#[ in Xcution arc? ]

[troius]

The Kids in the Room

The Fullbringer Arc is tighter and more coherent than anything in the manga so far, telling a very straightforward story about a young person’s alienation from the world he lives in. It has very specific things to say about the role of parents, mentors, and friends in the process of a kid becoming an adult and does a pretty decent job of looking at how different organizations (the state, gangs) can play into that young person’s life. And then, at the climax of the story, it very intentionally takes all that hard work, and for what I must assume were business reasons, tosses it all away.

The Arrancar Arc was a glorious, grandiose mess. It featured no fewer than three separate worlds, four distinct factions, and probably around twenty characters with active character arcs. Although it started off with the truly breathtaking ambition of weaving all of this together, by the end Kubo had cut a considerable amount of the subplots in favor of actually getting to the end of the story he was telling. And it still mostly worked! Ichigo’s character arc, at least, ended where I think it was always going to: sacrificing his nigh-unlimited power after understanding the price of that power.

But of course, giving up all of your powers isn’t really a long-term solution for Ichigo, just like it isn’t for any of us in life. Ruling over three worlds might tend to corrupt a person, but we all want—and need—to feel like we have some power over our own lives. Ichigo, in his final year of high school, living on the precipice of adulthood, feels this in more than one way. He had this power. He sacrificed it. And yet now, he’d do anything to get it back. Anything except ask for help.

You see, asking for help is hard, but especially in the context of “seeking power”, which in this story is an even less veiled metaphor for “growing up” than it usually is in shonen manga. Asking for help means admitting both weakness (you don’t have the power to get what you want right now) and discontentment (there is something you want that you don’t have). For Ichigo, whose primary method of coping with his mother’s death was asserting a premature independence, this would be difficult even if the thing he was seeking wasn’t something he had very publicly given up in front of his friends and family. Yes, there are times when he doesn’t want to involve them to protect them, but a big part of his self-imposed isolation is his own ego, his unwillingness to reveal to people who love him just how miserable he is, out of fear that it will reveal him to be somebody they won’t love anymore.

And that’s where the Fullbringers come in. Ginjo puts in a tremendous amount of work into getting close to Ichigo—lying to him, giving him little bits of information piecemeal without telling him the whole thing, and of course, offering him power that Ichigo desperately wants. But none of it would be possible if Ichigo didn’t have this preexisting desire to do it all himself, or at least to appear to his friends and family like he’s doing it himself. Ginjo does what nobody else in Ichigo’s life does—offers him assistance without making him ask for it. Hook, line, sinker.

The body of the arc covers this masterclass in manipulation from Ginjo, and it’s a huge change from what has, up until this point, been a very standard shonen battle manga in terms of content, where the fights happen on a more or less weekly basis. Here, it takes over half the arc for Ichigo to fight anybody! It’s all character development, even for the side characters like Orihime and Chad, who don’t get fights of their own but do get to express themselves and show initiative in ways they were largely denied in the previous arc. It’s all a long, slow burn to the climax, where Tsukishima suddenly strips away the support system that Ichigo had so undervalued, leaving him defenseless against Ginjo’s theft of his power.

And that’s my big frustration with the climax. It’s not that I like the Karakura kids more than I like the Soul Reapers, although I very well might. It’s that so much work has been put into drawing out and developing these relationships, so much effort put into showing how this is affecting all of them. And it’s not just metatextual effort either—yes, we spend a lot of pagetime with Chad and Orihime and Uryu, but Xcution also targets them all because of their importance to Ichigo! The very story itself recognizes that they’re the support system that Ichigo needs to be an emotionally healthy adult! Any logical resolution must therefore involve them!

But it doesn’t. Instead, it’s the Soul Reapers, who have not been physically or even narratively present at all for four volumes, who come in and repower Ichigo. They’re the ones who pair up for the fights against Xcution, fights that are very light on the sort of character work that is so characteristic of Bleach fights because there just isn’t the grounding for it! Even the fights that show character are mostly showing development that seemingly occurred off-panel, leaving you wondering when exactly Toshiro and Ikkaku achieved their newfound maturity. But the supporting characters from the bulk of the arc are written out, and even the personal feelings of Shigekuni Genryusai Yamamoto wind up being more important to the narrative.

This isn’t just unsatisfactory on the level of the supporting characters, it also fatally undercuts Ichigo’s own development. We expect the story to end with him overcoming the challenge set in front of him, which at the beginning is clearly his alienation from the people he loves. But he doesn’t really do that—instead, the Soul Reapers showing up is what solves his problems, which suggests that the actual problem in his life is just “they weren’t around”. I don’t think that’s actually what we’re meant to take away here, and the narrative doesn’t seem to think so either, which is why we end with the character development being passed on to Soul Society instead. They learn something in this arc, which is to trust Ichigo. But he doesn’t seem to have learned a damn thing.

And that’s what frustrates me so much about this arc: the lost potential, the fact that there was a very obvious story being told that was abruptly discarded, right at the moment it mattered most. There was probably no way Kubo could have fulfilled all the potential of the Arrancar Arc: there were just to many characters, too many storylines. But here, he condensed his writing, narrowed his scope, and still told a compelling story up until he suddenly threw it all away. Whatever the reason for it-- and I have no insight into the editing or business pressures that might have motivated a climax so different from that the story was obviously building to-- it’s disappointing.

