I've been seeing a lot of comments about Ichigo never attaining shikai or bankai on youtube and many other sites so I want to at least make a post here expressing my view on this. I believe that his shikai/bankai are the legit/real deal but are "sealed forms" of his true shikai/bankai based off of the portion of his power that Ol' Man Zangetsu couldn't seal/suppress.
Another thing I want to address is the young man who fused with ichigo's hollow whilst Ichigo was trying to attain the final getsuga tenshou. This could be wrong and he could really have been what he said he was but I believe he fed Ichigo a lie just like ol man zangetsu did even if the both of them did lie only once. Ol' man zangetsu lied about being his zanpakutou but I believe the young man may have lied about being ol man zangetsu in his bankai form. I believe the young man represented Ichigo's Shinigami powers AT THE TIME (destroyed using final getsuga tenshou on aizen). This would explain why his inner hollow was capable of fusing or becoming one with the young man in his inner world and wasn't suppressed by the quincy powers we now know to be within ol' man zangetsu. If this is all true then chapter 541 also explains why the young man had to cover for ol man zangetsu and lie to Ichigo and that was because Ichigo believed ol' man zangetsu was the manifestation of his shinigami powers which we now know to be false.
In summary I believe:
1. Shirosaki is the manifestation of Ichigo's Hollow powers (duh lol)
2. The Young Man was the manifestation of Ichigo's Shinigami Powers before he was obliterated during the release of final getsuga tenshou.
3. Ol' Man Zangetsu is the manifestion of the Quincy Powers flowing in Ichigo's blood.
For the sake of keeping this post as short as possible I won't go into the zanpakutou arc involving "Muramasa" but I have completely reasoned out all the "potential" plot holes and the arc is fully capable of being explained by kubo if he feels he needs to. If you put some serious thought into it you can easily fill those potential plot holes with your own logic and reasoning skills. So again, not gonna go into it and explain it here.
There are some other areas in the anime that may have had "potential plot holes" but I have already thoroughly dealt with those via logic and reasoning, I just can't remember what they are right now :| I first thought this all through when 540 came out. Anyway, my point is that Kubo has maintained an intact story line. Hopefully this is an accurate explanation of everything pertaining to the last 2 chapters. Time to get a drink :D
Edit: I've also read something about "Whitey" fusing with Ol' Man Zangetsu so I'll address this as well. This is in regards to Ichigo's fight with Kenpachi, Whitey claimed that someday Ichigo's power would be his (now we know he meant it would no longer belong to Ol' Man Zangetsu) and dissolved into Ol' Man Zangetsu. This was Not Fusion like what we saw with Whitey and the Young Man (shinigami powers), this was absorption or suppression. Whitey would never try to fuse with Ol' Man Zangetsu, it would probably be impossible and if it was possible then it would probably be a very violent reaction resulting in Whitey being completely destroyed. Quincy and Hollow currently don't mix, when Quincy's destroy Hollows they aren't sent to Soul Society. When Ol' Man Zangetsu absorbed/suppressed Whitey he showed no signs of having gone through a fusion like an appearance change.
