A wild baker appears!

#ishweek2022 first and last

The first to wake ☀️ and the last to sleep 🌙

And? That's the point. You think I don't look at their non-canon status and don't see a goldmine for angst potential thanks to this? You think I'm weeping, but I'm rubbing my hands like a greedy little man, thinking up scenarios to make others cry.

"They don't get together." Maybe that's the point, Jerry. The tragedy of the "what if" - not knowing what road their love story could have taken, but knowing the chance of it blooming in the first place is forever lost. Or maybe it isn't and it takes many years to see the chance once again and this time not losing it. Or maybe losing again-

Creating a story where they do get together is understandable and isn't this awful thing that should be forbiden, but sometimes embracing the non-canon status isn't that bad. Sometimes I want to create a story where instead of getting together, I explore the love and how it affects the characters.

Unrequited love, one sided love, falling in love after it's too late, denial of feelings etc. You name it and I want to explore it.

Canon ships can't provide me that. Them being non-canon isn't well...canon. It can exist in one fanfic but they're still canon.

Not all love stories between characters, who were or weren't canonically in love, not ending up are automatically bad. Non canon ships can also tell a story. And I'm not just talking about well known, popular non-canon ships btw. This includes lesser know ships and crackships as well.

more doodle dumps

1&2: post 686 devastation

3: catching up on ishweek.... prompt was edelweiss

4&5: initial text post from @/falseichiruki on twitter

6: dumb little korean meme that i hichirukified

7&8: i need ichiishi to do what I only want my favourite ships to do: kill each other

9&10: idk what can i say these gingers have an authority kink

11&12: this little au situation thing came to me in a fever dream.... idk i just think it'll be screamingly funny

There’s just so much wrong with Ichigo and Orihime ending up together, I can’t understand how IchiHime fans are completely fine with how their story played out. 

1- Ichigo never shows feelings for Orihime that are beyond friendship, right until the very end of the manga.

There has never been a moment in the manga that shows on Ichigo’s side that he cares for Orihime as more than a friend. He cares for her, but what’s disappointing to see is that there’s no special place that Orihime holds. She doesn’t have that inseparable emotional bond with him like Rukia does, she’s not the rival that still sacrifices everything to help him like Ishida, she never made a pact with Ichigo to protect him til’ the very end like Chad. 

The fact that Kubo himself never included any insight on Ichigo’s feelings for Orihime is what makes me feel like he never planned it out properly; he has Orihime and Ishida discussing how ‘to Kurosaki, Rukia isn’t just a friend. She’s a very special person to him,’ as well as countless little poems in Ichigo’s perspective ‘I wonder if I can keep up with the speed of the world without you in it’, ‘that’s right, nothing else can change my world’. 

— I’m not saying that Orihime needs to do something extraordinary or sacrifice herself further for Ichigo, she’s a wonderful companion and Ichigo cares for her, but to be the main characters love interest? There’s nothing that allows the readers to see through Ichigo’s eyes and what he sees in her, no moment that makes us go ‘Ah, he really values her, she’s special to him’. Which brings me on to my next point:

2- Rukia and Ichigo’s relationship and emotional bond set the bar too high for Ichigo and Orihime.

What I think is that Kubo really, really loved Ichigo and Rukia’s relationship. He loved their moments of connection, their talks, their sacrifice for each other. He loves Rukia to death as a character, and I think he just felt really good writing and expanding Rukia and Ichigo’s moments and lines. I don’t think he realised how deep he made their bond seem, how inseparable, and when he tried to include the aspect of Orihime’s feelings for Ichigo, it didn’t work too well because it felt so bland and insubstantial compared to this thing Ichigo has for Rukia.

Every single emotional scene for Ichigo, his powers, wanting to protect people, his mother’s death (!!!) has always been with Rukia. He talks to her, which I think is so, so freaking important. She listens, understands, and I cannot get over Memories in the Rain. It was so difficult for Ichigo to explain his mother’s death and Rukia handles it beautifully, makes it a moment he remembers ages later. I think that was the chapter that did it for me - they share such deep, personal moments together that just aren’t there for Ichigo and Orihime.

It’s plain to see that Rukia is literally someone he can’t live without, their bond is so much deeper than friendship or romance - their souls are connected. She understands what’s going through his mind without words, she makes him happy, Orihime says it herself. She chases his fears away, with words. They have their dramatic moments but what I love is that they build each other up through words. Ichigo talks to her when he tries to save her in Soul Society, tells her that he is going to rescue her, no matter what. He sees her afterwards, tells her it’s fine if she wants to stay, she can, he smiles at her, thinks ‘looking at her now, I remember exactly why I wanted to save her so much,’ - not because she gave him his powers, or because he owed her, but because he just wants to see her happy. 

I could go on and on about Rukia’s importance in Ichigo’s life, but the bottom line is that Rukia is and will always be the focal point in Ichigo’s life. It’s always Rukia. Orihime notices it herself, it brings her to tears because she can’t replace Rukia, she doesn’t know how to give strength to Ichigo.

It’s just such a strange, sad dynamic to have Orihime so infatuated with Ichigo, only for him to have such a deep, emotional bond with someone else. It’s unfair and terribly cruel to her. Kubo should have either limited the interactions between Ichigo and Rukia or included more emotional ones with Orihime and Ichigo.

