*Screaming, crying, shouting, giggling, rolling around, shouting, crying, screaming.* I just knew this week's episode would be hard on me because it would be centered around Ukitake, and as a manga reader, I just knew the cruel fate of Ukitake. While I'm happy we finally got almost a full episode of Ukitake at the same time I'm deeply sad and upset and not at all okay. Mainly because Ukitake got the super short end of the stick. He was always living with a bomb inside of him, because just because some local God healed his 'illness' (and even that failed, because hello? Ukitake was still sick!) in exchange for getting his all organs? What kind of deal that is? A poor one! Super-duper stupid and poor one. Then again, there is always a catch when someone promises you something that seems too good to be true.
And before anyone starts 'but Ukitake lived centuries, so if you really think about it...' I don't want to read that. I still think Ukitake (and his parents) got tricked, though the parents knew (?) that in exchange for curing Ukitake's illness, he would lose his organs. While it's obvious his parents loved him dearly, I still think to cure illness = get our son's organs? In moments like these, I can't help but think doesn't anyone know anything about anatomy? Even I, who is very bad when comes to anatomy, I'm pretty sure without your all organs one can't live. Be it a soul or not. So, if Ukitake was going to die because of his illness...how did the pact with Mimihagi change anything? Expect made Ukitake's life...still? That flashback with Kyoraku gave us more info about that, but I couldn't help but question the end of Ukitake's sacrifice...was it worth it? I feel like Ukitake had decided to pause his life for this grand moment and that grand moment was basically his death, so in a way (at least to me) it felt like he never truly lived. Or, if he lived it was shadow life. I don't know. I feel like I'm missing some key point about Ukitake's character or it's just that I don't agree with his philosophy of 'there are two kinds of battles'. After all, it felt like his whole life did go with that mentality, which is...sad. But I suppose without that endless suffering and constant shadow of death over his shoulders, he wouldn't have been as kind a person as he was. Still. This was a very hard episode for me, especially because I know how things will turn out...
What I found interesting was the fact that Yhwach didn't see Ukitake's move. It made me think of that saying "don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing", which actually makes a lot of sense, once we progress in the anime. Manga readers will understand this statement. But even without some people knowing what that truly means, it made me wonder why Yhwach couldn't see Ukitake's move? Because he can't see what Soul King (or his parts at least) does? Because Soul King is/was (is he still in his frozen state or dead-dead?) above him and because of that, his parts were also above Yhwach? I hope the anime will answer that question somehow.
It was also interesting the rumor of Soul King's parts dropping from the sky (heaven?) was somewhat common knowledge at least among noble shinigamis...that's...when I now look at my sentence, that sounds pretty grim and horrible, doesn't it? But it begs the question: why Soul King's parts were severed and seemingly scattered all around the places? I'm pretty sure in one of Bleach's light novels' they explain that, but I can't remember that. Not to mention I hope the anime will explain that properly at some point. After all, we've got lots of filler content that has been crucial when comes to explaining certain things.
That flashback of Ukitake was bittersweet. In a way, it was very lovely to see him grow and become the man he was, but at the same time a bit sad. It was also interesting how unlike how fandom usually likes to portray everybody the newer generation of Gotei 13 treated Ukitake when he would cough blood, at least in that flashback when he was having a mock battle against Kyoraku they didn't halt it just because Ukitake coughed some blood top of him. Sure, Sasakibe (talk about him being a pretty boy in his youth!) ended the fight, but only after it had reached a certain point. I think that also explains why Ukitake had such respect for them all! After all, while he was sick, that wasn't all that he was. He was kind, and witty and stood firmly on what he believed in.
The scene of Kyoraku, Unohana, and Ukitake looking at Yamamoto's broken Zanpakuto was very...sad and grim. After all, Kyoraku all but probably knew he would be the only one left to live. Unohana was ready to throw her life for the sake of passing the Kenpachi torch to Zaraki Kenpachi and Ukitake was prepared to be a substitute for Soul King. Does that mean Ukitake knew or sensed Soul King would go down? Because if he hadn't...why else he would have been praying Mimihagi? It was an oddity that I hope will get some explanation at some point.
It made me chuckle when Urahara said for once 'I don't know about this topic at all' as usually he knows just about everything. But I suppose his non-noble roots were revealed at that point? Because at least to me it felt like Mimihagi was noble shinigamis' closely guarded secret or maybe Urahara didn't know about it and things involved it because it was just some "random local god"? But it was pretty amusing, despite the grim situation. And again Soi Fon got called out when she tried to be the 'I know this all is very sad and emotional, but the crisis isn't yet over, people!' while both me and Rukia were screaming for Ukitake...aaaaah!!!
But moving on. Finally, we saw Aizen in action. I feel like the fact he was shown in this episode and the fact the episode ended with him served as a nice contrast to Ukitake's loyalty toward Soul Society. After all, Aizen was all but scoffing at the idea of going out there to breathe air in Soul Society. Or maybe he was against it because Yhwach had ruined it? But somehow...thinking how Aizen was, I find it to be the first one. He has always been against Soul Society or rather the system of it as it's rotten. He went openly against it, while Ukitake went too against it in his own way. Once again, we were back to contrast in this episode, which was very interesting! And more contrasts were brought with that last bit of Uryuu's ending poem. The next episode's title...kind of gives a hint of what it might be about. |