Wow, okay, I’ll do a little recap post because I mixed things up myself until fairly recently and I’ve been relying on different theories to explain, so I can understand that it’s not super clear. x)
From the look of things so far though, the whole theory is that it seems that there were two big conflicts relating to OEGs before Eto was born: one that led to the creation of the CCG and one that led to the creation of V.
So here goes:
1) 100+ years ago, a OEG appeared which led to the creation of the predecessor organization to the CCG:
My personal opinion is that this 100+ years old OEG is the “Nagaraj” that apparently destroyed the city Ayato found:
In Chapter 131, ‘Naagaraji’ ナァガラジ could be a reference to the Hindu mythology Nāgarāja “King of the nāga” (nāga meaning snakes) and also known in Japanese and Chinese mythology as one of the 8 great dragon kings. Among the Nāgarāja there is Vasuki, a snakegod in Indian mythology who was converted into a dragon king in Buddhism, then renamed “Washu-kichi”
和修吉(washukitsu) is just the assigned kanji for how Vasuki is pronounced in Japanese. Washuu only uses the first two kanji as a family name, and then whoever the successors are adds the last kanji from Vasuki to their given name.
(ex: Furuta Nimura => Washuu Kichimura)
…we can deduce a possible link between the Nagaraj and the Washuu family
Which would explain why the Washuus (who are ghouls) took the side of humans and created an organization in order to defeat him, even if we currently don’t know what happened and how it ended.
Personal opinion there again, but I’m not so sure this OEG is dead, especially since we learnt there is a way to “remain young” as a ghoul:
And also because there is one character that is associated to snakes, skeleton king and kitsune (kitsune being able to learn how to shape shift when they turn 100 years old).
I’m sure Ishida will tell us more about this at some point, because this OEG is linked to the creation of the CCG and will surely allow us to know about the Washuu family itself, but for now I believe that’s all we’ve got for this part.
2) However Kaneki’s side recently introduced a different OEG, the one who “almost destroyed the CCG” and who apparently** “built the 24th ward”:
And in order to defeat him, it seems that the “V” organization was created (?)…
…along with the development of quinque weapons…
…leading this OEG and his people to the 24th ward.
This OEG most likely was from a time around 50+ years ago (post WW2 if you would), which explains why Kaneki’s side thinks that he might still be around (even if old) to help them and why Ayato was sent down to finding that city.
However, this time, my personal opinion is that this OEG isn’t alive anymore…
Because it was Noro who, after being defeated by V, accepted to help Yoshimura with hiding Eto from them in the 24th ward and because
There is likely more to know about him and Eto’s childhood (and why Noro seemed to agree with Tatara’s plan to make the world “a society for ghouls”?) since Kaneki’s side currently is in the 24th ward anyway.
3) These two events led to the plot of TG
And mostly to Kanou experimenting to create OEGs…
because…
…he intends on breaking the equilibrium, which is why he allied with Aogiri Tree, an organization that wished to change things and make this a world for ghouls instead.
And that’s where we are in the timeline. 🙂
The Washuu family were the first who locked the world into a cage, by building an organization that would later become the CCG we know, because they wanted to defeat a OEG who was apparently threatening them or their position, as well as humans. Then V was created to defeat a second OEG and that’s when the lock on the twisted bird cage became sturdier…
because V became the peace keepers, the ones who strive to protect an “equilibrium” between humans and ghouls, making ghouls the predators and thus the danger to be fought against, all the while making sure that no new OEG would try to destroy the cage.
I don’t know yet the reason V allied with Furuta to turn against Washuu Tsuneyoshi (maybe it was because they found the Washuus weren’t as efficient as before at dealing with “issues” like Eto?), but the V organization most likely is the true villain in TG, the one Eto, Arima, Kanou, Kaneki and even Furuta were/are fighting against…
That’s the best summary I think I can give you so far, especially since there is likely to be more that we don’t know for now, so take everything with a grain of salt, especially the part about the possible two rebellions before the time of Eto, Arima, Furuta and Kaneki.
