what do you think about orihime?
I can’t stand her anymore. (this came out so much longer than i thought it would OTL)
I used to be alright with her character (she was always just a background character to me, I was never rly too interested in her) during the early Bleach– the SS arc. But after that, everything went downhill.
When it comes to action mangas, I don’t like weak characters. If you can’t fight, eh, that’s okay, but if you can’t stand up for yourself, there’s no way I’m going to be able to stand you. At least try. So when Orihime, Orihime who used to get bullied, passive Orihime who never fought for herself, protected Tatsuki, I was so impressed. I was proud of her. Her will to protect Tatsuki was so strong that she awakened her power because of it.
That bumped her up in my books. She protected Tatsuki and made the readers aware of just how important Tatsuki was to her. Kubo even did a little thing
And the following arc, after SS, she wanted to be stronger. I admired that.
But then it came to Ulqi’s “say goodbye to one person thing”, and it all went downhill from there.
She chose Ichigo. I was pissed. Tatsuki had protected her for so long. Tatsuki was always by her side, and yet Inoue chose to go see a sleeping Ichigo and confess her love to his unconscious body. Tatsuki deserved more than that. Tatsuki was the only one who really even cared that Orihime had gone.
And then came the Ulqui-Ichigo fight scene. This really pissed me off. Orihime wanted to be stronger. She wanted to help. But she ended up pleading and begging a corpse to save her. She screamed and didn’t even bother try protect herself– so much for getting stronger; Orihime turned Ichigo into a monster. He hated himself. She did that to him.
And then there was the FullB Arc. She had 17 months to re-confess, and this time, to an Ichigo who wasn’t asleep aka an Ichigo who would’ve replied (hey, maybe that’s why she didn’t. She knew he’d reject her so she didn’t bother risk it) but she didn’t. And then more fighting. Her memories were altered, and after someone other than Ichigo saved her, suddenly, she didn’t love him anymore. So much for 5 lifetimes. That alone just proved that her feelings were shallow as fuck. Orihime doesn’t love Ichigo, she likes the hero image she’s protected onto him. Same with Chad too, really. “I’m supposed to be your best bro, but Imma doubt everything you do”– compare that to Byakuya, who’s had his memory altered too, but still fought for Ichigo. Byakuya, who hasn’t known Ichigo for nearly as long as Inoue (and Chad) but was still on his side.
Her tears don’t mean shit at this point. All she seems to do is cry for Kurosaki.
AND THEN THERES THE LATEST CHAPTERS
WHICH REDUCED HER TO SO LITTLE EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS BARELY ANYTHING BEFORE
Wearing clothes she’s clearly uncomfortable in just to impress a boy she knows holds no romantic or sexual feelings for her. She’s in the middle of (another) war and yet rather than focusing on winning she’s still attempting to gain Ichigo’s favour.
And there’s still no update on whether or not she’s spoken about this to her supposedly best friend, Tatsuki.
I did like Inoue. She had her strong points; she started out loyal, had a sort of brave cowardice– she couldn’t protect herself exactly, but she still attempted to help others. But as time went by and chapters updated, some of her good points were reduced greatly. She kinda became a comedy character who only exists to heal people occasionally, provide fan service and love Ichigo, even though we all know it’s one sided.