#Bleach #Troius reads Bleach #I spent the weekend on this lol #hope y'all are in the mood for 1200 words of my complaints about this arc #it just really annoys me when an author appropriately limits their ambition and yet still fucks it up #anyhow I'll have more positive content out this week #my six hearts vs Xcution matchups #but I wanted to get this out first so you knew where I was coming from #wrap up post

[unohanadaydreams]

Wait i havent read the novel what does it say for explaining about kugo in that scene?

Basically, he had a group of Fullbring friends before the story proper and they were all killed by a shinigami assassin after Ukitake gave him a substitute badge (that was spying him), so obviously he came to the conclusion that Ukitake killed his friends and tried to kill him.

Of course, as Seireitei does, they made him a wanted criminal for not presenting his neck and dying like a dog.

It wasn't Ukitake who ordered the hit, but the novel's villain. However, still a fucking shinigami! So it's not like he was super off! Like wow, I wonder who sent a SHINIGAMI assassin? A quincy?

I think if Ginjo had said 'I think they're going to do to you what they did to me, so watch out', there would have been a way better outcome for Ginjo and the entire Xcution group. But Ginjo is simply not able to do that. He is incapable of opening up to people. He is the cautionary tale for Ichigo.

So instead Ginjo says with his actions 'I think they're going to do to you what they did to me, so I'm going to steal the friends you can't protect & the powers you can't wield anymore & use them to kill Ukitake, which by the way you should also want to do you fucking moron piss baby idiot'.

And he takes that really good reason for not trusting the shinigami to the grave like. What a specimen. I love him tbh.

#Ginjo is great because he is the opposite of those characters who sound Too Effective At Communication #His intentions could be absolutely gold and he's still going to execute them like he's trying to wring your fucking neck #because he is just that guarded #Xcution fucking hates him with the exception of (1) man who he literally made play his enemy rather than have him by his side for the #vast majority of the arc #Shinigami killing off people for having different powers than them: are we the baddies?

[edgelord-of-the-day]

Edgelord of the Day #56:

Shūkurō Tsukishima

Series: Bleach - Tale of the Lost Agent arc

#shuukurou tsukishima #shukuro tsukishima #tsukushima shukuro #tsukishima #edgelord #edgy #edgelord of the day #bleach #bleach lost agent #bleach tale of the lost agent #tale of the lost agent #goodbye to our xcution #this is my favorite arc of bleach no cap

[obsidiennes]

Okay, so when Rangiku shows up and steps in to save Don Kanonji and Tatsuki, Tatsuki finds her really remarkable. (The fact Tatsuki doesn't recognize her means she only turned up at Karakura High School the one day, and that was apparently during lunch or something as neither Tatsuki nor Orihime were in the room at the time, so Tatsuki just never saw Rangiku until this point.)

So as Aizen menaces Gin and Rangiku, Ichigo shows up.

Everyone is reacting to him in the first page, and it feels weird that Tatsuki and Keigo question if it's really him, but whatever. Tatsuki and Keigo look way more distressed than Don Kanonji, Chizuru, and Mizuiro, which reflects the fact they probably both knew they were gonna die at certain points versus Aizen, whereas Mizuiro and Chizuru didn't and Don Kanonji is crazy enough to shrug it off. But here's where things get really interesting.

In the Xcution arc, after Ichigo punches Tsukishima, Tatsuki and Keigo once again look far more distressed, though with Keigo it seems almost like shocked disappointment and with Tatsuki it's hot rage. Really look at her expression in the second panel. She wasn't even that angry by comparison when Ichigo told her to butt out when Orihime went missing:

Now we know that to Chad and Orihime, at least, Tsukishima defeated Aizen. Every altered history need not necessarily be the same, but it seems likely that feature is consistent, and from what we see there, Tsukishima appeared when Ichigo canonically did in actual history, meaning events otherwise proceeded as we saw (meaning Don Kanonji and Rangiku stepped in earlier on.)

This is supported by the fact that Tatsuki's incredible anger at Tsukishima being attacked doesn't seem to stem from personal familiarity, given she's still respectfully calling him "Mr. Tsukishima," the page before, which suggests their main interaction was him saving her (and everyone else) from Aizen, not anything longer. Now why does this register so strongly with her?

Probably because of this. Mind you, Tatsuki has already endured something similar:

But what happened with Aizen is far worse. So, the defeat of Aizen was such a big deal to Tatsuki because:

She definitely consciously faced down (a probably grisly) death, with to some degree far more awareness of it than the previous times with Numb Chandelier and Yammy

She had memories of being the sole survivor after Yammy's attack and so a repeat scenario but worse is basically a massive PTSD trigger

the people at risk due to Aizen were likely notably more important to her

her lady crush who'd just awakened something in her was in peril too

(Good time to recall that Tatsuki is incredibly durable, as I've said many times, and that this event also caused her to train incredibly hard afterward.)

