Disclaimer: This man does not own Bleach.

Quincy Craft Trivia

Note: Several things may have already been previously mentioned in Chapter Trivia.

Table of Contents:

Story Background and Plot Details:

Epilogue

Characters:

Ichigo Kurosaki

Giselle Gewelle

Jugram Haschwalth

Yhwach

Bambietta Basterbine

Gina and Riruka Dokugamine

Isshin and Masaki Kurosaki

Neliel Tu Odelschwanck and the Arrancars

Askin Nakk Le Vaar

So this Chapter Trivia was meant to address some of the thoughts that I either didn't convey properly or several behind-the-scenes thoughts about certain Characters and what not. I don't have anything for all of the characters, so a lot of the main ones are missing. Most likely, not everything will be answered here and I'll probably still end up answering questions for time to come on this story, but it's cool.

So on to the Trivia.

Story Background and Plot Details

-The idea for Quincy Craft had actually spawned along time ago while I was working on Trascender, but it was ridiculously simple at that time:

It was nothing more than reversing the Canon storyline and replacing it all with Quincies; Bambietta (or Haschwalth or Uryu) would play the rule of Rukia, and the story would pan out the same as Canon. Of course, I abandoned that idea for the lack of originality.

-Many of the details of the story were already planned before I even posted the first 5 chapters, which is why I was able to release so many fast chapters. Some of these things being:

The entire Back From Black Arc

Many of Ichigo's fights prior to Chapter 34 that weren't with any Quincy

Isshin's storyline

Haschwalth's Death

Ichigo's fight with Yhwach

The Epilogue

-Despite my major revision around Chapter 34, most of it panned out the same way as I had planned. I'll save some of the planning details for the Character Trivia below. But just for clarification, the major revision in Chapter 34 was centered around the revelation of Giselle Gewelle's "The Zombie" (or rather months after, because that was my first long break) and Gremmy Thoumeaux's debut fight against Kenpachi. There was a reason I went specifically back and rewrote the scene when she used her powers in front of Ichigo as opposed to rewriting Ichigo and Bazz-B's fight scene when his powers debuted, and it was Gremmy's existence that allowed me to delete my unwanted OC's without having to start over...

...Which was one of the reasons that I decided to stop Kill the Moonlight at where it is now. I didn't like the OCs in that story.

-The Fullbring Arc was the base Canon Arc for the beginning of Quincy Craft for several reasons:

In Canon, Ichigo has Rukia to explain to him about the Afterlife and how to use his Soul Reaper powers, but only Riruka during her stint as Daruma Ryouseika knows about his Quincy powers. Ichigo needed to have recent knowledge of everything involving the Afterlife. This is why it's easier for him to learn in the beginning when he easily connects his Quincy powers to his Fullbring. This is also how he has knowledge about Hollows and the Stealth Force, so he we don't all have to go through his relearning of things again...

But then I know that some of you will ask: Why didn't you just make him a Soul Reaper, and make everything Canon up until that point? Your storyline was confusing by just starting at the Fullbringer point!

The first simple answer is in Isshin and Masaki's Background Trivia.

The second is that the path leading up to the revelation of Isshin Kurosaki's demise (In Chapter 24, not Giselle's involvement in Chapter 50/51) would then have no impact, along with the Soul Reaper's reactions. Much of that stems from them having not met him. If he had befriend them all in the past, then several things in the story would not happen: Sui-Feng and co. would not have fought him, all of the Soul Reapers would have been trying to save him, and it would turn into another of those stories where Ichigo abandons the Soul Reapers for another organization, whether it was because he was betrayed and he wants revenge, or because he lost his power...

...Which is exactly what my very first story, Trascender, was.

-One of the things that many reviews harped on about was the pairings... You might have noticed that, after a certain point, I just stopped answering reviews dealing with that all together. My feelings on pairings haven't changed...

Which is that I believe that the plot comes first, and only if the pairing directly affects the plot as a whole will I consider it. Long story, short: I don't do pairings to please fanboys and fangirls unless it matters to the story.

