It´s also interesting to note that after Hairu was stabbed into the chest, she started to use T-Human. After Koori stabs the Owl and Kaiko uses the whistle, the Owl launches and attack that look rather similar to the electric burst of Narukami/T-Human.
So we saw everybody band together in an epic feat of teamwork, the question is why exactly did it not work in bringing owl 2.0 down?
It’s probably something as simple as the characters really haven’t grown enough to earn this vicotry. Which is what necessitates the clown shake down in the first place.
Here, let me demonstrate with a breakdown of Kaika vs Yusa, the only real character vs character interaction rather than character vs giant monster that we get in the fight.
First, he calls the two remaining members of Zero Squad Arima’s lapdogs. Not only that but Sheep that he herded himself. That’s a rather thinly veiled and obvious Jesus metaphor.
Remember, Arima Kishou died for our sins. Ishida likes to remind us of it approximately every five chapters that Arima Kishou is indeed dead.
Arima is so universally mourned by everyone it’s almost enough to make you forget that he was a morally ambiguous character to begin with. It’s almost like his death has wiped the slate clean on him.
As I’ve said before though, Tg: Re would never glorify suicide like that. Lately, we’ve been witnessing a slow deconstruction on Arima’s sacrifice. Including the facts that Take clearly does not know entirely what the big picture is, that he relies on Arima’s words too much, and the fact that Zero Squad has been whittled down to its last two remaining members.
Arima’s sacrifice of his own life to make Kaneki the strongest of all ghouls was destroyed when the CCG simply replaced him with Juuzou. Arima’s choice to leave behind the zero squad with Kaneki to protect him, results in two of them dying in an almost direct result of his choice not to tell Ui to avoid confrontation.
Take holds information to himself, and isn’t really super clear anymore on what Arima’s goals were to begin with. So, to summarize the story itself is still framing Arima’s choice to sacrifice himself ambiguously. As in there were some good things, and some bad things about that choice. However, the characters themselves still view Arima in exactly that light.
Yomo even brings up this exact same notion to Take. That Arima did a lot of bad things and hurt a lot of people, even if he was doing it for good ends ultimately those wounds go away, and Take basically says it doesn’t matter because Arima is dead now. He brushes off the opportunity to think critically about Arima, because no matter what he concludes it won’t change the fact that Arima is still dead. However, it does matter for the sake of the living.
Take, while still acknowledging that Arima is dead is still working tirelessly to earn his praise and following the orders of a dead man.
So much so, he fails to grasp entirely what Arima’s purpose in leaving Take the zero squad should have been. Even after losing two members in a pointless sacrifice, Take does not realize he should stop bringing Yusa onto battlefields with him and forcing the child soldier raised from birth to fight, to fight more.
Kaiko takes both Takeomi and Kuramoto out of the fight easily, but from a character perspective it’s clear why. Neither Kuramoto nor Takeomi have grown. Takeomi simply walks straight back into being a CCG officer, not even acknowledging what happened to his father and mourning him, and Kuramoto does not even try to resolve his conflict with Take, simply choosing to make a bunch of passive aggressive comments.
Remember, Kuramoto truly made himself vulernable for a moment when Take left. However, as usual he’s back to just making sly comments behind his fox face.
Kuramoto wanted to believe in him, that he had reasons to do what he was doing. His sense of betrayal came not from Take’s actions, but the fact that Take chose not to talk to him about it beforehand, and Take really hasn’t changed anything in that regard, so Kuramoto simply slinky behind his mask once more.
Then, to the meat of the fight. Kaiko’s not just mocking Yusa here, he’s mocking the pedestal that Arima is put upon by the zero squad. Which is why Kaiko chooses these specific reminders. Arima was a child soldier, just like Yusa, presumably just like Kaiko as well.
Then the juiciest moment of the chapter, while dangling a blade at Yusa’s neck he mutters, “Am I like Arima, yet?”
