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Dethroning Moment / Bleach

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We stand in awe before that which cannot be seen, but that doesn't mean these moments suck any less.

Keep in mind:

  • Sign your entries
  • One moment per work to a troper, if multiple entries are signed to the same troper the more recent one will be cut.
  • Moments only, no "just everything he said," or "This entire comic," entries.
  • No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion.
  • No natter. As above, anything contesting an entry will be cut, and anything that's just contributing more can be made its own entry.
  • Explain why it's a Dethroning Moment of Suck.
  • No ALLCAPS, no bold, and no italics unless it's the title of a work. We are not yelling the DMoSs out loud.

  • MisterOM. The Ending. Just... The Ending. For me, Bleach was always enjoyable because even at its crappiest moments, it always had something to keep me entertained. Heck, I even enjoyed the anime’s filler arcs as a guilty pleasure because even when Bleach sucked, it always managed to keep my interest. The ending? Not so much. Now, before I explain why, let me just make one thing clear: I am fully aware that this isn’t all Kubo’s fault. Kubo got screwed over by Executive Meddling several times when he was writing Bleach and the story suffered a lot for it. The ending, however, suffered more of it than any other part of the story. Where do I even begin with this? I’ll state the three main problems. First, how rushed it was. Bleach got cancelled early, which didn’t leave Kubo with much time to write an ending for it. This resulted in the ending being rushed and incomplete, thus leaving several plot threads hanging and creating a bazillion plotholes. Second, the clashing mood. By nature, shonen manga tend to be slow paced (which is why Archive Panic tends to be a common problem due to the large number of chapters in most of them), which can be a problem. However, the ending goes too far in the other direction, trying desperately to wrap up the story with a disappointing Distant Finale that doesn’t feel happy at all, but just plain desperate. It’s especially weird because at this point, you’re probably gonna be used to the book’s slow pace and atmosphere, but then suddenly it does a complete 180 and crams too much exposition and information to properly process the whole thing... all in just one short chapter. Third, there’s... where the romance subplots went. Leaving aside that there wasn’t much of a resolution when it comes to the romantic part of the book, there’s also the fact that it’s barely adressed at all. Now, just to be clear, this isn’t just about the shipping or anything, but just because it doesn’t seem to make much sense that Kubo would ship sink Ichigo and Rukia without at least having them address the matter first. He could’ve at least had them adress it by having them decide to just be friends, but nope! The worst part is, there was already a lot of intentional Ship Tease between both Rukia and Ichigo, but now these moments seem like pointless filler that Kubo just put there to screw with his fans. Just to be clear, the problem does not lie with who ended up with who (Ichigo with Orihime and Rukia with Renji), but rather with how it was handled. So, to recap, there are three major problems with the ending: 1. The dangling unresolved plot threads and many plot holes, 2. The sudden change of pace that causes a mood whiplash and 3. the way the romance subplots were resolved.
  • Rampulus. While Starrk's end was disappointingly sudden, he's technically second to "0 Espada" Yammy Rialgo. That reveal is in an of itself a Dethroning Moment of Suck for this series- I thought the spoiler with it was a joke, especially since Yammy had seemed quite weak and incompetent until then and the Espada ranks go from 1 to 10.
  • RFD Blaze. Ulquiorra's battle with Ichigo, which had huge amounts of hype for practically the whole arc with his parallels to Byakuya driving it up more. And after waiting ages after start for the fight to really begin, it managed to somehow become the single most shining example of everything that is wrong with Bleach fights since the SS arc began. Right after Ulquiorra releases it begins a complete beatdown, followed with an expected but still incredibly annoying Plotkai in order for everything to be turned completely around, and now it's Ulquiorra getting his ass kicked. This even after he'd released again, effectively shooting any semblance of making an accurate power scale during that battle to hell. Worse still, it even added in DBZ style energy clashes, which effectively made it rank second in the worst over-hyped battles I've ever seen. And don't even get me started on that ending.
