I think we’ll be finding out for sure any chapter now but I’m still inclined to believe Hide is human, as I think it’s important thematically for Hide to represent Kaneki’s human connection just as Touka was his guide into the ghoul world (ok I really just like that idea so Ishida can pry it out my cold dead hands).
The Witch’s Servant theory has been around in fandom far before then, but 2 years ago I talked about it in this post [x] and my ideas for his character haven’t changed at all. Since then canon has only strengthened that idea with the reveal that Eto and Arima were in cahoots.
Basically, if you haven’t heard the theory before it’s based on the play that Kaneki and Hide were in as children:
Kaneki plays the lead role as the Prince wearing a cloak with the symbol of Aogiri on it. This has come to be true foreshadowing as the title of King was later passed onto the Prince (Kaneki) by the previous founder/King of Aogiri Tree (Eto and Arima)
Hide was the Witch’s servant in the play
Even though we can’t be sure if they were from Ishida directly or Studio Pierrot, there were some unused anime drafts where Hide and Kaneki recite lines from the play [x]. Overall the additional info mentions:
The Witch’s servant (Hide) was a friend to the Prince (Kaneki)
Hide was tricked by the Witch to betray Kaneki
Hide asks for Kaneki’s forgiveness
Kaneki makes Hide promise to never betray him again, to leave the Witch’s side and become his ally/fight by his side
So based on that here’s my take on things.
Eto obviously takes the place of the Witch, as shown in the calendar
Eto had been searching for someone to take on the role of One Eyed King from Arima. Kaneki piqued her interest when she met him again at the book signing and he was able to understand her line of thinking through her novels
When Hide showed up at the book signing just after and asked for the same name to be signed in the book, it signaled to Eto that they were connected
she mentioned ‘Osamu Dazai’ who was quoted earlier by Kaneki with a highly relevant line for what’s been happening in recent events
Eto recruited Hide to her side by promising him she had a way to save Kaneki. Hide was in on the plan with Eto, and sent Kaneki to V14 where Arima awaited as a test to see if he was a valid candidate for OEK.
That would count as the Witch tricking the servant into betraying the Prince, as Kaneki wasn’t merely saved as Hide wished, but molded and manipulated for years.
After that it’s a bit harder to theory craft. I personally believe that Hide has only ever had Kaneki’s best interests at heart and genuinely wants to save him. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if Hide knew about Eto and Arima’s wishes for Kaneki to become the next OEK. I find it real suspicious that Hide has been in hiding as Scarecrow this whole time but let Kaneki believe for months that he murdered his best friend. So I can’t help but wonder if there’s more to it since there was nothing personal to gain from that. Hide was on the run from the Washuu, and Kaneki was also being hunted by V, so that’s no reason to stay away.
I can’t wait to see Hide’s backstory and reunion with Kaneki to find out >:)
To explain simply, while thinking about Touka’s pregnancy this afternoon, I realized something I hadn’t noticed before:
See, the reason Touka’s body has the risk to mistakenly recognize the baby as nutrients and absorb it is because, as a ghoul, she feeds on RC cells and…
humans have a low rate of RC cells
=> human meat is edible! (and tasty :D)
ghouls have a high rate of RC cells
=> ghoul meat is edible! (but disgusting, ew :/)
which means that human, ghoul and hybrid babies (like Touka’s) have RC cells too!
..But then in that case (which is what I realized today), how comes that only a hybrid baby has the risk to be mistaken as nutrients by its ghoul mama when a ghoul baby also has RC cells? In other words, why is Touka’s body possibly going to recognize her baby’s RC cells as food when her own RC cells in Hikari’s womb weren’t?
Hi Anon and well, logically that’s what you’d think with what I said above, isn’t it? 🙂 However, since I’m pretty sure that Sensei won’t kill that baby, if somehow I’m correct (big big if there), then there must be a catch somewhere.
I do have a theory to answer you, the problem is that…
Itori possibly losing her own hybrid babies in the past is not 100% helping me.
See, initially with what I explained above, I was considering the following: Touka aside, the common point toall the previous hybrid pregnancies in the story is that the mothers always were humans. Eto’s ghoul parent was Yoshimura…
and for the sunlit garden, the father of every child in there (be it “half human” like Arima, or ghoul like Rize) is from the pure Washuu bloodline who are, as we learnt recently, kakuja ghouls from birth.
However, now we have Touka who is the ghoul parent of her hybrid baby, which makes her case pretty unique so far in the story (Itori aside). Touka who, as a ghoul, is supposed to be eating a lot of RC cells both for her sake and her baby’s, but who also has higher RC cells rates than a human mama, as well as a kakuhou to regulate these high rates.