#Out Of Character #Meta: TATSUKI #Long Post #[ also Keigo grabs Zennosuke's zanpakutou ] #[ and doesn't run from Aizen the second time ] #[ probably exactly because he's ashamed of ] #[ having run when Tatsuki told him to the first time ] #[ also ] #[ not having Don Kanonji be the only one truly loyal to Ichigo ] #[ in Xcution arc? ] #[ huge missed opportunity ]

[nagiru]

the dead don't have daemons humans have daemons quincy have daemons the dead don't have daemons

when a ghost becomes a shinigami, they get a daemon the dead don't have daemons, tho, so it's not their original daemon it's their zanpakuto

Ichigo is human and has a daemon Ichigo is quincy and has a daemon Ichigo is shinigami. he should not have a daemon. he has a zanpakuto. he has a daemon. his daemon and his zanpakuto are different parts of his soul, but when your soul is half dead and half alive, it's hard to separate them Ichigo is human and quincy and shinigami and hollow (hollows don't have daemons) his daemon and his zanpakuto bond so he can keep having his soul even as he struggles between being alive or dead … and then the winter war happens

Ichigo loses his zanpakuto and his hollow and he is lost he loses half his soul and he feels empty he still is human tho. he still has a daemon. but halfway through his journey he lost his life. halfway through his journey, he should have lost his daemon. he didn't. because his daemon and his zanpakuto shared their lives. but now he no longer has his zanpakuto. and he no longer is entirely alive. he has a daemon but he should not have a daemon. the dead don't have daemons, after all.

his daemon is sick it makes no sense. daemons don't get sick. but Ichigo's daemon is sick sick sick sick (it is dying, every second it exists like this) can Ichigo even survive without his daemon? humans can't survive without their daemons is Ichigo human enough to die without his daemon? (is Ichigo alive enough to die?) Ichigo lost half his soul and the remaining fragments aren't enough to save his daemon anymore

#bleach #daemon AU #i'm back to my bullshit #aka I was once again thinking about the 6 months between the Winter War an the Xcution #i still don't like the Xcution arc and still think so much pain was stored in the 6 months in-between #anyway. i want to turn this into a proper fic at one point but for now: #fic ideas

[strangefellows]

my copies of pokemon won’t get here til monday so what am i doing instead?

meticulously studying the canon timeline of bleach to decide where to add any appropriate filler arcs and movies i like into my personal headcanons

so far i yeeted the bount arc (bad) and amagai arc (meh) into the void, zanpakuto/toju arc is a keeper bc that arc fucked severely, and i found a spot to slide in hell verse movie. i’ll need to actually, um, watch the reigai arc to decide if i like it enough to keep, and also...figure out about the other two movies lmao, those are def time sensitive and there’s REALLY not much free space during pre-timeskip events

#since when are strawberries orange #legit tho the only real space for ANYTHING noncanon to happen is a 51-day gap during vizard training before hime gets kidnapped #and while yeah most arcs take like a week or less realtime i would say cramming TOO much in there isn't smart #other than that post-timeskip has maybe a month between xcution and tybw so like #also not much time for a lot of filler #and given character appearances it's hard to move stuff to within the 10yr skip lmao

[hirako5hinji]

CONFRONTATIONS [ NOT ACCEPTING | X ]

@hanayomemomo​​ asked:

“  you don’t get a choice this time.  i’m helping you.  ”

               “ Bold of you to assume that I’ll turn down yer assistance in the first place- ” He tips his head and gestures her forwards, blithely handing her the summer training schedules and personnel charts of the Gobantai, messy plans far from concrete, if they are even inked on paper. 

               “ You know these men and women far better than I do. ” A matter-of-fact remark, slanted gaze grazing upon the still pale features of his newly reinstated Lieutenant, thin lips quirked ever so slightly at the corners. He is far from familiar with her working style, just as he is also very much alien to her. Alien, to this fractured division that has been entrusted to him to lead, building from scratch all over again. 

          But still spirited, if only somewhat battered and bruised. Not bad. He stacks long, narrow hands on his haphazard, cluttered desk, seemingly unfazed and unbothered by the united hostility and wariness that have been directed upon him by the squad thus far, bristling with distrust and unsureness. He does not mind being the bad guy; a serene nonchalance after a century of convoluted misunderstandings and distorted fallacies. He looks at her not in challenge, but with subtle expression. 

          She, too, will have her own uphill battle to fight... 

               “ ...Thanks. Let me know if you also need help, I’ll also be here. ”

#||αѕкѕ #hanayomemomo #[ thanks for the ask! we always love interactions with momo!! =u= ] #[ also randomly setting this pre!Xcution arc or right after FKT!arc? ]

[animelga]

I saw a post on the Bleach subreddit which asked about which parts of the series people found most disappointing. And a lot of people there obviously said Chad, and I agree - But I want to be more specific. Chad in the Lost Agent arc is some of the most blatant missed potential I've ever seen.

I think its pretty easy to infer that each of Bleach's five arcs focuses on one of its five originally-introduced main characters. This is something my librarian-coded brain adores!! Our lineup, as introduced in Substitute Shinigami, is Ichigo, Rukia, Orihime, Chad and Uryu (Renji gets added to that group later, but ignore that for now). The first two are pretty obvious - Substitute Shinigami introduces us to Ichigo's character and his moral code, what he fights for, what potential he has. Rukia, or more specifically the Shinigami as a whole, are of course the focus of the Soul Society arc - even though she's trapped in a cell for lots of it, characters like Renji, Ganju and Byakuya specifically serve to explore the different sides of her character. Both her and Ichigo are of course important throughout Bleach in its entirety, but these two first arcs put them and their relationships with those close to them in the focus far more than atany point later in the series.