Finally, here are my thoughts as to what I think might happen after the current arc in the 24th ward. 🙂
I really hope it helps, feel free to say if anything is unclear. Have a nice day Anon!
Update: post ch144
By the way, about the second OEG who “apparently**” built the 24th ward: frankly I really wonder about that, because I really like this theory by @kingkishou saying that maybe the original city of Tokyo is the city deep below that Ayato found.
The architecture looks to be quite advanced for a city that some ghouls built after fleeing away and there is also what the kids told Ayato:
Because the Nagaraj apparently started the 100 years old war when Kaneki might be the one to end it, the Nagaraj destroyed the original city of Tokyo (?) when Kaneki is apparently starting to destroy “Neo Tokyo”…
So, in regards to the timeline above:
if the Nagaraj destroyed the old city of Tokyo after a fight against the Washuus and the predecessor organization to the CCG, then it means that the Washuus and the people built another city of Tokyo on top of the one the Nagaraj had destroyed
Enter the second OEG, years later, the one who almost destroyed the CCG and who was apparently defeated by the creation of V and quinques. Fleeing V, he and many ghouls escaped to the 24th ward, maybe even to the old city of Tokyo that had been destroyed many years before.
Enter Eto, who was given to Noro by Yoshimura, so that V wouldn’t be able to reach her. At some point Eto left the 24th ward and became an author -> no other information so far. Even later, she created Aogiri with Tatara and Noro.
Finally, Roma mentioned an “underground king” in ch135:
And I think she was referring to the Nagaraj => after the Nagaraj destroyed what might be the original city of Tokyo, maybe the reason another Tokyo was built on top of the previous one was because it was the only way the Washuus found to win against him, trapping him and locking him up underground.
There. Sorry it has to be so long. I hope it makes sense!
THS just scanned volume 5 with the cover, bio, etc. containing the description for the CCG’s highest honour; the Auspicious Dragon Medal
we’ve seen other CCG awards, including the White Dragon Wing Award before and they’re all fairly simple designs with the Dove in the center for peace
But the Auspicious Dragon Medal has a much different design, with a tribal flair
which obviously in turn reminds me of the traditional ghoul wedding attire
They’re not super alike but if I squint the award’s center symbol is also reminiscent of one of Uta’s tattoos with the snake and owl design
I wonder if these are all tied together to ancient ghoul culture and what happened with the Nagaraj in the Underground City, which also has the appearance of a giant snake. Perhaps this award originated from whatever event transpired there.
This deserves a more proper meta, really, but it’s a lot of mostly reiterating things I’ve been suggesting since 101, now with even more evidence, and the rest is too real world politics for comfort for me too go into a long detailed post about, but I wanted to mention these things at least a little.
We already know, curtesy of Kaneki’s interrogation of Shiono, that the penalty for these sorts of things has always included the option of death.
So if Furuta is strengthening these penalties, it must mean that he’s reducing the burden of proof and the severity of the involvement needed.
And seeing as Yoriko’s death sentence was carried out entirely within the CCG, based entirely on Mutsuki’s word, without any sort of trial, we are seeing a system by which human beings can be executed entirely on suspicion, whether or not this is true. It’s not just guilt by association – it’s guilt by the perception of association.
In a way, It’s a move that has the CCG treating humans very much how they treat ghouls – able to be killed without trial at the whim of the CCG regardless of how they actually live or what they actually do.
Furuta is well versed in the methods those in power used to maintain that power. He tells Eto as much. But its worth noting the language Eto uses, of a revolution. It’s inherently political and historical. It cannot help but evoke revolutions past, and Eto, of all people, certainly knows the power the words she uses carry.
The manga even brings such things up, right as things are really starting to escalate:
Hakatori’s lines tie Furuta’s words from 66 to real world conflicts. Conflicts between humans and humans, between nations.
And her lines, in turn, all called back to here
The scale of this conflict, of what will fall or rise here, is of civilizations and revolutions, and Furuta’s tactics and aesthetics have been scaled up to fit.
