Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26091332-20160820062353/@comment-29702401-20161201163507

I saw it a bit differently. From the start, the blade Ichigo first started using with the name Zangetsu came from both his power as a Hollow and as a Quincy. His own Hollowfied soul was the material used to produce the weapon, as well as his own innate ability the Getsugatenshou. But then his Quincy side shaped all that released power into a compact shape unlike his father's wholly-unrestrained Engetsu. This Quincy trait was just made more obvious in his initial Bankai. By accepting both the Hollow and the Quincy as Zangetsu, Ichigo ensured that the blade itself was the core embodiment of both. Despite the possible loss of the mask or the blood, the core of both those powers still remains as Zangetsu/Ichigo. That just leaves the question; what is Tensa? Only the Quincy side of Zangetsu ever used that name, and one drawing of Yhwach by Kubo incorporated numerous black chains. This leads me to believe that Tensa is Yhwach's hold on the weapon, the reason that it tries to restrain its own power. That's why just knowing the name Zangetsu didn't release Ichigo's true power, as the weapon's full name was still Tensa Zangetsu, "Heaven Chain Cutting Moon". But what about the newly reforged weapon? The new Tensa Zangetsu has been divided by Ichigo's Hollow into clearly distinct portions; the blade itself and the chain attached to it. So, what happens when Tensa, the chain, is destroyed while the blade survives? A wholly unbound Zangetsu, a weapon that used its Hollow side to take select Quincy traits for itself.