Basically all the screen time with Elrond. I feel like a lot could have been avoided if people just listened to him. In my defense Aragorn did do the thing…later.
Bonus:
Elrond: So you know that ring you just cut off Sauron’s finger? You should probably throw it in the volcano, which is right here.
Isildur: How about no.
…
Elrond: Ok look that’s definitely Sauron and he’s definitely coming back, let’s go do something about it.
Saruman: Or you could take Galadriel home and let me handle this.
…
Elrond: Welcome to the Council of Elrond.
Elrond: EVERYONE SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP
Elrond: WE ARE DEFINITELY DOING THE DESTROYING THE RING THING THIS TIME
Elrond: NO EXCUSES
I JUST TALKED TO SOME FRIENDS ABOUT THIS YESTERDAY AHSJAJDB ok omg happy touken headcanons!
🐇 I think the shit kaneki’s submerged in right now is going to turn his hair black. Of course touka doesn’t even notice when he stumbles back into the hospital, covered in muck and blood and barely standing. She runs up to him and forgoing the reservation they have about pda, kisses him like her life depends on it.
🐇 Kaneki’s identity is protected by the new CoC, or “commission of coexistence.” Saving the city he destroyed didn’t earn him merit, but rather, served as a penance. He and touka quietly disappear into the fabric of life in Tokyo . They open a small cafe and kaneki tells people rude enough to ask that the marks under his eyes are tattoos. He cuts his hair again-didn’t like the way it felt on his neck. Touka’s both happy and sad about it-he almost looks like he did when they first met.
🐇 the new cafe is a hit. Touka’s coffee is popular-“it’s the one run by the pregnant lady, in the 20th Ward,” people say. “They’re both ghouls. The couple that run it, I mean. Really sweet people, though.”
🐇kaneki is still shit at making coffee, but he is a good cook, so he makes all the pastries and deserts and delicious sandwiches there, while touka becomes a coffee artist of sorts. She’s recently designed a spider Lilly latte pattern. Kaneki is so proud.
🐇 Kaneki and Touka sit down one night in their cafe and talk about names for their kid. Kaneki throws a bunch out. Eventually, they pick what they want and cut it out of the page they wrote it on, and keep it in an envelope. A secret, just for them.
🐇 Touka and Kaneki flirt all day when they work together and it drives nishiki INSANE if he’s around when it happens.
🐇 I really honestly see kaneki as the type to be a house husband 😂 when their baby is born (a daughter), touka goes back to work at the cafe (“I need to move my fucking body or I’ll go insane”) and kaneki stays at home and takes care of the baby until she comes back. He’s so happy-his life is so calm now, after almost half a decade of suffering and strain. He loves to sit with the baby on his lap on their deck (their apartment is above their cafe, of course.) and read stories to his child. He even tells some-a magical story about a ghoul king and a the queen of rabbits, who work together to slay a dangerous dragon. There’s also the hamburger spirt-a mischievous trickster with a shock of blonde hair. The inspiration behind the hamburger spirit is thrilled with his role in this little mythology when he comes over and hears the story being told.
🐇kaneki decides to be an author-when his child goes down for a nap, he sits by their crib with a notebook on his lap and writes a novel styled after his favorite of touka’s coffee blends-one she named simply “The King’s Cup”. “It’s bitter,” she said. “And dark. But goddamn, the sweetness at the end just makes it.” He couldn’t agree more.
Forgive me for screenshotting, anon, but I’m on mobile and I’d like to tag this post (and forgive me for taking so long!)
