flashback references, of Orihime screaming, placed directly next to Ichigo just as he begins to rise up. But yeah, it had nothing at all to do with Orihime. Just a total coincidence, I'm sure.

And if that weren't enough, here's the Bleach Unmasked Databook:

完全虚化した一護は, 織姫が発した叫びを反芻 しその目的だけに縛られた。

"The perfectly hollowfied Ichigo ruminated over Orihime's screams and was bound only to that purpose"

You...mentioned this? Kind of?

"I've seen some people use the data book as an arguement to say it was about orihime since it says he was "bound to orihimes screams" when that was 3rd person. That was from a readers perspective, because we as readers knew that orihime was calling out to him, ichigo didn't."

The readers aren't the ones who bound Ichigo to Orihime's screams (especially not you, anon, since you keep insisting it had nothing to do with her lmao). Kubo did that. That's how he meant for this scene to be interpreted: that Ichigo was bound to Orihime's screams. But you're still here fighting against it for some reason lol.

Ichigo did know she was calling out to him. It was part of his internal monologue, as she's screaming, before he hollowfied. Whether the pronoun is there or not (because again, the pronoun for her doesn't *need* to be there to make it clear who he's talking about when she's clearly the only person screaming, placed directly next to a panel of him rising him up...) he could hear her voice. He could hear her calling him. He ruminated over ORIHIME'S screams and was bound to ONLY that purpose. Only her.

You can try to downplay it and remove her from the equation all you want, but it's impossible. It's impossible because she was the only one on her knees by his side when he died, the only one screaming, the only one whose voice he could hear, the only purpose he was bound to. The only one whose face is side by side with his as he speaks about protecting. The only one featured in a flashback to the crucial moment of her screaming, placed side by side with a panel of him about to rise up, confirming it was for her.

Try to crop her out of all the pages leading up to the moment Ichigo rises up and see how much is left. Try to make sense of him rising up because he can hear someone screaming, without her there...literally screaming. Try to erase her when she was the catalyst to it all.

And I guess at this point I just don't understand why that's so hard to believe? That Ichigo rose up from the dead for Orihime? Considering Kubo has confirmed that he planned the final chapter revealing the endgame couples after writing chapter ONE.

Is it really that difficult to fathom? That Kubo wrote Ichigo doing such a thing.....for his future wife? Considering Kubo *knew* they would be married in the end when he wrote the lust arc?

Honestly like, it's been seven years. What is the point of digging in your heels and shouting at clouds that scenes like this between Ichigo and Orihime were not romantic when their relationship was literally...planned out...to be romantic?

It's over, it's canon. You can either accept the high likelihood that you were misinterpreting Ichigo and Orihime's relationship from the way Kubo meant for it to be interpreted all along, or continue to rant in my inbox on anon. The choice is yours lol.

[ichirukilover]

Sorry if these questions are a bit annoying , but I'm curious , ha - especially because of your username When / how did you get into Bleach and shipping IR ? Favorite moments from the series ; favorite moments from the ship ?

I got into bl3ach just by picking a random anime to watch. I realized I was shipping ichiruki when... too late I guess, I mean I didn't realize it at first it was natural.

As for some of my fave moments for the serie + some ichiruki moment I posted some here

Here is another post with what should be my fave ichiruki moment (it can change at times LoL)

[irlkisukeurahara]

I guess this is ship discourse but honestly I don't even care. My blog, I blog what I want. Disagree? Cool, just block me ffs.

I think some non-canon ship enthusiasts are mad weird sometimes. Not in general, but a very specific niche of them. The kind that shoves their ships into the canon instead of just electing to ignore the canon.