I’ve seen people mention pretty much since 98 that Furuta reminds them of some real world fascist or another. That is entirely intentional – not just on Ishida’s part, but on Furuta’s. The CCG is no stranger to the aesthetic and tactics even before him. All he’s doing, as I’ve said several times in previous metas, is turning that up to 11, making it explicit and obvious. If Furuta is planning to make of himself an enemy worthy of this revolution, it makes sense that he’d take cues from historical villains over thrown by revolutions in the past.
Furuta, in 101, suggests creating an enemy so great, a threat big enough to both ghouls and humans, that they will unite to take it down. And here we see him, as the CCG’s chairman, going after humans, as well, and picking a family that has come to “bear the ccg atop [its] shoulders” as his shot over the bow.
We still have yet to see if this is actually what he’s trying to do, intentionally, of course. But Furuta knows the rules of the game quite well, and he seems to be making very purposeful moves to position himself this way.
But we still have to wait to see the actual answer to Uta’s question here.
OH YEAH. Investigators who defeat an SSS-rate ghoul are awarded the White Dragon Wing Medal.
I don’t think we know anyone who has one yet, except that Arima technically won against both Owls, and for the fact that Tsuneyoshi was apparently able to take down SSS-rates back in his day…
I`ve been thinking about Eto`s revolution again, and if my idea about Eto wanting to eradicate the CCG/V/Washuu or what ever she sees as the warped root, is right. If that faction is destroyed and smashed to pieces, I guess it will solve some problems. Ghoul kind would not be hunted down by this special force anymore, and I guess they could come out of hiding. They would walk among the humans.
But what then, what happens after that? The simple removal of the faction will not solve the food problem, that has been raised again and again in different disccucssion here. Maybe CCG/V/Washuu acted as an mental cage that made people only reconsider the militaristic option when dealing problems with ghouls, so as they are taken care of maybe the mindset towards ghouls will change? Aiding ghouls was a severe crime, so if that goes away maybe people`s mindset will change?
But I think this still raises some problems even if that were the case. Now at the moment ghoul kind has been shunned to live underground. I wonder if that has made them bitter towards humans? So when the CCG/V/Wahsuu is crushed, I wonder how they will treat or react to the humans above ground, who sheered when Furuta was giving a speech on top of a pile of ghoul corpses? Also there is potentially a an even older civilization in the depths of the 24th ward, possibly harboring even older and stronger hatred towards the CCG and the rest of the humankind.
So what I am getting at with this is that when you remove the powerful faction that was the CCG, yes you indeed solve the problem that you erase an organization that was very oppressive towards ghouls, making their life very hard, almost impossible. But, even thou how evil and how much of Washuu`s plaything the CCG is/was, I think it still acted as an safeguard of sorts to protect humans from ghoul attacks. If that safeguard is removed, and humanity is left to deal with a ghoul mass that possibly has very negative feelings towards it`s cousin, I am terrified of what it means. I think it might be the return of this age:
“I mean, that was back when almost every ghoul ate well enough to use their kagune…”
As a human, that sounds pretty terrifying to me. What if there are more ghouls like Rize, who don´t seem to care about balance? If the aftermath of the possibly downfall of the CCG is not dealt with correctly, I fear that it might the beginning of the tyranny of ghouls.
I bet all those dead “ghouls” aren’t even all ghouls. I mean Furuta’s style there is bound to be a good bit of collateral damage. And it would be just like Furuta to be sure there are some humans among the pile of dead just so he could be internally laughing at the crowd…
Wouldn’t that be the kicker, huh? Furuta seems to be gleefully dragging out the ugliness in everyone, laughing and revealing the vilest and cruelest aspects of people.
As I said before, previously he’s been connected to events where the public lashed out at the CCG for treatment of ghouls. His former partner, Kijima, horrified people by posting a torture video on the internet. A video that basically shows EXACTLY WHAT THE CCG DOES TO GHOULS, only before it was hidden neatly behind closed doors.
