#ask troius

Also, seeing your thoughts has made me appreciate scenes and characters I never thought I would -- Yamamoto for instance, who would've thought?! They've also reminded me of why I fell in love with the series as much as I did, from the artwork to the themes to the incredible bonds between the characters. You've reminded me that BLEACH has it's flaws that can sometimes take you out of the story, but when it hits, it 100% HITS! It's a manga that's about the bonds we form, how they can help us overcome challenges and be a source of light in our lives. It's about the ways we overcome grief and the fear of death, whether it's literally fighting your way through it or slowly coming to a state of acceptance as time goes on. It's about the 'hearts' of people, about what they look like and how they're shared between those you choose. I could go on and on, but then this would become an essay and we'd be here all day.

All of this is to say, thank you for choosing to create a Tumblr account and deciding to read the series and give your thoughts along the way. I can't believe you've finally reached the end, it almost feels like I'm saying goodbye to the manga again!! I don't think I'm the only one here who sees you as a big and valued part of the community on here, so I hope you'll be sticking around! :)

Thank you so much Rays! Response under the cut because it went long.

Not much to say here, except that I basically agree with all of this. The Giselle and Orihime stuff wasn't great, but you could basically forget about them as soon as you turned the page because there weren't entire fights built around those moments, like what happens here.

1st act: a man strikes his lover, but because their bond is so strong her injuries manifest on him too.

2nd act: the man feels so ashamed for his actions he literally falls sick

3rd act: the couple decides to drown themselves instead of dealing with their disfunctional relationship (it was feudal japan back then)

4th act: the man regrets this and tries to escape the waters, the woman "mercifuly" slits his throat so he wont have to live with the shame of being a coward (again, feudal japan)

In the bankai Shunsui plays the role of the woman and Lille the role of the man.

Also how likely do you think it is that Kubo would ever continue Bleach after the anime adaptation is finished ?

It has been great blogging through it this whole time. I started this project because I came across this tumblr community and it rekindled my decade-old love for the series, and I thought "hey, I never actually finished it", and then decided to do the read-through...and it's been probably the second most rewarding three-year project I've ever done, just coming short of law school.

More detailed stuff under the cut!

I dunno if "terrified" is the right word-- Yhwach is functionally immortal, after all. If he were afraid of death he would have just not started a massive war and chilled in the Schatten Bereich.

I'm not saying he should know about Jushiro's condition but he should have at least known a wikipidia level of info.

Nah because something that is abundantly clear about Soul Society is that nobody in the Seireitei has the slightest bit of actual knowledge of Rukongai. And Kisuke isn't an exception.

Like, Soul Society is an incredible stratified place. All of the most powerful and important people are in the Seireitei. And even the powerful folks from outside are eventually brought in, because the temptation of power/a better life is much too high to resist. And so the Soul Reapers don't care too much about what goes on beyond their walls! Sure, they might need to kill a particularly nasty hollow now and again, or mass-murder the inhabitants to maintain the balance of souls in an emergency, but otherwise? Who cares!

It's pretty telling that even anime fans last cour were clamoring for Ichigo to come back after episodes of mere cameos from him, but also nice to see that while Mayuri/Byakuya/Zaraki and co are popular, *Ichigo* is the one who remains the heart of the story, the nexus that pulls together the Shinigami, his gang of friends and the audience. Given that animation can oft make what feels long and tedious in manga (Gremmy vs Zaraki was one ep in anime vs going on forever in manga), the Pernida/Lille stuff should hopefully not last beyond 2/+1/2eps. With all the talk about Cour 3 having a lot of addition, I'm crossing my fingers the anime will spend more time with Ichigo/those close to him (*cough* and the dad squad) in the next parts! Visual fights are nice and all, but character relationships, conflict and depth are, ultimately, far more compelling and memorable than any Cgi flashing swordfight and brute strenght boost can do, there's a reason ppl remember the Ulquiorra stuff on the dome as the pinnacle of Bleach, and not, say, Zaraki vs Gremmy. While I'm not expecting a Lust arc round 2, if the anime team takes their time, I'm hoping the ultimate Ichigo (&co)/Yhwach showdown to be reworked into something just as compelling.

Im sorry but I have to dissagree here. Unohana´s bankai worked as a reversal because it was an actualy reversal, we were lead to believe she was a peaceful person, but in reality she was bloodthirsty.

Her bankai reflects her hidden bloodthirsty nature. Kenpachi´s arc wasnt about growing out of his brutish fighter ways, or revealing something hidden, it was about becoming the best version of that.

His bankai is straight forward because thats what Kenpachi has always been. There may have not been an epiphany moment that leads to this end point, but the end point itself is perfectly fitting

But Unohana was a peaceful person, that's the trick.

Yes, she was, back in the day, the most notorious criminal in Soul Society, a brutal swordfighter who helped Yamamoto carve out Soul Society from an era of blood, and probably killed her fair share of Quincies in the first war.

But she was also the peaceful healer, the mentor, the quiet pillar of strength that supported all the other companies of the court guards. That's who she chose to be, and while you can say it was a facade...at some point, the facade has enough impact on the world that I don't think you can discount it as a part of the person. If that Unohana was never real, then who wrote that last letter to Isane?

And I know we're all in love with badass Yachiru Unohana, but she was really a terrible person! She apparently used to go to the outer districts and just butcher people in the hopes that somebody would resist, and once again provide her with the sweet taste of mortal combat. That's not just unhealthy, it's horribly immoral. And it created a monster, Zaraki, who behaved in more or less the same way.

But Unohana changed! She's not the only one-- it's a big theme in Yamamoto's fight with Yhwach as well, this idea that actually being a hard-ass killer isn't what should be valued in life. Yamamoto left his arm in ashes back in Karakura town so that he wouldn't again misplace his priorities, and he dies to Yhwach in part because of it, but he leaves Shunsui in charge, somebody who he specifically taught not to value the monster he used to be.

And that's what Unohana does to Zaraki. She brings it all out of him, he finally has everything he wanted, and then he kills her, and realizes well fuck. Maybe fighting to the death isn't the goal of life. Maybe it happens, but it's not your purpose, it's something you do if it has to be done for something in your life, something you care about.

It's the exact same lesson Zangetsu was teaching Ichigo during that first fight against Zaraki in Soul Society, and it's not a coincidence that Zaraki's first fight after this is rescuing Isane, the other person that Unohana deeply cared for. Fighting for a purpose, in sharp contrast to all his previous fights, which were fought more or less because he wanted to fight somebody.