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she wears strength and darkness equally well, 

the girl has always been half goddess, half hell

#tokyo ghoul:re #eto

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Eto, Odin and the one-eyed king

As you may have guessed from the panels shown above, this post will be about Bileyg, or Odin. I dove into the vast world known as the internet, to find out who Odin exactly is, so I could give you some information about him. Hopefully, this will shed some light on why Eto chose Odin for the title of her book. I hope you enjoy reading!

Odin is a very interesting god. He is the chief god of Asgard, yet a lot of times, you can’t find him there. He often wanders on his own, far away form Asgard. What’s funny, is that he’s the divine patron of outcasts. This really alligns with Tokyo Ghoul, since the one-eyed king in the story is the leader of the ghouls, who can be seen as the outcasts of the Tokyo Ghoul world.

The most notable thing about Odin, though, is his pursuit of wisdom. He would literally do anything to obtain more knowledge. This also relates to his lost eye. When Odin still had two eyes, he went to a certain well, the well of Urd, because he knew that it’s waters contained wisdom. He, of course, wanted nothing more than to drink it’s water and obtain said wisdom, but the guardian of the well, Mymir, didn’t let him. Mymir said he could only drink the water, if he sacrified one of his eyes. Odin did, and that’s the reason he only has one eye.

Something else I think is quite significant, is the fact that Odin possesses the the gift of writing beautifully and persuasively. He wasn’t born with this gift, but he stole the mead of poetry from the giants, and drank it. This the first thing that may actually point to who the one-eyed king is/will be. Since Eto is a writer, this makes it more likely that she was indeed referring to herself as the one-eyed king in her book. However, this is absolutely not definitive proof. Especially since Eto herself said she wasn’t the one-eyed king. Still, this is pretty interesting.

Last but not least, Odin also spends a lot of time gathering warriors. He’s preparing for Ragnarok. Ragnarok basically refers to some sort of apocolypse in the world of the gods. In their world, there are a couple of prophecies. One of those predicted Ragnarok. In that prophecy, Odin ends up fighting a very powerful wolf, named Fenrir. So Odin needs to gather as much warriors as he can, mostly taken from the underworld. This is also what’s happening right now in Tokyo Ghoul:re. Aogiri needs it’s leader, the one-eyed king, and a lot of strong ghoul warriors. Again, Eto is the one gathering warriors, not Kaneki. So this also points to Eto being the one-eyed king in her book.

Of course, the question is, who is the powerful wolf they’ll need to defeat? The CCG or the Washuu? Or the V organization? But, more importantly, who will win? Odin, or the wolf? Well… the thing is, we know what happens during Ragnarok in the Nordic mythlogy. And it does not include a happy ending for Odin. The wolf kills Odin. However, it’s important to note, that the wolf is later killed by one of Odin’s sons. 

Now, what does this mean for the world of Tokyo Ghoul? Maybe the one-eyed king won’t be the one to defeat ‘the wolf’. He’ll die. Still, the wolf is eventually killed. That’s the most important thing here. Actually, it just gives life to a new question: Who is the son of the one-eyed king? Well, I think I have an idea (chapter 56):

Obviously, Kaneki is not her biological son, but since she does want to make him her son, it could be relevant. This would mean Eto really was/is the one-eyed king, but knows she won’t win, and therefore needs her ’son’ to finish her work. I know, I know, not super solid evidence, but still, it kind of makes sense. Eto is still stronger than Kaneki at the moment, but Kaneki has gotten stronger and stronger and has potential to grow even stronger. Maybe Eto recognizes that, and realizes she needs him in her fight against ‘the wolf’.

This is it for now! I hope this made a little bit of sense. If you want add or correct anything, always feel free to do so!

#tokyo ghoul #tokyo ghoul:re #one eyed king #eto #kaneki ken

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Kaneki’s organ damage and ghoulism.

I was thinking about Urie’s recent “issues” beginning to unfold, so I went back to look at Kaneki’s transformation. Basically I’m looking at what injuries probably occurred when Rize stabbed through Kaneki’s abdomen and possibly why he had stronger ghoul “symptoms” (like not being able to eat human food) when his RC cell counts were still under that of certain Quinx.

     If you have been reading Tokyo Ghoul for a while you might already know but there were some strange (or at least unexplained) things about Kaneki’s descent into “ghouldom” First of all while we are told that high RC levels are the major factor in half-ghoul’s being about to eat human food or not however while in the hospital when he was already having issues with human food.

    This was despite the fact that Kaneki’s RC cell level while in the hospital was only 911, which was below “ghoul levels” of 1000+ and below Shirazu’s RC cell level of 920 and we all saw multiple examples of Shirazu eating happily and boisterously throughout Tokyo Ghoul :RE.

Possibility #1: Biology

    This could possibly be because of Kaneki’s base RC-cell levels. While we don’t know what the base number for the quinx were we do know Kaneki’s RC cell counts were a full 30 points below healthy human low limits. (almost triple the twins which were only 9 and 11 points lower than normal.

