Bleach IX: This isn't even my final thread!

[Frozen_Feet]

Well, even the most stoic of warriors in the series run around topless, or wear cloth at the most. Literally every character in Bleach fights in their normal clothing, so that point doesn't really stand up.

Well, for a definition of normal. For most of the Shinigami, their "normal" outfit doubles as their on-duty uniform.

But if we want to talk about fanservice or objectification, Bleach is just as objectifying of its male cast than the females. Ichigo has been running around in practically nothing but loincloth several times, plus then there's the hot spring scenes. And Kubo generally treats all his cast members are model dolls to hand pretty clothes on.

And remember, boys and girls: the only bare ass we've seen in the series belonged to Mayuri Kurotsuchi.

[chainer1216]

Not true! We saw rukias too, it freaked ichigo out in the healing hot springs.

[Frozen_Feet]

Damn, how could I forget that? In any case, you are correct. It's also possible we got a peek of Matsumoto at some point. I will, however, note that Mayuri held his record for quite a while.

[Infernally Clay]

Doesn't Ichigo's Bankai make him signifigantly faster?

I mean, the first time he used it, when he went all out and strained his body, Byakuya, who is a trained master of Shunpo(Which logically must require trained senses since it's bursts of Superspeed instead of Teleportation* Couldn't see him.

Ichigo's Bankai must be signifigantly more powerful now, and he should be ale to handle the strain beter.

If he went bankai, he might be able to get their in signifigatnly* less time, though he'd have to leave Orihime and Sado.

And don't say "no air walking in souls society, how will he get up there?" becuase if you think bacn to when Ichigo was having his shinigami powers unlocked after the powers he accidentally stole from Rukia were taken, the first thing the old man did was teach Ichigo how to stand on the air by gathering spirit particles.

Ya know, the same technique that Ishida uses to air walk in soul society/Hueco Mundo, and give himself super speed? Ichigo has known that technique the entire time.

...which actually makes him learning Shunpo so fast a case of fridge brilliance.

*Significantly faster here could mean anything from 6 hours to 30 minutes. though if it's 60 minutes or longer, waitinh for Urahara would be the wiser choice

His Bankai used to make him faster. We have no idea what it does now because, if you recall, that was never his true Bankai to begin with. It may still make him faster, of course, but there's no guarantee it makes him at least twelve times faster - which is what it would need to do in order for him to get to the Royal Dimension quicker than Urahara can get him there.

Besides, wouldn't you rather go with Urahara and the others? If Ichigo goes alone, he's alone. If he waits for Urahara to do his thing, chances are Byakuya, Rukia, Renji, Chad and Orihime can come along as well. That's five Shinigami who are at least Captain-class (over half of whom are well above Captain-class) as well as two of Ichigo's and Uryu's closest friends (one who is part Hollow and thus effective against Quincy and the other who can literally heal any wound no matter how severe).

At the very least I'd take Urahara, Orihime and Chad so someone can beat Haschwalt and convince Uryu to come back to the good guy's side while Ichigo deals with Yhwach.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

*shrug* I know that it's silly to hold the material to any sort of respectable standards, but that doesn't change my organic response to it. I think one of the aspects of the outfit selection that bothers me the most is that it doesn't fit either the scenario or the character's persona. She's not a schemer, so I don't see her thinking about using sex-appeal to distract the religious zealous she will be fighting. She knew she was effectively headed to war, so I'd imagine that if she was going to cut down on fabric it would be for the purpose of minimizing restrictions on free range of motion rather than airing the girls out. Again, I understand this line of thought is a matter of off expectations.

[Rater202]

*shrug* I know that it's silly to hold the material to any sort of respectable standards, but that doesn't change my organic response to it. I think one of the aspects of the outfit selection that bothers me the most is that it doesn't fit either the scenario or the character's persona. She's not a schemer, so I don't see her thinking about using sex-appeal to distract the religious zealous she will be fighting. She knew she was effectively headed to war, so I'd imagine that if she was going to cut down on fabric it would be for the purpose of minimizing restrictions on free range of motion rather than airing the girls out. Again, I understand this line of thought is a matter of off expectations.

1. they were just in Hueco Mundo. They are wearing white cloths. Cloths are probably borrowed from Arrancar. Name one female Arrancar who wore practical clothing. Assuming it is borrowed, then it originally belonged to somebody with skin as hard as iron(at least)

2.Orihime's known powers are as follows: a long range projectile attack that is instantly fatal as long as Orihime actually wants to kill her target, a force field that heals everybody inside it restores their energy and can bring the dead back to life, a shield that can block anything, and even if the attack breaks the shield the attack still doesn't hurt anybody on the other side, and a similar shield that absorbs the energy of the attack and firtes it back at the originator.

