She's sorry, but she can't help that she's so popular
..or not.
Below are some musings on Orihime that I felt get put aside for irrelevant premises (arranged in numerical orders on random, because I can't seem to be able to organize them in a single wall of text).
1. This panel.
Yes, that panel. 61 chapters later (which is more than a year!) this panel is still being done to death and dissected to micromolecular levels. Before we get lengthy over the supposed "mistake", may I present you the dictionary.com definition of a "mistake":
-noun
1.
an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.
2.
a misunderstanding or misconception.
-verb (used with object)
3.
to regard or identify wrongly as something or someone else: I mistook him for the mayor.
4.
to understand, interpret, or evaluate wrongly; misunderstand; misinterpret.
-verb (used without object)
5.
to be in error.
-Idiom
6.
and no mistake, for certain; surely: He's an honorable person, and no mistake.
That pulling a dicktionary move is to outline just how liberal "mistake" has been used on that specific situation. However, even if we are not reading out something from an Oxford dissertation, one can make a conclusion that 1) a mistake involves judgment, and 2) a mistake involves a disjointed communication between the situation and the mental interpretation. A reaction is not a mistake. A reaction is an instantaneous, spontaneous, and instinctive drive to cope with a situation. An emotive expression towards a situation.
Therefore, just as there was no reason to "excuse" Hitsugaya's grief at accidentally stabbing Momo or Shinji's painful cries for Ichigo to bring back Orihime to save Hiyori, there is absolutely no reason to have to "excuse" Orihime and apologize for her. Even if her brain did suffer damages enough to render it vestigial, one's reaction towards a helpless situation is not an error in judgment.
2. Tsubaki is a part of her power. Tsubaki's development has yet to be unveiled. But that doesn't mean that Tsubaki is the core of her eventual "crowning moment". And finally, Tsubaki is not the channel for her to prove her worth in battle.
Orihime, as a character in the battle-heavy manga has taken a slippery slope in development - where her offensive powers are often regarded as ineffective in comparison with her defensive and healing powers. While there had been instances where she proved her unparalleled ability in healing and defending, there had been yet a situation where Tsubaki is useful in her struggles against the evil forces who had, arguably used her in their Hikaru Genji-like plan for Ichigo. Moreover, Tsubaki had often been depicted as the power that she probably cannot use to its full capacity due to her soft nature, a factor often mentioned by other characters (Hachi, Urahara) as the key in the strength of her powers. Therefore, if her healing and defensive powers improve exponentially while her offensive powers doesn't, it just means that her wills to protect overwhelms her wills to attack.
Thus, if she cannot fire Tsubaki even after Ulquiorra killed Ichigo and incapacitated Ishida, it's not because she's a useless bitch whose mind is only about IchigoIchigoIchigo, but because she felt more distressed than angry.
3. Orihime, even throughout her "depressing ordeals" in the Hueco Mundo arc, have always, and will always be Orihime. If we were to accuse Orihime of being not herself and instead depending on Ichigo all the time, we also need to consider that the situation wasn't normal to begin with. She has already had problems with her self-confidence before the arc started and the arc does nothing but to accentuate her already-existing problems.
What a large segment of the fandom forgot are the moments where she kept her mind steady and strong despite the helplessness - she held her head high despite the repeated physical abuse by Loly and Menoly, and held her head high despite being choked by Grimmjow. Orihime is no better then Ichigo; when it comes to themselves they can be self-destructive, but when it comes to other people they judge themselves too harshly. She's not useless, she's not stupid - she's just someone who doesn't see the need to prioritize fighting her own battles above helping other people win theirs.
4. Finally -
The best thing about being a fan is that you can choose not to accept every little thing the target of your affection does. But that doesn't mean that the only way to be a true fan is to criticize every little thing he/she does.
There's nothing wrong with sympathizing with Orihime, there's nothing pathologically wrong with thinking that Orihime is a girl whose life is screwed up, and lastly, there's nothing wrong with thinking that she's fine the way she is.
Not everybody conducts a surgical examination on Orihime and diagnose every little disjointed nerve in it - and if we can agree to disagree, then let Kubo dictate the story instead of brewing up formulas in which she can grow as a character that suits the fandom more than it suits the plot.
