Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-33821682-20160205141304/@comment-27565137-20160218160805

Actually the dual Zanpakutous have been a subject of great debate to me and others. Not in this forum, but on another where you have more liberty to say what you think without being crucified by people that think that they know it all.

There are a lot of questions and theories surrounding the dual blades. Some believe that the dual blades are actually Zangetsu sealed form. And they (and myself) believe that is true because Oetsu was forging Ichigo's Asauchi. And it would make total sense that Ichigo Asauchi or sealed form of Zangetsu looked entirely different from regular shinigami zanpakutous because at the end of the day. Ichigo is not only a shinigami. He's a shinigami, a hollow and a quincy. So the same rules must likely don't apply to him.

Some believe that Ichigo is longer limited or defined by shikai or bankai. That once his full powers awakened, all notions of shikai and bankai went out the window. Not omly that but we were revealed that Old Man Zangetsu was not really Zangetsu but the essence of Ichigo's quincy power. Not only that, Old Man admitted that he not only suppressed Ichigo's shinigami/hollow powers to the point Ichigo could only use but a small fraction of them, but he also was Ichigo main source of power. For all we know Kubo might still use that fact to simply state later on that Ichigo never really had a shikai or bankai to begin with. But that Old Man took the small part of Ichigo's shinigami/hollow power he couldn't suppress, to create something resembling a bankai but that at its core was never really a bankai.

Others believe that it is Ichigo shikai but that Ichigo for some reason is holding back his power on purpose. Mainly because he figured out by himself what Shunsui said to Ichigo's friends in the mortal world. That Ichigo would most likely acquire a power that would no longer enable him to ever return to the mortal world ever again. And as such he's holding back his true powers, and will only use them when he realizes he can't win if he doesn't do so. Some have even pointed out that the reason Ichigo was not able to resist Yhwach reiatsu when he tried to remove the sword from the Soul King is in fact proof that he's holding back. That when Old Man quincy relinquished his hold over Ichigo power he did so mainly to protect Ichigo from himself. That he didn't relinquished the hold then Yhwach would always be able to control Ichigo in some way. But then we see that Ichigo is not able to resist Yhwach control. And that felt strange to a lot of people that don't understand that situation even more knowing that apparently Ichigo's shinigami/hollow powers are greater than his quincy power. Because of the difference in size of both zanpakutous.

So questions are in abundance, and answers in short supply. Even more now that we learned from Askin that the reason why Ichigo was part of the special war powers, was because of his latent ability. Ability that now got people thinking on what it really means for Ichigo. Is it a quincy ability? Shinigami/hollow? A combination of all? Or something that surpasses them all?

But returning to the zanpakutous. There's another thing that has gotten people thinking that whatever those dual swords might represent. Something is still way off. First of all when Old Man revealed the true Zangetsu, it was only one sword that seemed covered in flames or reishi. And then we saw Ichigo carrying two swords. Also the difference in size also seems off. It would make more sense that both swords even if different in shape would be similar in size. After all how could a much weaker power suppress a much stronger one?

Also some people, me included, have wondered about the color of the zanpakutous. We believe that they should had been mainly white with small parts or unique designs/marks of black. Mainly because when Ichigo trained to obtain the Final Getsuga Tenshou, and Young Boy and White Ichigo fused together, the final form was mainly white, with only some small parts of black.

It's frustrating that at this point in the game, we still know so little about Ichigo true power. We don't know what he's really capable of. We don't know if he's really in shikai or simply a sealed form, or if Shikai and Bankai even apply to Ichigo. That and much, much more...