tipsyimperial:

deflect:

bleachapparently:

NOPE NOPE NOPE

CAN’T HANDLE IT

#shipping matters #idk you guys i just think they would be the cutest thing ever #but if it happens i just hope kubo never steers ishida into nice guy territory #that is my only fear

reblogging for tags because

this is actually a HUGE THING WITH ME and as I obnoxiously reblog months and months old things that will doubtless not get seen, I can’t help but alskfmlsd in assent at the sentiment - even though, for the most part, I have very little fear of it happening in canon.

It being making Ishida into a “Nice Guy”. Augh, my own experience with the breed aside, it’s what has sometimes made me shake my head at IshiHime fandom (much as I am overjoyed it exists at all and also likes them), because invariably there is fanfiction in which Ishida is that guy, or fandom opinions that, possibly unaware of just how gross it sounds, go on about how he deserves her affection and gosh how dare she never look at him when he’s been such a good friend and so in wuv, etc.

Without launching into a rant on that, b/c lol brevity and focus, I do want to say that I am very confident KT won’t do that. He has disappointed me before, but rarely with characterization. Ishida’s treatment of Orihime has always been refreshingly consistent. 

If we operate under the assumption that he does have feelings for her (and I obviously do), I think it fairly clear he chooses not to acknowledge them. He does this both passively and actively, subconsciously and consciously.

The only time he seems at all annoyed by her talk of Ichigo is when she mistakes him (Uryuu) for Ichigo, and there’s obviously a whole bag full of other reasons why that’d furrow his eyebrows, such as his occasional need for acknowledgment, rivalry, etc. Lol, he got annoyed when those thugs at the school did it, too! Not that that rivalry is really all that competitive or hostile, as while Ishida did go to SS to fight Shinigami, he also (despite his claims to the contrary), went to support Ichigo and rescue Rukia. Just see his emo rain moment when he tells Urahara ONLY KUROSAKI CAN SAVE HER!11 and when Orihime sees right through him, as she always does. (The Ichigo-Ishida rivalry is pretty interesting in that they don’t compete, they stand as equals despite power imbalance, there is no resentment, etc. Maybe he’d be frustrated Ichigo is dumb and inadvertently hurting Orihime, but we don’t even see THAT).

Otherwise, he puts aside his feelings. When his attention is on her, he never thinks of himself. He is almost completely absent from it, until the concluding thought (“Don’t die, Kurosaki, or I’ll never forgive you!”), or if he thinks of himself, it is only to immediately put aside his own feelings and focus on hers (“I’m glad you’re safe. …No, I shouldn’t say that yet. [“Don’t worry. Kurosaki will win.”] I’ll only be able to say that for real when you’ve defeated him, Kurosaki!”). There is no trace of resentment, no hint of expectation. The only thing Ishida wants and has consistently wanted, while watching Orihime watch Ichigo, is for Orihime to be happy. Recognizing where she has placed her happiness, and respecting that, he also turns his attention on Ichigo. 

Yes, he has that problematic chivalry going, with the whole MUST PROTECT, but that’s another issue. (As is his dismissing her qualifications for the front line, as I honestly think that had less to do with chivalry and more to do with how he’d raised himself and how he perceived those fights; anoooother essay/issue there).

He isn’t a saint; there might be some part of him that wishes she would look his way, but it isn’t a part of him that he gives any attention. Unlike the “Nice Guy”, he isn’t Orihime’s friend because he wants to get into her pants. He isn’t kinder to especially her out of the gross expectation that doing so makes her indebted to him and thus obligated to let him grope her. He doesn’t want to protect especially her because damn, doesn’t that mean he deserves her? 

There has been absolutely no evidence of him thinking that way. His tacit and silent support of her feelings for Ichigo have been, to my eyes, utterly genuine. They might make him feel a little cruddy deep, deep down, but again:  he isn’t humoring that. 

I think he’d be disgusted by that sort of attitude. 

And unless KT makes him jump off a characterization cliff, I think he’s safe from it, too. I guess, with this arc and the way he’s being set up for some false antagonism/opposition, I’m a little worried he’ll fake that attitude, play the act and say the lines to try and be disgusting and hated, and it will work and I’ll be disgusted that that ever happened. lol if KT then at all implied there was truth to it, I’ll lose all faith in my ability to understand characters portrayed in BLEACH and have to give up RPing Ishida, I guess, lol. But, I figure he’ll act more with Ichigo and just apologize to her or say nothing :||||| 

omg why can’t i read more tag in photo posts / reblogging those cries

Don’t worry.  Ishida is not and never will be the “nice guy” who acts like Orihime’s friend because he wants or expects something from her.  He obviously has a soft spot for Orihime, but whatever his feelings for her actually are, he absolutely does not push them on her.  In the Lust Arc, when Ichigo and Ulqui have flown off to have their showdown, Ishida considers telling her “I’m glad you’re alright”, which seems innocent enough.  But those are his feelings, something that he wants to express to her.  But he doesn’t express them. Not, I think, because he was afraid to, but because he realized they were probably selfish — that they concerned only how he felt about seeing her physically alright, and not how she really was (something that Grimmjow took Ichigo to task for earlier).  Instead, Ishida recognizes that, no, she isn’t alright, and won’t be until Ichigo beats Ulquiorra, so instead of expressing himself, he comforts her the best way he knows how: by saying that Kurosaki will win.

