About Rukia

[branchandroot]

It distresses me greatly when people say Rukia is useless or wimpy or any of that. So let us talk about all the ways in which Rukia is amazing.

So, Rukia. Rukia is amazing. Rukia pretty much gets stomped on by life at every turn and somehow manages to keep going anyway. Let us recall...

She was 'born' as a baby in one of the rougher areas on Rukongai and immediately abandoned by the only family she had, her sister. She managed to survive and grow up and, eventually, find friends and another family.

Most of them died.

So she and her one surviving 'brother' decided to escape the streets and make a life for themselves somewhere they wouldn't have to scrape for food and shelter or get killed by thugs; they would become shinigami. Both of them were, fortunately, strong enough in spiritual power to be accepted by the training academy even though they were commoners. Renji was good with a sword and bad with kidou; Rukia was bad with a sword and good with kidou. They both scraped along, even though Rukia, being the more introspective one, seemed to be carrying regrets from their past and had a hard time connecting with her new surroundings. They were managing. Until...

BAM.

One of the highest nobles in this world descends on Rukia and says he wants to adopt her into his clan. Rukia is, understandably, a little freaked out, and turns to Renji. Renji, the poor schmuck, makes a misstep and encourages her to take the offer.

It couldn't have helped that his "happiness" for her was so clearly false.

So, abandoned, she thought, by her last true friend, Rukia accepts only to find that Byakuya is icy and standoffish. Now she's completely alone. To make matters worse, she's been taken out of the academy and shoehorned into a Division, which she knows full well she's not ready or qualified for. In response to this blatant nepotism, all of her new division-mates treat her like a noble princess to be fawned on.

All except one.

Kaien treats her like a normal person, takes her under his wing, completes her training and explains to her what the Court Guardians are all about. She, of course, conceives a massive crush on him, with a side-order of crush for his equally lovely wife. Things are looking up! Even if Renji has (seemingly) pushed her away, even if her new brother is a block of ice, she has new, genuine friends.

And then they die.

In fact, Kaien comes a cropper an unusual Hollow and Rukia has to kill him herself.

Every time Rukia hauls herself up out of the pit of loneliness and despair, life stomps her back down. She has lost every person she ever cared about, one after the other. And somehow, somehow, she still goes on. She takes up the example Kaien gave her and goes on, fulfills her duty for Kaien and for her brother's expectations, with determination and compassion if not with joy or pride.

And one day, she trips over something strange and amazing in the mortal world and, distracted, takes a hit. And then she has a choice to make. Let the human, who has no chance however strange he is, bait the Hollow to attack him? Or throw herself in the way? And, having sacrificed herself, she has another choice. Let him die anyway? Or do something really illegal which has a bare chance of saving them all?

And things just keep getting stranger, because the human winds up slurping up all her spiritual power and she has to stuff herself in a false body to recover, only that never does quite happen, but she's busy enough not to notice that much, because this weird human boy...

...is healing her. In the mortal world, she is finding emotional connection again, after losing it four times over.

Is it any wonder that, when her brother and her ex-friend come to fetch her for arraignment for what was, after all, an illegal action no matter how well it worked out, she sacrifices herself again to save her new friend? She goes back to Soul Society and tamely accepts arrest and imprisonment and the order of execution, so that no one will ever think it was anyone's fault but hers--so that no one will blame Ichigo or decide he needs to die too.

Of course, Ichigo isn't having any of that. He comes busting in to rescue her, and never mind Rukia's good intentions. And, despite everything turning out to be much bigger and stranger than just their emotional Issues, Ichigo and Rukia manage to save each other some more, to wake each other up and point each other back at the living world. Along the way, Ichigo even manages to wake up Renji, too, and Rukia ends up getting back her new friend, her old friend, and even her brother, who turns out to care a little too much under all that attitude.

Of course, Ichigo has a whole new set of Issues by the end of this, and then it's he and Orihime who have to save each other's hearts, which I have every faith they will do by the end of the current arc.

And, of course, Rukia is right in there with him, slugging away, facing down her past, trashing the enemy, risking her life, disobeying orders again, all because she's connected to the world again and the people she cares about are in danger, and Hell itself isn't going to stand in her way.

Useless? A wimp? Hah! Shows what they know.