Some thoughts on last week's Bleach

[effervescible]

Betcha thought I was gonna join the HP reaction post crowd, huh? Well, I am, though y'all have covered it better than I can. But first, some thoughts on our Grimmy.

So I'm glad KT FINALLY explained a bit more about the hierarchy of hollows and arrancar, because I could never wrap my mind around it until now. It's not just stratified ranks of power; it's like hollow evolution. Gillian to adjucha to vastolord, though as with bankai, it's not an inevitable progression but something that requires the strength to be worked toward.

So basically...they're pokemon.

Especially interesting is the notion that adjucha and above must keep consuming souls or other hollows in order to keep from devolving. For those that crave the power, that adds a layer of fear, since if they lose it, it can't be regained. It makes me re-consider Grimmjow's attitude toward Ichigo as an enemy, and what he represents. No solid new conclusions yet, but it does add a new perspective.

Speaking of Grimmjow, I found his words to Ichigo before/during their fight to be rather interesting. I don't think they can be taken as gospel truth; yeah, Grimmjow says Ichigo is there to fight him, not to save Orihime, but that is a bit of bullshit. I do not for a second think that Ichigo's reaction to her kidnapping was "Oh, goodie! Now I can go to Hueco Mundo and fight that guy!" He's there to save Orihime. But the best villains do speak some degree of truth, and I do think Ichigo is getting a certain amount of satisfaction from this fight. Grimmjow nearly killed Rukia himself--twice. He led the attack on Karakura that got Ichigo's friends hurt. And while he's not the one who kidnapped Orihime, he's the closest representative of the group that did. That's three good reasons to have a personal stake in the fight.

For the record, I don't think Grimmjow is going to win, but I don't think he's going to die, either.

As for Orihime, I've kept my head down and not been involved in any 'shipping shenanigans (sigh, that sounds so twee) but I will say that I don't really get the outrage at her comment about (basically) being freaked out because she can't see herself reflected in Ichigo's hollow-y eyes. To me, that read as a statement on his apparent reduced humanity when he's in that form, not a commentary on how Orihime thinks it's all about her.

I do kinda love that Nell was bitching her out to be supportive. Not because I have anything against Orihime; I just think Nell bitching people out is really cute.

Anyway, as cool as this fight is gonna be in future re-reads, it is starting to drag, and it is well past time we catch up with Rukia, not to mention poor forgotten Chad, whose loss was overshadowed in a big way by the appearance of Kaiencar. I'm also tired of watching Orihime be the one who gets kicked around or stands on the sidelines supportively, so hopefully she'll get to do something soon.

Comments

[utenatai.livejournal.com]

I think she's gonna refuse to go back with them. Not in the "hey I'm kinda comfy here" way that Rukia stayed in SS, but in an "I agreed to come and I don't wanna be the cause of all this and hey I've got something I wanna do here anyway" kind of way long before our crew even has a chance to get to the higher ups.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

That'd actually be a really nice parallel to the SS arc, and is entirely possible, but man, there's no way the gang would accept it the way they did with Rukia. So even if it happens, there are still gonna be Shenanigans. I do think she's got something in mind she wants to do--she seemed pretty certain of it in that one chapter, uh, whenever it was. I wonder if any of the group will try and help her get it done or if they'll all be like BITCH NO, WE GOTS TO GO.

[utenatai.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. I agree with you that Ichigo would never accept it, and probably Chad wouldn't. I think Rukia would be resistant, but I think that's also mostly because of her own guilt about Hime being captured when Rukia was supposed to be looking after her.

I do think it is possible, however, that in the right circumstances, Ishida would respect her decision if she told them to go and leave her, at least for the time being. And if Ishida put his foot down, he might bully the others into it.

Whether they end up listening or not is kinda up in the air, but it seeems really possible to me that Hime will initially refuse to leave.

[kane-shi-megami.livejournal.com]

Yeah I really don't see Grimmy going anywhere simply because who doesn't love his character? I can see Tite taking him further, despite the flashback, because we all know flashback into the character's past always means death of a character -_- or at least in Naruto world.

I didn't like how Orihime was freaking out either. It annoyed me really how she was being more of a distraction than helpful.

Nell is win <3

[jaina.livejournal.com]

KT has such trouble killing characters, but I feel like Grimmjow could still have a lot more interesting impact on the plot.

I just want her to DO SOMETHING. At the moment, leaving would be a bad idea, yeah, cuz she'd get recaptured again really fast. At least if she waits out this fight, she has a chance to run to save Rukia and Chad or whatever with Ichigo as a bodyguard. But afterward, yeah, time to get active, `hime. I cut her some slack because this is such a hard situation and she's made some bad decisions and I don't think she's being presented as being perfect--but...JUST DO SOMETHING K.

[kane-shi-megami.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of glad about KT's hesitance in this case. Grimmy COULD do so much more. I know what you mean about Ori sometimes I shout at my computer "MOVE! and don't you dare say KUROSAKI-KUN AGAIN!" -_- I get weird looks sometimes.