It bothers me that some people have been influenced by some posts misunderstanding Renji’s character (many times on purpose, because of shipping reasons, mainly done by some IR fans, people who read the manga the way they want to see it, to favor their pairing and blame Renji for everything in his relationship with Rukia to make him look bad, basically the same that they always do with Orihime) that blame Renji of things that the manga itself has demonstrated false, or people simply don’t take into account the situations.
So they are falling into the trap and they try to defend and justify Renji and RenRuki, accepting the accusations as if they are true, saying that this happened long time ago, or that Renji’s character has developed from that. I think that this way of “defending” is even worse, because the manga itself proves that most of the accusations are false.
Renji has made mistakes, I don’t have any problem in blaming Renji of his mistakes, I love that Renji made mistakes, because they make him a more credible character and his story is much more interesting like this. But some mistakes that he is being accused of are simply false.
The flaw that Kubo has dedicated most time about Renji is his lack of self-confidence, and his low self-esteem/inferiority complex, which made that Renji had a defeatist attitude and a lack of determination, which was developed during the SS arc.
In his relationship with Rukia, Renji’s main mistake was to let Rukia go to be adopted, not telling her his true feelings, which affected greatly their relationship, and so this has been the mistake that Kubo has dedicated most of the time about what Renji had to fix in his relationship with Rukia, and was the mistake that Kubo gave a scene where Renji tries to fix it:
Kubo has never treated other supposed mistakes in his relationship with Rukia that Renji is blamed of, and they would have been treated if they were true, so Kubo should have dedicated time to have Renji to say sorry to Rukia about them (and, in fact, Kubo had Rukia saying sorry to Renji), but this has never happened because it’s simply people misunderstanding the manga (many times on purpose) or demanding Renji to be a perfect and irreal character who it seems has to be perfectly correct and an hero in every situation for people (mainly IR fans) to accept him.
I’ve already done before various posts that treated the subjects that Renji is being accused of, explaining why most of these accusations are either simply false or they are superficial interpretations because people have overlooked important things or the circunstances:
-About Renji’s attitude in the first chapters that he appeared:
http://tumblrhalix.tumblr.com/post/21492459414/id-like-to-analyze-the-first-encounter-between
- About Renji and Rukia’s situation during the time of their separation:
http://tumblrhalix.tumblr.com/post/151812815358/i-usually-pass-over-most-posts-that-because-of
http://tumblrhalix.tumblr.com/post/142813319553/kagomesangos-gekroent-i-just-saw-a-post
http://tumblrhalix.tumblr.com/post/51960229832/renji-and-rukias-separation
-About Renji and Jackie’s fight:
http://tumblrhalix.tumblr.com/post/107886988908/missminabee-i-didnt-notice-this-before-but
But what most bothers me is that sometimes people try to justify Renji’s attitude, especially about the matter of his treatment to Rukia in the first chapters and his words to Jackie later, as character development, as if Renji was previously a man who hit women, an abuser, and that his character has developed from that O_o. This is ridiculous and absolutely false because Renji has never been showed like that in his past, and the circunstances when he had to capture Rukia and his words to Jackie have a different motivation.
In fact, the fanbook 13 Blades mentioned Renji’s words to Jackie as a characteristic of Renji’s character, they don’t relate it to Rukia at all, and, in fact, they imply that it can be related to living in the Rukongai, what seems to indicate that Renji had seen abuses to women in the Rukongai, so because of this he is especially sensitive about the matter:
“ 女性に優しい恋次. そして流魂街出身の恋次だからこそ, 余計に深く響く言葉である.”
“Renji is kind to women. Because he was raised in Rukongai, his words resonate even more deeply.”
Other reasons that some people give to explain Renji’s character in the first chapters are that Kubo changed Renji’s character later, so Kubo changed his mind or decided later about Renji’s role in the series, and because of this he seems an agressive character in the first chapters and later is more caring and worried for Rukia. Well, I refuted this in the the post I did about Renji in the first chapters that he appeared (one of the links I put), that it clearly explains that Kubo already shows that Renji was worried about Rukia in those chapters, even since the first page that he appeared in the manga, and gives some reasons about why Renji acted like he did it.
About which was the role that Kubo had thought for Renji at that time, since the moment that Kubo named Renji with a Kanji that it means “romantic love” or “in love”: http://tumblrhalix.tumblr.com/post/80005255611/renjis-name , it’s obvious that Kubo had already thought about Renji’s feelings for Rukia, that in his story romantic love would be important. Even in the volume where are those first chapters with Renji, volume 7, is also included the Radio-Kon with Rukia, where are implied for the first time Renji’s romantic feelings for Rukia (apart from the hint in his own name), where Rukia talks about a boy in the academy that picked on her when she met him on the corridors because he liked her. And later Kubo drew chapter -17 (during the academy days, included in volume 15) where Renji did exactly that. So it seems Kubo had already thought about Renji and Rukia going together to the academy and Renji being in love with Rukia even when he wrote the Radio-kon, in volume 7.
Even there are some hints in those first chapters about the problems of the separation that had between Renji and Rukia, because Rukia is shocked to see Renji, and she calls Renji by his first name, Renji, so this already demonstrated closeness, and after she says his complete name, as if she was seeing someone that she hadn’t seen or interacted with in a long time.
That Renji and Rukia knew each other and were close is obvious from their first interactions, they treated each other with much familiarity, and Renji shows to knew Rukia’s personality pretty well, when he knew that she would try to help Ichigo. Besides, Renji introduced himself as being from the Rukongai, the same as Rukia (Renji being from the Kuchiki family is a mistranslation of the scanlation group at that time: http://tumblrhalix.tumblr.com/post/51216324043/just-another-stray-star-alright-so-i-was ) , and knew that Rukia had been adopted by the Kuchiki family.
It’s obvious that Kubo wanted to mislead the readers about these new characters in the manga, Renji and Byakuya, to show them as a threat, and we know that Kubo likes a lot to do this, because he has done it many times in the manga, but with Renji Kubo already showed even in those first chapters not only hints, but proofs about Renji’s true face, that indeed Renji was worried about Rukia, even since the first page that Renji appeared in this manga:
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
yousharknotpass
