[Sabaku Kyu]

Originally Posted by sayde

This may seem dissapointing, but it turns out Chad's heritage comes off as more of an afterthought. Supposedly at a comic-con interview one of the attendees asked about Chad's background. His answer was "It wasn't intentional," Kubo replied. When I first started drawing Chad, it just seemed that he should come from a Mexican heritage."

Really? Eh, don't care that much. Even if the choice to make Chad Mestizo was random, he could still do more with his heritage if he wanted.

Originally Posted by Amirali

That is interesting, because I am almost 100% opposite to you in my preferences. I enjoy the Gotei 13 and the bankais/shikais as much as anyone, but I find those characters incredibly stagnant. They have awesome powers, distinctive personalities and cool fights, but really, how much can Kubo realistically develop the characters of captains who have been fighting for centuries? I am not bashing Kubo for that - rather there simply isn't much room for further exposition

Yeah, I can see that point of view but it's not really the case. Many of the shinigami are centuries old but it doesn't mean all of them have reached a plateau of growth and development. Quite a few of them are still "rookies". Renji obtained his bankai around the same time as Ichigo for example, and Shunsui stated that Hitsugaya, despite already being a captain, was still growing and would eventually surpass him (though that should take around a century).

I think the shinigami's long lives are a plus because there's a lot more of their pasts to potentially explore. Someone who is thousands of years old is bound to have had many more interesting experiences than someone who's only 15. TBTP arc is an example of this, as we get some insights into a lot of characters like Urahara, Tessai, Aizen and the vizards . Also, some glimpses of the other characters that better defined them.

Ishida started the series as Ichigo's rival and near-equal, the last quincy and the only character besides Ichigo to defeat a Gotei 13 captain!! Yet now, he's comic relief. Chad, Ichigo's right-hand man and fearless backup relegated to a joke. And what about Orihime or Renji?

Well yeah, they should and could be more interesting. It's dissapointing to see these characters vow to get stronger and then get immediately get proven useless. But even at the height of Bleach's popularity, these guys weren't doing much... Ishida was Ichigo's self-appointed rival. He was never Ichigo's match in power, which is why he got trashed by Renji while Ichigo was able to push him into a corner their first fight. He defeated Mayuri through what was clearly labeled as a one-time powerup. Just as Rukia defeating an Espada not meant to show she had reached some new tier of power, that wasn't meant to show Ishida had "caught up" with Ichigo. Also, he's always been used as comic relief. And you're giving chad too much credit if you believe he was ever useful for anything aside from fighting low-level enemies.

And that's where I think the Gotei 13 would have been very effective, serving to give benchmarks and broader context to the development of the main cast, just as the admirals/pirate emperors serve in One Piece, for example. As the core focus of the story, I have a hard time caring whether they live or die.

True, but they could only really do that as antagonists. And definitely, that was the role I enjoyed them most in. I've said before I'd love to see Ichigo and the Gotei 13 on opposite sides again somehow. But as good guys, they currently outshine the main characters.