#almost reblogged from someone who only wanted pro shippers to interact like

[diezmil10000]

hi 👋 you can call me diez or chisi

i am from spain and i like to draw lesbians. this is my main blog, if you're only here for my art and not for my reblogs you can follow my art-only blog!!

(FAQ under the cut)

what software and brushes do you use?

i work on ibisPaint X and Krita on a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite. i use a lot of different brushes for lineart but mostly these ones:

are your commissions open?

i will never do commissions, but thank you for your interest.

will you someday sell your art through an online shop / convention?

no, but feel free to print my stuff in good quality paper if you want to hang it on your wall.

how can i financially support you?

i have no need for that right now. please give your money to other artists or organizations.

can i repost your art / use it for edits?

i don't encourage it, but i don't mind. asking for permission and linking back to any of my social media would be appreciated too ♡ just don't use it for commercial purposes (sell merch, use as streaming layouts, etc)

how do you do X part of your drawing?

i recommend checking my speedpaints if you're curious, the name of the videos is the day i finished that drawing in YYMMDD format (as in, year-month-day). i also made a tag for my art thoughts, but if you still have a question feel free to send me an ask and i'll try my best to explain it!!

where did you learn anatomy?

i used to watch a lot of proko and sycra videos (on youtube), and also do gesture/figure drawings from photo references and k-pop dance practice videos.

when / why did you start drawing?

i started taking it seriously when i was 15. seeing lesbian fanart was what caused my gay awakening and i felt like there wasn't enough of it, so i decided to get better.

do you do traditional art?

i kind of dislike it, actually. i have filled over 1000 A4 sheets and 7 sketchbooks over the years, but it's all quick doodles to practise or warm up. when i bought a tablet i could carry around i stopped drawing traditionally as often, but i still find myself drawing in my sketchbook from time to time when i want to sketch midlessly or get better at something.

do you draw nsfw art?

very rarely, but i only show it to my friends. i do consume a lot of nsfw content tho, just not in public 👍

how do you keep yourself motivated?

a combination of drawing only what i like and a strong desire of seeing more lesbian art. that's why i mostly make fanart and almost never participate in art trades or make art gifts. i also don't want to make a career out of drawing.

have you gone to art school?

i have a college degree in graphic design, but it has almost no correlation with the kind of art i share online. before that i never studied art academically.

are you seriously a furry?

yes.

are you seriously a communist?

you call me a communist, socialist, leftist– i just want people to be happy and i heavily oppose capitalism on its fundamentals.

are you an anti or a pro shipper?

i am neither, i don't care about this.

are you aware that you follow someone who did something problematic?

i mostly follow other artists, so if i've been following someone problematic for a long time it probably isn't that deep for me to unfollow them.

do you have any ocs?

plenty! but i don't like to talk about them in public

can i be your friend / talk regularly with you?

i don't like to talk to strangers, but if i'm following you feel free to interact with me at any time~

what's the name of your cat?

yonyon ! she's a female cat but i treat her by any and all gendered terms

why have you disabled your DMs, story replies and sometimes comments?

because i dislike interacting with fandoms, especially big ones. i draw for myself and for the lesbians with niche interests, so i don't want to read weird comments, block overly friendly DMs or watch strangers have a public debate about my moral standards. i'm very thankful towards all of you who love my art tho, even if i can't read all of your positive thoughts!! also, there are plenty of ways to contact me, they're just not in plain sight 💋

[brinesystem]

.

[lady-of-disdain]

If you're so bothered by a cartoon ship (which... no words) still don't understand why you take it out on shippers, not like you could do much about the studio anyway, they don't care, as they should, but then being on our ass is entirely pointless... maybe that's the problem at the same time, maybe to some extent you do realise no one cares so you've decided persecuting a bunch of fan creators and consumers would be the next best thing. That said I feel it's imperative to point out, we're not Sunrise, we're not the ones with the power to shape this story, so you bullying us is frankly just devoid of any meaning other than raw intent for violence. At the very least admit that and drop the pretences, it's the only thing you've done after all, one would have to be blind not to see it.

