Check out my video on the recent PlayStation showcase right here: https://youtu.be/W7qDUnaCTnk

Meanwhile, what is Ulquiorra's Segunda Etapa? How does it work? How did he achieve it? Let me know your thoughts on the topic down in the comments!

When you think about it, it is weird. A Resurrección isn’t a traditional power up, it’s an Arrancar regaining their powers as a Hollow, which are sealed within their blade. It’s essentially removing a limiter on their body, letting them use their full strength.

So Segunda Etapa… if we’re keeping to anime comparisons, it’s like how Frieza transforms to suppress his power, then has 100%. So in this analogy, Segunda Etapa is like the Golden Form for Arrancar.

Undoubtedly one of the biggest flexes in the series.

One of the many things I found interesting was how Ulquiorra’s Segunda Etapa reverts him back into the appearance of his original tribe. He was born in the sands of Hueco Mundo pure white, while his kin were pitch black. When he reveals his second release form, he’s now black. And what was it Isshin said in Everything But The Rain? Black hollows are practically unheard of. Pretty fitting for someone with a power that hasn’t been replicated since its introduction.

I personally think the "bleeding" of Ulquiorra's hole represents his attempts to find the heart.

The blood flows in an attempt to fill something. That something is the heart.

12:00 My man, don't mean to be rude, murciélago means "bat" (like the car Lamborghini murciélago) in Spanish, Ulquiorra is the "bat out of hell", or the bat of Hueco Mundo, the land of hollows. His wings look like a bat's, black and leathery instead of feathers (except a few feathers at the base, maybe he is a mix of ravens and bats, animals that are associated with black omens and death, ravens signalling the death of someone and a bad omen (like E.A. Poe's Raven poem and superstitions) and bats are the same plus the vampire myths,) But he's definitely more of a hell bat than bird. 🦇

To me, Yammy's transformation is a manifestation of his ability. He gets stronger with greater anger, so changing shape is a way for his body to accommodate his increased power.

I’d always taken Arrancar Ressurection as the equivalent of Shikai, with Ulquiorra being the only Espada to discover his ‘Bankai’

On Klub Outside, Kubo was asked if Grimmjow could learn Segunda Etapa if he trained to do so. Kubo's answer to that question was yes. So this brings a new dimension to what Segunda Etapa actually entails.

I have always thought, after seeing the Secunda Etapa, that they had it wrong about Releases being Bankai, and is actually Shikai.

I think a resurreccion is equivalent to a bankai in power but not in form. In the same way that Yamamoto’s shikai is equivalent (or stronger) to someone like Kensei’s bankai in terms of power, but it IS still his shikai. He still has a stage beyond that. So I’d guess it’s basically an arrancar’s shikai, and Ulquiorra is the only one who achieved arrancar bankai.

I love this idea of Segunda Etapa being an arrancar reverting to a hollowdom far beyond that of their original days as standard hollows. I wish Kubo dove further into these ideas. It feels like he’s always developing fascinating concepts only to leave them lightly explored.

Ulquiorra Ciffer is a kind of antagonist for a specific section of the story that drives the protagonist to the absolute edge of despair only to be taken out in the most brutal way. Other examples I could bring up are Mahito, Neferpitou and old man Piccolo.

The fact that he kept it hidden from Aizen makes it and him all the more notable. He nearly got the better of Ichigo and in the end it would be a beast taking on another. Still as tragic as it is at least he learned of the heart in his last moments, Orihime not expressing fear and showing sorrowful empathy made it all the more meaningful. A moment of humanity for both in an otherwise nightmarish situation.

I don't think you caught the joke you accidentally made Tommo. His first release is just a "fraccion" of his power.

I think it's funny that the Arrancar know more about their Zanpakuto than the Shinigami do

Edit: Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Kubo say that Grimmjow could also untain a second release if he trained hard enough

Part of me does wonder if it is as simple as Shikai to Bankai.

Given that Arrancar were extremely rare prior to Aizen its completely reasonable to assume that those who compare Ressurećion to Bankai simply didn't know enough about it and only meant in terms of power and not function.

My personal theory is that he changed his Reshi to become more like an Ancient Hollow like Barragan. In his origin we see he was made from the sands of Hueco Mundo, and now we know the sand is made up of Ancient Hollows that the Soul King killed. Bleach is no stranger to characters being able to change their Reiatsu structure (The entire Askin fight), even regular arrancars Reiatsu structure changes when they release. Ulquiorra's Reishi looks like Barragan. When Uryu was engulfed by Ulquiorra's Reishi, he said that it felt different and not like anything he's felt before, like an ocean was on top of him. It wasn't just huge amount of spiritual pressure, Uryu is smart enough to decipher what Reishi structure it is, and just like the fullbringers this is unknown to him since he's never encountered an Ancient Hollow before. Also Ancient Hollows are much more powerful in Nature which is why the Reio had to kill them off. To me this explanation has always made the most sense, and why no one else has ever gotten a "second release", b/c they can't. They aren't and Ancient Hollow nor do they have parts of them like Ulquiorra. Also I think people under power Barragan b/c they don't understand his fight. Ill agree that's it's underwhelming for the "king" not to face off against Yama, but instead fight two fat guys. Whenever Kubo writes OP villains he usually has them get taken out by their own power (Lille, Barragan, Yhwach in a sense). Barragan power is Absolute, which is broken. Absolute means no one could protect against it unless they're immortal, a direct counter, since immortals can't age. It mimics the "raw power" term Yhwach says when he transfers power, or when Lille shoots through targets w/ his x-axis deleting everything regardless of how much Reiatsu there is

I believe Resurrección is more akin to Shikai, and segunda etapa is the Arrancar's version of Bankai. Urahara is wrong because he's studying such a small population (there are only a handful of Vasto lords, and an even smaller group remove their masks). Like Shikai, Resurrección is a representation of what the Hollow thinks they are, and segunda etapa is a representation of what they actually are.

The way I see the pseudo-second forms from the Fraccion is that they were originally able to do the small scale transformations in their original hollow state too, but it's not their default form