Arrancar arc and TYBW are pretty self-explanatorily Orihime and Uryu-focused, if arguably a bit misguided with TYBW in particular. Even though, again, Orihime spends most of Arrancar stuck in a cell, she shows tremendous growth and maturity, and the entire arc's theming of what it means to have a heart is centered entirely on her. And Uyru...well, Uryu is the center of the conflict in TYBW, despite it definitely feeling underwritten in the Manga. I think thats mainly a result of its rushed pacing by the back half though, and it seems to be getting resolved with the adaptation now. So I'll hold off on Uryu for now - his treatment is salvageable and if nothing else he's always gotten at least one golden moment to shine in all other arcs.

That only leaves Chad and Lost Agent - a perfect fit for one another, and something Kubo himself was pretty clearly going for at the start. Its Chad's disappearance that instigates the drama, he's there with Xcution to help Ichigo regain his powers, and the existence of Fullbring in general elegantly explains where Chad's powers came from in a way that's true to his character (the "pride in the color of my skin" line is still one of his best character moments imo). It is, effectively, an arc built entirely around answering the questions Chad himself asked about his powers back in the Arrancar arc.

And then...nothing. He explains his powers, helps Ichigo, he trains to get stronger in a video game, and...then falls under Tsukishima's mind powers and gets knocked unconscious. Only for the Soul Reapers to show up and do all the fighting again - even characters like Byakuya and Kenpachi, who clearly don't have any material for growth when pit against the Fullbringers, show up just to clean house. To me it reeks of Kubo deciding to include fan-favorite characters toward the end of the arc just to make people happier with it, since Lost Agent in general was so divisive. Though it was obviously earned for Rukia to return in order to give Ichigo his powers back, having everyone else also show up to do the work of other characters for them felt kind of like a slap in the face.

It feels so obvious in hindsight, but Chad and Tsukishima would have been a borderline perfect matchup for a fight to move the arc to a satisfying conclusion. Out of the entire core cast, Chad is the one who feels most motivated by his past to act - he remembers his Abuelo's words, he remembers his times in turmoil with Ichigo, he remembers just how hard he's had it in life and fights to make sure nobody else has to suffer like him. Pitting him against the character able to alter memories would've been a genuinely fantastic challenge of character, and would've made for the most satisfying Chad victory the series could've pulled. Even though Tsukishima isn't Bleach's strongest villain, he's certainly one of its scariest and most potentially dangerous, and Chad's entire personality and design is built around protecting others from such harm.

Instead, Kubo just kind of... procrastinated with Chad, always hinting at more to come, hoping maybe anotber matchup as good as Tsukishima would roll around eventually. Only for him to still gst nothing to do for all of TYBW, and his send-off being to fight some stone statues off-screen.

It's such a shame, imagining what could've been, and remembering just how damn cool Chad is when he actually gets to play with the cool kids.

#bleach #tite kubo #bleach tybw #tybw #bleach anime #bleach manga #chad yasutora #ichigo kurosaki #rukia kuchiki #uryu ishida #orihime inoue #death and the strawberry #mel alphabet soup

[hitsugaya-toushirou]

If I can ask, what reads do you dislike from the fandom? It's ok if you don't want to answer, I was just curious.

I'm so sorry anon this ended up being extremely disjointed and kind of stream of consciousness 😭

In general there's too many to count honestly, but in reference to that post I made 👇

It's umm. Very bewildering to me to act like Ichigo is depressed in the Fullbring arc because he's living a normal life, instead of that y'know... He's powerless? More powerless than he's ever been in his whole life even? He didn't just lose the powers he gained over the series and get reset to zero, it went beyond that and he even lost the ability to see ghosts, which he's probably had since he was born.

Not only did he have to grapple with that, he was kind of uhh isolated? From the spiritual stuff. Rukia never visited in a gigai (she has a job to do I get it lol). His dad never feels the need to explain ANYTHING to him, leaving him open to Ginjou's manipulation. Urahara obviously has not been keeping contact with him seeing how Ichigo was so suspicious of Karin at his shop. (Neither of them stopping Tsukishima from attacking his friends and family is a whole other can of worms.) Watching his friends go off and fight Hollows while he has to sit there unable to do a thing? It's lonely. It's depressing. That's why he fell prey to such a shady group like Xcution! He was desperate for even a shred of his former power!

And you have to remember that the first half of Bleach before the timeskip takes place over... 6 months-ish? Give or take. Ichigo was constantly fighting for his life, or his soul, or his friends lives, or the worlds. He never actually got to rest with just the security of having his powers in his life lol.

Ah, it's also very funny to me to think Ichigo would join the Gotei when he dies lol. Like that is just nooot a good choice for him to make. If he was smart it would play out like this:

Gotei 13: Omg Ichigo u finally died! We have a spot open just for u!! 🤗

Ichigo: ...I'm a substitute tho 😐

And then he goes and kicks it in Rukongai with all his homies. Like obviously he'll visit plenty to hang out and give them a hand with things, but he shouldn't enlist. Could you imagine?

Let's just put him in two canon situations.

"Ichigo we need you to go slaughter an entire race of people because they won't do as they're told, and are making our jobs harder. We are giving up on diplomacy and going full genocide babey! Men, women, helpless children and elderly and all!" or "Hey! Things are kinda out of wack Ichigo :/ Can you go slaughter a bunch of Rukongai citizens to level things out? About 28,000. Thankies 😚"

Even if it's for the so-called "greater good" do you think he would do it? Absolutely not.

