#ryuugiri

Because this is basically one of the main themes of Pride and Prejudice, isn’t it?  To showcase the difference between the relationships built on love and respect, and the forced ones that resulted from impulse/convenience/social pressure etc.  Which, of course, isn’t such a common issue with modern marriages (at least not in the same way; marrying for the wrong reasons is still very much a thing), but was a revolutionary concept for Austen’s time, when women didn’t have much of a choice.  Take Charlotte, for example, whose marriage we do get to see in action, but we cannot really fault her for following the status quo of the time.  

Elizabeth took a great gamble when refusing to marry Mr. Collins, and we see how her mother uses the family’s future to pressure her into accepting, but as the heroine, it makes sense that she’s the one who rebels against this system and ends up not only marrying a man she loves, but also affecting the circumstances so Jane would also marry for love.  In that sense, Masaki has the same role in the EBTR story; by making her own choice and refusing to marry Ryūken, whether knowingly or not, she grants him the freedom to marry the one he loves as well. 

There are three more couples I can think of that fit a similar motif, though they don’t make for quite the same parallel. There’s Byakuya, of course, who bucks tradition and marries Hisana.  There’s Renji, who buries his feelings when Rukia becomes nobility so as not to stand in her way, and though this is mostly a headcanon, anyone who reads my blog consistently knows that I believe this is more or less what happened with Kisuke and Yoruichi.  Most signs point to him being either a commoner or a noble of far lower clout, so whether they carried a romance in secret for years or got together shortly before/after their exile, Yoruichi makes a clear choice in abandoning all titles and luxuries (not to mention friends and family) to be with him.  Whether you read that as platonic or romantic, the end result is the same: Yoruichi went against tradition and the status quo when it posed a serious detriment to her own happiness.  

The big difference between Bleach and P&P is that we don’t see any unhappy marriages in action, like the Bennets or Charlotte and Mr. Collins, to create the juxtaposition.  

Some people may make a case for Ryūken and Katagiri ending up together out of convenience, but I think their relationship has been greatly misinterpreted.  For one thing, when Isshin tells Ichigo that Ryūken let Masaki go post-graduation as a way to make a clean break from his own feelings, I’m not really buying it? I do believe Ryūken had some feelings for her, but they were mostly born out of an effort to make the best of a situation he wasn’t happy with but felt he had to endure.  

Masaki was a lovely girl, so I can’t really fault him for trying to make it work; as a member of a slowly dying ‘race,’ Ryūken carried the immense burden of being the head of a prominent, pureblooded clan that was expected to further the line.  But even before Masaki gets infected by the Hollow, we see how Ryūken’s stiffer disposition changes when he addresses Katagiri.  He regards Masaki with a touch of wariness, as though he’s not quite sure what to make of her and trying to picture himself married to her, but with Katagiri, he’s different, and she in turn is clearly very taken with him:        

One of the things Ryūken and Katagiri also have going for them is the Childhood Friends to Lovers trope, which Kubo is undeniably a fan of (confirmed for Rukia & Renji, Gin & Rangiku, plus heavily hinted for both Tōshirō & Momo and Kisuke & Yoruichi). Ryūken and Katagiri may not qualify as friends, strictly speaking, but the scene where we first hear of this, when Katagiri opens up her heart to Ryūken, frames their first meeting in a romantic light:

8Ryuuken: You can go home and tell my mother… // …that her son… / …has no right to protect the way of the Quincy.Katagiri: I will not.Ryuuken: …I said go home.Katagiri: I will not. / I cannot leave you on your own, young master.Ryuuken: Katagiri………!Katagiri: Ryuuken-sama. // Have you forgotten? / It is my sworn duty to dedicate my entire life… // …to serving you.9Katagiri: From the day we first set eyes on one another… // …my life has belonged to you. // So, please… // Please… // …do not be sad. // If you feel sorrow, Ryuuken-sama… // …my heart will be torn apart. // If you shed tears -Ryuuken: Katagiri.

That’s some seriously romantic dialogue right there, plus it has the added cultural element of them sharing an umbrella for the return trip home, a very romantic gesture in Japan.

Ryūken and Katagiri most certainly don’t qualify as a forced pairing, but they do reinforce the notion that marriage should have its basis in love and respect to work.  Ryūken may have cared deeply about Masaki (mostly platonically, with perhaps a hint of romance), but forcing a marriage between them when he loved Katagiri and she in turn had just fallen in love with Isshin, would’ve made them all four of them miserable. 

So in case it wasn’t already obvious, anon, I’m a big fan of pairings that go against tradition in order to be together xD I did very much enjoy the build-up with Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship, especially as it was slowly revealed that he wasn’t the asshat both she and the audience originally assumed he was (I love that an early draft of the novel was called ‘First Impressions’ lmao).  Or rather, that he had a good heart, but had to learn to see beyond the surface, which over the course of the novel, he does.  

Jane and Bingley were also pretty damn cute, but Elizabeth and Darcy, with their faults and their prickliness, are far more relatable than the always cheerful and friendly Jane and Bingley.  The two are obviously very well-suited for each other, they’re just the Golden Retriever to Elizabeth and Darcy’s Grumpy Cat.  And I’ve always been a fan of cats.