Example: Ichigo and Orihime Ishida in Kill the Moonlight. Despite it not being very well done, the relationship between the two was a key point in the story, as it connected him to Orihime Inoue and she was the secondary main character while Ichigo wasn't present. It was also what garnered her interest into learning his background story.

But to be fair, I had Ichigo falling asleep for a thousand years planned from the very beginning of the story, so I never intended on a pairing.

Epilogue

-The epilogue was actually one of the earliest planned sections in the story.

-So I saw the few concerns about he OCs in the Epilogue, but they weren't there to be particularly important. Rather, many of them were catalysts for some of the main things such as;

What is the Wandenreich like now as opposed to a thousand years ago?

What's it like being a character invited to this place when it's not at war?

How does the world now look at Ichigo? Do they worship him, or have they forgotten about him?

What is the catalyst that will wake Ichigo up?

When Ichigo wakes, what will he be like?

So it wasn't like the OCs were there to be admired. They were just there to explain things.

Characters

Ichigo Kurosaki

-One of the major things I wanted to do with the story was create a sort of "Alternative-Canon", and not necessarily just an AU story. What that means is that I wanted the story to flow in a way similar to Canon, though of course keeping things different.

To better explain this, many might have felt like there moments where Ichigo just wasn't strong enough to their liking and, to be fair, I did this in my previous stories. What I wanted was for Ichigo to not begin the story with full power, but to gradually learn and understand as it went along.

That is why I gave him problems with shooting the bow, and why there was a big deal about his Reika Buki (Soul-Synthesized Weapon), or his Reishi Weapon solidifying and becoming metal. This is where his issues with controlling his power came to creating the Maskieren, and learning how to use Vollstandig after nearly killing himself with it. All leading up to the powerhouse that managed to score many kills on high-ranking Stern Ritter.

-Ichigo is a normal Quincy. The activation of "Null Sein" is when he uses the powers of the Hollow in junction with his Quincy powers.

-The battle with Ichigo and Yhwach was one of the things that I had already planned out, though the appearance of "The Almighty" caused me to change a bit of it. Regardless, Ichigo was going to be absorbed by Yhwach and fight him in his inner world.

-The original drawbacks of Null Sein prior to the revelation of the "The Almighty" was that the ability was closer to Quincy: Letzt Stil and he would lose his power. I changed Null Sein's power and made it a counter to "The Almighty" instead.

-Really funny story...

But when I was creating Giselle Gewelle's little character Arc, I knew that everyone would accurately guess Isshin as the Zombie she possessed... It was way too obvious... So funnily enough, I had actually tried to create a twist to throw everyone off...

One of them I tried to do was an epic twist of M. Night Shamalyan proportions where Ichigo had actually died to Yhwach that night in Kagamino at the end of Chapter 1, and that the Ichigo in the story was actually his Soul Form. Giselle Gewelle was actually supposed to have the corpse of the real Ichigo Kurosaki with his Soul Reapers and all...

Holy moly, how well can you play Twister? Because that was too much for my plot to handle.

The bad thing about this was that the story had so many elements at the time that I could have totally made that shit legit: Ichigo is hinted to still be part-Soul, which is why he can use his Hollow Powers in conjunction with his Quincy powers, and his awakening in Chapter 2 is still a little unclear where I could have tried to fit (force) that in somewhere.

Ultimately, I couldn't take that seriously enough, so I stuck with Zombie Isshin.

Giselle Gewelle

-I decided to use her after Ichigo in the character Trivia because her character had the biggest overhaul, considering many of my revisions around time of Chapter 34's release was centered around her. So to briefly start this, let's actually delve into how much she didn't change.

-Did you notice that Giselle Gewelle, despite having such a drastic personality overhaul in Chapter 34, actually didn't change very much?

Many of the core things and secrets about her character remained the same: She had always had secret feelings for Ichigo, she never liked watching him cry, and she was always worried about his well-being...

And she was always meant to stalk him.

Wait, what?

