Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 2:51:56 GMT -5
So I feel like when I speak to other fans, many express that while Fullbringers were conceptually cool, and as an idea they're fun enough to draw attention from the player-base enough that people play them, I also get the distinct impression that people weren't impressed with the latter part of Bleach.
This is understandable, relate-able, and we all hate when something fails to land.
Additionally, unnecessary shortenings aside, I have had others (even the great Dio himself) that many things went unexplained, felt rushed, or otherwise probably would have needed at least another year to resolve...
That's pretty fuckin' lame too, especially since Jump was looking for any reason to end Bleach ASAP, they never seemed to like the series much.
Ultimately, if Bleach continued to beat out One Piece and Naruto handily enough, Kubo would have likely been able to finish at his leisure. At least that is the impression I got.
Is this possible? Maybe, maybe not. I do know that the story had the elements before the timeskip to keep going on, with unresolved plot points and explanations, but we could have truly upped the storyteling.
And I bet I can present a concept that could be written into something grand...
And I also bet Fullbringers can still remain a thing.
We'll maintain similar plot-beats up until a point, and I'll throw in some call-overs to what Kubo did somewhat through the first arc.
The first thing that needs discussed is how we pick up the first arc of the second part. This isn't Naruto, so we don't need to call it anything new, it's just Bleach. However, if you're that hard for a new tagline, I'd go with something like Bleach: White, or something to that affect. That's because this version of the Bleach story places a greater emphasis on Quincies than before, and a big theme among their designs is the color of white.
"But MAAAADDD" I hear you saying, while also mocking MasakoX, "We already GOT Quincies in the main series! Why are you introducing them so early! Unsubscribe!!"
Well, dear annoying reader, Quincy are a part of the Bleach lore that were only lightly developed, and loosely alluded to throughout the series, this not only allows for Kubo to develop them more methodically, play with their abilities more than in the original, and give us a reason to become invested in Ichigo further as a character, and the conflict with the Quincy.
And that's where we get The Quincy arc or The Return of The Quincy arc.
Now the arc starts off much like we are familiar with, Ichigo is a depressed loser about the loss of his powers, with the others running off fighting Hollows without him. This causes himself to isolate not only from his friends, but even his family, as Ichigo finds himself unable to relate to even his father, who taught him how to use the technique that would defeat Aizen. Despite the fact that it was his choice, he can't help but resent Isshin for this.
Much like in the original, Ichigo's mother's good luck charm plays a key factor into the story. You see, this charm is a SÅshingu, in this version of the story there is more than one, but they are still exceptionally rare and this one has been passed down the Kurosaki line for centuries. Isshin would have no reason to know this, and since it was disguised as a simple charm, it's rather easy to fool others into believing that it's little better than garbage.
However, Ichigo meets another character, someone who is able to recognize this, though they do not immediately express it. They befriend Ichigo, not being a schoolmate, and in fact living in a different part of town, Ichigo is able to relax a bit more around this person, and relate to him more. They person is easygoing and a fun comedic foil to Ichigo at times, but the twist is that he's a quincy. The Ishidas were the last "pure" line in the old series, but I feel that it'd be fair to assume weaker quincy lines existed, like the Kurosaki one, and the need for all quincy to be "pure" isn't really relevant to Yhwach's revival, it really seemed to be more of a way to get the weird timing down.
At the same time, Ishida is notably more and more absent, even missing school, although the team isn't able to discern why, and their attempts to reach out to Ichigo are coldy rebuffed. He has feelings of resentment towards him for, in a sense, abandoning him to fight Hollows. Rationally Ichigo understands that this isn't accurate, but he's not in a rational place right now, and currently he can only relate to his new friend.
It's then, sometime after he had become friends with this boy, that Ichigo and him are attacked abruptly by a Hollow. Not drawn to Ichigo's somewhat weak soul, but to the boy's. He's a quincy, and is forced to defend himself. Drawing out his quincy powers, he uses some unique type of new quincy weapon (introducing the concept a bit earlier that a "quincy bow" isn't necessarily always manifested as a bow if it doesn't suit the fighter) maybe spiked gauntlets as he tries to fight off the Hollow.
