Similarities between the SS Arc and the HM Arc

So far the current arc has been essentially a mirror of the SS arc but in a new venue. I have compiled a list of milestones from the SS Arc (Refined from the original list in the Bleach 150 thread).

Step 1: Girl from the main group is sort of kidnapped/ sort of taken by her own free will by people demonstrably much stronger than the main cast to another world, presumably never to return.

Step 2: Main casts gets mad and goes and talks to Urahara about following said girl into the other world.

Step 3: Main cast reaches other world and stumbles across goofy allies

Step 4: Main cast members demonstrate they are all above the grunt level in this other world.

Step 5: Main cast, with the help of goofy allies, breaks into the inner sanctum of the captors.

Step 6: Main cast is forced to split up.

Step 7: Main cast members encounter low/mid boss level characters and have one on one fights.

Step 8: Main cast members win their low/mid-boss level fights learning more about the workings of the captor group as well as showcasing some of their new skills.

Step 9: It is revealed that the captors aren't all in lock-step on how to handle the situation and sub-plots of dissent among the ranks of the captors appear.

Step 10: Main cast runs into upper mid/high level bosses and all get defeated and/or captured after fighting these upper mid/high level opponents (except Ichigo).

Step 11: Ichigo wins his fight by achieving a power boost but is thoroughly trashed in the process. He gets saved by an ally who turns out to have been a lot more than they seemed.

Step 12: Ichigo powers up even more thanks to the help of the previously unknown ally.

Step 13: Ichigo kicks everyone's ass and seems ready to save the day, in the mean time the unknown ally gets a side plot fight.

Step 14: The dissent sub-plots is revealed to be significantly more involved with the captive girl than anyone would have thought, the dissenters fight over her. A conclusion is reached.

As of Bleach 153 steps 1-7 and 9 have all been met in both arcs, and step 8 is in progress. Thoughts? If the story continues to follow the same pattern will you give up or will you stay the course in the hopes that the application of the pattern and any potential deviations will be good enough to keep you entertained?

It is actually a pretty good formula to work with the only problem is that they are literally repeating every single thing from the SS arc almost verbatim. Even if they were going to use that same formula they should have atleast made a few changes or enough so that viewers wouldn't immediately recognize the repetition. Secondly its way too soon for them to be repeating something they had previously done, I mean bleach hasn't been around that long and already they seem to be running out of plot ideas. If you are a manga fan there wasn't even any transitional phase, aka fillers, you went basically straight from SS to HM.

I used to watch the anime infrequently since they left SS, just watched it to see some of my favorite fights or scenes animated. That being said its not even worth it anymore, I stopped watching the anime completely three weeks ago.

If step 10 happens again it will be pretty silly. They went through so much talk about how they could help now rather than being useless.

I predict that the cast each defeats and espada of their own proving they are strong and helpful, but it will be made clear what they accomplish is the end of their power and only Ichigo could continue and thus save the day.

Even if the arc goes through the same motions I'll probably continue watching for the differences in the people, since the characters hold the series up anyways.

Ultimately that is why we watch any series because of the characters but Ichigo's supporting cast isn't very impressive and they are really under utilized.

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Originally Posted by Abdula

Ultimately that is why we watch any series because of the characters but Ichigo's supporting cast isn't very impressive and they are really under utilized.

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Agreed, and like I said if they fail in this arc to show they are helpful by defeating anyone of importance it will be pretty sad. It does have the trend of them being useless though so I could see it happening.

Step 15 : Fillers

Now repeat as necessary.

In the next arc Yorurichi gets kidnapped to the court of the spirit king!

Oh Come on, give Oda some credits.

It will be Ichigo's mom who is revealed to be imprisoned inside the court of soul. The royal guards will be base on colors instead of numbers. He will also introduce a new power for the guards that Ichigo will learn to use in 2 weeks so he can power up.

Maybe they'll do a twist, where Ichigo and co. "Kidnap" someone from the bad side (or...the bad person wants to become good. They must obviously be some comic relief character and a girl :p) and the enemy elite (i.e gotei 13, espada, color guards ;)) attack them one at a time in the real world. Each one becoming stronger than the next.

This is of course, presuming they defeat Aizen this arc, which i highly doubt. perhaps aizen will go on to the court of heaven and there's another invasion there.

It seems like a 'chase aizen' pattern going on here to me.

I think they should follow Gurren Lagan on this and let Ichigo power up to Infinite. :P

Yes, Aizen will go to the Court of Heaven, only to get his ass kicked by the spirit king who will turn out to be all-powerful and bear a striking resemblance to Chuck Norris.

Maybe an extra note should be included in step 3:
They aquire a healer. (Hanataro/Nel)
I was wondering how the group would handle these fights without a healer, but apparently Nel has healing drool.

The power of the other characters besides Ichigo kinda worries me.
Ichigo only had a hard time with his sub-boss because he refused to use bankai. The others seem to have their hands full with their opponents. The only one I expect to put up a good fight until the end is Rukia. I really expect her to whip out a bankai.

Chad only seems to be good at taking hits. I wish he would become awesome

Judging from the recent eps, I think step 10 is coming really fast.

As for the Ichigo powerup in step 11/12:
I predict a full Hollow Ichigo. Step 11 would be that he masters his Vizard powers, and 12 the full transformation.

I can only HOPE that this all doesn't happen, because this series deserves more then this.

Hmm, I think acquiring Hanataro fits more into Step 9. He shows up around the time of the low/mid level boss fights ( between Ikkaku & Renji iirc) and I intended him to be included in the "enemies are not all in lockstep" step description. I guess Nell's vomit could be serving that role too, but to be a true copy there would have to be someone on the inside among the Numeros who turncoats and starts them helping out. Nell and Co. were already outsiders, just like Ganju and his sister.

Yuki got himself a good theory, and I think the third arc, will be that the Royal Guards with the Royal King will capture Nel for a reason(Get to the Hollow King). Then follow all the steps and you got yourself some more material.