Why Ichigo should logically hate Soul Society
As requested by @kiaralucy. :)
We’ve already explored the strangely forgiving nature of Bleach characters, in lists like “Why Renji should logically hate Ichigo” and some other one that I could have sworn I did but can’t find (shrugs). But now let’s talk about Ichigo! He loves Soul Society and Soul Society loves him. Which is great! Except that…why on earth does Ichigo like Soul Society? Shouldn’t he…hate them? After all…
1. They rely on him for everything.
Ichigo is a seventeen-year-old human. At the beginning of Bleach, he was fifteen. He has schoolwork and family responsibilities and friends. He’s (mostly) human, for goodness’ sake. Soul Society is full of magical death gods whose entire job is to take care of things like hollows and Quincy and members of their own organization who go off the rails and try to destroy the universe. Instead, they pretty much just expect Ichigo to take care of it. Ichigo could rightfully be SUPER resentful of the fact that they are essentially making him do their entire job - to say nothing of the pain and loss he suffers while doing their job for them.
2. Ichigo goes through a lot for their sake.
Speaking of pain and suffering - holy shit has Ichigo undergone some messed up stuff. While basically being Soul Society’s unpaid intern, Ichigo has been injured A LOT both mentally and physically. He’s had to watch his friends get hurt. He’s had to watch his family suffer. He’s lost his powers and, oh yeah, DIED. And again, this is all because Soul Society just can’t manage without him.
3. They often don’t bother to help him.
Given that Ichigo does all of this stuff for Soul Society, and given how much he’s had to endure and give up, you’d think Soul Society would be grateful. Not so much. Sure, they’ve thanked him a couple of times, but when he really needed their help, they said no. Remember when Orihime was SUPER OBVIOUSLY kidnapped by Aizen? And when Ichigo said, “Please help me get her back,” Yamamoto’s answer was, “Nah, she probably wanted to be kidnapped she’s always seemed shifty.” But of course, that was early on, before Soul Society really knew Ichigo. Surely later they’d pull out all the stops to help him, yeah? Nah! During the Fullbringer arc, Ichigo ended up with his powers lost AGAIN crying on his hands and knees in the rain after all of his brainwashed friends and family abandoned him. Only then did Soul Society stroll in, having been totally cool with letting him think he was totally alone up until then.
4. They tried to stop him from rescuing Rukia.
Let’s talk about something a little more specific. Ichigo’s first experience with Soul Society was when he tried to save Rukia from being unjustly executed, and everybody in Soul Society dropped everything to stop this heinous rescue. Like, it’s adorable that Ichigo makes friends with each shinigami as he fights them, but logically speaking - what the hell? Ikkaku, Renji, Kenpachi, Byakuya…they all try to MURDER Ichigo to make sure that they can execute Rukia. And sure it turns out Aizen was manipulating events, but “Oops turns out we were following terrible orders and didn’t notice” shouldn’t be quite as comforting as Ichigo seems to find it.
5. They demanded help from Ichigo immediately afterwards.
I know I already talked about Soul Society’s weirdly demanding expectations of Ichigo, but it’s worth emphasizing how early they started. Ichigo had just fought his way through the ranks of shinigami and had almost killed himself fighting off Byakuya. As he was limping away from the battlefield with his friends, Soul Society suddenly contacted him and was all, “Oh hey by the way turns out all of this was because of an evil guy named AIZEN could you please come back and help us with that?” Like, how was Ichigo’s response not, “Um, you just spent like 80 episodes trying to kill me and my friends and that sounds 100% like a trap so….no.” Of course, once Aizen grabbed Rukia, Ichigo had to go back, but still - Soul Society immediately decided to start demanding favors from Ichigo, without in any way having earned his trust or gratitude yet. That was a sign of things to come for sure.
6. Soul Society is a horrible place for dead human souls.
The Rukongai is terrible. Just, so terrible. Most of the human souls live in abject poverty and continue to be hunted by hollows - you know, the things that the shinigami are supposed to take care of? When Ichigo first arrives in Soul Society, he’s in the “good” part of the Rukongai, and even that is a haunt of misery. Family members aren’t reunited, the souls live in fear, it’s a mess. It’s remarkable that Ichigo doesn’t undergo an existential crisis seeing what lies ahead for himself and his loved ones. And amazing he doesn’t resent Soul Society for not caring what happens to the dead humans they’re supposed to be protecting.
7. Hollows continue to hunt and eat humans a lot.
Both in the afterlife and in the human world! Again, it is worth emphasizing that this is exactly what the shinigami are supposed to be stopping. But they don’t really seem to care much for the job. Karakura Town is a hotbed for hollow activity, so naturally Soul Society sends…..one low-level soul reaper to protect the whole place. It’s almost as though they don’t really care about humans at all. And Ichigo, who gets to watch his family and friends get attacked over and over again, knows this better than most.
8. They were spying on him.
After Ichigo helps Soul Society out the first time, they kindly give him a soul reaper badge. Awwww, they’re acknowledging his contributions! Only not. It’s a way for them to spy on and monitor him. And of course they don’t tell him this until waaaaay later, even after he’s proven himself a ton of times. But Ichigo, instead of rightfully feeling violated or angry, just sort of shrugs when he finds out.
And according to Yhwach, this should make him hate soul reapers. I dunno about that, but his Quincy heritage might make Ichigo question the way Soul Society dealt with the Quincy - by trying to exterminate them all.
10. Soul Society has screwed over basically every member of his family.
Ichigo cares for his family and friends above all. That, if nothing else, should make him hate Soul Society. After all, his mom was killed in a hollow attack (Soul Society did nothing to prevent it). His dad was forced to give up his powers and flee from Soul Society. His uncle Kaien was killed by a hollow in service to Soul Society after his captain said, “Suicide by hollow? Sounds legit.” Then the rest of the Shiba clan was exiled to live in the horrible horrible place that is the Rukongai. Meanwhile Ichigo’s little sisters are hollow bait every other week. Basically what I’m saying is that if Bleach is a whole sinister plot by Ichigo to gain every power so that he can destroy Soul Society himself, I’ll definitely understand why.
gummygunk
dededos
annaxmalina
pixelskylines
titsay