If you're afraid a puny ship might be canon, and whatever you've twisted it to mean for you, take it up with the studio, alternatively with god since you're so into fictive characters over real life. Come to think of it didn't you guys have a friend that has a friend working at the studio? How come you're still so insecure? Why don't you tell the friend of the friend to influence the plot? Why hasn't this friend of a friend provided any other inside scoops to make themselves credible? Questions, questions.

Either way, hurting shippers will achieve nothing, we were gonna ship no matter the canon status of the ship, and I pity you people who think that shipping something has to be done because you want something canon, as opposed to just... for fun... but maybe that comes naturally with being pathetic, anyway, the possibility of it becoming canon now has nothing to do with us. Even less so as Westerners, if audience even has any sort of influence in all this, it would be the Japanese one way before it would be any Western one. Appreciate you giving us so much importance, but we don't need it, and we're just not really as important as you attribute, we'd just love it if you stopped hurting people over cartoons. You made something gruesome out of a fairy tale, that's on you, that's your problem, and we'd all be better off if you found a way to deal with that didn't rely on abusing others.

Honey, are you lost? I think there was maybe a different blog this rant was supposed to be sent to but I got it by mistake. Because I have no worldly idea what you are talking about in about half of this ask.

The first thing that confuses me: that I’m apparently “taking it out on shippers”, “ persecuting”, and “bullying” them? Please show me your receipts. I’ve literally never directly initiated contact with a sessrin blog. Hell, the one time I considered answering a post made by a pro blog, it was going to be in direct response to a question they posed in the anti tag, directed towards antis, and it turns out I couldn’t even answer the post because the user had most of the anti community blocked. (Silly, I know, but this is what we’ve been dealing with so what can I say.) Any time I want to respond to a sessrin argument that wasn’t directed to me anyways, I would usually screenshot it and blackout the names.

I can count on one hand the times I’ve even posted in the same thread as pro sessrin blogs, and in those cases, I either A) didn’t directly call out the other blog/blogs that were posting in the same thread as me, or @ them, or B) was only even interacting in said post because pro shippers were piling on and harassing people in the thread, and I was simply pointing out that there were shippers in said thread acting fools. The only time I ever even pointed out a particular blog I did it via screenshot and did it to keep a record of a blog that was admitting to flagging our posts as spam. 

If you would like to see proof of my interactions, all you have to do is check the #receipts tags on my blog, you’ll find all of my interactions conveniently tagged. (Oh and don’t worry, I’ll get back to that receipts tag shorty.)

The second thing you said that confuses me, that I have a “friend that has a friend working at the studio”? What (and I can’t stress this enough) the FUCK, are you talking about? 

I.....have never made this claim? Where have I ever said this, where have I ever reblogged this? I’ve never even read this? I need some clarification here, because either you are from an alternate timeline where I’m living a much cooler life, or like I said, you have the wrong blog.

~

Anyways, regardless of the fact that I’m pretty sure you sent this to the wrong person, I guess I can render a response to the base question you seem to be asking here: Why argue with shippers?

Really, at the end of the day, I’m not arguing with your average shipper. Hell, there are a few blogs I even follow and interact with that have said they like sessrin content, but they understand this is not an appropriate thing for a kid's show. And I can respect that because I’ve been in the problematic ship boat in other fandoms. (Here’s a hint, in one of the fandoms that I followed content for a problematic ship in, a content creator was given cookies with sewing needles baked into them, yikes right?!)

The main message of mine and many other blogs I follow is that this ship isn’t appropriate for children’s media, and what happens is a lot of salty people come out of the woodwork who feel the need to argue and say there is nothing wrong with it, which causes us to have to list the reasons why there is indeed something wrong with it (thus why it shouldn't be in said children’s media), then what happens is people like you come at us and act like all we’ve been doing is bullying shippers, and “why don’t you just let us ship in peace!?!?!?!!!??”