Okay so now what? Is he committing treason by refusing? Is he getting jailed? Is he fighting all his friends now to stop them from killing innocent people? Is he throwing a coup?

Being a Shinigami is NOT just cleansing Hollows, and Ichigo would have a deep moral opposition to a lot of it.

Like there's a group that's straight up assassinating people, and everyone knows it lol. There are people jailed not because they have committed any crime, but because maybe they could be dangerous some day. Who even knows what fully constitutes as dangerous? There's people like Mayuri obviously, but who's to say someone who advocates for switching to a new system of government isn't considered dangerous? And all we've seen is likely just the tip of the iceberg.

And to say Ichigo would change it all... Ichigo changed the hearts of the upper echelon of the Gotei a little bit but guess what... They're not in charge!!! The Seireitei is an aristocracy-based militia. The Central 46 make the rules, the Central 46 dole out the punishments. These rich haughty people who only care about their own self-interest are not gonna listen to Ichigo, they're not gonna be changed by him. So now what? Are we back to a coup? Lmao

Also like. On top of all that, for the entire series besides the epilogue, Ichigo is a teenager lol. I doubt he even understands the full workings of Japanese politics, let alone the intricacies of a feudal ghost aristocracy, that he only stepped foot in for... less than a month? And he was fighting tooth and nail for a large chunk of that lmao.

An entire government is just not something you can change with a punch or sword strike (Well I guess technically you could with a lot of sword strikes, but that's a tooon of bloodshed and not a route Ichigo would go down). Also like. It's not Ichigo's responsibility!!! It should not be on the shoulders of a child to overturn the corrupt layout of a world he doesn't live in!!!

I don't know where to end this so, apologies for the tangent <3

#asks #anon #sanpost kenjuu

[blue-dream-rhapsody]

Questions of varying importance I’d ask if I had Klub Outside bc I feel like no one who does would want to (you’ll never guess the theme)

- Does Shishigawara work under Y. Hans Enterprises too? What industry does he work in?

- For that matter, Yukio’s company seems to be a conglomerate with multiple interests, including fashion, television broadcasting, and philanthropy. What other areas or industries does the company have a hand in? What are they known for most?

- Ginjo is someone who has taken lives by his own admission, yet he did not end up going to Hell. Was this because of Hell “acknowledging” his justification for doing so? Or does it have something to do with having Hollow in him from birth, meaning all his sins were done while he “was a Hollow” and then purified by Ichigo’s zanpakuto? Or is there another reason altogether? If he dies as a soul, will he go to Hell then for the strength of spirit energy he has now? Would he ever qualify for the usual cycle of souls after some time if he’s unwilling to enlist with the Court Guards?

- If the story behind Ginjo becoming a Shinigami is still a secret, what about his life before then? Did he have a family, and are they still alive now? Same for Tsukishima, did he have a family (other than his aforementioned Grandpa Rin), and how did he lose them before meeting Ginjo?

- Ginjo combined his Combat Pass with his Fullbring sword, and it changed form. What was the purpose of doing this before he started taking Ichigo’s power? Related, the Combat Pass seems to resemble parts of Ginjo’s powered-up appearance. Is this due to the Pass being integrated in with his ability? Or could this be because the Pass’s design was decided on at its creation, to reflect his power specifically, as he was the one it was made for?

- Was the name Xcution first used by the group we see active in the Lost Agent arc, or did it start with the group of Fullbringers before them?

- How did Shishigawara and Tsukishima meet? It’s funny to imagine a bookish Tsukishima being so admirable to a delinquent, but perhaps it’s because Tsukishima also has the rotten personality of a delinquent.

- What about the mansion in the woods Tsukishima uses as his base of operations? Was it already there, or did his Fullbring bring it into reality? If it was there before, does it have any significance from before being his base of operations?

- Did Ginjo’s zanpakuto, if that’s what’s seen in the flashback of him, get a shikai or bankai name? Did he always need to use the name when trying to draw out its power, or does Fullbring somehow let him circumvent that since it can draw on and manipulate souls?

- When Ginjo uses bankai, he takes on a form with heavy Hollow influence, and it seems like it’s not a normal bankai. It reminds me of the form Ichigo takes in the Horn of Salvation chapter, but is there a form we’ve seen in the series that actually matches Ginjo’s bankai most closely?

- Shishigawara is from Miyashita high school, and so are the delinquents who Ichigo and Uryu thrash in front of the school, and the boy who takes Ginjo’s bag in the first place. Were these other delinquents roped into a scheme because of their schoolmate Shishigawara’s involvement with Tsukishima? Or did they just happen to be from the same school and get drawn into the scheme separately?

- Was Tsukishima always going to end up a little twisted, or did he turn out that way because he met Ginjo?

- For that matter, Ginjo chastises him for having mentally broken several people before. Were these enemies of them specifically that Tsukishima had targeted for that reason, or was this ever just for his own amusement?

- Fullbring powers seem to develop to reflect something of the circumstances of the person, in their personality or their history. Is there significance to why Tsukishima’s Fullbring manifested as an ability to change the past? Or why it manifests with a sword shape when he is not one of the Fullbringers who was also a Shinigami?