But in a parallel with the first chapter, Ichigo's friend is overwhelmed by the Hollow, due to needing to protect Ichigo and other bystanders from the Hollow. At the climax of the fight, before his friend is about to be dealt a fatal blow, Ichigo lashes out, his fist glowing white (doing a similar sort of effect to his fullbring early on) to annihilate the Hollow with an echo of his old powers.
His friend is mortally wounded, however, and Ichigo needs to go somewhere. Orihime was established as being poor in the past, so she wouldn't have a phone (manga volume between-chapters confirms), Ishida also doesn't own a phone, and it could even be stated that Ichigo's phone was damaged during the fight. At this point, Ichigo's friend instructs him where to go.
A somewhat nearby complex with people there who can help. These are the other quincy, and even Yhwach's base of operations.
The point of introducing him this early is not to establish him as a villain early, but as a mentor to Ichigo. Ichigo would explain what happened, and how he felled the Hollow, with his friend confirming. At this point, they would reveal that they're a group of spiritually-awares, with Ishida entering some time in, revealing further that these are Quincy.
Yhwach explains what may have gone on, and that his mother's charm is a quincy bangle, and that his exposure (possibly even gripping it when he attacked the Hollow) to the artifact is what briefly returned to him his quincy powers.
At this point anthology chapters may be occasionally spliced in touching on Masaki's backstory, going back to childhood, watching her grow as over the arc we see Ichigo learning the same, or similar, techniques with his powers, though at an accelerated rate.
We see a return to form of the first arc, with Ichigo and his new quincy friends (who we develop and reveal their powers in a similar manner to the original team kurosaki) interact with each other, fighting Hollows, and Ichigo being taught how to more reliably access his powers.
The Hollows they fight are hardly push-overs, heck we will probably see many of Ichigo's new friends become Sternritter later on, with many of these Hollows being Adjuchas and Arrancar. At points they may even return to Hueco Mundo on missions SPECIFICALLY to take out high-threat Hollows. We don't know that the wandereich even operates out of Hueco Mundo initially, in fact. What makes this arc a challenge for Ichigo in fights is that while he has powers like he used to, he can only manage them in brief bursts. Be it that they put too great a strain on his mortal form, or more akin to trying to run a gameboy on low batteries, you can only get it in brief flashes, and definitely not for long enough to get into the game. Ichigo doesn't have his real powers, only echoes.
As the arc draws on, Ichigo can focus and use his powers for even longer, with even his white Quincy Reiatsu being able to focus into the form of a blade much like Zangetsu.
Eventually, it gets to be where Ichigo is able to keep the blade formed for nearly an entire fight, that Yhwach reveals that he's ready to take the next step into becoming a true Quincy. Yhwach touches Ichigo, something that has yet to happen in all of these chapters, despite the fact that Ichigo begins to see something in Yhwach similar to being a surrogate father and mentor, and a huge surge of power courses through the already-strong Ichigo. We see him in something similar to his original Shinigami raiment, but in more of a muted white, almost to what we'd call grey, with Zangetsu in-hand. The sword appears more like that of White's in Ichigo's world, though, and following this immediately, we get the chapters concerning Ichigo's mom, White, and her ultimate fate of losing her powers.
When we return to Ichigo, the young man is pulled into the sword's world again, reunited with Zangetsu (the quincy and therefor "pure" manifestation of his spiritual powers), who tearfully explains that he is the will of his mother. And while he did teach Ichigo how to harness "his" powers (referring to White aka Shinigami Zangetsu's) power, he had never loaned Ichigo his true powers because Ichigo HAD no Quincy powers. This Zangetsu was not only his mother's will, Ichigo's true power, but also a piece of Yhwach. At this point, every few chapters or so, we visit some of Yhwach's story, as we experience a "final duel" of sorts between Ichigo and Zangetsu to see if he is truly worthy of his quincy powers now, Zangetsu understanding that using his powers in this fashion would endanger Ichigo in a way he had never BEEN endangered before.
The duel is hard, tearful, and reveals who Yhwach really is in the flashback chapters (told in reverse order though, possibly showcasing some of the cullings of the Quincy by the Shinigami, starting with Yhwach's defeat). But ultimately Ichigo is triumphant.
