Bruh this is not a participation award. He knows everyone is fighting and yet he singles out Ichigo and Rukia. The fact that the current bleach fandom cannot understand narrative devices or what a plot hole is actually worrying. Did their education system fail them or something?

A full page dedicated to him entrusting the fight to them but no it wasn't going anywhere, his words aren't that deep, it was unimportant 🙄

And their defense is "rukia still gets called out so it's fine!!" Unless they add rukia to the final battle, in which case I'll eat my words, this resolves absolutely nothing. In fact I rather they took it out completely or completely removed Rukia's name.

- She was the first character created

- She was the og protagonist of snipe

- Ichigo's character design was changed to match hers and Kubo said that it feels wrong to draw ichigo without rukia.

- she was called the fixed heroine and the shinigami protagonist

- Kubo chose to feature both of them on the cover of the final volume, making it the only volume with two characters AND singled out ichigo and rukia in the thank you note of that volume.

They are the two main characters like it or not. Even og IH shippers understood that she was a main character, hence all the merch and art, and that ichigo and rukia's bond was central to the story even if they didn't consider it romantic. Calling her a side character and failing to understand why people are upset by her treatment in the last arc in light of Urahara's last words is at best poor understanding of narrative devices and storytelling and at worst willful blindness.

Someone legit told me that Urahara's final words aren't that deep and that he only singled them out because they are the closest to him which a) is completely incorrect, they are not the closest characters to him like where did that even come from?? hello yoruichi and b) shows piss poor understanding of foreshadowing and narrative significance. Characters words and actions have meaning and serve to move the storyline along, especially a character's final words.

Dudebros acting like hur hur rukia fans think the entire series is about her. I know it is difficult but can you use your singular brain cell for a minute and understand that from a narrative pov, Rukia should have been involved in the final battle. Effing ganju played a role and his importance to the overall storyline pales in comparison to Rukia.