#bleach #of course you may recognize some of these from my own posts #bc speculating is great but I want concrete answers god damn it #I do think I saw somebody had submitted a question about his power composition I think it was #so I left that out but I’d take even something conclusive on that #I need more pushpins for my pepe silvia board ok these threads are NOT secured down!!

[ao3feed-ichiruki]

Bloodletting

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/OSgC2G8

by Haebaru

It’s been seventeen months since the battle with Aizen left Ichigo powerless and Rukia suffering in silence. Rukia has been experiencing symptoms of the same illness that led to her sister's death. All the while being plagued by dreams of a past life with Hisana and a mysterious man that calls himself their Master. Confiding only in Ukitake and Byakuya, Rukia returns to the world of the living to see if Urahara can cure her, and if not, she will leave her heart behind with the man she believes in most.

Encouraged by Rukia’s return, Ichigo is training harder than ever with Xcution to regain his powers so he can protect the ones he loves. Defending the one he loves most will prove to be more difficult than he can imagine when she chooses to keep him in the dark about the threats she is facing. It may be too late to save her own life, but Rukia is determined to save her sister's soul.

Words: 3943, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Bleach (Anime & Manga)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, Multi

Characters: Kuchiki Rukia, Kurosaki Ichigo, Kuchiki Hisana, Kuchiki Byakuya, Ukitake Juushirou, Urahara Kisuke, Inoue Orihime

Relationships: Kuchiki Rukia/Kurosaki Ichigo

Additional Tags: Xcution (Bleach), Sick Character, BAMF Kuchiki Rukia, Minor Kuchiki Byakuya/Kuchiki Hisana, My version of hell arc, Angst, Ichiruki, Rukia-centric, controlling dynamic, Unhealthy Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, Cannon typical setting but.., Demon AU, Slightly morally ambiguous rukia, Slow-ish burn

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/OSgC2G8

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #ichiruki

[troius]

I am genuinely asking this cause this is a plot point I've been stuck on: how would you write Ichigo getting his powers back? The Shinigami ex Machina twist felt like bland fan service but I don't know how else it should go.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I've been thinking about this a lot, and I don't really think it's too hard! It's kinda sad, because all the heavy lifting has actually already been done-- we have four whole volumes of set-up. We've established:

Ichigo was depressed because he was powerless. This provided an in for a gang of con artists to sucker him in with the promise of making him feel better about himself. The lesson he has to learn here is his own self-worth absent his powers (which thematically will result in him getting his powers back).

Ichigo and his friends completely fail to communicate with each other throughout the arc, thinking that keeping things secret will keep their friends safe, only for it all to blow up in their face. The conclusion therefore must also involve these idiots finally talking to each other.

How I, were I Kubo's editor and yet completely immune to the commercial pressures of Shonen Jump, would do this after the cut:

We're going to start our divergence when Ginjo and Ichigo arrive at Tsukishima's mansion, with maybe a slight change to establish this thing earlier in the story because it sort of came out of nowhere. But rather than bring in Ichigo's nonpowered friends and family for a second round of trauma, I'd suggest keeping it tight on Ichigo's desire to kill Tsukishima. This is what he thinks will solve his problem. He fights his way shockingly easily through the other members of Xcution (it's almost like they're not really trying...) before getting to Tsukishima.

And naturally, Orihime and Chad intervene. But instead of being strangely stoic about it all, they're acting like you would expect people to act if one of their best friends was trying to kill the other. Orihime is full-on crying as she heals and shields Tsukishima. Chad is screaming to Ichigo about how this isn't what Ichigo used to take pride in. And most importantly, they're actually trying to restrain him and stop the fight instead of just passively protecting Tsukishima when attacks happen. As the fight spills outside, Ichigo can't win the fight without hurting them.

And so finally, finally, Ichigo resorts to dialogue. He tries to talk them out of it. And Chad and Orihime, who still have all of their memories of Ichigo even if Tsukishima is weirdly in some of them, listen. They're not going to harm him either. Ichigo, breaking down, apologizes for failing to protect them. Orihime and Chad tell him he doesn't need to apologize for anything, that they're fine. Even Ginjo and Xcution stop fighting each other. It's all very sweet. And that's when Uryu shows up and seemingly ruins everything.

He drops out of seemingly thin air with a massive licht regen that completely demolishes where Ginjo and Tsukishima are standing. Ichigo, Orihime, and Chad are astonished, verging on furious. But Uryu responds that those two are the ones who attacked him. The dust clears, and rather than being dead by Quincy powers, the two of them and the rest of Xcution get the drop on the Karakura kids. Uryu, Chad, and Orihime are all quickly taken down, and Ginjo takes Ichigo's fullbring.

Ginjo and Tsukishima do their villainous exposition. Ichigo has his full-on breakdown. But his friends are there too, and share in his pain. Uryu tells Ichigo that he's arrogant for assuming its his job to protect them. Chad points out that all their instincts to protect worked disastrously as they concealed the truth from one another. Orihime says that what matters here is that he, and everybody here, aren't hurt. Rukia calls him an idiot.

OH SHOOT, RUKIA'S HERE. She says that the four of them really made a mess of things, but that Isshin sent a message to her through Urahara that something was wrong. Ichigo says that she didn't think she cared, as she hasn't been in his life for 18 months. Renji (who is also here) points out to Ichigo that she is an immortal soul with a job, and that if he wanted to see them he should have asked! And then Rukia points out that it won't be a problem going forward, as Ichigo can see them now.

