Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24317446-20160321225110/@comment-27565137-20160328232618

True. But everytime Aizen evolved his power never diminished. Not once. So why diminish then? It would make no sense whatsoever.

Also. Maybe Aizen understanding of evolution was imperfect. Or flawed... Remember that for centuries he believed that the key to transcending lied within hollowfication. He believed that only by transcending both shinigamis and hollows, by becoming a perfect mix of the two, would all his limits be broken.

And to me that's where the flaw lies. Look at Ichigo. Ichigo is a shinigami, hollow and quincy. He's supposedly the perfect mix of three races. Two of them shouldn't even be able to mix without destroying one another. I'm referring of course to Hollows and Quincies. And that's what makes him unique. And in some ways explains why his power seems to have no limits when it comes to becoming stronger or even evolving. 2/3 of him are from species that base their powers on evolution. And again I'm referring of course to Hollows and Quincies. A hollow natural form of becoming stronger is through evolution. While Quincies in a way are the same, but with one major difference. Hollows even Vasto Lords that become Arrancar if they want to evolve further they have to sacrifice aspects about themselves. While Quincies on the other hand, can selectively evolve to become better in every aspect. Has seen more recently during the fights against the Elite Sternritters. Those guys just keep on evolving. And where once it took one on one fights to defeat a Sternritter or two against one. Now we see Captains or captain level, teaming up and still they get their asses handed to them.

And you're kinda right about the Hougyoku. Or at least I understand why you'd said what you said. If we look from Aizen perspective it seems that the Hougyoku only created hollow-like beings. Seeing Aizen initial hole in the chest and then the three holes. But think about it. Aizen believe firmly that the answer to transcendence lied within the merging of the two species, shinigami and hollow. He was already a shinigami, and quite a powerful one even without the Hougyoku, so what he lacked was the hollow part. And so the Hougyoku answered to what his heart believed the most. And started turning him more and more like a hollow. The Espadas on the other hand, were Arrancars that desired greater power. So to those the Hougyoku saw potential for evolution, it made it so. Most likely through those sacrifices in aspects Ulquiorra mentioned.

We never saw (and most likely will never see) the Hougyoku being used to merge for example Shinigamis and Quincies. Or Hollows and Quincies. Or mix all of the three races together. Aizen simply dismissed Ichigo quincy side. And focused only on Ichigo hollow side. That's why in the last battle when Aizen sees Ichigo looking so like himself with no signs of hollowfication, he immediately assumed that Ichigo had failed to transcend. Perhaps he was expecting Ichigo to appear like White Ichigo did, when young boy Yhwach ripped White Ichigo from inside Ichigo. If you remember, White Ichigo looked totally awesome. With that mix of bankai and hollow form, with the horned mask on. Most likely Aizen was expecting something like White Ichigo to appear. But when he saw plain Ichigo he initially didn't even took into account that Ichigo's zanpakutou had dramatically changed. He simply assumed that Ichigo had failed to evolve.

And most likely that's why the Hougyoku rejected Aizen. Because from the Hougyoku point of view it had given Aizen all he wanted. It had msde Aizen into a full perfect merger between shinigami and hollow, and still when Aizen reached the conclusion that Ichigo had transcended beyond him, for Aizen it was clear that something was missing. But what was missing he didn't knew. He simply desired more power. Perhaps he desired to become like Ichigo. But because he lacked the Quincy side of the equation in him, or simply didn't understood how Ichigo had evolved past him, the Hougyoku saw in that an unworthy master.

In a way it was like the Hougyoku accepted to merge with Aizen because Aizen potential and intelligence set him apart from all the others. But when Aizen was faced with something he didn't understand, the Hougyoku saw its mistake and maybe because it couldn't separate itself from Aizen it did the next best thing. It removed all of Aizen evolutions because maybe not as a sign of rejection, but as a sign of it telling Aizen, that he was missing something. And because that something wasn't within Aizen then his true desires couldn't be accomplished and so it did what it did, because it was the only way to make Aizen stop and think about things.

Either way. It will fall upon Kubo to shine some light over this or well be left wondering the 'what if'.