Croutons and Speculations

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

I'm trying to be patient. I've figured out that while Kubo-sensei said that this arc would be over in June of this year, he couldn't possibly mean the ENTIRE Hueco Mundo arc but only the current goings-on in FKT . Sensei promised on Jump!Bang television that the bodies in Szayel's lab would play an important role in the plot, and I'm presuming Mayuri's loot wagon figures here, and we still have unresolved issues in HM--a battle between Yammy and the captains, Orihime's character crisis, etc. There's simply not enough time to tie up loose ends in a matter of a few weeks and enter into the inevitable training arc and/or long-awaited Isshin gaiden.



Keeping in mind that I won't be denied for long, that I'm just being teased by an evil evil mangaka with panels of Rangiku running, running to her reunion with Gin and keeping in mind that sometimes people actually savor the croutons in their salad without conjuring a single fantasy from the dessert menu, I reread last week's chapter. I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF, though--serial damn stories make me think ahead--what else are we supposed to do but predict what happens next? It's all part of the fucking FUUUUUUN. >.< (Last comment directed at people who keep telling me to stop predicting outcomes because oh dear, I'll embarrass myself when I'm wrong. Right back at you, kiddoes).

I figured there HAD to be a good reason for the three Amigos ganging up on Aizen yet again, only to fail to stop him as we all know they will.  I suppose one reason was that we were all supposed to take pleasure in the attack names as they were called out--"Shibari Benehime!" (so kinky, Kisuke!) and "Getsuga Tenshou!" (So familiar, Papa!)--but all I can see is a set up for cracking Aizen-sama out of his banana-peel/Gaga dancer/cocoon outfit, and the only thing sustaining me right now is the UraYoru.

They were so cute, weren't they?  But of course Aizen had to undercut their banter by suggesting that it was a distraction technique, a show meant to temporarily confuse the man in the banana peel. Is Aizen an anti-shipper? He also suggested that it was he and not Destiny that brought Ichigo and Rukia together. Whatever, Aizen-taichou. Ichi and Ruki could have been brought together by both you AND Destiny; Urahara and Yoruichi could have been sincerely bickering as well as trying to distract you! (btw, did everyone see Ju-Ni's scan of Deicide 6? I didn't post the translation bc I've been making too much out of translations lately but haha, Yoruichi wasn't referring to Isshin's nose as being painful--that was Urahara going "Ouch! My nose!" when Yoru, presumably, slapped Urahara with his own fan off-panel. *HAPPY SIGH* I love pairings that take time out to be violent to one another in the middle of a battle to save the universe! <3... I'm currently having the same log-on probs with Ju-Ni other people were having last week... grr).

Aizen double-speak is fun to decipher for about ... oh, a couple days after a chapter comes out. UraYoru cuteness lingers longer.



Although Yoruichi showed up in weird armor a while back, it wasn't until this chapter that it occurred to me to notice what Yoruichi was wearing instead of what she wasn't wearing, and I remembered how banged-up her arm got some couple hundred chapters ago against Yammy.









It's pretty cool when Sensei picks up a stitch from long ago like that. In this case, I wasn't anticipating any special power-ups or gadgets from Yoru so the armor was a nice surprise. It's a whole other story when you wait for years for Kubo to deliver. I'll never forget the moment Komamura squinted at the sky and said he would tear the blindness from Tousen's eyes. I waited and waited ... and waited. And just this year I got the whole package. Not just a wonderful reunion, but lots of irony cherries on my cake cooked with irony. Tousen got his sight back but as he was dying, he could not recognize the apparition of the woman for whom he started his quest for Justice. Not to mention that the villainous Ulquiorra who could regenerate his own eyeball and who had stated that he did not believe in what he could not see with his own eyes had preceded Tousen's death with the last words "I see" in the context of the human heart.

