jackattack20writes

[jackattack20writes]

BLEACH The High School Warfare

[jackattack20writes]

[jackattack20writes]

Also just realised I forgot to post about the second chapter of IchiRuki dry cleaning being uploaded whoops. As always I super appreciate anyone that gives it a read :)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63681433/chapters/164802187#workskin

[jackattack20writes]

Because I have the attention span of a toddler I wrote a small white rose thing I may or may not expand on eventually. As always I super appreciate anyone that gives it a read :)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/64305562

https://archiveofourown.org/works/64305562

[jackattack20writes]

[jackattack20writes]

I haven’t quite figured out how to talk about it yet and it might need me to finish my first ever reread of the entirety of TYBW but the discussions Bleach has on the idea of power feels underdiscussed especially considering it’s like the only connective thematic tissue between TYBW and the rest of the manga and I wanna talk about it. And also feels relevant to why Ichigo might’ve stayed in the human world and not gone to the soul society.

[jackattack20writes]

My piece for the Every Day Seasons @ichirukizine !! Learned a lot while working on this, hopefully I can do more in the future! Leftover sales for the zine are still going on until April 15th!! Now is your chance to get your copy here!

[jackattack20writes]

I had a look through my fic ideas folder and I totally forgot I had the idea for a crack fic that’s just Yhwach watching everything post TYBW so he’s just there shipping IchiRuki and going “wtf no you’re supposed to be happy I need you to be happy so I can come back again”

[jackattack20writes]

More promo art for @ichirukizine. Episode 342 💜🧡 Leftovers are open until April 15th!!

✨

[jackattack20writes]

I’m pretty sure that Australians don’t have more then maybe 30-50k MAX people on tumblr. Like American had some 30 million users in 2020 (aka basically probably peak over the last 7 2018-2025) while Australia only has 26-28million people depending on who you ask (27 to be safe) so I’m just genuinely curious how many of us there must be on here.

If you Currently live in OR were born / raised in Australia and ID as (born/raised + ID, as I know a lot of born/raised here don’t ID as Aussie) you are Australian in this poll!

Please reblog for bigger sample size

[jackattack20writes]

had a very silly discussion with a friend about how ichigo's feelings for rukia throughout bleach are quite simple and obvious but miss kuchiki??? who knows what's going on in that little repressed brain of hers. shes such a moron and im so fond of her

[jackattack20writes]

It’s strange how with all the experience I have with writing stuff in academia I can still struggle to explain my reason for something past “the vibes”. Like as an example I think Qrow’s relationship with Clover in RWBY is evidence towards him pining over Taiyang for years and like the only explanation I have for it being specifically Tai is “the vibes” of him and Clover are similar. But like that’s not an argument.

The vibes of someone barely makes sense. It’s not like arguing for just STR being together,cause the kind of flirty dialogue between Raven and Summer in Vol 9 plus the tiny age gap between Yang and Ruby is enough to basically confirm it. Whereas my whole argument for Qrow having feelings is just the vibes of it.

[jackattack20writes]

Was on a bit of a writing kick yesterday and finally finished the next chapter of Vampires will Never Hurt you! As always I super appreciate anyone that takes the time to check it out :)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57001534/chapters/163329526

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57001534/chapters/163329526

[jackattack20writes]

I wrote a dry cleaning au IchiRuki fic! I hope anyone that checks it out enjoys :) https://archiveofourown.org/works/63681433/chapters/163244194

[jackattack20writes]

It is Time to Kill The Common Understanding of the Dome of Las Noches Fight Once and for All

I’ve been thinking about @starrdustcrusader​‘s post making fun of BBS’s interpretation of Full Hollow Ichigo, and while it is very good and covers a lot, I felt that I had something further to add. Please go read that post first so you are on the same page.

I also invite you to go read chapter 350, The Lust 4, and the next few chapters as well.

Now, like I said, the post in question does a very good job of pointing out what’s happening here: Full Hollow Ichigo has less than zero concern for Uryuu or Orihime. He is not interested in protecting them whatsoever. Indeed, he directly attempts to kill Uryuu, with that attack being very likely to kill Orihime as well. It is only stopped by Ulquiorra’s intervention.

And why did Ichigo attack Uryuu? Because he was a threat.

When you are doing dispassionate threat analysis, whether that be tactical or strategic, when you are thinking with an essentially military mindset, motive stops really mattering, because it cannot be taken for granted. What matters is capability. What someone says their intentions are, or what their intentions seem to be, often matter less from this perspective than what they can do, or are doing.

What is Uryuu doing in this fight? He is interfering with Full Hollow Ichigo killing Ulquiorra. And that is Full Hollow Ichigo’s only goal. Thus, Uryuu is an enemy and is also to be killed.

