User blog comment:Njalm2/Nanja's Point of View: Shinigami Edition/@comment-1493741-20150503073419/@comment-3403804-20150503133158

This ultimately comes down to being a difference of perspective, I wrote this guide out from what I personally believe about Shinigami, canon doesn't go all that much into them to be honest. While I understand that you put the canonical material on a pedestal, that's extremely restrictive not only to yourself, but also to others who do. Regardless of what has been portrayed in canon, it should be noted that we only ever see glimpses of the Shinigami's life, at most what has been covered in canon constitutes one year of their life, which in the grand scheme of things is absolutely nothing. To think that such is somehow indicative of their entire life or how they might be as a whole is extremely unlikely. Age does something with your perspective, and once you've lived for longer than any human ever has, then no, your perspective will probably no longer be comparable to that of a human.

Likewise, Shinigami are NOT human, it's impossible to concile the two. Shinigami are an ascended form of soul, spiritual beings, demigods even, they have the appearance of humans and they often have the mannerisms of one (doesn't necessarily mean they think alike though), but they live several human lifetimes and have great powers ordinary humans don't have, in the base material they've never ever been referred to as humans by anyone, expect when they were inhabiting Gigai. They've likewise got much higher endurance and durability than human, with the ability to survive blows that would kill any human. Their lifespan is superhuman, their abilities are superhuman and their bodies are superhuman, and yes, given their age their minds would likely become superhuman as well. They're no more humans than Kryptonians or Saiyans are. Although I will admit that like those species, they've got a lot in common with humans.

It's also worthy to note that I agree with most of your arguments when it concerns very young Shinigami, namely those within the 100-200 age range. These were who Ichigo got along best with, Byakuya, Toshiro and most of the Lieutenants fall well within these borders. In comparison to most other Shinigami, these would be the most human-like of the entire bunch. Ichigo never conversed at length with characters like Ukitake, Kyouraku, Unohana, Komamura or Yamamoto, probably because he sensed how different they were from him. This guide is primarily not geared towards the Shinigami in that age range, moreso being geared towards those with a few centuries under their belt and up. Although naturally, younger Shinigami might behave like this too. Yes, some Shinigami are physically young-looking such as Toshiro and Byakuya were at an age of one hundred years, but as has been shown by Toshiro, that does not prevent them from acting very much like adults. Hitsugaya looks to be the same age as Karin, but his job is extremely demanding, with lots and lots of paperwork. I don't think any human child could've done his job.

I don't think I ever said that Shinigami were especially promiscous either, I said that they'd likely have a long list of lovers based primarily on their sheer age. Naturally, we humans tend to have a few in our lifetimes, and if you've lived for a few centuries then you'd get a pretty long list if you kept going at it, that's only logical. A Shinigami at over a thousand years would probably have a lot of different lists altogether, especially someone like Shunsui.

When it comes to the whole thing about marriage, then your example of Masaki and Isshin is probably not the best one for several reasons. Isshin was head of a branch of the Shiba Clan, henceforth he was a noble, and secondly, at the time he'd lost all of his Shinigami powers and been turned entirely into a human. Furthermore, while it's true that he loved her very much, it's readily apparent that Isshin's views of the human world are skewed and differs from that of his family, he's extremely eccentric, probably moreso than most characters in the series, and he does a lot of extremely weird things. Sure, he loved Masaki, and he does love his children, but from an outsider perspective he really never seemed to fit into the whole role of a human daddy - which is only natural given that he's probably a few centuries old and accustomed to an entirely different world. He tries to cope as best he can of course and he obviously takes care of his family but here's the real kicker. Isshin works at a private clinic, meaning that he has virtually little to no contact with other humans, he probably doesn't hire any assistants, relying instead on his family to help out in the family clinic. For someone who's from an entirely different world, he's picked the perfect occupation.