Upon his return, and learning that this function seems to be unique to Ichigo's "bow" his training steps up, as we get a training arc with Yhwach (who we might not even know by this name, he could have been using a loose translation of his A name for some time, or even just the german word FOR Almighty) to begin to get a grip on his Quincy powers. Much like in previous arcs, we see Ichigo grow rapidly, but we also see them frequently going on missions to Hueco Mundo now, to fight powerful Hollows, and even some visoreds that seem to have been appearing for unexplained reasons (These are Quincy experiments to see if they can repurpose this type of hollowfication for their own uses).
At this point, we start getting Shinigami stories told as well, with Rukia and The Gotei 13 trying to deal with recent bursts of Hollow activity (later revealed to be the actions of The Wondereich and Yhwach to attempt to Hollowfy Shinigami, or create stronger Hollows to attempt to absorb power from) with some concerning reports of growing spiritual awareness in Karakura.
This arc can become a bit messy, but ultimately we cut between telling Ichigo's story, Rukia's story, and probably the occasional chapter devoted to a mini-arc with Chaud, and Orihime, exploring the origins of their powers and growing stronger as well.
This is The First Blood Arc
It eventually comes to the point that Ichigo becomes hesitant about what's going on for the first time, he has been somewhat convinced of the Quincy ideaology by Yhwach, and his kindness, return of Ichigo's power, and ability to make him closer than ever to his mother. But he knows what happens when Quincy kill Hollows, those souls aren't reincarnated (unless this becomes a unique function of Ichigo's bow, and Hollows are only killed by others in extreme situations/emergencies).
However, they are then attacked brazenly by a Shinigami strike-force, who realize that this is all Quincy activity. Starting a number of encounters and skirmishes that ultimately bring Ichigo and Rukia face-to-face.
This is the prelude to the thousand-year-blood-war arc. The battles rage on, are intense, and even probably expand to include the rest of team Kurosaki, not just Uryu (who again, we probably see more development with and possibly becoming a better friend to Ichigo than original canon, but still a rival, moreso than their dads) and Ichigo, fighting those that they once called allies.
Ichigo's and Rukia's duel is especially heart-wrenching. Rukia, now a Lieutenant, is able to cut down many Quincy with ease, possibly even a weaker member of Ichigo's new friend group, compelled by duty, while Ichigo likely struggles with a rematch (Renji? Maybe. Kenpachi? Probably not) before being forced to fight Rukia while injured.
Despite his own significant growth in power, due to using his true Quincy powers, the duel is largely one-sided, with Rukia's kido, use of her ice-type zanpakuto, and just generally better understanding of strategy in combat to defeat Ichigo.
Instead of killing him, however, as even those who observe the fight notice that it would possibly be a dead-lock if Ichigo wasn't fighting injured, it seems that Rukia is about to cut off his head, before tearfully declaring that she'd never forgive him, and instead hacks his Shinigami badge in twain.
This brings about something nobody would expect, however.
The badge, in this canon, still largely serves the purpose that it once had. Absorbing and controlling Ichigo's reiatsu, and analyzing it, while also keeping his Shinigami powers in-check. But this is not information that Rukia was privy to, and in destroying the badge, a sudden explosion of energy occurs that is focused on Ichigo. A burst of Black-and-red energy envelopes everyone, as the area is brought into Ichigo's Zanpakuto domain, with white waiting there, this time more distinctly hollowfied than ever before.
White explains that he had been hiding his most dark and Hollow-like powers inside of the badge since Ichigo had gotten it, in-part due to his "weaker Shinigami sword instincts" wanting to protect Ichigo from permanently changing into a Hollow, but also to consolidate the power if such an event as this were to ever occur. Ichigo, Rukia, and possibly some of his new crew, must fight what is essentially Ichigo at the end of the Fake Karakura Town arc, but a Hollow variant.
Again, equally hard-fought and probably with some talk no jutsu similar to old conversations had, but Ichigo has none of it, saying that White's said these sorts of things before, and he would never let the Hollow part of his powers take control again. A couple of endings could go to this fight, one including Ichigo striking down White one last time, absorbing the spark of his Shinigami powers once more back into his blade, and himself, or doing a Goku and Piccolo vs. Radditz, and holding the Hollow back while Rukia is forced to stab the both of them, restarting the process that had once granted Ichigo Shinigami powers, but the ones that were his, rather than Rukia's this time. I'm honest in that I don't know if I like either of these better, but one runs the risk of being derivative, and corny/leaning too hard on calling back to the first chapter.
