Expositionary ramblings on Bleach Manga (chapters 349 - 351).
So I haven't posted a Bleach Meta on the last two chapters...but that's because I was waiting with bated breath for 351. And now that it's out...
I haven't given up hope.
So in 349, we have all hell breaking loose.
Ulquiorra has just blown a gigantic hole in Ichigo's chest, where his heart should reside. As Grimmjow had stated earlier in the series, Ulqui seems particularly fond of punching holes in enemies in that spot -- whether by cero, or barehanded -- as a way of showing his interest in that particular foe. While it's never been explicitly stated why, my guess is because it's related to something I'll touch on at the very end of this meta play-by-play -- the entire reason for Ulquiorra's existence as a Hollow, Arrancar, Espada, and a singularly most powerful Vasto Lorde.
He throws SwissCheese!Ichigo off of the tower, and Orihime screams.
And for the first time in what feels like forever, we see her leaping into action. Her Shun Rikka is activated, she's running as fast as she can towards him to save him.
She catches him with her shield. But before she can reach him to heal him, Ulquiorra sonido's up to her and blocks her path.
Notice he doesn't touch her, even now. His game with her is mental. "Not even your powers can save him, now." He did this to Ichigo purposefully in front of her, to make her crack.
Why the fascination with her, with her heart? Why does he feel the need to break Orihime? He displayed that momentary sadness in an earlier chapter, when Loly and Menoly were beating her up physically -- but why does he seek to tear her down emotionally?
And it's working. This entire time, she's placed her faith in Ichigo and her nakama to save her, but particularly Ichigo. She'd never doubted him. She'd elevated him to godlike status. And now he's broken with a hole punched in him.
Something I'd like to point out right here is that Kubo is brilliant. This entire series has revolved around a shonen cliche -- the damsel in distress -- for two arcs, now; the Soul Society Arc where Rukia was imprisoned for execution, and the Arrancar Arc where Orihime went willingly (and yes, even though Ulquiorra blackmailed her, she still went willingly) to Hueco Mundo. But what's wonderful about these two trite-and-overused plots in Bleach, is the twist that Kubo's added to them.
Rukia needed to be rescued from Sereitei for obvious reasons. But what people neglect to consider was that she also needed to be rescued from herself. Because of her self-imposed guilt from her past, Rukia had built a wall around herself and refused to let anyone in. She's strong, and brilliant, but she was afraid to place her faith in anyone besides herself, because of what had happened to Shiba Kaien and what she'd been forced to do to him. She needed to be able to place her faith in Ichigo. As Renji told her as he was bearing her away from the execution grounds, she needed to not keep all of her burdens to herself. And Ichigo didn't let her down, in one of the most moving scenes I've ever had the pleasure to experience in an anime series.
Orihime needs to be rescued as well -- but for an entirely different reason, and under entirely different circumstances. Orihime has grown up allowing others to alternately both protect her and bully her. She is so vastly different from Rukia -- night and day -- in that her strength doesn't lie in her wielding of a weapon, or her knowledge of attack magic, or her cleverness and strategy in fighting. Orihime is a lover, not a fighter, and her spiritual strength lies right there -- in her heart. She has rarely shown the ability to stand up for herself, instead preferring to help and assist her friends in any way she can. She depends on her friends, so much so that her inability to believe in her own powers has paralyzed her.
And that's what it's come to, in this scene -- her paralysis. Most of the fandom was up in arms about how could she sit there and mope/mourn/scream over Ichigo's corpse? Why doesn't she do something? But it's exactly that faith in her friends that has brought her to her knees, both literally and figuratively.
The next scenes, as Ishida's arm is cut off by Ulquiorra -- which really was not as evil as I thought it was, initially; if he hadn't removed it, Ishida wouldn't have given up his attack -- lead up to Orihime's complete mental breakdown, where her Kurosaki-kun mantra leads up in a frenzied spiral until she screams -- KUROSAKI-KUN!! --
...
And then this shows up.
