New Bleach chapter out.

[rii_no_ame]

I said I wasn't going to post about this chapter.  But now I am...confused?  Startled by the turn the arc has taken?  In denial, still?

Jesus.  Help me figure this out, people.

Comments

[ichibanseiken]

Kubo's been howling "Wolf, wolf!" for quite a while now. His posts on Tumblr seemed to have indicated that 1. he thinks its funny to have all these fangirls weep over Byakuya, and 2. he never plans ahead and never knows what happens next. Well, then, here is what I think:

1. Senbonzakura's blade is shot, BUT the hilt is still there. Byakuya is standing - he seems a lot less fragile than previously indicated. Much has been made of his "dying wish" - that's spoon-feeding it a bit much, don't you think?

2. From a storyteller's perspective, I also don't plot ahead a whole lot. Sometimes it means that I overextend myself and end up treading water. I think that's Kubo doing right now. He has too many loose ends out there and he's trying to bring them together somehow, and it's just HARD.

3. Despite Kubo's somewhat erratic plotting, he has, so far, adhered to the unwritten contract between the author and the reader, so I don't see him deviating from his genre so much that he'd let Byakuya slip into obscurity, having him quietly expire against a broken wall. Not happening. Bya may not be the main character, but he is one of the driving emotional factors behind the actions for several other characters - some of them being our main players. Rukia? Ichigo? Renji's fallen by the wayside somwhere, but still, lots of growth there. And Byakuya's internal growth as a result of the initial SS arc. If he deviates from the genre enough to just let Bya croak without enough fanfare, I'll totally discount anything he's written after the HM arc and call it a day.

4. I don't really care about Ichigo's parentage. If it turns out Masaki was a Quincy, it's pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Any prior allusions would be awfully obscure. I don't believe for a second that he decided on that 10 years ago - we'd have seen the signs before now. However, it's an interesting twist. Too bad he didn't come up with it earlier. Like, in the much-desired Isshin history. Once Ichigo was so heavily involved in all this, Isshin would have told him, even when they were stuck between dimensions and Ichigo was training the final Getsuga Tenshou. This might have been Isshin last conversation with his son - you'd think they would have exchanged important words, no?

I feel unmoved and unexcited. If anything, the nature of the tease makes me feel like Byakuya should pull through in the end. As for HM, I think plot-relevant things are going on, and I also think there should be a parallel arc to shed some light on all that. As I said, there are disadvantages to writing by the seat of your pants... too many threads to weave into your tapestry.

So, don't worry. He's alive. Go write something happy :-)

P.S. edit here: it has occurred to me that the fact that so many of the Shinigami restored Ichigo's sword is like doing an emergency back-up of their powers. I wonder if the same can be done for them now, using Ichigo's sword.

[rii_no_ame]

1. I didn't think Kubo had an official Tumblr...? He has an official (Japanese) Twitter, but I didn't think a Tumblr.

2 - 4. Actually, if you're an avid reader of the manga, it's an entirely-plausible twist that was directly hinted at during the Winter War arc and even indicated prior. My problem isn't that it feels like bad storytelling or writing by the seat of the pants (Kubo even promised a TBTP 2 arc to give more background), but rather that I could give less than a shit about the Quincy. >> I'm by far more interested in the hollow/shinigami dynamic, never loved Ishida in the way I loved the shinigami, and just...feel indifferent to the concept of Ichigo as a Quincy.

I think you might well be right about Byakuya. But assuming he does pull through, that was probably an unnecessarily-long tease; it'll cause a lot of fandom wank.

I like that idea!

[ichibanseiken]

I think it was Drabbleandfluff who forwarded a link to Kubo's Tumblr, but I don't know how official it is. It says it is, but this is the web, after all. They did have updates on his pneumonia and such, so it sounded like somebody had a clue. I can ask Drabble for the link, if' you'd like because I don't think I have it anymore.

[rii_no_ame]

Interesting.

Well, I follow, his Twitter, so it's all good - I try to keep away from Tumblr generally unless I'm searching for fanart. So long as the info's coming from somewhere, eh?

Sadly, the only thing that will provide illumination is another few chapters (or a few hundred chapters) and we have to wait for those. Le sigh.