Quote:
Originally Posted by empzone
This bugs me, too. If you think about Renji's character right now, it's hard to imagine he would even think about cutting Rukia, yet that's exactly what he does when he goes after her in the real world.
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1) Well, he was just cutting her gigai. That's not the same thing as cutting
her; at least that might be how shinigami look at it?
2)Also, I think Renji was probably scared that if he didn't frighten her enough and she resisted........Byakuya wouldn't have given her a chance to turn herself in peacefully. I got the impression afterwards that a lot of his bark and bite was a pretense for Byakuya's benefit. He doesn't speak more warmly to her until they're alone together.
3)Most importantly, Renji was still bitter at her about being rejected, not just as a potential boyfriend (that still might happen) but even as a friend and comrade. There's nothing more painful a friend can do to another friend. It wasn't till Rukia was about to be executed, that he realized she meant more to him than any old emotional hangups.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slayerx
it's like Kubo specifically changed Renji's personality in the begining to make him look like a villian, and then changed it back to make him sympathetic.
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That's one of the most paradoxical things about love. While it can inspire great tenderness, it can also inspire bitterness and even violence against the object of affection. A happily married couple one day, a sad case of domestic abuse a few years later. Love can make the same person do acts of great kindness and of deep cruelty. Of course, Kubo deliberately showed the ugly side of Renji first to try and give us the wrong impression, but at least it felt like he had the character backstory in mind right from the beginning. And a case could be made for the character change, as coming about from the shock of knowing Rukia was going to die. On the other hand, Rukia struggling against a level 2 hollow and fighting espada 9 later doesn't exactly look well planned.
I didn't have any major problem with Bleach till the Hueco Mundo arc. Sure, the power levels have been inconsistent, self-contradictory and overcomplicated for a long time............but that's shounen. What bothers me is that majority (not all!) of the fights don't have any purpose or emotional drive behind them now. The only motivation in most cases is that one combatant is from Team Good and the other is from Team Evil. Those kind of fights just fill space without adding much in terms of character development or story.