Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27565137-20160415174609/@comment-27565137-20160421012113

Mrlmm0605 wrote: 1. Ichigo may be a Quincy/Shinigami hybrid with hollow powers, but that doesn't mean he has all of their powers and abilities. Quincy: Letzt Stil requires the use of the Sanrei Glove to activate, and Ichigo doesn't have that. To go further, Quincy: Vollstandig does NOT necessarily require the SG, but it's a learned ability that Ichigo has never learned. Expect nothing more Quincy than basic reishi manipulation from Ichigo; that, at least, can be mimicked from Uryu. A Resurreccion is also off the table, as Ichigo is not an Arrancar, and so lacks that capability. The only counterexample to that is Tosen, but without knowing exactly how his Hollowfication works I cannot prove or disprove that facet. Thus, we cannot expect new hollow abilities beyond that which his own Zanpakuto/inner hollow possesses.

2. Ichigo may or may not be in Shikai, that is true. However, everything the series has put out thus far leads us to believe he is. The Zaraki counterexample proves that Soul Society was wrong about Zaraki's Zanpakuto, and casts dount upon Ichigo's, but does not disprove the theory.

3. As for power boosts, look no further than his fights in the arc. Fighting Quilge required the use of Bankai, and he got steamrolled by Haschwalth. Now, Ichigo has taken on Sternritter with little more than his maybe-probably-Shikai, and dominated. My interpretation of his boost is that it comes in the form of stat growths as in an RPG level up, and not any direct new abilities, which again, he hasn't had a chance to be taught. 1. Except for the fact that he's shown to be able to use abilities from all three races. Even if during all this time he was simply using a mere fraction of his shinigami/hollow powers, that fraction was more than enough to defeat Aizen. And do you see him anywhere near the level he was during his final fight with Aizen? No. He's nowhere near. If he was then those four chicks and more recentely Askin. Ichigo wouldn't have been face splattered on the floor. He would've shrug off Askin lethal dose ability like it was nothing. Resurreccion is not off the table because Ichigo has twice turned into a full hollow. He used Cero, Sonido, Hierro. He even used his sword in ways he normally never does. Has for his Quincy abilities, Ichigo has one advantage that for all we know no other Quincy has. He can communicate with the quincy part of himself, or more precisely, Yhwach of a thousand years ago. The same Yhwach that developed all the quincy techniques, that most likely also developed Letzt Stil and even at the time as we saw it, he was already planing on creating the sternritters. So if it is instruction that you believe Ichigo lacks to ever be a full quincy, then he can get it (if he hasn't already) from the best source of them all... Yhwach soul fragment inside himself.

2. Actually there are many things pointing to something being off. Ichigo never once as said Zangetsu name. True that normally in Ichigo case that meant nothing, because his sword simply didn't changed no matter how many times he called on Zangetsu. But that was then, when Ichigo didn't really had shinigami/hollow powers. What he had was just a fraction o the real thing. Old Man quincy was his main source of power, he said so himself. So Ichigo by logic conclusion hasn't of yet used what we can really call a Shikai or Bankai. Because he was never in control of that side of himself. So when I question Ichigo current level, I question because there's reasons to question. Time and time again I hear people talking about bankai, bankai, bankai... Like they can't think of anything else. Like that would fix anything. If Ichigo is so weak at this point, his bankai would make no difference whatsoever. And so to me I like to think that he's for whatever reason holding off his power. Hoping that he's doing so because his Shikai, the real powers of Zangetsu are so powerful that just like with Yamamoto bankai Zanka no Tachi, using it, places in danger those around him. That or since he fully unlocked his powers things like Shikai, Bankai, or anything else are beyond him now. And his true power lies with the name. If he uses the power of Zangetsu his power goes to a whole new level, if he uses for example a new variation of the Zangetsu name or even Tensa Zangetsu again, then his power again unlocks to a whole new level, and from there we might get Mugetsu and whoever knows what else. Although this second option is not my favorite. Because it would imply Ichigo had an unlimited amount of names, each granting him more and more power. 3. Actually Askin dominated Ichigo, and not the other way around. If he can't take on Askin how can he possibly take on Yhwach or Haschwalth for that matter?

I like the idea of him purposetely supressing his own power, because that would be more easy to explain, and also if Ichigo were to use his real shinigami/hollow powers then we might get something far more complex and cool than seeing him firing Getsuga Tenshous one after the other.

I believe there's more going on with Ichigo that meets the eye. I'm not saying his and Zaraki cases are the same, I never said that. But they might be similar. In which Zaraki only know found out about his true powers, while Ichigo might know all about his powers, he simply doesn't want to use them, yet.

I've read people saying "Well. Oetsu asked Ichigo what he felt about his Zangetsus. That implies without a doubt that he's using his Shikai." But such a conclusion is erroneous at best. When Oetsu asks Ichigo what he felt about his Zangetsus, would be the same as if he had asked Byakuya or Renji what they felt about Senbonzakura, or Zabimaru. I don't believe he was referring to the blades but the fact that in that moment finally Ichigo was in full possession of all his power and also finally knew all the truth about himself.

Also am I the only one that noticed or remembers that when Ichigo was fighting Yhwach after he forced Ichigo to cut the soul king in half, that Ichigo in his basic two blades form and not in bankai, fired a black getsuga tenshou at Yhwach? In Bleach chapter 618, when Yhwach is trying to get to Ukitake's soul king right arm, Ichigo fired a black getsuga tenshou while in 'shikai'. So that also got me thinking that something else might be going on here that we simply aren't getting the whole picture.