In other words, her own RC cells needs (and body rates) are different from a human mama carrying a hybrid. That’s why her case is interesting, because the maternal environment that she provides to her hybrid baby is different from what Arima’s mom provided to fetus!Arima, or what Ukina provided to fetus!Eto.
=> so my theory is that the maternal environment during the pregnancy plays a part into the development of the kakuhou for hybrid fetuses.
In the first place, kakuhou development is correlated to high RC cells rates, which is the difference between humans and ghouls as @mawjaw explained here; that’s also why ghouls can develop multiple kakuhou in order to regulate their high RC cells rates, when one kakuhou on its own is overwhelmed.
Anyway, so far in the story, we got numerous examples that a hybrid baby carried by a human mama has more chances to be born as a half human (no kakuhou) than a OEG (kakuhou), and it’s interesting because the human mama herself has low RC cells rates and thus no kakuhou in the first place.
So in Touka’s case, the fact she’s a ghoul means that she needs to eat a lot of RC cells, that she has higher RC cells body rates and a kakuhou, which may just favorize the kakuhou development for her hybrid baby.
In other words, a maternal environment
exposing the hybrid baby
to more RC cells because the mama is a ghoul (or in Ukina’s case, because she ate a loooot of human meat) might just positively influence the development of the baby’s kakuhou (in order for baby to regulate all the RC cells reaching it).
And if Touka’s baby develops a kakuhou, then my theory above that it will protect the baby from being seen as food by Touka’s body works too. 😀
In conclusion, about hybrid pregnancies:
mama = human = no kakuhou
maternal environment = low RC cells rates
=> “half human” baby (no kakuhou) more probable than OEG baby (kakuhou), because no need for baby to regulate RC cells while in the womb => Arima.
unless mama eats a lot of human meat and increases the RC cells rates in the maternal environment => that’d be Ukina & Eto.
mama = ghoul = kakuhou
maternal environment = high RC cells rates
OEG baby (kakuhou) more probable than “half human” baby (no kakuhou) because there is a possible need for baby to regulate RC cells while in the womb
OEG baby’s kakuhou will then provide protection against being seen as food by the ghoul mama’s body
That’s the theory. However, as I was saying, Itori might be failing me here, because TG ch34 seems to imply that she might have lost her own hybrid baby/babies, meaning that it’s probably quite complicated for hybrid pregnancies to succeed at all. So I don’t know
¯_(ツ)_/¯
maybe hybrid pregnancies will fail more often than regular pregnancies in general (which would mean that Itori is right when she says that the chance of successful pregnancy in itself is extremely slim)
but when they’re successful, the baby’s nature as a half human or OEG is strongly correlated to its mama’s nature, because kakuhou development is also
mediated
by maternal environment.
I really think Sensei won’t kill off that baby, so there must be a way for Touka to make her pregnancy viable and I’m just rambling around with all my ideas. :3
Still I hope it made sense, thanks for reading Anon and have a nice weekend. 🙂
Anon-chan, for everyone’s sake I’ll make this extremely simple. :)) If Touka’s baby can be born then, according to the theory above, it means that:
it will most likely be a OEG
it will most likely be heatlhy/okay and Touka & Kaneki will be happy parents!
Here are the two possibilities for Touka’s baby in my opinion, considering what I said above (please keep in mind it’s just a theory and I could be totally wrong):
In terms of probability though, I guess it depends on if you’re taking Itori’s words seriously or not. She said that chances for a successful hybrid pregnancy are slim and frankly, I don’t think she’s lying.
Besides, in a human mama’s case, both half human and OEG babies can be born, it’s just that she’s more likely to have a half human baby than a OEG. Whereas in Touka’s case, in this theory it seems the only way for her baby to survive in her womb is if it’s a OEG, which is what Itori probably meant when she said that chances of success were slim.
I’m sorry it sounds so hella complicated, but I hope this sums things
To explain simply, while thinking about Touka’s pregnancy this afternoon, I realized something I hadn’t noticed before:
See, the reason Touka’s body has the risk to mistakenly recognize the baby as nutrients and absorb it is because, as a ghoul, she feeds on RC cells and…
humans have a low rate of RC cells
=> human meat is edible! (and tasty :D)
ghouls have a high rate of RC cells
=> ghoul meat is edible! (but disgusting, ew :/)
which means that human, ghoul and hybrid babies (like Touka’s) have RC cells too!
..But then in that case (which is what I realized today), how comes that only a hybrid baby has the risk to be mistaken as nutrients by its ghoul mama when a ghoul baby also has RC cells? In other words, why is Touka’s body possibly going to recognize her baby’s RC cells as food when her own RC cells in Hikari’s womb weren’t?
