Ok, I see now where I misunderstood you, sorry mate. I mixed up some of the facts when I said "Yeah, but Byakuya ruined Ichigos shit in that fight, so he had no shinigami/hollow powers that could save him". I see now that some of my statements must have looked rather wierd. Forget that I said that and look at my new theory instead. But hypothetically Rukia could have also have had hollow powers they just didn't get to manifest themselves. Because she gave away her powers in episode 1 and Ichigo lost her powers against Byakuya. (You don't need to tell me that this is far-fetched, I am already aware of that).Originally posted by: Budweineken
How can fighting Byakuya not be a real life or death situation, he was fucked up... and he didn't survived because Byakuaya spared him, he mainly survived cause Urahara treated him... It's not like the hollow inside Ichigo was saying, "Wait, Byakuya is toying with me, he wont kill Ichigo..." There's no way he could've known that... This is of course hypothetically saying that he indeed was inside of Ichigo at that moment, which I don't agree with...
And you are indeed misunderstanding me...
You said that Byakuya cutting Ichigo's power prevented the hollow from coming out... Guess what, that's wrong because what was cut was Rukia's powers inside him, and with all the evidence I have presented in my posts you can see that it's of no importance since Rukia's powers inside of him had nothing to do with Ichigo's hollow form...
*new theory* In other fights where the hollow has aided Ichigo there has always been a defining moment where he would have died if nothing was done. Also maybe Ichigo himself has to have a very strong desire for something to save him and basically admit that he has lost.
Maybe the hollow Ichigo was in fact observing the first fight against Byakuya, but he decided not to help because he wanted Ichigo to lose his Rukia powers and get weakened. This however requires that the hollow must have calculated that Byakuya was going for Ichigo's link, but I think it's safe to assume that he could make such an analysis since he is extremely gifted. Rukia's powers might have been the thing that was surpressing the hollow from fully taking over Ichigo's body. So the hollow was waiting for Byakuya's final blow so that he could take over Ichigo's body. But as we know Rukia interrupted this.