    Kaneki’s low RC cell levels could have been a sign of ill health for some unknown reason (maybe Kaneki’s mother didn’t actually die of exhaustion maybe there was some non violent reason Kaneki’s dad died when he was so young). But possibly they could just mean there was some twist of Kaneki’s biology. Making the “normal” range lower and thus the higher range lower as well. (So if 170 was “normal” and equivalent to 200 there is a possibility that Kaneki’s 911 was more like 941, which is still below “ghoul” levels, but higher than any Quinx).

OR may be the low RC count was just a sign of some deeper biological difference that made him more susceptible to becoming a ghoul. Something ghoulish maybe? Because it’s theorized full ghoul’s might not produce RC cells and only absorb them from what they eat.

(semi-realistic organ images and rambling under the cut)

Keep reading

#tokyo ghoul #kaneki ken

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I think a lot of people are upset eto admits she is not the one eye King by justifying her. The one eye King I believe is a prophecy ? When tatara said during the anteiku the king shall pass maybe he was saying kaneki everyone was looking for him after hurting Amon so tatara was saying he's going to go

So I thought about this for a bit, and I came up with an idea

So according to the Chinese scanlation (thank you @lilydally) the writing for “pass” is just as flexible as it is in English (not sure for JPN atm)

To pass by somebody, to pass them something… to pass a test

Which leads me to believe that Amon may had been a candidate for being the OEK back in TG (he isn’t now however)

We at least know that Eto was very interested in Amon for a period of time:

“It’s worth watching people who push ahead at full speed finally fall”

And she even went so far as to place seeds of doubt in Amon’s mind when given the opportunity to do so (and she risked the RC Cell scanners going off as well, if they work that is)

So what if Eto had sent Tatara to go find Amon (because face it, it is a odd coincidence that Tatara decided to go into the dinky little alley that Amon was bleeding out in)

He then briefly explained what was happening:

“The king is going to pass… this test”

And after Tatara provoked Amon by grievously harming Seidou, Amon displayed the very traits that Eto has been trying to create in Kaneki in recent :re chapters: externalized anger, rage, a sense of justice:

The very traits needed to make the OEK, to which Tatar replies Hao (very good)

And during the three year timeskip, we can assume that Amon was built and molded to be King, but something happened. He failed miserably. A failure as a king, a flop, a floppy:

Which is why Eto has now reset her sights on the thought-to-be-dead, original one eyed ghoul, Kaneki

so tl;dr: 

Amon was Eto’s candidate to be king and he passed the test that Tatara presented him with in the alleyway by displaying Eto-approved king traits, but sometime during the three-year time skip Amon wiggled his way out of being King which is why Eto hates him so much:

and why Amon is hobo-ing it out with Kurona now.

And as for speculation as to why Amon failed: if Amon did in fact make connections/relationships with ghouls during the time skip (Hinami, Shachi, Ayato) thus realizing ghouls aren’t the evil demons that the world makes them out to be, and Amon did agree with (a facet of) Eto’s philosophy that for ghouls to get rights, you need to bring down the CCG, her methods of doing so would have appalled him. 

Killing investigators in the masses, violence and recklessness, Amon only fights for the ones he loves and to protect them, not for needless blood shed as Eto does. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amon just up and escaped the Tree after that and went to form his own little rag tag rebel group (Kurona, possibly others)

So the daily question remains: where the fuck is amon

#tokyo ghoul #tokyo ghoul:re #eto #amon

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Tokyo Ghoul vs Literature: The Metamorphisis

I read that story in eighth grade. At the time I thought ‘what would I do if I turned into an insect…’ It was something of a dark musing of mine.

Kaneki uses literature as a way of expressing feelings he cannot normally express in one way or another. However, because of his emotional shortcomings he can tend to come off as naive and romanticize, or fail to understand the deeper meanings of the works he’s reading and instead just relate to the dark surface feelings. For example, despite most agreeing ‘The Metamorphosis’ is actually a metaphor and the real horror of the story is how his family treats him when the main character becomes unable to provide for them, Kaneki considers the implications of literally turning into an insect.

So the same way Kaneki misses the subtleties of the metamorphosis, for the broader more emotional element, Tokyo Ghoul in it’s almost whole plot reference of the metamorphosis, disguises deeper themes. This same kind of deception is even apparent in Kaneki’s character development, where we learn his issues were present well before the ghoul surgery aggravated them. 

All of these combine into the many references to Kafka’s most famous novel ‘The Metamorphosis’ that are present in Tokyo Ghoul, and the themes shared between the two works.

Keep reading

#tokyo ghoul #eto

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The thing that messes me up the most about Eto is that she has to be right. She has to keep proving to herself that she’s right. She has to keep believing that she’s taking the right actions.

Because otherwise, what was it all for?

Why does she exist if it’s not to bring about change? What was the point of all of her pain and suffering, and of her power otherwise?

If she’s wrong about relationships, that means admitting how much people matter to her, and admitting that she wants those relationships even if they hurt her. It means accepting how she’s hurt those people in return.

If she’s “saved”, it means her whole life has been a mistake. Not just her existence, which alone is hated and seen as a threat, which required her mother to cannibalize just to give birth to her. But every action she’s taken since then has been wrong.