I'm gonna use BLEACH as an example with a bunch of shit I've seen. No hate to the ships themselves, just this specific type of person:

The IchiRuki + IshiHime shipper that, instead of ignoring IchiHime and RenRuki, they create this scenario where Orihime is cheating on Ichigo with Uryu and Rukia is unhappy with her marriage with Renji insisting that he's an abuser or something. You know, absolute fucking nonsense that is nothing like the characters at all so that they can push their ship. (Byakuya's closer to being an abuser to Rukia in canon than Renji ever would in any universe, but y'all don't wanna talk about that)

It's weird! I think it's absolutely ridiculous to push that the canon ships are bad and your ships are better when you don't even understand basic characterization of the characters in question! Talking a lot of shit about the canon ending, but then proceeding to keep the ending of the media, but throwing in your preferred ship as the characters committing adultery. Just make a new ending where your ship got together instead!! Why prefer non-canon ships then in the same breath respect the canon to that degree? And how can you call blatant cheating a ship moment? If you consider that to be the basis of a good, healthy, or positive relationship (If you like/write ships that are unhealthy on purpose, this doesn't apply), maybe you shouldn't be making ship content at all!

I don't think you should have to adhere to canon by any means, with ships or anything else. I'm only implying otherwise. Non-canon ships are great, that's kind of the entire point of shipping! I ship Renji with like 5 different characters so understand my POV is not to say that you should stick to canon. My point is just that, if you gotta create this horrible mischaracterizations of the characters you like to justify your ship, maybe just, don't? Make a headcanon where the ending was that Ichigo got with Rukia, Orihime got with Uryu, and Renji stayed a proud single like a normal person. Why must the canon ships be "evil" in your eyes just because you prefer one that isn't canon?

[unohanabbygirl]

Thanks for tagging me babes ☺️ @sapphireblueye

How many works do you have on A03?

7! Five multi-chaptered and two oneshots

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

481,884 (I honestly thought it was more)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

HOTD, specifically Lucemond with some background pairings.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Forget me not

2. Hiding in plain sight

3. Fill my bleeding heart

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! However my timing is always so bad and it makes me feel shitty but I’m the sort of person who needs some time to think out what I wanna say + I get distracted very easily and forget to do so until weeks later. My responses are horribly late but my words are genuine.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hm, I guess it would be by latest oneshot featuring corpse queen Luke with a very mentally unwell Aemond. Very sad.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

The ending isn’t published yet since the story won’t be completed for a while but Hiding in plain sight should be my happiest ending according to my plans. Crazy, I know.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I wouldn’t say I receive outright hate. Maybe a few backhanded responses every once in a while but it’s rare.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

YES! Very emotional, 9/10 there will be tears shed while they fuck nasty.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one

Sadly no. I don’t think I’m the type of person who could pull off clashing two different universes and their characters together. It’s a difficult thing to write in my opinion and the handful of crossovers I’ve downloaded so i’ll never lose them are god-tier. Takes a lot of talent me thinks.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge 🧐

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes. Its translated in spanish

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Nope. My process is a very long drawn out one that I don’t want to stress anyone out with while trying to work alongside me. Sometimes it’ll take me weeks or even months to get a chapter out. Im looking at you FMBH.

However I wouldn’t be co-writing something small if the plot interests me. Maybe four chapters or so? Idk

14. What's your all-time favourite ship

IchiRuki (bleach) and Braime. Samdean is a big one too.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Interesting enough I started a WIP when Lucemond was still new so around December-ish. It’s a dragon shifter AU but I don’t know where to take it so she’ll probably never see the light of day. Lol

16. What are your writing strengths?

Conveying emotions I think. Probably because i’ve been down the depression and crappy self image rabbit hole enough to express it in my works. Internal monologue is also one I’m good at.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Pacing! Omg my pacing is ass. Everything is either too slow or too fast which leads to so much re-editing to get it all flowing in an appropriate time.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I don’t do it because google translate isnt very accurate most of the time and language is so important. If I do feel writing dialogue in another language is that important i’ll ask someone who speaks it to help.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Well…does the shitty fic I wrote about Edward/Bella/Jacob in seventh grade count? Because if not then Lucemond it is lol

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Forget me not. She’s an icon, what can I say.

Tagging; @handsome-wise-strong @armonial

[jukkariart]

Some (because I'm a gremlin and 9 is way too much) people you'd like to get to know better

Tagged by @frauleiiin, thank youuuuu fren! ❤

3 ships

Canon ship: Leia Organa and Han Solo, not taking questions, they are perfect >.>

OC Ship: I don't talk about my very many blorbos enough but I think Ambaras and Rass Ordo live rent free in my head these days.

