u/RedRukia10

There's a recurring pattern in Bleach where leaders are forced to navigate their relationships to their subordinates. Within this theme, there are many examples of characters who are over-protective at the start of the series and learn to lean on others over time. This characterizes Byakuya's feelings toward Rukia, Ichigo and his friends, and Kyoraku with Nanao.

My Previous Conclusion

The other day, I made a post about disliking Ukitake's philosophy in the flashback depicting Kaien's death. (I deleted it shortly after because I felt it was too negative). Kaien is a nobleborn soul reaper with exceptional combat abilities. Ukitake respects his luitenant's grief and allows him to avenge his wife. One would expect that a warrier of Kaien's calliber could defeat a single hollow on his own. But Metastacia's abilities were unprecedanted; a product of Aizen's secret experimentation. It's a tragic accident*.*

My issue with this scene was specifically that the dialogue emphasizes pride. The sequence is sculpted around Uktiake's leadership. First the decision to allow Kaien to fight alone and then his decision to remain disengaged after his luitenant loses his zanpakutou on the basis that "pride is more important than life".

On one hand, Ukitake's quote about "battles to defend pride" appears early in the story during Ichigo's battle with Grandfisher. Rukia remembers her mentor's words in a flashback, and chooses not to interupt.

However, throughout the rest of the series, Ukitake's actions aren't driven by pride. He's depicted as an exceptionally caring person; he attempts to intercept Rukia's execution, he protects Hanatarou from Byakuya on the bridge to the repentance cell, and he refuses to fight Lillynette because it matters to him that she's a child.

So Ukitake's lack of intervention always struck me as a bit of plot contrivance.

But Now I Can See How It Fits

Having worked through the analysis and read the comments on my original post (thank you), I've changed my opinion. The emotion shaping the incident with Kaien isn't just Kaien's pride, it's Ukitake's faith in his subordinates. If put in the same situation, other characters might hover possessively over their subordinates, whereas Ukitake respects their wishes even if it risks losing them.

Interestingly, a similar incident plays out between Lisa and Kyouraku in turn back the pendulum. Kyouraku trusts his luitenant to handle a dangerous situation. He even advises Urahara to do the same. And just like the incident with Kaien, this demonstration of respect results in tragedy, with Aizen's experimentation at its core.

Kyoraku and Ukitake are often depicted as foils to each other. Their respective treatment of Kaien and Lisa is an example of allignment between them. Yet, Kyouraku's reaction to losing Lisa is intermingled with his motivation to protrect Nanao - a feeling he later has to overcome when he bestows her with the Hakkyoken in TYBW. Ukitake on the other hand, never stops believing in his subordinates - he is comfortable with Rukia taking on difficult responsibilites, Byakuya is the one putting up a resistance. He also respects Ichigo enough to hint at the shinigami badge's true nature, despite having been burned in the past.

And I think the reason Ukitake is uniquely capable of maintaining trust even while navigating grief, is in part due to his illness. Having to routinely rely on his squad to function without him, probably forced him to be comfortable with depending on others. In a series where leaders regard their subordinates as pawns, disposable, or objects to be protected, Ukitake's unrelenting respect stands out.

(Long post, I added some sub-headings)

Maybe you agree that this scene is controversial? It is an abject failure of Ukitake’s leadership.

The tragedy of Kaien’s death is a direct result of Ukitake's decisions. Everything makes sense up to a point. He understands Kaien’s grief, allowing his lieutenant to avenge his murdered wife. Afterall, Kaien is a uniquely powerful soul reaper born from a noble family; one would expect he is capable of fighting a hollow alone, even if there are risks. Meanwhile, Rukia is out of her depth and has tagged along only because she cares about Kaien. So as her captain, Ukitake prohibits her from taking action. It’s when Ukitake starts explaining his philosophy that the plot becomes absurd, creating dissonance with the character and the rest of the story. Because he explicitly says that pride is more important than life.

Is it because of the translation?

Given that the problem is rooted in the dialogue, I wondered if maybe it was due to an awkward translation.

