Tumgik
#Troius reads Bleach
troius · 5 months
Text
Tumblr media
Hey, you know who's not being a jerk though? Soi Fon! It's a remarkable development, her giving credit to others and supporting her lieutenant. So much so that Renji (again somewhat rudely...she's right there) points it out.
Rukia's reaction is kind of hilarious though. Like, we know Soi Fon has not always been nice. So has Rukia just not been paying attention? Even assuming she never ran into her as a member of the Squad 13 rank-and-file, she still had three years of being a lieutenant, where she'd presumable get the gossip on her.
Which I suppose means that Soi Fon has been personally nice enough to Rukia to make up for that. Here are my theories as to how that could have happened:
Rukia and Soi Fon get along at Shinigami Women's Association meetings. They are both all about business and getting things done, except when each has the chance to indulge in a passion for their favorite animal character. Somehow this has led to amiability rather than rivalry.
Rukia and Soi Fon get along socially at nobility functions. Rukia is a rukon orphan who was adopted into the Kuchiki household somewhat scandalously, while Soi Fon is from a servant clan to the Shihoin but has taken on some of the traditional Shihoin positions because of the youth of the current clan head. Both of them are invited to all the fancy dinners, neither of them is a hot commodity at these dinners because they have a limited capability to confer status on others. Perhaps they bonded there.
Soi Fon had an entirely-in-her-own-head rivalry with Byakuya when Yoruichi was mentoring both of them. When Yoruichi left Soul Society, Soi Fon at first took a bitter pleasure in her also leaving Byakuya behind, but as she became more and more resentful towards Yoruichi for leaving, she found herself relating more and more to Byakuya, and started requesting to work with Squad 6. Byakuya was oblivious to all of this, but was flattered by Soi Fon's seeming appreciation of his obvious talents and impressed by her competence and professionalism. He has expressed to Rukia that Captain Fon is the sort of officer the Court Guards could use more of, which Rukia recognizes is the closest her brother comes to expressing fondness for his co-workers.
464 notes · View notes
troius · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media
People have been telling me that Orihime is "wrong for this fight", that she "shouldn't be here" and I feel like we're not reading the same fight, or approaching it with different assumptions.
Like yes, Orihime is a pacifist. Yes, she hasn't been the winner in a one-on-one fight since...before Soul Society, really. Yes, she doesn't really stand any chance of harming Yhwach.
But if we're once again relying on Ichigo as our only hope to save Soul Society...Orihime is the single best possible teammate for him! She's blocking the Almighty. That's something Ichigo himself can't do! Orihime's powers have been repeatedly referenced as God-like, almost unfair in their scope, and that's the level of power Yhwach is bringing now that he's absorbed the Soul King. I'd go so far as to wager that Orihime is the only person in the entire story who could block Yhwach's attacks so effectively. And if she doesn't have the killer instinct or desire to put Yhwach away herself...keeping the guy who can do that alive is no small thing!
160 notes · View notes
troius · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media
Awww, this actually makes me feel for the guy a little.
He's got every right to be uncomfortable, because he really shouldn't be in this position. This form makes literal what has been a struggle for Toshiro during the entire story-- he really has been asked to grow up too soon. I'm not saying that the spirit academy should have turned him away, but they probably should have had a special educational unit or program for guys like him and Gin, instead of throwing them into the army immediately.
Instead, he got put in a (relatively highly ranked!) officer position, and had to take over when his CO ran away, which also moved the one remaining caregiver in his life into a weird position where he was also her CO. Then Aizen made his a target of his criminal conspiracy, which saw him and all his loved ones manipulated and grievously wounded. And then during the war, it all happened again. And now he's here, battling this mythical giant, and trying to teach basic common sense and responsibility to a man roughly 1000 years older than him.
He'll do it, because he has to, because there really isn't anybody else who can. But I do think that deep down, he wishes it didn't have to be this way.
168 notes · View notes
troius · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
If it were a Soul Reaper who fell for Askin's poison ball trick I'd be a little disappointed in them-- just dodge it, you guys! But Grimmjow 1) does not have a mommy, he was formed out of a gestalt consciousness of hundreds of hollows before forming an independent personality, and 2) is a cat, smacking a ball away out of spite is what they do.
240 notes · View notes
troius · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media
I love these boys so much. Ichigo makes out like he's going to listen to Uryu, but as Uryu points out, it's not like he's going to change his mind. His desire to hear Uryu's rationale and his desire to beat some sense into Uryu are coming from the same place: he loves his friend and doesn't want to end this war on opposite sides. And as is his usual, he's got no doubt he's doing the right thing.