Then there was Takatsuki’s final novel, and the protests and rallies it sparked. People suddenly got interested in ghouls as more than faceless monsters, and were questioning things. He laughed in Eto’s face about her revolution and its pointlessness.
He used the Clowns to cause panic and destroy morale within the CCG, creating the opportunity to rise to unquestioned leadership.
And now he’s doing these grand public displays, a callback to early eras of history. These kinds of displays used to be common, but over the last century humans have become more “civil” and rejected such displays. And the Japanese, in particular, have spent decades fiercely denying or avoiding the issues of their own brutality. This display reminds me of some of the historical photos of Imperial Soldiers, and the War Crimes they committed across Asia during the second World War.
Heads displayed as trophies.
Bodies displayed on pikes.
Piles of corpses proudly displayed.
In a way, Furuta is gleefully rubbing their faces in their own fickleness and potential for cruelty. Showing that while the Countermeasure Laws have a clause instructing that Investigators not cause unnecessary pain or violence, it’s all for show. All so that people can pat themselves on the back, and pretend that they are better than Ghouls and better than other humans.
But here, with these grotesque displays and tempting “The Hope of the CCG” to his side, he is revealing just how easily humans can throw aside their morals.
Between the Garden/Oggai kids and all the homeless ghoul children someone better start a foster home by the end of TG:RE damn it…
Tfw Aogiri raised their children better than CCG’s
Yep CCG/V just sees them as a resource to exploit,
Where as a lot of ghoul parents I’m guessing (though there are still a few assholes) understand trying to take care of a child could put them in danger so they’d better be committed if they intend to take care of a kid.
So many ghoul parents fucking die for their kids.
Thisthisthisthis.
The CCG does indeed see ALL CHILDREN as resources to be exploited. Not simply the Garden children that they produce as tools, but every single orphan they take in and every single child that attends their schools at a lowered tuition rate.
Every. Single. Child. is nothing more than a resource to be exploited. A potential future Investigator for them to use. This is the reason children under the CCG receive no genuine psychological care, and are instead encouraged to foster every negative feeling. They need children to remain broken, so they grow up to be broken adults that will continue to perpetuate the system.
Mutsuki and Juuzou are the ultimate examples of this in the series, two deeply disturbed and damaged children that needed intense psychological care. Instead of giving them care, both were tossed into a Junior Academy known for housing “troubled cases”, and then pretty much abused. Those two did not need a facility training them to kill for the CCG, they needed intensive psychological care and a nurturing environment where they could heal from their traumas.
Instead, Mutsuki was encouraged to fester and descend further into insanity and violence. Used as an experiment, and further encouraged down a very dark and dangerous path. But Mutsuki, as a damaged and dangerous person, is USEFUL to them.
Likewise, Juuzou could have ended up the same. But he had a guardian angel in the form of Shinohara, who took a personal interest and invested time and energy into Juuzou’s case. He did what the CCG refused to do, and worked to teach Juuzou a better way to deal with his emotions and tried to instill in him what real kindness and love actually are. And Juuzou has blossomed through that connection and effort, and become so much more because someone actually CARED.
This is probably the key difference we’ll see between the Oggai and 0 Squad. Both are children raised to kill and take some enjoyment in doing a good job. But the 0 kids were exposed to positive influences, were loved by Arima as best he could within the narrow confines of their environment and have been given kindness by Hirako, Kaneki, Touka, and everyone else they deal with. Likewise, Hairu wasn’t as damaged as she could have been because she had Ui who took her on normal outings, and cared about her as a person.
And we see that so much in the ghoul children in the series. In spite of the hideous world that they are born into, so many ghoul parents do their best to give their children better lives. They love them, and try to protect them from the worst of their situations, and ultimately are willing to fight and die for them if necessary.
YEAH. it would feel really good to have Rize put him in his place.
But… something about the Oggai reminds me of the kids like Hairu and Shio. I think they were raised in the Garden to see fighting and killing like a game. They’re tools for Furuta and the CCG and they can’t see anything wrong with it. I’ve gone off about it before, but I think the purpose of TG:Jack was to show that Arima was given a new perspective (on top of the fact that he’s just a naturally gentle person), and THAT’S why he was able to go off on a tangent and try to create something new.