Ship of the week: Vi and Caitlyn, I mean have you seen Arcane, these two are absolutely amazing.

First ship

Probably gonna be Ichigo and Rukia from Bleach, I feel like I'm aging myself immensely here. XD I was very much into Bleach as a kid and always thought IchiRuki is the way to go. Big disappoint in the end i guess, but should have seen it coming.

Last song

B.Y.O.B. by SOAD, because I've been enjoying some classics recently.

Currently reading

Started The Witcher books, currently barely few pages in on Blood of Elves, to my defense I'm raising I'm trying to read in Romanian and it's hard, man. 🤣

Last film

I have to admit I haven't been watching anything recently and to be honest there hasn't been any new movies that got my attention, so I'll cheat a bit and say Arcane, because I've been re-watching it recently

Currently craving

I'd eat some ice cream, you know?

Tagging

@rajakaen @disasteralien (no pressure of course ._.)

[bleachbleachbleach]

Hello there! I'm glad to see proud Bleach fans like you! Seems like you appreciate and cherish the existence of every characters. But is there any Bleach character that you dislike, or just simply couldn't tolerate their action or contribution on the story? Tell us tell us!

There are a lot of characters to love! Though I think it helps to be two people, because while our faves do overlap they're not identical, so there's double the coverage. XDD

I think it's probably giving us too much credit to say that we cherish every character, but I think what's reflected in this blog (and this is mostly the deft work of my co-blogger, because she does a lot more of our reblogs/queue) is the pleasure of appreciation. If someone shares phenomenal fan art of a character who is not one of our personal blorbos, the art is still phenomenal, so that's cool to see, and the artist's love of that character is also very cool to see, so what's not to love?

Same goes for appreciation in-series, honestly. Like, my co-blogger does not like Yamamoto. (Sidebar: The Third Captain Amagai Arc was some kind of Yamamoto Image Recuperation Arc but we all know he's a war criminal and they all know he's a war criminal [and so are most of them] but and IN THIS ESSAY I WILL--) But a bunch of characters in Bleach clearly do love him, so sure, let's appreciate that. Same with Soi Fon and Oomaeda--Soi Fon does acually care about Oomaeda, and Oomaeda cares about her, so sure, let's appreciate that Oomaeda is part of this network of care.

The opposite isn't true, though, where if a character is hated in-series we also hate them. Usually that also means we love them, LOL. Aizen? Fabulous. Amazing. Top tier. Mayuri? LOVE that guy. You? You torment our favs? Gold star material! You're doing amazing, sweetie.

I PROMISE WE'RE NOT DODGING THE QUESTION HERE. Maybe these are low-hanging fruit, but here are two characters who came up first in our discussion of this ask + one caveat:

Baby Nel -- It happened that we were at Hueco Mundo in our rewatch at the same time as Ichigo was wandering around Hueco Mundo in TYBW, so there was double Baby Nel happening in our lives, and we were just like, "I can't. I can't do this in two timelines at once. IT'S TOO MUCH." The vocal affectation... I can't. XD

That filler guy who accompanied Ichigo and Rukia to the Grand Fisher showdown in the anime -- Why was he there? What did he add? He was there for no reason, and the only thing he added was another guy to animate, in order to ultimately make everything worse. He is the embodied version of a censorship block, because I guess otherwise the scene would be... too sad? Too scary? People talk a lot about how much more IchiRuki the anime is than the manga but boy, this guy was third-wheeling so hard it's a miracle we all survived!

The caveat being, while our disinterest in these two things (or the amount of these two things happening in a given timeframe) is genuine, sometimes we're just as ungenerous about our faves.

