The Undisputed Truth

Yes. Finals are over. 90 Level II and Level III credits have been satisfied. No more group projects, mid-terms or final exams. After 20+ years, I’m finally completely done with school. I say this because anything postgrad I imagine would not be as bad, more complex, but certainly not subject to the rigors of undergraduate life. The gap is so wide that postgrad students usually teach undergrads.

What now? Well, I plan to do like the elderly at Retirement homes. My first impression of retirement homes was “Wow, why do they send their parents there? And What do they do? Just sit around and wait to die?”. Depressing, but in actuality thats what it is. So far I’ve planned to laze around and watch out the rest of  La Femme Nikita Seasons 2 and 3. In a way that can be classified as waiting to die as well, both literally and figuratively, as I still believe university life is one of its own that I am about to lose or lost already, and I’ve heard the saying that scientifically once you start living you start dying.

Oh well. Fact of the matter is, my exams are over. A massive weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Call me crazy but I can see colours brighter and I literally just feel better. Its amazing what stress can do to you. The feeling of relief, exhaustion, accomplishment and happiness is indeed a great one.

Its been a long hard 2 weeks, and finally the Bleach folks have managed to make such a wait worthwhile. Episode 169 was funny, action-filled, suspenseful fanservice…but there a few things about it that are not quite right logically (in terms of the storyline, lets not delve into whether or not there actually are Shinigami in the real-world)..

Firstly, the most obvious : Chad, Rukia and Ishida are there. Now this is just impossible. Especially taking into the consideration the following point about Ishida’s bow which places the timeline of this story after Hueco Mundo or towards the end of the Arrancar arc. This then places them as being either beat up or too busy to be logically placed in the current Amagai Shuusuke arc.

The second peculiarity is Ishida’s bow. In fighting some hollow which surfaced over Karakura Town, Ishida, Chad and Inoue assisted Ichigo and Rukia in disposing of them. Interestingly, Ishida whips out his latest bow, the one he revealed in Hueco Mundo. 

If we were to refer to Episode #144 : Ishida, Chad, the Quickening of a New Power” we would see that this is the first episode where Ishida revealed his new, improved, and certainly more bad-ass bow weapon, Ginrei Kojaku (Silvery Mountaintop Sparrow). Prior to this, Ishida did not show any signs of having the ability to create a new bow or even officially regaining his Quincy powers after losing them as a result of using the Quincy “Final Form” and training with Ishida Ryūken in Episode #126 : Uryū vs. Ryūken! Clash of the parent-child Quincies. Even if he did, the episodes succeeding #126 and #144 were irreversible ; they could not have gone back to the living world, or took a break after having entered Hueco Mundo or beginning the fight with the Arrancar. I would like to see how this is explained.

 Is this “Jumping the Shark”?. Is the entire arc one of Aizen’s illusions? Are the people at Bleach running out of ideas? This is what happens when you try to dilute a series with so much bullshit. I’m interested to see how these inconsistencies are explained.

Is it that they totally ignored the threat of the Arrancar (who also conveniently stopped attacking) and also “vowed never to speak of it again” for the entire arc, even though the only possible timeline where the arc can be placed, with a large stretch of logic is between Episodes 127 and 135 where the Arrancar were an imminent threat? Coming to think of it even that is illogical because we saw a cool, nothing-is-going-on Hitsugaya in Episode 168, and between Episodes 127 and 135 where we are attempting to place the timeline of Episode 169, he was fighting Arrancar!

So in conclusion, Episode #169 of Bleach (New Development, the Dangerous Transfer Student Appears!”) and therefore this Amagai Shuusuke Arc, pending some fantastic logical bending and explanation, doesn’t make any sense at all. This could have well been fanfiction. It is however refreshing to see Ichigo and his dad fight in the morning, Keigo greet Ichigo, Tatsuki, Kon, Ichigo’s sisters, Rukia, Chad and Ishida. Now if only it all made sense.

*EDIT - a fellow fan is telling me that they “went forward in time” with Episode #169…still doesn’t make any sense..so they’re leapfrogging arcs now? Now she’s saying they can “do whatever they want to do” with regards to the timeline. Right…I can dance the macarena naked in the middle of the quadrangle at UWI, but it doesn’t have to make sense to other people…