so, there's a scene in early cour 3 where ichigo tells the group how powerful squad zero is, and orihime comes to the completely valid conclusion that if they're that strong, there's a chance they may be able to take down yhwach themselves. obviously, when they later go up to the soul king palace, ichibei gravely tells ichigo that the fight against yhwach comes down to him, that defeating yhwach is his responsibility and that he's sorry but he's going to be down and out for a good while – as will the rest of squad zero.
orihime is there for this conversation btw, and i think this is interesting because it immediately sets up a dichotomy between her and the rest of soul society. everyone in soul society believes to some degree that ichigo is not only capable but also the world's only hope for taking yhwach down, which is an immense pressure that we've seen ichigo valiantly take up but also buckle under throughout this arc. orihime's first thought, however, wasn't him but the actual soldiers responsible for keeping the soul king safe. orihime doesn't default to ichigo. rather, her entire journey throughout bleach has been to stand strong and – if not support him – then at least not be a burden to him. she wants to be able to pull her own weight, and while she has struggled with that historically, her post-FB transformation reveals a genuine effort towards this goal. where orihime needed uryu to take her up to the tower in las noches, she spends the entirety of tybw ferrying her group (which includes ichigo) around on her shield. ichigo even calls for her to do this, which is significant because ichigo rarely calls upon anyone else's powers – he purely relies on his own. more to come on this front.
i want to note some soul society exceptions here, namely rukia and renji. rukia has told ichigo repeatedly that he needs to rely on his friends ("rely on us, ichigo") and renji, as we know, accompanies ichigo in the final battle due to a promise he made himself to protect ichigo, the one who brought him and rukia together. you also have chad, who has been ichigo's day one since day one, and uryu, who also joins the final battle (alongside aizen). but i think it's important to acknowledge that even though these allies have been "partners" to ichigo, orihime is on a different level for a variety of reasons, the most important being that she was the one ichigo asked. renji insisted on coming, uryu joined in, aizen joined in. but not only did ichigo ask orihime to come, he implied that them fighting together would be an advantage, and he repeatedly called on her to use her shield during pivotal moments of the battle. ichigo may have fought with others by his side, but orihime is the only one he actively asked for – which is huge because again, ichigo has never, ever done this.
and i think this is so perfect on a thematic level because orihime explicitly trained to be battle support for ichigo. while everyone else motivated him to become stronger and conquer the enemy in battle, she motivated herself to become stronger and help him. to reduce his burden and fight for him so he could focus on fighting for everyone else (and for himself). there's a lot of talk about who ichigo's battle partners are, and all the names above have been featured in the conversation. however, all of them are combat-oriented, zanjutsu-oriented fighters who ichigo has realistically and thematically never needed. realistically, their powers don't complement his perfectly. thematically, ichigo has already said that he doesn't care if someone else could fill in his shoes, he's going to fight to the death because he's here and he has the power! what ichigo truly desired was orihime's power – her ability to stall, to heal, to shield. he may have accepted and even used his other allies' powers to his advantage but he certainly never asked for them explicitly.
i think this difference becomes even more clear when you see their first brush with yhawch during the soul king seal fiasco. as ichigo flew into battle, orihime quickly began healing him. i can't imagine how powerful it feels for him to be bruised and sore one second and then immediately cleansed in the next – not having to worry about that at all. nobody else in the history of bleach has directly contributed to his battle effort like this. everyone fought their own enemies, but it was pretty much decided that The Big Enemy was all his. and he had embraced this for the most part, until he faced his biggest enemy yet and he asked her to come with. and it is unbelievable how hard orihime has worked for this. how long she's wanted this. she told ichigo right at the end of the soul society arc that she's sorry she couldn't do it. in hueco mundo, she literally throws up a shield in front of theee espada #4 ulquiorra to protect him. she stood up to grimmjow for him. she beat herself up so much for what happened at the tower, she not only trained for 17 months, she also told ichigo she was working on herself and then proceeded to protect him from ginjou. again, throughout these arcs, all of ichigo's friends have fought their own enemies. what sets orihime apart is that even at her weakest, she was determined to fight ichigo's. of the entire cast, i would say orihime is the one who pushes herself the hardest because she knows ichigo's burden will be the greatest and she's preparing to stand against his opponents. everyone else is preparing for their own battles, but she has always been preparing for the final battle, the one that traditionally falls on him. even though she was by his side before, she had never been able to do it because she had never quite gained fluid confidence in her own ability. but she kept returning, she kept returning and now she's one of a very small group of people who went toe-to-toe with yhwach – and actually lived to tell the tale.
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