I know I’ve been annoying with all these theories for almost a year now, but since we’re apparently close to the end of the series and we might never get an answer, I’ll just say that I’ll keep on believing that something was up with at least Uta and Noro (even if for Noro it was only because of Eto), as well as maybe Itori and Nico.
Were they related to the Washuus? Were they linked to the two previous OEGs in the timeline? What was the deal with Uta’s tattoos? I doubt we’ll find out about any of this at this point so, if we really aren’t given any other hint before the end, I’ll personally take the general idea from all these theories as a headcanon.
Long story short, it turns out that this far in :Re, there are still fans who get confused about the timeline that we were given (I’m aware that overlapping different hints is not always easy though, so no pressure).So, due to a certain post I saw yesterday and that I can’t get out of my head, I decided to make a recap post on the subject to hopefully clear up some confusion.
(Please note that all of this is based on the assumption that the timeline I mentioned is accurate/can be trusted.)
Firstly, there is supposedly no need to wonder about the identity of the Nagaraj who’s a kakuja ghoul who went on a rampage 100 years ago or so, because…
we already know he’s the One Eyed Washuu Matsuri mentioned in ch151 and we even saw what he looked like on the same occasion.
Of course, one could argue that Matsuri is lying/doesn’t know the real truth but… (personal opinion here) it’s not really the kind of plot twists Sensei seems to work with in general?
So, without mentioning theories about a link between Uta & the One Eyed Washuu (if just because of the resemblance in ch151), while I can understand the need to imagine more complicated plot twists, I find it hard to consider that, say Itori, could be the Nagaraj of 100 years ago when we already saw who he supposedly was in ch151.
However, again considering the timeline we were given throughout :Re, since there is another OEG/OEK that started a second rebellion after the Nagaraj’s but before Eto’s, I think it’s legit to wonder about their identity because it’s bound to be addressed eventually.
I personally have 3 suspects at the moment:
Noro
Itori
and Donato
(since this post is a little late, considering the next chapter is soon, more below)
Alright, an explanation for why Donato might be the one eyed king, or even a one eyed king. The biggest symbolic connection is through Amon. There are several pieces foreshadowing that Amon is set up to become a future king.
We’ve even witnessed this symbolism refreshed for us recently in Amon’s birthday art. [x] @lunaamatista
Long story short, it turns out that this far in :Re, there are still fans who get confused about the timeline that we were given (I’m aware that overlapping different hints is not always easy though, so no pressure).So, due to a certain post I saw yesterday and that I can’t get out of my head, I decided to make a recap post on the subject to hopefully clear up some confusion.
(Please note that all of this is based on the assumption that the timeline I mentioned is accurate/can be trusted.)
Firstly, there is supposedly no need to wonder about the identity of the Nagaraj who’s a kakuja ghoul who went on a rampage 100 years ago or so, because…
we already know he’s the One Eyed Washuu Matsuri mentioned in ch151 and we even saw what he looked like on the same occasion.
Of course, one could argue that Matsuri is lying/doesn’t know the real truth but… (personal opinion here) it’s not really the kind of plot twists Sensei seems to work with in general?
So, without mentioning theories about a link between Uta & the One Eyed Washuu (if just because of the resemblance in ch151), while I can understand the need to imagine more complicated plot twists, I find it hard to consider that, say Itori, could be the Nagaraj of 100 years ago when we already saw who he supposedly was in ch151.
However, again considering the timeline we were given throughout :Re, since there is another OEG/OEK that started a second rebellion after the Nagaraj’s but before Eto’s, I think it’s legit to wonder about their identity because it’s bound to be addressed eventually.
I personally have 3 suspects at the moment:
Noro
Itori
and Donato
(since this post is a little late, considering the next chapter is soon, more below)
For Noro, I already explained why I thought it was a possibility along with the timeline here.
For Itori, I advanced “arguments” in different posts [x][x][x][x] but to make a really general and superficial summary (something I actually put together for @hamliet who I think love the idea of Itori being a OEG):
This is obviously not something to take super seriously (actually I made this set as some kind of joke compared to the one I had made for Uta a long time ago), but I think that with the posts I linked to above, there is at least a small basis to consider the idea.
In general the second OEG of the timeline was less addressed than the Nagaraj, because they were defeated by the newly created V and didn’t have the opportunity to go on a rampage like the One Eyed Washuu or even Kaneki himself.