At this point, the raid is over, Ichigo is healed, now with both his Shinigami and Quincy powers, but Zangetsu broken. Seeing all of this, Rukia takes Ichigo back to Soul Society to have this explained to Yamamoto, with Ichigo the entire time being regarded coldly, or as a traitor. At this point, we could possibly see some indication that Yhwach is actually evil, possibly through his assaulting Soul Society through an attack on the seiretei, or possibly through killing Shinigami who had already surrendered. Yhwach's true colors have been revealed, and when Ichigo asks why he lied, Yhwach insists that Ichigo had simply never asked.
At this time, we might see Isshin coming in to save the day, and buy them all enough time, possibly being killed or just grievously injured during the duel, regardless with Ichigo believing his father is dead, as some of the captains, Ichigo, Rukia, and other key characters retreat to The Soul King's palace through the actions of Squad 0.
Time works different in the Soul Palace in this canon,a nd many training arcs/repair arcs occur. Ichigo is now given this struggle of not only having to face someone who he saw like a father when he felt Isshin had failed him, but fighting the same man who had probably cut down his ACTUAL father. It's at this time that Ichigo's swords are made separate by the Oetsu, but Ichigo works to make his powers a single entity, rather than simply having them all checkerboarded. Yamamoto explains that if Ichigo keeps them separate, Yhwach may be able to steal them back, but if they're indistinguishable from his Shinigami powers, then he need not worry.
At THIS point, I feel like we get the assault on Soul Palace, the death of Yamamoto, further fleeing, regrouping, and the actual Thousand Year Blood War Arc with modifications.
I didn't make this comprehensive, or go beyond the Thousand Year Blood War Arc (or rather where I'd start it) because it's meant to create a compelling narrative that would have had less drop-off from the Fullbringer arc, but also study a different version of the character dynamics, development, and relationships, that would give Ichigo more of a moral dilemma, the ability to challenge him personally, more than simply martially, while also laying the foundation for the series to complete without as much interruption from gaiden-style stories that don't occur at the same time as something unrelated.
Naturally I encourage being critical of my work, feel free to share your thoughts.
This is understandable, relate-able, and we all hate when something fails to land.
Additionally, unnecessary shortenings aside, I have had others (even the great Dio himself) that many things went unexplained, felt rushed, or otherwise probably would have needed at least another year to resolve...
That's pretty fuckin' lame too, especially since Jump was looking for any reason to end Bleach ASAP, they never seemed to like the series much.
Ultimately, if Bleach continued to beat out One Piece and Naruto handily enough, Kubo would have likely been able to finish at his leisure. At least that is the impression I got.
Is this possible? Maybe, maybe not. I do know that the story had the elements before the timeskip to keep going on, with unresolved plot points and explanations, but we could have truly upped the storyteling.
And I bet I can present a concept that could be written into something grand...
And I also bet Fullbringers can still remain a thing.
We'll maintain similar plot-beats up until a point, and I'll throw in some call-overs to what Kubo did somewhat through the first arc.
The first thing that needs discussed is how we pick up the first arc of the second part. This isn't Naruto, so we don't need to call it anything new, it's just Bleach. However, if you're that hard for a new tagline, I'd go with something like Bleach: White, or something to that affect. That's because this version of the Bleach story places a greater emphasis on Quincies than before, and a big theme among their designs is the color of white.
"But MAAAADDD" I hear you saying, while also mocking MasakoX, "We already GOT Quincies in the main series! Why are you introducing them so early! Unsubscribe!!"
Well, dear annoying reader, Quincy are a part of the Bleach lore that were only lightly developed, and loosely alluded to throughout the series, this not only allows for Kubo to develop them more methodically, play with their abilities more than in the original, and give us a reason to become invested in Ichigo further as a character, and the conflict with the Quincy.
And that's where we get The Quincy arc or The Return of The Quincy arc.
Now the arc starts off much like we are familiar with, Ichigo is a depressed loser about the loss of his powers, with the others running off fighting Hollows without him. This causes himself to isolate not only from his friends, but even his family, as Ichigo finds himself unable to relate to even his father, who taught him how to use the technique that would defeat Aizen. Despite the fact that it was his choice, he can't help but resent Isshin for this.