In fact, I shouldn’t even be surprised that I got this ask eventually, because as I’ve pointed out in the past, the shipper argument seems to be a cyclical one.

A blogger will make a statement something along the lines that they really don’t care if people ship sessrin, but the shippers really shouldn’t be making a lot of noise to the studio that they want to see this ship in the show because kids watch it, and it’s not a great message to send to kids.

A shipper will then message the blog (usually anonymously if possible) something along the lines of you’re wrong about the ship sending a bad message to kids because of xyz, or it’s a totally normal and healthy relationship, and you’re wrong, or Yashahime isn’t for kids, etc.

The Blogger will then respond with actual evidence, a well-worded response, or even just fucking common sense (like come on, some of the mental gymnastics I’ve seen people employ to try to validate this fucking ship to us is hilarious).

The blogger will then get another message something along the lines of  “why don’t you just let us ship in peace!?!?!?!!!??”

The blogger responds with JESUS CHRIST I SAID FROM THE VERY START THAT I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SHIP I JUST DON’T WANT TO SEE IT IN A GODDAMN KIDS CARTOON”

At which point the whole process is rinsed and repeated. Congratulations you’ve just witnessed a new grey hair grow out of my fucking scalp.

However, there is a new facet to this shit gem that I’ve noticed during this whole annoying cycle, and that is the fact that a lot of pro shippers are making claims that they are being harassed by anti blogs, but I’m not seeing a lot of proof of this. And make no mistake, if I see an established anti blog being terrible, or making a false claim, I have no problem calling them out, or correcting false information. Please, feel free to screenshot proof and post it in the anti tag, and see how many other blogs won't put up with this either.

And to be clear, I don’t really count anonymous asks as harassment, because people can be sending that shit to themselves. Just like I don’t mind asks I get like this one because I naively respond to them in the hopes that maybe someone will actually understand what the argument has been about this whole time. And if I didn’t like it, turning off anon magically gets rid of it, so *shrug*.

No, I’m talking about actual, out in the open harassment, or shitty behavior. 

Like oh say, Patreon art being reposted in a discord server, then when a good samaritan reports the art theft they are harassed by their fellow discord members. 

Or maybe the ongoing flagging and harassment campaigns that are going on over almost all online social media platforms. 

Or how about the time some people tried to start a Twitter smear campaign against a voice actor who has some opinions about their ship they don’t like.

Yeah, remember how I said I’ve got a receipts tag. I see ya’ll.

[tanukyclaws]

This will be a rant/discussion about Fairgame, Bumbleby, and how badly RT actually treats LGBT characters:

Someone said that this volume was meant to be watched in one sitting, and now that I did it I agree, and watching it in one sitting also changes things and some of them get a new meaning.

Firstly, Id like to apologize to the fairgame shippers, I said that nobody’s at fault here since they didnt have enough scenes, stuff like that. I was wrong, I forgot some of them, when you dont rewatch the show you forget things, and I think most of us who did say they werent that focused just forgot all the teasing. I shipped it too, I thought it was cute, wasnt amazed by Clover but i didnt dislike him either and his interactions with Qrow were cute and the start of something nice and healthy. Now that I saw all their scenes again, now that I realized just how much teasing went in there, c12 hits differently.

“Oh they had just 2 scenes” “oh it was just a wink nothing much” may I remind you, before the end of v3 thats all we had for the bees pretty much? I dont want to compare either, but lets face it, the bees werent the most outright teased ship out there like arkos, it was subtle, just like fair game. Often in my pro bees argument I say “Why did they show them like this in this scene?” because scenes exist for a reason, focus exists for a reason, people smile and wink in real life and its just a coincidence sure, but things in the show are done  FOR A REASON. So unless someone can explain to me while all of Clover’s scenes were with Qrow, why he had the same flirty scene as that waitress from v4, why Qrow always playfully smiled and said stuff like “showoff heh” and make it make sense then Ill just blame it on unprofessionalism. No, I dont think its queerbaiting, but heck it almost was. There were miscommunications between the animation team and the writers and you can see that, they even acknowledged it.  But its already done, the hurt is already here.