Because Ichigo has his powers back! No magic sword necessary-- we already established when he was training with Ginjo that his powers were coming back. Rukia gives the above spiel about how Ginjo couldn't steal them, and then informs him that she and Renji are taking him in. Xcution naturally does not take kindly to this. Our six hearts each pair off with a Fullbringer (Orihime did some healing during all this), and if people ask for it I'll do a second post about how I'd pair those fights off.

But I'll leave it at this for now. That's how I would thematically tie off the arc.

#bleach #ask troius #this might be my longest post on this blog lol #hope it satisfies

[midnightactual]

The Background Game of Bleach

four things that have bothered me for a long time are:

why are Yoruichi and Tessai so deferential to Kisuke when they were arguably his superiors in the Gotei 13 by being Sōshireikan and senior and recommending Taichō, and Sōsui respectively? they were peers of Yamamoto so why are they following orders from this newbie Taichō who didn’t even get a decade of service in that role?

why are the adults of Karakura so disconnected from one another? Yoruichi, the Shōten, the Vizard, Isshin, and Ryūken do not really engage that much with each other. this is true of every group in the series (the Karakura kids, Gotei 13, Espada, and Sternritter all lack internal cohesion and the interactions of the adults broadly mimics those of the kids; we’re told they’re friends but they really don’t act like it) but why when they had every reason to band together?

why do Isshin and Ryūken seemingly not really stress to Kisuke the coming of Wandenreich given Yhwach killed their wives and why does the latter not appear to have any plans in place despite years of ample evidence that Yhwach would indeed return?

why does Kisuke more generally appear to have no interest in the Quincy unless forced to? why does Mayuri not care even the tiniest bit about the Hōgyoku?

and it’s occurred to me that there is one explanation that makes perfect sense out of all four of these things

okay so Yoruichi and Tessai represent 2/3 of the Seireitei’s equivalents of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and they wind up in possession of six Taichō (Kisuke, Shinji, Love, Rose, Kensei, Hachigen) with a seventh later joining (Isshin) and ultimately four more equivalents (Lisa, Mashiro, Hiyori, and Ryūken). do the math: that is 13 Captain-equivalents. they basically had their whole own Gotei 13 just in Karakura.

so why do Yoruichi and Tessai take the biggest backseat roles? Yoruichi has personal reasons and it seems to me that Tessai becoming Kisuke’s majordomo is a response to that but there is still the mission to consider: they know at a minimum that they have to bring down Aizen

you know what the weirdest thing about the Soul Society arc is in retrospect? it’s not an invasion. why weren’t the Vizard tagged in? they all have very personal reasons to go. why isn’t Isshin tagged in? he’s still recovering but he’s not even approached. why isn’t Ryūken tagged in? Aizen’s plan entails the destruction of his hospital, staff, patients, son, and himself and Ryūken is many things but suicidal by apathy isn’t one of them. he wasn’t asked

why? why not send in everyone with everything they’ve got? they could’ve pinned the Gotei 13 down and gotten Rukia out in an hour and maybe even have iced Aizen in the process (remember: Ryūken would be super-strong in Soul Society and for sure had never seen Kyōka Suigetsu)

it’s not realistic to say this couldn’t have happened. Yoruichi and Tessai had the seniority to talk no jutsu everyone else and they had mostly a century to do it. they could have built their own Gotei 13 in exile and even gone so far as to straight-up steal a bunch of asauchi and make their own personally-trained Shinigami too. no interest at all in that. why?

it’s because that would have confirmed Central 46′s likely story to themselves about what happened in TBTP: a coup d’etat launched by Yoruichi. why would that be a bad thing? because after Aizen was Wandenreich and a de facto Shinigami civil war would have left them all ill-prepared to fight the Quincy

what was necessary was a light and “cheap” footprint that kept as many Shinigami alive and intact as possible so as many resources and abilities would be on the table to confront Wandenreich as possible. this meant sending in a small force (the Ryoka) to get Rukia and limiting their mission parameters. and this had two really notable effects:

Shinigami casualties were ultimately kept to an absolute minimum

new powers were developed or added (Ichigo, Chad, Uryū, Orihime, and later Grimmjow, Nelliel, and Xcution) to the existing pool of combatants

really think about it! even by the end of the Aizen Saga, there are only three notable Shinigami casualties: Gin, Kaname, and Jirōbō Ikkanzaka. Aizen killed two of those three. and Aizen himself was retained as a tremendously useful military asset!

the “light and cheap” approach worked and it preserved and developed Shinigami forces sufficiently that they beat Wandenreich by the skin of their teeth despite the catastrophic error of losing the Soul King to Yhwach. they won against “unknown unknowns” through...

means

and who is the master of means and the guy who is forever associated with doing things on the cheap and cultivating talent where he sees it?

