#jackattack rambles

Just based on 685 and 686 we know that Uryuu and Chad are objectively in lives they hate because Uryuu’s left alone working while his friends are having a party (the nurses even comment on how he’s being forced to work instead of going when he wanted to go) and Chad’s career is fighting. Mr I’ll only use my hands to protect and my pride in my skin lets me protect the people I care about, is getting paid to beat people up now. Like just with those two we get the set up that this isn’t as happy as it appears (especially if you compare it to Naruto a contemporary of bleach that’s reasonably similar and yet it’ ending is happy, Naruto ends up hokage and has a family to go home to.) this is then compounded by what it is that brings Yhwach back, unlike his original resurrection he doesn’t give a timeline he specifies a moment. When Ichigo is his happiest Yhwach would come back. And what moment is this? Not the day of his wedding, not the day he sees his best friend “happy” and married. Not even the birth of his son, it’s bickering with Rukia after seeing her for the first time in what is from what we can assume is Kazui’s birth at the latest.

We see from dialogue in 686 that Ichigo and Rukia have drifted apart, and this is further compounded in WDKALY where their relationship is already basically non-existent. Orihime is the one Rukia talks to to invite her and the rest of the karakura gang and the two don’t have a single one on one conversation in the whole book. And yet Ichigo’s happiest moment that brings back Yhwach is bickering with Rukia. And then the real kicker that I don’t think I’ve brought up in my other posts is that post 686 we see that Ichigo and Rukia are talking all the time now! Suddenly Ichigo and Rukia have phones that work between the Seireitei and the human world that allow for calls (which is kind of a moot point because they could also just pop through Urahara’s to visit for half an hour) but the point is off the page their relationship has been totally reinvigorated and the only change is Yhwach’s final death at the hands of Kazui. And this is without even touching the insanity of the imagery used in WDKALY or even just its title.

And the reason this makes sense is because legitimately everyone in bleach bar two specific characters are cut from the “I’ll sacrifice myself for my friends.” Cloth and they all know not to talk to any one else about it because they’d try to talk them out of it with bs about honour or something. So as part of the debrief they would’ve had post TYBW (cause there was always a debrief at the end of an arc and TYBW is the only time we don’t see one) they bring up Yhwach’s threat to come back now at this point everyone starts coming up with contingencies to keep Yhwach’s threat from coming true, Chad takes up boxing as his career, Uryuu follows his father into medicine rather than tailoring, even Orihime gives up on her dreams of higher education or her other four lives and stays at the bakery without even dating Ichigo yet (based on what timescale we do get Ichigo would’ve been finishing his second year of uni in WDKALY and he hasn’t even had a single date with Orihime until after that book’s finished) and now the real kicker is Ichigo and Rukia let their relationship collapse completely.

Like even if you argue not from a ship perspective it’s incredibly clear that the state of Ichigo and Rukia’s relationship is horrendously worse after the second timskip than it is at any other point in the manga. The best of friends “platonic soulmates” have barely spoken a word to each other in years to the point that they don’t even get to celebrate Rukia’s captaincy in the seireitei. And yet we know from breathes from hell that if the primary person want Ichigo involved he is. And as we see as soon as the two bicker Yhwach comes back. Ichigo and Rukia sacrifice their relationship to protect the world from Yhwach that’s why they don’t end up together. Not because Kubo changed his mind at the last minute but because I believe at least this is the only thing he had planned in the entire TYBW.

TLDR: it seems insane because it is insane. Kubo slipped a tragedy into his happy ending and Occam’s razor after TYBW almost forces you to assume that its mistakes rather than intentional.

My posts on the absolutely insane imagery WDKALY is playing around with

His first loves, Tifa and Sephiroth. Tifa the pretty girl next door that all the boys wanted and Cloud was going to be good enough to be with and protect half the reason he wants to be a SOLDIER. Sephiroth, the unattainable celebrity crush that Cloud isn’t really aware is even a crush, he wanted to be Sephiroth just as much as he wanted to be with him.

Then it’s Zack, he’s like Sephiroth but closer, he’s seemingly attainable for a bit unlike the larger than life Sephiroth and likes Cloud. At least until everything went wrong.