Sometimes the original Japanese is tonally different from the English translation. For example in the conversation between Metastacia and Kaien, English translations have Metastacia say something like “I regret not eating that woman soul reaper’s chest and head”. But in the original, he says 乳から上を喰い損ねたことを!. 乳 chichi is more similar to “breast”. A neutral word for “chest” is 胸 mune which can refer to men and women, whereas chichi invokes images of milk and is used in medical terms related to women’s health. It’s also used in adult entertainment. So, Metastacia is effectively telling this woman’s husband that he regrets not eating her from the breasts up. It’s tonally different from the English.

But what about the word “pride” (sometimes translated as "honor")? The original word Ukitake uses is 誇り hokori. When I searched in Japanese dictionaries for example sentences containing hokori, the results basically said things like “He is proud of his heritage.” or “This art museum is the pride of our town.” Conceptually, it seems very similar to the English word for pride, but I was still hoping that maybe there was some deeper nuance that the Japanese fanbase had picked up on.

I went digging through Japanese forums for chapter discussions and character analysis, and ended up on this site called animesoku, where I found a few threads discussing Kaien’s death. This was the closest thing to a reddit style forum I could find, with multiple users commenting on a topic. There were some comments that cross-referenced other parts of the manga or offered explanations of the story. And there were also a bunch of sardonic quips and memes, so the overall atmosphere seemed similar to reddit.

And regarding this scene from the manga, the users did not approve. They were ruthlessly critical of Ukitake and the whole pride thing! There were a lot of complaints that Ukitake had abandoned his subordinate, that Kyoraku’s survival mentality and battle performance are superior, and many suggestions that Ukitake has been a villain all along. Regarding the latter, some comments referenced the reveal about the substitute soul reaper badge, to give you an idea of when this discussion was happening. Interestingly, I only saw one mention of CFYOW.

In conclusion, there is no secret depth in the word 誇り. The English translation seems to accurately reflect what was stated in the original. And having spent too much energy thinking about it, I am honestly a bit frustrated. As I explained, I think the underlying logic of the scene is salvageable; it’s the dialogue framing the character’s decision that is frustrating. Outside of this scene, “pride” is not something that is ever shown to be meaningful to this character. He attempted to intercept Rukia’s execution because he puts his subordinates' well-being above the law. He doesn’t fight Lilynette because it matters to him that she is a child. He saves Hanatarou from Byakuya on the bridge to the repentance cell. His reputation among the other characters is that he is an exceptionally kind and devoted leader. So why suddenly, does he put pride before the life of his lieutenant?

Disappointment

Maybe you could interpret these examples of Ukitake’s character as him protecting people who are subordinate to him, whereas he might view Kaien as an equal and therefore treat him differently. But I also suspect that Kubo wrote himself into a hole earlier in the series. Ukitake appears before any of the other captains, in a flashback during Ichigo’s battle with Grandfisher. Rukia remembers her mentor’s speech about pride and decides not to intervene, establishing pride as an important theme very early on. In initial chapters, both Ukitake and Byakuya are not depicted wearing captain’s haori, and I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Kubo hadn't actually created the captains’ rank yet. Which is to say, I believe that a big step was taken in Ukitake’s characterization before future plans for the story had been finalized.

I wish it was Byakuya

Anyway, you know which character does care about pride? I’m just imagining an alternate timeline, where Kubo somehow puts Byakuya in the scene instead of Ukitake. I think this would work well because there’s already tension between him and Kaien, yet Byakuya would understand what it meant for Kaien to avenge his wife. He would stop Rukia from getting involved, and on the surface it would appear his speech about pride would refer to Kaien. But the audience would understand that actually the pride being protected in that moment was his for Rukia. Kubo could have rewritten of Metastacia’s ability so that any soul reaper that touched its tentacles lost their zanpakutou, preventing Byakuya from becoming fully involved, and once Kaien had fully fused with the hollow he could have targeted Rukia specifically because of their bond forcing her to deliver the final blow. It’s still difficult to imagine Byakuya allowing a hollow to get so close to his sister. But I really crave a version of this scene that is more consistent with the rest of the series.

Thank you listening to my ramblings, I'm really curious to know what other people think.