User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 554 - Desperate Lights/@comment-4639012-20131023153257

You know, for all that I expect many of us were laughing profusely at Yhwach's claim to despise conflict a while back, especially considering the massacre he proceeded to command, the Sternritter shifting from stolen Bankai to Vollstandig gives him some credibility. As does the fact that he has tried to slaughter the Shinigami post-haste, obviously. But the Quincy have clearly stolen the Bankai, despite being equal if not greater in power with Vollstandig alone, in order to sucker punch the Gotei straight away. Without Bankai, they should have fallen much quicker, but they fumbled their way through it and are still kicking. So now, as Xilinoc says, the Sternritter have gone double or nothing. Staking everything on their Vollstandig being superior to Bankai. Which it probably will be, at least with regards to guys like Hitsugaya and Sui Feng who've been fucked up already. This battle is going to end soon, and it's going to go a long way to determining the outcome of the war.