Firstly, I don’t have a lot to say about Cloudia and I refuse to make any definite judgements on her until she actually turns up and is awarded a canon appearance and personality, so I actually didn’t have any intention of making a post about her at all BUT
I do have some thoughts on her, which are mostly me making guesses/suppositions and not serious theories. In any case:
Women were not allowed to keep any property they had inherited once they married: any and all possessions and income would become the property of their husband
Peerage (noble title) could be awarded to men or women, and then the patent attached to that specific family line dictated who could or could not inherit. Generally, only direct male heirs were allowed (example: the son of the earl). In some patents, the title could skip a generation if the earl or whoever only had female children, and be awarded to the son of the eldest daughter. And in very few patents (generally this was for barons/baronesses), or if the monarchy/government allowed it as an exception, the eldest daughter could inherit if no male heir was available. (you can read more [here])
I would hazard a guess that the Phantomhive line falls into the third category, or the Phantomhive patent was corrected to allow a female heir when Cloudia turned out to not have any brothers (whether or not she had younger sisters, however, is anyone’s guess)
While if Cloudia married her possessions would default to her husband… any peerage she held in her own right would not. A good living example of this is the Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, whose husband was only ever awarded a knighthood, and cannot become the baron himself.
Which means that Cedric could not have become the Earl of Phantomhive, no matter if he married Cloudia or not. Further, women were not technically required by law to take on their husband’s surname, even though they became his “property” upon marriage… There were also women who, even when the law attempted to force them to use/take their husband’s name, simply refused to, such as Lucy Stone, married to a Mr Blackwell. She and he agreed to incredibly modern marriage terms, and were married in their own home to a set of vows which explicitly stated that Blackwell would not enforce his “rights” as a husband on her, and they would both remain perfectly equal and independent despite their marriage. While Lucy and her husband were American, and married during the 1850s, I believe if Cedric were inclined to allow Cloudia to keep her surname, and keeping in mind that Cloudia was the Countess of Phantomhive, it’s possible they may have had the same sort of arrangement.
The fact that Cloudia brought a man into the Phantomhive household, rather than marrying out of it, and may have even kept her surname in marriage, could actually account for Francis’ feeling like her own marrying out of the Phantomhives gives her lesser say in things. Having such an exceptional and strong-willed mother, who carried the Phantomhive mantle to the next generation with minimum masculine interference, would certainly explain it.
On the other hand, Queen Victoria was a domestic icon, she was seen as the ultimate mother, devoted to her husband entirely. That is, Cloudia and Victoria would have disagreed very much on a social level. Cloudia was a revolutionary, whether she married Cedric and refused to take his surnanet or didn’t marry him and had children out of wedlock, while Victoria is the face of traditional, conservative society.
Now… What with Cloudia having been so exceptional, and having been just 9 years old at the “fifty years ago” point when UT was last called a reaper and Othello was last in the human realm, I’d like to point to an often mentioned but so far never utilised mechanic in the Kuro universe: an exceptional soul, who will create much change, may be spared death and have their mortal lives extended. Perhaps Cloudia was one such individual, and after the age of 9 was “living on borrowed time” and sort of “marked by death”, so to speak. That said, I’m not really sure what a 9 year old could do to prove herself that exceptional, unless it was really a matter of the change her inherited social position might allow her to make. This is just musing. Being “marked by death” in such a way might explain why her descendants can see grim reapers, or might maybe on the slightest chance mayyyybe have meant she could have a child with a reaper.
Anyway, I’m certain Cloudia was exceptional politically, due to her having Tanaka as a servant. Having Tanaka join her staff means she likely had some involvement in early political relations with Japan. Whether she was involved in the opening of Japan, or taking on board a fugitive pre-opening (as Tanaka would have been if he had left while Japan was still closed off from the world), it’s… Something.
As she was important politically, I’d like to also point to the fact that most of the death dates on UT’s lockets are close to some major political event or another, as I explored in [this] post.
I also think she was probably not very nice/kind. If the strictness seen in Francis came from Cedric, then the “evil noble” traits seen in Vincent (and RCiel, and OCiel now he’s been conditioned into it) likely came from Cloudia. So, just saying, but I think she was far from sweet. I may be proven wrong, of course.
With :re ending and Kaneki likely falling asleep inside Dragon for a long period of time before his inevitable reawakening, there’s a few set of characters I’d like to discuss who could potentially have the most pivotal roles in the upcoming epic.
Another important detail, is that Ishida likes to use Poker Suits for symbolic purposes in his manga quite a bit. As a lot of people have noticed, thus far we have King (:re), Jack (Arima Spinoff), and Joker (Suzuya Side Story), but the suits of “Ace and Queen” in specific aren’t present yet and will more than likely be used as titles for the sequel.. probably in some random language.