Hi and sure Anon, I didn’t particularly address that in the post above, but I’ll try and use simple words. 🙂
So: Touka (ghoul) + Kaneki (human, even if he got grafted with a ghoul’s kakuhou) => ch125 => hybrid (ghoul + human) baby. The problem is that there aren’t a lot of natural hybrids that are born in the TG universe, so Touka has no idea what she has to do to make sure that her baby will be born healthy and that’s why she told Kaneki that she didn’t know if the baby would be okay, in ch131.
So far, Touka decided to follow Ukina’s example: Ukina, a human, partially ate “like a ghoul” during her whole pregnancy to make sure that fetus!Eto would get enough RC cells and wouldn’t starve to death. So Touka chose to partially eat “like a human” upon discovering she was pregnant, hoping that it would be enough for her own hybrid baby’s survival.
However, as @coromoor explained here, human food (cake, hamburger…) cannot provide RC cells to Touka’s baby. Only human meat or ghoul meat can and that’s not what Touka was shown eating for now (food shortage in the 24th ward sure wasn’t helping :/) which is currently dangerous both for the baby (if it doesn’t get RC cells, it will starve and die) & for her (it is like poison).
The other problem surrounding Touka’s pregnancy is what Itori once said to Kaneki (which is what my post above was trying to give an explanation to), but Touka probably has no idea about that for now.
TL;DR
Hybrid pregnancies in general are rare but it seems hybrid pregnancies with a ghoul mama are more complicated than ones with a human mama, which is why Touka is a bit worried and told Kaneki that the pregnancy might not go well.
I hope it’s understandable? Have a nice weekend Anon. 🙂
So this theory is running off of a few assumptions:
1.) Ghouls evolved from or split relatively late from modern humans
2.) Eto can eat and digest human food without getting sick.
3.) The Kakuhou has a direct link with the digestive system and produces the enzyme responsible for a ghouls inability to process human food.
Let’s get started.
Endosymbiotic relationships are pretty much what they sound like; symbiotic relationships that involves one party surviving inside the other. In this case, the relationship being between the Ghoul (the host) and the Kakuhou (the endosymbiont). In this case, the relationship is also Obligate, as in, neither party can survive without the other.
Soooo I’m kinda taking this chapter as a confirmation that
Uta does have a Washuu kakuhou too
and that a Washuu kakuhou is the key to being able to make these clones
meaning that Kaneki, like Uta, can now clone himself (and that’s what those things who attacked the CCG are)
Basically, having a Washuu kakuhou means being a kakuja from birth, as Kanou explained, + being able to generate a kakuja made of pluripotent cells…
…which is possibly the explanation behind why they can create clones of themselves.
I’m still wondering about Donato’s own cloning abilities though, because being Russian I’m not sure he has a Washuu kakuhou. So…
maybe he has another special kakuhou that allows a cloning ability,
or Uta somehow grafted him with his own kakuja
or maybe he cannibalized the Nagaraj’s kakuja for a while at some point, that is to say that he ingested a huge quantity of pluripotent cells, which is how he could have ended up with the same ability.
TBH, I find that Uta grafting Donato with his own kakuja (possibility 2) is kinda reminiscing of Eto apparently “injecting” her kagune into Karren (ch45,
credit to @amonmahboi for pointing that out to me the other day :))…
…increasing her fighting abilities for a time even if she still died.
And now that I think about it, since Eto said that V killed her foster parent too (ch66), it’s possible that Noro was injected with Eto’s kagune in order to stay “alive”, until he was annihilated for good and that’s maybe why only a skull was left (because he actually died long ago). So when Furuta said…
…he was possibly talking about the result of Eto grafting Noro with her kagune to keep him “alive” all this time. As for Banjou, from the moment Eto stabbed him, he finally was able to develop his kagune and it’s now very useful thanks to its healing properties (like Nico can do), so who knows if she’s not responsible for that too.
TL;DR maybe kagune/kakuja graft into another ghoul is possible and also implies a graft of the kagune/kakuja’s special abilities, so Uta grafting his own kakuja (made of pluripotent cells) into Donato might explain why he, too, can create clones of himself.
EDIT: @bloodycarnations mentioned how Kurona “absorbed” Nashiro and gained two kakugans as a result, which is a fair point:
And also anyone remembers kakuja!Amon backflowing rc cells into Seidou, triggering an explosion?
…so IDK for sure, but kagune/kakuja graft/injection between ghouls sounds possible, since in the end all that gets passed around should be rc cells anyway. It’s just that, in the theoretical case of Uta & Donato, since Uta most likely has a Washuu kakuhou, the kakuja is made of pluripotent cells which could be why Donato gained the ability of cloning.
TBH cracky thought but I’m just curious as to why Donato couldn’t manage to create a clone to escape the CCG with his beloved Amon 18 years ago if he already had the ability back then. In other words, maybe Uta grafted him recently, after he finally escaped from Cochlea?
