This is just my opinion but I’m assuming that by “specialist”, Hide/Scarecrow is thinking about someone who knows about what happened with the Nagaraj (a hundred years ago or so) since, as Dragon, Kaneki’s situation definitely parallels the Nagaraj’s so far [x][x].
As for who the specialist may be…
A doctor with knowledge about ghoul biology: Kanou, Chigyou, Shiba?
Or Ogura since he was called a specialist before, even if he wasn’t exactly one? Could be anyone from the Great Wheel act too, or even Kimi, since she’s been researching about ghouls as well.
It’s also not impossible that the specialist in question might be a ghoul: someone from the Clowns’ gang maybe? With all the information she has, Itori might know a few things and she had no role in :Re yet, but I guess Donato could also be a suspect since he knows many things.
Shachi and Eto might not be extremely relevant to this situation, but I’d feel bad leaving them out since we still don’t know if they’re dead or not.
Considering that Furuta’s plan with Dragoneki was supposed to bring ghouls and humans together though…
…I’d rather bet on a specialist that’s not exactly human, so I’m all for Hide maybe mentioning one of the Clowns, especially since we can’t be sure he isn’t acquainted with them [x][x] and we still don’t know how he managed to escape from the sewers back in TG, if he apparently couldn’t heal. 😉
ok, as a followup to my previous question, some more speculation on the topic: if noro is the original one eyed king (his regenerative power suggests it is possible), it may be possible that when he went dragon, he “gave” the gift of his regenerative kagune to the washuu (or at least, they were the ones who somehow got it). that would explain rize’s kagune also being very regenerative, and why kaneki, with that rc type, could also go dragon
Oh, I was actually talking about Noroi a while back with some friends! The movie actually deals with a LOT of tropes from Japanese legends, folklore, etc, so it would probably be pretty easy to draw some lines between it and Tokyo Ghoul. Plus, Noroi just translates to “curse”, which I’m sure will become relevant to the story soon (especially now that we’re dipping our toes into all the crazy aging and OEK stuff).
HOWEVER:
Noroi is basically a Blair Witch-style documentary following a number of characters who’s lives (and deaths) overlap after coming into contact with paranormal forces; namely a demon called Kagutaba.
The movie is great, but ridiculously long and complex, so I can’t really delve into it too deeply without totally losing everyone (lol). But in the end it turns out that one of the characters– the “son” of a woman named Ishii, who stole the fetuses of illegal abortions she aided with– was indeed actually Kagutaba, and he was the one controlling his “mother” all along.
There’s a TON of interpretations you can draw to Tokyo Goul here in regards to Noro. We don’t know much about him, but it’s common belief that he was already long dead by the time we met him, and that he was probably not much more than a kagune-driven husk himself.
There’s also an old theory that’s been floating around about cordyceps (a strain of fungus that “possesses” its insect host) and how a kakuhou may function in a somewhat similar manner. Little Shiro originally mentioned it to Haise after struggling to maintain ownership over his own body, but it still suits the story carry on with that concept when TG uses so much insect iconography.
So, if you connect the dots here, it seems like Noro may have been “possessed” and kept moving by a kakuhou implanted into him by Eto (his “child”, like Ishii in Noroi).
And now the bodies pouring out of Kaneki’s kakuja might be subjected to a similar situation, hence the face that looks exactly like Kagutaba’s mask and why Furuta was talking about Dragon’s capabilities to create life.
Ps- I’ve been yelling about how Noro may have once been a OEK, and how the original OEK was probably a Washuu for a long, looong time now. These little husks could be a link between Kaneki and Noro.
But anyway, we’re just going to have to wait and see how it plays out 🙂
I’ve mentioned it before, but this all might mean that ghouls all age more rapidly than humans, but it’s not noticeable because the process is slowed down so vastly by their intake of regenerative RC cells.
If that’s so, it makes sense that the Garden kids are just ghouls who can’t (or are told they can’t) replenish RC cells. That’s why Furuta– who rarely fights and has a synthetic kakuhou– has black hair at the same age Arima’s was almost completely white.
Kaneki made a point when he said that his hair was going black again because he was eating regularly at the CCG and not expending any RC cells. The buildup allowed his hair to regenerate. It also explains why his hair went all black very rapidly after eating Eto’s kakuja (it was a massive influx) and completely white after Yamori and Arima (expending his stock too quickly).