He’s not making the comparison between Yusa and Arima anymore, but rather Yusa and himself. Kaiko raised child soldiers obediently as a part of V, but so did Arima as well. Not only that, he did the exact same thing to Sasaki. Literally, every flashback we see of Arima presents him as being a cruel and ruthless teacher, even if he was one with good intentions.
So, what Kaiko is taunting Yusa about is that by drawing out the fight to test his strength, by holding a blade at his throat, really he’s acting exactly like Arima as well. “Am I like Arima, yet?” He’s challenging Yusa’s perfect image of Arima.
However, Yusa really does fail to respond to that in the fight way. Take just sinks once again into calling that name an honor. He adopts his perfect image of Arima that he’s using to fight for once more. Literally what Take should be saying to counteract that is “You’re not Arima, you’re you Yusa…” but Take can’t really grasp that, because Take himself keeps dragging Yusa into combat because that’s what Arima told him to do.
Which is why Ui fails to think critically as well. As touching as his rememberance of Hairu and Arima is, and also even though he’s leagues above Shuu who refuses to remember even Matsumae and Karren’s name, we should remember that Ui was given the oppurtunity to tell the CCG the truth about Furuta, Arima and Arima’s legacy and he chose to lie instead.
Even though, Ui himself much earlier was the one who grasped the nuance of the situation, that people were allowing Furuta to take power, not just Furuta being the only bad egg in the CCG. Blaming it all on Furuta, is probably something that Ui did to protect both Take and Arima’s name, but utlimately it’s the wrong choice, and one that brings him farther away from the truth.
Which is likely the reason why Ui is still smoking as well. His smoking is a sign of his own personal emotional repression. After Take tells him at least part of the truth of why he left, Ui says he’s going to be smoking a lot more now. He really hasn’t come to terms with it, and probably won’t until he’s set up confront Hairu, which may come soon.
However, at the end of the day the characters have failed to grow which is why instead of banding together to heroically defeat Owl, they’re exposed to round two. The heroic blow that Yusa dealt Kaiko essentially meaning nothing as it stitches itself up right away, the owl exploding and killing more just like when it looks it might be detained.
As per the usual in Tokyo Ghoul these problems can’t be overcome with fighting and strength alone.
As for what will happen next, considering this is an owl kagune I wonder if it’s bait to lure Amon out. After this explosion there probably won’t be many ground investigators left that can match it.
Amon showing up to help his comrades (and “for peace!”) against Owl 2.0 would make a lot of sense, especially considering that the current situation is rather strongly reminiscing of what the CCG tried to do with him in ch114/115 (with another parallel once Seidou hopefully shows up).
it would be interesting to see Amon trying to face the one who’s possibly Eto and thus half the responsible party behind him becoming a OEG, something he still can’t fully accept to this day.
I was discussing this with @amonmahboi yesterday but actually, Donato having “fun” with someone who’s possibly Eto (other strong possibilities being Hairu and Karren) as payback for what happened to Amon between TG and :Re would be a very ironic development, especially if Amon indeed shows up to fight that Owl 2.0.
It would be like “I’m stuck in the past because of my horrible father figure and despite becoming a OEG, but here I am fighting for peace against a monster who’s threatening my comrades, not knowing that this monster is actually the result of my horrible father figure seeking revenge for what happened to me”.
It makes a good setting for Kaiko’s round two when round one seemed rather hopeless. At least to me. Oh well, just some thoughts. :3
Ghoulification by poison in the air has been introduced as a concept, but it’d be no fun if the only characters that really got ghoulified were Saiko, and some one off character from one chapter of og tg. It’s likely more recognizable characters are going to get ghoulish as the fight continues to complicate things further rather than simply finding and retrieving a save all cure in one fell swoop.
So with that being said, I present to you my predictions on the most likely characters to be turned into ghouls among the human cast.
