User blog comment:Lemursrule/The Soul Society Arc Overrated? The Pros and Cons of the Soul Society Arc/@comment-44061-20110316051756

Well why I dont normally jump into blogs I will this time. one of my favorite arcs is the Soul Society Arc. Though not because of Ichigo, you gave a point of him becoming a "true" Shinigami. This is in the most dumb down version of the title and all that comes with it. Ichigo largely excepts no responsibility for a being a Shinigami or the larger point of the importance of the role. He rarely if ever performs soul burial and seems to constantly interject himself in Soul Society business (which he has no authority or necessity to do, since he is nothing more then a kid with no understanding besides his own personal views) while protecting people he has known all of a week if not a matter of days. He shows no overall respect to those with more skill, knowledge or understanding and takes his power for granted. Largely using it for his own personal purposes as if his life and the people in it matter in the larger scale of things. Character development is almost nonexistent for the karakura town group as they are teenagers but not ones that are really learning to grow up. The most development for Ichigo was the end of the Arrancar arc then in the new one it seems a complete reverse back to same old concept. The Soul Society arc didn't offer the development it was just hack and slash for him. He finds his zanpakuto's name and then cheats his way to bankai. To say he masters it is a leap, he has learned enough to use it effectively (And far to often for it to be amazing any longer) not really developing it until the end of the arrancar arc when he learns the FGT. Here Rukia's inner emotions developed but little from anything else. Now to the point of Bleach wouldn't be an international hit if it wasn't for the Aizen twist. There is no debate about that, but if you think about it, its not that good a thing. The twist began at the revelation that Aizen was alive and manipulating everyone. After it passed what are you left with. The twist is over now your left with Aizen who doesn't really add much substance until he fights at the end of the arrancar arc and that even becomes tediously impossible to even believe in a fantasy story. My point would be that where did that wow factor go between the SS arc and current arc. The story centers around Ichigo and always has but would it really hurt or be better if it wasn't.