Now, someone else who was mad about fairgame (rightfully so) said “oh its not queerbaiting cause they have other lgbt characters? Oh yeah that one lesbian that was bad at first and the 2 wlw women we will never see again” and they’re right:

Coco? Have we EVER seen her flirt/have interactions with women? She’s such a “player” in the book but in show she does nothing like that?

Scarlet? Same as Coco, and poor guy had only like  2 lines??

Oh look we have a trans character too! With only 1 line. Trans people, well all lgbt people deserve better. Im happy about May, I hope we get more trans characters that are actually relevant and not just in the background for 2 scenes.

Jaune’s sister? She said she has a wife once, we saw her in 2 scenes, and they touched hands while far away from each other on a couch. PEAK romance right?

I want you to actually look at our lgbt content, like actually look at it. Do you think its satisfying now when you see all those things?

We were too happy about the bees that we didnt realize how shitty lgbt characters get treated. If you think being in the background all the time is satisfying enough then good for you! I dont think lgbt characters not dying is peak representation. And lets face the truth about the bees: its taking too long. I dont care how slowburn you want it to be, they were from the holy trinity: arkos, renora, the bees. It took us how long exactly to get a definitely romantic interaction? (the blush from earlier this season). While Nora was talking about her and Ren and teasing it herself to say so, while Pyrrha was crushing on Jaune and showing it, while the straight characters got the romance.

Gay romance is the fucking same as straight romance. There’s no such thing as “I dont know how to write it”. Simple, write a het romance, then change the gender of one character, boom you got it.

I dont  care that the bees are romantic at this point, they are, I can bet on it, they will be canon too. But what’s up with all this waiting? Why do we have to wait YEARS for this? Why do the straight romances get kisses and blushes and romantic lines while we get a funny cute dance in the background and a few looks? Slowburns are good if done RIGHT, which if they continue like this bumbleby will not be. Its like the feast the straights are having, they give you a plate full of food too but tell you to wait. You wait, and you wait, and you wait, then the food is cold and gone bad and nobody’s there anymore and its just shit. I used to ship bubbline before I got into rwby, heck they were the reason I realized im gay. 

And I felt nothing when they kissed, it was just too long, its been more than 5-6 years of my life that I waited. When does too long become too long? Arent yall also tired of gay character getting some scenes right at the end of the show/episode? Arent we all tired of getting treated like shit?

I want you to take a moment again and think. Think how all the confirmed lgbt characters we have are either in the background/had only 1 line/ never were shown to be lgbt in the show. Think how all the straight pairings got definitely romantic moments, even got to kiss, but we just get a blush and a few looks.

Are you truly satisfied? How come we got to defend roosterteeth so badly? How come we got to defend RWBY and say it got rep, even good rep at that?

Look at these things and tell me in the face RWBY’s got good rep.

I just cant anymore. The show is fantastic, story and animation is really good, but Im tired of how we get treated.

Ill quit RWBY, Ill move to SPOP (which got actual good lgbt content and rep, and its EQUAL to the straight rep, unlike rwby that treats lgbt characters like dogs and barely give them some bones while straight characters get all the shit), Ill probably reblog some fanart and stuff of the bees cause I still love them to death, but roosterteeth is dead in my eyes. Ill cancel my subscription and never subscribe again, and I feel bad that I had so much hope and paid just to be spitted in the face.

Dont try to argue me into anything, I ask you, to please, just actually think about what we got and what we’re getting, and answer yourself honestly: is this enough? Is this what we actually wanted?

* cough salty stuff dont read cough* ALSO WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE POINT OF THE FUCKING “Will they kiss?” IF THEY BARELY HAD 2 SCENES TOGETHER THIS WHOLE VOLUME BARBARA FUCKING PLEASE. You tease something if you FUCKING DELIVER, not for the sake of it. This is one of the biggest factors that got me this disappointed

[saltysatellite804]

I don’t really know why I’m writing this (to vent maybe?) or where I’m gonna go with this post but I’m just really depressed lately. And I need some sort of outlet.