  • grimmkittylove: Like the person above, the Ichigo vs. Ulquiorra fight was my moment, but for somewhat different reasons. I was really looking forward to that battle, and it was utterly disappointing in every aspect possible, but especially in the way Orihime's role was dealt with. I was hoping against hope that Ichigo was actually dead (or at least permanently out of the fight) so that Orihime could live up to her determination not to be protected by Ichigo anymore and start protecting him, but of course she fell miserably short, becoming a broken record who could only repeat Ichigo's name. What? What happened to her powers that could supposedly defy the will of God if she got determined and character development? What happened to the girl who slapped her captor for talking badly about her friends even though he could have killed her quite easily? I was hoping for something along the lines of Riza Hawkeye-esque Berserker Tears and a pain-fueled attack against her tormentor and the one who had just killed the boy she loved. Instead, I get a desperate girl screaming for a dead man to save her, and Ichithing responding to Strawberry-kun's Chronic Hero Syndrome in order to curbstomp Ulquiorra in an utterly boring, pointless battle. This isn't about her pretty white dress; it's about portraying one of the heroines, who has endless possibilities as a unique and powerful character, as a wishy-washy mess who doesn't even attempt to live up to her own goals. Great job, Kubo. You're on your way to becoming just as bad as Naruto when it comes to ruining potentially great female characters.
  • Seiryu: I'm not 100% sure where to put the precise moment, but for now, I'll put it when Yamamoto's powers got sealed by Wonderweiss. At that moment, I realized that the series has become nothing more than "shocking" plot twists, Aizen doesn't even need the freaking Hougyoku, the Espada (all of them!) were massively over-hyped, and that Ichigo is somehow expected to win against Aizen, despite the fact that Yamamoto's raw power, Urahara's intelligence, and even a Urahara/Yoruichi/Isshin team isn't able to bring him down.
  • aldo512: Sasakibe's death and how blatantly the rest of the series tries to make him seem important afterwards. Sasakibe has spent the entire series standing in the background as a placeholder, only actually doing something once and that was just being a five second obstacle for Ichigo to beat up. After his death, we get a funeral service that reveals that he was actually this really powerful Shinigami who mastered Bankai before Kyoraku and Ukitake and they try to Hand Wave his never doing anything as being because he's too loyal to Yamamoto, so he didn't want to be anything but his lieutenant. Two problems with this. One, this is presented as honorable and making Sasakibe such a great guy, but Ikkaku, the last guy who did this, is given a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for not using it. Second, none of this information matters anymore. It could have mattered if Yamamoto was the one to die instead of Sasakibe as a way to give some actual personality to Sasakibe, but as it is, it just serves as a shock death to show that the Vandereich are a serious threat. This, along with the problems with Byakuya's death mentioned above, are what finally made me decide to drop this series and not look back.
  • Dr Zulu 2010: I honestly quit reading a long while before the Vandereich arc, but when I've heard of Kubo breaking his rule of not killing his heroes, I was psyched, to tell the truth. But lastly he has to take my cake and ate it when I've heard that Ichigo's mother was a Quincy. Really Kubo? You have to do it? You have to say that way late into the story? Without foreshadowing or common sense within the continuity? Even the Sharingan makes more sense than this. You almost got me interested and then, you have taken that interest and grind it to the dust.
  • Clato Lawa: This troper lost all respect for the anime dub after Tatsuki's praise of Orihime's high ranking in the class was translated as, "Third in the class? Pretty smart for a girl, Orihime." There is something seriously wrong with the world if, a) Viz Media considered that an acceptable translation for "Third... You're doing as well as ever," b) Wendee Lee delivered that line with no objections, and c) the episode managed to air without attracting so many complaints that it had been changed by the time of the DVD release.
  • The Oncoming Hurricane: The fact that in the Vandenreich arc Byakuya survives when his above mentioned death seemed pretty much assured. There was so much potential for Rukia and Renji's development as a result. I'm not even that annoyed that it happened, I'm annoyed by what seems like the reason why. When Byakuya seemed certain he was going to die (which even he seemed to think was inevitable, given his last request to Ichigo and everything), Kubo was sent a load of abuse on Twitter from disgruntled fangirls annoyed that Byakuya was dead. A few chapters later it turns out that he's going to be healed by the Royal Guard. The way the turnaround occurred seemed out of character for Kubo (though the cheapness of it is nothing new). There's still potential with this storyline, but if and only if Byakuya doesn't get his powers back.