163 notes · View notes
troius · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
Ichigo doesn't take Grimmjow's facade of bloodlust even 1% seriously, and it's honestly really encouraging to see him smile about this sort of thing. That's the sort of trust Ichigo didn't used to hand out easily, and now he's extended it to a former mortal enemy.
170 notes · View notes
troius · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media
I kinda dig this! Byakuya and Toshiro are pretty similar guys temperamentally (young Byakuya from TBTP was even more similar to Toshiro), but they also have another thing in common, which is being pretty lonely individuals with only a couple of close bonds in their lives. So it's really nice to see them develop a rapport here...perhaps even a friendship? You wouldn't expect to see Byakuya respectfully offer to help just anybody, nor would you expect Toshiro to accept such help most of the time.
142 notes · View notes
troius · 6 months
Text
Tumblr media
I had seen the underneath panel before, a sort of testament to Shinji and Momo's good working relationship.
What I had not seen was the panel above it, where Momo ruthlessly incinerates a bunch of Wandenreich soldiers! It's not as if it's entirely unearned-- they were threatening Omaeda and Soi Fon, and also this is a war. But it's definitely not what we're used to seeing from Momo specifically, and a good reminder that for all the terror the Sternritter are causing in the ranks of the Soul Reapers right now, captains and lieutenants must be equally terrifying to the Quincy rank-and-file.
188 notes · View notes
troius · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media
So the previous page actually has the plot development here, where Uryu points out that if Jugram has the Almighty right now, Yhwach does not (and is also asleep), so Ichigo should take the chance and stop him while he's weak. Great character work, builds upon established fact, mechanically sound storytelling.
But it just doesn't hit the way this page does. Look at them!
113 notes · View notes
troius · 6 months
Text
Tumblr media
One thing this war has not had much of is strategy, with the participants mostly engaging in one-on-one fights picked seemingly at random. So it's nice to see Shinji actually identify who the high-value targets are for the Quincies, and make it his priority to protect them. It's sort of a black mark on Soul Society that it's this guy, who spent the last century hiding out in a warehouse, who picks it up, rather than anybody more senior.
164 notes · View notes
troius · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media
Look at Byakuya catching Toshiro when he's about to fall! This is my new favorite Bleach friendship, I love these two together.
123 notes · View notes
troius · 1 month
Text
Tumblr media
Soi Fon ends the manga the way she's occupied it throughout: being an amazingly under-the-radar superstar. She has a mole in Squad 12! That's really impressive considering how equally morally depraved loyal Mayuri's subordinates tend to be.
Also, she shows up here with Byakuya...more grist for the idea Byakuya and Soi Fon, while maybe not exactly friends, are on a very similar wavelength when it comes to their duties as captains, and have a very high level of trust in one another.
74 notes · View notes
troius · 1 month
Text
Tumblr media
Bittersweet moment here, with Shunsui-- now the oldest member of the Court Guards, and the only remaining member of his generation-- recounting his day at Ukitake's grave.
Yet there's also a hopeful note here, with the new Captain-General saying that only "now" does he appreciate Yamamoto's greatness, having to do the same job as him. Seeing that greatness not in Yamamoto's strength in battle, but in his leadership in peace...it's a positive sign for Soul Society.
72 notes · View notes
troius · 18 days
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Another matched pair of verses.
They're very different, yet quite obviously both describing Gin and Rangiku's relationship. Rankgiku's is elegantly phrased, but remarkably straightforward in meaning. She's written off her times with Gin, probably wrote them off a long time ago.
Gin doesn't feel that way. He speaks in allegory, in the second person, in the future tense, even though we all know what was done, and by whom, that would call another person's love for them into question. As with his previous poem, there's room for hope here, despite the strong suggestion that the answer to his question is no.
72 notes · View notes
troius · 1 month
Text
Tumblr media
69 notes · View notes
troius · 16 days
Text
Tumblr media
The TYBW poems are a lot more...well, "concise" is probably the charitable way of putting it. They're not bad, but with a length limited to one or two lines, there's not a lot of room for depth.
Unless you're this poem, which is just beyond romantic to me. The obvious, literal angle is that it's about Masaki, who Isshin has related to the sun in the past, and how she burst into his life, and then how even after her infection with a hollow (the literal embodiment of sin), she still shone brighter than anything to him.
Conversely, you could take it to be by Masaki, and about Isshin, and how his love for her shone through his own sin, whether that be the offense to her heritage of him being a Soul Reaper, or offense to Soul Society of him giving up his powers to save her.
But really it's about both of them, and love in general. There's the love that you have when you first meet, the idealized love, where you're amazed that this person has arrived in your life. And there's the love that you have once you know that person intimately, up to and including everything wrong with them, all their negative traits, and love them regardless.
And there's a difference, but also, there really isn't.
89 notes · View notes