Instead of answering, Jugram Haschwalth quickly stepped by his blonde attendant and moved further into his quarters.

"...So who is this man that has the Stern Ritter on edge?"

Haschwalth unclasped his cloak and threw it elsewhere, which the attendant quickly picked up.

"That's classified. To be exact, even the Stern Ritter have no clue why His Majesty constantly leaves the palace..."

The attendant nodded before folding his cloak up and putting away in his closet.

"But if you should know, it's Ichigo Kurosaki."

If that was the case, then why...

It was only a matter of time before the boy drew attention to himself, Haschwalth mused as he and his fellow Stern Ritter marched across the halls of the Wandenreich base. Aimlessly wondering, this group was, when Bazz-B randomly asked, "So...have any of you seen this new guy that's been going around the 'Reich'?"

Bazz-B, a particularly crude and short-tempered man, was the Stern Ritter assigned the letter 'H'. His hair was styled up into a long mohawk and he wore a pair of earrings in both of his ears.

To Haschwalth's right, a large man glanced at the mohawk Stern Ritter and questioned, "And who are you talkin' about?"

This large man had on a star-designed mask covering most of his face except his chin and a large mustache. This rather dull man was Mask de Masculine, Stern Ritter 'S'.

Bazz-B grunted and added on, "You know, the one that His Majesty spent the last couple of weeks going after...? One of you guys had to have seen him..."

To Haschwalth's left, a dark-haired girl put her fingers to her lips and hummed, "Ah, you must talking about the orange-haired cutie that was brought here last week."

...does she know what he looks like? They all knew he was brought in because of the meeting, but Yhwach never said what he looked like.

Prior to Ichigo's arrival, Giselle already knew about Ichigo when no other Stern Ritter should. During the Chapter Trivia for the Back From Black Arc, I revealed that many of the Femritters were going to appear watching over Ichigo at various locations before changing it to no Stern Ritter having knowledge of him prior to his arrival. Giselle, however, eventually became the exclusion.

She was also the first Femritter to recognize him after panicking when Bambietta defeated him in the very next Chapter. During the Hueco Mundo infiltration in Chapter 16, she tries to stop Bazz-B from fighting when she notices Ichigo crying over Gantenbainne, and is the one to hold him back from killing Bazz-B in Chapter 17. Bambietta and Bazz-B, along with Yhwach, were the three Quincies that dealt significant harm to Ichigo in one way or another...

I wonder why she killed Bazz-B and tried to kill Bambietta and Yhwach...

-Of course, the major overhaul was to her powers and the more darker parts of her personality. Originally, if you came into the story quite late, Giselle's power was "The Zephyr", a wind power, and I had changed that because of the possibilities of "The Zombie".

Jugram Haschwalth

-I'm sure I mentioned this before, but Haschwalth was actually the first character that I written off to die. The reason was because I needed an excuse to give Ichigo his sword and hair, and him absorbing Haschwalth would've been perfect.

Also because 'Mentor-dying-in-front-of-pupil' cliché.

-Whether many might have seen it or not, Haschwalth only intended to use Ichigo as a weapon to defeat Yhwach. He never had any intentions to give the throne up, as shone by his various interactions with characters who believed in Ichigo instead of him.

To be far, it didn't ever mean that Haschwalth didn't respect or hate Ichigo. He had intended to allow him to return home, and he latched on to Ichigo to give him his power in the first place upon dying.

Yhwach

-I partially predicted Yhwach's Letter. His "All-Macht" abilities, which is German for "Almighty", was the key hint for the "Almighty" Epithet. However, I originally interpreted it as his Soul Distribution before it was revealed as the All-Knowing eyes.

-The battle between Yhwach and Ichigo had been another thing that was planned from the very beginning, though around the time of "The Almighty's" revelation, I changed it.

Bambietta Basterbine

-Now, the funny thing about Bambietta is... that when she first appeared in this story...

I didn't really like her.