Much like in the original, Ichigo's mother's good luck charm plays a key factor into the story. You see, this charm is a SÅshingu, in this version of the story there is more than one, but they are still exceptionally rare and this one has been passed down the Kurosaki line for centuries. Isshin would have no reason to know this, and since it was disguised as a simple charm, it's rather easy to fool others into believing that it's little better than garbage.
However, Ichigo meets another character, someone who is able to recognize this, though they do not immediately express it. They befriend Ichigo, not being a schoolmate, and in fact living in a different part of town, Ichigo is able to relax a bit more around this person, and relate to him more. They person is easygoing and a fun comedic foil to Ichigo at times, but the twist is that he's a quincy. The Ishidas were the last "pure" line in the old series, but I feel that it'd be fair to assume weaker quincy lines existed, like the Kurosaki one, and the need for all quincy to be "pure" isn't really relevant to Yhwach's revival, it really seemed to be more of a way to get the weird timing down.
At the same time, Ishida is notably more and more absent, even missing school, although the team isn't able to discern why, and their attempts to reach out to Ichigo are coldy rebuffed. He has feelings of resentment towards him for, in a sense, abandoning him to fight Hollows. Rationally Ichigo understands that this isn't accurate, but he's not in a rational place right now, and currently he can only relate to his new friend.
It's then, sometime after he had become friends with this boy, that Ichigo and him are attacked abruptly by a Hollow. Not drawn to Ichigo's somewhat weak soul, but to the boy's. He's a quincy, and is forced to defend himself. Drawing out his quincy powers, he uses some unique type of new quincy weapon (introducing the concept a bit earlier that a "quincy bow" isn't necessarily always manifested as a bow if it doesn't suit the fighter) maybe spiked gauntlets as he tries to fight off the Hollow.
But in a parallel with the first chapter, Ichigo's friend is overwhelmed by the Hollow, due to needing to protect Ichigo and other bystanders from the Hollow. At the climax of the fight, before his friend is about to be dealt a fatal blow, Ichigo lashes out, his fist glowing white (doing a similar sort of effect to his fullbring early on) to annihilate the Hollow with an echo of his old powers.
His friend is mortally wounded, however, and Ichigo needs to go somewhere. Orihime was established as being poor in the past, so she wouldn't have a phone (manga volume between-chapters confirms), Ishida also doesn't own a phone, and it could even be stated that Ichigo's phone was damaged during the fight. At this point, Ichigo's friend instructs him where to go.
A somewhat nearby complex with people there who can help. These are the other quincy, and even Yhwach's base of operations.
The point of introducing him this early is not to establish him as a villain early, but as a mentor to Ichigo. Ichigo would explain what happened, and how he felled the Hollow, with his friend confirming. At this point, they would reveal that they're a group of spiritually-awares, with Ishida entering some time in, revealing further that these are Quincy.
Yhwach explains what may have gone on, and that his mother's charm is a quincy bangle, and that his exposure (possibly even gripping it when he attacked the Hollow) to the artifact is what briefly returned to him his quincy powers.
At this point anthology chapters may be occasionally spliced in touching on Masaki's backstory, going back to childhood, watching her grow as over the arc we see Ichigo learning the same, or similar, techniques with his powers, though at an accelerated rate.
We see a return to form of the first arc, with Ichigo and his new quincy friends (who we develop and reveal their powers in a similar manner to the original team kurosaki) interact with each other, fighting Hollows, and Ichigo being taught how to more reliably access his powers.
The Hollows they fight are hardly push-overs, heck we will probably see many of Ichigo's new friends become Sternritter later on, with many of these Hollows being Adjuchas and Arrancar. At points they may even return to Hueco Mundo on missions SPECIFICALLY to take out high-threat Hollows. We don't know that the wandereich even operates out of Hueco Mundo initially, in fact. What makes this arc a challenge for Ichigo in fights is that while he has powers like he used to, he can only manage them in brief bursts. Be it that they put too great a strain on his mortal form, or more akin to trying to run a gameboy on low batteries, you can only get it in brief flashes, and definitely not for long enough to get into the game. Ichigo doesn't have his real powers, only echoes.