Yoriko Kosaka
The entire point of Yoriko’s character is that she’s an innocent right now dragged into this conflict by her association with both Takeomi and Touka.
Touka also made a deliberate choice not to confront Yoriko’s execution. The fact that she was pregnant also at the time becomes less and less of an excuse considering that once Kaneki was in danger, Touka did such bold things as walk in front of the CCG and remove her mask, and climb on top of Dragon’s back to retrieve him.
Touka made a deliberate choice to ignore Yoriko’s predicament and prioritize Kaneki over her. I’m not saying that this is the wrong choice, but it is a choice and choices should have consequences. Especially since Touka’s choice was made not out of a discussion, but rather Kaneki and Touka who are both avoidant people of uncomfortable things once again avoiding the topic all together.
Yoriko even says this came about because she didn’t try to understand Touka at all. My point is, this is a consequence that makes sense as a resolution in a story.
It’s a consequence for Bujin prioritizing his job as an investigator over personal feelings which is what everybody in the CCG does, it’s a consequence for Yoriko being pretty much forgotten in all of the dragon fuss, and for Yoriko herself not understanding what the conflicts ghouls and her ghoul best friend was going through.
As far as resolutions go it would be a way to keep Yoriko involved in the plot, rather than having her off somewhere sipping momosas on the beach waiting for this all to be over.
Suzuya Juuzou
This one is the most obvious foreshadowing, but Juuzou really does have yet to face any kind of consequence for what he did during the 24th ward raid. His blatant disregard for life is something he gets away with because he’s a human.
It makes almost little to no sense to give Juuzou all of the power and prestige of being Arima, to draw the comparison between the two characters, if there is not some kind of drawback. Something has to teach Juuzou to value life, and for Arima it was the awareness that he was part ghoul so no matter what he did he really was no different than the people he was slaughtering. He was a murderer to who could not live a normal life.
Amon Koutarou/Urie Kuki
These ones are longshots, but Urie already has the poison inside of him. Both Urie and Amon are also the ones who are extremely close to becoming ghouls but completely in denial of their ghoul nature.
Considering that Urie’s already activated both of his Kakugan before on his own, it’d be interesting to see him turn all the way this time, but unlike last time there’s no Saiko around to reverse it for him.
Fura Taishi
This one is just a minor guess but this panel seems so suspicious to me.
To be honest though I don’t really expect Fura to be relevant until the CCG finally gets hit with the revelation of who Arima truly was all along.
Kimi Nishino
This one is just wishful thinking but it’d be nice to see Kimi face some kind of consequence for her reckless use of ghoulification and victimization of ghoulification experiments for her own personal agenda.
Kimi’s also the one who specifies over and over again that the only reason she never became violent is because she so happened to be born a human.
Anyway, those are my guesses at whose going to be ghoulified. I’ll let @chan take it away from here with hers -> @midnight-in-town
Thanks for tagging me Spooky-chan! Tbh you already mentioned most of the characters I had considered going down the ghoul path, as you already know, which is to say Juuzou, Yoriko, Saiko and possibly Amon and Urie. :))
There is only one more I’d consider going down the ghoul path, maybe, and the rest will be characters I am not vouching will become ghouls.
Aura Shinsanpei
Master of irony best summed up by @eto-when-and-wherehere, he’d be an ideal candidate to experience a ghoulification in my opinion, if just because it might also trigger a slight development for his aunt Kiyoko as well (who’s one of the few remaining “old” investigators, with Marude and Mougan).
I don’t have as many arguments as you did for the others and maybe I’m biased, but that’s how I think for now.
Not Kimi
We disagree on her and my opinion is that she won’t become a ghoul because both her character and path in :Re are based on wanting to find a way for coexistence to work, so that she (a human) would be able to live with the man (a ghoul) she loves.
Granted that she took part in horrible things by following Kanou, but her motivation is what drove her to move forward all this time + she has no problems with ghouls in general, so ghoulification wouldn’t teach her much, besides immediately solving the problem that she has about not being able to live freely with Nishiki, which is counterproductive in my opinion.
