Yeah, I understand that Orihime, having seen her friends get hurt trying to rescue her (she felt Chad's and Rukia's reiatsu drop, she saw Ichigo's mask when he fought Grimmjow like an animal which reminded her of hollow!Sora, and now this is the second time she's seen Ichi with a hole in his chest, and Ulquiorra taunted her about it after he did it), was at a breaking point.
And it does make me feel some sympathy for her. Really, I like to think I'm not heartless.
But if you put this into context, you can clearly see that Kubo is portraying FAILURE, not just a little mistake or a "knight saves the damsel in distress." Because it is a shounen, difficulty generally exists to be overcome. Limits exist to be broken.
You must realise that no other character has taken this long to deal with an inner struggle. Sure, Ichigo has been struggling with his inner hollow for a long time, but he wasn't always on the losing side.
No, Orihime hasn't been able to really put up a fight since that time she protected Tatsuki when she first gained her powers. In the SS arc, she said she had been useless. When she tried to stand up to Yammy, she failed. Not only that, when he's in a position where he can't protect her, she jumps in without a plan, even when he yells at her to stay away. When she saw Ichigo fighting Grimmjow, she didn't even try to help him fight, and furthermore... She was actually scared of her own friend. When he was fighting Ulquiorra, she hesitated to even shield him.
Which is funny because every other member of the nakama, every notable shinigami, every vizard, every arrancar.... They don't do like this. Even Hacchi will get up and fight if need be, without hesitation. Chad will go through anything to protect his friends, especially Ichigo. Ishida, though he had trouble in HM too, put everything on the line against Ulquiorra, without any hesitation, even though he did little more than buy some time. Even poor little Hanataro stood up to Byakuya just to buy some time.
But Orihime is always saying to herself: I don't want to rely on him, I don't want to get in the way, I want to fight alongside all of my friends.
Why then, when it comes down to it, does she hesitate, doubt herself, and give up? Just because you fail once, you don't have the right to stop trying. Not when lives are on the line, anyway. Just because you're afraid, that doesn't give you the right to hesitate, even for a second. That second could be the difference between life and death for your friend.
She has the potential to help out in battle, to be a fighter.
The point I want to make is simply this: She's not pathetic. So why do you people try to pass her off as a pathetic person? Because when you try to use things like "she's just not a fighter" or "her heart was broken" or "she's just 15" or "she didn't have a means of helping" or "she couldn't be expected to know what to do in this situation" or whatever else as an excuse to justify her scream to his corpse for help, that's what you're doing.
It's true that she probably wouldn't have been able to do much better than Ishida even if she tried, in this situation. But that DOESN'T give her the excuse to not try. Not when her friends need her. Not when their lives are at stake. Not when one of her friends just died trying to protect her.
Not when EVERYONE ELSE is making sacrifices, putting everything on the line.
PS. It's true that this is basically a paraphrased version of Kylara's (Karenai on here) views. I read her essay on this and I agree 100%.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-01-09 08:58 am (UTC)Yeah, I understand that Orihime, having seen her friends get hurt trying to rescue her (she felt Chad's and Rukia's reiatsu drop, she saw Ichigo's mask when he fought Grimmjow like an animal which reminded her of hollow!Sora, and now this is the second time she's seen Ichi with a hole in his chest, and Ulquiorra taunted her about it after he did it), was at a breaking point.
And it does make me feel some sympathy for her. Really, I like to think I'm not heartless.
But if you put this into context, you can clearly see that Kubo is portraying FAILURE, not just a little mistake or a "knight saves the damsel in distress." Because it is a shounen, difficulty generally exists to be overcome. Limits exist to be broken.
You must realise that no other character has taken this long to deal with an inner struggle. Sure, Ichigo has been struggling with his inner hollow for a long time, but he wasn't always on the losing side.
No, Orihime hasn't been able to really put up a fight since that time she protected Tatsuki when she first gained her powers. In the SS arc, she said she had been useless. When she tried to stand up to Yammy, she failed. Not only that, when he's in a position where he can't protect her, she jumps in without a plan, even when he yells at her to stay away. When she saw Ichigo fighting Grimmjow, she didn't even try to help him fight, and furthermore... She was actually scared of her own friend. When he was fighting Ulquiorra, she hesitated to even shield him.
Which is funny because every other member of the nakama, every notable shinigami, every vizard, every arrancar.... They don't do like this. Even Hacchi will get up and fight if need be, without hesitation. Chad will go through anything to protect his friends, especially Ichigo. Ishida, though he had trouble in HM too, put everything on the line against Ulquiorra, without any hesitation, even though he did little more than buy some time. Even poor little Hanataro stood up to Byakuya just to buy some time.
But Orihime is always saying to herself: I don't want to rely on him, I don't want to get in the way, I want to fight alongside all of my friends.
Why then, when it comes down to it, does she hesitate, doubt herself, and give up? Just because you fail once, you don't have the right to stop trying. Not when lives are on the line, anyway. Just because you're afraid, that doesn't give you the right to hesitate, even for a second. That second could be the difference between life and death for your friend.
She has the potential to help out in battle, to be a fighter.
The point I want to make is simply this: She's not pathetic. So why do you people try to pass her off as a pathetic person? Because when you try to use things like "she's just not a fighter" or "her heart was broken" or "she's just 15" or "she didn't have a means of helping" or "she couldn't be expected to know what to do in this situation" or whatever else as an excuse to justify her scream to his corpse for help, that's what you're doing.
It's true that she probably wouldn't have been able to do much better than Ishida even if she tried, in this situation. But that DOESN'T give her the excuse to not try. Not when her friends need her. Not when their lives are at stake. Not when one of her friends just died trying to protect her.
Not when EVERYONE ELSE is making sacrifices, putting everything on the line.
PS. It's true that this is basically a paraphrased version of Kylara's (Karenai on here) views. I read her essay on this and I agree 100%.