This is probably asking, nay begging, for versus debate shenanigans which is all kinds of trouble right from the start. But ultimately my last run down this particular potential canon deviation makes me kind of want to risk it.
Rewrites are probably one of the most common missteps fic writers tend to make in terms of covering arcs already well trodden by canon. Granted usually they give the heroes new bells and whistles to make the fights slightly different or 'fix' things they might not have liked about the original fights, but ultimately it's still going through the same motions via the same battles ad naseum forever. And that's boring as hell since so few tend to try to think outside the box to find potentially more interesting options to work with.
This thread is (hopefully) intended to collect battles between people who you think would make for an interesting alternate option if possible in any potential endeavor you plan on doing. Granted it won't work in every case, trying to avoid Ichigo vs. Byakuya in the SS arc is damned hard considering the sheer amount of framework that entire sequence had setup, so trying to replace it haphazardly just doesn't work nearly as well. However in a lot of other cases, there are other potential options available if you look.
Chad didn't have to fight Shunsui, he just kinda ran into him. He could just as easily have run into Komamura, which makes for a FAR more interesting matchup. Ishida and Renji didn't have to run into Syzael, they could just as easily have gotten caught by Zommari, who in Ishida's case at least could have made for a very interesting scenario given the puppet strings. The four captains sent to Hueco Mundo could have been completely different, or hell the Vizard could have shown up instead. So on and so forth.
Hell, even in Ichigo's case it's easy to shift some of the later stuff depending how you play it since unlike Byakuya who was Rukia's older brother, the character relationships weren't as deep rooted in the story developments with the espada, instead most of what predetermined the fights was circumstance/Aizen. Ichigo could just as easily have been slated to fight Harribel and Yammi instead had things been setup differently. Or Syzael and Nnoitra. Or just one of the espada so we can spreed some of that goodness around since there are only ten, and say Gin. Or Hell, Barragon and Starrk.
Granted in the last case he'd have died horribly without some significant upgrades either way, but it's still on the table at least.
Regardless basic jist of this thread is to present some battles you would have liked to see or thing would work well for fic purposes, hopefully try to present your case a bit if you feel it's needed or what have you. Feel free to go crazy with it, and try to keep things from devolving into power level arguments, though admittedly I'm kinda asking for it with this kind of topic. :sweat2:
Some key concepts I've brought up before to help frame the point of this thread. Completely out of context admittedly but it should give a basic idea of what can be brought up:
Rewrites are probably one of the most common missteps fic writers tend to make in terms of covering arcs already well trodden by canon. Granted usually they give the heroes new bells and whistles to make the fights slightly different or 'fix' things they might not have liked about the original fights, but ultimately it's still going through the same motions via the same battles ad naseum forever. And that's boring as hell since so few tend to try to think outside the box to find potentially more interesting options to work with.
This thread is (hopefully) intended to collect battles between people who you think would make for an interesting alternate option if possible in any potential endeavor you plan on doing. Granted it won't work in every case, trying to avoid Ichigo vs. Byakuya in the SS arc is damned hard considering the sheer amount of framework that entire sequence had setup, so trying to replace it haphazardly just doesn't work nearly as well. However in a lot of other cases, there are other potential options available if you look.
Chad didn't have to fight Shunsui, he just kinda ran into him. He could just as easily have run into Komamura, which makes for a FAR more interesting matchup. Ishida and Renji didn't have to run into Syzael, they could just as easily have gotten caught by Zommari, who in Ishida's case at least could have made for a very interesting scenario given the puppet strings. The four captains sent to Hueco Mundo could have been completely different, or hell the Vizard could have shown up instead. So on and so forth.
Hell, even in Ichigo's case it's easy to shift some of the later stuff depending how you play it since unlike Byakuya who was Rukia's older brother, the character relationships weren't as deep rooted in the story developments with the espada, instead most of what predetermined the fights was circumstance/Aizen. Ichigo could just as easily have been slated to fight Harribel and Yammi instead had things been setup differently. Or Syzael and Nnoitra. Or just one of the espada so we can spreed some of that goodness around since there are only ten, and say Gin. Or Hell, Barragon and Starrk.