I'll confess I did say during our Winter War rewatch that I wished my blorbo Hitsugaya "would simply die" because he and Hiyori were being extremely annoying for multiple extended scenes and Lisa was just LETTING THEM. So take that as you will. 😂

[empadocas]

tag 9 people you want to get to know better

thank you for tagging me, @system-of-cells-interlinked i love answering random shit

three ships: cyno x tighnari (genshin) denji x reze (csm) moira x mercy (ow2)

first ever ship: ichiruki probably, since bleach was one of my first animes

last song: i think i'll lose my mind in hysteria - shokaii

last movie: ant man and the wasp quantumania (very silly)

currently reading: some fanfics i guess but there's this book i still havent ended yet it's called uhhhhhhhhhhhh ARTEMIS (is abt ppl on the moon)

currently watching: waiting for new seasons of chainsaw man and bleach, gotta start watching tlou fr

currently consuming: just ate a shit ton of pasta bc it's the only thing i know how to cook properly and i also love carbs

currently craving: ice cream (theres some in the fridge but im stil full of pasta)

Tagging: @maidenthestargazer @acosmonautsloth @00x7 @alice2madness @sapphic-bogmonster @cellestiallys @nyatimesthree

[rayereil]

Memories in the Rain Part 2!

The fight with Grand Fisher is intense. It’s well paced and well drawn.

It’s also the first time Ichigo is fighting on his own. We haven’t had a chance to see him use combat smarts, but he pulls it out in the end!

But jeez, Kubo wanted to make sure we all hated Grand Fisher, huh? Making Ichigo fight his mother brings the trauma straight into the spotlight though. Ichigo has to literally facedown his past to get stronger… not subtle, but it is effective.

Also, did I mentioned Ichiruki? They really do win in this arc. Ships aside, this is a powerful moment hinting at Rukia’s past. Ichigo’s fight is something she’s familiar with. And she’s terrified of losing Ichigo, but she knows she can’t interfere…

You can’t convince me Kubo knows about Rukia’s past yet, but that seems to be Ukitake? As I remember nothing about Rukia’s past other than Kaien’s death, I can’t say much more… but it’s apparent having to watch Ichigo fight is painful for Rukia. She wants to help, but knows she must let him fight alone.

And Ichigo kicks Grand Fisher’s butt!

Which is good because he’ll never see Grand Fisher again.

And even though Ichigo initially views this as a loss, the audience knows it’s a victory. Ichigo let’s his past get destroyed for the sake of seizing his future! One where he can protect everyone.

And who better to accent that point other than Rukia. It’s truly a touching scene between the two of them. And it’s such a classic trope that the concerned love interest thanks the unconscious love interest for not dying. Rukia is 100 percent falling for Ichigo here, and I’d wager Ichigo is starting to like Rukia more and more.

Obviously this is interpretation and not canon… but it’s trope compliant, haha! Kubo just doesn’t end up using them.

Also I need to talk about Orihime again.

She’s perfect. She’s so funny and has such a bright personality! I wish Kubo had kept the jokes up as the series went on…

We also have Orihime realizing she understands Ichigo better after Tatsuki’s story. I’m glad she understands him more… I can only hope Ichigo will eventually be given screen time to understand Orihime in the same way.

And to finish out MITR, the conclusion.

The first scene just gets me. I don’t know what it is about humor like that (“ten years ago-“ “six years”) but I just love it.

And then we have the emotional conclusion! Isshin comforting Ichigo. Ichigo finally realizes the reason no one blames him the way he does himself. We get some closure to the events that have haunted Ichigo, and it’s so beautiful that Isshin is the one who gets this moment with his son.

While Isshin is often used as a gag character and is sometimes made into a pervert, even for his own family, I like serious Isshin. Wish we got to see more of him.

On a related note, I don’t recall Everything but the Rain having Masaki comment on Isshin’s hands while smoking. It didn’t happen in the anime, but obviously scenes were cut for time, so maybe it’ll be in the manga. I hope so. What a quirky thing to mention only to never bring it up again when you have the chance.

And now everyone say goodbye to Grand Fisher because we won’t see him again until the beginning of HM. Also, at the very end of MITR, we see Grand Fisher being reborn into a stronger version of himself. Where is he supposed to be? I’d guess Huecho Mundo, since nowhere else seems appropriate. It really feels like a dropped plot threads since Grand Fisher beefs up and swears revenge on Ichigo, only for him to become a throwaway villain for Isshin to kill. I am glad Isshin gets to kill him though… just wish it’d been in grander fashion. And maybe with Ichigo tagging along. They both deserve some revenge, but it is what it is.

