Congratulations, Fulfillment!
Dec 22, 2015 22:42:53 GMT -5
Weylin, Kokuou Munashii, and 11 more like this
Post by Shun Minamoto on Dec 22, 2015 22:42:53 GMT -5
Well, well, well. It feels like we've been here before, doesn't it?
I said quite a bit about Kiriko and her journey to Penance back then. Can you believe that was well over a year ago already? It's been quite the ride since, hasn't it?
Generally, I don't like to write all of these myself since I don't always have the best perspective on things. Though, like with Knowledge just before this, it'd be a hard argument to say that there's anyone better suited. I wrote the last one, after all.
Now, just what has gone down since the arrival of Penance, the Sixth Broken Transcendent?
When we last looked at your journey, Kiriko had just given up her humanity. The two personifications of her soul, Aneue and Hahaue, had been torn away and lost to the powers of Severance. All of this in response to the loss of the man who could have had answers for her: “Alter” Tova Diabló.
With Kyousuke out of the picture, Tova long gone, Penance felt true isolation and underwent the procedure as carried out by Severance. Shortly thereafter, Severance was lost too.
Penance’s circumstances never quite improved. Armed with new power, terrifying resolve, and an even more frightening worldview. Bit by bit she started to impose this on people, forming allies and enemies to better control her surroundings, seeking to reshape the world around her and the people in it to match the unyielding image of “perfection” she had in her mind.
All of it centered around the kind of person she failed to be, the kind of person she thought everyone had to be.
A sad way to live, to say the least.
However, with this twisted state of mind came an equally twisted, crippled form of Transcendence and all of the power you could imagine with it. She commanded Penance, made others feel the full brunt of their regrets without the comfortable anesthetics we walk through life with. More than that, she wielded an impossibly powerful Shunkō combined with some of the greatest hand-to-hand combat skills in history.
This sort of power eventually made her, upon the departure of Kenshou Ine, Captain Commander. It hardly had to be said, but Penance immediately instituted some radical changes to the functionality of the Gotei. These changes were met with love and hate alike and, a surprise to no one, led to conflict, battle, and then bloodshed.
It was in this conflict with Shun Minamoto that the worldview that Penance held to with nothing less than a religious fervor was cracked open, exposed in front of her very eyes as fundamentally flawed, and then ultimately replaced.
Through it, Penance accepted something that many people never figure out in their entire lives: That it’s okay to be human, that great things can still be achieved despite that, that your failures and sins did not mark you as worthless. She realized that she herself had desires, that she herself wanted things, that she had reason to live instead of chasing her idealized death in service of some idea she perceived as greater than herself.
Moreover, that it okay for her to have these desires. She did not have to be punished for the rest of eternity until the comforting arms of death whisked her away.
For Kiriko Chinda, who had never once in her life lived on her own terms, this was nothing less than a monumental idea. She could go after whatever she wanted.
But in doing so, gave up what she had once desired: Her vision for the Gotei. In favor of moving on, she let it go. Quite the thing to give up and absolute proof of her transformation.
I can say from my experience, however anecdotal it is, that many people did not see this coming. A tragic end to Penance was what many people expected, a story that would end in the rigidly self-assured woman losing her life in glorious battle in defense of her cause and twisted ideals.
You showed us something else: one of the best moments of transcendence in Bleach Gotei history.
It was an honor to be part of it, Kiriko, and I think I speak for everyone when I say: Thank you for sharing it with us all.
We all look forward to what you do next as one of the most beloved, iconic members of Bleach Gotei. Until then?
Congratulations, Fulfillment!
You are the Fifth Transcendental.
I said quite a bit about Kiriko and her journey to Penance back then. Can you believe that was well over a year ago already? It's been quite the ride since, hasn't it?
Generally, I don't like to write all of these myself since I don't always have the best perspective on things. Though, like with Knowledge just before this, it'd be a hard argument to say that there's anyone better suited. I wrote the last one, after all.
Now, just what has gone down since the arrival of Penance, the Sixth Broken Transcendent?
When we last looked at your journey, Kiriko had just given up her humanity. The two personifications of her soul, Aneue and Hahaue, had been torn away and lost to the powers of Severance. All of this in response to the loss of the man who could have had answers for her: “Alter” Tova Diabló.
With Kyousuke out of the picture, Tova long gone, Penance felt true isolation and underwent the procedure as carried out by Severance. Shortly thereafter, Severance was lost too.
Penance’s circumstances never quite improved. Armed with new power, terrifying resolve, and an even more frightening worldview. Bit by bit she started to impose this on people, forming allies and enemies to better control her surroundings, seeking to reshape the world around her and the people in it to match the unyielding image of “perfection” she had in her mind.
All of it centered around the kind of person she failed to be, the kind of person she thought everyone had to be.
A sad way to live, to say the least.
However, with this twisted state of mind came an equally twisted, crippled form of Transcendence and all of the power you could imagine with it. She commanded Penance, made others feel the full brunt of their regrets without the comfortable anesthetics we walk through life with. More than that, she wielded an impossibly powerful Shunkō combined with some of the greatest hand-to-hand combat skills in history.
This sort of power eventually made her, upon the departure of Kenshou Ine, Captain Commander. It hardly had to be said, but Penance immediately instituted some radical changes to the functionality of the Gotei. These changes were met with love and hate alike and, a surprise to no one, led to conflict, battle, and then bloodshed.
It was in this conflict with Shun Minamoto that the worldview that Penance held to with nothing less than a religious fervor was cracked open, exposed in front of her very eyes as fundamentally flawed, and then ultimately replaced.
Through it, Penance accepted something that many people never figure out in their entire lives: That it’s okay to be human, that great things can still be achieved despite that, that your failures and sins did not mark you as worthless. She realized that she herself had desires, that she herself wanted things, that she had reason to live instead of chasing her idealized death in service of some idea she perceived as greater than herself.
Moreover, that it okay for her to have these desires. She did not have to be punished for the rest of eternity until the comforting arms of death whisked her away.
For Kiriko Chinda, who had never once in her life lived on her own terms, this was nothing less than a monumental idea. She could go after whatever she wanted.
But in doing so, gave up what she had once desired: Her vision for the Gotei. In favor of moving on, she let it go. Quite the thing to give up and absolute proof of her transformation.
I can say from my experience, however anecdotal it is, that many people did not see this coming. A tragic end to Penance was what many people expected, a story that would end in the rigidly self-assured woman losing her life in glorious battle in defense of her cause and twisted ideals.
You showed us something else: one of the best moments of transcendence in Bleach Gotei history.
It was an honor to be part of it, Kiriko, and I think I speak for everyone when I say: Thank you for sharing it with us all.
We all look forward to what you do next as one of the most beloved, iconic members of Bleach Gotei. Until then?
Congratulations, Fulfillment!
You are the Fifth Transcendental.
(Maybe I need to learn some of Kiriko's life lessons.)
