Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27392440-20160214172258/@comment-27392440-20160217034648

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)?