10 more years of Bleach…upon rereading the latest chapter, I don't think I can take that. Because this truly was phenomenally bad, on every level. Every single aspect of this arc. Every character wasted. Every pointless moment. Every single plotpoint that Kubo introduced while in freestyle-mode and is now trying to haphazardly adress. It all makes my blood boil so I think I'm ready for another of my trademark tirades.
@nobody:
Sooo… Soul Society's only way of catching the escaped criminal Ginjou was to appoint another Shinigami representative (however long that may take), wait until he meets Ginjou (because they absolutely knew Ginjou would contact said representative) and thus, deal with the two of them in one strike, using the secont one as nothing more than bait with the function to die (without him even knowing just what the hell is going on)?
And you were hoping to achieve that by... let's see... forbidding every Shinigami that comes to Earth to trasfer their powers to a human (Rukia and Ichigo), which would effectively and effortlessly create said representative that you've been so hoping to find? And make that rule punishable by death, even, to prevent it from happening, like, ever?
God job, Soul Society, gooooood job.
As usual.
Don't forget the fact that Ginjo contacted Ichigo for one reason, and one reason alone. No other substitute shinigami would EVER have been approached.
"Hey dude, I'm a shifty fella, but trust me, I'll get your powers back"
"The hell are you talking about? I never lost my powers"
"…....So do you wanna fight the shinigami with me? Sorry, I got nuthin'."
Seriously, Ichigo having lost his powers is the absolute only reason Ginjo showed up, and the only reason he gained Ichigos trust! There is no fucking way SS could have predicted that! So then what? SS expected Ginjos plan to be seeking out the new sub, despite knowing full well he'd be wired, and attempt to convince him to join a wanted criminals fight against the people who just hired the sub on to the force?
But the ethical ramifications really strike you in the eye once again. Someone with super natural abilities show up. He proves himself an ally of soul society, and you thus give him the substitute license. You use the sub as bait to lure the criminal out. You neutralize the criminal.
And then you kill the substitute.
What? WHY? If the guy is on your side, doing your fucking job for you, why kill him? What sense does that make? "We'll use officer Betty to lure out the murderer. Then, we shoot him. Then, we shoot Betty". What the bloody hell.
And the fact that Rukia uses this to try and infer that Soul Society is now a fair and better place is fucking rich.
In the olden days, Soul Society would lie to it's allies, keep them under constant hidden surveillance, use them as unwitting pawns in their plans, and kill them for no reason.
Now, Soul Society lies to it's allies, keeps them under constant hidden surveillance, uses them as unwitting pawns in their plans,but DOESN'T kill them for no reason.
Truly it is paradise now!
Since this whole thing was appearantly a ploy to nab Ginjo, I once again feel it is appropriate to point out how much of their damned sweet time the SS took to get here. With the badge listening devices, even if Ginjo somehow had turned his off, there is no excuse for why SS didn't descend from the heavens and toast the greasy fucker when Ichigo handed him his bag. I mean what were they doing? They were obviously watching Ichigos bogus training session, Ginjo had contacted Ichigo just like they had predicted, and yet...nothing. Not a damned thing. Kubo you take this whole Ginjo stakeout plan and shove it firmly up your digestive system.
I mean christ, after all this, they're leaving! They're not even arresting Ginjo! Somehow their plan devolved from "use bait to lure out criminal–>capture criminal" to "deploy bait. Do nothing. Let crimnal trick bait, become more powerful than ever, and leave the bait powerless. Give bait a spare battery, leave, and hope everyhting sorts itself out". Yeah, the latter makes so much sense!
But wait! This whole thing was not about Ginjo at all! Appearantly, the captains only mission was to oversee Ichigos "choice"! Fighting the fullbringers, that kinda just happened. Again, lacking any better explanation, I'll just make a guess and assume that Ichigos choice was the incredibly profound decision of "choosing to protect stuff". In which case:
- There was no choice about to happen that you could oversee. YOU guys pumped Ichigo full of soul jizz, without asking him. No choice involved.
- It was clear from the second he got his old threads back that Ichigo was going to stomp some fullbring ass. If a re-affirmation of Ichigos righteous nature was all you needed, theres no reason to wait around after this point.
And what kills me is that Shrimpo speaks of Ichigo as if he's something special, as if his actions here make him somehow unique. Just consider this for a second:
Some dudes manipulate you, maim your friends, steal your powers, play you for a fool and leave you weeping on a rooftop. Suddenly, you're granted superpowers. Do you
a) Use your new strenght to beat the living tar out of those who tricked you, whom you're understandably a bit ticked off at?
or do you
b) Instantly forgive them, and turn on those who gave you your powers back?
I believe I speak for all of us when I say that only someone extraordinarily special would answer a).