When I first joined fandom space in 2013-14, I wrote almost exclusively non-sexual content. I carried a lot of homophobia then (I was young, hadn’t been exposed to queerness, and I’m still stuck in the same conservative hellhole now as I was then, but….). Anyway, I felt like I had no right to approach kinky or gay content. And straight sexual content had little appeal to me.

I fell in love with an m/m pairing.

I felt I had no right to engage with it though. So, I didn’t. For a couple years anyway. I think 2016 was when I finally attempted to write for it. It wasn’t a bright and happy and pure  pairing, but I felt I did it justice. At the time I secretly read dark fic on the down-low because I was ashamed of my enjoyment of it. I went to great lengths to justify my interest in it… But also felt like I was Ruined™. I had it pounded into my brain that the only Morally Good sexual content was between m/f and was only okay when they were in True Love and Soulmates (basically my mothers’ beliefs).

So, I made connections with others who liked the m/m pairing. Found out others also liked dark content and talked openly about it, engaged with it. I decided to dip my toes in that water of darker stuff. The people in these spaces were far kinder to me than my family would be if they knew about my truths… And these dark stories? Helped me relieve some dark things in my mind. And no, I don’t want to elaborate. That’s my business. It was a lot of fun and very cathartic and good for my mental health.

Finally, I was comfortable with myself, and who I wanted to be in fandom. Shortly after, I realized I wasn’t straight.

I started out on ff.net forums where I loved to discuss story thoughts and ideas with others. After getting into gay content, I wound up on discord servers for my pairing, with spaces that were much more predominately queer.

My recent hyperfixation landed me in borderlands with rhack. I see this as the point where I finally embraced that I like dark shit and that it didn’t make me an evil person. For a year, it was pretty fun, good. I knew of anti sentiments but they were small and whispy and everyone rolled their eyes at it….for the most part anyway. Maybe see some idiot in the tag like…once a month.

Recently. Though.

I can’t look for rhack content anymore. And I definitely won’t ever venture into general fandom. Trying only landed me tons of people calling me an abuse and rape apologist and everything else you can imagine.

All over FICTION.

Fiction has been dark since the dawn of human imagination! And y’all are shouting this from a position of a game that was created by a capitalist hell-company that made a game that treats violence and dark themes in a light-hearted joking manner. (this isn’t a jab at the game, just at the hypocrisy. But fuck gearbox’s CEO anyway)

I like to think I have a fairly thick skin. But I still get a rush of adrenaline and fear and anger when I see this shit. I can’t deny that.

I tried to stay in my own lane. Live and let live. But…

Tumblr banned the kinda content I post. So I went to the last space there were rhack shippers still posting. Twitter.

I regret that so much.

I just wanted to share my content lol.

Okay so…block and move on. I have. I’ve been blocking like crazy since I first seen this shit but I still, STILL can’t fucking escape this shit. Every time I search for any content, I there’s a good chance I’ll see it. I LITERALLY HAVE TO MENTALLY PREP MYSELF BEFORE I GO LOOKING FOR CONTENT TO BE READY TO COPE WITH THE SHIT I’M GONNA SEE. Worse, worse, worse, was when I started seeing this shit from the major rhack content creators in fandom. People who get tons of love and reblogs and comments and kudos and make amazing and thoughtful works-

It’s so fucked, y’all.

I don’t know. Maybe I am fucked in the head for liking dark stuff? Everyone seems to think so but for like…ten people. Do I really know? I do know I’ve never once wanted someone to befall sexual harm irl. Or any kind of harm… Idk. It’s…confusing. The dark things were always personal anyway.

But the events of the last couple weeks were the worst experience I’ve had in my entire time in fandom. Twice, people venting about antis were attacked in our very own rhack server for being pro-kink and pro-expression. Just last week, found out Twitter is moving towards a porn ban. The amount of content I like, has dwindled. And the rhack community is moving firmly towards antism.