Anyways. It was fun to reread MITR. It’s one of those arcs you “know” but the details are hazy.

Most importantly, I’m getting close to Uryu’s arc!

[hibiscusangel15]

Heart to Heart 8, 15, 26, 30

8. Did you cut something out of the outline or an early draft? What was it and why did you decide to cut it?

Hm, this wasn't in the initial outline, but I did have a vague idea of Rukia consulting Byakuya about the ethics of stealing precious memories and happiness from an unwitting human after her talk with Kaien. No specific dialogue or anything. Literally just that idea on its own.

When I saw that the word count was kind of getting up there, though, I decided to ditch the idea. The word limit was 7k, and I think at that point it was already like 5.5k or something? I needed a conclusion, so...

15. Talk about the characters' struggles & how you decided on those

I guess the whole fic is a moral quandary for Rukia lol. After being a succubus for so long, she can't really tell the difference between her own feelings and someone else's.

I knew from the start I wanted her to "eat" Renji's heart and have him forget everything that made him him and to explore the consequences of that. She sort of blames Byakuya for turning her into this without fully explaining what life is like as a succubus, but since he's a bit...emotionally stunted (and not human), he wouldn't understand what the problem was.

Mostly, I just wanted to write her agonizing over wanting to be close to Ichigo because she thinks she'll ruin him. So...typical Rukia.

26. Share your favorite detail

I like a lot of little details I put in in the beginning, like describing the city through emotions and the way Byakuya's heart looks like a jewel.

I guess my favorite detail is the bits I came up with first:

She remembered bits and pieces of people throughout the years—hobbies, memories, even secrets. They were freely given, a currency most people didn’t even know they were paying. Their hearts all tasted different. Each was a riot of experience tinged with flashes of their soul underneath.

And:

His shoulders were slumped like the weight of the sky bore upon him. Underneath it all, she could almost taste it: a strong heart.

She looked upon him, shattered and made all the lovelier for it. A kintsugi recreation that barely held himself together. For the first time in centuries, she knew what it meant to starve.

These were the first bits of this fic I wrote in my phone's Notes app lol. I think I was reading a book (don't remember which one) and it gave me this vague idea. I didn't even have Ichiruki in mind when I first wrote it. It was just this imagery.

30. Would you ever return to the story's universe and write more?

Maybe? I feel like it's complete enough on its own, but if I do ever get inspiration for some sort of continuation, I'll write it. I do like this universe a lot.

[iceyrukia]

YUP, Naruto is a perfect example of a male mangaka who did the exact same thing. I had hoped that at the very least Naruhina would have gotten some more development with Hinata showing some growth - though very very slowly - throughout the series, which would have been a catalyst for Naruhina to grow adjacent to it, but it seems like it still took a backseat and never fully matured.

And while it's still better than the disaster of an awkward paring that is Ichihime, the bar is low I guess and Naruhina got paid dust since anything to do with hetero-romance is deemed beneath men, as romance constructed under the patriarchy is more about obtaining a resource and then assigning gender roles more than anything. With this in mind your tags make a lot of sense in respect to ichiruki (Kubo did after all say they were "More than friends, less than lovers"),so make that of you will of what 'romance', means to men.

Also none of this is surprising since (and maybe I'm reading to much into this) Kubo never really sexualized Rukia, yet he did with other female characters so I think this was some subconscious decision not to "taint" Rukia by turning her into 'waifu material', and thus not demoting her to a love interest (wife). Not to mention she had this whole "pure as white snow, most beautiful sword in the soul society" theme attached to her, so she's still this very pretty lady (appeals to men) but is 'respectable'.

With the NaruSasu thing and Naruto's obsession with Sasuke, the yearning for him is so romantic coded and more passionate than anything he had for both Hinata or Sakura (who was actually Naruto's love interest) LMAO. It's to the point where it became a meme with the "SASSSSUKAYYY" yelling and again, it shows men can write characters that pin for one another, but it's reserved for other men.

