BlackDragonKing
06-22-2009, 05:46 PM
We've all expressed some distaste with recent developments in Bleach, so I thought this would be a fun mental exercise. Let's say for a moment that you are in charge of Bleach, not Kubo.
What would you do with this power?
Off the top of my head:
1. Who said there was a Cero Espada? Our numbers go from 1 to 10.
Yammy stays the Tenth Espada. This is number one on the list because it is the most wall-bangingly stupid plot twist I have seen so far in a shonen manga.
I say instead; let Yammy be the 10th. He's up against Ichigo's Nakama, who are the show's loser brigade at this point anyway. I would have preferred to either have him either claw his way back up to Ishida's level and let Ishida show off more badass bow skills, outsmarting Yammy again and again to make up for Yammy's horrendous physical strength, or, preferably, crash all the way down, and then have a knock-down drag-out brawl with Chad, allowing Chad to both get revenge for his near-death experience earlier and demonstrate how far he's advanced since then with his arms truly awakened. These could be combined if necessary for Ishida and Chad to possibly combine their ablities and take Yammy down. As the 10th espada, this situation seems plausible to me, and lets Ichigo's group do something other than win against minor goons and fail when the chips are down.
2. Stop using Hichigo as a infinite Deus Ex Machina.
The sheer number of times Ichigo has escaped certain death purely because he has an inner hollow capable of high-speed regeneration and much better than he is at using his powers is completely stupid. It rather drains the tension from situations Ichigo gets into because even if he's COMPLETELY outmatched like when against Byakuya or Ulquiorra, we know he can go "LOLZ Hollow" and immediately get through the situation just fine. I would stop putting Ichigo into situations where it's quite obvious he needs his Hollow just to survive, or having him show up to instantly trounce enemies giving Ichigo trouble. Being more powerful in the Vizard state is fine, but I would not create this enormous gap in Hichigo and Ichigo's abilities, as I for one found it rather jarring that Ichigo is a complete failure as a shinigami while his Hollow is basically GOD as far as all of Ichigo's fights are concerned.
3. Make the Espada less of a waste of time and ink.
We got hyped about the Espada. They were initially presented as one of the most dangerous threats Soul Society had ever known, and even a match for the almighty captains.
Of course, that turned out to be so much bullcrap, since none of these legendarily powerful Arrancar has been a threat once the Captain they fought took the fight moderately seriously, usually flashing a new move they'd made up since their last fight and instantly winning.
If we're going to have the Espada get carried away in their arrogance only to be smacked down in the space of a chapter when the captain uses their new move, do that to the loser espada. Nnoitra and below (with the possible exception of Grimmjow, given that he was up against the main character) should have had much shorter fights while the top 4 should have been much more potent threats than they turned out to be.
-Ulquiorra: There were much better ways to deal with that fight than the ol' Hichigo copout. Unohana could have shown up to face off with Ulquiorra, showing some of her badass credentials but probably also devastating him to show HOW badass. In another scenario, Orihime could silence her bashers by getting well and truly angry enough to kill rather than having a nervous breakdown when Ishida is crippled and Ichigo is killed in front of her by Ulquiorra. Given that she has a blade that cuts REALITY based on her intent to kill, it would be entirely plausible for Orihime to take down Ulquiorra in a moment of grief-fueled rage added to by his near-constant abuse of her, while at the same time explaining why she can't just wipe the floor with Aizen by having her unable to reach that level of killing intent again, possibly from the trauma of her first kill on top of everything else she went through.
-Tia: Maybe I was too hasty in thinking Hitsugaya should be outmatched to the point of death here, but I think it would have been much better for suspense if Hitsugaya's bisection had stuck. It doesn't have to kill him, but we get an impression that the top Espada are a really serious threat if the weakest of the three on the battlefield one-shotted an up-and-coming prodigy like Hitsugaya. Several captains/lieutenants could have teamed up to take her down, possibly culminating in Yamamoto having to save them yet again, sending Tia to join her fraccion.
-Barragan: I'm not really sure what to do about barragan, since his power of time is a story-breakingly strong ability, but I think it might have been nice if his power had proved too much for the 2nd Division and Urahara and Yoruichi (or just Yoruichi, if necessary) showed up to help. In particular, a combination attack from Soi Fon and Yoruichi using Flash Cry together, or Yoruichi showing us what the hell her Shi/Bankai is would have been a little better than Soi Fon just nuking Barragan off the face of the earth, IMO.
