Now, let's contrast these examples with similar actions taken by Ichigo in reaction to Orihime.
Ichigo has been thoughtless ever since Orihime's kidnapping. He freaked out when he heard about it, and started screaming at Yamamoto, furious denials that she was dead, desperation, sweat all over his face. He left the vizard, abandoning his training in the middle, even though he knew he could only hold his hollow mask for eleven seconds. He tried to go alone, on what he must have known was a suicide mission, because by this point Ichigo is no longer cocky, no longer thinks he can handle whatever anyone throws at him -- he's had the crap beaten out of him by Grimmjow, and he's denied Renji's attempted reassurance. ("You're still alive, so you won." "Heh. Don't patronize me. This... wasn't a win.") Ichigo knows he isn't invincible, and he does these things anyway.
Then we have the scene with Ulquiorra, and his totally irrational (and uncharacteristic) leaping at the other man's throat. Remember: Ichigo thinks at this point that Ulquiorra is the strongest Espada. His experience so far has been that he is no match for him. He is already injured. His only, slim hope is that a single attack with his hollow mask will be enough to take Ulquiorra out of the fight. And he has no reason to fight Ulquiorra here -- except, apparently, in retribution for kidnapping Orihime.
To put it simply, Ichigo's reaction to Orihime being in danger is completely different from his reaction to Rukia being in the exact same amount of danger. And that says things that I just... don't think are easily (if at all) explained away.
I'm not as miserably depressed by Ichigo's failure to recognize Orihime's strength (or anyone else's strength) as most 'shippers. I know that Ichigo is A Protector -- that is the entire theme of his character, and if it hurts his friends (and not just the girls; Chad, remember), then that sucks a lot, but he doesn't do it intentionally -- I would argue that he does it because he doesn't know how to do anything else. I called Ichigo slightly-traumatized earlier, and I meant it. A lot of Ichigo's obsession with protecting people is explained thoroughly by what we know of his mother, and her death. The very first person Ichigo ever wanted to protect died, in front of him, on top of him, protecting him, because he was stupid.
If Ichigo is somewhat desperate to prevent that from ever happening again... well, I understand it. No, it's not necessarily healthy; yes, he would be better off if he were able to get into a relationship with someone who he could actually trust to watch his back. But he hasn't trusted anyone to do that since middle school (before hollows, and the risk of actual death, and the horrifying reminder of his mother's death and his failure there), and I don't think it's a failing on anyone's part. (The only reason why I even mentioned it here as a criteria is that, again, it's the most common reason I've heard why Ichigo/Rukia is "better" than Ichigo/Orihime.) I would argue that you shouldn't worry about a lack of canon support for Ishida/Orihime. As I think kay_willow has said recently, if you really like the 'ship, it shouldn't matter whether or not it's canon. (Actually, one of the reasons why I 'ship a lot of slash is that it tends to have less overt canon support -- which gives me more room to play with and imagine the relationship. I mean, I really like Ichigo/Orihime, but if it becomes canon, I think I'll write it a lot less, because the canon will be doing that for me.)
But I promise you, I'm not too anxious! It is always a little bit intimidating to be noticed by a BNF, but if I'd really been terrified of getting a response, I wouldn't have published this on LJ. X3 I'm actually very used to total strangers improbably finding a happy little squeal I've written about some pairing or other and going, "HOW DARE YOU, SUCH-AND-SUCH IS VASTLY MORE CANON."
So this was more interesting than anxiety-provoking, as much as we've disagreed in pretty much every single way it is possible to disagree.
Ichigo has been thoughtless ever since Orihime's kidnapping. He freaked out when he heard about it, and started screaming at Yamamoto, furious denials that she was dead, desperation, sweat all over his face. He left the vizard, abandoning his training in the middle, even though he knew he could only hold his hollow mask for eleven seconds. He tried to go alone, on what he must have known was a suicide mission, because by this point Ichigo is no longer cocky, no longer thinks he can handle whatever anyone throws at him -- he's had the crap beaten out of him by Grimmjow, and he's denied Renji's attempted reassurance. ("You're still alive, so you won." "Heh. Don't patronize me. This... wasn't a win.") Ichigo knows he isn't invincible, and he does these things anyway.
Then we have the scene with Ulquiorra, and his totally irrational (and uncharacteristic) leaping at the other man's throat. Remember: Ichigo thinks at this point that Ulquiorra is the strongest Espada. His experience so far has been that he is no match for him. He is already injured. His only, slim hope is that a single attack with his hollow mask will be enough to take Ulquiorra out of the fight. And he has no reason to fight Ulquiorra here -- except, apparently, in retribution for kidnapping Orihime.
To put it simply, Ichigo's reaction to Orihime being in danger is completely different from his reaction to Rukia being in the exact same amount of danger. And that says things that I just... don't think are easily (if at all) explained away.
I'm not as miserably depressed by Ichigo's failure to recognize Orihime's strength (or anyone else's strength) as most 'shippers. I know that Ichigo is A Protector -- that is the entire theme of his character, and if it hurts his friends (and not just the girls; Chad, remember), then that sucks a lot, but he doesn't do it intentionally -- I would argue that he does it because he doesn't know how to do anything else.
I called Ichigo slightly-traumatized earlier, and I meant it. A lot of Ichigo's obsession with protecting people is explained thoroughly by what we know of his mother, and her death. The very first person Ichigo ever wanted to protect died, in front of him, on top of him, protecting him, because he was stupid.
If Ichigo is somewhat desperate to prevent that from ever happening again... well, I understand it. No, it's not necessarily healthy; yes, he would be better off if he were able to get into a relationship with someone who he could actually trust to watch his back. But he hasn't trusted anyone to do that since middle school (before hollows, and the risk of actual death, and the horrifying reminder of his mother's death and his failure there), and I don't think it's a failing on anyone's part. (The only reason why I even mentioned it here as a criteria is that, again, it's the most common reason I've heard why Ichigo/Rukia is "better" than Ichigo/Orihime.) I would argue that you shouldn't worry about a lack of canon support for Ishida/Orihime. As I think kay_willow has said recently, if you really like the 'ship, it shouldn't matter whether or not it's canon. (Actually, one of the reasons why I 'ship a lot of slash is that it tends to have less overt canon support -- which gives me more room to play with and imagine the relationship. I mean, I really like Ichigo/Orihime, but if it becomes canon, I think I'll write it a lot less, because the canon will be doing that for me.)
But I promise you, I'm not too anxious! It is always a little bit intimidating to be noticed by a BNF, but if I'd really been terrified of getting a response, I wouldn't have published this on LJ. X3 I'm actually very used to total strangers improbably finding a happy little squeal I've written about some pairing or other and going, "HOW DARE YOU, SUCH-AND-SUCH IS VASTLY MORE CANON."
So this was more interesting than anxiety-provoking, as much as we've disagreed in pretty much every single way it is possible to disagree.
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