When Sensei promises a reunion, the resolution may take years but he'll come at you with a full plate. I mean you'll be trying to corral all the metaphors and wonderful meanings and if you're a Bleachtard like me the whole manga will be illuminated and maybe you'll cry a little and be unusually kind to strangers for a few days and perform more charitable deeds!

This GinRan reunion is currently taking my mind off the dome. I know that Kira looks too bad off to run at the moment but I figure Unohana will take her sweet time healing him and then at some moment when we least expect it Kira will show up to literally weigh down Gin's frivolity and wisecracks. The anime and the hilarious Dattebayo sub of Yammy swearing to get his revenge on Ishida, that "four-eyed TWINK" (where does Yammy learn these terms? The Hueco Mundo interstate ballrooms?) made me think that Orihime may launch Tsubaki against the guy who pulverized the little fairy (Tsubaki not Ishida) long ago and the justice of all that plus her defending Ishida would make such karmic good sense. And of course I still fret about Ulquiorra and his powers of regeneration ... argh, I called it in 2007 that the man would have a glorious redemption scene involving Orihime and I've been calling for his return for a year now and I'm wondering if the heart vibes he got from Orihime are enough for him to regenerate himself (I get Bleach stuff wrong sometimes but my Ulqui batting average is high--called his bat form and regeneration ability here May 08). A touch from Orihime's hand appeared to fix Ichigo's wound in chapter 238 so in another parallel, would Orihime giving Ulquiorra one of those organs he can't regenerate (a metaphorical heart in this case) allow Ulquiorra to regenerate himself as a new entity?

...
...
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If Kubo doesn't pick up the stitches soon, speculation will eventually land right on the money, you know. That's what happened when a bunch of fanbois predicted the whole YAMMY IS THE ZERO ESPADA. <3

I've called the man Kubo "Never Drops a Stitch" Tite before, but even a mad Kubo fangirl should admit that certain Bleachverse elements seem to have been discarded for whatever reason. I'm cool with not a mention of spirit threads or Hell's Gates in the past few years, less so with the absence of Tatsuki because characters are never throw-aways in Bleach.

So, okay, I've run out of coffee. I'll get Neha to make a poll for later but in the meantime, what are your Bleach dreams, speculations and Tanabata wishes for this summer?

Oh and almost forgot!  Volume cover 45. I missed posting it the other day. Old man looks hot! Pic thanks to Spacey.



Comments

[escarboucle.livejournal.com]

No, see, what he's doing right now with Bleach is much more important because he is giving us an insight that's meant to help us to understand Bleach on a better level. He is adding stuff, obviously, but it's meant to be here and re-read and give Bleach a depth it didn't have previously. That's why it's much more important than the fight with Yammi that would add next to nothing.

I don't think we'll see Ichigo going back there - Kubo is going one way right now. The things he left hanging, he will deal afterwards, but do you really see a return to the dome without it being... awkward, at best? For what exactly? See Yammi meet his end? [I'm sorry, I don't buy the yoyo little girl, Kenpachi and Byakuya should be fine taking care of him]. I don't want to see that, I am NOT interested in that.

In fact, I'm interested in Gin and Aizen, what Gin plots, how they will survive and all. I could very well see everyone jumping off a Garganta actually, to come back to FKT and help out Ichigo - heeeeee, not on par for Aizen, sorry. I'm interested in how everything will develop, and as much as I love Rukia, Ishida and Byakuya, right now is not the moment to go back to them. At best, it's up to them to show up, but not the contrary.

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

Yes, there is SIMPLY NO WAY Kubo-sensei is going back to HM during the current action or the Deicide chapters or any time before the next few weeks, but that doesn't mean there won't be an in-current-time resolution following the fight... A quick flashback is likely when there's a round-up of events although it is possible to do some quick concurrent stuff at the very pinnacle of the action---nah, there's no returning to the dome now. But Kubo isn't going to ignore what happened there--not Yammy and his amazing zero status, not Mayuri's loot wagon, not Orihime and Ishida and what they just went through, not Nell and Pessche, and we have to wonder what Grimmjow's status is...