Reminds me of this quote:

Lastly with the NaruSaku route, Kishi also paid dust to Sakura and dropped the ball with her development after her fight with Sasori (so at earliest of the Shippuden series -_-), reduced her to a love interest of a man who found her annoying, and was overall the punching bag to a misogynistic male fandom that her called her 'flat-chested' just because they didn't like her. So overall I think the very sensitive male audience wouldn't have liked her with the main hero anyways as, like you mentioned, she didn't fit the bill of an ideal Japanese woman. She was however, made of "use" with her being a woman, by being a wife, since there was no way Kishi was gonna take the yaoi route.

I unironically think Tite Kubo is a misogynist for making Or1hime and Ich1go end up together.

And I'm not just saying this because ichiruki is my OTP but it's because the fact that this man knows how to write romance and ichiruki's bond is top notch even when you compare it to actual shoujo pairings - he could have written ich1hime into something that developed slowly over time that maybe could have at least made sense and delved into something organic, but till the very end they felt like awkward acquaintances. The gap in closeness between Ich1ruki ('more than friends less than lovers') vs the cannon Ich1hime ship bond is quite frankly jarring like there is seriously no competition. Now renj1ruk1a, while I'm not enthusiastic about, at least had something to it but again, comparing Ich1go's and Ruk1a's relationships with other people aside from the one that they have with each other, Ich1go's and Or1hime's relationship is hands down one of the most lackluster in the show. Heck, Ich1go even had a more dynamic relationship with Ury*u, Chad and even T4tsuki for god's sake.

I really think that the only reason Ich1hime ended up together is because Ich1go is the male hero lead and the "appropriate" love interest in Kubo's head was a woman who fit the "ideal" woman to start a family with and that's where Or1hime fits the bill. She's the typical ideal shy and submissive Japanese girl ( not to mention the ridiculous breast size) who is motherly and completely smitten and devoted with the male lead and I guess Kubo thought that was peak heterosexual romance as opposed to the duo with the sun and moon symbolism and moving 'she stopped the rain' 'i wonder if i can keep up with the speed of the world without you' poetry.

Also, you would think that male authors who put so much work into their male leads would develop the romantic bonds and individual character of whatever female love interest they plan to pair up the precious male hero but NOPE - they often don't do that and it's where you can clearly see men's misogyny and how little women matter to them.

And when you have a story where you can actually see the male author write such a beautiful deep relationship between two opposite sex characters without bullshit gender roles and then go ahead and make one pairing (involving one of the main characters) that fits patriarchal gender roles cannon ??!!! - in the same fucking story where you can directly compare them - it's the misogyny I'm afraid.

[exo-raskreia]

you'll probably won't see this message but i'll send it anyway lol.. i love you speak your mind about how the ichihime ship isn't that great and has all the facts to bring it show that you're right. i always felt scared to say i don't ship ichihime cuz they're are alot of shippers that can get so intense about it. i always say that ichihime is a cute ship and they have their moments(i don't feel that way at all lol) cuz i don't want to be attacked for not liking how their story played out. twitter is a scary place oml💀 and they made me sorta believe that ichiruki doesn't have any chemistry and they're just siblings when i knew in my heart like yes they do have chemistry and are the superior ship. like ichigo cares more for chad and uryuu then orihime. but since their canon, i guess their love for each other is supposed to be legit. apparently ichigo sees his mother in orihime so i don't understand why that's not a turn-off for the shippers😭so yeah thanks for making me go back in my bleach fangirl era and making my 10-year old self to not feel guilty and stupid shipping ichiruki

Wow, thanks so much, anon! And ur welcome! I will forever be on IchiRuki's side no matter what anyone says 😤.

You don't have to be scared to support what was, and still is, the most popular ship in Bleach (and rightfully so). There was no real ship war during its run (despite what the antis try to claim now), as IR was shipped by most of the fanbase. IR had everything you could hope a M/F ship to have in a battle shounen, the most solid basis for becoming canon with just one more step...and yet... (Kubo fumbled 🙄). The theories on that are interesting...