The Oggai are definitely cruel, but it’s hard to say “they’re evil and need to die” when they’re literally children themselves. It’s really going to cause a problem for people like Take and Kaneki and Amon. And maybe that’s what Furuta is aiming for– that it’s hard to kill a child.
I definitely think the horror of the Oggai is very intentional, both in-series and from a meta perspective.
From Jack, we know how the CCG has been using child soldiers all along. We know that the Garden alumni start in their mid-teens, and operate openly as Investigators that are “special cases”. And people have generally turned a blind eye to things, in spite of recognizing on SOME LEVEL that using teenagers as weapons is wrong.
Arima’s experiences and chances encounters set him apart from the others, in that he got to hear how others felt. He saw the kindness and self-sacrifice of the Kirishima family (how a family SHOULD be). He saw how normal kids live, while going undercover in Jack. He heard how a normal person views killing, when Fura raged about people who can kill without a second thought AND then witnessed him having to cope with taking a life. He heard Minami’s frustrations and grief, at being denied a normal life. And then……he met Eto, someone like himself but different.
But even so, he retained the same brutality and cruelty we see in ALL the Garden alumni. It seems likely they are indoctrinated into it from birth, taught to view it as normal and good. They do not value life, and see killing as something good that they do in order to be praised and rewarded.
In bringing out the Oggai, Furuta has basically slapped the CCG in the face with their own hypocrisy. Here’s dozens of children, turned into living weapons and unleashed onto the streets to hunt and kill their chosen prey. How are they any different from ghouls? They AREN’T except for in how the CCG chooses to treat them. But rather than having a couple of exceptional people that are “special cases” that people can easily overlook or ignore, there’s an entire ARMY now openly operating.
Chie mentions that the CCG is now disclosing information to the public. The Oggai is probably part of that, meaning again the CCG has the potential for backlash from a public seeing what they really are. An organization using children, experimenting on them and turning them into living weapons to hunt and kill. And it’s going to force EVERYONE to either blindly look away and expose their true wickedness………..or start asking some very painful questions.
This is probably the most inappropiate time to discuss this, but I think this whole chapter might parallel real life incidents.
For example his whole research lab consists of imprisoned people, just like Unit 731 that experimented on Chinese, Russian and the Allied prisoners during WW2.
“Unit 731 was set up in 1938 in Japanese-occupied China with the aim of developing biological weapons. It also operated a secret research and experimental school in Shinjuku, central Tokyo. Its head was Lieutenant Shiro Ishii.
The unit was supported by Japanese universities and medical schools which supplied doctors and research staff. The picture now emerging about its activities is horrifying.”
And Kanou does seem to resemble Shiro Ishii, the Japanese medical officer from Unit 731, who was previously a surgeon.
He developed an interest in biological weapons and
bacteriology and advocated to continue researching after he came back from Europe and developed a purifification water filter. During WW2, Ishii constructed an installation called Ping Fan and continued his unethical experiments on wartime prisoners (he basically injected horrific diseases like gas gangrene into them).
“Victims were often killed before the diseases had run their course, so autopsies could show their progress through the body. Ishii’s men also supplied the Japanese Army with typhoid, cholera, plague, and dysentery bacteria for battlefield use. In addition, they contaminated water sources, released disease-carrying fleas, and dropped contaminated wheat from airplanes.”
After the war ended, Ishii faked his death and went into hiding. He was later captured and made a trade with the Allies: he would reveal the details of his experiments in exchange for immunity. And they agreed. Ishii died 14 years later.
If you have managed to read it that far, thank you. I can tell you, what I wrote is just an oversimplification and sugarcoating of what happened over there.
But here are some sources if you want to find out more about what happened.
Reblogging again this because I just realized something 😮
Kanou’s current lab is on Rue Island as well and I seriously doubt that Aogiri and Kanou built it when they were decided to use that as their base (I really really doubt that aogiri has the right resources to build a fucking laboratory for human experimentation, like come on). It’s possible that the island might already have a lab in the first place.