Like. God. She’s fucked up. She’s done horrible things, over and over, and she doesn’t regret them. Because she can’t. If she does then everything falls apart.

#tokyo ghoul:re #eto

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eto, and time limits

This post is the result of a discussion with @neropet earlier today. Credit to Nero for coming up with this idea in the first place, and for talking this post over with me while I was writing it.

With chapter 61, we learned some jaw dropping information about the One-Eyed King – that the King is not what we thought. Not only is the King not Eto, but the title apparently does not refer to any person. Instead, the King is a symbolic title that refers to a one-eyed ghoul who is going to change the world. So the King does not exist – yet.

There was speculation a few months ago about Eto’s goals in her confrontation with Sasaki on the roof, and the idea that perhaps she was trying to turn him into the new King.

That idea only seemed to grow stronger when the chapter “The Second King” came out, which prominently featured the fight between Eto and Sasaki, and may imply that he is the second king.

However, I think the biggest piece of evidence came from the most recent chapter, when Eto reveals to Aogiri that she is not the King.

She trails off, telling them, “The One-Eyed King is…”

And the very next panels contain none other than Sasaki, when she finishes her sentence and concludes, “Not me.”

Also notably, on this page, Arima and Furuta are speaking about him as well, and apparently V has taken an interest in him. The last we heard of V, they were looking for Eto, the one-eyed ghoul who they believed was upsetting the balance of the world.

V may see him as another threat to this balance, which is exactly what Eto has in mind for the One-Eyed King.

So, if this is actually Eto’s plan, and she wants him to take on this title, how does she plan to convince him to do so? Why would he want to associate with her, after everything she’s done?

We know she’s already started to manipulate him, the same way she has done to her past victims, by targeting them where they are most vulnerable.

She licks his eye and tells him she likes him and they are the same, and that stuns him into inaction for a few moments:

And then when he deals a serious blow to her, cutting her body in half, she strikes again, and tells him she loves him.

We know that he wants to be loved. Eto knows that he wants to be loved. She tells him that purposefully, to get under his skin. And his reaction to her words is starkly different from the way he spoke to her during their fight, rudely and abrasively. He says that he’s honored.

It seems like Eto’s tactics were not ineffective.

Since his change on the roof during that fight, we have not seen into his thoughts the way we used to. It’s been unsettling to not know what the main character is thinking. But we have gotten one glimpse into his thoughts in this time, and it was a thought about her:

Although, certainly her manipulations were not enough alone. He has not suddenly joined her side. He has continued to target her in the six months that passed between their fight and the present day in TG:re, and is still apparently focused on eliminating her.

So why would she think that he would fulfill the role she has in mind for him, if her efforts to change him on the roof were not enough? What if she has another method up her sleeve? Another way to tie him to her more securely?

Perhaps a physical tie, like her kagune?

There’s two other people that Eto has given her kagune to, and both of those people are associated with clocks, and time:

Noro is always with Eto, and when he’s not, he’s been depicted with a clock. He watches the clock carefully, and takes action at certain times. Why is this? Perhaps this was for the Aogiri raid, when there was a raid on Cochlea going on at the same time. But the other person who was given Eto’s kagune was tortured with clocks, and this seems like too much of a coincidence.

Additionally, during the fight on the roof, Eto taunts, “We don’t have much time. You are about to meet your maker.”

There was a time limit to this fight, apparently imposed by Eto. Perhaps the same was true of Noro, and that was why he was either always with her, or watching a clock. Perhaps the powers she gifts by implanting her kagune only last so long, before they result in decay of the person she implanted it in?

We know how Noro ended up:

Perhaps this is the end result of her kagune implantation? And perhaps something similar may happen to Sasaki?

She’s given Sasaki her kagune in a similar way to what we’ve seen her do before.

When Eto first confronts Kanae/Karren, the scene ends with a black panel and a “bite” sound effect, implying someone ate something. Based on what we saw happen in future chapters, and Eto’s words leading up to that moment, I think it’s safe to say she fed Kanae an “apple”, her kagune.

And we saw her feed someone else something similar, 15 chapters later:

We also know that she intentionally left this for Sasaki, and she wonders about how he enjoyed her gift, and how his arm has regrown:

We also know that now his arm looks freaking weird:

Did she know something like this would happen?

And finally, to add onto this idea about time being connected to her kagune implantation, Sasaki is desperately searching for her, and becomes infuriated when he can’t find her. And in this panel, we see him counting down days on a calendar. We also see that the scaling on his hand extends up his arm, past his elbow, far past where his arm was severed.

Is his arm worsening? Has he realized that there is some kind of limit? Is that why he’s focused on finding her himself, without telling the CCG about the information he has on her?

tl;dr: What if a side effect of Eto’s kagune implantation is a time limit on the person, forcing them to return to Eto to minimize or postpone any ill effects? And what if this is the case with Sasaki, providing Eto with a physical tie to him in order to force him into the role she wants for him – the role of the One-Eyed King, the half ghoul who will change the world?

#tokyo ghoul #tokyo ghoul:re #eto

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Fandom: We want to see Haise smile again!