And fuck I can’t take it anymore. There’s no safe places left in fandom for people who like “unhealthy” fiction (which is anything that makes another person uncomfortable these days). I left my problematic ship servers because of the attacks and having to see shit from the content creators who hate my guts. I left because I’m so fucking depressed and I can’t interact anymore without wondering if the people I’m talking to hate my guts or not just because I wrote Bad Thing™.

Actually, what might be worse, is the rise of “it’s just an opinion” about anti attitudes.

Yeah, calling me an abuse apologist and fetishizing freak is just an opinion. Sure. Fuck off.

Fandom was where I went to escape the shitty life I have. And now I don’t even have that anymore. I feel so rudderless now and I don’t know what to do with myself. I miss all the good times. I miss my friends. Miss my passion and happiness.

Feels like there’s nowhere to go.

[saranel]

thesplendidangharadd replied to your post “That's why I didn't understand your logic. While you admitted that...”

I know you hate it when I kinda " hijack" your post but seriously I couldn't stop myself on this one . Kubo did "show" us several times ichigo had latent feelings for Orihime . The lust arc ? The grimmjow fight ? The way he reacted when she was taken to hueco Mundo ? All of this happened around chapter 200 /300 it's not the end of the story . The fandom went out of its way to prove those moments meant nothing and IT DID . The thing is that

all those ichiruki moments you think Kubo "showed" can be interpreted as a strong platonic friendship . Ichigo's showing his feelings for orihime though ? Can only be interpreted as romantic . It's the peak of mauvaise foi for you to show us yoruichi telling ichigo to say something nice to orihime and not show those like 6 panels of him blushing out of his mind just because orihime wore a revealing outfit which was the " show" part of " show don't tell"

Kubo did not separate ichigo and rukia in order to push for ichihime . He separated them because from a story telling point of view their relationship reached its narrative end at the end of the fullbring arc . Ichigo doubted rukia was still his nakama because she did not come to see him while he was powerless but when she came back to gave him his powers he understood the bond he had with her was unbreakable which made him understand the bond he had with his other frien

friends ( who were under tsukishima influence at the time ) was also unbreakable . Showing scenes of them together had no point because the readers knew where they stood , their bond didn't need further developemment . Ichihime did and renruki though and that's why there is more of it in the last arc . Bleach was not a victim of ichiruki chemistry but of the ichiruki fandom who had a frienship who could be interpreted as love for the first 100 chapters and clung to it

for the other 580 chapters of the manga blindly refuting what was irrefutable proof that the manga was going in the ichihime direction

*sigh* You do realize that the reply feature is meant to be used for short messages? Save your interlocutor the trouble and hit ‘reblog’ pls?

(putting this under a cut because I care about my fellow man and their dash)

I know you hate it when I kinda " hijack" your post but seriously I couldn't stop myself on this one

Er... When have I ever said that...? I’m not even sure what you mean by ‘hijack’? Replying to/reblogging a post is not hijacking.  I can ignore your rebuttal if I so wish and if I didn’t want people to react to this post I wouldn’t have made it (though I’d blame the requester for the impetus, I was just replying to an ask).  S’all good 👍 

I’ll tell you what I do dislike, though, since we’re on the subject (hate is a pretty strong word): people who reply to a post in underhanded ways.  Liiiike, say (and this is completely off the top of my head, totes random example) taking screenshots of a post (not even in its entirety), then uploading them to their blog and going off on a rant the OP will receive no notification for and thus cannot respond to unless they stumble upon it by chance. Which of course allows them to be as unpleasant as they like before their audience of sycophants and call the OP names without fear of them actually weighing in.  

Wouldn’t happen to be familiar with a class act like that, would you? :) Just curious!

And yeah, I bet you couldn’t help yourself.  It’s, like, so harrrrd to stay out of the tag of your NOTP.  It’s not like you want to stir up trouble, no siree, not you, not ever.