And speaking of Eto, I wrote a meta a while ago about her ability as a sort-of “fountain of youth”. It seems like she has a gift of longevity (despite her comments about “getting old”), since her body is constantly replenishing herself on top of cannibalization.
Flowers grow on decomposed materials
She’s also able to “give” her “gift” to others, possibly by depositing parts of herself in others (like when she tore out Banjou’s ribs) and thereby giving them a huge boost in highly-concentrated RC cells.
She’s the opposite of what the Garden kids are.
Plus, the “medicine” being given to Okahira must be the same thing she was telling Amon about.
In essence, it takes tons of ghoul bodies ground down into a liquid to reach a concentration similar to Eto’s. It must be what’s keeping Okahira animated, as well as the black-cloaked V agents*
*Remember, Hirako said they’re like an “advanced” 0 Squad, but all clearly much older than Arima.
To create, you must first destroy.
The eggshell has to be broken for the life inside to be born, right? >:)c
So, according to Furuta, I wouldn’t be surprised if these little white-haired husks of the Oggai are able to come back if enough RC cells are pumped back into them. Like @mawjaw said, “death mirrored [the made-up kanji for Oggai] is life”. They do look a lot like yolks running from an eggshell imo.
And even if they don’t come back, this is the beginning of something new.
Hermeticism– the belief system that classical Tarot art is based on– states that the universe is ever being born and recreated on every plane of existence no matter how big or how small. There is no ultimate endings, only new beginnings and so on. Kaneki is Death on legs right now, but the fact that he’s ever-multiplying his stock of RC cells means he’s also the foundation for new life.
I’m still waiting to see which ways Eto and Arima protecting Kaneki. Whatever happened to his arm after eating her kakuja must be related to the scars Fukuro left behind on his arms/abdomen (they’re made of the same RC pattern, after all). Kinda makes me think they coagulated with Rize’s RC cells to make something tougher than Kaneki himself, as if they knew he’d majorly fuck himself over at least once :’)
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!
…I follow many TG blogs and I haven’t seen anyone raising this idea at all. x)) To be honest, it didn’t even cross my mind so, while I’m not sure we even saw him (outside of Kaneki’s mind I mean) in today’s chapter, I’m quite certain he’s not dead.
I mean, I’m not even sure that Furuta is dead and he has more chances to be out of the window than Juuzou if you consider the panel above. xD
So no Anon, I don’t think Juuzou is dead! :3 Have a nice weekend!
Hello! And there was “no point”, simply because there isn’t always a reason planned ahead? What I mean by that is that Furuta was expecting for Eto to do something at Cochlea…
…because Eto going on a rampage meant trouble for V but, in my opinion, the main “reason” Furuta defeated her was simply because…
…She attacked him and he wasn’t exactly expecting it. I mean, look, he even recognized that maybe he had made a mistake by giving her an occasion to escape…
So for me it’s just that he didn’t want to die back then, because he still had things he wanted to do, and so he went all out against her and won.
I’ve always agreed that Furuta didn’t seem to be the final big bad though, more of that here and here. Also if Kaneki is confirmed to be Dragon then Furuta considers him an ally (as he said in ch128) so yeah maybe they won’t fight each other, or Furuta doesn’t intend on surviving this fight. 🙂
I want to go into more detail about the Daruma reference this chapter and what this could mean in regards to Kaneki. (I originally wrote this for reddit, but I wanted to share this here as well.)
For those who don’t know what Daruma dolls are, they are Japanese traditional dolls bought for good luck. They look like this, with a bearded face, blank eyes, and a weighted spherical base with no limbs.
Daruma dolls are bought from Buddhist temples as good luck charms for the New Year, and essentially act as a New Year resolution in physical form. Basically how they work is that someone paints in one eye, and then they make a wish or a goal for the year that they want to attain. When the wish or goal is attained, the other eye is then painted in. At the end of the year, the dolls are brought back to the temple and are burned in a ceremony, and new dolls are bought for the year. (sources: 1/2)
The Daruma doll is an important symbol in Tokyo Ghoul.
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!
I hope it makes sense!
midnight-in-town 