Then he goes insane and puts up the walls that don’t start breaking down until his fourth love Aerith shows up. Aerith’s spunky and forces her way past the walls cloud puts up because she wants to see everything she can especially Cloud, and Tifa as much as she loves him isn’t willing to push the way he needed to then. But just like she helps cloud Aerith helps Tifa by giving her someone to talk and bond with, that she can try and work out what’s going on with cloud, cause while sh can’t push back the way he needs yet she’s still worried for him and wants to help but she can’t yet. But then just like Zack Aerith dies and she’s ripped away from them both and clouds traumatised.

Then eventually he settles down with Tifa and they manage to move past the loss of Aerith. Even though as we’ll see when Aerith and zack come back to life in revelation they’re all going end up like Riverdale. And then there’ll also be the “bad” ending where Sephiroth does some weird psychosexual shit with puppet Cloud and fuses them together forever, finally being “complete” because he’s had a crush on him ever since Cloud killed him at Mt Nibel

So yeah that’s a brief definitive totally official listing of Cloud Strife’s romantic couplings, leaving out people that crush hard on cloud but he’s less reciprocal to like Rufus and Roche.

The UC “bullshit” is the culmination of the shows thesis about how the newer generations need to be left free to chart their own paths. Nyaan and Machu represent two ways in which younger people live with this. Nyaan aimlessly floats through life without convictions or passion for what she’s doing, her only wants restricted to her needs while she pines for what she truly wants but is unwilling to grab it until her hand is forced, and Machu is raging against the bonds holding her with no regards to what happens if she breaks free, she just knows she needs to be free becuase that’s worth whatever she’ll lose in the process. And then if I’m right about Shuji (and even if I’m not the earlier stuff with the red Gundam still fits) he’s the total loss of identity outside of the older generations wants and needs he no longer has his own id or ego he’s subsumed by the older generation and mirrors them (like those kids whose parents never made it in sports or whatever but they “totally could’ve” so the kids are forced to push themselves to the brink no matter what they actually want to enable their parents need to vicariously live through them.)

The fight against RX-78 isn’t just them fighting to prove their universe’s inherent right to exist but also the younger generations right to chart their own paths. This is why Challia and Kycilia’s treatment of Nyaan and Machu are so contrasting, Kycilia impose her own values and beliefs on Nyaan and Nyaan fights against them, she used the gun she was given to protect her self to protect someone else finally choosing what she wants rather than floating along. While Challia gave Machu the freedom to do what she felt was necessary and her gun was used to free herself and the Gquuuuuux to not only achieve what they wanted but to reach their full potential with the omega psycommu. It’s the same reason Challia doesn’t want to kill Xavier. he let Xavier go the way he wanted to and do what he felt was necessary and even though they’ve ended up on opposite sides he doesn’t want to take that freedom away from him in death. Whereas Kycilia was fully willing to kill Nyaan as soon as she didn’t align with her beliefs. And I think this is partly why Challia was chosen and written the way he is. He’s not an icon of Gundam like Char, Lalah, Kycilia, Amuro or even the titans. He’s of the og series but isn’t bound by it, it’s why he can straddle the line of being of the older generation but not trying to bind the newer generation to what they decide and be the only one willing to let them have the freedom they deserve.

“I don’t really want to go to school”

Moving past that is just how the blatant attempts to make Nyaan happy just unnerve her, the most obvious we see being Xavier. Every word he says while well intentioned is clearly carefully chosen to be whatever he thinks will most appeal her to Zeon and Nyaan notices. She calls him out on how he changes his opinions on luck and skill before and after she’s able to operate the GFreD and he doesn’t have a response so he just goes quiet.

However these faux niceties peak even before this in the episode with Miguel and the cake. The scene starts with Miguel and Xavier acting all friendly and sort of trying to include Nyaan but she just hovers on the outside with conch speaking up once or twice to say how nice it is to have friends like them, friends that would bake them a cake. But even so Nyaan’s so seperate from the two that when they talk about her possibly dying she’s able to sneak up on them which I think was intentional to show just how outside of Zeon Nyaan truly is. Then the faux niceties continue until Miguel tries to kill Nyaan, he tries to kill Nyaan with the cake she was admiring him for cooking.

