I feel like some earlier arguments about how the lower Sternritter scale to the Bankai they stole have been swept under the rug in favor of repeating the same arguments about how Yhwach scales to Yama's Bankai over and over again.
As me and Damage have pointed out already, there are multiple reasons to doubt Arc's stance on the Bankai's very minor, split second long hollowfication.
- The amp is very minor going off the visual comparison between
Toshiro's little eye covering ice and
actual full Hollowfication.
It being unquantifiable is worse for Arc's stance than it is for the opposition, as arguing with uncertainty is the same as arguing with headcanon.
The amp could be 2x or it could be 2%. We can't say, therefore we can't definitively assume it's the reason the Sternritter were one shot.
There is no narrative
(Urahara doesn't mention anything about the Bankai receiving a relevant amp) or visual (the comparison above) evidence that suggests the tiny split second hollowfication of the Bankai is in any way, shape or form comparable to the accepted 5x multiplier for Hollowfication or an increase big enough to one shot somebody.
+ And in case Arc tries to say Hitsugaya's small ice is equal to Ichigo's unstable Hollowfication during the SS arc Byakuya fight, there are multiple core differences between the two:
- Ichigo's hollow mask was progressively forming itself over a short span of time unlike the ice over Hitsugaya's eye which wasn't developing or changing in such a manner after it appeared.
- Ichigo was possessed by a powerful hollow spirit while Hitsugaya was not.
- Ichigo's eyes changed (like the Vizards when they're using proper full Hollowfication, which indicates Ichigo was close to that state) while with Hitsugaya that didn't happen.
- We have reason to believe that Urahara would avoid trying to give them any kind of significant amp. In past instances of Hollow and Shinigami powers mixing, the results have been quite more noticable than some ice over one eye and Shinigami gaining hollow powers in particular has lead to them becoming very unstable initially, something which Urahara is aware of and isn't stupid enough to risk causing to captains during a conflict such as the second invasion of Seireitei.
The Sternritter getting one shot doesn't necessarily support the notion that the Bankai got a significant amp from the Hollowfication, as there are reasons to believe the Bankai were stronger than the Sternritter's base anyways.
- A Sternritter in base needing to be equal to a Bankai captain in order to steal the Bankai devaluates the entire point of stealing Bankai, as the Sternritter would be able to easily overpower the Bankai captain by just going Vollständig.
-
BG9 strongly implies that using Soifon's Bankai would give him power above his base state.
Arc's counter to this was interpreting it as BG9 saying Soifon's training wasn’t enough to match her Bankai. However, that's missing the point of the statement, as BG9 sets a dichotomy between his base being enough to handle Soifon and him needing to use her Bankai if she was strong enough for him not to be "
disappointed". Since BG9 thought her Bankai would be needed to fight a stronger Soifon and thought his base would be enough to fight a weaker Soifon, it means there's a power difference between him in base and him using her Bankai.
- Sternritter are capable of handling/controlling power on a higher level than their base due to how their Vollständig works.
Unlike Bankai and Resurrección, Vollständig doesn't release the full version of a Quincy's innate power but instead grants them power absorbed from an outside source (Reishi in the environment) just like using a Medallion (Bankai from a captain). Since the Vollständig power boost doesn't come from the Sternritter themselves yet they can control it, it's fair to say they would be able to control a Bankai stronger than them as long as its power falls within the range between a Sternritter's base and their Vollständig, which is the limit to how much Reishi they can absorb i.e. how much power they can control.
Sternritter who have stolen a Bankai have been
stated to be unable to go Vollständig, which supports the idea that their power handling/controlling limit is reached.
As for the "Sternritter were weakened by the tiny hollow power injected into a Bankai for a split second because it's poisonous to them" argument, Quilge Opie would beg to differ.
All Urahara was describing were general long term deficiencies Quincy can experience after exposure to hollow reiatsu. However, as we saw with Quilge, they don't seem to appear right away in the short term, and Quilge absorbed way more hollow reiatsu from Ayon than Cang and BG9 did from Urahara's pill.
Apparently the novels confirm Vollständig allows Quincy to absorb hollow reishi without harm so ignore that^
Still, the degree to which they were supposedly weakened is unquantifiable and may not have a bearing on their durability.
The results on the Sternritter from the Bankai being slightly hollowfied were:
The only thing out of these which implies someone was weakened is BG9 saying his connections were slowed. However, that doesn't mean anything in regards to durability as it would be like saying someone becomes less durable if their blood flow slows down temporarily.
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