User blog comment:Blankslate/My top ten favorite Espada releases/@comment-3030647-20121223033818/@comment-1493741-20121223034413

I haven't seen these theories personally but I haven't seen/read anything that ever implied Ulquiorra was not a Hollow or that he was a Vasto Lorde straight off, the closest thing I could think of from what I know of Hollows in general would be that Ulquiorra existed before he was a Vasto Lorde, Ulquiorra was just not the dominant mind in control at the time, after all an Adjuchas is what happens when one of the hundreds of Hollows in a Gillian takes control and continues the process of eating more Hollows. One could assume the minds within the Gillian and Adjuchas don't vanish, they simply get suppressed and could, with enough effort and a good opening, take control. Mayhaps Ulquiorra did such when his body became a Vasto Lorde and he awoke lacking the experiences or the feelings of the body he now controlled. Thus he was empty.

'Sides he has a Hollow hole, he has mask fragments, his Resurreccion looks like that omake I've seen of his Vasto Lorde form, there's nothing to say he is not an Arrancar. But, meh, doesn't make the Segunda Etapa any less pointless at the end of the day.