One of the most interesting things about this Hollow conversion of Ichigo's, is that unlike previous incarnations of Shirosaki, we didn't get to see any "inner world" conflict. At all. We see a voice in the beginning of 350, saying he can hear her, and that he will "protect her" ...but we really don't even know if that's Ichigo speaking. (Or Shirosaki, for that matter.)
Another interesting fact is now there are *two* Vasto Lordes, apparently. But if this is true, how could Ichigo possibly have acquired such power without devouring Hollows over time, as Ulquiorra has most likely done? (It's possible this can be explained because Ichi's the shonen hero of the series, but...that's kind of lame and puts a damper on the whole VL process, IMO.)
Anyway....once this beast awakens, apparently no one knows who it is.
And he's violent. He releases bursts of power without any consideration for those people around him (whom he spoke of "protecting" -- if it was this creature that spoke that?). Also, this beast apparently cannot communicate to anyone, instead making "OOOOHHHHHH" and "AAAAAHHHHHHH" sounds. (Seriously.) Leading to one of my favorite Ulquiorra quotes: "Apparently words are useless here." XDDDD
And then there is some exciting fighting, as Ulquiorra naturally charges the beast, and the beast fights back and tears off Ulqui's arm. 351 rolls around, and lo and behold, in typical badassery form, Ulquiorra can regenerate more than just his eye. (And this explains his interest in Orihime's powers, in Karakura...of course later on he finds her interesting for other reasons, but I digress.)
Then he prepares a lance of some sort, and this is where things get even more interesting, in terms of blurring the line between villain and hero:
Ulquiorra tells Ishida and Hime, who are cowering from the blasts on the sidelines, to stay back and protect themselves.
Who he's speaking to seems kind of hard to figure out, but someone who was able to translate the raw Japanese gave this:
"Ulqui was talking to Ishida and Hime. I already thought so because of the way his head was tilted, but the raw confirmed it. The subject isn't ambiguous this time as it has been in the past. He used koitsu, which basically means 'this person'. So with that thrown in there, the line would say, 'Don't come any closer. Stay there. If it can be done, I don't want to fire this at him at close range.' Besides, Ichithing has some special needs in the language department at the moment as Ulqui said last chapter."
Haha. XD
At any rate...the use of the lance is unsuccessful, and Beast!Ichigo actually sonido's -- not shunpo's -- to Ulquiorra's side and strikes him down.
No one is shocked more than Ulquiorra himself, but Ishida looks particularly horrified...and not as ecstatic that his friend is winning, as we thought he might be. "He...won..." Is it because he knows this isn't Ichigo?
And then, despite the fact that Ulquiorra has already verbally conceded the fight and admitted defeat, Beast!Ichigo plants one of his monstrous feet on Ulqui's head, pushing it against the ground. Not crushing it, simply holding him down. But still...this is not a signature Kurosaki move.
Ishida's look of horror confirms this, as well.
And Ulquiorra, as graceful in defeat as he is in battle, urges Beast!Ichi on, in full-on emo style. "Do it."
What's most interesting is what he says just prior to this:
"I see... no mercy, eh? How very hollow-like. I don't care. I have no reason to live, now that you've beaten me."
...Which begs the question: what was Ulquiorra's reason for living? He obviously wanted to live prior to this, as evident by the fact that he said he was the only Arrancar who'd traded offensive power for the ability to regenerate any portion of his body except his brain. He'd studiously avoided engaging Grimmjow in fights, as Grimmy pointed out earlier, because he was worried they would "crush" each other out of existence. For someone who thinks life and the things associated with it are so "meaningless" and "trash" and such, and for one who knows despair so well, why would Ulquiorra want to live so badly? What would drive him to survive, not only as a Hollow, but as an Adjuchas, and then a Vasto Lorde...and then an Arrancar and Espada, under Aizen Sousuke's direction?