As the arc draws on, Ichigo can focus and use his powers for even longer, with even his white Quincy Reiatsu being able to focus into the form of a blade much like Zangetsu.
Eventually, it gets to be where Ichigo is able to keep the blade formed for nearly an entire fight, that Yhwach reveals that he's ready to take the next step into becoming a true Quincy. Yhwach touches Ichigo, something that has yet to happen in all of these chapters, despite the fact that Ichigo begins to see something in Yhwach similar to being a surrogate father and mentor, and a huge surge of power courses through the already-strong Ichigo. We see him in something similar to his original Shinigami raiment, but in more of a muted white, almost to what we'd call grey, with Zangetsu in-hand. The sword appears more like that of White's in Ichigo's world, though, and following this immediately, we get the chapters concerning Ichigo's mom, White, and her ultimate fate of losing her powers.
When we return to Ichigo, the young man is pulled into the sword's world again, reunited with Zangetsu (the quincy and therefor "pure" manifestation of his spiritual powers), who tearfully explains that he is the will of his mother. And while he did teach Ichigo how to harness "his" powers (referring to White aka Shinigami Zangetsu's) power, he had never loaned Ichigo his true powers because Ichigo HAD no Quincy powers. This Zangetsu was not only his mother's will, Ichigo's true power, but also a piece of Yhwach. At this point, every few chapters or so, we visit some of Yhwach's story, as we experience a "final duel" of sorts between Ichigo and Zangetsu to see if he is truly worthy of his quincy powers now, Zangetsu understanding that using his powers in this fashion would endanger Ichigo in a way he had never BEEN endangered before.
The duel is hard, tearful, and reveals who Yhwach really is in the flashback chapters (told in reverse order though, possibly showcasing some of the cullings of the Quincy by the Shinigami, starting with Yhwach's defeat). But ultimately Ichigo is triumphant.
Upon his return, and learning that this function seems to be unique to Ichigo's "bow" his training steps up, as we get a training arc with Yhwach (who we might not even know by this name, he could have been using a loose translation of his A name for some time, or even just the german word FOR Almighty) to begin to get a grip on his Quincy powers. Much like in previous arcs, we see Ichigo grow rapidly, but we also see them frequently going on missions to Hueco Mundo now, to fight powerful Hollows, and even some visoreds that seem to have been appearing for unexplained reasons (These are Quincy experiments to see if they can repurpose this type of hollowfication for their own uses).
At this point, we start getting Shinigami stories told as well, with Rukia and The Gotei 13 trying to deal with recent bursts of Hollow activity (later revealed to be the actions of The Wondereich and Yhwach to attempt to Hollowfy Shinigami, or create stronger Hollows to attempt to absorb power from) with some concerning reports of growing spiritual awareness in Karakura.
This arc can become a bit messy, but ultimately we cut between telling Ichigo's story, Rukia's story, and probably the occasional chapter devoted to a mini-arc with Chaud, and Orihime, exploring the origins of their powers and growing stronger as well.
This is The First Blood Arc
It eventually comes to the point that Ichigo becomes hesitant about what's going on for the first time, he has been somewhat convinced of the Quincy ideaology by Yhwach, and his kindness, return of Ichigo's power, and ability to make him closer than ever to his mother. But he knows what happens when Quincy kill Hollows, those souls aren't reincarnated (unless this becomes a unique function of Ichigo's bow, and Hollows are only killed by others in extreme situations/emergencies).
However, they are then attacked brazenly by a Shinigami strike-force, who realize that this is all Quincy activity. Starting a number of encounters and skirmishes that ultimately bring Ichigo and Rukia face-to-face.
This is the prelude to the thousand-year-blood-war arc. The battles rage on, are intense, and even probably expand to include the rest of team Kurosaki, not just Uryu (who again, we probably see more development with and possibly becoming a better friend to Ichigo than original canon, but still a rival, moreso than their dads) and Ichigo, fighting those that they once called allies.
Ichigo's and Rukia's duel is especially heart-wrenching. Rukia, now a Lieutenant, is able to cut down many Quincy with ease, possibly even a weaker member of Ichigo's new friend group, compelled by duty, while Ichigo likely struggles with a rematch (Renji? Maybe. Kenpachi? Probably not) before being forced to fight Rukia while injured.