And so is Orihime (if “merely” as collateral damage).

It’s that simple. This is again pointed out in the original post. In the same way that Ulquiorra earlier said to Ichigo that, “Killing you is synonymous with protecting Las Noches,” killing Uryuu and Orihime at this point is synonymous with “protecting,” because they are in the way and are actively impeding the mission. (”Protecting” what? We’ll come back to that.)

I haven’t said anything new yet, now have I? So let’s get to that.

Here is Orihime demonstrating several flavors of hubris, and also completing failing to do anything to save Uryuu from his imminent demise. What do I mean? Well, let’s take apart her statements:

“Because I said that, Kurosaki-kun is trying to help me.” This is an assumption on her part, and it is wrong.

“I trained because I didn’t want to be a burden to him.” Mind you, she also says this in both the Xcution and TYBW arcs, and is a burden and fails in both as well (the infamous ”Why am I crying?” and “Her shield didn’t work” moments). This should have been a learning moment for her and it was not.

“I came here because I wanted to protect him.” There are other meta posts that detail the selfishness of Orihime’s actions in Hueco Mundo and in general. I would also like to point out that this was also her exact same logic in going to Soul Society. She didn’t learn anything from that experience either.

“So why? Why at the very end did I depend on him?” A great question. One that she never truthfully owns up to, given (2). But there was a reason Kisuke told her to stay out of the war. You may recall Rukia’s statement to Orihime in chapter 228, Don’t Look Back, that “In a battle, the ones who get in the way are not the ones that lack power, but the ones that lack resolve.” She went on to say “Of all the battles in Soul Society, no one was a burden to anyone else. Not Ichigo, nor Sado, nor Ishida, and neither were you, Inoue. If any of you were less than who you are, I wouldn’t be where I am today.” This was very charitable of Rukia, because Orihime’s contribution to her rescue was negligible and was, to reiterate, not why she was even there. Furthermore, Orihime didn’t listen to her here either: she is once again demonstrating a lack of resolve, as she will continue to.

So Orihime doesn’t learn. Great. But maybe you’re thinking about (1). What do I mean she was wrong? I mean, doesn’t the manga confirm she’s right?

This is the crux of that argument. And this is also one of the cruxes of IchiHime as a whole. The thing is… it’s complete and utter bullshit.

This is the exact same scene in the original Japanese:

Now, I don’t speak or read Japanese very well at all. I’m still a novice at it. What I can do, however, is use optical character recognition and translation tools.

(よ)呼んでる - Yonderu - Calling

(よ)呼んでるんだ - Yonderunda - They’re calling

(き) 聞 こえる -  Kikoeru - I can hear

た立てよ - Ta tateyo - Stand up

た立 - Ta ta - Stand

(おれ)俺が - Ore ga - I will…

(おれ)俺が - Ore ga - I will…

俺が護る - Ore ga mamoru - I will protect

(The parentheticals are furigana used as a pronunciation guide.)

Now do you see a single instance of “her” or “she” in this dialogue, particularly when it comes to the final line of “I will protect”? No, you don’t. Because it’s not there. It was never there until a biased translator inserted it into the dialogue. I’m not alone in this analysis, by the way.

Quite some time ago, @kodoku-no-maria​​ did a wonderful analysis about Ichigo’s instincts (”Mistranslations that Created the IH Fandom”) that also covered this (using anime quotes instead) and came to a similar conclusion. It’s a great post and you should read it. 

This isn’t the post she mentions in hers, but there is one done specifically of the manga by a deactivated account. You should read this post too. (This also notes other things, such as how Orihime says “Help, Kurosaki-kun!” and not “Help me, Kurosaki-kun!” so we can take it that the Mangastream / Mangareader English translation is just generally dodgy all around at this point. Which may well impact the points I made above about Orihime’s character; but I think given the events of the Xcution and TYBW arcs that it is evident she did not in fact learn anything, so I will stand by the basic thrust of them.)

Okay, so I’ve marshaled my evidence on the battle and provided corroborating analysis. (I have also reblogged all three of these posts because they’re good, although the links are to the original sources or as close to them as I could get.) 

Ichigo didn’t turn into Full Hollow Ichigo because of Orihime. She had nothing to really do with it. Great. So what?

Well, let’s now move on to my theory.

Now, you might be thinking that it is fairly obvious that all of those lines are Ichigo’s inner monologue. But I don’t think it’s so obvious. In fact, I would suggest to you that it is actually a dialogue.

On the second page, with the third panel, it suddenly zooms in to the wound in Ichigo’s torso. This notably later becomes Full Hollow Ichigo’s Hollow hole. You notice here the dialogue changes, from commands (e.g., “Stand”) to personal pronouns (e.g., “I”).

