So there are misguided people who think that the reason why people hated on Bleach is because of the endgame ships. If that is so, why then even non shippers hated the ending? These people don't give a fuck about romance but they hated how the story went. If you are a thinking reader, you will never accept this ending. Why? Because Ichigo's journey as a hero was nullified. Negated. Thrown away. People have made jokes about Ichigo being Al Bundy. About him being a couch potato. In surface, this seems like mere bashing. But you know what? They illustrate the kind of disappointment for the supposed main character of the story. Think about this: Why do we read shounen? To see the hero grow. Most of the time, they start as nothing. But they have goals. And we read the series to see how he actually achieves that goal. Ichigo started powerless. His goal was to protect. He entered a world of supernatural wonder through Rukia. At the end of the journey, he gains a clinic. *tires screech* Lolwut? And oh, is he still a shinigami? What does he even do now? We're all clueless. We read the story for the hero's journey. And in the end, we expect the hero to become greater than from what he was when he started. This is so basic in every myth of every culture. Joseph Campbell calls it the Monomyth. Following the law of monomyth, after that journey, HE MUST RETURN WITH A GIFT THAT IMPROVES OR CHANGES THE WORLD. That was robbed from Ichigo. This is what IchiHimes seem to miss. In order for their pairing to happen, Ichigo returned to that same state he started from. He did not complete the hero's journey. He regressed. In order for it to happen, the story must be rejected into existence. That's what makes this pairing so disgusting. But then again, it's mere collateral damage. (But do they really care about Ichigo though? As long as the princess gets her prize, the Hero does not matter anymore) The Sokyoku was rebuilt, more stronger. The worlds are separated once again. When people say that 15 years went down the drain, ships are the furthest from their minds. The ships are mere collateral damage when Kubo decided to negate everything that the story once stood for. Think more: If Ichigo and Rukia never met, if Ichigo never became a shinigami, this is the same ending he will have. If that is so, then what's the point of writing the story in the first place? Since the story is about the hero's journey, then what is the point of all the fights, the defeats, trainings, and the victories? After all, after all these things, Ichigo will just settle with an ordinary life in an unchanged world. Why did we even read Bleach? It's all pointless. If you truly respect your intellect, you will not excuse this ending. If you truly read carefully, you will not apologize for Kubo and Bleach. Kubo disrespected us readers because he disrespected the hero he created. He wasted our time, effort, and money by posing Ichigo as an agent of change that ultimately results to nothing. So people, readers with brains do not hate the ending for the endgame ships as the first thing in their minds Personally, I don't even hate it for the plot holes and retcons. I view these as collateral damage. I hate the ending because it negated the story itself. I hate it because it wasted my valuable and irreplaceable resources. I hate it because Kubo got rich from taking the money of fans who invested in his pointless story for 15 years. So we will never shut up about our discontent. Doing so means intentionally insulting our own intellects.