  • Super Saiya Man: The treatment of Retsu Unohana. Right when Kubo shows us just how badass she truly can be, he invalidates it all to make her naught but a means for Kenpachi to get back the power he had sealed away when he was a kid! Then, as if it weren't bad enough, she seemingly dies, content in the knowledge that she just unleashed a mentally unstable Captain (who only she could stop, mind you) right back on the Soul Society! I know shonen manga isn't exactly a bastion of progressive gender politics, but this is inexcusable even by the standards of the genre.
  • Picards Double: For me it was Deicide, though the rot spread all the way through the Lost Agent arc too; some feel the ability to work getting your backside handed to you (like Yamamoto, Isshin, Urahara, Yoruichi, Gin, and ultimately Ichigo did to him) into your plan is the sign of a Magnificent Bastard. I think it's just more Sue-dom from a guy who's had far too much Sue-dom as it was at that point; once maybe I'll give the benefit of the doubt, doing it multiple times in quick succession I won't (don't worry Sosuke-chan, there are plenty of others who are just as guilty). The fact that most reputable characters didn't even put up a fight, even Shunsui who trounced Starrk earlier and you'd imagine would be more of a challenge than Hitsugaya, yet goes down just as easily. While the whole Wonderweiss thing is a sort of understandable ploy, given that he's known about Ryujin Jakka for god knows how long, the fact that he still comes out on top when it doesn't really work is another wallbanger; I believe the saying is 'no plan survives contact with the enemy' or something like that. Now, the Lost Agent arc was a DMofS all the way through really; two humans (Tsukishima and Ginjo) being able to fight captain-class opponents when the more important and developed (story wise) Uryu wouldn't last the distance? Total Crap, almost to the level of Self-Insert Fic (yes, the analogy is deliberate), especially when you consider that Uryu is appointed successor to Yhwach later on. Ichigo going to all that trouble to learn a new powerset for nothing? Why bother. Add to that a load of new characters that I have absolutely no desire to see again, and I came close to just stopping reading. Thankfully, imo, it's picked up a bit since Yhwach (or however it's spelled this week) and co. showed up, though I'll agree the yoyoing with Byakuya's is he/isn't he dead? was quite infuriating too. And unlike the Fullbringers, these guys may have a few (not many) characters that may be worth keeping a eye on. At least Ichigo's got some company who'll be doing the same for his latest round of power leveling...
  • A Raihan: The same old back-and-forth between the Vandenreich and the Shinigami was getting boring enough, even leaving out all of the other problems with this whole arc. The Quincy with the stolen bankai are ragging on the various captains' asses. Then Urahara comes along, performs his magic and the bankai are back! But wait! Actually the Emperor planned for this! All this means is that the secret Quincy superpowers have been unlocked! Let the real battle begin! For the umpteenth time! Ugh!
    • PD: Welcome to the world of Shonen Manga, were we flog the same dead horses for your entertainment! Seriously though, this opinion was written before the 'Bankai = No Vollstandig' thing, which a lot of people thought was poorly done, as was Cang Du's utterly inept performance against Shiro chan, though it was kind of obvious what was going to happen regarding insisting on fighting the person-you-nicked-their-bankai-from. The Urahara thing did make the whole 'steal Bankai' thing utterly redundant; maybe Kubo should've held it back for later, and actually give them some proper time without the things and the associated character development, like he teased at with Sui-Feng and Shiro actually training (wooooooow). Maybe if Yhwach starts pulling more rapid-succession-gambits like Aizen did then we'll see him in a less favorable light; we'll see in the next couple of months.
  • Zeta42: Remember the Fake Karakura Town arc, and how the tide of the battle turned when the Visoreds appeared? They showed their strength by obliterating a wave of Menos Grande, and then they proceeded to assist Gotei in their battle against the Espadas. It took Aizen, the arc's final boss, to knock them all out. But now those guys are fodder who go down without lasting even five minutes. To top it off, Quincies have been revealed to be especially vulnerable to Hollow reiatsu. You'd expect the Visored captains to put on their masks and crush their enemies? Not happening.