So Kimi stays human and will have to find a way to solve this whole mess as her redemption, before she can be able to have that future that she wants with Nishiki.
Not Akira
Same as for Kimi, in my opinion, ghoulification will teach Akira absolutely nothing, because her issue lies with acknowledging that
her parents were also in the wrong
that she’s not a horrible and despising person if she admits that
(+ we can see that ghoulification DIDN’T help Amon on these exact same points until now, so you know, why bother?)
As a woman who fell for two OEGs and remained supportive of Kaneki despite claiming before that she hardly had anything to do with him since he wasn’t Haise anymore, Akira’s main dynamics are either with OEGs or with ghouls (Touka, Hina).
In other words, if that’s not enough to teach her that it’s important that she walks out of her father’s shadow, then I doubt ghoulification will help her further (again, same as for Amon who’s stuck in “no ghoul + Mado Kureo” mode despite being a OEG for at least 3 years), especially when she already threw out the whole system to save Takizawa.
We already discussed that in another post, but confrontation (and hopefully, realization) for Amon is definitely coming now that Donato showed up again. So maybe the same will come for Akira at approximately the same time, which is why now is a good time for Seidou to show up again in order to help them.
Not Ui
What’s left of his development comes from confronting (zombified) Arima and Hairu, who both came from the garden and thus have ghoul lineage, something that apparently totally flew over his head until now so, again, ghoulification in itself wouldn’t bring him much because his issues aren’t about the ghoul kind but about being left behind.
Arima didn’t tell him about his plans, Hairu fancied Arima and not him, but becoming a ghoul won’t help him acknowledge why, especially when he already moved on from Take and Arima “betraying” the CCG, in my opinion.
EDIT: I forgot, NOT HIDE either
Hide is great as a very intelligent human who managed mostly on his own so far. Not gonna expand because he literally has no issues with ghouls whatsoever, so ghoulification would bring him nothing for his development (except a new throat I guess, but that can be solved if medicine and science improve, like Kanou expected them to, thanks to new ghoul biology knowledge).
It seems the current objective of the clowns is to buy time for whatever Furuta’s next objective to seize is. Considering that all of the major clowns (with the exception of Rio) are united and leading this attack.
I can’t help but think their strategy is going to be more complicated then, sick the v investigators on the CCG Ghoul alliance, and then if that fails sick the giant monster on them.
All remaining clowns have shown to be intelligent and thinking fighters, as Roma herself seems to have been purged from the ranks and lost due to being too much of the opposite, going too crazy, and having too much fun and therefore relying more on brute strength than thoughtful strategy. They’ll most likely play to exploit the weaknesses of the current characters fighting so here’s some thought as to what those weaknesses could be.
OKAY I HAVE TWO QUESTIONS IN PARTICULAR. Uimhir a hAon: fucking, WHAT?
Uimhir a dó: fUCKIN, WHAT?!
Can someone please explain?
If there is an element of truth to the wild accusations of everything being his fault that Rize throws at Kaneki, is that he did not have any clear plans for the future or an idea what he wanted. I went over this before, but basically Rize pokes holes in his plans easily. So much so that it looks like either result for him was not that well thought out.
Kaneki’s decision to wait where they were safe in the 24th ward resulted in all of them being boxed in and raided by the CCG, the so called “Kouryugi” operation. However, even when he suggests that they could have done the total opposite, they could have ambushed the CCG and raided them for real before the raid ever happened he’s met with this result.
What Rize points out is that Kaneki clearly does not want this result either, he does not want to beat the CCG into submission and make them submit to his will. Kaneki abhors violence and bloodshed, so even if he had made up his mind to make the completely opposite decision, because of Kaneki’s own lack of forethought as to what would come next it’s likely he would have resulted in a similiar place.