No way. There will be a return to HM. It just doesn't fit with the closing of "this arc" which is why I think Sensei was referring to the FKT arc and not the HM arc that began years and years ago.

[escarboucle.livejournal.com]

Yes, but this is the pinacle of the arc. Are you saying what's happening in HM will be better and more important? Because I don't [unless someone who's there becomes the next ultimate villain, I simply don't see how this will be more important than Aizen and Gin]. I think Kubo is likely to connect the dots afterwards. We'll see the bodies stuff probably in the next arc or so. Maybe Kubo will be returning to it if Aizen survives and evades there.

Otherwise?

I find this prospect not only not appealing, but very unlikely. At the end of End of Hypnosis, all the loose ends came to the plot, not the contrary.

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

That's what puzzling about this. The way Kubo cut away from the Yammy battle then introduced Isshin et al, it made it seem as though the Yammy battle was more important--and it CAN'T be. What's more important may have to do with the findings in Szayel's lab, the hougyoku and Orihime's designs on it or any other number of loose ends in Hueco Mundo. Aizen evading there is possible but I don't see why. His goal is the RR and what's left for him in HM? (although that's the only place I can see Ryuuken showing up, Neha--not FKT--I can see Ryuuken showing up to bail out his own son MAYBE but to be honest I don't anticipate Ryuuken AT ALL for months and months. He seemed too intent on staying out of all this crap. XD)

Yes, the End of Hynosis series connected all the loose ends and if these Deicide chapters are going to parallel the finish of the SS arc, then everyone in HM should come to FKT. But there's no way that's going to happen in four or so weeks. I just don't see it.

As for Orihime, she's got to fire Tsubaki SOMETIME. I want it to be sooner rather than later. If I have to wait another arc or half arc, I'll die. I will. *cries* Syn, don't tell me I have to wait another two years.

[escarboucle.livejournal.com]

Let Kubo do the job, I'm sure Inoue will be able to fight. Don't be too hasty, or it'd make things worsen, instead of getting better, for Inoue. I know you're impatient - but now, think about me who hasn't seen Rukia in a major role since HER FIGHT WITH AARO AGES AGO.

Ok? Mmh.

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

mmmmm, Rukia fans haven't had it as bad as Orihime fans--you've seen her in a big movie with lots of promotion. You haven't had tons of hatred flung at your character along with cries about how useless she is. For Kubo to have taken three years with Orihime's character development and only moved her one square down the chess board (I see that as her "It's all my fault" revelation as well as her finally asking the question Ulquiorra asked of her "Why do I always rely on Kurosaki-kun?") seems like excruciatingly slow work.

I can see the majority of Orihime's development coming in another arc from the viewpoint you're arguing but ... I want her to clarify for the audience and herself who she is at the moment. Something seems left out. Kubo pulled away one year ago and while Ichigo is showing us that he's a character in flux and crisis, Orihime was left directly facing her problems. Ichigo ran away from them to other fights. Orihime stayed on the dome in the very place of her shame--it seems to be that she can recover quicker than Ichigo can. One, she doesn't have a Hollow inside her to fight, just a quilt issue and a resolve issue. Two, she's already verbalized her dilemma which is more than Ichigo's done.

[escarboucle.livejournal.com]

I haven't had tons of hate lolwat? Rukia can't do a thing without being hated _o/ Rukia fans know it better - they can never win. She does something brilliant, it's plotkai, she is saved, she's a DiD, etc, etc. I know Inoue gets it worst, but to say that Rukia doesn't get hate is unfair, because she does and we're always forced to defend her.

I think she will clarify this, but to fire Tsubaki, she needs first to have inner peace, which she does not ATM. And honestly speaking, if she recovers faster than Ichigo, then it'd be really, really unfair, to Ichigo and to all the characters who have been struggling with their problems for HUNDREDS of chapters [Rukia, Momo, Rangiku, anyone?]. I'm sorry but that wouldn't do. I know you want her to grow up, trust me we ALL do. It doesn't mean that to me she has to fire Tsubaki here and there - her troubles come from herself first and foremost, it's her inside that she's been bottling up, it's inside that she needs to evolve the most. Tsubaki will come after.

