User blog:StonerCatJay/Rereading the series- theories and speculation

(Spoilers ahead)

As the title says, while waiting for new chapters to come out I've started rereading the series, and I've come up with some theories about a few things. The first and most prominent one is about Ichigo's bankai. In Chapter 541 we learn that "Old Man Zangetsu" wasn't really Ichigo's zanpakuto, but rather the manifestation of his Quincy powers. The true Zangetsu was, in fact, Hollow Ichigo. The Old Man states that whenever he taught Ichigo about his zanpakuto, he had him fight against Zangetsu rather than himself. From what I've seen, this is true for all of the fights Ichigo had with his powers except for when he learned bankai (he also fought his Quincy powers when learning the Final Getsuga Tensho, but he fought Zangetsu at the same time). When he learned bankai, he fought against the Old Man, not against Zangetsu. While this could have just been a mistake on Kubo's part, or he's not counting it for some reason, it seems like he's had the series planned out entirely pretty much since the beginning. Which makes me think: what if Ichigo's bankai isn't really a bankai at all? We know that the Old Man has been holding back Ichigo's shinigami powers, so it makes sense that he would substitute what appeared to be a bankai with a Quincy power. It could potentially be a Quincy spirit weapon, like Yhwach's sword. Also, I've noticed that there are many instances where Ichigo breaks out his bankai without calling it out, something I don't recall seeing any other character do (granted that this could very well be a translation error or completely normal for bankai). I really hope that with Zangetsu's true form revealed and the Old Man not holding Ichigo back anymore that we'll see a new version of his bankai, regardless of whether or not the old one was a true bankai.

Next is about something a bit less exciting, but still pretty interesting: Aaroniero Arruruerie, the Ninth Espada. He is the only Gillian-Arrancar to be in the Espada during the Hueco Mundo arc. Gillians are formed when multiple Hollows feed on each other until they become one mindless, powerful being. I think that Aaroniero's two heads is a callback to this. Since Gillians don't have a distinct personality and are comprised of multiple Hollows, it makes sense for the only Gillian class Espada to have two heads to represent that. It's quite possible that Aaroniero did have a distinctive personality as a Gillian and was just never able to evolve into an Adjuchas, but it still seems to be a reference to having less of a singular identity that the other classes of Menos.

There are a couple of other things I know I thought of while reading, but I can't really remember them at the moment. So, if I remember any/think of any more I'll add them in later.