Kaneki is not thinking things through, it’s a complex problem and Kaneki cannot solve it by simply rushing forward. Even his own choice to rush forward that he had no choice but to keep moving forward is poked a hole in by Rize, who casually points out he could have chosen to do nothing instead.
This isn’t true obviously, but it’s important to notice the contrast. Kaneki insisted he had no choice but to keep moving forward, whereas Rize brings up the opposite. He could have done nothing. It’s to poke holes in that mindset.
The problem this chapter in part is highlighting is that Kaneki does not think things through to their deepest extent, and when he charges forward with these half formed ideals in mind he ends up with results he does not want. Then there is the bottom line, because of this Kaneki does not know exactly what he wants. He knows in vague terms maybe…
The point of paralleling this with what Ui said to Take is that we had a similiar question asked of Take a few chapters ago.
Is this really what Arima wanted? Was this the result of his plan? Take however does not know, because he bases his decisions on what Arima asked of him and Arima is not there. Arima is dead and therefore unable to answer the question. To begin with though, Arima and Eto’s ideal world was extremely vague. It basically went “Not this one.”
So a few chapters later in an arc where it was asked the question “Is all of this destruction what Arima, wanted?” and pointed out that without Arima around the two heads of Zero Squad fell into a needless conflict with one another. An arc that’s been establishing so far that maybe it’s a good idea to figure out what you want before running into the fight.
We have a ghoul and human alliance being formed for the reason of “mmmmmhhmm” and the goals of “mmmyeahhhhh.” The fact that Ui asks again if this is what Take wanted and Take kind of… doesn’t answer is more evidence that these characters aren’t quite there yet.
It wouldn’t make sense to punish Kaneki to such an extent for not having what he wanted, and what he was trying to accomplish figured out if we see characters acting similarly now and banding together on equally flaky ideals. I think it’s meant to be ominous, not that the ghoul alliance is bad per se because it’s a step in the right direction but also they just like Kaneki are banding together only for vague ideals and nothing concrete and no solid plans beyond the one obvious obstacle in front of them.
If you think everything that Furuta and Kanou have done so far is wrong, then we really should not be following Fruuta’s scenario and script so closely to a T. I think after this dragon is resolved, the next arc will be about that, characters realizing they have to break free of Furuta’s script and take control of the narrative for themselves and for their own reasons. Not just platitudes like “protection”, “duty”, “human”, “ghoul”, “ghoul investigator”, “peace” etc, because they are people outside of these words.
Nah, you nailed it and I don’t really have much else to add, other than to emphasis the point that Kaneki isn’t entirely to blame for Goat’s failure – in direct contrast to what ‘Rize’ tells him, and he reaffirms himself – and that there are other players who share responsibility in encouraging and allowing him to make decisions that they actively disagreed with.
It’s a conflict the organisation faced from its very inception: it can’t decide whether it’s a collective of oppositional factions who unite in pursuit of a broad ideological goal, or just a devoted entourage to the OEK [you wrote a great post on this before so linking again in case anyone else wants to read]. The majority of Goat is made up of weak, starving ghouls and there’s no real reason to begrudge them for simply seeking out a guardian (in the short term) but it also has a functioning executive of smart, skilled actors who consented to an alliance, and who (mostly) have repeatedly failed to oppose Kaneki – and not even out of fear, just… comfort or reckless obedience – even at the expense of the wider community they claim to be fighting for, and at Ken’s own detriment too.
I think (or hope?) that was a deliberate parallel encouraging us as readers to remember that, and hopefully it’s a sign that those characters will be forced to confront their culpability and take the steps necessary to addressing that idk. It seems like Hirako might be contemplating that after both Yusa and Ui hit him with questions he couldn’t answer (I wish he’d just talk fs), and Tsukiyama has also started to doubt his own passivity (“If only I had…”) so I’m optimistic.
