Comment on the greater fear

  1. mediumsizedpidgeon on Chapter 2 Mon 21 Jul 2025 03:28PM UTC

    If Bleach didn't want me to mourn Starrk deeply then he should have way less of sympathetic. I don't think it's inaccurate to say that Starrk would have been a fascinating character to have in the Thousand Year Blood War arc– it's his absolute isolation that led him to follow Aizen, his "savior," and Yhwach holds the same position with the Wandenreich, his devoted (cult of) soldiers. Starrk's concept of a man "cursed with too much power" could have also been a neat foil to Yhwach, who is very much "I have so much power, and it means I'm blessed and GOD."

    Even though the TYBW arc has doubtlessly left Starrk crushed and numb, I don't think his transition into society would have been painless pre-TYBW. Even in Las Noches, Starrk much of his time sleeping his days away, giving up hours where he could be growing closer to his new allies to do something that was originally a coping mechanism for being alone. If he was a man who desperately wanted connection and then got it within Aizen's army, I don't think he would have been as well formed of a character– instead the very actions that he does for comfort against solitude are now the very things trapping him. He's very much a character who KNOWS what's wrong with him and is looking out at the silent ruin of his life, unsure of how to fix it: a haunting by melancholy, helpless and hopeless.

    THANK YOU!! The prey animal metaphor just came to me and then I couldn't stop! Starrk is a starving man from a dog-eat-dog hellhole: of course he's going to see the pointless violence of the Gotei 13 as prey animal conflict, battles fought because everyone involved is well fed and can afford to be offended.

    Fun fact: if the Gotei 13 is a draft horse, then Yamamoto is their High Strung Thoroughbred King.

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