I don't want her to be better just because she realized she's done something wrong, really not. That'd be giving in the little princess who can do nothing wrong and who can't have any hardship to live through - ugh no, just no. That's not what Inoue needs to be less hated/liked again.

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

I didn't say Rukia didn't get hate--I said she didn't get TONS of hate. You know what Orihime hatred is and especially lately.

And honestly, what more hardship does she have to go through? While I can see everyone having to go through a training arc--EVERYONE (because everyone effed up in HM and has to prepare for the next arc), I don't think anyone can stand more miserable Orihime. She was crying for three years--is she going to be sobbing now? I want her determination to fire Tsubaki back at least but even if we see that how is that going to be different from what we saw when she left for SS with Rukia? How do we know she isn't going to pull the rug out from under herself again? No, I want proof of her new revelations in ACTION.

[escarboucle.livejournal.com]

Oh and for those who wonder, here is the explanation of the little girl and her yoyo, a joke that my friends and me used to make while talking about D&D:

Once upon a time, in the famous D&D [Dungeons and Dragons], there was a time where you could only get the experience [aka xp] of the monster you finished - even your teammates wouldn't get xp from it, only the one giving the last blow.

Hence the theory of the little girl playing yoyo. You have a team, fightin a dragon, taking his numerous life points down, and when only 1 point is left... a little girl playing yoyo appears, knocks off the dragon, and takes the experience.


_o/

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

I had no idea what you were talking about. XD XD XD THANK YOU FOR EXPLANATION. <3

See, if Orihime does this with Yammy after everyone from Chad to Nii-sama himself has had a crack at the guy, I'd be one majorly happy Orihime fan. Of course it wouldn't be fair, but it would be really cool. Orihime haters would hate, though. XD She doesn't have to make Yammy fall down--she could just... uh... make Tsubaki go up his nose and explode the left side of his brain or something and then someone else can have the real killing blow when he gets up to smack her?

[(Anonymous)]

Although this would be nice for Orihime (yoyo theory, lol) I honestly hope for Chad to finish Yammy off, not her. Why? Because once I dreamed of Kenpachi and Byakuya fighting the dude rentessly and they're both at the limit of their strenght, and Yammi stupidly tells them (and us) that as a Hollow he can absorb souls around him and seeing the two captains struggling to stand he attempts to do so.

Then we see Chad leaning on one of his many legs and he comments how he thanks Yammy for reminding him of that special power of Hollows. A little flash to their first fight shows that Chad learnt how to do so when watching Yammy feast on Tatsuki's friends. The he does so himself and that's the end of Yammy. Also new powerup for Chad. Go Chad!

...Then I woke up. Why.

[lennan.livejournal.com]

I don't think that Kubo will ignore HM, but I truly believe that it's going to be a denouement sort of thing after everything dealing with LadyAizen is dealt with and the man just GTFO.

I don't seriously see Uryuu and the rest of the gang coming to FTK during this fight, especially since I'm guessing that Urahara, Yoruichi, and Isshin (and maybe Ryuuken?) are sort of acting as the final ass save for our heroes and as the ones who are possibly the most aware and best equipped to deal with Aizen. I don't see what adding the rest to this fight would accomplish especially with Ichigo proving to be impotent lately. It can't be to hammer in collaboration and cooperation between disparate groups because we already had that when Hi-chan, Shinji, et al were smashed to the ground by Aizen.

To be honest, considering that Aizen is going to win this skirmish unless there's some unpredictable tweest, I think that the whole tone from now will be rather darker and really whatever is going on in HM at the moment can be set as a spring board for the next arc. Unless Kubo's planning on putting Isshin's back story first. That to me, makes more sense than just going back to the dome when we're in the height of a story arc's climax.