Maybe it’s just me, but after watching episode 4 of Only Friends Dream On…the one glaring obvious difference with Only Friends (apart from the lack of kissing from Boston and nothing beyond the predestined CPs)….is that the storyline seems to have 3 separate parallel love line…like the JackDean arc, RomeRaffy arc and ArnoldTua (with Boston) arc can all exist almost independently…
While Only Friends, SandRay, TopMew and NickBoston arcs are all interconnected and the growth of each character is deeply enmeshed in how all of them interact with each other
I was rewatching season 1 of bridgerton yesterday (realllyyy love Benedict, so am trying to catch glimpses of him throughout the seasons)...and then I realised that Antony left Sienna. Whom he had promised to take care of, just an episode away. Also, yes, he grew personally, but when he is telling Sienna about how he has to escort Daphnae into balls, and protect her virtue, and Sienna teases him on how lucky she is to have her, and not everyone has that, and Antony unconsciously reacts with-," well, not everyone is a lady".....which is very telling on how he sees women who are not nobility born/of the ton.
Sienna was an accomplished opera singer, earning her own keep (as with her discussion with her friend) but at the end of the day, she is not a lady in Anthony's eyes.
I don't blame him, he grew up in the creamy layers of the society, and that is how he was raised even if his mother taught him to respect the househelp. But this also means that he is not going to be very accepting of Benedict's entanglements with Sophie.
Anthony left Sienna as soon as his mother had scolded him about her, and showed him that it would have an affect of Daphnae's prospects....he expects Benedict to do the same, because he left Sienna, and then found true love in a member of the ton (Kate).
He would expect Benedict to do the same.....
I feel he is not going to be very supportive of his relationship with Sophie....and a part of me is afraid that she is not going to the familiar acceptance that Sophie has been craving since childhood.
I know this has been written and discussed coutnless times, but gods above, we cannot blame Shen Wenlang....Gao Tu (who he knows since highschool, and he thinks that the guy is just poor and sickly,...amd given that he grew up rich and just thought that Gao Tu does not have the resources to go to a proper hospital or take treatment for his asthama and just lives with his sick body, you cannot blame Wenlang. And given that his sister is also sick, makes sense that tutu might also be a little sickly.)
And he may hate omegas because of his upbringing and probably his absuive dad being all racist about omegas, and he grew up hearing that and hearing his dad's side of the story of how his omega dad baby trapped him, and he did not want Wenlang at allm and Wenlang is just a burden that omega dumped on him and ran away, thisnis probably the spiel that Wenlang grew up hearing. No wonder he does not like omegas, and wants to stay away from them. [He probably neeeds YEARS OF THERAPY, but the only person hilariously seeking out therapists is Hua Yong, and he probably just threw a lot of money on their faces to teach him how to cry and discuss NOTHING ELSE.]
He has no reason to even think that Gao Tu might be hiding who he is...coz why would he? Gao Tu had always been a Beta and he never said anything. And he is just expressing his anger and frustation as he would among those he considers close. He knows that Gao Tu is in an alleged relationship with an omega, and all i have ever heard him compain is not to let any omega scent near him coz he hates it. [And probably he is jealous that Tu goes back home to an omega]
So, my brain has been absolute trash lately. It has hit capacity. Too much is happening all at once. But, between life and the occasional and often much-regretted look at the news, I muse. My most recent Bleach musing is: Kuchiki heirs!
And, oh, boy, prepare for mushy brain time!
[Warning: As mentioned, the brain is too full, so pardon me for rambling from my increasingly porous memory on this one!]
A n y w a y...
As my particular niche interest in an already niche interest focuses mainly on the Kuchiki characters and their immediate loved ones, my what-ifs constantly poking at what even is this family? Based on what I can remember and the few snippets I can easily find, we know the following "things" about the family and family dynamics:
🌸Thing the First: Byakuya is the 28th Head of the Kuchiki Family and the captain of the Sixth🌸
I don't have a scan at my fingertips for this particular factoid. The Wikipedia (not always a source of truth, I know) cites the Souls databook, which certainly feels correct. However, I remembered it being in Color Bleach. Either way, this information is interesting for purposes of this musing because, well, if Byakuya is the 28th Head of the Family, that means there were likely at least 27 other heads of the Family.
Which also means....
There must be a process for Head-dom! 🤸
🌸Thing the Second: Ginrei, Byakuya's granddad, was the 27th Head of the Kuchiki Family and was captain of the Sixth 🌸
So, I got the snippets for the "granddad" and "captain of the sixth" parts of this factoid. I don't think there is a scene in the manga proper that explicitly spells out that Ginrei is the 27th Head; although, my porous brain may be kicking in, so perhaps there is. I remember the Masked Q&A pages, where during Kubo's explanation of WTF happened to Byakuya's dad, Soujun, he revealed that Soujun was the next family head, but died in battle. I am presuming, then, that Soujun died before taking over the family and the squad.