I mean, I liked her character design and what-not in the Manga, just as much as I liked Giselle's, but when I initially wrote her in Chapter 13 and 14, her over-the-top perverted nature was a bitch to write. I basically had to think back to the immature high school days of saying "That's what she said" to everything in order to get her character down.

Unfortunately, that was a by-product of misinterpreting her character from the Manga's debut of the Female Stern Ritter. So I ruined her ability to fight and tried to push her out of story for a while.

While the rest of you were annoyed at her being invalid for half of the story, I had actually liked her better when her legs were ruined. It allowed me to humanize her character and bring her back down to Earth, and it still allowed for her perverted nature to appear every now and then. So I pushed off returning her to normal until the very end.

That's called character development (At least I think it is).

-I thought I've made it quite clear various times, but the reason that Orihime could not heal Bambietta's legs is because she hadn't developed her powers long enough to reverse effects. Ichigo even doubted that she could heal Cang-Du in Chapter 47:

Cold grey eyes snapped open, and Cang-Du found himself staring into brown eyes belonging to an auburn-haired teenager. Upon his awakening, the girl beamed widely towards the man standing behind her and exclaimed, "He's awake! I told you I could do it... And you didn't believe in me!"

Ichigo let out a small noise of approval as he looked down at Cang-Du from above. The Quincy narrowed his eyes and blinked as he rose up from his spot on the floor and looked around him.

Remember, Orihime acquired her power in the Fullbring Arc. Aizen wasn't around to say, "Hey, did you know you were Orihime-Almighty and you can fix almost everything?"

Gina and Riruka Dokugamine

-There really isn't much for either of these characters, so I decided to smash them under one category.

-Riruka originally had a much bigger role than what was given to her, being one of the important spies for Yukio.

She was also intended to die at a certain point in the story. I stated back in the Trivia for Chapter 38 that she was intended to be one of the OC Stern Ritter at the time (Cirque Le Vander) undercover. The death scene that was planned for Ciara at that time was also intended for her as well when she was caught, which was to be inspired by Chelsea's from Akame Ga Kiru!.

-Gina's letter as a Stern Ritter was the 'D' – The Defense, which gives her the ability to form her Reishi into various barriers.

Isshin and Masaki Kurosaki

-So, to start him off, I had pretty decided that Isshin was going to die since this was a Quincy-centric storyline, and it made more sense for Masaki to be alive instead.

But of course, I had to think "What would've happened to kill Isshin off? Would it be while he didn't have his powers? What about Masaki? How would I keep her alive?"

It was when I decided that Ichigo's main power would contest with Yhwach's that I realized "To keep Masaki alive, I should have Ichigo absorb every Hollow around him: Masaki's and Grand Fisher. This is also where his Hollow-Quincy powers would begin to develop."

That also freed up the explanation for Isshin. With Ichigo's Hollow awakening and allowing him to absorb the other Hollows, Isshin would regain his power. In order to maintain consistency with the story (and I thought it would've been a simple enough explanation for everyone), I could just have Isshin die while taking the place of Ichigo from Canon.

So now, he respects his father as Ichigo does with his mother in canon.

-Boy, oh boy... Man, did everyone hate Masaki (I never understood why... I thought a lot of her character was justified...) I'm guessing it's because everyone favors everything Ichigo, and anything that prevents Ichigo from doing Ichigo things is...a bad person? Or maybe it was because she single-handedly cock-blocked every pairing...? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Guess we'll never know, huh...? (ಠ_ಠ)

To be fair, she was probably my favorite character out of this entire story because I felt like her story was more emotional and tragic than any other character's in this story.

So, unlike the Canon Isshin, who was like, completely fine with everything and was being an irresponsible parent, Masaki was the exact opposite: A sensible parent who was heartbroken when her husband died to save the Soul Society, and didn't want her son to follow in those footsteps...

(Psst... Too bad he did it in the end anyway.)

Of course the steps she took were slightly drastic (you know, stabbing your son through his chest to destroy his powers might be...a little too much...), but I don't think many people realize that it actually made it seemed more like she actually cared as oppose to Isshin in Canon.