And here, I believe, it goes back to Orihime. He was -- still is -- so mesmerized by her, by her hope, and her love for her friends, and the strength that came from inside her -- not from any particular offensive fighting power or technique, but her heart. And this was why he wanted to break her, so badly -- to challenge this strength of hers, and to try his best -- admittedly in his own fucked-up hollow way -- to understand the singular thing that he lacked. Additionally, it's entirely plausible that because he admires Orihime's strength and her lack of fear so much, that he feels inferior to it -- something he's definitely not used to in Hueco Mundo -- and he wants to show her that just because she has a heart, that it doesn't mean she's stronger than he is. He had pointed out in the previous chapter that Ichigo's heart made him weak, as well. But, I prefer to think that he genuinely wants to know how it is to have one, and even how to go about having one...and that's why he's played these mind games with her, to figure out what makes her tick.
Be aware that all of this time, during this chapter, we have not seen Orihime's reaction ONCE -- which is shocking, compared to how many panels we've had previously in the last 10 or so chapters of her alternating shock/horror/omg! faces -- except for this, on the first page of 351:
I'm hoping that this means she's going to spring into action, as would befit a surprised readership who have a) seen her sitting by doing nothing for *way* too long now, and b) not seen her reaction yet to Ulquiorra getting smacked around by Beast!Ichi.
But, as Ulquiorra requests, Beast!Ichi has moved to finish the job.
What's notable here is the black interior of the cero blast. That ring around it is similar to what we saw before,
but not the dual-toned blast. Does this mean Ulquiorra is fighting back? Or does it mean something else...and could it even possibly be a shield o of some sort, set up by Orihime?? (We dare to hope.)
One thing I refuse to believe is that Orihime isn't going to step up at SOME point...whether it's to save Ulquiorra's life (because he cannot die before he learns the important lesson about the strength of the heart -- that would just be a waste of a perfectly good story, Kubo -___-), or to save Ichigo from himself...because let's face it, Ichigo is, right now, the antithesis of what he wanted to be when he first started out in the series.
It comes down to the fact that the accumulation of tremendous power comes at a price, and whether or not that person is willing to pay that price. Like the Soul Society Arc, Ichigo acquired these powers for his friends, and particularly for the girl he's saving. In Rukia's case, it was a much more benevolent power, that Ichigo (for the most part) was wholly in control of. But in Hueco Mundo, now, he's lost that control. That being is not Ichigo. Ishida and Orihime's reactions to the thing he's become are testament to that.
It's up to her, now. I have faith in you, Orihime. ;____;
I haven't given up hope.
So in 349, we have all hell breaking loose.
Ulquiorra has just blown a gigantic hole in Ichigo's chest, where his heart should reside. As Grimmjow had stated earlier in the series, Ulqui seems particularly fond of punching holes in enemies in that spot -- whether by cero, or barehanded -- as a way of showing his interest in that particular foe. While it's never been explicitly stated why, my guess is because it's related to something I'll touch on at the very end of this meta play-by-play -- the entire reason for Ulquiorra's existence as a Hollow, Arrancar, Espada, and a singularly most powerful Vasto Lorde.
He throws SwissCheese!Ichigo off of the tower, and Orihime screams.
And for the first time in what feels like forever, we see her leaping into action. Her Shun Rikka is activated, she's running as fast as she can towards him to save him.
She catches him with her shield. But before she can reach him to heal him, Ulquiorra sonido's up to her and blocks her path.
Notice he doesn't touch her, even now. His game with her is mental. "Not even your powers can save him, now." He did this to Ichigo purposefully in front of her, to make her crack.
Why the fascination with her, with her heart? Why does he feel the need to break Orihime? He displayed that momentary sadness in an earlier chapter, when Loly and Menoly were beating her up physically -- but why does he seek to tear her down emotionally?
And it's working. This entire time, she's placed her faith in Ichigo and her nakama to save her, but particularly Ichigo. She'd never doubted him. She'd elevated him to godlike status. And now he's broken with a hole punched in him.
Something I'd like to point out right here is that Kubo is brilliant. This entire series has revolved around a shonen cliche -- the damsel in distress -- for two arcs, now; the Soul Society Arc where Rukia was imprisoned for execution, and the Arrancar Arc where Orihime went willingly (and yes, even though Ulquiorra blackmailed her, she still went willingly) to Hueco Mundo. But what's wonderful about these two trite-and-overused plots in Bleach, is the twist that Kubo's added to them.