Granted in the last case he'd have died horribly without some significant upgrades either way, but it's still on the table at least.
Regardless basic jist of this thread is to present some battles you would have liked to see or thing would work well for fic purposes, hopefully try to present your case a bit if you feel it's needed or what have you. Feel free to go crazy with it, and try to keep things from devolving into power level arguments, though admittedly I'm kinda asking for it with this kind of topic. :sweat2:
Some key concepts I've brought up before to help frame the point of this thread. Completely out of context admittedly but it should give a basic idea of what can be brought up:
You want epic, why not shake things up a bit. Instead of giving us the same exact order of Ikkaku->Renji->Kenpachi->Byakuya, how about use different people? Different match ups? Shake the rosters up a bit, plan ahead so you can build it up properly at least. You can do a lot as long as you loosen the shackles you're ultimately strangling yourself with. You have at least 7 viable captain levels to use with varying degrees of possibilities for a completely different sequence of events or possible battle scenarios. Why not go for one of them.
Ichigo's a massive powerhouse and clearly an interesting specimen, why not have a runin with Mayuri. Sure, that takes Ishida's fight, but you can just as easily have him take on someone else (Quincy puppet strings spread through an area for example make an intriguing potential counter to something that takes away all your senses, ala Tousen's bankai).
Ichigo's wrecking shit, and there's someone investigating the events that are going on, the rascally Ryouka being prime targets, why not have a showdown with ol' Captain Shota.
Bitches be breaking rules, Yamamoto no like this. While Yamamoto would kick his ass seven ways to Sunday, Yamamoto's Dog Komamura would have a few things to say about this. All sorts of fun along the lines of the Kenpachi fight, only with a bit more to bring to the table, could be had facing that guy.
Ichigo's being a miscreant and drawing attention to the wrong places. Aizen Xanatos speed chesses his plans in order to draw Ichigo away from where he doesn't want shit to be seen, using his ol' favorite treacherous agent Gin.
Ichigo's a massive powerhouse and clearly an interesting specimen, why not have a runin with Mayuri. Sure, that takes Ishida's fight, but you can just as easily have him take on someone else (Quincy puppet strings spread through an area for example make an intriguing potential counter to something that takes away all your senses, ala Tousen's bankai).
Ichigo's wrecking shit, and there's someone investigating the events that are going on, the rascally Ryouka being prime targets, why not have a showdown with ol' Captain Shota.
Bitches be breaking rules, Yamamoto no like this. While Yamamoto would kick his ass seven ways to Sunday, Yamamoto's Dog Komamura would have a few things to say about this. All sorts of fun along the lines of the Kenpachi fight, only with a bit more to bring to the table, could be had facing that guy.
Ichigo's being a miscreant and drawing attention to the wrong places. Aizen Xanatos speed chesses his plans in order to draw Ichigo away from where he doesn't want shit to be seen, using his ol' favorite treacherous agent Gin.
Just throwing a few potential ideas out there. Hell, in one potential idea I had a while back, I did pretty much this, take the canon events and characters, goddamn equalize them so that the entire home team is formidable, beefed up goddamn Kon, brought down some Kanonji epic and set them loose on SS. Kon Vs. Mayuri, Chad vs. Kenpachi, Ishida vs. Gin, Ichigo vs. First Use Bankai Renji, the works. All that purely to add interesting alterations and potentially fun fighting mechanics to the table. Granted in a few cases I had to significantly beef up a few with some lesser battles along the way, and had a few losses to inter-space it, particularly Kanonji vs. Kyoraku but the idea was to have fun and let lose. Give yourself some room to breathe and you'll be surprised what you'll be allowed to do within the actual structure of cannon.