Haise:

Fandom:

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How would you describe Eto and Kaneki's relationship? (Both from Eto and Kaneki's POV)

I think this picture perfectly describes Kaneki’s point of view of Eto.

He has only ever seen her in idealized terms. As a half ghoul, Eto has two distinct identities, Takatsuki Sen the author, and the One Eyed King the leader of aogiri and Kaneki has romanticized them both. In Takatsuki Sen he saw somebody who could understand his pain, and in the One Eyed King he saw an enemy that he needed to get stronger in order to face. Neither of those really represent the true Eto, those are just the feelings that Kaneki projects towards her. 

Oddly enough there are multiple occasions where other characters, including Kaneki himself, try to bring Eto to a point where Kaneki can sympathize her. Whether it be Haise’s alternative reading of her texts.

To Yoshimura’s pleas towards him.

Kaneki is given every reason to sympathize with her, but in the end this is what he comes up with. 

In the end he doesn’t sympathize with her. Or rather, he can’t, because in Eto he sees the worst in himself. Which is why he’s redoubled on his efforts to destroy her and hunt down Aogiri. From his perspective, his relationship towards Eto is one of self loathing.

Eto is a strange case however, as she is the last person on earth you would expect to find sympathy in Kaneki. To this point she’s always been completely cold and cynical when dealing with others. Utilitarian to a fault, as she sees others as tools and easily replaceable. 

Replace, the replacement, seems to be the motto of Aogiri after all, the organization she formed. Considering Eto’s raising this makes sense, unlike Kaneki she has never had any kind of stable family to work with, there’s no reason she would even see the bonds between people as an advantage.

Eto, until this point has existed entirely alone in the world. Even when she met other one eyed ghouls like Seidou and the Yasuhisas, she ruthlessly tore them down. Then finally when she comes face to face with Kaneki, a person who won’t fall for her manipulations so easily, and one on the brink of defeating her she finally says something like this.

Which is the last phrase Eto seemed capable of uttering. Until this point, Eto has spurned and destroyed love, yet she falls away from Kaneki declaring her love for him and giggling madly. 

I think one, unlike Kaneki who is steeped in denial Eto genuinely recognizes the connection between them. Not only as those who became one half ghouls and were left totally alone in the world not of their own choice, and both being progeny in a way of Yoshimura and his ideals. But also as people, intellectual bookish types who were thrown into a world of physical violence, hurt constantly and forced to get stronger in order to survive. 

Eto has every reason to not sympathize with Kaneki, especially since she views love as a weakness and yet.

She does.

The reason she does however, is an inverse of Kaneki’s. If Kaneki hates Eto as an act of self loathing, then Eto’s love for him can only be described as self love. After this, their first and major interaction Eto basically loses and leaves her Kakuja behind in order to give him a major power up. Something implied to be done on purpose on her part.

Eto has demonstrated before with Kanae, that she’ll take unnecessary risks and screw around in order to prove a point. If Kaneki wins now, he’ll be winning with her strength. Now that he’s adapted her mindset, even if Kaneki beats her, he’ll be beating her using her own mindset. If Eto dies that’s one thing, but at least she won’t be wrong. Eto is the character who suffered the most out of anybody in Tokyo Ghoul, but the one thing that pulls her out of it right now is her pride. The idea that even if she might be miserable, she is at least strong and stable in her beliefs. That she’s better off without things like love and connections to others. That the only way to truly survive is to be as cutthroat as she had to become, and there is no other way. Eto’s ego is constructed on that strong outer shell held up by those things she told herself in order to survive. 

Rize herself who Eto is currently stepping in the shoes of to fill in for her role as Kaneki’s ghoul mother, said “Even though the lion is supposed to be the king of beasts, it hides in a cage of it’s own free will.” Eto herself, despite being the one eyed king, created a cage out of her own miserable tendencies and trapped herself all on her own. 

Her love of Kaneki is probably just coping with that same pain, by projecting her successes onto her influence on Kaneki. 

So in summary, they both have unhealthy views of the other, but the way that these views are formed contrast each other in a telling way. 

#tokyo ghoul #tokyo ghoul:re #eto #kaneki ken

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Some thoughts on Kaneki eating Eto’s kakuja

This is a response to an anon. I decided the post was probably going to be too long to be an answer to an ask so I moved it to a separate post. I hope it doesn’t bother anybody. This is my first TG meta post, so please be gentle >.< I’ll also move the rest of this response under the cut. Sorry it’s really long. I just kept on rambling…

Keep reading

#tokyo ghoul #tokyo ghoul:re #eto #kaneki ken #Kamishiro Rize

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Have you ever heard that Eto might be a homage to Haruki Murakami  (one of Japan’s most famous novelists right now)?  I bought a book by Haruki Murakami yesterday because a well-known magazine in my country praised it as their number one bestseller. I just bought this book because of the interesting description and not because of TG and I actually didn’t plan to make a post about this, but I wanted to tell you why I think the rumours about Ishida being a fan of Haruki Murakami might be true. I don’t know if people even want to read more about this topic, but maybe there are at least a few people who are interested.

