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solitariusdeluna · 4 years

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

Spoiler alert: he’s completely deserving.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Point#1 Let’s talk reiatsu:

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

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

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

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

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

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

moving on.

Point#2 Starrk’s battles:

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

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

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

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

Let’s take a quick detour though:

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

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

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

detour over.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speaking of those awesome bomber wolves;

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

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

BUT CONVERSELY;

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

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

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

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

...stab starrk in the back.

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

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

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

Tut tut, kyoraku.

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

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

Shunsui won. But he won dirty.

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

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

#PROTECTSTARRK2020

#i dunno what to tag this as #hcs;#or maybe #Facts;#cut for length tbh #and it is long #also that spoiler alert first sentence is thanks to elxfi uvu and i stole it #because it is so true #omg this took me 2 days to write #wow #a whooping 3168 word count #but it's finally done!!

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loves-diary · 7 years

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I don't think it was right for the anon on your other blog to be so flippant but I do know how they feel. :( I'm a new fan from p101 and sometimes I don't feel very welcomed. I was one of the ones worried during the salt debacle and I felt kind of dismissed and a little hurt that my worry was likened to overreacting and babying minhyun. :/ the old blogs already seem intimidating bc of how close you all seem to be. to me it feels very exclusive. +

+ i respect how much you’ve helped the fandom but in my view it seems like the fan accounts and other new support from new fans may be encroaching on your domain which i understand would frustrate you if you’ve gotten used to not having that many new people doing the same thing. I just wish all this intrafandom fighting weren’t happening. the boys wouldn’t like this at all.

I agree, our boys wouldn’t like this at all.

I personally don’t recall ever trying to make my blog exclusive. My circle of LOVE friends have also been very open to new LOVEs and we��ve been trying to convert people to LOVEs since we joined the fandom. We don’t feel that our space is being encroached upon in the slightest, and I have to wonder if some of the new fans are projecting their own feelings onto us because we certainly aren’t worried about that. The only worries I’ve seen from old LOVEs is trying to adjust to our fandom having so extremely shifted. We’re in a huge adjusting period at the moment because our fandom has changed quite drastically in a very short amount of time and no one could really prepare for it. There’s also new fans who probably will not stick around and so nothing will feel very stable for a while until things begin to settle and we find out who is here for the long haul and who isn’t.

The issue with the salt allergy is that there was 1 or 2 accounts on twitter who immediately blew Minhyun’s allergy out of proportion and spread panic (because these twitter accounts have amassed a very large following very quickly and they are new fans) very quickly. A few of my friends tried to explain to them that Minhyun’s allergy isn’t serious and that he’ll be okay, but they immediately shot back accusing us of trying to pick fights with them and then started making up information and pulling “receipts” from random Korean twitter accounts who are also new fans that don’t know what they’re talking about (It’s rather amazing how people will believe anything if a Kfan says it as though they aren’t capable of lying or being misinformed themselves). The main issue here is that when corrected, they got defensive and refused to listen to us. This has happened several times now (and usually with the same account and their massive follower list) and it’s getting to the point that many older fans and older accounts are growing exhausted trying to keep the misinformation from spreading. It’s not about feeling like our space is being encroached, it’s about how when we try to help explain or clarify things we are immediately vilified. And honestly, just the other day my circle of LOVEs were talking about how wonderful it is to see so many new NU’EST blogs being active in the tag and what a good job they were doing!

Us old blogs being close shouldn’t make you feel like we’re exclusive. We’re close because we have history together (and as I said on my personal blog, there were only a handful of us, so naturally we all know each other) and the only way for new fans to become a part of that circle is to 1. approach us, 2. respect us and listen to us when we approach you guys! Old LOVEs have been trying to approach new LOVEs with information and guidance and we are constantly met with: “Why are you guys telling us how to behave!?” We… aren’t telling you how to behave we’re telling you that you’re a little misguided and here’s some context so you know the truth now!

Honestly, the only ones claiming that there’s any fandom hierarchy here are the new fans who get upset when they’re corrected or asked to be careful about how they spread information. We’re only trying to make our fandom more productive and a safe environment for our 5 boys (as in the past we have had delusional accounts that have caused the fandom to be torn apart, it put the boys’ reputations in danger, and ultimately helped lead to the fandom becoming so small and divided in the first place) and all those involved.

