quests-kitten

[quests-kitten]

don't mind me. i'm going insane about my ships of olde again

UlOri my love...

I'm losing my mind remembering this moment with Ulquiorra and Orihime bc it's literally ONE OF THE CLASSIC shojo manga tropes where this cool, seemingly unfeeling guy who doesn't take interest in anything finds a seemingly ""ordinary"" woman interesting. Ordinary in quotes because usually the lady isn't all that ordinary and it's only a default perception of her commoner upbringing or how she perceives herself to be "nothing special".

The phenomenon of おもしれ―女 has been documented many times: here is a pixiv encyclopedia entry on it; and here is another one. Apparently the origin of the trope is Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers), but interestingly, Domyoji doesn't call Tsukushi "an interesting woman" directly: it is implied through the rest of the cast's reactions to her and the narrative that establishes this trope of "cool, unfeeling, villain-leaning guy of some renown/stature takes interest in a commoner girl with good moral character".

And that results in like, an elevation of said girl's status within the story. Similarly, Ulquiorra (and i guess by extension, Aizen, and the rest of the villain squad in the HM arc) is responsible for uplifting Orihime's status in the story from "ordinary lady" to "lady with special powers".

Also it's interesting how Domyoji ended up with Tsukushi in the end but Ulquiorra turned into fine dust after making his first "human" connection ever with Orihime. By "interesting" I mean, kind of a waste of a good character with SICK visuals and excellent development, but alright Kubo...

[quests-kitten]

my boy! I love him so much

Im so tired, but it is done