Of course there’s a difference between reading a manga and reading a novel. Because we get a lot of information through pictures and short sentences, but there are still passages and descriptions which show us what kind of writing style an author has. And Ishida even showed us more of his writing talent in his two new poems (x) (x).

So first of all a fun fact. Murakami wrote a book called “Kafka on the Shore”. So his writing is also clearly influenced by Kafka (he won the annual Franz Kafka award) and even though he’s popular he still calls himself “an outcast of the Japanese literary world” because his works are influenced by western writers.

Keep reading

#tokyo ghoul #haruki murakami #eto

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The Lovers - Kaneki and Eto

In the most recent chapter of Tokyo Ghoul Eto is shown bathing, and on her foot as marked is a six in reverse. In the major arcana, number six is the lovers, in reverse it adds a lot of meaning to the series which will be discussed below the cut. 

Keep reading

#tokyo ghoul:re #kaneki ken #eto

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Donna Donna

Found out from Agent Phrank on mangahelper, donna donna is actually a song. Specifically, it is a old Jewish folksong.  This is a beautiful explanation of the song, which I’ll try to summarize below:

Lyrics

On a wagon bound for market

There’s a calf with a mournful eye

High above him flies the swallow

Winging swiftly thru the sky.

Refrain:

How the winds are laughing

They laugh with all their might

Laugh and laugh the whole day through

And half the summer’s night

Dona dona, dona etc.

“Stop complaining,” said the farmer

“Who told you a calf to be?

Why don’t you have wings to fly with

Like the swallow so proud and free?”

Refrain:

Calves are easily bound and slaughtered

Never knowing the reason why

But whoever treasures freedom

Like the swallow must learn to fly.

1) At first glance, this is a about calf despairing over being sent to the slaughterhouse, longing to fly away like a swallow. The farmer is blaming the calf (victim) for his fate. Towards the end, the song talks about how easily calves are killed.

2) The song talks of freedom, so many find “a universal message about the victims of oppression and the desire for political freedom”.

3) On a deeper level, it is actually about spiritual liberation. The calf is associated with the human body, which is used to indulge in earthly desires. The calf’s journey to the slaughterhouse can be compared to how humans who have become attached to life and physical pleasure view death. The swallow is associated with the soul, which is part of G-d, thus not bound by the physical world. Heaven laughs at man’s struggle to fulfill bodily desire. Notice that it is for a day and half a summer’s night. That is because the first half of the night is a time of judgement. However, because summer nights are short, this represents how G-d is kind and patient most of the time as humans struggle with their earthly desires.

“Who told you a calf to be?” is asking why humans identify with their bodies, instead of with their souls, which will free them from the limitations of the body.

So how does this relate to Tokyo Ghouls?

It looks like Furuta may be the mole that informed Aogiri of the transport routes. Those vehicles probably contained, not only Shirazu’s body, but the bodies of many other CCG officers. Like the calf transported to the slaughterhouse, the CCG officers are probably transported to Kanou’s lab. 

On a deeper level, humans and ghouls are sent to battle each other in hordes, again and again like calves to a slaughterhouse. How many have stopped to think about how similar humans and ghouls are? The CCG and V say this bloodshed is needed in the name of balance, but perhaps, it is only so they may remain in control. 

“Who told you a calf to be?”  may be asking why humans and ghouls separate themselves because of bodily differences, instead of seeing how similar their souls (minds) are.

What about Kaneki ? He takes on characteristics of Rize, Yamori, and Eto when he eats their flesh, but does he have to? No! It’s all in his head!

Who told you a black goat’s egg to be, Kaneki? 

@hideyoshi-senpai  

#tokyo ghoul:re #furuta nimura

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The Three Heads of Kaneki Ken

Co-written by @neropet (you should be following them if you aren’t already)

In vol. 5, Ishida included a longish poem that appears to reference Kaneki’s experience going through the recent chapter’s “metamorphosis”.

@drowning-in-theories with the help of @makyun kindly translated the poem for us here.

We thought it would be relevant, so why not waste our lives looking into it? 

※

Like mortar in a mixer

Three heads, melted thickly

Three heads could have multiple interpretations, which makes it hard to be sure of what Ishida’s going for. A few possible ones are:

The different versions of Kaneki. This is unlikely as these “versions” are not as clearly cut or even separately defined by Ishida. This is more of a fanon trait than a canon one. 

The people Kaneki saw as parental figures; them being Rize, Yamori, and Arima.

The three factions - CCG, Aogiri, and Clowns - that have shaped Kaneki into who he is today.

Based on the context of the poem, by far the most likely interpretation is that the three heads are actually Eto, Kaneki’s mother, and Kaneki himself. They’ve melted together with the return of his memories as he realizes the similarities overlapping the three. Again Kaneki is struck by the reality of his nature when Eto claims she will make him her child because of their likeness to each other.

All three “heads” even wear the same round glasses.

Kaneki is unable to escape the recurring fate of the Black Goat’s Egg.

