Jak said:
Jacksnapp said:
Rammedy said:
It hit the bottom. The only thing i wonder is: which was worse FT or Bleach?
At least the canon pairings in the epilogue of FT will make sense and not be as ridiculous as Bleach (or Naruto for that matter) Not as much Bleach as Naruto. Aside from the Shikamaru and Temari, none of the end couples in Naruto made any sense (and I'm even including the big ones too like Naruto/Hinata and the worst fucking couple Sasuke/Sakura). At least Ichigo and Orihime somewhat made sense. Though I personally didn't like Renji and Rukia. I just hated what happened to Rukia overall. She became such a useless side character and if she had ended up with someone, it would have made way more sense that it would have been Ichigo considering how close they were. Renji and Rukia never showed that closeness even though they knew each other forever.
I totally agree with you; both about Bleach and Naruto. Really, you couldn't have put it into better words~
It's true, Naruto's couples (except Temari and Shikamaru) had no buildup whatsoever and I find the reduction of the stronger female characters to stereotypical loyal obedient housewives ridiculous (Sakura should've become hospital director, follow Tsunade's steps or really anything besides being a housewife eagerly awaiting her estranged husband that visits probably once in a decade at home), the pairings themselves seemed to come straight out of a western fanfiction (Ino and Sai?) or were totally random (as much as I like Chocho, where did that pairing even come from? )
Even if they try to legitimize the strange relationship between Naruto and Hinata by pasting her into an altered version of Naruto's childhood in the movies etc., the fact remains that Hinata was just his creepy stalker for most of the series and while she did develop as a character, right up until the end of the series, Naruto was constantly bragging about his love for Sakura.
I wouldn't have minded an open ending without pairs but to have Sakura and Sasuke get together was just awful, they're really the worst couple
(not to mention what a toxic relationship they have)
Bleach was decidedly better.
I feel as though Kubo had always planned for Orihime and Ichigo to eventually get together (right from the start; have you read the one-shot? ) but the problem is that the relationship Ichigo and Rukia had, ended up being much closer, romantic (and sexual, seeing how differently Ichigo reacted to both girl's bodies physically) and therefore feeling much more natural (& canon lol) than the actual resolution of the love triangle provided.
While I understand that Renji was in love with her, I never registered any romantic attraction from Rukia to him, they were childhood friends and although he might've wanted more, Rukia never seemed to care about him that way. I actually would've preferred her to have a stronger leadership position in Soul Society and no relationship at all since her being with Renji felt out of character.
It's almost as though both Ichigo and Rukia had to settle with a "consolation prize" since the person they actually loved wasn't available somehow.
I'm also a little bitter that Kubo repeated the whole Isshin - Masaki - Ryuken thing with Ishida, Orihime and Ichigo.
I'm guessing that Kubo just wanted to stick to his original intent with the pairings (which is a real pity) instead of going with the flow of how the character relationships developed.
Personally I would've liked to see Orihime and Ishida get together (also to mark a difference from their parents); while naturally Ichigo and Rukia should've been a couple.
TLDR
As bad as Fairy Tail is, the canon couples were pretty much confirmed throughout the work and we don't have to fear Erza suddenly being together with Gray in the epilogue or Lucy being pregnant with Elfman's child