The first character I’ll be discussing is Rize Kamishiro, who’s name can also mean “Age of the Gods” depending on the kanji used. I admittedly don’t think she’s dead, nor will die in general, at least until her role is fulfilled in Part 3. She has a link with the Queen suite in specific, and alongside that correlates to a few royal figures symbolically.
Hel is a giantess/goddess who rules over the identically-named Hel, the underworld where many of the dead dwell. Her name’s meaning of “Hidden” surely has to do with the underworld and the dead being “hidden” or buried beneath the ground.
Satan is described in the New Testament as the “ruler of the demons” and “the god of this age”. In the Book of Revelation, Satan appears as a Great Red Dragon, who is defeated by Michael the Archangel and cast down from Heaven. He is later bound for one thousand years, but is briefly set free before being ultimately defeated and cast into the Lake of Fire.
Both figures fit her well considering she found underground as the source of the oviduct toxin that converted human into ghoul, they of which originate from Arabian mythology as demons from the underworld.
Secondly she was referred to by Furuta as Dragon who was later beaten by Kaneki who parallels Archangel Michael in this instance and sealed her underground. The symbol on her forehead is also a clear reference to the Leviathan/Satanic Cross that represents fire and brimstone, which is commonly associated with Hell.
Something else I’d like to note are the Anteiku Raid parallels present in this scenario. Back in Part 1, Kaneki was killed by Arima under the sewers of V14 who put his violent, ghoul nature represented by Shironeki who was formed after a tulpa conversation with Rize, to rest. In reality though he spared him, and this led to his human and ghoul personas blending to form Haise, a more balanced persona who Kaneki referred to as “a peaceful dream”.
Now in :re we see Kaneki who is a direct parallel to Arima in this instance, killing Dragon Rize underground and putting her rampant oviduct to rest to reveal a more peaceful, human looking Rize.
As @sentrakk mentioned in this meta recently, there’s a lot of Christianic symbolism at play that correlates with the current story.
The Beast and the False Prophet are cast into the lake of fire while the Dragon is imprisoned in the bottomless pit for 1000 years. The Dragon is freed after 1000 years, tries to deceive all nations in four corners of the Earth and gathers people to fight the God, but is eventually defeated and cast into the lake of fire as well. The wicked dead and all of those who died during the thousand-year reign of Jesus are resurrected and judged. A new Heaven and new Earth replace the old ones and there is no more death or suffering as the old order of things has passed away.
We’re now at the phase where Dragon is symbolically imprisoned underground for 1000 years. After a brief timeskip to represent the Dragon being freed after 1000 years, we’ll see Rize who parallels the Dragon reemerge from her slumber to spark a new set of events, meaning our queen is more than likely going to survive this ordeal and be a central character in Part 3. Perhaps to parallel Haise, she’ll return with a personality reset after awakening. When all of these events are said and done, she may be able to overcome her tragedy and live the normal life that Furuta couldn’t.
The next character is Hideyoshi Nagachika, who doesn’t exactly have a character arc yet and could be explored in depth a lot more in Part 3. Alongside Shuu, Touka, Haise, Rio, and Kaneki himself, he’s a member of the Ace Card suite’s.
In particular, there’s a lot of mystery surrounding Hide’s origins and where exactly he came from. We still have no insight on his backstory, possible relatives, where he came from before befriending Kaneki in school, or what exactly his motivations are in the story right now outside of aiding Kaneki and the CCG.
This also connects with the fact that there’s seemingly a connection between him and the 24th ward, what with the three dot pattern apparent on the cloaks of the children present in an illustration of him. The kanji in his name “Hideyoshi Nagachika” is also a minefield of hints that could mean a multitude of things depending on the usage.
If he does have a connection to the 24th ward or underground in general, it could also explain why the Washuu were after him, because he never gave Amon or Akira a clear explanation as to how he was in their way. It’s possible that he could be a half human who managed to escape from the Sunlit Garden with important information on the Washuu that could have led to their downfall.