Miracles have been used up long ago

and lie cold on the concrete

The miracle that was used up, could be the fact that long ago Kaneki survived after meeting the reaper. In a way, :re is his second chance to not repeating his regrets by not letting it end as a tragedy. Kaneki’s survival, along with the rare second chance, was a miracle that he’s now used up and we won’t have the luxury of in the future. That means that there is no room for mistakes from here on out.

His past life lies cold on the concrete from back when he used up that miracle. Possibly the most affected person in the wake of that event was Tsukiyama, who was literally left lying cold on the concrete of a rooftop. He was left cold for almost three years following that, unable to function without Kaneki.

Now they are both back on another rooftop, in another pivotal situation. Only this time as we know the miracle’s been used up and will not save them from their reality. This links on to the next few lines as well.

Killed

I killed

Have I killed?

Shuu and Karren falling from the tower towards the concrete ground. Kaneki questions if he has just killed as he sees Karren is lying cold on the concrete. Did he kill them both?

I was losing my grasp on reality,

when the eyes of the heads

opened wetly like genitals, to say hello

Already Haise was losing his grasp on reality - hallucinating “Kaneki” screaming at him not to kill Shuu, and Arima threatening to put him in his place.

In that instability, Eto appears to him and emerges from the kakuja’s skull to reveal her nude human form. The above image could be what the line opened wetly like genitals, to say hello means, as Eto’s kakuja is opening in her reveal and somewhat resembling female genitalia in the process. This is also symbolic of Eto’s use of her sexuality in the scenes; a display of her superiority in their power dynamics. After her appearance she greets Haise - in other words say[ing] hello.

The return of Kaneki’s memories in his poem is represented by the merging of his mother’s head, Eto’s, and his. When Eto speaks to him Kaneki sees not only her, but also hears his mother in her words.

The heads whispered in Mother’s voice

“you”

“you”

“you”

The heads in the poem repeatedly say “you” as they regard Kaneki, similar to how Eto did in :re ch 56. 

“you” 

“how did you fool yourself into thinking you would be loved”

“when you’re so ugly”

“uoh……..”

 Eto verbally abuses him and proceeds to tell him that she’s fond of him because they’re the same. To Kaneki who considers Eto trash, this is painful to hear as he interprets it to mean that he’s ugly and unlovable just like her and his mother. Who could love someone that’s as monstrous as Eto and his mother? He realizes that he’s a fool in ever thinking such a possibility existed in his life as Haise.

Gentle abuse, repeated over and over in “that box”

The sky flickers, like traffic lights

For Kaneki gentle abuse is something that he relates to his mother - she was abusive, but also gentle at times. “That box” could represent the home in which he grew up in receiving that abuse. The way Eto treats him in telling him she loves him while simultaneously abusing him and hitting him where it hurts the most is following this pattern he’s familiar with. Ironically Kaneki himself also has these characteristics - going from gentle to violent in mere seconds.

Uta told Kaneki his mask, which looked monstrous suited him because it was “gentle” - a duality that others have noticed in him. This is again affirming the similarities between the three.

Before I knew it, nine thorns sprang out from the chest cavity

The diaphragm shivered, as if about to cry

(my body!)

Before the final chapter of vol. 5, Ishida drew the above depiction of Kaneki with 7 thorns growing out of his torso, and 2 from the previously dismembered hand. We know this is a reference to Kaneki after consuming Eto’s kakuja, as the immense amount of ghoul RC transformed his body to have more likeness to her.

His diaphragm shivers from both the physical change and the hidden dread he’s experiencing internally at not being able to escape the fate of the Black Goat’s Egg - almost as if his own body is betraying him in revealing to the world to what he sees is a poisonous mind with a physicality to match. Kaneki cries out my body! as he’s lost in this process he’s unable to stop.

Take note of the steel tower seen in the background as a symbolic of the start of this process and Kaneki’s descent into it the higher he climbs. The tarot card is also significant to this as it signifies “disaster, upheaval, sudden change, revelation”. Very fitting. 

I finally lost my grasp on reality, and I started climbing the steel tower

The handrails I touched

all turned black and rusted.

(I knew I was made of poison!) 

Kaneki is letting himself succumb to what he sees as the unavoidable fate of following in both his mothers’ foot steps. He’s begun to further climb the steel tower into depravity as he believes that’s the only path left for him. As Kaneki climbs his beliefs are being reinforced when he sees his poisonous nature affecting the things around him, turning black and rusted in his wake.

We catch a glimpse into Kaneki’s “revelation” of this when after the forced recovery of his memories, he imagines himself sitting around broken and rusting handrails instead of the intact ones of the past.

It’s relevant to take note of Kaneki’s change in hair color to pitch black after this - the scene making it seem as if the black was infecting him. While this is another physical representation of the poison, it’s also symbolic of the self-destructive nature that he shares with Eto and his mother. Kaneki is poisoning the others around him just as he’s poisoning himself. Both of these are shown in:

The Tsukiyama family being found and exterminated due to his past friendship with Shuu. 

The Quinx being put in danger of encountering Eto, Aogiri members, and Karren due to their proximity to Kaneki. 

In :re 57, his harsh actions to Tsukiyama and Urie.

And of course as a result pushing them away just like he did with Anteiku and Hide - in the process hurting himself emotionally.