Urahara Kisuke

Kisuke’s whole ethos is using a light touch and not heavy metal, steering things and using resources as and when available. he’s got no interest in Quincy because he knows Mayuri already has that covered. (and likewise Mayuri’s got no interest in the Hōgyoku because he knows that’s already covered.) it’s specialization. he’s fantastic at it. and the thing about decentralized specialization is it means there is no central command to take out (as happened with both Central 46 and Yamamoto)

it was a light, flexible, highly survivable plan to win two wars, not just one, and it worked pretty damn well all told

so why is Yoruichi a gofer and Tessai a butler? because they knew their talents were not suited for what the mission demanded happen and that they ought to take on support roles rather than continue as high command, which they also conveniently both seem to have been very tired of and all-too-happy to relinquish

#Out Of Character #Bleach #Meta #[ arguably the most dangerous wildcard ] #[ in the whole series ] #[ was Uryū ] #[ his training wasn't overseen ] #[ he almost killed Mayuri ] #[ who would turn out to be rather important ] #[ and then he did the whole lone wolf act with Wandenreich ] #[ he routinely almost wrecked the plan ]

[fostersffff]

The questions at the forefront of my mind as I finish out the Fullbringer Arc: which group will be the bigger jobbers, XCUTION or One Piece's New Fish-Man Pirates

#despite everything my money is actually on XCUTION #like the New Fish-Man Pirates at least posed a kind of existential threat to *a* society #these six losers are surrounded by THE BADDEST DUDES IN THE GOTEI 13 (and Renji)

[obsidiennes]

Tatsuki has Associated Akuma References

So, Tatsuki has always been a bit... extreme... as her relationship advice to Orihime in chapter 4 tells us:

But it goes even further than that. She's a fighting game boss. Specifically, she has several references to Akuma (Gouki) from Street Fighter II Turbo and beyond.

This becomes apparent starting in chapter 15:

Akuma is known for his use of the Satsui no Hado, or Surge of Killing Intent. That is exactly what Tatsuki puts on display here. She then mimics one of one of Akuma's most famous poses:

It's notable that in the Viz translation, Keigo and Mizuiro's thoughts instead class her as a devil. The specific character used in the original Japanese is 鬼. Akuma's original name of Gouki is 豪鬼, which as you can see uses that exact same 鬼. These remarks are reaffirmed by the school principle, and you can see he uses the same character:

Much later, in chapter 411, this will be returned to by Don Kanonji, who in Japanese uses the same 鬼 as well:

Back in chapter 42, while defending Orihime, we get Tatsuki giving boss dialogue:

In Japanese, while laughing maniacally she specifically says, もラと強いの出てこいやア, which means something to the effect of "Please send me a strong one." This is not unlike a lot of Akuma's quotes, especially: "Weaklings! Is there no one worth fighting?"

What is especially interesting is that Akuma came into existence at least in part because of a hoax of a character named Sheng Long. You might know that name from Dragon Ball, and Shenlong is a mythical Chinese dragon. This is pertinent as the "tatsu" part of Tatsuki's name, 竜, specifically means "Chinese dragon", and is often rendered "ryū". While there is obviously also a character of that name, Ryu, who is also an enemy of Akuma and also struggles with the Satsui no Hado in the form of Evil Ryu, Tatsuki's continued association with the "devil" and her other symbolic linkages with dragons make Akuma the more appropriate connection, in my opinion. (This is doubly amusing as she physically resembles Sakura.)

What is most interesting about this connection though, is her mention of Tekken in chapter 424:

This is one of the only named product references in Bleach, if not the only one. But it gets stranger.

We know for a fact that the Xcution/Lost Agent arc is happening in April of 2003. Tekken 4 was released on PS2 in Japan on March 28, 2002. Tekken 5 would not be released until March 31, 2005. Although there is apparently an error in the translation here (it's more like, "The next one's coming out, so if you don't return it soon, I'll have a problem"), there is no actual conceivable reason for her to need it back as the next game wouldn't come out for almost two years.

Maybe this is just another error by Kubo. However, there's another possibility.

This chapter came out on November 8, 2010, after a brief hiatus following the end of the Aizen Saga. Earlier that year, on July 24, Tekken X Street Fighter and Street Fighter X Tekken were announced. And who has continued to appear in Tekken since then (most recently in Tekken 7) and refused to stay in his own universe?

Akuma.

I submit to you that Tatsuki's mention of Tekken, so soon after the real life announcement of a Tekken and Street Fighter crossover, yet so far from the release of a Tekken game in the manga's internal chronology, is a fourth wall-breaking reference to real life events made to draw attention to the jokes associating Tatsuki with Akuma, and not supposed to make us think the Tekken series had a completely different development and release schedule in Bleach's reality.

You are supposed to think of Tatsuki as a fighting game boss. And of course you are, as chapter 68 told us:

The imagined version of her opponent has a similar hairstyle to Karin, rival of Sakura, but a much more monstrous physique. That Tatsuki can compete at all, or do any of this at a meager official weight of 41 kg and such a thin build, let alone a broken arm, comes back to her implicit Satsui no Hado. This then goes a long way toward explaining her durability, as I've covered before.

While you can assuredly plainly see that she is something of a compilation of Street Fighter references, I think that Akuma is the strongest of these for the reasons I've laid out. (Another way of saying this might be that she looks like Sakura, and dresses like Ryu, but is truly most like Akuma.)

#Out Of Character #Bleach #Tatsuki Arisawa #Meta: TATSUKI

[yahoo201027]

November 15: Happy Birthday to the first and former Substitute Soul Reaper (or Shinigami), member and leader of the organization known as Xcution, one of the Fullbringers during the Fullbringer Arc after the 17-month time skip, and one of the antagonist of the said arc, the Bleach character of Ginjo Kugo.

#Bleach #Ginjo Kugo #Anime and Manga #Fictional Characters #Fandom Birthday #November 15 Birthdays