And lastly, there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding the events of the sewer incident during the Anteiku Raid and how exactly Hide escaped with his injuries. So all in all another confrontation between the two to clear up that event and their relationship in general is important.
And finally Amon Koutarou, who was rather hidden throughout the course of :re until his recent reappearance. In Part 1 he was essentially the deuteragonist of the story and we often shifted back to his perspective as an investigator while focusing on Kaneki’s journey as a half ghoul. Then when :re came, Haise took on the investigator role while Amon lurked through the shadows as a half ghoul, but we hardly had any shift back to his character or what he was up to.
If patterns hold true, in Part 3 we may see the focus shift back to Amon as the protagonist while Kaneki spends some time underground. You’re probably wondering, “what would Amon even do in the story?”, but there’s quite a lot of points revolving around his character that has yet to come full circle. Big thanks to @amon15 for pointing out some interesting lore involving Amon’s arc.
The first point of development for Amon should be breaking away from the CCG system, because we all know “investigators fighting for peace” is bullshit, especially since there’s a lot of shady things circulating around the organization.
It’s also possible that Amon knew the Washuu were up to no good but chose not to act on it, considering Hide freed him from Aogiri and they remained in contact afterwards, and he’s also connected to Marude who was doing research of his own on Rueshima at the same time Amon stormed the island to save Akira and Seidou.
As Kaiko also enlightened us on a few chapters back, the Washuu were consuming the bodies of dead investigators. If this happens to include Mado’s body as well, it should act as a big catalyst for him to abandon the CCG and make his own path.
This intertwines with the fact that the Quinx as well need to break away from the CCG, because as Saiko mentioned in Chapter 132, the CCG is a slaughterhouse that no one should be a part of, and Shirazu’s body as well is still missing.
Considering she especially out of the 3 first gen Quinx has yet to receive a proper character arc, joining up with Amon and becoming a “terrorist” should be a positive change of growth for her. This is also ironic considering Saiko and Urie on a few occasions have confronted Amon, and foil him in many regards. Urie’s father Mikoto could have also possibly had his body consumed as well, which further adds to the fact that he needs to abandon his work ethic there.
Another important issue Amon has yet to reconcile within himself, is his ghoulhood. He still sees himself as more of an investigator fighting for justice rather than a ghoul, evident by the fact that he continues to use his quinque while fighting around his loves ones instead of his Kagune. To come to a proper acceptance of himself and his abilities, he needs to rely on both Takizawa and Akira to unify his human and ghoul halves properly.
Akira to understand and accept him regardless to show that he’s still capable of being loved as a ghoul, and Takizawa to show him how to properly make use his ghoul abilities and get adjusted to his body. In return this will lead to Takizawa being accepted by Akira and realizing the more human side of his nature that he’s been rejecting since he consumed his parents.
Now on to the next point, the murder mystery revolving around Kurona’s father Nanao Yasuhisa who was the president of the Sphinx corporation, had a secret lab below his mansion, and provided the CCG with ghouls blended in bottles for some unknown purpose. However, he tried to leak information about the cruelty taking place on ghouls in the research and was likely silenced in the process.
After being informed of Sphinx and the shady dealings of the CCG by Eto in Chapter 115 like ghouls being blended in bottles to form an RC cell liquid, Amon pondered on what to do about the case but never got to the bottom of solving it since he had no one to report the situation to since it directly involved the CCG as a whole.
Since the Washuu and V are relatively taken care of at this point and there’s nothing getting in the way of Amon investigating the murder surrounding Kurona’s parents, he should reunite with her and bring closure to this case once and for good, for the sake of her, and her parents. He does kind of need to repay her for saving him from the lab, and she needs her character arc completed, so this would be a great way to do so.
It’s also possible that the Sunlit Garden is tied into this as well since half humans from V like Kaiko who were born there needed a way to halt their aging, and an influx of RC cell liquid to reverse telomere could have been a temporary solution. We don’t know much about the Garden as a whole either, so this could lead to exposition on the facility and the events taking place there.
And now on to probably the most important aspect of his character arc that didn’t exactly go anywhere yet despite there being various foreshadowing and reference, the kingly symbolism surrounding his character.