(No, it was that woman who was poison itself) 

Kaneki used to see Aogiri tree as the root of many of the problems that plagued the world, blaming Eto for things that have gone wrong and the people close to him that have been poisoned, while also blaming his mother for poisoning him in his childhood. Kaneki’s view of these two women, again, points to his belief that he’s merged with their heads, and as a result is all too aware that he is poisoning others while poisoning himself just as they did.

This realization leads him to believe he needs to distance himself from everyone else in order to prevent them from following in his footsteps, because as we know, to him his fate is inevitable. 

Of course Kaneki is aware of one method that could free him from this, and that would be death. Kaneki thinks he needs to die to be free, even if deep down he wants to live, as his time as Haise has shown us.

(climb, climb)

(not enough to die)

(to a higher place, higher place, climb!)

He’s climbing to the the top of the tower and further into his fate as the Black Goat’s Egg, simultaneously symbolizing the climb towards his desire “to die in a cool [beautiful] way.” The pursuit of this goal might require him to climb the rankings of the CCG as he’s currently going, until he reaches the highest point - most beautiful point to die from. Of course the higher the climb, the less likely he’ll survive the fall.

※ The next parts of the poem are probably refereeing to events yet to come and can only guessed at and used as predictions. 

The intestines were knotted together like rope.

I desperately pulled the rope in.

squelch, squelch, squelch

The intestines of the dead,

reaches out to the heavens from the tip of the steel tower.

Kaneki is reaching far and beyond just the point of the tower and towards the sun, where the heavens of the tip of steel tower lie. This once again suggests that at the top of the tower that he’s climbing to has his end; his death; his “heaven”. The intestines he uses as rope to climb would be the hundreds of lives he’s taken in the first part of TG, and the ones he will take in the future during this continuous journey. For Kaneki, who just let himself be swallowed whole by his mothers’ depravities, it’s a conscious action because of his belief in him being a monster. Might as well act the part. We’ll refer back to this in a bit.

The knot had grown long enough to reach the sun.

The story of TG has been likened by many to the “Fool’s Journey”. The Sun tarot card is one of the last steps in the Fool’s Journey and comes directly after The Moon, which many connect to the current chapters.  The Moon is the card of  “dreams and the unconsciousness”, and Kaneki has just awakened from his dream. Reaching the sun can be seen as one of the next steps in Kaneki’s journey.

In :re 53, it was revealed that Kaneki wanted to die, and according to Kafka, who Ishida has referenced in TG and has clearly taken inspiration from,  “A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.”  The Sun can represent enlightenment, and “a new level of insight and understanding”. Hence his explicit desire to die could relate to his journey onto the sun.

Tower of beloved corpses.

With each pull I reach the peak, and the height increases. I cannot see the ground anymore.

The tower of beloved corpses suggests that Kaneki’s hurting and killing others - possibly some beloved to him, in order to reach his goal. This seems related to the fact that he threw two people that could be seen as beloved - one a former ally, and the other someone he promised Yoshimura he would save - off a tower.

He can’t see the ground anymore as he’s lost sight of who he used to be, and the people he left behind on the ground.

The tower starts to shake widely,

whispering in Mother’s voice.

The Tower shaking could suggest that things will start to go awry and not to plan. He’s in danger of falling off before he reaches his goal of a beautiful death at the highest point.

“automatic failure at happiness, shapeless spawn”

(ahh) 

“I don’t want to be happy”, “Kaneki” claims in :re 53.

This makes Kaneki an automatic failure at happiness because he doesn’t even want it. He could also be seen as shapeless because he is constantly changing himself by both altering his personality, and wearing masks to conceal his true self.

“My dear lost one”

“Your parents failed in raising you”

In this case this could be a positive thing. Kaneki’s parents were both poisonous beings that taught him to take after them; one of which taught him to be hurt rather than to hurt others - to be the victim of the crushing boot of others.

And I died.

His death here is most likely meant in a metaphorical sense, because - for a poem that was wholly built up for this final point - it comes off as very simplistic and dull, as if a disappointing and unforeseen event took the place of the conclusion that he was aiming for. Dying in a beautiful way at the top of the tower was Kaneki’s goal, and perhaps instead he “died” in his failure to do so. The tower starting to shake suggests that he just never reached the top of it, and never got his beautiful death.

#tokyo ghoul:re #kaneki ken #eto

[stellavf]

Oh, Rose

So after hours of crying and feeling empty inside, I feel like I have the mental stamina to make a post about Kanae von Rosewald.

I hoped with all my heart these past couple months that Kanae would be spared. If there’s anyone who deserves even the smallest speck of happiness, to me, it’s her. Kanae has been my favourite character in the entirety of :Re and it’s devastating to see her go.

That said, Ishida did give her one hell of a death. It was beautiful, poetic and completely and utterly tragic. She did seem to get her small speck of happiness in the end, but God, why like this? WHY?! Kanae’s death was all about her taking back agency over her own life. She’s spent so much of her time living for others; her family, Shuu, even for Eto. And in her final moments, she was able to overcome all of this and gain some closure and peace of mind.

