linkspooky:

Mr. Potato here. As I was saying, Amon was relevant in encouraging CCG to work with the ghouls, as we saw in the chapters the investigators were surprised to see that one of the CCG heroes, Amon Koutarou, was alive, “hero” so Amon has credibility in the CCG and would get the attention of everyone because of it. I’m not here defending that he didn’t lie to himself there when he said those things, but he was relevant there and this time it’s not just about personal matters like Rushima.

Alright Anon, let’s define a character in the simplest of terms. A character is somebody who has a simple and clearly defined goal, and takes proactive steps towards that goal. 

In Tokyo Ghoul, Amon’s goal was figuring out centipede. Almost every action he took was centered around that task, and the information he received relevant. As he was an investigator, it made sense that the main majority of his character arc is simply following Centipede’s trail and meeting him in different locations trying to figure out. 

In Re: however, you cannot name one single goal which Amon pursues throughout the entire manga. His first goal is that he will pursue Seidou and Kurona and then save them because they are as he remembered in his final fight before becoming a ghoul members of his precious last sanctuary.

That is a goal, and then as we see all of Amon’s appearences in Re: before this point are trying to pursue that. Re: looking for Kurona, traveling to Rueshima in order to help Seidou.

Then, he gets exactly that. Seidou and Kurona are both safe, and even moreso they showed up to help him and drag him back to. All three of them are reunited, and Amon finally gets the chance to do as he said with Seidou, to allow Seidou to come with him and fight side by side and then….

Amon never mentions Seidou or Kurona ever again. Apparently, after dedicating three years of your life to saving someone, you don’t even want to check up on them or wonder where they are. Amon’s top priority instead becomes Akira.

Alright, his number one goal in life is Akira. He’s going to protect her and stay by her side and choose her over the world now, instead of how he failed to before in the three years he left her alone and didn’t choose to tell her he was alive. That’s his new goal- and now-

They’re both going up against Godzilla. Then we see Amon, who said that he felt all of his feelings as an investigator in the past were wrong, once again returning to his image of an idealized investigator and a CCG.

So when I say Amon has done nothing what I mean is none of his actions form together in a coherent and consistent arc. This is not a flaw of the writing (at least I hope it’s not, rule of thumb is assume everything is intentional), but rather a flaw of Amon himself and his inability to self actualize. Amon almost mirrors Kaneki in this regard, having lost his original cause he just shifts again from cause to cause as they are presented to him. Therefore he lacks the ability to truly commit himself to any one of them. 

You can tell Amon’s hesitance to commit, because he almost never acts until the house is already on fire. He is reactive, rather than active. Amon waits until Rueshima is at its absolute worst and most tense, and then saves Seidou by tearing his arm off and then starting a fight with him. He does not even get to Kurona on time despite stalking her for years it seemed. Seidou is the one who waits by Akira’s bedside, and then retrieves the RC suppressant with Kaneki, and also brings Amon back, but it’s Amon who at the end of that speaks with her. Only after being told by Touka to do so, and also he realizes he wanted to speak with her all along after being told by Touka again. He does not move to help Kaneki with Goat until after 90% of the ghoul population has been exterminated, Goat is mostly destroyed, and Kaneki has turned into a giant monster. Then, and only then does Amon suddenly decide to act. The consistent thread in all of this is Amon is not an active decider in these scenarios. The scenarios area always set for him by other people, and Amon merely reacts to them, most often in the way dictated by others. 

A weird writing quirk of Amon’s in Re: is that all of his importance from Tokyo Ghoul still remains, as you said Amon is an important person to the CCG, and an important perosn thematically, but we see in manifest in Re: in the form of lost potential. 

Amon had the potential to understand ghouls, however he instead tried to learn everything by himself and failed to empathize with them or even see himself as a ghoul despite living as one for three years.

Amon has the potential to undermine V’s grip on the CCG, and their propaganda. He himself is a ghoul while remianing an investigator at heart and a believer in the CCG’s ideals. He is sitting on the sphinx conspiracy, the fact that the CCG experimented on him behind closed doors, etc. etc.

Yet when he chooses to speak to give the CCG a reason to fight with ghouls, does he reveal either of these things? The fact that the CCG was corrupt and that their propaganda that ghouls have no emotions was a lie? The fact that he a former CCG officer is himself a ghoul and standing right in front of them?

No, he once again justice bla bla bla peace bla bla…

Which as I remind you sounds more like V, than anything else.

Which is where I reach my point… probably. That Amon’s actions are inconsitent as a part of his character arc. He does not know what he wants to do, but he also refuses to admit that he does not know. As it would mean accepting a personal responsibility that he is not prepared to accept. Which is why he is still spouting the line of Kaneki not being a murderer, long after Kaneki became a murderer several times over. 

The irony behind that line was that Kaneki is only not a murderer if he does not kill humans. As long as Amon has only killed ghouls, he is not a murderer, he is not fallen like Seidou, or Donato. Donato is Amon’s Black Goat’s Egg. Amon does not want to admit that in a way he’s repeated the same violence that he saw in Donato as a child.

To acknowledge Donato’s humanity, and to acknowledge his own actions means that he has already been a murderer long ago. Long before he became a ghoul in fact. As what Amon’s primary motivator at the beginning of the manga was, was to stop the violence in the world that was primarily aimed at children, because he let so many children in his own orphanage die. Yet his first actions is to enable and even encourage Mado’s pursuit of a child in Hinami, and kill her mother right in front of her. Then much later in the manga, Amon’s current goal is to save Kaneki Ken, somebody who did this to Hajime Hazuki.

Who remember is the same Hajime that Amon was motivated to help fix the world, protect orphans like him or prevent any more people from being orphaned all those years ago.

This is what you call an arc, these flaws and ignorances on Amon’s part are designed with a purpose. Otherwise there would be no reason to call back to Hajime all those years ago, he could have been a completely new character like Yusa, Rikai and Shio were, however the callback is deliberate and we’re meant to think on it. 

Amon’s main flaw was ignorance, he even said it was the reason he was carrying the cross around his neck. In order to actually contribute in a meaningful way Amon has to figure himself out, figure out what he wants, and act proactively and consistently. That’s the path to the completion of his character arc, and so when I say that Amon has accomplished nothing, I entirely mean it as a flaw of his character. That he as a character is prevented from self actualizing due to certain flaws holding him back, and that a path exists in the narrative for resolution of this flaw.