Done. Feel free to disagree. :D
Below are some musings on Orihime that I felt get put aside for irrelevant premises (arranged in numerical orders on random, because I can't seem to be able to organize them in a single wall of text).
1. This panel.
Yes, that panel. 61 chapters later (which is more than a year!) this panel is still being done to death and dissected to micromolecular levels. Before we get lengthy over the supposed "mistake", may I present you the dictionary.com definition of a "mistake":
-noun
1.
an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.
2.
a misunderstanding or misconception.
-verb (used with object)
3.
to regard or identify wrongly as something or someone else: I mistook him for the mayor.
4.
to understand, interpret, or evaluate wrongly; misunderstand; misinterpret.
-verb (used without object)
5.
to be in error.
-Idiom
6.
and no mistake, for certain; surely: He's an honorable person, and no mistake.
That pulling a dicktionary move is to outline just how liberal "mistake" has been used on that specific situation. However, even if we are not reading out something from an Oxford dissertation, one can make a conclusion that 1) a mistake involves judgment, and 2) a mistake involves a disjointed communication between the situation and the mental interpretation. A reaction is not a mistake. A reaction is an instantaneous, spontaneous, and instinctive drive to cope with a situation. An emotive expression towards a situation.
Therefore, just as there was no reason to "excuse" Hitsugaya's grief at accidentally stabbing Momo or Shinji's painful cries for Ichigo to bring back Orihime to save Hiyori, there is absolutely no reason to have to "excuse" Orihime and apologize for her. Even if her brain did suffer damages enough to render it vestigial, one's reaction towards a helpless situation is not an error in judgment.
2. Tsubaki is a part of her power. Tsubaki's development has yet to be unveiled. But that doesn't mean that Tsubaki is the core of her eventual "crowning moment". And finally, Tsubaki is not the channel for her to prove her worth in battle.
Orihime, as a character in the battle-heavy manga has taken a slippery slope in development - where her offensive powers are often regarded as ineffective in comparison with her defensive and healing powers. While there had been instances where she proved her unparalleled ability in healing and defending, there had been yet a situation where Tsubaki is useful in her struggles against the evil forces who had, arguably used her in their Hikaru Genji-like plan for Ichigo. Moreover, Tsubaki had often been depicted as the power that she probably cannot use to its full capacity due to her soft nature, a factor often mentioned by other characters (Hachi, Urahara) as the key in the strength of her powers. Therefore, if her healing and defensive powers improve exponentially while her offensive powers doesn't, it just means that her wills to protect overwhelms her wills to attack.
Thus, if she cannot fire Tsubaki even after Ulquiorra killed Ichigo and incapacitated Ishida, it's not because she's a useless bitch whose mind is only about IchigoIchigoIchigo, but because she felt more distressed than angry.
3. Orihime, even throughout her "depressing ordeals" in the Hueco Mundo arc, have always, and will always be Orihime. If we were to accuse Orihime of being not herself and instead depending on Ichigo all the time, we also need to consider that the situation wasn't normal to begin with. She has already had problems with her self-confidence before the arc started and the arc does nothing but to accentuate her already-existing problems.
What a large segment of the fandom forgot are the moments where she kept her mind steady and strong despite the helplessness - she held her head high despite the repeated physical abuse by Loly and Menoly, and held her head high despite being choked by Grimmjow. Orihime is no better then Ichigo; when it comes to themselves they can be self-destructive, but when it comes to other people they judge themselves too harshly. She's not useless, she's not stupid - she's just someone who doesn't see the need to prioritize fighting her own battles above helping other people win theirs.
4. Finally -
The best thing about being a fan is that you can choose not to accept every little thing the target of your affection does. But that doesn't mean that the only way to be a true fan is to criticize every little thing he/she does.
There's nothing wrong with sympathizing with Orihime, there's nothing pathologically wrong with thinking that Orihime is a girl whose life is screwed up, and lastly, there's nothing wrong with thinking that she's fine the way she is.
Not everybody conducts a surgical examination on Orihime and diagnose every little disjointed nerve in it - and if we can agree to disagree, then let Kubo dictate the story instead of brewing up formulas in which she can grow as a character that suits the fandom more than it suits the plot.
Done. Feel free to disagree. :D