That’s precisely it, I think. Freudian stories=overcoming your parents. Kaneki, Touka, and Ayato will overcome the Arata/Hikari/Renji tragedy. They will live, I do think so (Kaneki’s the most likely to die of the three but I still don’t think that’s terribly likely). Kaneki should overcome the tragedy of the first OEK, and Touken should overcome V to not repeat the Kuzen & Ukina tragedy with Eto–aka live to raise their kid. The kid shouldn’t die either.
It’s another reason why I think Mutsuki, Urie, and Saiko should also be saved from this tragedy. Just passing on tragedy means the cycle will repeat itself–or, at least, it always has in TG. The tragic cycles always have repeated themselves after they claimed more victims. Why would we believe that the cycle would be satiated with Mutsuki, Urie, and Saiko? Someone needs to say No More. But to do that they need to face themselves as they truly are and work for it.
The world of tragedy needs to be destroyed and a new one raised up.
if I may, Furuta even said that parallels were bullshit, so to speak…
…because they only meant to prove that the characters didn’t grow up enough to overcome a similar situation that had already happened in the past.
That’s why I totally agree with you. 🙂 First of all, TG was described to be a tragedy from the very first chapter while :Re never was described as a tragedy. On top of this though, we got so many parallels between TG and :Re (which Ishida
recently
debunked the meaning of, using Furuta in ch143) that it’s precisely the reason :Re will probably end on a more joyful note than TG and that most of the characters will succeed where they (or their predecessors) failed in the past.
Unless Hide’s talking about Arima as the Washuu who was “in the way”, it might be indicative that Hide (the witch’s servant) really has been commiserating with Eto (the witch).
More importantly, there seems to be a circle here. The Washuu were suspicious of Hide, but V’s plans were being impeded by the Washuu. That put’s Hide on V’s tail to complete the circuit, as Eto’s accomplice. She was being tracked by both the Washuu and V since her birth, and was already using her mother’s notes to guide her in the truth about them.
Granted, Ishida writes that the witch’s servant was “tricked” into working for them, but I get the feeling it’s really not all that cut and dry. More like, he was riding the coat-tails to get closer to the prince.
Anyway, I’ll take a stab and say that Hide had a crazy amount of dirt on the Washuu and has been threatening to blackmail them for some time—
and the Washuu knew it. But how did the Washuu know their secrets were being ratted out? Who was tipping them off?
Well, maybe nobody was.
[Crack Theory Time!]
Maybe they knew Hide has been a threat from the start. Because while the Chika and Yoshi in 永近英良 (Nagachika Hideyoshi) and 和修時/吉時 (Washuu Chiki/Yoshitoki) are different, the Garden kids all notoriously use very strange spelling for their names.
“like a knight,” she says. but “Kishi” is usually spelled 騎士, not 貴将
“Yusa” is a common name, by typically spelled 結沙 instead of 夕作; Shio has an unusual spelling, as does Hairu, and Nimura’s is a play on his birthday, etc.
The point I’m getting at is that I think it’s time to dig up the old theory that Hide related to the Washuu. I remember hearing that he might be a nephew of Iyo’s, or that he might even be from the Garden himself, sent as a child to keep an eye on Kaneki (under the circumstance that his father actually was of great importance and that his death was notable).
If that’s the case, V has the right to be wary of the Washuu. If one of their people (two when you’re counting Rize) is out running amok with their secrets, endangering the precarious infrastructure of their rule…
We’d better buckle up. There’s still a good number of holes that need filling, and it’s hard to make any educated guesses about V’s motivation, but right now the focus should be that they’re still out there. We know they’re still looking to be in control, even if it benefits them to have the Washuu out of the picture.
I mean, look at his right hand in the scene above, he’s rubbing his neck/hair/cheek…
and while it could be a sign that he’s embarrassed about what he just said, we still don’t have an explanation as to why the Washuus were after him in the first place, so I’m not 100% sure that helping Kaneki is the only reason he went as far as he did.
Besides, we still know next to nothing about Hide’s origins to be honest (24th ward? his name?) and…
…Sensei reminded us of that not so long ago, so I personally won’t take his words for being all that there is to it.
Finally, I still think he might have (had?) a link to either Eto or Itori since before becoming “the magician”…
…he was “the witch’s servant” in that chilhood play with Kaneki…
…which is why “changing the world” (in one way or another) might also have been a possible goal of his, in my opinion.
This post doesn’t have to convince anyone, it’s just that I always pictured Hide as a grey character, like the rest of the cast actually, so I don’t want to trust Sensei too quickly when we don’t know much about Hide. xD
midnight-in-town 
