[Bassoonicmayhem]

Originally Posted by Freya

He's rarely ever at that full max strength. Shit has to happen for him to be like oh no got to get serious now.

Which still has me kind of confused. And I can admit, I liked Ichigo's attitude during this chapter. He was serious and aware of what has happened and what needs to be done. But at the same time, I can't help but vaguly question, "Didn't Ichigo have a hard time fighting the bad guy in HM before being trapped? Or am I just crazy?"

I just remember Ichigo having struggled to fight someone who should have been cannon fodder. Suddenly he's up against the main bad guy and what should I make of this? We don't really know how powerful Juha Bach is because he so easily curb-stomped Yamamoto. And I'm supposed to buy (or assume maybe?) that Ichigo is on par with Bach now (all because of Byakuya's 'last words' and Ichigo's resolve) when chapters ago he had to go bankai on a superfluous character.

I don't know. I just feel that this is unnecessary. I kind of wish we could skip forcing the main protagonist and antagonist meeting each other and proceeding in this common shonnen fashion; and I know, I shouldn't complain because I know what I'm reading and what demographic it's for. But for something of this scale (especially since it's a war) I don't feel that is that important that Ichigo meet Juha Bach before the final fight. It should be universally understood that this man is destructive and plans on being evil forever. Ichigo should just take care of the problem after battling some lower level baddies and having some sort of training session. But, alas, no. They'll talk; they'll fight (a little); Ichigo will need to level up; he'll train; they'll fight again. Why fix it if it ain't broken?

Originally Posted by Black-Cat-Sama

I can just imagine Ryuuken sitting in his office just staring out the window, knowing what's going on and what's probably going to happen, but then again, I'm just fanboying.

It's okay to fanboy. I just think that Kubo has stopped using this technique for quite some time. He kind of used it during the fullbringer arc but it was used so jarringly that it really hurt the story rather than helped it.

-It hurts knowing that plot points and such will be dropped though--like Orihime's potential during Grimmjow's dialogue vs Ichigo and then Ulqui vs Ichigo.
-The bodies Mayuri found (which i highly believe are going to be shoe-horned into this arc and were never really intended to be in this arc) and so many more.

This. This so much. I have had this feeling since we started this arc. I have a feeling that's how Kubo will tie in Aizen (much later) into explaining how these qunicies have such speical powers. Becuase this was all just as planned, or some yadda, yadda, yadda.

P.S.- I hope this means Byakuya is dead finally after living long enough as a blob of blood to tell Ichigo something he really didnt need to say. If Kenpachi is also dead, then there might be hope yet. The last thing I want to see is comic relief Kenpachi seeing Ichigo after th day is saved...or Kenpachi showing up later like he always does and powerhousing through the enemies

I actually think that since Kubo took the time to show Byakuya it reinforces the fact that either Unohana or Orihime (somehow) will end up healing him. For me, he's still not dead. Not until Rukia is crying over his cold dead corpse. I know, morbid.