Despite his own significant growth in power, due to using his true Quincy powers, the duel is largely one-sided, with Rukia's kido, use of her ice-type zanpakuto, and just generally better understanding of strategy in combat to defeat Ichigo.
Instead of killing him, however, as even those who observe the fight notice that it would possibly be a dead-lock if Ichigo wasn't fighting injured, it seems that Rukia is about to cut off his head, before tearfully declaring that she'd never forgive him, and instead hacks his Shinigami badge in twain.
This brings about something nobody would expect, however.
The badge, in this canon, still largely serves the purpose that it once had. Absorbing and controlling Ichigo's reiatsu, and analyzing it, while also keeping his Shinigami powers in-check. But this is not information that Rukia was privy to, and in destroying the badge, a sudden explosion of energy occurs that is focused on Ichigo. A burst of Black-and-red energy envelopes everyone, as the area is brought into Ichigo's Zanpakuto domain, with white waiting there, this time more distinctly hollowfied than ever before.
White explains that he had been hiding his most dark and Hollow-like powers inside of the badge since Ichigo had gotten it, in-part due to his "weaker Shinigami sword instincts" wanting to protect Ichigo from permanently changing into a Hollow, but also to consolidate the power if such an event as this were to ever occur. Ichigo, Rukia, and possibly some of his new crew, must fight what is essentially Ichigo at the end of the Fake Karakura Town arc, but a Hollow variant.
Again, equally hard-fought and probably with some talk no jutsu similar to old conversations had, but Ichigo has none of it, saying that White's said these sorts of things before, and he would never let the Hollow part of his powers take control again. A couple of endings could go to this fight, one including Ichigo striking down White one last time, absorbing the spark of his Shinigami powers once more back into his blade, and himself, or doing a Goku and Piccolo vs. Radditz, and holding the Hollow back while Rukia is forced to stab the both of them, restarting the process that had once granted Ichigo Shinigami powers, but the ones that were his, rather than Rukia's this time. I'm honest in that I don't know if I like either of these better, but one runs the risk of being derivative, and corny/leaning too hard on calling back to the first chapter.
At this point, the raid is over, Ichigo is healed, now with both his Shinigami and Quincy powers, but Zangetsu broken. Seeing all of this, Rukia takes Ichigo back to Soul Society to have this explained to Yamamoto, with Ichigo the entire time being regarded coldly, or as a traitor. At this point, we could possibly see some indication that Yhwach is actually evil, possibly through his assaulting Soul Society through an attack on the seiretei, or possibly through killing Shinigami who had already surrendered. Yhwach's true colors have been revealed, and when Ichigo asks why he lied, Yhwach insists that Ichigo had simply never asked.
At this time, we might see Isshin coming in to save the day, and buy them all enough time, possibly being killed or just grievously injured during the duel, regardless with Ichigo believing his father is dead, as some of the captains, Ichigo, Rukia, and other key characters retreat to The Soul King's palace through the actions of Squad 0.
Time works different in the Soul Palace in this canon,a nd many training arcs/repair arcs occur. Ichigo is now given this struggle of not only having to face someone who he saw like a father when he felt Isshin had failed him, but fighting the same man who had probably cut down his ACTUAL father. It's at this time that Ichigo's swords are made separate by the Oetsu, but Ichigo works to make his powers a single entity, rather than simply having them all checkerboarded. Yamamoto explains that if Ichigo keeps them separate, Yhwach may be able to steal them back, but if they're indistinguishable from his Shinigami powers, then he need not worry.
At THIS point, I feel like we get the assault on Soul Palace, the death of Yamamoto, further fleeing, regrouping, and the actual Thousand Year Blood War Arc with modifications.
I didn't make this comprehensive, or go beyond the Thousand Year Blood War Arc (or rather where I'd start it) because it's meant to create a compelling narrative that would have had less drop-off from the Fullbringer arc, but also study a different version of the character dynamics, development, and relationships, that would give Ichigo more of a moral dilemma, the ability to challenge him personally, more than simply martially, while also laying the foundation for the series to complete without as much interruption from gaiden-style stories that don't occur at the same time as something unrelated.
Naturally I encourage being critical of my work, feel free to share your thoughts.