Hi! Hmm… to be honest, I might as well tell you about the only arc I didn’t particularly like, because otherwise I never had any problem with the pacing & writing of TG and :Re.
Sensei has always been consistent for me, which is why I was hardly ever bored for the last 3+ years. :))
So, ahem, the only arc I’m a little unfazed about is the Rose investigation arc in :Re. It’s not that it was badly written because it definitely wasn’t and I never wanted to stop reading, but it’s the only arc I find very annoying to reread.
I mean, I started rereading TG in July/August and ever since then I’ve been stuck on this arc, so I think this is enough to tell you just how how meh I am about it. xD
If I were to try and explain though, I’d say that, overall, this arc was extremely interesting and I loved what its conclusions brought as new developments to the story, but it’s just that, until it ended, weekly chapters were… a pain, lol.
…I think the main reasons I felt like that were because of the characters this arc focused on, as well as the fandom’s huge hypocrisy at the time:
I like Tsukiyama now, because of the changes the Rose arc brought to his character, but up until it ended, I wasn’t really a fan.
he was put on a very high pedestal and many people ignored how extremely selfish he was. So readers were crying their eyes out during the whole arc and I was here like “but that was obviously coming to him and that’s necessary development?!”. I think I felt very alone xD
I had no major problem with Karren though: her development was one of the best aspects of this arc. However, the debates and aggressivity about her within the fandom at the time nearly ruined it all for me. -_-
Kijima: in the end, he was just a feint so that Ishida could really introduce Furuta’s character with a huge twist, but I just couldn’t stand that guy.
Hairu: okay, unpopular opinion I know, but ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I’m sorry I don’t get particularly invested in characters who die 10 chapters after being introduced.
It’s a little different now, because she’s still got a narrative significance for Ui’s character, but overall my interest in her is really not high.
Same for Matsumae. Secondary characters whose only narrative value is to trigger the development of more important characters generally don’t particularly interest me (*waves at the 2nd gen of Qs*).
Ui: same as for Tsukiyama. I like him better now than the pretentious investigator he used to be.
No major problem with Sasaki, the Qs or Eto.
So you see, it’s not really a problem of content or writing for this arc: it really is good because it triggered a lot of necessary development. However these developments were at their starting point after the Rose arc for me and I think that’s my issue with this arc.
To give an example, it’s different from, say, Touka’s character, who I got to slowly know better before the Aogiri arc in TG and for whom looking back on previous chapters/arcs always made me appreciate her character even more from the moment I understood her better. For Ui and Tsukiyama though,
they give me literally no reason to like their characters before the developments that the Rose arc triggers for them, so I guess that’s why it’s so tedious for me to read through this arc again. xDDD
I hope it satisfies your curiosity, it’s really the only arc I feel differently from all the others! Have a nice weekend Anon. ^_^
Haha, well, as they say “to each their own” Anon. xD I’ve seen that written often, when the Rushima/Cochlea arc was on its way, but I personally don’t considering that Sensei’s writing ever turned abysmal.
For me, the turning point and narrative peak in :Re was the Rushima/Cochlea arc, not the Rose arc, and to be honest, I’m glad it seems we lost a part of the fandom during that long arc, because the fandom’s behavior overall ever since then is much better than during the Rose arc.
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts Anon! Have a nice day! ^_^
Then we have Shuu, who also made an important decision recently and has always been open about his emotions and thoughts. His problem lied in failing to realize the full extent of where those emotions and loyalty lied. He always sought after things he could not have, like Kaneki, when he was privileged enough to have a loving family who surrounded him and protected him all along. It’s only when that is threatened does Tsukiyama realize where ultimately his heart is.
That the greatest revelation of Shuu’s character arc was not chasing what he could not have but rather in appreciating what he had around him.
I saw some confusion over Ui and Furuta’s dialogue in chapter 146, and I’m not sure when JB will release the chapter, so I’ll just post my translation of the dialogue here.