So I'm going to try and break down Masaki's entire story as a character as my last turret line of defense for her.

Her attack of Ichigo in a drunken rage isn't really justifiable, but it was definitely a necessary thing.

So starting from the point where Ichigo had lost his powers to Ginjo, Masaki was already quite aware that her son had pretty much given up on her, and she allowed him to go and stopped trying to interfere with his life. She even tells this to Ryuken after he reveals he has news about her son (Chapter 3):

"...And what were you doing near my son? I though I told you to leave him alone."

By this point, she has already given up. But of course, Ryuken then tells her that Yhwach attacked her son, prompting her switch back into Mother-mode and decides to save Ichigo... Which of course, fails.

After that, she spends the next chapters while Ichigo's in the Wandenreich trying to rescue him. She finally manages to do so, and is able to bring her family back together and spend time with her son... And then Ichigo follows in his father's footsteps and sacrifices the next thousand years of his life...

So Masaki has effectively failed multiple times when all she wanted to have her son back. Yeah, she made some questionable mistakes and she might have unknowingly pushed him away, but I think those mistakes and what-not made her a more compelling character in my opinion, and she's the character I felt suffered the most by the ending because all the work she put in to saving her son ended in failure.

So that ends my defensive barricade for Masaki Kurosaki. Maybe it'll change some minds, but I'm not holding my breath.

Neliel Tu Odelschwanck and the Arrancars

-So there were several reviews about Chapter 41 and the confusing nature of the Arrancars. I thought it was clear enough, but my clarity does need work, so the way I see things is completely different from what everyone else sees.

So to start, the general problem was: "Gina doesn't want to see you because she's upset, but we want to return her because we aren't dealing with any of the Quincies' issues. However, Neliel feels that she shouldn't return with you because of how you're acting."

The problem resided in several different things; the way Ichigo approached them, and the way he reacted. Neliel compares him to Yhwach several times during her ran based on his approach and reaction. A lot of people forgot, including Ichigo himself...

...That he isn't a very favorable person in Hueco Mundo. Neliel says it herself:

"And you thought that Halibel was going ally herself with you just because you helped me? That surely I would put in a good word for you? It was pure naivety that led you to this place under the assumption that any other than me would accept you, and that any other than me wanted to help you."

He forgot that it was just a few months ago when he and several other Stern Ritter ran amok in Hueco Mundo, capturing Neliel, Grimmjow, Halibel, and several other Arrancar. So disregarding their relationship with Masaki, Ichigo is probably one of their least favorite people in the world.

Of course, the first thing he does when he arrives is demand to know where his friend is to a group who's already agitated by him. Of course, the building tension between his insistence in finding his friend and the Arrancars who don't like him. He came there to ask for help and to retrieve his friend, but conveniently forgot that he was still in considerably hostile territory.

You don't make demands in that type of situation, but I don't think I really explained it very well that Arrancars are still pretty salty from the Hueco Mundo Invasion.

That, of course, prompts Neliel to separate him from the others and take him outside, leaving the two alone for her to explain this to him. She compares him to Yhwach who has entered Hueco Mundo and Soul Society as he pleases, and tells him that she isn't going to allow him to see Gina until he recognizes that he can't make demands to a group that isn't very fond of him.

It probably still won't help, but this is how I looked at it.

Askin Nakk Le Vaar

-So unfortunately, I couldn't fit his whole story into the Epilogue without it making sense, but he's basically roamed around the world freely since the end of the Wandenreich Civil War. However, he also kept an eye out on Kurosaki relatives up until Ichigo's return. If it wasn't plain cut and clear, Asukimaru is meant to be Askin. This is given at the beginning of Chapter 58 when he comments:

"...I told you...I'm too fond of babysitting for you, idiot..."

Which is what he says multiple times to him prior to the epilogue.

And that's pretty much it. Like I said, I still answer questions from time to time (unless they're dumb or they talk about something that haven't yet been revealed... But I guess since this story's over, it doesn't matter.)

So take care for now, and hopefully my future stories will be much better planned around time constraints.