#then taking advantage of an emotionality vulnerable orihime is like.. genius storytelling

[malewifehenrycooldown]

Re-reading Bleach’s Arrancar arc, and… god I want to give Orihime a shoulder to lean on and cry on. Just… gosh the poor girl… she can’t catch a break :’(

The moment she has self doubts about her own abilities (a very understandable and normal teenaged thing!) she has an even more stronger insistence to be stronger, and just when she’s about to get a tremendous improvement in her abilites, the bad guys show up (specifically Ul//quiorra) and basically coerces her to join the arrancar because the value her abilities. That refusal would lead to the deaths of her friends, and as a pacifist who doesn’t like violence and wants to keep her friends safe, it’s understandable that such an offer is VERY HARD for her to decline.

May I remind people that Orihime at this point in Bleach is a teenaged girl attending high school. Who just a few months ago almost saw her best friend die (they’re okay but they’re not the same person anymore), had a near death experience herself, and also saw the person she has a crush on be violently defeated in a battle he wasn’t prepared for.

Arrancar arc is really just… Orihime and the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day :(

#I was really emotional when typing this up.. #the momen she considers getting stronger urahara comes around and well intentionally #says that she should sit this fight out because her combat abilities are a liability #LIKE ITS WELL INTENTIONED… but the dude explains it so horribly it just adds to orihime’s self doubt #and she vents this to rukia who LOSES HER SHIT. rukia is like ‘HEY WITHOUT YOU I’D BE DEAD’! and she’s right!! and she trains with orihime #after orihime’s fairy friend gets fixed!! and it’s like!!! FINALLY!! she’ll get the time to shine on the battlefield! #but the arrancar saw that and went ‘hey… what if we stole this human and kept them as our medic? it’s a piece of leverage over #that ichigo guy :) we win either way and they can’t stop us. it’s a foolproof plan!!’ #and they coerce her to join them by threatening the lives of her friends and it’s like!!! #then taking advantage of an emotionality vulnerable orihime is like.. genius storytelling #it’s a consequence of the characters not allowing orihime stand on her own in a fight. they try to protect her so much that they end up #losing her in the end anyways as she joins the bad guys. obviously this is a coerced betrayal. the enemy threatened #the lives of her friends in exchange for her to go with them. so of course!! she’s going to follow their instructions to save her friends!! #I don’t think orihime is THAT naive I think she’s more kind than naive. she wants to see the best in people even if they are her enemy #she did that a lot in the soul society infiltration arc #i think her real weakness is that she’s kind to a fault but the fact she chooses TO BE KIND even in the face of evil gives her #so much character and personality to her. she’s a good person who wants to do good and to be better; to help OTHERS BE BETTER!! #hi I’m normal about a fictional character sorry… #bleach spoilers