3 - Orihime is not close to Ichigo at all.

By that I mean that she knows so little about him. Their interactions beyond fighting and saving are so minimal and emotionally disconnected that it’s impossible to see these two actually have a conversation about something. The things that Orihime knows about Ichigo are always second hand (Ichigo’s mother’s death from Tatsuki, him getting his Shinigami powers from Rukia, his desire to get his powers back from the Fullbringers. She’s never at the forefront of anything when Ichigo needs help. 

4 - Orihime admires/idolises Ichigo too much to get close to him.

She sees him as her protector, someone strong and brave and I guess that’s why she likes him? It’s never really clear. Why is she so in love with this grumpy orange-haired highschool kid that she’s willing to give her life away to help him?She says she wants to heal all his pain, but she doesn’t know what pains him in the first place?

They’re not close at the beginning, Ichigo refers to her as Tatsuki’s best friend, and Orihime is always seen to have funny fantasies and dreams about him. Later on, their interactions are very stilted and awkward. She bumbles and flushes around him, which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with that, and Ichigo kind of just…ignores it? To me, they don’t fit well at all, at least now how Kubo shows the sides to their characters.

Orihime is so bright and caring, why can’t she really talk to Ichigo about his worries outside of battle? Why do their interactions have to be comic relief (her dress, which was extremely awkward)? Does Ichigo even know anything about her beyond her family situation? Does he even bother to talk to her about something casual? 

Ichigo is not always strong, he can’t always play the protector for her. The Hueco Mundo arc was a great example - she screamed out for his help, he had to rise to help her. Earlier on, when the Arrancars invaded, he couldn’t protect his friends and he had to apologise to her for failing to protect her. It just screams power imbalance - she couldn’t protect him either, when her powers are more suited to it. Why didn’t she apologise, too?

Maybe it was supposed to be romantic, it didn’t work for me. It’s just funny how the stark comparison to Rukia and Ichigo, where she gives him strength and hope through her words, where he’s comfortable showing her his weakness with the hollow mask is so much more natural. 

5 - She feels jealous of Rukia’s relationship with Ichigo.

Not just her breakdown, but panels that Kubo drew which show her watching Ichigo looking down at Rukia while she’s healing, emotion so clearly in his eyes, and turning away. It’s just — why make her jealous of Rukia if Rukia and Ichigo are supposed to be just friendship? It complicates everything and it makes the readers think ‘Oh, Rukia and Ichigo must have something going on if Orihime is jealous of her. Ichigo must really care about Rukia.’ 

6 - Ichigo is not good for Orihime.

The fact that her insecurities are never cleared makes me laugh. She ends up marrying this dude who still sees Rukia on the daily - she’s still facing those feelings of jealousy. Rukia is so clearly his kindred soul, if he wants to marry someone else and have them sit through watching their husband share such a deep connection with another person, then that’s absolute shitty of Kubo.

He makes her feel “inadequate”, literally, because she can never compare to Rukia. It’s just. Why. So cruel to her, there’s literally nothing she can do about it. He’s always pushing her to the back, never facing her full on like a normal person. It’s always over his shoulder ‘Stay here, Inoue’ and I just— ugh. She’s so wonderful. Beautiful, happy. She deserves someone who will laugh at her jokes, taste her funny food (come on, Kubo. You could have had like a two-page spread where she feeds Ichigo something weird and they have a laugh over it, something natural), makes her clothes (ahh, Ishida.)

I’m not here to promote Ishida/Orihime, but she’s so natural around him. He thinks about her, considers her feelings. She protects him with her shield, fights beside him as an equal, not ‘Inoue, you’re on defence. I’m counting on you.’ 

7 - There’s no development for Orihime.

I don’t know what she got out of Bleach, tbh. She went in infatuated with this image of Ichigo in her head, came out in the same position. She’s endured painful feelings of jealousy, helplessness, meeting other people. She made bonds with people, like Ishida, or Ulquiorra, who could have developed her character in some way. Made her think that hey, I’m worth someone directing all their attention and feelings towards me, too. I’m worth being thought about, considered. Ichigo literally does not have the time of day to notice her feelings for him, her jealousy. He’s oblivious or preoccupied and unforgiving about it. 

She’s forced to wear some seriously provocative clothing by Urahara, in which she is clearly uncomfortable, just to get his attention. He doesn’t even say anything to her. Chad has to say, ‘Yo, Ichigo. What do you think of Inoue’s clothes?’. It’s so freaking embarrassing and awkward for her that I really want her to leave Ichigo behind. He’s not worth it.

I know that Bleach is a Shounen manga, but seriously. Kubo tried to incorporate some romance when he really didn’t have the right idea of how to go about it and ended up butchering Orihime’s character, Ichigo and Orihime’s pretty solid friendship, and left the reader feeling baited with Rukia/Ichigo. In his head, friendships are sacrifice, you changed my world, for her I’ll go through a thousand blades, that’s the man you are in my heart, show them that despair can’t stop you while romantic love is Orihime pouring her heart out to the guy that still doesn’t know how to pronounce her first name.

⤳ Marin Kitagawa in Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru ep. 05