#nu'est #ask lully #Anonymous

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cortexinthevortex · 7 years

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i love the way that some peoples who were outrage at the death of lexa are now not outraged at Bill's death in Dr Who. regardless of whether its youre favourite show or not, this is the bury your gays trope at its finest

2. i’m not hating, but i just dont get how its acceptabls that bill’s dead

3. also i get that she’s not died yet, but zhes as almost as good as

btw I get pretty salty at the end about the ‘outrage at lexa’. I don’t hate you personally anon, I hate that a lot of people on tumblr use that argument.

I totally get what your saying, but I would argue that it isn’t actually bury your gays in a way? Unlike other shows, Doctor Who has damn good representation of LGB (if not T yet character-wise as Cassandra is dodgy representation at best) characters and Bill is the first character to be killed off, and, if we go by Moffat’s track record, is more than likely to do an incredibly complicated thing and she survives. Is she dead? Quite possibly. We simply do not knowHowever, I would hold back on the pitchforks and mob mindset until the last episode is aired. In addition- and this is the main reason why I don’t regard it to be bury your gays- there are plenty of gay characters that haven’t died. Clara is immortal, to die at the time of her chosing. River- another bisexual- lived a full life on Darillium, and has a conscious afterlife in the library. Jenny and Vastra live in domestic bliss fighting Victorian criminals and alien invasions (another example, I might add, of gays that died and then survived). Going back even further, Captain Jack (pansexual?) lives for centuries as the Face of Boe; Alonso saves the Titanic and is given a happy conclusion with his arch by meeting Jack in a bar. Yes Bill may die, and yes it may suck as she is both poc and lesbian representation, but this is not bury your gays. This is instead an example of a show- regardless of it being my favourite or not- that has a plethora of LGB characters. One would die sooner or later and she is not our only representation on the show- this is a true example of a character who is gay that legitimately dies for plot. How else would the viewer be given the dramatic irony of discovering the Mondasian cybermen? Sure, they could have sent Nardole, but he’s such a buffoon-ish pathetic annoying character that the general audience would have been praying for him to die within five minutes. He operates as comic relief, no more. Missy could not have worked either. It would have negated the reveal of John Simm, and she is far too clever to have been taken in by his disguise. The confrontation scene then also wouldn’t have happened. If the Doctor had been sent down there, then we wouldn’t have had the explanation- although, I suppose, Missy could have done it (but not to the same effect as the Doctor) and it would have made no logical sense within the story, as within seconds of being shot the Doctor would have regenerated and his body is not technically compatible with the upgrades to humans that the cybermen were parcelling out (here, I assume the cybermen do not have knowledge of the Doctor, as they are being created on an isolated ship and have had no contact with the neural pathways that the other cybermen not on the ship are on; therefore they have no knowledge of their history with the doctor, unless, of course, the Master informs them of it) and, as they do not seem intent on converting him into the Cyber Controller as Cybus industries did, presumably do not have the technology prepared to turn him into a cyberman anyway.

TL;DR: Essentially, what I am saying here is: put it into perspective. Bill is another in a long line of LGB representation that has been improving over years of Doctor Who. Bill explicitly dies for plot (if she even is dead) as nobody can fulfill the role she did in the episode like she does. This is not bury your gays.

Just a final point: it irks me when people attack those that shipped clexa for not giving support to the uproar that follows every single lesbian on tv dying. I was one of those people who sent emails and helped in every way that, as a minor, I could- I wrote an article for a media magazine that got published, I helped with the twitter trends etc etc. Where are the clexas? we are fucking tired. We amassed a large amount of support and awareness for the bury your gays trope. Far more talented people than me organised Clexacon, where people gathered, and discussed the trope, including actresses portraying lesbian characters and high profile directors and writers. That’s where many of the clexas fucking are. The others? A lot of us are teens. Not all of us watch Doctor Who and will not be aware of what’s happening. Some of us are so emotionally exhausted by the whole thing that we simply do not have the energy to build momentum and run a campaign like that again. Whatever the reason, we had enough outrage and anger to fuel that movement, and then that anger burnt out and the clexa fandom has, for the most part, ceased to exist. Stop screaming about where we are when these things happen. The 100 was a teens show, and a vast majority of us were minors. Stop going after them like a fucking mob whenever a lesbian dies.

#anyway i hope that clears up my pov #it seems the pitchforks are out on this hellsite already for moffat #everyday i pray that people on this site will use some logic instead of their emotions #every day I am disappointed #dw spoilers #anon

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