  • Kantonkage: The fight between Yhwach, and the elite (who came out of nowhere) Sternritters and the zero Squad. Somehow the Sternritters win via curbstomp because somehow Yhwach can resurrect people despite the fact that they are in Reishi eating cages. After that the Sternritter miraculously manage to curb stomp the Royal Guard offscreen no less despite the fact they're being hyped as the strongest Shinigami. Then there's Yhwach and Ichibei's fight that, despite having the advantage, Ichibei loses because Yhwach conveniently managed to awaken his "The Almighty" which allows to analyze and breakdown an ability just by looking at it. Is Kubo trying to make him the Alternate Series Equivalent of Uchiha Madara?
  • Nakayama90. Chapter 678. Right after Ichigo had been handing Yhwach's ass to him over the last couple chapters (Orihime even managed to deflect the guy's attack), the moment he uses Bankai, Yhwach reveals that his ability's true power is to change the future, thus enabling him to disable the opponent before they can even use their attack. Not only is this a horrible example of New Powers as the Plot Demands, it also solidifies Yhwach as so overpowered, he makes Aizen look like a pushover. This guy is officially worse than Madara Uchiha.
  • That Bitter Tase: The reveal that Yachiru is Kenpachi's zanpakuto. While it does make sense in hindsight, it turns yet another female character into a power-up for a male, and disposes of one of the more entertaining cast members in the process.
  • The Meteor King: The last few chapters and their rushed conclusion have been this in spades. First we get to see only a panel of Ichigo's final bankai, only to have it shattered instantly. Then we get Tsukishima coming back out of nowhere to restore it by "making a past where it was never broken". Okay, next we have Ichigo going back to Soul Society with the others to stop Ywach, only to have his bankai get nearly broken AGAIN instantly. Aizen makes an illusion so Ichigo can have maybe one single shot with the new ability we've been hoping to see from him, only to have it be a generic Getsuga attack, which gets negated by Ywach's new transformation. Ichigo gets one more opening from Uryu firing a special arrow at him, but his bankai breaks, only to reveal his original shikai sword form that seemingly slices Ywach in two. It has to be one of the most anti-climactic final fights I've ever seen, just for the fact that in the end, Kubo had to get in a forced back-and-forth battle to drag out.
  • Sinister Hooded Figure 2: There are so many moments where the horribly written villain Yhwach just drags the series down as much as his godawful predecessor Aizen, but the crowning act that destroys any credibility for Yhwach was killing Gerard Valkyrie. Gerard is effectively an invincible elite guard who is the heart of the Soul King, due to his power of miracles. No one else, not even one of the "5 war potentials" Kenpachi, who sacrificed two people he cares about to get stronger, could kill or incapacitate Gerard. First off, Yhwach cops out Gerard's defeat, depriving Kenpachi or a team up of Soul Reapers the chance to perform an ironically miraculous asspull to defeat "Gerard the Miracle." Second, this is an extremely stupid action for Yhwach, who is the Godking and progenitor of the fundamentally pragmatic Quincies, who generally wouldn't destroy their unkillable soldier just for a power up that doesn't even make them invincible. This is the epitome of bad writing for Bleach, and that's saying something.