So far, Kaneki mentioned them in ch121, Nishiki in ch128 and maybe Roma briefly in ch135 (when she said that she went to Cochlea after “the grand party” and Roma being 51 years old, she would have only bee, born in time for the second rebellion), but as far as I could notice that’s it, which is not a lot compared to the One Eyed Washuu/Nagaraj.
Of course, that’s not the only theory about Itori’s identity and past, another popular one being that she’s a breeder (like Rize was supposed to be), possibly already alive by the time the Nagaraj went on a rampage (@cirrocumulus-cloud made a good recap post on the subject after the latest chapter and you can read it here).
[Additional note: the ending cards of Root A episode 8, which was about Yoshimura’s backstory, were
So as always make whatever you want from that, but Eto and Kaneki are OEGs, there are theories that Uta could have a link to the One Eyed Washuu, so there might be a reason Sensei decided to make a card for Itori at the same time too]
Finally, for Donato, it gets slightly more complicated and symbolic…
…knowing that this is the biggest hint, as far as I’m concerned.
We already know thanks to Itori that the Clowns are ghouls tired of despairing, which means that it would seem legit that Donato lost more than Amon and his orphanage throughout his life, before he ended up in Cochlea for 18 years or so.
However, despite that, he’s also the suspect I am the least sure about because:
I don’t think he’s a Washuu (not that all OEGs have to be Washuus, look at Kaneki and Eto), but he’s also not Japanese, so it’s hard to see why a Russian OEG would come to Japan to launch a rebellion if he’s neither.
Not to ramble, but I also don’t think he’s such a strong ghoul. I mean, he’s definitely SS rated but I think his “cloning abilities” are possibly triggered by ghouls who were hinted they could be Washuus (and thus “their blood holds profound power”, by Kanou, ch149), namely Uta for the Clowns’ raid arc and Nico healing him in the last chapter.
best theoretical “proof” I have is that he apparently couldn’t make a clone of himself in order to escape Urie’s father and run away with Amon, which is how he ended up in Cochlea.
Nonetheless, there is also some symbolism that might vouch he’s still a likely candidate for the second OEG of the timeline, but since this isn’t really something I’m good at, I’ll let @linkspooky explain! :3
…that no one managed to dig the legendary OEG out of his kakuja, 100 years ago?
Does this mean that the body and kakuhou from which that huge kakuja originated is still somewhere inside? As in…
there is a very old person inside that thing???
Bringing that back, because when Kaneki was freed…
Meanwhile, for the Nagaraj 100 years ago, they had to stop him through breaking his eyeballs, which resulted in…
…which would explain why we can still see the huge kakuja down in the 24th ward, because there is a chance no one managed to rescue this guy:
Moving on to Uta, since I really think we’re going to be targeting his backstory and the rest of the Clowns’ in the next chapters (and he has idk how many foreshadowing hints of having a link to ^ this dude), I think everyone noticed this:
Which is that in the new chapter, his tattoos literally expanded to cover his kagune (?) and which is surprising to say the least, that is of course,unless Uta is something like a kagune/kakuja clone of the One Eyed Washuu and his whole body turns out to have the properties of a kagune/kakuja:
It’s always been one of the possibilities for Uta’s identity after all [x][x] and it would be one door to explain many things, such as:
Noro himself, who could have been a kagune/kakuja clone of Eto’s foster parent Noroi (killed by V, according to Eto)
why Uta told Yomo he doesn’t know why he’s so strong in his flashback and why he looked so young despite knowing Roma, Donato, etc, who got sent to jail way before Yomo came to the 4th ward
why Uta used a piercing to make his clones when Donato used a finger (ch116): if Uta’s whole appearance has kagune/kakuja properties because himself is a clone, then he could make yet another clone of himself through his piercings.
maybe even those kids Ayato found in the 24th ward (? I mean they look very similar to each other aside from the hair and you gotta wonder where their parents or everyone else were)
Imma stop there, but it’s just to say that, personally, this chapter kinda tilted the balance towards Uta being a kagune/kakuja clone instead of the One Eyed Washuu in the flesh, because Sensei foreshadowed that link for such a long time that there is most likely a trick to it.
More answers on Monday, hopefully, or for the chapter after the next!
I’ve seen a lot of stuff about the obvious dragons and kitsune but I don’t recall seeing anything about the phoenix nestled in there too.