This was all a long preamble to the next point that I find interesting, which is: It seems the captainship of Squad 6 is inherited to an extent, and this brings us to....
🌸Thing the Third: Soujun Kuchiki is Byakuya's father, who was Vice Captain/Lieutenant of the Sixth🌸
So, there isn't much about Soujun in the manga. What I remember about him comes from the Masked databook. Specifically, a Q&A with Kubo:
Q: Who is Sojun Kuchiki?
KUBO: Byakuya's late father.
Q: Was he killed in action?
KUBO: Yes. He was never cut out to fight, but since he's from the Kuchiki family he has the talent. Ginrei was concerned about his health, but he was the next family head so that's why he was appointed as assistant captain. But he dies in battle in the end.
Q: Was he talented though?
KUBO: He had the talent, but he was too quiet and too nice.
So... it would seem: (i) most Kuchiki have "talent," (ii) the titles of Head of the Family and Captain of the Sixth appear to follow a patrilineal line of inheritence, but (iii) Soujun was, indeed, "talented," which could be inferred to mean that he was capable (although the note of him being too quiet and nice is a knee-slapper given who we know for sure has helmed the Sixth).
On the last point, it isn't explicitly clear to me whether Soujun's capability was an important factor in his being next in line to lead the family and the Sixth. At the very least, the statement that Soujun "was never cut out to fight," would seem to bar him from leadership in a fighting manga organization, so... maybe "competence" (in the traditional sense) isn't as important for these roles or he had other skills to make up for the fact that he wasn't really "cut out to fight."
Either way, Kubo spells out that since Soujun was the next to head the family, he was appointed as assistant captain. This, too, is something to ponder over because... well... what does this mean in practice?
Based on Rukia's treatment, it doesn't seem that Kuchiki necessarily go to the Academy; although, it's unclear to me if this was just a special thing for Rukia--i.e., a byproduct of Byakuya being very literal about the "keep her safe" part of the vow he made to his wife--or if all Kuchiki or main-family Kuchiki skip out on the Academy. Maybe Soujun had private tutors and didn't slum it with the "public school" shinigami before heading into the ranks. Or, maybe Soujun was appointed straight to assistant-captain status after his super-duper Kuchiki training. Given just how hierarchical the Seireitei is, it's possible that Soujun never served as a lowly grunt under another ranked officer, especially since he wasn't very good at that whole fighting thing.
Who can say?
Stepping past Soujun for a second, though, I am assuming we are to believe the Kuchiki inheriting the Sixth's top officer roles wasn't always the case. Why? Well....
Because this person was the first captain of the Sixth:
And that person is Furoufushi Saitou... whose name is suspiciously not Kuchiki. But, hey, her hair is the same color as the Kuchiki guards so... put on your tinfoil hats and best believe there is a connection, baby!
🌸Thing the Fourth: Soujun Kuchiki died🌸
As mentioned in the Q&A excerpt above, Kubo confirmed that Soujun perished during battle. When? What battle? Who was there?
Great questions! And, at least from my recollection, they remain a mystery. Maybe this is the set-up to the mystery of who Byakuya showed his bankai to?
🌸Thing the Fifth: Ginrei Kuchiki is... Alive? Dead? Unclear🌸
Unlike with Soujun, Kubo hasn't been as explicit about Ginrei's fate, as I recall it. I think with Byakuya being both the Kuchiki Head and the Captain of the Sixth, one could assume that Ginrei might not be among the "living" in Soul Society, especially since there's a sense that the Gotei 13's retirement plan is likely til death do you part. But, while I prefer to think of the Gotei 13 as an organization operating on The Godfather style rules, we do know at least one lieutenant who effectively retired canonically, and that is the Sixth's lieutenant prior to Renji.
So....
Maybe Ginrei's retired, hanging out at the Kuchiki cabin on the lake fishing into his... twilight years? (Midnight years, really....)
There is perhaps some support for the "Ginrei Is Alive" theory in CFYOW (a source that is certainly there):
This happens in the Third Book (I think???) during a scene where Kyoraku is battling Temu Urahara with an Opioid Addiction this guy:
Now, I'm not going to pretend to understand CFYOW. The more I try to understand it, the more brain cells I actively lose, which is probably more a function of time than what I will charitably blame on the translation of this story. One could take the above excerpt to mean that Kyouraku plans to offer up his gratitude to Ginrei after all the battling stops, which implies that Ginrei is, y'know, actually around to receive such gratitude. Although, maybe Kyouraku is being cheeky and plans to dumb a cup of sake on the geezer's memorial. Or maybe he means that he'll have to remember to be nice to Ginrei when they reunite in hell or something.
It is Kyouraku after all.
So, why does it matter? Well, assuming Ginrei is indeed alive, it means the Kuchiki Lord can abdicate power to the next in line, which is...something??? Maybe??? If you squint -_-
🌸Thing the Sixth: Byakuya married Rukia's sister, Hisana, a pauper from Rukongai🌸
I'll pin that factoid here since it's interesting in the sense that we learn that Byakuya was given a choice as to his bride. That choice, as noted below, seemed to go over like a lead balloon with the fam.