The thing is that all those ichiruki moments you think Kubo "showed" can be interpreted as a strong platonic friendship . Ichigo's showing his feelings for orihime though ? Can only be interpreted as romantic

[...] Showing scenes of [Ichigo and Rukia] together had no point because the readers knew where they stood , their bond didn't need further developemment . Ichihime did and renruki though and that's why there is more of it in the last arc .

I’m confused.  If the only way to interpret all of Ichigo’s interactions with Orihime is under a romantic light, then why did IH and RR need further development? Weren’t the endgame pairs perfectly clear?

Also, both those points are in my original post.  I do mention the platonic aspect of IchiRuki and I do say that IH and RR needed a lot more development.

It's the peak of mauvaise foi for you to show us yoruichi telling ichigo to say something nice to orihime and not show those like 6 panels of him blushing out of his mind

Mauvaise foi??? Are we talking about the intent to deceive here, or Sartrean existentialism?????? Because either way, how on earth does it apply? Did I maliciously neglect to show some sort of huge moment in IH development? Because let me tell ya, Ichigo blushing at the sight of Rukia’s ass doesn’t really rank high in a list of top IR moments, either. I’d be surprised if it even makes the top 20.  It’s little more than icing, because the rest of the cake is already there.

Ichigo blushing at the sight of Orihime’s outfit isn’t exactly the best pro-IH argument, because this isn’t the first time he’s blushed at the sight of a pretty girl/woman showing some skin:

If blushing is meant to be interpreted as a surefire sign of actual affection and not the result of being a 17-year-old boy in the presence of sexiness, get ready for IchiRukiRanYoruHime, y’all. And they say Harem Anime is unrealistic.

But you know what?  The Orihime moment is unique in a very obvious way: Ichigo didn’t even notice Orihime’s outfit until Chad brought it to his attention, which is precisely the point.

You’ll notice I didn’t use the panel of Ichigo looking at Rukia’s ass and juxtapose the two in my original post, because that would’ve been pointless.  There is a reason I chose that panel of Yoruichi and it’s two-fold: 1) the post you read was the third response in a series of asks I got about Ichigo being teased about Orihime, and 2) the Yoruichi incident, just like the Chad incident before it, is an example of ‘telling.’

Ichigo’s friends need to constantly draw his attention to Orihime because he’s not doing it on his own.  If he was in love with Orihime, he should have been paying attention to her without anyone having to pester him into it. Up until the final arc, Ichigo is completely oblivious to her and her feelings unless they’re the only two people in a room or she’s directly talking to him (the scene where she heals him in SS and tears up comes to mind, or the one directly post the Aizen fight before he collapses).  

And it shouldn’t be this way for a guy who’s in love with a girl, even if he doesn’t yet realize it (since you mentioned ‘latent’ feelings).  She should be the first person he notices in a group, the person he singles out.  That would be showing.  The only time this ever happens is after they meet up with Ishida and Ichigo notices Orihime crying.  And it’s too little too late by that point for someone who, as you claim, has liked her for a while now.  If you want to argue that Ichigo has only just started falling for Orihime around chapter 661, that I can understand and get behind, even though I’m not a fan of the ship. 

I never claimed all those moments you talk about in the Lust arc are meaningless.  I can’t speak for the bulk of the fandom, but I’ve always believed Ichigo cares deeply about Orihime.  That much is undeniable.  But the reason I never thought of this affection as romantic is because it’s not followed through in the story until the very end.  Ichigo would die for every single one of his friends; his rushing to HM to save Orihime has no romantic connotations (just like the act of his rushing to SS to save Rukia is not romantic when examined in a vacuum).  But every time Ichigo and Orihime had a moment in the series, it wasn’t ever shown to change his feelings.

I mean, hell, when he carries Orihime in the HM arc, her ass is literally next to his face and there isn’t a blush in sight.