Rukia needed to be rescued from Sereitei for obvious reasons. But what people neglect to consider was that she also needed to be rescued from herself. Because of her self-imposed guilt from her past, Rukia had built a wall around herself and refused to let anyone in. She's strong, and brilliant, but she was afraid to place her faith in anyone besides herself, because of what had happened to Shiba Kaien and what she'd been forced to do to him. She needed to be able to place her faith in Ichigo. As Renji told her as he was bearing her away from the execution grounds, she needed to not keep all of her burdens to herself. And Ichigo didn't let her down, in one of the most moving scenes I've ever had the pleasure to experience in an anime series.
Orihime needs to be rescued as well -- but for an entirely different reason, and under entirely different circumstances. Orihime has grown up allowing others to alternately both protect her and bully her. She is so vastly different from Rukia -- night and day -- in that her strength doesn't lie in her wielding of a weapon, or her knowledge of attack magic, or her cleverness and strategy in fighting. Orihime is a lover, not a fighter, and her spiritual strength lies right there -- in her heart. She has rarely shown the ability to stand up for herself, instead preferring to help and assist her friends in any way she can. She depends on her friends, so much so that her inability to believe in her own powers has paralyzed her.
And that's what it's come to, in this scene -- her paralysis. Most of the fandom was up in arms about how could she sit there and mope/mourn/scream over Ichigo's corpse? Why doesn't she do something? But it's exactly that faith in her friends that has brought her to her knees, both literally and figuratively.
The next scenes, as Ishida's arm is cut off by Ulquiorra -- which really was not as evil as I thought it was, initially; if he hadn't removed it, Ishida wouldn't have given up his attack -- lead up to Orihime's complete mental breakdown, where her Kurosaki-kun mantra leads up in a frenzied spiral until she screams -- KUROSAKI-KUN!! --
...
And then this shows up.
One of the most interesting things about this Hollow conversion of Ichigo's, is that unlike previous incarnations of Shirosaki, we didn't get to see any "inner world" conflict. At all. We see a voice in the beginning of 350, saying he can hear her, and that he will "protect her" ...but we really don't even know if that's Ichigo speaking. (Or Shirosaki, for that matter.)
Another interesting fact is now there are *two* Vasto Lordes, apparently. But if this is true, how could Ichigo possibly have acquired such power without devouring Hollows over time, as Ulquiorra has most likely done? (It's possible this can be explained because Ichi's the shonen hero of the series, but...that's kind of lame and puts a damper on the whole VL process, IMO.)
Anyway....once this beast awakens, apparently no one knows who it is.
And he's violent. He releases bursts of power without any consideration for those people around him (whom he spoke of "protecting" -- if it was this creature that spoke that?). Also, this beast apparently cannot communicate to anyone, instead making "OOOOHHHHHH" and "AAAAAHHHHHHH" sounds. (Seriously.) Leading to one of my favorite Ulquiorra quotes: "Apparently words are useless here." XDDDD
And then there is some exciting fighting, as Ulquiorra naturally charges the beast, and the beast fights back and tears off Ulqui's arm. 351 rolls around, and lo and behold, in typical badassery form, Ulquiorra can regenerate more than just his eye. (And this explains his interest in Orihime's powers, in Karakura...of course later on he finds her interesting for other reasons, but I digress.)
Then he prepares a lance of some sort, and this is where things get even more interesting, in terms of blurring the line between villain and hero:
Ulquiorra tells Ishida and Hime, who are cowering from the blasts on the sidelines, to stay back and protect themselves.
Who he's speaking to seems kind of hard to figure out, but someone who was able to translate the raw Japanese gave this:
"Ulqui was talking to Ishida and Hime. I already thought so because of the way his head was tilted, but the raw confirmed it. The subject isn't ambiguous this time as it has been in the past. He used koitsu, which basically means 'this person'. So with that thrown in there, the line would say, 'Don't come any closer. Stay there. If it can be done, I don't want to fire this at him at close range.' Besides, Ichithing has some special needs in the language department at the moment as Ulqui said last chapter."