Might post more when I think of more. How about you people?
What would you do with this power?
Off the top of my head:
1. Who said there was a Cero Espada? Our numbers go from 1 to 10.
Yammy stays the Tenth Espada. This is number one on the list because it is the most wall-bangingly stupid plot twist I have seen so far in a shonen manga.
I say instead; let Yammy be the 10th. He's up against Ichigo's Nakama, who are the show's loser brigade at this point anyway. I would have preferred to either have him either claw his way back up to Ishida's level and let Ishida show off more badass bow skills, outsmarting Yammy again and again to make up for Yammy's horrendous physical strength, or, preferably, crash all the way down, and then have a knock-down drag-out brawl with Chad, allowing Chad to both get revenge for his near-death experience earlier and demonstrate how far he's advanced since then with his arms truly awakened. These could be combined if necessary for Ishida and Chad to possibly combine their ablities and take Yammy down. As the 10th espada, this situation seems plausible to me, and lets Ichigo's group do something other than win against minor goons and fail when the chips are down.
2. Stop using Hichigo as a infinite Deus Ex Machina.
The sheer number of times Ichigo has escaped certain death purely because he has an inner hollow capable of high-speed regeneration and much better than he is at using his powers is completely stupid. It rather drains the tension from situations Ichigo gets into because even if he's COMPLETELY outmatched like when against Byakuya or Ulquiorra, we know he can go "LOLZ Hollow" and immediately get through the situation just fine. I would stop putting Ichigo into situations where it's quite obvious he needs his Hollow just to survive, or having him show up to instantly trounce enemies giving Ichigo trouble. Being more powerful in the Vizard state is fine, but I would not create this enormous gap in Hichigo and Ichigo's abilities, as I for one found it rather jarring that Ichigo is a complete failure as a shinigami while his Hollow is basically GOD as far as all of Ichigo's fights are concerned.
3. Make the Espada less of a waste of time and ink.
We got hyped about the Espada. They were initially presented as one of the most dangerous threats Soul Society had ever known, and even a match for the almighty captains.
Of course, that turned out to be so much bullcrap, since none of these legendarily powerful Arrancar has been a threat once the Captain they fought took the fight moderately seriously, usually flashing a new move they'd made up since their last fight and instantly winning.
If we're going to have the Espada get carried away in their arrogance only to be smacked down in the space of a chapter when the captain uses their new move, do that to the loser espada. Nnoitra and below (with the possible exception of Grimmjow, given that he was up against the main character) should have had much shorter fights while the top 4 should have been much more potent threats than they turned out to be.
-Ulquiorra: There were much better ways to deal with that fight than the ol' Hichigo copout. Unohana could have shown up to face off with Ulquiorra, showing some of her badass credentials but probably also devastating him to show HOW badass. In another scenario, Orihime could silence her bashers by getting well and truly angry enough to kill rather than having a nervous breakdown when Ishida is crippled and Ichigo is killed in front of her by Ulquiorra. Given that she has a blade that cuts REALITY based on her intent to kill, it would be entirely plausible for Orihime to take down Ulquiorra in a moment of grief-fueled rage added to by his near-constant abuse of her, while at the same time explaining why she can't just wipe the floor with Aizen by having her unable to reach that level of killing intent again, possibly from the trauma of her first kill on top of everything else she went through.
-Tia: Maybe I was too hasty in thinking Hitsugaya should be outmatched to the point of death here, but I think it would have been much better for suspense if Hitsugaya's bisection had stuck. It doesn't have to kill him, but we get an impression that the top Espada are a really serious threat if the weakest of the three on the battlefield one-shotted an up-and-coming prodigy like Hitsugaya. Several captains/lieutenants could have teamed up to take her down, possibly culminating in Yamamoto having to save them yet again, sending Tia to join her fraccion.
-Barragan: I'm not really sure what to do about barragan, since his power of time is a story-breakingly strong ability, but I think it might have been nice if his power had proved too much for the 2nd Division and Urahara and Yoruichi (or just Yoruichi, if necessary) showed up to help. In particular, a combination attack from Soi Fon and Yoruichi using Flash Cry together, or Yoruichi showing us what the hell her Shi/Bankai is would have been a little better than Soi Fon just nuking Barragan off the face of the earth, IMO.
Might post more when I think of more. How about you people?