Ui: This truly is a sight that exceeds human comprehension…so was this what you were going to revive Arima-san and Hairu with!? Answer me!!
Furuta: …although this is just a theory, a possibility…if the kagune is a product of the imagination, maybe life could be born from that infinite chaos. That thing [Dragon] could be called a substitute for that [life].
Ui: …possibility? What percent? Give me the highest number.
Furuta: Almost 0.
Ui: I see. Fuck you.
Furuta: You knew when you were fighting those “fallen kids” [Oggai] that bringing them would only bring about destruction. I simply thought that there would be a higher chance of success. Besides, it’s not like I’ve had the chance to see this before myself.
Furuta: In fairy tales, the previous king of the 24th ward was said to have given out his life. I don’t know whether that’s true or not. I also don’t know if that was just on a whim. Of course, there were additional people who lost their lives because of him. Ui-san. …It is true that I did indeed possess a treasure map. But it wasn’t for the treasure you sought…
Ui: …to be honest, I didn’t really believe in it. I’m not that much of a fool. I just held onto it while I was sinking…I wanted to cling onto it. Even if it meant grasping it at straws. But I can’t…stand it…anymore.
Furuta: I’m sorry. Even though they were your enemies, you couldn’t kill them, could you?
Ui: …we fought aiming to kill each other. We were on the verge of death many times. One step further, and one of us would’ve died. That’s how the both of us felt…but when that thing appeared…before I knew it, our shoulders were lined up side by side. All of the issues left my head, and my body began moving on its own.
Furuta: …is that so? I’m glad to hear it.
Ui: …!?
Furuta: …I’ll be going now. I’m no longer the Bureau Director. What are you going to do, Koori?
Ui: …go above ground. Because I’m an investigator.
This poem from around this time last year finally seems to be taking on a new meaning. I wrote a meta on it at the time, but the sole fig leaf, an ark, dissolving into a pillar of salt, those are all biblical references. Specifically to Adam and Eve, Noah, and then to Lot.
Those references seemed strictly old testament, but now a poem about final judgement gains new meaning in light of current events and comparison to the biblical account of revelations. The prophecy for an end time scenarios as held by the new testament of the Christian bible.
Loved your post :3 but I just wanted to add, about Takizawa’s possible involvement:
he has the cross
he is one of the Jokers
he’s a Knight in chess symbolism
and, mostly, he parallels Kaneki a great deal,or at least he used to, until recently
About the parallels between Kaneki and Seidou, there are many obvious ones (both became OEGs because of Kanou, both used to be CCG investigators, both were tried to become the OEK figure…), but I want to focus on the ones Ishida introduced after Seidou started his own redemption path, because I find they are the most relevant to Kaneki’s current situation as Dragon:
“if we don’t tie [them] down with a chain, [they]’ll go off and die”
resolve through love
redemption
As I said though, they do parallel each other quite strongly for point 1 but are currently opposed on point 2. Point 3 is one Kaneki has yet to reach, but considering the stance you take in your meta, or even my personal interpretation of Kaneki’s narrative, I’d say it should eventually be Kaneki’s next step.
SThanks for this reblog, because now you’ve gotten me thinking about knights and chess symbolism. Immediately I’m reminded of the concept that in chess there are 5 knights, two white and two black.
From this pattern in the symbolism, I think we can take your thinking further and make a decent enough guess of who is going to be critical in the upcoming fight against the dragon.
Oddly enough, all four of these characters also seem to be going through mini kaneki arcs of their own, ones in which the resolution should lead them directly to opposition with Kaneki.
“if we don’t tie [them] down with a chain, [they]’ll go off and die”
resolve through love
redemption
As it’s the knight whose destined to slay a dragon, let’s look at each of these contenders under the cut. If you notice the pattern above too, there are two black knights on Furuta’s side, Ui and Urie, and two white knights on Kaneki’s side, Seidou and Tsukiyama.
midnight-in-town 