Shuu tells Kanae to let go of him, and she adamantly refuses. As far as I can remember, Kanae has never disobeyed Shuu in the entirety of :Re. She has a great deal of respect and admiration for him; significantly more than she has for herself. Finally, Kanae is putting her own desires first.

Kanae also overcomes the horrors that Eto inflicted on her; she rips open the stitches in her own mouth while screaming for Shuu. Kanae is finally refusing to be silenced by anybody.

And, most significantly, Kanae reclaims her identity as Karren. Her desire for Shuu to say her ‘real name’ indicates that she had always wanted to be seen as Karren von Rosewald, and not as her manufactured identity, Kanae. She throws away her father’s wish to continue the family line and throws away her fabricated name. She then presents herself to Shuu as Karren, how she truly wished to be seen. Her anger and hate from being so repressed are stripped away, and falling to her death, she makes herself vulnerable, confessing her love while simultaneously apologizing for it. And she does it all in German, her native tongue, which makes it seem somehow more intimate to me.

These two panels were so beautiful, and the ones that made me cry the hardest. I’m not the biggest fan of Shuu, but despite all of his shortcomings, I really developed some respect for him during this scene. Shuu does something so very, very special for Karren here: he accepts her as she is.

After Karren confesses everything that she’s kept secret for so long, Shuu looks at her with the most gentle expression and with a few simple words, frees her. He tells her not to worry. To release her burdens. She need not feel guilt over the past, over her own emotions. Shuu gives Karren the most precious moment I’ve seen in :Re to date.

Finally released from her burdens, Karren, in her final act - an act of her own free will - saves Shuu while sacrificing herself. She is able to die with a light heart, knowing that in her last moments she was able to be true to herself and accepted by the man she loved so dearly. This is about as empowering as death scenes get.

Karren’s death was tragic, beautiful, and so very much like her. I won’t stop crying over her for a long time, but there is some comfort to be had in the fact that Ishida took the time to craft such an amazing death scene for her, and knowing that she will truly be at rest.

“Live beautifully with your head up high, just like that rose on your chest.” And die just as beautifully. Rest in peace, dearest Rose. :Re won’t be the same without you.

#tokyo ghoul:re #karren von rosewald #kanae von rosewald #tsukiyama shuu

[stellavf]

It’s interesting how Eto’s words have had such a strong effect on Sasaki, causing a relapse in his old way of thinking. We know that’s one of the things Eto wanted, and that’s exactly what she got. Aiming at his traumas to force him to bring back his old coping mechanisms - after all he hasn’t developed any different ones to rely on. Him and Eto have that in common, self-destructive behavior towards themselves and the others around them. Turns out that last bit has become more prominent than before. Sasaki bit back at Urie in a way that was aimed at the insecurities he has towards his ability and strength. But Sasaki also just threw Urie into a stage of self-hatred caused by an identity crisis, precisely because he hates the CCG for letting his father die on the front lines. He blamed them for their weakness, yet in this case Urie has become the CCG, and Shirazu his father. That’s brutal.

#tokyo ghoul:re #eto #kaneki ken

[stellavf]

Who I Think the New Kaneki is

The thing that triggered Kaneki’s transformation back to himself was his memory of his mother beating him. Bad memories are very persistent and tend to be hard to dislodge (if possible at all), and I think that remembering that single memory made Kaneki remember all of the times he had been too weak to do anything, so essentially he remembers all of the bad things he experienced when being Kuroneki, when he was weak, and a few selective things from his Shironeki days. 

This theory would explain why Kaneki stabbed Shuu, and has now thrown him from the building. Because he does not yet have all of his memories, (more specifically, his Shironeki memories), that he sees Tsukiyama as a villain, because the last time Kuroneki sees Tsukiyama is in the church during the Gourmet arc.

The hair metaphor that Ishida has laid out (black hair=humanity, white hair=ghoul) still fits into this theory.  If Kaneki only remembers negative memories from his black-haired times, that means the things that saved him during those hardships (Hide, Anteiku, etc.) are not present in his memories just yet. So essentially, Kaneki has completely been broken. Without any of those happy memories to save him, we get to see Kaneki return to us, but we get to see what he would have been like without the things that kept him together. We get to see what Kaneki looks like as a human who has been hurt and cornered, instead of a ghoul (when his hair was completely white) who has been hurt and cornered.

If all of this is correct and not just me reading too much into it, the big question would be why Ishida did this. The answer’s fairly simple and fits with the tale Ishida wants to tell us. One of the big things about Tokyo Ghoul is the moral greyness of it; how you can see the rights and wrongs of both the humans and the ghouls. Ishida has shown us that white-haired Kaneki (his ghoul side) can be ruthless and cold, but he’s also shown us that he’s still caring and loves his family. With black-haired Kaneki (his human side), we’ve only seen him as someone who has been hunted and hurt, as someone who essentially hasn’t done anything wrong. I think this reemergence of black-haired Kaneki is going to show us the ruthless side of humans, just as we’ve seen the ruthless side of ghouls in Kaneki before.  

#tokyo ghoul:re #kaneki ken