New Banner and a word on Kubo's "different" final arc

[http://users.livejournal.com/_debbiechan_/]

Hold on, hold on! I know some of you will haaate the banner, because well, either you dislike Yuki and are wondering what he has to do with Bleach or you just don’t like the gloomy look of the graphic, but hear me out. I chose the banner. I love the banner. I entrusted yorleni and her wonderful talent to make this banner, and for me ---ahhh-- *kisses fingers*---the foreboding final arc of Bleach is all here. Ichigo, the mentor but his face in shadow and half-hollowed, and the new generation (yeah, that kid upon whose appearance audiences groaned “not ANOTHER new character) is wide-eyed and vulnerable. I’m scared—aren’t you? If the last arc was all emo Ichi (last banner ) then this one is the final bloodbath….

Any time now with that invasion of SS, Sensei. You promised a Seireitei in ruins and judging from the last stupid bleachness poll, many are on to your teasing ways and there are claims of Battered Reader Syndrome.

The readers literally want BLOOD.

But will they get it? The bloodbath, mean. This is the last arc and anything can happen, right?

Not really. This is a formula genre we’re in, and we’re talking Bleach—a manga whose style we’ve grown familiar with over 10 years now. I’d say it’s fair to expect SOME death but not too much—this is Kubo and it hurts him as much to kill off a character with real finality as it does to say no to a cupcake. As final as they were, Gin’s death, Ginjou’s death, even Sasakibe’s weren’t shockers. We’re past the days when Sensei can fool audiences into believing Rukia is lying dead in the ice…or are we? Maybe not if fandom was so quick to buy Ukitake as the final villain.

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