Kubo knows who Ishida Uryuu is: he’s gentlemanly and a bit shy.  He really is the White Knight.  The way he cares for Orihime isn’t selfish. He wants to see her safe and happy. And while I realize this opinion generates a lot of debate, I think Ishida’s selfless affection for Orihime is there as a contrast to Orihime’s own feelings about Ichigo.  Specifically, she said she went to HM to protect him, but when she’s there, she seems to expect Ichigo to protect her.  The Grimmjow and Ulquiorra fights especially show that her feelings toward Ichigo are laden with expectation.  She expects to see herself in Ichigo’s eyes, and when he dons the mask, she can’t and nearly breaks down in response.  Until Ichigo tells her to put her shield up, she doesn’t defend herself, apparently expecting Ichigo to do it.  When Ulquiorra blows a hole in Ichigo’s chest, Orihime freaks out because she didn’t expect it. This wasn’t in the script she’d written in her head.  Ichigo always wins, and this time, it would be for her.  But that didn’t happen.  Or at least, it didn’t happen the way she hoped it would.

No matter how polite they seem, “Nice Guys” have an agenda.  They have expectations.  Uryuu has none.  Some people might try to spin it that way, but I don’t see Kubo doing it, so I wouldn’t worry.

I meant to reply to this last week but kept getting caught up in time things! 

Ah //// I never expected such a thoughtful reply to my little ‘Nice Guy’ rant, and I love you for this. Basically, yes to all of it. I like the thought that he recognized his relief as selfish, and as not necessarily reflective of her actual state (thus in contrast to Ichigo’s earlier failure), but I’m not totally sure I should take that from it. His hesitation seems to be more out of acknowledging that, whether because Ichigo needs to win for Orihime to truly be free, or whether Orihime cannot be well until she sees Ichigo has won, her status either does depend or she has made it dependent on Ichigo.

The former doesn’t quite work, of course, and Ishida’s smart enough to recognize that at this point, Orihime’s in no danger. He was the one who pointed out why Ichigo was fighting and had to keep fighting in Soul Society:  because he had to topple the system that would execute Rukia. In contrast, Aizen has already outright said he never had and has no interest in Orihime. Ulquiorra also had no intent to hurt her unless he later received such an order; as for now, he interpreted his task as being fighting Ichigo because he wanted to, I think.

All of which to say that, while Ishida usually is very perceptive of Orihime’s condition and feelings, I can’t confidently claim he could sense the ~turmoil within~ alluded to by Grimmjow and Ulquiorra (and it’s debatable, I guess, if it was ever such a big deal, since apparently Ulquiorra never bothered her that much,and she recovered awfully fast from HM, lol idek that fucking arc). His reticence draws more from her being so centered on Ichigo, thus “no, I can’t say for real until you win, Kurosaki”. 

Which is a total deviation from the Nice Guy argument!!! But, as I said sort of similar things and also believe the same whole-heartedly (with a dash of worry as noted at the bottom of my original post), I’d just be redundantly repeating everything you already typed, haha. Gentleman and a bit shy, aw. 

I also hesitate to frame his feelings as an intended contrast to Orihime’s for Ichigo, because I hesitate in general to criticize her feelings outside of when I do believe we were meant to side-eye— specifically in the moments you mentioned. (Lololol oh no the moment when, all this talk and framing of “expectations” makes Orihime sound like a Nice Girl????!!! but I think that would be inaccurate as well). After all, those are the moments she herself questions. “I came to protect, so why did I ask to be protected?” As well as, yes, hoping to see herself in his eyes, the unfortunate implication of the one friend who fulfilled Shinji’s prophecy and feared the mask (whether because of Sora or not) being the one girl who is in love with him, and worrying that he hadn’t come there for her (not unreasonable, what with his, YOU ARE RIGHT I CAME HERE TO FIGHT YOU GRIMMJOW!!!) But, in general, I tend to think it’s unfair to criticize her for wanting to see herself in his eyes, or to be important to him/her crush/love. That’s human and natural; it’s when she fails her own promise to herself and breaks down when her expectations aren’t met that it becomes problematic. 

I think I have a problem characterizing her feelings as overall selfish or in some way less than or bad, because I started out in fandom sincerely believing that one day her feelings would be reciprocated, because gosh why else in shounen have a girl swear to become stronger for her love??? (Not that I shipped it, unless I was especially irritated by Orihime hate that day- lol sometimes I shipped IchiHime out of spite). After the Lust Arc, I lost that conviction, but I remain…. well, I’m not sure, because to my eyes I think her feelings are more often portrayed in a positive way (er which is to say,  while these days I tend to side-eye them hard, I’m not sure… KT does, Lust Arc aside, just ugh, superficially even so much of what followed did not match up with the discordance there), thus it’s hard for me to think Ishida’s are a deliberate positive/selfless contrast. Of course! It’s possible to contrast selfless/selfish, and to have love be selfish without selfish meaning wrong. 

But, I’m probably too cautious of stepping on toes of people who don’t give a damn anyway, and would dismiss all of this period because wow, those fucking Ishihime fans keep making his feelings out to be what they aren’t, he doesn’t love her your point is moot and hdu suggest there’s anything remotely fishy about the pureness of Orihime’s devotion. THIS WAS LONG SORRY