hamliet:

Fried chicken is in store for her. (I’m sorry, I’m sorry, every time I see that autocorrect I have to make a terrible joke.)

But Touka’s arc is definitely not over. To have an arc, one has to have flaws and struggle with them, which Touka does have them and does struggle with. It’s been remarkably consistent throughout :re, and I think it’s a very well written arc. I’ll fight anyone who says she’s useless or doesn’t have an arc.

I think you sum up where I expect her arc to take her quite well: she’ll have to come to terms with her father, reunite with Yoriko, and deal with Kaneki, and yes, I expect her to come to a situation soon wherein she needs to fight. All of these situations notably contain high emotional stakes for Touka. And the struggle we’ve seen from Touka in :re concerns her pain over losing loved ones. Touka loves deeply and unconditionally when she loves someone. It’s her greatest strength. But as a ghoul, she’s always had to live while losing, and she hasn’t yet asked why they need to lose at all in :re. 

Touka expresses after chapter 120′s confrontation in the original TG that her hitting Kaneki is something she deeply regrets, and indicates that she likely blames herself for what would then happen in the Anteiku Raid: 

But a strength of Touka’s is that she never gives up hope. She still believes Kaneki will come back, and he does. She never tries to force him into remembering her, and that’s a good thing and speaks beautifully of Touka’s love. 

But. We know that she suffered during this time too. She believes that it’s better for Kaneki to be without her, but love also speaks its needs, and Touka is not good at directly communicating her needs. Again, this is not a criticism–I’m not saying she should be better, and that this in any way makes her less of a good person. But instead of telling Kaneki he hurt her by staying away for so long, she slams his head into a counter. It’s HUMOR and is not portraying abuse and anyone who says that it is needs to take reading comprehension, but it actually does fit her character’s tendencies to avoid the larger issue. 

An exception is when Touka does a great job in chapter 122 of articulating to Kaneki that she likes him. It’s a bit fumbling, but she wasn’t shy, and that’s a positive step for her character for sure. 

And she chose her child over her friends. That’s good. That’s what no one else in the story has done so far, and that’s why even though I think it’s possible we might get a fakeout scare with the baby pretty soon (like Touka getting wounded in the abdomen), the baby is probably going to be fine. (I hope we don’t get that scare but if we do I’m not going to worry.) But at the same time, she knew Kaneki was following the same path he followed before the Anteiku Raid when he was torn about how to lead, and she didn’t confront him like last time–likely because she does not know her confrontation, for all its flaws of violence, actually worked. Like, Kaneki did decide to return, but it was too late because TG was a tragedy whereas :re is not. Imagine how a loving confrontation from Touka would go. Seriously, that’d be some good shit right there. 

And since then, we’ve gotten a pattern with Touka. Basically, every time she might have to confront someone or something, someone steps in for her. I’m not criticizing her again, because I think her leaving others to fight is the right choice considering that she’s pregnant, and it is clearly not easy for her. But the fact that it’s repeated so frequently within such a short span of chapters is almost certainly deliberate, and Ishida is probably setting up this pattern to warn us of something coming.

Firstly, Yomo (family, he almost died), then the 0 Squad (children, 2 did die), Hinami (basically family, almost died), the Quinxes (Kaneki’s kids). It’s repeated four times in 20 chapters. The common thread in all these is that they’re related to children or family. Thus I’m predicting Touka is going to be forced to fight at some point for her child (family, a child)–for her child’s life, but also for a world in which her half-ghoul child will not be looked down upon for their nature. (I’m really starting to wonder if V is going to show up when she goes to dig him out.) 

Keeping in mind the story’s themes, this is also significant because it’s basically telling Touka she cannot run away from the conflict (again why it might make narrative sense for V to show). Not even that she’s tried to necessarily, but let’s look at Yoshimura. He did much good in his life and Touka parallels him in :re, but he also utterly failed as a father and in the end believed people should pay for their sins and basically at Anteiku wanted to commit suicide to atone. He more or less maintained the status quo, but Touka–his parallel in :re–cannot do that. :re was burned down. And she can’t run from what her husband’s become (and she isn’t trying to because she loves him, and that’s good). But she’s probably going to have to face the dark outside forces that create the birdcage they all live in, which people have, thus far, largely ignored.