They’re the dragon’s counterpart in feng shui symbolism
I wonder who the phoenix could possibly be >:)c
@mawjaw sorry, reblogging again, I’m totally in love with the Touka = Uta’s phoenix tattoo theory, especially since I found proof that
the double headed snake of Uta’s tattoo
is very probably supposed to hint at Kaneki & Rize indeed…
…thanks to that infinity/eight pattern on the Oggai but also on Saiko’s mask made by Uta that @hamliet reminded me of earlier last week.
Seriously I wish I could hate Uta for knowing everything and having represented the whole story in his tattoo set but… I’m afraid I can’t help loving him even more.
Ahhh true true!
Circle’s are also a reoccuring theme across the more ~mysterious~ characters, like the 24th warders and Noro!
AHHHHHH @mawjaw I almost forgot, this is killing me, the three freaking dots/circles thanks for reminding me…
I really hope I’m seeing things here because otherwise I want to know if literally similar events happened 100 years ago or if Uta is just able to know everything because he’s a huge troll.
sensei biology arc or answers i don’t care just stop teasing us like that !!!
how come a ghouls as powerful as Noro didn’t have any?
@kingkishou OKAY SO I just remembered that Noro wasn’t the only one who showed no eye pattern:
remember Uta (always hinted to be a strong ghoul or OEG) and as if his kagune/kakuja was made of empty eye sockets, back in ch110?
So in Noro’s case, I’m pretty sure it’s not random either, especially since Furuta said in ch121…
Initially I was thinking that maybe Noro was Eto’s foster parent whom she mentioned in ch66 and that maybe she kept him “alive” after he was killed (by injecting her kagune into him? I mean, she did leave a “gift” to Kaneki and Banjou used his kagune for the first time after she stabbed him too) and that was why Noro was so monstrous despite not showing any eye pattern of Rc cells clustering?
Now though I wonder…
if there isn’t some link to the Nagaraj.
I mean, fom the way I understand it, I think no eye pattern possibly means…
…no Rc cells clustering and/or no kakuhou and it’s true that it wasn’t really Uta in ch110, since it was a clone he made from one of his piercings…
…so maybe that could explain the empty eye sockets pattern, if the clone thingy had no kakuhou in the first place.
Thus maybe it was the same for Noro, if somehow he was just a shell or even a clone of who he used to be…
that could explain the emphasis on a big mouth rather than on an eye pattern, just like Uta’s clone…
or even Kaneki’s, more recently.
(this one kinda looks like Noro in his final battle, just saying…)
Besides, Noro never seemed to particularly react to anyone stabbing him or cutting him in two (Aogiri arc), pretty much like Uta’s clones (”Arima” & “Sasaki”) who just kept up the sarcasm, so maybe the Noro we knew was just some kind of empty shell or clone from the beginning and the skull we saw in ch55 was just the proof that V really killed him many years ago?
TL;DR
eyeball pattern = Rc cells clustering and Rc cells cluster more densely around the kakuhou, according to Kimi => Dragoneki
big mouth pattern = Uta’s clone when he faced Juuzou & co, Kaneki’s current humanoid clones => so Noro = clone of Eto’s foster parent?
I keep thinking about this in the shower and then immediately forget to make a post about it :’)a
So I’m pretty sure this is one step closer to confirmation that Noro is a highly-functioning kagune spore borne from the original OEK. Given time, I wonder if these ugly guys that came out of Kaneki’s kagune would also have eventually gained cognizance, defined features, etc, the same way that he may have.
Maybe when his life-force was running low, Eto was able to give him some strength with the strange power she gave to Banjou and Kaneki.
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?
Confirmation that the Nagaraj/King of the Underground…
was indeed a part of the Washuu family, apparently. :))
And that must be why…
they allied with humans in order to take him down, because between being a OEG and a kakuja from birth, he was too powerful.
Well…
I’m on the fence, but I have a preference for Uta, because we’ve had possible hints for a while that all the remaining Clowns ( – Furuta and Shikorae) are older than they look.
Also, as we just learnt, the Nagaraj was special because he was both a OEG and kakuja from birth so…
maybe that explains the special cloning abilities (and Donato would have received his own from him?).
For more details, the links to these theories are on my meta page. 🙂 Have a nice day Anon!
midnight-in-town 