There’s many royal figures correlating to Amon that you can read about here, but the figure Ishida likes to parallel Amon to the most, is Odin, the One Eyed Ruler of the Norse Gods. Some quick similarities between them would be..
~ In Old Norse texts, Odin is depicted as one-eyed and long-bearded, frequently wielding a spear named Gungnir, and wearing a cloak (Amon hiding his ghoul eye, and the quinque he often uses, Doujima)
~ Odin is often the favorite god and ally of outlaws, those who had been banished from society for especially vicious crimes, as well. (Amon working alongside Hakitori and Takizawa, CCG outlaws who are outcasts of society)
~ He maintains close connections with the berserkers and other Aesir warriors whose fighting techniques and associated spiritual practices center around achieving a state of unification with certain ferocious totem animals (Amon in his berserk Owl Kakuja)
~ He’s the ruler of the Aesir tribe of deities, yet he often wanders far from their dominion, Asgard, on long, solitary journeys through the galaxy on personal quests (Amon wandering through Tokyo alone as Floppy earlier in the series)
WithKaneki taking a rest and the ghouls more than likely needing a new ruler, it’s possible that Amon will take up the mantle of king in the meantime to establish order. After all, like Kaneki defeating Arima and becoming the OEK, Amon killed Donato, the Crown Clown and should inherit some role of leadership soon.
And to continue the Norse mythology surrounding Amon and his connection to Odin, his father Donato also happens to be based on the God of Knowledge, Mimir. While imprisoned in Cochlea, doves like Haise often came to him as a source of knowledge to aid them on their investigations.
Mímir or Mim is a figure in Norse mythology renowned for his knowledge and wisdom who is beheaded during the Æsir-Vanir War. Afterward, the god Odin carries around Mímir’s head and it recites secret knowledge and counsel to him.
During the Dragon arc which is a lot like the Aesir Vanir War wherein two groups of deities raged war against each other that led to the creation of a unified pantheon similar to the Alliance, Donato like Mimir is beheaded and gives us knowledge of his motives.
If Ishida continues to follow the lore, like Odin we’ll probably see Amon carrying around Donato’s head as a source of council, or rather a symbol of sorts. From the context of Nico’s words, it feels like Donato may have wanted this to happen, alongside the fact that he intentionally let Amon take his life.
Alongside the kingly symbolism, there’s also quite a bit of “Dragon symbolism” surrounding his character throughout the story. Why is the Dragon symbolism so important? Because it could be foretelling to an inevitable confrontation between himself and Kaneki, who represents the Phoenix in the duo.
In Chinese mythology the Phoenix who represents Yin energy, and Dragon who represents Yang energy, are considered mortal enemies. Yet when the two are in unison they represent a perfect balance of Yin/Yang harmony.
This corresponds with the fact that Kaneki massacred all 101 Oggai and no one ever spoke a word of them again, which is odd considering the abuse and manipulation of children is painted in a very negative light by narrative terms, but their whereabouts and whether they survived or not was brushed to the side by the CCG and just about everyone.
One Oggai in specific, Hajime Hazuki sparked a flame of motivation in Amon. So needless to say, there may be a confrontation between the two about that event which may lead to a clash. In the aftermath, the two will likely come to terms and unify to tear down the throne of OEK since it’s built upon death instead of revolution, and create a proper memorial for the Oggai so they can be remembered.
Another minor detail worth mentioning is the fact that Eto wanted Amon dead for some reason. It’s possible that she could have wanted to get rid of him so there weren’t any loose ends that could backfire on Aogiri, but for some reason Ayato sounded somewhat sympathetic of “Floppy”. It’s possible that Amon and Ayato were in close connection considering..
Ayato had to get a card key to raid Cochlea from somebody with high authority right? With Eto alive and her being connected to the trio of Akira, Amon, and Takizawa, it’s possible that we’ll get clarification on why she wanted to kill him alongside some reconciliation since her father’s Kakuhou turned them into ghouls, and Akira’s mother was killed by her in the past.
midnight-in-town 