ARCHIVED.

questions for the mun, regarding the muse

It may come as a surprise because I don’t think a lot of people think this way about Kisuke, but the aspect of Kisuke’s personality I feel is most important to me is his caring personality and desire to help others! Now let me put a disclaimer, he’s no angel, not by a long shot. But I think a lot of people forget amidst edgy character theories that Kisuke is indeed generally shown to be caring towards those who deserve it and willing to help those in need, even without having any benefit for helping them. (TBTP and EBTR definitely showed situations where Kisuke wouldn’t have had anything to gain but helped anyway.) Heck, his given name even means “joyful helper”, so y’know, it must be pretty important that he’s generally helpful to other people in some way.

questions for the mun, regarding muse

Besides Kisuke being my favorite Bleach character, what made me start to write him is because I wanted to explore the intricacies of his character—stuff that hadn’t been touched in canon. I know that’s a lot of people’s motivation for writing Kisuke is that exact same thing because his intentions and motivations aren’t straightforward. But he’s such an enigmatic character that you can’t help but wonder who he really is on the inside, why he does the things he does, and how he manages to do all that he’s done. He’s also just a really fun and goofy character, which are the type of characters I manage to write well.

If I could change one event in my muses’ life, it actually wouldn’t be his exile. Maybe it seems a little cruel because it is one of his main sources of emotional pain, but I feel that if you changed Kisuke getting screwed over by Aizen and exiled, you change his whole character. I can’t really say whether or not without it he’d be better off or not, but that experience for him is such a crucial part of who he is that he wouldn’t be the Kisuke we know and love.

But an event that I think I would change is just, Kisuke in the Thousand Year Blood War arc in general. The two worst “bad” things he did in canon that really, truly weren’t presented as bad things/mistakes were in that arc. Beforehand he had done bad things but it was presented as bad things—like almost getting Rukia killed, and endangering Ichigo and friends. And he was also conscientious enough to know it was wrong so he actually apologized for it.

Ukitake’s 3rd seat had an expression of bewilderment grace his face, to Kisuke’s great amusement.

“Thank you, Kotsubaki-san!” Kisuke chirped as he caught the jar sliding across the table. He reached in the jar, pulled out a juicy pickle and popped it in his mouth.

He grinned widely as he chewed. “Mmmm, salty and sour, just what I needed!” Kotsubaki still looked confused, almost to the point of frustration. Kisuke chuckled. “Alright alright, I’ll finally tell you, you did do a favor for me.”

He motioned for Kotsubaki to sit down. “I called you here to talk to you, and nothing more. I know it sounds strange, but it was your captain who requested it.” Requested it, more like pleasantly forced him into it. The old white-haired captain somehow had a way of getting what he wanted in the most polite way possible. He was just a charming man, Kisuke couldn’t outright say no.

Judging by how Ikkaku talked about Kisuke when facing off against Ichigo, it seems to me that in the Seireitei the name “Kisuke Urahara” is infamous. He’s gone down in history books as “the guy who turned four captains and four lieutenants into Hollows in one night” (he didn’t, of course, but Central 46 thought he did and would’ve recorded him as such).

His name would be synonymous with “feared genius mad scientist who would kill you if you didn’t do what he wanted”. You know, like Mayuri, only even scarier because he was once Mayuri’s boss so he must be even more powerful. He must be serious business.

Cut to people actually meeting Kisuke and the result is more like

Yeahhhh. He’s not actually that scary? Just so annoying, weird, and having no real manners that almost anyone could muster up the courage to deck him in the face at least once. (Rukia, Ichigo, and Renji certainly felt like that, and although Chad isn’t violent he definitely felt like getting confrontational when Kisuke told Orihime she couldn’t fight in the Winter War.)