All of her possible opponents are ranged Targets whose sole defensive ability is Damage Reduction, which doesn't help at all against an instant death attack. These are the perfect people for her to fight.

At that point, heading into a fight, your concerns about clothing are less "Is this a practical outfit for a fight?" and more "Does this one fit? Ooh this one is comfy."

[chainer1216]

Also: dont forget her character, she's not exactly the sharpest rock in the bunch.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

Put into the dnd mindset of wearing what one scavenges, and that Nel/Harribel are the only gals of the lot who'd have reasonably fitting attire, I can concede the point on that front. I'm not exactly comfortable with the implied dim bulb/attire correlation theory though.

[Anteros]

Put into the dnd mindset of wearing what one scavenges, and that Nel/Harribel are the only gals of the lot who'd have reasonably fitting attire, I can concede the point on that front. I'm not exactly comfortable with the implied dim bulb/attire correlation theory though.

No one is implying a correlation between dim bulbs and sexier clothing. The implication is that Orihime is so stupid that something like wearing protective clothing in battle wouldn't even occur to her.

[Frozen_Feet]

Her hairpins turn into a shield or a blade that bisects people. She dreamed of being a robot with robot boobs. Her concept of "protective clothing" might hence differ from our standards...

[HandofShadows]

Her hairpins turn into a shield or a blade that bisects people. She dreamed of being a robot with robot boobs. Her concept of "protective clothing" might hence differ from our standards...

Yeah, she's not stupid. She is a Cloudcuckoolander. And possibly the most powerfull character in the series. She can REWRITE REALITY to what she wants it to be.

[Socratov]

Yeah, she's not stupid. She is a Cloudcuckoolander. And possibly the most powerfull character in the series. She can REWRITE REALITY to what she wants it to be.

More accurately, she is the Bleachverse's Adam Savage

[LordRahl6]

Yeah, she's not stupid. She is a Cloudcuckoolander. And possibly the most powerfull character in the series. She can REWRITE REALITY to what she wants it to be.

Not to mention that the ONLY reason that Orihime's full scope wasn't realized early on by the audience was that Aizen discovered it in the story.

[lord_khaine]

Yeah, she's not stupid. She is a Cloudcuckoolander. And possibly the most powerfull character in the series. She can REWRITE REALITY to what she wants it to be.

So far she can just regress things to an earlier state, and imperfectly so.

[HandofShadows]

So far she can just regress things to an earlier state, and imperfectly so.

Tell that to Grimmjow who had his arm recreated from nothing to perfect health.

[ben-zayb]

Tell that to Grimmjow who had his arm recreated from nothing to perfect health.

It was sliced off earlier by Kaname, IIRC.It's likely that the amputated remains ceased to exist to enable the temporal regression.

[Rater202]

So far she can just regress things to an earlier state, and imperfectly so.

tell that to the multiple beings she has brought back to life.

It was sliced off earlier by Kaname, IIRC.It's likely that the amputated remains ceased to exist to enable the temporal regression.

It was sliced off and then vaporized so it couldn't be reattached. the stump had also scared over.

[lord_khaine]

Tell that to Grimmjow who had his arm recreated from nothing to perfect health.

tell that to the multiple beings she has brought back to life.

How about i instead tell it to the person she were unable to heal due to something as simple a resident riatsu?

[Rater202]

How about i instead tell it to the person she were unable to heal due to something as simple a resident riatsu?

name them. Give context.

Filler doesn't count, it's not canon.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

Ah! I misunderstood the context of the connection. Thanks for the clarification of intent.

-and her ability isn't to rewrite reality so much as rejection. In other words, it is an extension of her cognitive disconnect from the world.

Her attack undoes what is, her shield dismisses what could be, and her "healing" denies what has been.

Edit: The themes tied to her character are excellent but, like most clever ideas Kubo has, the execution is lacking.

I would love for there to be a Hellsing-esque reboot of the series, re-imagined by a solid writer like Keiko Nobumoto.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Edit: The themes tied to her character are excellent but, like most clever ideas Kubo has, the execution is lacking.

That is a summation of the entire series, not just one character.

[Infernally Clay]

How about i instead tell it to the person she were unable to heal due to something as simple a resident riatsu?

That was different. The wound inflicted on Ichigo was hardly simple, mostly due in part to who did it, plus Orihime couldn't heal him otherwise he wouldn't have transformed into Hollow Ichigo.

[lord_khaine]

name them. Give context.

Filler doesn't count, it's not canon.

Fine, Ichigo's wounds during the start of the whole "kidnap Orihime affair"

That was different. The wound inflicted on Ichigo was hardly simple, mostly due in part to who did it, plus Orihime couldn't heal him otherwise he wouldn't have transformed into Hollow Ichigo.