Digging deeper, it is an odd choice for Mr. Law-and-Order Byakuya Kuchiki to fall in love with a peasant. Also, how the hell did L&O Kuchiki come across a peasant from Rukongai, anyway? We are given some details about the state of How Nobles and Peasants Interact from Renji's memories of the Academy days and the years that followed, so it doesn't seem like something that would have happened without some shenanigans. Kubo, however, has never shed light on this to my knowledge, which makes sense since it keeps Rukia's past mysterious, and mystery allows things to be open-ended should he want to take some random direction with Bleach at a later point in time.
🌸Thing the Seventh: Byakuya's marriage--or, more specifically, marrying someone from Rukongai--was against somebody's laws🌸
I say "somebody's laws" because it is unclear to me whose laws are being violated based on the English translation of the manga. I am assuming that it is the nobility's/Seireitei's laws and not clan-specific laws, but maybe the Kuchiki have their own black-letter laws and regulations along with the necessary guidance materials for interpretive and procedural purposes. (You just know this family has an Employee Handbook if you join along with a week-long orientation process with a test you must pass before you are allowed to do anything.) To support that assumption is another scene from CFYOW, also between Kyouraku and Tokinada:
I would assume that if a noble family could raise objections to what another noble family was up to re: marriage, that whatever Byakuya was doing here was a violation of the Law, law and not the Kuchiki Handbook for Good Little Heirs and Their Noble Consorts.
Digressing, the phrasing of "marrying someone from Rukongai" is interesting. Literally taken, this phrasing means even spiritually gifted folks who were born outside Seireitei would be precluded from marrying a high noble or, more narrowly, a Kuchiki. Which means that souls going through the soul cycle would be precluded, along with souls born in Rukongai. This is interesting since we learn that Vice Captains can mingle with high nobles, thus explaining Renji's dogged motivation to become a Vice Captain so that he could reunite with Rukia. It's possible that: (i) Byakuya is speaking imprecisely here or the translation is imprecise; (ii) socializing and marrying have different standards (i.e., Renji can share the same air as Rukia but they can't marry per the law/Kuchiki custom); and/or (iii) the laws/customs for an heir/current head of a Great Noble family are different from the laws/customs for members of that same family who are not in the direct or immediate line of succession.
🌸Thing the Eighth: Byakuya adopted Rukia as a sibling, which was also against The Rules🌸
Okay, so, here is where I want to talk about family.
The credited response whenever thinking about fictional families.
Specifically, the Kuchiki family presumably consists of more than just Byakuya, Ginrei, Soujun, Hisana, and Rukia. There are these--quite literally--faceless "family" members (see: the black panel above full of absolutely no one). How many other Kuchiki are there? Who can say? How influential are they? Well, Kubo makes it sound in his Q&A that the family is generally regarded as talented, so, probably somewhat. They are also members of one of the Great Noble Families, so... they have that going for them.
It doesn't seem as if these nameless, faceless "family" have much of a vote on what the Head chooses to do. What did resistance even look like, here? A strongly worded letter? A drive-by "I disagree!" in the corridors of Kuchiki Manor? Pearl clutching in the halls? I suppose there could have been defections. Perhaps some branch families decided to align themselves with another Great Noble Family to avoid the "sullying" of being associated with Rukon girls. We know the Tsunayashiro objected, but... in what forum? How did that look? Was it a public debate? A congressional hearing? A strong finger wagging at the Seireitei Convention Center?
A n y w a y....
These fistfuls of fun little factoids sort of bring me to the conundrum of what's next for this family?
Based on what I've read and retained, I get the sense that Byakuya hasn't remarried. (However, this, too, may be an assumption since Bleach isn't really about the nobility aside from Ichigo's curious place in it.) We also don't have any sense of who would be the next in line for the Kuchiki. It doesn't appear that Byakuya and Hisana's marriage produced a viable heir (although... this, also, is an assumption), and we don't have a next-in-line Vice Captain holding the water for Byakuya.
Perhaps Byakuya would marry again and produce an heir. However, given how the marriages in Bleach tend to go, though, perhaps not.
The sibling adoption angle is an interesting one, and one that I sort of wish Bleach had stuck with when it came to "families" (i.e., the better-funded families snatching up powerful prospects elsewhere to groom to be the next in line). This may have been the direction Kubo was heading from the very beginning, when Byakuya and Renji were introduced. And, there's historical precedent in the Edo period and earlier eras in Japan where families would adopt young men to groom and later run the family.
Perhaps, if ever revisited, this question is answered solely for the sake of parsimony/everything getting wrapped up in a pretty red bow, and Ichika becomes the next in line.
Duke totally teases Jason about wearing lifts in his shoes, or that the helmet adds on a few inches if Jason ever calls him kid or tries to get him to leave a situation.
