Karakura Town Through Chapter 352
So, I started off this arc full of pep and vigor, prepared for some Soi Fon and generally to not hate life.
And then I saw this and my heart dropped. I already knew this fight didn't even end by 352 and it was only 318 and the fight just started! Now I knew that the intervening chapters would have a lot of other different people and stuff, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was that Ichigo would once again be short changed any further character development for the sake of more fight porn.
We then switched back to the fight in Karakura Town and things got a lot better. I was pleasantly surprised to see almost everyone get some really good development here, the 4 pillar folks (mostly excluding Ikkaku) got some really good development, like good enough to make me actually like them as characters, Captain Furry was back, etc. All in all the fights were tight, punchy and sexy.
We then transitioned over to the Fraccion fights and those were actually pretty cool too! It was wonderful to see my delicious soy sauce back and then Captain Yama was all sexy and kicked some ass and Jushirou and Kyoraku were so delightfully old and married. All it all it was delicious and well paced and not drawn out and good and ....
And then we went back to Hueco Mundo and it all just went down hill again and then there was more Ichigo fightporn and then I just couldn't deal with Orihime any more. I just couldn't.
I personally feel that getting upset with a fictional character over fictional actions in a fictional world is really the height of unnecessary. I mean they're fictional, right? What does it matter? But there does reach a point where I feel like a character has ceased being just fictional and has actually just become -- a pathetic and fail person captable of actually making me mad, possibly for my gender as a whole, but at least for how fail an example of personhood a character is.
I tried to deal with the part where she went off to Hueco Mundo to 'save Ichigo and protect her friends'. It was stupid but I suppose in the Orihime-faillogic!bubble it almost made sense. I couldn't deal with her utter surprise when they actually came to save her, almost exactly like what happened to Rukia. Various folks I spoke to while railing on this subject said 'well she didn't know the deal with Rukia', but I know talking isn't the strongpoint of Shonen, but the idea that they all trained to go to Soul Society and never talked about Rukia and then Rukia and Orihime never talked about it while training was just stupid. Her little 'oh, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised' made me angry but I tried to put it aside especially because there was some good sexy fighting going on back in Karakura Town.
And then .... and then 'I don't know what to do, save my Kurosaki'. UGGGGG!!!! I nearly tore my hair out and I had been expecting it because I was spoiled it was coming. And then she looks on in horror and goes 'oh I guess that's my fault'. WTF.
It left such a poor taste in my mouth I'm not sure I can read anything with her in it now. Unless Tatsuki magically shows up and gets the special spirtual power *gives Orihime a fucking spine*, which would still piss me off. I dont' particularly enjoy the 'damaged female' characters. There are so many women in the real world who can't get their shit together whose lives are ruined or unstable, who are emotionally manupulated or physically beaten to the point of being unable to make a single descision for themselves despite being beautiful and talented and intelligent with a huge support network, and there are even more women who aren't gifted with talent or beauty or intelligence or a support network who are also in that situation and the idea of taking this girl and holding her up as some sort of hero makes me sick. Orihime hasn't gotten any better in 352 chapters. Seven Years. Seven. She hasn't gotten better in months or maybe even a year of story time watching Ichigo and Chad and Uryuu fight and nearly die to save their friends, she hasn't gotten any better in her months of training with Rukia and she hadn't grown any firmer during her imprisonment. It makes me sick.
And that presupposes that Orihime is even supposed to be written as emotionally damaged in the first place. If she's Kubo's idea of an emotionally well-adjusted female it's not his hands I'll be breaking when I fly to Japan.
It's not because of Ulquiarra or Ichigo that I hope Bleach goes back to Karakura Town soon. It is because I am unsure I can continue to read something that make me so female!ragey.
Bleach as a whole has left me with a constant feeling of 'that was nice, now what?' Every good piece that we are given leaves me wanting more but they are so far between that I'm not even sure it's worth reading more.
And then I saw this and my heart dropped. I already knew this fight didn't even end by 352 and it was only 318 and the fight just started! Now I knew that the intervening chapters would have a lot of other different people and stuff, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was that Ichigo would once again be short changed any further character development for the sake of more fight porn.
We then switched back to the fight in Karakura Town and things got a lot better. I was pleasantly surprised to see almost everyone get some really good development here, the 4 pillar folks (mostly excluding Ikkaku) got some really good development, like good enough to make me actually like them as characters, Captain Furry was back, etc. All in all the fights were tight, punchy and sexy.
We then transitioned over to the Fraccion fights and those were actually pretty cool too! It was wonderful to see my delicious soy sauce back and then Captain Yama was all sexy and kicked some ass and Jushirou and Kyoraku were so delightfully old and married. All it all it was delicious and well paced and not drawn out and good and ....
And then we went back to Hueco Mundo and it all just went down hill again and then there was more Ichigo fightporn and then I just couldn't deal with Orihime any more. I just couldn't.
I personally feel that getting upset with a fictional character over fictional actions in a fictional world is really the height of unnecessary. I mean they're fictional, right? What does it matter? But there does reach a point where I feel like a character has ceased being just fictional and has actually just become -- a pathetic and fail person captable of actually making me mad, possibly for my gender as a whole, but at least for how fail an example of personhood a character is.
I tried to deal with the part where she went off to Hueco Mundo to 'save Ichigo and protect her friends'. It was stupid but I suppose in the Orihime-faillogic!bubble it almost made sense. I couldn't deal with her utter surprise when they actually came to save her, almost exactly like what happened to Rukia. Various folks I spoke to while railing on this subject said 'well she didn't know the deal with Rukia', but I know talking isn't the strongpoint of Shonen, but the idea that they all trained to go to Soul Society and never talked about Rukia and then Rukia and Orihime never talked about it while training was just stupid. Her little 'oh, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised' made me angry but I tried to put it aside especially because there was some good sexy fighting going on back in Karakura Town.
And then .... and then 'I don't know what to do, save my Kurosaki'. UGGGGG!!!! I nearly tore my hair out and I had been expecting it because I was spoiled it was coming. And then she looks on in horror and goes 'oh I guess that's my fault'. WTF.
It left such a poor taste in my mouth I'm not sure I can read anything with her in it now. Unless Tatsuki magically shows up and gets the special spirtual power *gives Orihime a fucking spine*, which would still piss me off. I dont' particularly enjoy the 'damaged female' characters. There are so many women in the real world who can't get their shit together whose lives are ruined or unstable, who are emotionally manupulated or physically beaten to the point of being unable to make a single descision for themselves despite being beautiful and talented and intelligent with a huge support network, and there are even more women who aren't gifted with talent or beauty or intelligence or a support network who are also in that situation and the idea of taking this girl and holding her up as some sort of hero makes me sick. Orihime hasn't gotten any better in 352 chapters. Seven Years. Seven. She hasn't gotten better in months or maybe even a year of story time watching Ichigo and Chad and Uryuu fight and nearly die to save their friends, she hasn't gotten any better in her months of training with Rukia and she hadn't grown any firmer during her imprisonment. It makes me sick.
And that presupposes that Orihime is even supposed to be written as emotionally damaged in the first place. If she's Kubo's idea of an emotionally well-adjusted female it's not his hands I'll be breaking when I fly to Japan.
It's not because of Ulquiarra or Ichigo that I hope Bleach goes back to Karakura Town soon. It is because I am unsure I can continue to read something that make me so female!ragey.
Bleach as a whole has left me with a constant feeling of 'that was nice, now what?' Every good piece that we are given leaves me wanting more but they are so far between that I'm not even sure it's worth reading more.