Its not really that different, its kinda my proof about my earlier statement that all she as really shown is the ability to ineffectively rewind time/reality in a localised area, as compared to the grander Rewriting of reality people where trying to claim she could do.

[Rater202]

Fine, Ichigo's wounds during the start of the whole "kidnap Orihime affair"



Its not really that different, its kinda my proof about my earlier statement that all she as really shown is the ability to ineffectively rewind time/reality in a localised area, as compared to the grander Rewriting of reality people where trying to claim she could do.

1 time she couldn't heal for outside reasons

dozens of times hse's perfectly healed/brought people back to life.

this isn't a scientific theory where you only need one counter example to disprove the whole thing.

The eidence in favor of "Make iit so it never happened" outweighs the evidence for "Imperfect Rewind".

[ben-zayb]

I don't get what the issue with her power is, though. She can reject reality on ~10ft. square area, yes. Cool beans.

Now the author needs to find a way to keep her powers from its full potential, down to the point where it's just enough to fit in with the role he wants her to play. "Strong as they need to be" is a common trope, isn't it? Now if the issue is that she needs to play a larger role than being a halfway-decent healbot + damsel-in-distress, that I can get behind. Problem is that Kubo doesn't seem to hold the same opinion.

[Rater202]

I don't get what the issue with her power is, though. She can reject reality on ~10ft. square area, yes. Cool beans.

Now the author needs to find a way to keep her powers from its full potential, down to the point where it's just enough to fit in with the role he wants her to play. "Strong as they need to be" is a common trope, isn't it? Now if the issue is that she needs to play a larger role than being a halfway-decent healbot + damsel-in-distress, that I can get behind. Problem is that Kubo doesn't seem to hold the same opinion.

I do belive that Orihime's characterization pretimeskip is actually very realistic.

think, she's the only member of Ichigo's Nakama who isn't a trained fighter.

Ichigo and Sado are technically Deliquents what with all the fights they get in, and IIRC Ichigo only quick karate after he beet Tatski once, and is still a better martial artist depite not having any formal lessons.

Ishida being a Quincy has trained to fight spirits his entire life.

and Rukia is a Soldier.

Orihime is a Ditzy girl who had absolutely no training in combat prior to getting powers.

she's essentially a civilian conscript who was just given a rifle and sent into battle.

She certainly acts the part when abducted by Aizen. she reacts as a civilian would, not as a soldier

since her powers are explicitly limited to an effectiveness proportinate to her willingnss to use them, she's limited in power.

Her attack power is instantly fatal if she uses it right, but she lacks the drive to kill, so most of the time it fails, compared to her protective shield and "Get rid of stuff I don't like" field.

after the time skip, she's gained the nessesary conviction to fight, as said when she said that she and Sado had been training so they could keep up with Ichigo and when she demonstrated her reflective shield.

Now theirs an other problem. As far as we know, she;s a fullbringer. Fullbringers have a set limit on how powerful their powers can get. To be hionest I would not be surprised with a revelation that Orihime and Sado had power levels comparable to Ichigo's but they just don't have any abillities that take advantage of it...shortly before they evolve their fullbrings to the final level/Exc.

Or that thing where a Fullbringer can trade part of their powers with Somebody with Fullbring/Substitute Shinigami powers.

Crack theory/Hope! Before going into the Royal Realm, Ichigo is going to give some of his reiatsu to Orihime and Sado, upgrading thweir fullbrings into supercharged wearable armor like what Ginjo did with X-Cution after stealing power from Ichigo. Ichigo is so powerful that he'd barely notice the power diferance, but his fullbringer freinds would be super charged

[LaZodiac]

I honestly wish Orihime was more of a "fightfightfight!" character, because the idea of using defensive barriers as "wedges" that slice enemies is a REALLY cool idea.

[ben-zayb]

Barrier as weapons? That's a good idea for a manga... oh wait!

Then again, Bleach is already blessed with Hachigen. You know, the badass mofo with pink hair and the boss-stache? Wonder how he'll fare if he wasn't injured pre-Aizen fight.

[ryuplaneswalker]

I honestly wish Orihime was more of a "fightfightfight!" character, because the idea of using defensive barriers as "wedges" that slice enemies is a REALLY cool idea.

The sad thing is.

Oda make a character with The Barrier powers like Orhime has, and has used them more effective in the like almost a single chapter total worth of screen time Bartlemeo has gotten than Tite has in the entire Run of Orhime's character

[Morph Bark]

Things I liked about the last two chapters:
- The Sternritter cutting to the chase and going Vollstandig immediately instead of waiting to use it.
- The Bazzbee-Renji exchange. "Such a nice guy!"
- Ichigo acting like old school first-arc Ichigo.