And this is just the piece de resistance of the ep and possibly the show. The cake looks good, it looks rich and tasty and has chunks of fruit and thick icing and according to Xavier it tastes good. On the surface just like Xavier’s friendship with his classmates, Zeon’s willingness to take in Nyaan, and Kycilia taking special interest to look after her. Almost like it’s supposed to be exactly what Nyaan wants in life just like Machu’s mother’s plans for her. Good friends that’ll make her a cake and a home. But the cakes poison and the friends are, if not outright trying to kill her, willing to put her in situations where she’ll die for no reason at all. The cake and Nyaan’s wider interactions in Granada are a much more overt violent version of Machu’s life for the first half of the show, something that looks good but underneath is poisoning her.

And the best part is, Nyaan can tell! She calls Miguel out as the murderer before vaporising him, she calls Xavier out for saying what he thinks she wants to hear and she starts thinking about going to earth as soon as she finds out Machu’s going there. Because Zeon was always a short term fix to get away from the cops in side 6. There’s a reason Nyaan either has a death grip on them or conch is sitting on her head the entire episode, she knows where she wants to be and it’s not in Zeon it’s with Machu and Shuji. And now that she’s knows that not only has Machu escaped from Sodon (everytime I think of this ship I have to correct myself from saying white base) but she has the Gquuuuuux and is heading to earth Nyaan is going to meet her there.

Because as Nyaan said Machu’s the real deal. The thing Nyaan has faith in isn’t Zeon, it’s Machu. After last episode and Nyaan’s words this ep it’s pretty clear Nyaan is holding herself responsible for what happened with Shuji, not only did she “fail” to get him to Machu, she “failed” to keep him safe. In her eyes Machu’s plan was perfect she just messed it up. So she ran because she couldn’t bear to face Machu with her failure, But now she has a Gundam of her own, so she can help Machu save Shuji from whatever happened and sure, she might feel stronger things for both of them than they do her(in her mind at least) but they’re the people she feels a home with and unless something changes wildly I don’t think anything Kycilia does will convince Nyaan otherwise.

(PS. Like I think there’s a point to Nyaan specifically calling out Miguel for betraying Xavier and killing their friends and how much trust they would’ve had in him because Nyaan thinks she did basically the same to Machu with Shuji. I couldn’t really fit that in with the cake stuff but it felt important to mention.)

So I’m not 100% sure what you’re looking for with this ask, but I actually do really like Rukia and by extension Renji being driving forces behind IH getting together. Sorry in advance if this gets a bit rambly, but firstly is it is reasonably established in canon, as multiple orihime has her moments of doubt/insecurity/other mental crises Rukia does appear as a sort of cheerleader the most prominent example being the training in the Arrancar arc.

And then in WDKALY Orihime is the point of contact between Rukia and the human world and Renji starts pushing Ichigo towards her, something I doubt he’d do without prior prodding from Rukia, at least specifically towards Orihime, I could see him doing a general “damn I’m happy about being married, you should get a wife Ichigo.” But I think the fact it’s specified implies Rukia’s involvement. And now because I recognise your screen name I know you’ve seen my most recent ramble about the ending but as I discuss in there, I think it’s incredibly in character for her especially if you think she has feelings for Ichigo. Rukia is an incredibly self destructive character when it comes to doing things for people she cares about, her Bankai is even a perfect reflection of that with how it’s from what I remember the only one that risks so much damage to the wielder.

And the fact that we see Rukia pulls away in the lead up to and period after her wedding Rukia is trying desperately to refuse the fact both that she has feelings for Ichigo and Ichigo has any ability to exist in a space not limited to the human world. We know that his friends get soul passes but there’s never any indication he gets one, Orihime is who Rukia talks to about getting the Karakura gang to her wedding and in doing so leaves out Isshin, Karin and Yuzu, further evidence that she’s trying to undo her time with Ichigo.