Haha. XD
At any rate...the use of the lance is unsuccessful, and Beast!Ichigo actually sonido's -- not shunpo's -- to Ulquiorra's side and strikes him down.
No one is shocked more than Ulquiorra himself, but Ishida looks particularly horrified...and not as ecstatic that his friend is winning, as we thought he might be. "He...won..." Is it because he knows this isn't Ichigo?
And then, despite the fact that Ulquiorra has already verbally conceded the fight and admitted defeat, Beast!Ichigo plants one of his monstrous feet on Ulqui's head, pushing it against the ground. Not crushing it, simply holding him down. But still...this is not a signature Kurosaki move.
Ishida's look of horror confirms this, as well.
And Ulquiorra, as graceful in defeat as he is in battle, urges Beast!Ichi on, in full-on emo style. "Do it."
What's most interesting is what he says just prior to this:
"I see... no mercy, eh? How very hollow-like. I don't care. I have no reason to live, now that you've beaten me."
...Which begs the question: what was Ulquiorra's reason for living? He obviously wanted to live prior to this, as evident by the fact that he said he was the only Arrancar who'd traded offensive power for the ability to regenerate any portion of his body except his brain. He'd studiously avoided engaging Grimmjow in fights, as Grimmy pointed out earlier, because he was worried they would "crush" each other out of existence. For someone who thinks life and the things associated with it are so "meaningless" and "trash" and such, and for one who knows despair so well, why would Ulquiorra want to live so badly? What would drive him to survive, not only as a Hollow, but as an Adjuchas, and then a Vasto Lorde...and then an Arrancar and Espada, under Aizen Sousuke's direction?
And here, I believe, it goes back to Orihime. He was -- still is -- so mesmerized by her, by her hope, and her love for her friends, and the strength that came from inside her -- not from any particular offensive fighting power or technique, but her heart. And this was why he wanted to break her, so badly -- to challenge this strength of hers, and to try his best -- admittedly in his own fucked-up hollow way -- to understand the singular thing that he lacked. Additionally, it's entirely plausible that because he admires Orihime's strength and her lack of fear so much, that he feels inferior to it -- something he's definitely not used to in Hueco Mundo -- and he wants to show her that just because she has a heart, that it doesn't mean she's stronger than he is. He had pointed out in the previous chapter that Ichigo's heart made him weak, as well. But, I prefer to think that he genuinely wants to know how it is to have one, and even how to go about having one...and that's why he's played these mind games with her, to figure out what makes her tick.
Be aware that all of this time, during this chapter, we have not seen Orihime's reaction ONCE -- which is shocking, compared to how many panels we've had previously in the last 10 or so chapters of her alternating shock/horror/omg! faces -- except for this, on the first page of 351:
I'm hoping that this means she's going to spring into action, as would befit a surprised readership who have a) seen her sitting by doing nothing for *way* too long now, and b) not seen her reaction yet to Ulquiorra getting smacked around by Beast!Ichi.
But, as Ulquiorra requests, Beast!Ichi has moved to finish the job.
What's notable here is the black interior of the cero blast. That ring around it is similar to what we saw before,
but not the dual-toned blast. Does this mean Ulquiorra is fighting back? Or does it mean something else...and could it even possibly be a shield o of some sort, set up by Orihime?? (We dare to hope.)
One thing I refuse to believe is that Orihime isn't going to step up at SOME point...whether it's to save Ulquiorra's life (because he cannot die before he learns the important lesson about the strength of the heart -- that would just be a waste of a perfectly good story, Kubo -___-), or to save Ichigo from himself...because let's face it, Ichigo is, right now, the antithesis of what he wanted to be when he first started out in the series.
It comes down to the fact that the accumulation of tremendous power comes at a price, and whether or not that person is willing to pay that price. Like the Soul Society Arc, Ichigo acquired these powers for his friends, and particularly for the girl he's saving. In Rukia's case, it was a much more benevolent power, that Ichigo (for the most part) was wholly in control of. But in Hueco Mundo, now, he's lost that control. That being is not Ichigo. Ishida and Orihime's reactions to the thing he's become are testament to that.
It's up to her, now. I have faith in you, Orihime. ;____;