I would submit to you that the first three lines are Ichigo’s. But I don’t think the last five are. I think they belong to two other entities. Especially the last three. First, let me steal two of Maria’s highlighted panels to make a point:

So who is talking? It’s simple:

Do you really think it’s a coincidence that Zangetsu (Hollow Zangetsu) shows up wearing the exact same outfit as ‘Full Hollow Ichigo’ after Tensa Zangetsu gives a speech about how:

I don’t think so. Ichigo “fell into despair and halted [his] progress” and Zangetsu, as ‘Full Hollow Ichigo’ is “the “source of [his] despair.” (This is the same despair that Rukia noticed when Ichigo came down from the top of the dome to confront Yammy.) As has been previously pointed out in the linked posts, we see this despair on the dome after Ulquiorra’s defeat in Ichigo’s attitude. Starrdust covered these, but let’s go over them again:

He’s doesn’t seem all that shocked or concerned here, to be honest.

He’s a lot more shocked at what he did to Uryuu.

But the thing that really gets him is that he’s gone and killed Ulquiorra. That’s his despair.

This is the first time he’s out and out killed somebody. (And yeah, Ulquiorra is dead because he had his bits vaporized with a cero, not purified.)

He finally has to learn this isn’t all fun and games, that you can’t turn everyone to your side and redeem them and be friends with them afterward, as he did with Ikkaku, Renji, Kenpachi, Byakuya, and even to an extent Dordoni and Grimmjow. This is exactly what Dordoni was warning him about. This is the lesson he will be forced to learn again after weakening Aizen long enough for Kisuke’s kidou to work on him.

And it is why later, his determination to “save everyone” in the Xcution arc by cutting Ginjou down and killing him (even if he turns into a Plus as revealed in TYBW, undermining the whole symbolic importance of the act) is a big deal for his character development, and one of the few redeeming aspects of that arc: it shows that Ichigo learned a lesson from this fight: sometimes to protect you have to kill.

And who taught him that lesson? Zangetsu.

Who was speaking in the 4th and 5th lines in that transformation sequence? My bet is “Zangetsu” (Quincy Zangetsu) or Tensa Zangetsu. And who was speaking in the 6th, 7th, and 8th lines? Zangetsu.

What was Zangetsu protecting? Ichigo. That’s his instinct. That’s all he cares about protecting, just like Tensa Zangetsu. He sure the fuck wasn’t protecting Orihime or Uryuu. And the mask of ‘Full Hollow Ichigo’ is there to protect those instincts. And the mindless rage of ‘Full Hollow Ichigo’ is Zangetsu’s rage at Ulquiorra for trying to kill Ichigo.

We of course know from much later, in TYBW, that zanpakutou spirits aren’t some separate entity from the wielder, but are the wielder (hence why we go from “The Blade and Me” to “The Blade IS Me”) which Ichigo will affirm in the reforging of his into the “two Zangetsus.” So this can ultimately be read as self-preservation instinct. These are the aspects of Ichigo that were willing to do what he himself consciously wouldn’t in order to stay alive.

(Also, Uryuu was an idiot and wrong to stop Zangetsu as Ulquiorra still clearly constituted a threat, so he frankly got what he deserved, if a bit harshly.)

In summary, not only did the fight above the dome in Las Noches not have anything to do with protecting Orihime, but it was entirely about Ichigo’s character development and relations with the personifications of his powers, and everyone has been reading it completely fucking wrong for years and years.

If you don’t know, now you know.

[jackattack20writes]

Imagine if…

Rukia and Ichigo started dating after the fullbring arc.

Both seeing eachother some days after Ichigo’s classes and Rukia’s duties.

By that time, Ichigo starts to notice how couples around him interact and starts asking himself how he and Rukia should treat themselves as a couple. One day, once Rukia arrives at Ichigo’s school but he seems distracted thinking…

- Rukia asks him what is bothering him and Ichigo can’t help but ask why they don’t have pet names -She seems confused and Ichigo realizes what did he say, so he starts to walk away -He suddenly realizes she is not following him and turns slightly to see her -It’s not like Rukia hadn’t thought on that, Ichigo took her low guard and her overwhelmed brain could only think in one thing… -Ichigo went worried by her side making a lot of excuses while Rukia tried to say something until Ichigo heard a shy and quiet “Anata” -Seconds who seemed like minutes and that silence made to Rukia uncomfortable so it was her turn to run away…

Later Rukia discovers how her “anata” could have been misunderstood leaving her more embarrassed… While in the Kurosaki’s house, Yuzu asks Karin if she knows why their brother was babbling and blushing out of the blue…

Forgive my english, hope you can understand it and like it :D

[jackattack20writes]

no more cookies!!!