  • The Lucky Cat: I love Bleach, I really do, but since I've heard more and more about the post Aizen-arcs, the less I've liked the sound of them. My personal DMOS? The fact that of the Espada, only Halibel, Grimmjow and Neliel survived. Halibel I can understand, as she was by far one of the mosy sympathetic and powerful of the Espada and got cruelly oneshot by Aizen before she really got to shine. Grimmjow is also obvious because they never showed his death, plus he's a very popular character and an interesting one. But Neliel? What, exactly, makes her so worthy of survival? She did nothing in the Arrancar Arc! She was there to be comic relief and drop bits and pieces of exposition on Las Noches, but her child form was a clingy, annoying nuisance, and her personality as an adult wasn't any better. She didn't even defeat Nnoitra - all she did was showboat for a bit and buy time for a dramatic arrival for Kenpachi. Plus, she was in her fucking released form and Nnoitra was still able to fight her pretty evenly, so don't give me the "she would have beaten him if she didn't turn back into a kid" argument - no she wouldn't have! Nnoitra, a character who came pretty close to killing Kenpachi, said himself that the Espada got much stronger once Neliel was exiled, and if he was lying, then wouldn't Aizen have made more of an effort to look for a supposedly "strong" warrior if Neliel truly was better than Nnoitra? Then after she turned back into a kid she basically vanished from the narrative. But let's also be honest - Neliel's personality and philosophy make no sense for her species. The most sympathetic of the Espada have their own goals that make them tragic characters - Starrk wasn't evil, he was just lonely and wanted companions, which Aizen gave him. Halibel knew the males would prey on females and wanted to protect her companions, which is why Orihime revived her. Neliel is just randomly a Token Good Teammate with really annoying sidekicks. Honestly, while Nnoitra might have been a hateful bastard, out of the two his behaviour is the one that actually makes sense. He's a Hollow, a creature born of death and despair! Neliel tagging around after him, patronising him and calling him an animal actually kind of makes her the bad guy, from an Arrancar's perspective. Look at Loly and Menoly's reaction when Orihime heals them after they brutalised her - they're disturbed and terrified by this act. Neliel's "kind, gentle" nature makes her the anomaly, but it's never explained why she has such a radically human viewpoint when she's a species of The Heartless - if she didn't have a mask fragment you'd never even know she's meant to be an arrancar. So Neliel coming back into the narrative to now patronise Grimmjow, glomp Ichigo (which wasn't funny the first time and isn't now - how dumb do you have to be to hug a person over and over and not notice your Super-Strength is hurting them?) and then continue to do nothing of note does not endear me to her character. I wish she'd died with Nnoitra, honestly, because it would have been more appropriate for their history, of two utterly incompatible worldviews destroying each other. But nope, here's Neliel - she has big tits and a cutesy attitude, so let's slap an underserving Action Girl title on her despite the fact her kid form is there so Ichigo has something to motivate him, then she has one fight in the series she doesn't even win. Why is this a character who gets to survive when Starrk had a tragic, heartbreaking death and Ulquiorra, who underwent perhaps the most Character Development of all the Espada, didn't?
  • Thatsnumberwang: For me, it was the treatment Kubo gave to Chad, Orihime and Tatsuki. As hard as it is to believe now, in the first arc and even the second to some degree, these were firm, solid main characters. And it is obvious that there was a plan to keep these characters as mains what with Chad's growing strength, Orihime's growing toolkit of White Mage techniques, and Tasuki's stated hand-to-hand combat prowess and starting to see ghosts. But once the Captains and especially the Arrancar appear, they are overshadowed in the worst possible way. Chad at least, gets a few moments of awesome here and there, although he is hit hard by the Worf Effect, but Orihime and Tasuki? The former, even with what was shaping up to be a whole arc dedicated to her with Hueco Mundo and being stated by Aizen to have powers that put her beyond the gods themselves, is reduced to sniveling for Ichigo to come and help her and never really evolves beyond that. That latter, less than nothing, almost worthless in the grand scheme of the plot. She never evolves beyond seeing ghosts, she is never spotlighted, she never even gets any stories outside of filler.

  • Marty Mcfly 1990: When Ichigo got back his Shinigami powers. Ichigo losing his powers at the end of the Winter War was, in my opinion, one of the most pivotal moments of the show and the manga. The Getsuga Tensho was an attack that was supposed to sacrifice all his powers and from my understanding he could never get them back. And while the Xcution arc was a bit plodding at times, seeing Ichigo develop new powers and abilities that were interesting and separate from his Shinigami powers. But that moment he got his powers back, I realized that there would be no lasting consequences for him, that no matter what happens to him there would always be a Deus ex machina that wouldn't get him out of a jam or help him defeat a seemingly overpowering opponent. In essence, there was no stakes anymore. The main characters' Plot Armor was too powerful, the fan favorites too popular and the story no longer had a goal. At that moment, I gave up on Bleach and from what I heard from fans who stuck with it to the end, I didn't miss anything worthwhile.

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