Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27392440-20160214172258/@comment-27565137-20160218151839

DarkMuse616 wrote: It would make plenty of sense actually for a shinigami to want to become an arrancar when you consider that vizard from what I've witnessed don't seem to have abilities like hierro, bala, or pesquisa which are vastly useful in combat and especially useful if always active, let alone don't seem to be able to use segunda etapa.

To give my personal theory about Tosen's differences from other vizard, I think the main difference with his stronger vizard power was that he treated it like a zanpakuto spirit and tried to create a bond with it rather than just forcibly take it's power, after all he seemed able to befriend the arrancar and was very open to treating hollows like people.

To answer a question posed earlier, I think there is evidence that arrancar can return to being hollows, or at least regaining their full masks, as was seen with Nel's fraccion having their mask fragments torn off by Nnoitra and seeming to return to being hollows, or at least getting their whole mask back and seemingly losing arrancar specific powers, yet weirdly retaining zanpakuto at the same time.

One issue that's come up in this post that I'm curious about is the idea that removing their masks give them access to their shinigami powers but seeing as souls have to train to become shinigami where does the shinigami power come from for hollows? It more seems to me like they make their hollow power shinigami-like, which is notably different, by focusing it into sword form to give it better combat powers and allowing a full return to human form in most cases while retaining their sanity with the mask staying off.

On the issue of if arrancar can grow, I've always wondered myself if you become an arrancar before you reach vasto lorde status if something is lost in comparison permanently but at least there is some evidence they can grow, possibly through training, as Nnoitra was already an arrancar yet grew from espada rank 8 to 5.

A big issue I'm surprised has never been addressed is that at one point Orihime's brother's mask was fully off yet he didn't become an arrancar and felt his hollow self just taking over again instead, could someone explain this logic to me?

Finally, the big thing that defines an arrancar is that they've focused their hollow power into a sword, so what I'm asking is what would happen if a shinigami took that idea and tried to infuse their zanpakuto with their hollow power/spirit to make their shinigami and hollow power share the same form/vessel, truly making them one rather than separate powers (it just seemed to me the likely way to do that might be to copy how arrancar evolved from hollows)?

I believe Orihime's brother not turning into a Arrancar was mainly because at the time Kubo hadn't even thought about Arrancars in the first place. Also I don't believe that by having a hollow mask forcibly broken they simply become Arrancar. It's like you said about Nel companions and their masks being forcibly removed actually degenerated their own powers.

And again I feel that it actually makes no sense for a shinigami to become a Arrancar, the same way that it would make sense for a Arrancar to become a Vizard. To me it's all about where one comes from and where he's going.

A shinigami possesses unique abilities different to those of a hollow. Even the way their powers work is completely different. A shinigami powers comes from training and communication between the shinigami and the soul essence of his or her zanpakutou. So for a shinigami when he gains hollow powers it manifests has a full mask instead of just a fragment of a mask. Although we've seen through Ichigo fight against Grimjow that he was able to sustain his hollow powers even with just a small fragment of his mask.

A hollow power develops by fighting and devouring other spirit like beings. Be it shinigamis, plus, and even other hollows. A hollow doesn't possess other souls inside of himself. Unlike shinigamis. When a hollow becomes a Arrancar, the zanpakutou is only a means by which they seal away their true form. Again unlike a shinigami zanpakutou. A shinigami zanpakutou form doesn't really influences the form of its user, the zanpakutou takes on a form of its own. It's like the zanpakutou is the physical representation of the shinigami inner power and not a representation of the shinigami itself.

So basically a shinigami can't become a Arrancar because he or she doesn't have a true form to seal away. Nor can a Arrancar become a Vizard because the hollow doesn't possess any soul but his own. I don't believe a hollow possesses that inner world communication that a shinigami has.

I guess one of the best off Bleach examples would be the movie Underworld. In that movie Michael Corvin is first bitten by a werewolf and only later bitten by a vampire. And when his natural blood fused both sides, lycan and vampire, he possessed more traits related to that of a lycan than those of a vampire. On the other hand we had Marcus Corven. He was first a vampire that during his sleep got fed lycan blood. He too became a hybrid like Michael but he possessed more traits of a vampire than that of a lycan.

The same applies to Bleach. Even Tousen in the end wasn't a perfect shinigami/hollow hybrid because in the end when his body was severely injured, his body simply exploded in a mass of blood. Also he had ditched his bankai for the resurreccion transformation. Maybe no shinigami or hollow can become a perfect Vizard or Arrancar.

Even when Aizen fused with the Hougyoku and started evolving, he became more and more like a hollow to the point where he look just like one. Which also makes sense seeing that the Hougyoku true power was never the ability to erase the boundary between shinigamis and hollows but to grant one's desire if it was within that being potential to acquire that power. Which also explains why some of the original Espadas were able to evolve to greater power and others were left behind and had their ranks removed from them. Like the Privaron Espada.

At this point the only one that might prove to be the perfect hybrid, is Ichigo. And I say might, because there's a lot of things he hasn't done yet. And until he does them we can only guess.