Bleach TYBW: Ichigo's two blades, explained

With the release of Bleach TYBW cour 1 finale, fans finally learned about Ichigo's lineage and how his parents, Isshin and Masaki, ended up together. As Masaki was a Quincy, who was under Hollowfication, Isshin had decided to stay with her for the rest of her life to be the bridge between her Quincy and Hollow powers.

However, their union caused Ichigo to be born with the powers of Shinigami, Quincy, and Hollow, making him quite unique. With such powers within him, his Quincy side stopped him from ever accessing his Shinigami powers, causing him to use false Zanpakuto all this time. Thus, Bleach TYBW cour 1 finale saw Ichigo obtain Zangetsu's true form, which happened to be two blades.

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Bleach TYBW: Ichigo's blades represent his Quincy and Shinigami-Hollow powers

Ichigo as seen in Bleach TYBW (Image via Studio Pierrot)

As stated above, Ichigo is a unique being born from the union of Isshin Shiba and Masaki Kurosaki. As Masaki was a pure-blooded Quincy, her Quincy side was dominant within her son. Meanwhile, Isshin at the time was a shinigami inside a gigai, which is why his powers happened to conjoin with the Hollow powers within Ichigo.

Thus, Ichigo had two beings representing his powers, the Old Man and the Hollow. However, as revealed by Oetsu Nimaiya, the creator of Zanpakuto, the Hollow within Ichigo was his real Zanpakuto, the one that had combined with his Shinigami powers.

The Old Man as seen in Bleach TYBW (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Meanwhile, the Old Man, who had been pretending to be Ichigo's Zanpakuto, was actually the representative of his Quincy powers. Even his appearance resembled that of Yhwach, the Father of the Quincy, the way he appeared 1000 years ago.

Upon hearing the same, Ichigo was reminded of how he felt some connection to Yhwach when he first saw him. It seemed confusing to him as well - how he was able to detect Yhwach's location and know that he was the enemy leader. He felt like he had seen him somewhere before.

Thus, Ichigo is seen questioning the Old Man to find out his real identity.

Yhwach as seen in Bleach TYBW (Image via Studio Pierrot)

The Old Man then revealed how he was not the real Zangetsu, but it was his Hollow side. The Old Man, i.e., Ichigo's Quincy powers, never really wanted Ichigo to become a Shinigami, because if he did so, he would have to kill Ichigo himself, implying that the real Yhwach would kill him.

Thus, he suppressed Ichigo's Shinigami powers, becoming his sole source of power himself. However, whenever Ichigo got in some trouble, he allowed Ichigo's Hollow powers to take charge and protect him.

As Ichigo became stronger with time, the Old Man's heart began to waver whenever he saw Ichigo fight.

Zangetsu as seen in Bleach TYBW (Image via Studio Pierrot)

Thus, the Old Man finally decided to stop suppressing Ichigo's Shinigami powers and let him obtain Zangetsu's true form. However, Ichigo was unwilling to let go of the Old Man and decided to identify both him and the Hollow as Zangetsu.

Upon doing so, Ichigo's Zanpakuto took the form of two blades, the bigger one representing Zangetsu (Shinigami-Hollow powers), and the smaller one representing the Old Man (Quincy powers).