What I find really interesting is that Rue Island was used during the war in TG, after which I assume it was probably abandoned or something. The original post might explain why there’s a lab there (in other words, it was used for activities mentioned in OP) and it might also explain why aogiri chose rue as their main base of operations
I mean like islands are good for isolating yourself and all but considering that most of their missions happen on mainland Tokyo, it is rather inconvenient to travel to and fro and not to mention, it garners a lot of attention as well. Hiding, let’s say, underground or in a less populated area of Tokyo, would be so much better than having to take boats and sail across the sea every now and then for missions.
This doesn’t really explain anything big or something, but I just thought it was interesting. I’m sorry my ramblings kinda made it long though. ^^“
That’s okay, my entire blog consits of rambling. :’)
Well, apparently their first camp was located 60 miles away from Harbin and Ping Fan was located 14 miles away from Harbin.
So while they have been still not been next to the sea, they were pretty close (and just had to go through Korea a bit in order to travell back), which parallels a bit with his base in Tokyo and then Rue Island.
But I thank you so so much for what you said because that is what my next post was basically about to be. Wartime and warcrimes in WW2, related to the Washuus.
I think it is pretty interesting because Unit 731 does not have only to resemble Kanou’s situation, but also real time events in the Tokyo Ghoul universe. I mention this due to the following.
To revise things, Adam Gehner and Yoshiu Washuu, Tsuneyoshi’s grandfather, were the ones who invented the Quinques. Now, because he was Tsuneyoshi’s grandfather, we can fairly asssume that Adam and Yoshiu still lived and were pretty much active in WW2.
If “our” history is pretty similar to Tokyo Ghoul’s ones, that could mean that both Yoshiu and Adam have been actively doing such things what Mengele (a German Nazi) and Ishii (a Japaense) did, doing unethical experiments with ghouls and people alike, that is.
It would also perfectly tie in because the Japanese and Germans were allies during WW2 (and, well, Italy).
Then we this person who stronlgy resembles the man above. In my opinion, this might have been indeed Adam, simply because he uses a movie projector, which, mind you were still popular in the 80s and certainly used during the 30s and 40s (and it was invented in 1879, so there’s that). And here we can see Adam proposing unethical researches that were apparently halted, but during WW2 it would have been certainly possible to invoke them again. (The Nazis surely would have been in favour of such things, considering that it would have brought successful results, which it did, in the end). And that’s how he could have met Yoshiu as well.
But seriously though, what a great example of the hypocrisy of the CCG, having an investigator spout off about how important it is for the people left behind that they have a body to mourn, while the CCG keeps ghouls locked up in Cochlea partially for the purpose of having easy access to the exact type of kakuhou they want for making new quinque, and takes the bodies of ghouls they kill in the field for the purpose of turning them into quinque.
I think this is a really interesting point, which has only been touched on a little in-series. Shirazu’s own struggle reflected the truth about the Quinque and how fucked up they are. It gets acknowledged by Fura, who is carrying around a Quinque made from his first love. He points out how the CCG discourages thinking about it, but also how NOT realizing and struggling with it is mentally unhealthy.
It shows us Akira’s indoctrination and very intentional dissonance, that she can casually select which prisoners she wants to use for parts.
It’s horrifying and even more fucked up knowing the parties that INVENTED the Quinque were ghouls.
I do wonder how long before Urie is forced to confront the truth, that the Quinque and the Quinx are a system that denies ghouls the same grieving process. That what happened to Shirazu is EXACTLY what the CCG has been doing.
And let us not forget the ghoul blender in the basement. Nothing left of those lives and bodies that get turned into liquified ghoul and then later bought and used.
Yeah, there’s a very huge disregard for ghouls, both their lives and their bodies, which is necessary for the CCG to exist as it does. And that’s very unsettling that all these investigators have been trained to see this as normal and not a problem.
I hope it makes sense!
midnight-in-town 