Have fun trying to picture Ishida in the exact same scenario, guys.  I know I did

Orihime, who actually, canonically likes Ichigo, is blushing like no-one’s business, while Ichigo is all: “Bruh, this is the quickest way.” He just casually picks her up like it’s no big deal, when before he rescued Rukia in SS, the friggin’ dork just stood there with the flames of the Sōkyoku blazing behind him, grinning at her like an idiot and trying to look cool. Which is exactly the kind of crap teenage boys pull to impress the girls they like.

Even after that moment in the Lust arc of Ichigo being brought back by Orihime’s voice (which I know is very big with IH shippers) nothing changes in the way Ichigo sees her.  When he activates his Fullbring, Rukia is still the person he singles out, even after he literally rose from the dead to save Orihime.

This is what I mean by “Show, don’t tell.” In a properly developed romance, the climax of the Ulquiorra fight should’ve been the start of Ichigo at the very least starting to pay more attention to Orihime.

We get all this panel time of Orihime thinking about Ichigo, talking about her feelings for Ichigo, but nothing on his side.  He’s the friggin’ protagonist.  He should’ve spent at least some time thinking about Orihime without anyone having to push him into it.  It wouldn’t even have to be explicitly romantic like it was with Orihime, all Kubo needed to do to show his changing feelings was to occasionally show Ichigo thinking about her.  The only time I can ever recall him specifically doing so was to point out that her powers had grown and that was always after either talking to her or watching her in action.

You said it yourself: IH and RR needed more development.  And that’s the problem right there.  Ichigo and Rukia could’ve jumped straight into a romance almost immediately post Yhwach fight and even people who don’t like the pairing couldn’t have claimed they needed more development.  Even in the RR novel, Ichigo and Orihime don’t get together until 3 years post war.  

I can picture Ichigo and Orihime growing closer and Ichigo falling in love with her at some point after 684.  What I don’t see and never have is evidence of that romance from his side in the manga. The fact that they got married isn’t in itself proof of Ichigo having been in love with her from the start, it’s proof that he’s in love with her now and has been since whenever it was they started dating. 

Kubo did not separate ichigo and rukia in order to push for ichihime . He separated them because from a story telling point of view their relationship reached its narrative end at the end of the fullbring arc .

Oh, that is complete bullcrap and you know it.  Setting aside pairings for a moment, can you honestly tell me that when you thought of the final showdown in Bleach you pictured Ichigo, Aizen and Renji with a dash of last-minute Ishida thrown in?

I’ve seen posts from IH fans rejoicing in “Kubo trolling the IR fandom” and talking about how he deliberately kept Ichigo and Rukia apart, or made certain choices just to spite the fandom.  You can’t have it both ways, claiming that Kubo merely followed the narrative one day, then saying he did it on purpose the next one. It’s one or the other, can’t be both.

Kubo himself called Rukia the protagonist of the Shinigami side and she wasn’t there for any of the confrontations against Yhwach.  Orihime, at least, fought alongside Ichigo in the first one, but Rukia was completely sidelined.  ‘From a story telling point of view,’ she deserved to be there instead of Renji, but since Kubo was pressed for time, he had Renji join Ichigo on his own so they could have a talk on the way there and cement RR.  Renji literally did nothing in the final battle, unlike Aizen and Ishida.  It could’ve been anyone but Ishida in his place and the result would’ve been exactly the same.  There was no reason for him to be there on his own other than to talk about his reconciliation with Rukia.  Which was a lovely moment, but it could’ve happened at literally any other time.  Orihime wouldn’t have been left alone, either, if Rukia had joined them: the Fullbringers were all there to stay with her.

Kubo didn’t have the time to do a full-on nakama fight, so he gave Orihime her moment earlier on; shat all over Chad; shoehorned Ishida in because this was kinda his arc after all, oopsie; used Renji as canon fodder, and devoted a full chapter on Aizen swinging his dick Kyōka Suigetsu around.  But no Rukia.  

Because you know, just as well as I do, that if she had been there for the end, fighting alongside Ichigo (since a group fight wasn’t feasible), the negative reaction to the ending would’ve been ten times as bad.