While more than half the IR fandom is no longer active after that disastrous ending, it doesn't mean they're not still out there. I've seen even non-shippers still praise IR & see it as wasted potential & whatnot (triggering antis in the process 🤭). Not being canon doesn't take away from the fact that it is still the superior ship. Anyone with reading comprehension who reads the manga will see it & wonder why they didn't end up together.

IH was never popular in Japan. It was always far below IchiRuki & UlquiHime (Ori's most popular ship 👀. Kubo achieved in ONE arc what he couldn't achieve for IH the entire manga, like-). To this day, those 2 ships get more content than the canon ships 😌.

The antis are just triggered that despite becoming canon, their ship is still. not. popular. IH doesn't have nearly as much content (both canon AND fanon) as IR & UH despite being canon for almost 10 years. Yes, Kubo himself doesn't care enough to give them even one family sketch 🫢.

Compare that to the Naruto endgame ships (mainly NaruHina & SasuSaku), which have way more official AND fan content. Those were always popular, & still are, 10 years later since becoming canon. Pro-Bleach ED fans love to compare their ships with Naruto's yet are nowhere near as popular.

The IH's really thought they would get the NaruHina royal treatment after the ending (you know, like a movie, official drawings from the creator, interviews saying they were meant to be, merch, etc.), but instead only got a novel that wasn't even focused on them (Ren/Ruki is more popular than IH but mainly because of Rukia 🤣), which vaguely went over their so-called "development" & had chicken scratches a rough draft of a sketch for their ship 🫢. Kubo also said in an interview that IH tried dating in college once but then broke up, later getting back together at some point. Super vague. And mind you, all this happened AFTER Rukia's wedding 🫢👀. So, we can only guess what was going through Ichigo's mind- Doesn't sound like Ichigo was all that interested, huh? Yet the IH's claim he was madly in love with her & "came back to life for her" & whatnot. Almost 10 years later & Kubo still can't be clear on when Ichigo supposedly started to "fall" for Ori despite being his "intended" endgame 💀.

The WDKALY novel has such OOC content on there, like it can't be taken seriously. Apparently, Kubo barely had any involvement with it anyway? Those sketches he drew sure are telling, esp if he calls his drawings here as a "rough draft" 💀

"Chicken scratches" for the canon ships, fr 😭.

RR is another dumpster fire but also more meh for me so I don't have to delve into that one, however, here's a post I once made where I go over why I don't truly believe Renji had feelings for Rukia. Meanwhile, Rukia's sad expression on the novel cover & the sketch of heading to the altar with a scared expression (not even when she was headed to her own execution did she look like THAT) say it all anyway 🫢.

Oh, man, there's just so much to make fun of for the canon ships. Even when we lose, we still win. IH's have no content, so maybe that's why they're so bitter & IR & its shippers still live in their minds rent-free despite them calling it a "dead ship". You would think they'd happily enjoy their canon ship & yet... They get triggered whenever IR fanart garners thousands of likes on Twitter 😩...

So, anon, I suggest not to engage with antis, esp on platforms like Twitter & Reddit. They're cesspools full of dudebros & loud IH's. Ignore, block, &/or mute them. No need to try arguing with them & please do NOT cater to them. Do NOT give them the validation they don't even get from Kubo himself, nor his affiliates (LMFAO). Use that energy to look for other fellow IR's & enjoy IR content (and maybe anti-IH content in the right places; you can explore that tag on my blog if u wish 🤪).

As an old saying in this fandom went, "Keep Calm & Ship IchiRuki."

[ichinoue]

"Well guys, it's 2023 and here's another dolt ranting about pronouns in the lust arc, just like the IH Fail essay that ended up being a fail in and of itself."

No its 2023 and people are deciding to keep ot real with you instead of deluding themselves and changing fhe narrtive to cater to a ship.

Respectfully, lets not speak on a language we dont know shit about, lmao.