Hell, another idea I had was a small rewrite of a simple scene to spin off into big changes into the arrancar arc. Remember that bit where Rukia's all like "We cannot follow that order." when ordered by Yamamoto to ignore Orihime and go back. Dude sends Byakuya and Kenpachi to take them all in. Well let's "We cannot follow that order." the hell up in there. Ichigo's right there, he could take at least one of the two, Renji's there too and would easily be able to hold his own against Kenpachi if he kept his distance. And hell if Matsumoto's attached enough to Orihime to be annoying about it, Hitsugaya might just have to be drawn into that shit, after a considerable amount of convincing/whining. They got that shit. Arrancar arc starts off beefed the hell up with the Hitsugaya rescue squad now, and Hitsugaya starts off miserable because Matsumoto roped him into all kinds of bullshit this time, and now he's probably lost his job and she isn't appropriately sorry about it. It's win win.
Cut off the rails, theorize potential new ground you might want to explore, find out if there's ways to make it happen without drastically screwing things up, iron out any potential kinks that arise, then roll with it. Not that hard if you leave yourself open to new potential scenarios. If ultimately what you end up with is not going to be all that different from the original product, there's little point in rehashing it.
Cut off the rails, theorize potential new ground you might want to explore, find out if there's ways to make it happen without drastically screwing things up, iron out any potential kinks that arise, then roll with it. Not that hard if you leave yourself open to new potential scenarios. If ultimately what you end up with is not going to be all that different from the original product, there's little point in rehashing it.
I had a rewrite of SS myself where Chad ended up facing Kenpachi near the end and managed to progress his powers purely because the fight awakened the age old blood feud between hollows and shinigami. However Komamura might make a more interesting opponent, not just because of the whole big guy thing, but their ideals and emphasis on loyalty is very similar as well. And he's fluffy so Chad would be happy about it too.
I'm actually stunned the sheer amount of synergy the two have hasn't been exploited in canon. :huh:
I'm actually stunned the sheer amount of synergy the two have hasn't been exploited in canon. :huh:
Sadly Ishida and Mayuri is kinda set in stone, the rewrite I had managed to circumvent it via bring Kon along instead, who ALSO would have beef with the guy. That was a fun little bitty there. Lightning Tatsuki might have an edge against Hitsugaya depending how she develops, though his subplot at this point probably takes him off the front lines unless he tries directly investigating the group. The rest probably should avoid any captain fights if only because I'm not sure they could reasonably take any without some serious shenanigans.
Well there's always Mayuri, but like I said him and Ishida is set in stone. I suppose someone with really good sonar capabilities could take Tousen? Which given our list of who gets what skills... Orihime with that ocean thing from Kekkaishi? Actually that could be very interesting now that I think about it, get one of the fairies to touch the sword and it grants all of them their senses back perhaps? Only problem with him is that nasty shikai tech that knocks you out.
Gin too if he keeps purely to Shikai, an good portal could screw him over even in bankai actually, and drawing the blade away with attraction or repulsion would also prove effective. Actually if the blade also conducts electricity Tatsuki too could handle that. Maybe a three on one fight where they mostly survive due to Gin playing, good synergy, and his shikai being garbage. :hmm:
Mostly though the entire lot of the Vice Captains are completely open for utilization, so everyone could take one of those guys at least. Chad vs. Kira would be quite interesting, him beasting through even with his shield weighed down would be nice.
I spend way too much time thinking of lulzy matchups. :mellow:
Well there's always Mayuri, but like I said him and Ishida is set in stone. I suppose someone with really good sonar capabilities could take Tousen? Which given our list of who gets what skills... Orihime with that ocean thing from Kekkaishi? Actually that could be very interesting now that I think about it, get one of the fairies to touch the sword and it grants all of them their senses back perhaps? Only problem with him is that nasty shikai tech that knocks you out.
Gin too if he keeps purely to Shikai, an good portal could screw him over even in bankai actually, and drawing the blade away with attraction or repulsion would also prove effective. Actually if the blade also conducts electricity Tatsuki too could handle that. Maybe a three on one fight where they mostly survive due to Gin playing, good synergy, and his shikai being garbage. :hmm:
Mostly though the entire lot of the Vice Captains are completely open for utilization, so everyone could take one of those guys at least. Chad vs. Kira would be quite interesting, him beasting through even with his shield weighed down would be nice.
I spend way too much time thinking of lulzy matchups. :mellow: