Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-28096256-20160413001736/@comment-27565137-20160506133249

I see. Very good points indeed. Especially the part of their zanpakutous not really being zanpakutous. Seeing that the natural powers of even an asauchi aren't present, like the purification of a hollow. Unless of course their zanpakutous work in a reverse way. And instead of purifying the soul, they taint the soul. For example a shinigami killed by a hollow would be reborn as a hollow. But this is pure speculation seeing we never got to see that happening. But it is a good idea of what their zanpakutous might do. But we never got the chance to see it happening.

About hollow masks. We've seen things aren't as easy as you explained. Here's a few key points that I believe you missed. Nel and her subordinates. Her subordinates got their masks forcebly removed and devolved into weaker more unstable forms of themselves. And Nel. It would stand to reason that with enough time the damage to her mask remnants would eventually heal on their own. But they never did. Was it because she was an Arrancar and as such the same rules don't exactly apply to them? Or is there something else going on?

And Arrancar by it's very definition may seem a contradiction. After all the mask is a essential part of being a hollow. But we learn that the Arrancar transition, not only removes part of the mask, but it also creates something along the lines of a zanpakutou. Something where they can keep their true forms/power hidden away. Also the only benefics of becoming an Arrancar seem to be that they no longer suffer the risk of devolving back into Guillians and that they gain a major power boost. Also, the less mask they have seems to someway be connected to the amount of power they have... in some cases at least.

Also. Hollows possess that extreme weakness to their evolution once having become Guillian, and that's the fact that if any part of their body gets devoured, then their evolution stops. Worst! If they don't become Arrancars they devolve back into Guillians and lose their minds.

So in many ways to hollows the development of the Arrancar form, was more crucial than hollowfication was to shinigamis. After all shinigamis don't stop evolving if they get severely damaged by another shinigami. The only true weaknesses a shinigami has, is that once their bankais are broken, they can never go back to their original forms, but instead they need to be reforged... and the fact that once they master physical training, zanpakutou use, shunpo and kidou, they got no more room to grow. But seeing that rarely any shinigami masters all aspects, hollowfication is not urgent. But to a hollow, the Arrancar form is the difference between keeping one's personality and current power, or simply devolving into a mindless Guillian.

So. What makes possible for a hollow to evolve to Vasto Lord? I believe that in a way Kubo answered that already. Only due to the way he does things, until you brought up this topic, I myself hadn't thought about it.

When Aizen was studying hollowfication they created the White. A hollow made from shinigami souls. And what were the characteristics and aspects of the White... Physically he looked just like a Vasto Lord should look like. He was humanoid in size and form. He possessed awesome power. Enough so, that he was giving Isshin a run for his money. Now! White might not have been Vasto Lord in level of power, or he might who knows... After all Hitsugaya said that a Vasto Lord power naturally surpasses that of Captain, but during the fight with the Espadas. Especially the ones from 0 to number 3. They weren't that much more powerful than a Captain. Even Aizen expressed his disappointement. Basically I believe Hitsugaya was proven wrong. If not think about it. A Vasto Lord was by theory naturally superior to a captain, and he referred to a normal Vasto Lord not a Arrancar Vasto Lord. So if a regular Vasto Lord should be superior in power to a captain, then a Arrancar Vasto Lord should've been on the same level or far beyond that of Captain Commander Yamamoto. And Yamamoto was a beast in terms of raw power.

So. Taking into account, what the White was, physically and in terms of power. That he was made from shinigami souls. And what a Vasto Lord should look like, then we can safely assume that your theory is for the most part correct. Hollows of Adjucha level to become Vasto Lords needs to feed on shinigamis. It is the shinigami aspect in their feeding regiment. After all in some ways, we are what we eat. And feeding on shinigamis seems to me the most logical way, or at least the easiest way to achieve VL level.

Is it, the only way? Most likely not. But it is the one that makes more sense. Even though story wise, the Vasto Lordes we seen, seemed very limited in their knowledge about shinigamis. Or maybe I'm mistaking lack of knowledge with lack of care. Maybe they simply didn't care enough about shinigamis to make that big of a deal about them.