Ichigo omits the pronoun when he tells rukia 'i've come to save you' in soul society that's because he was literally speaking to her, had been bickering with her from the previous page and had already told her he was there to rescue her back on the bridge - so he didn't need to specify to her 'who' he'd come to save: this is a typical example of "japanese omitting pronouns because they're obvious"

in the lust arc, ichigo is quite literally unconscious and unaware of his surroundings: in order to make it clear to the readers that ichigo recognized orihime, a pronoun (actually not even, he should have used her damn name like ichigo always did when he thought about rukia in ss) **needed** to be there without it, especially coupled with the fact that he speaks in broken japanese from that moment to the end of his transformation (i.e. he uses a mix of kanji and katakana, the latter of which is only used for foreign words, robots or - in bleach's case - hollows, and usually to signify that the speaker is just muttering sounds and doesn't understand the actual meaning of what they're saying), and the fact that he literally quite literally proceeds to throw orihime off the dome with absolutely no care for her well being, it's damn obvious that he had no idea who was yelling at him, he was only aware of the fact that someone was asking for help and got triggered by the word 'save'

"I mean this is just hilarious to me. Here's Orihime and Ichigo, literally placed together in side by side panels as Ichigo continues to chant about protecting...And ichiruki shippers are like, "hmmm well, it's not super clear who he's talking about because there's no pronoun so...I guess we'll never know 🤷‍♀️."

So being places together in panels side by side means he's referring to her? May I remind u he's just raised from the dead, and orihime is shocked as she processes what's happening. Those panels were to emphasise that. Not only have u attempted to educate me on the Japanese language and failed, you've now tried to say side by side panels somehow equates to the fact that he's referring to her? 💀.

"You think Kubo drew this^ entire page, at such a pivotal moment, to show that Orihime's...wrong? Like some sort of gag? She's just *imagining* that Ichigo rose up for her, but it's not actually true? That's...certainly an interesting way to interpret things lmao."

This was orihimes own perception of the situation. Orihime isn't a fact page, she's her own charecter with her own dialogue and thought. The fact she perceived it that way doenst mean its the case. She didn't imagine anything, it jsut looked that way too her, may I remind you she was the one screaming. She knows she's the person the screams belong too, ichigo doesn't. So of course she's gonna think it's here fault, common sense people.

You also proceeded to bring more asspulls and try and say how the databook confirms its about orihime when it was in third person.

"The readers aren't the ones who bound Ichigo to Orihime's screams (especially not you, anon, since you keep insisting it had nothing to do with her lmao). Kubo did that. That's how he meant for this scene to be interpreted: that Ichigo was bound to Orihime's screams. But you're still here fighting against it for some reason lol."

Did kubo tell u that he meant for the scene to be interpretated this way? Or did some angel come to you in ur dream and tell u that? If thats true, kubo wouldve simply added confirmation that hes talking about orihime by adding pronouns or her name. Instead he doesnt do that and has ichigo propell her away

He was bound to her screams, it's just that he didn't know the screams belonged to her, as long as those screams belonged to someone, he's gonna get up... that's who he is. It could've been anyone else screaming there and he would've stood his ass the fuck up, that's his charecter and what he does. Lmao you think this would go without saying, but the lengths ppl go for shipping is hilarious.

"Ichigo did know she was calling out to him. It was part of his internal monologue, as she's screaming, before he hollowfied. Whether the pronoun is there or not (because again, the pronoun for her doesn't *need* to be there to make it clear who he's talking about when she's clearly the only person screaming, placed directly next to a panel of him rising him up...) he could hear her voice. He could hear her calling him. He ruminated over ORIHIME'S screams and was bound to ONLY that purpose. Only her. "

He could hear her voice, he just didn't know it was her. Just that it was somebody, it's not that hard to grasp. There's nothing wrong with ichigo not knowing it's orihime but since shipping has rotten yalls brains, it has to be about the Princess hime, and not about ichigos own charecter, because everything has to be about orihime, right? (💀).

Your opinion on this probably won't change, that's granted as a deluded shipper. What also won't change, is the fact that this isn't an ichihime moment. U attempted to educate me on the japanese language and failed, I recommend doing more research time. I also reccomend not bothering to reply to things like these if ur arguement is just gonna end with "well ichihime is canon, deal with it" because it makes u look silly to say the least, and has nothing to do with the convo.

how i sleep knowing ichigo literally rose up from the dead for his future wife 🥰