midnight-in-town:

ishida-can-you-not:

midnight-in-town:

I know the new chapter is soon but I didn’t have time to write this earlier than now so… Well here goes. 🙂

As I noticed, it seems my old metas/answers to Anons on Seidou’s character, his inferiority complex and his relationship to Akira interested a few more people after the last chapter, so here are the links if anyone else wants to (re)read them.

• Seidou’s inferiority complex and his crush on Akira
• Seidou’s inferiority complex as a half ghoul and the possible role of Akira in the future
• (Additional post)

Yeah, I know these posts are old but they still make sense to me and don’t contradict canon for now so… Well, it’s just how I see things 🙂

Additionally, I just wanted to say that, whether you enjoy his character or precisely in case you don’t like him at all, it’s important to remember that he was not initially written to be as likable as Kaneki, Amon, Juuzou and other characters like them.

You know the whole “we can’t all be heroes” trope? Well this trope was almost entirely illustrated by Takizawa back in TG, until he was abducted by Aogiri and turned into a half ghoul.

What I mean by that is that Takizawa, a good investigator, never had extraordinary fighting abilities (like Arima or Suzuya), he never had extraordinary perceptions (like Akira) and he didn’t have the strong heart and iron will others showed (like Amon) because he was a normal human, never meant to become a hero like Amon (whom he saw as such) or someone worthy of so much praise like Suzuya or Akira, despite wishing so much for it.

You could say he was aware he was nothing special or that he had trust issues because of his inferiority complex (or both), but in the end it doesn’t change anything: when the Anteiku raid arc happened, he showed how normal and human he was, scared of dying during the equivalent of a war, even if he initially became an investigator to protect people.

I remember some people called that being cowardly and others just shrugged because Takizawa never had as much presence as Akira, Amon or Juuzou during the first 14 volumes of TG, so he never seemed to be important until he came back as the “Owl”, the crazy but strong one eyed ghoul of Aogiri, even less likable than before for a lot of readers, despite knowing that he probably went through a terrible ordeal when you see what he became.

All that to say… Whether you like him or not (or hate him) is up to you but I just think it’s important to realize that his character, because of the way he was written, contributed like many others to the diversity of the TG cast by Ishida-sensei and for that he is interesting as much as the other characters are, even if he’s not as noble as a lot of them.

But it wouldn’t be funny if we were to only like the hero-types right? 🙂 Although, Takizawa’s fate is hardly something defined right now as everything is possible considering that he’s facing Akira, one of his greatest rivals (in his mind) but also his big crush so… I doubt any characters of Ishida-sensei is bound to stay in only one role anyway, but we’ll see~~ 

Sorry for this huge thing, I just needed to write it out before the next chapter :)) Let’s wait for spoilers now ^_^

I love how you summed it up. Seidou has been IMO a human and even when he’s a ghoul I want to see how much human he has in him. I mean when Kanou did the surgery and implanted Owl’s kakuhou into Seidou, he still realizes that Seidou just didn’t have that strength and power as his first successful experiment (Kaneki) did, and that’s because I think that in some parts of Seidou he still wants to be human and doesn’t want to give up his past unlike Kaneki (who I suppose has a much darker psyche than Seidou), and plus we know his childhood was insane. 

Thank you for reading 🙂 but I think you’re mixing up a lot of different things together.

First of all, as I explained in one of the links above, I just think Seidou’s currently apparent madness isn’t him being gone but him being completely overwhelmed by an inferiority complex that ate him from the inside before even becoming a OEG.

As such I agree, there is still some parts of the old him left, and one of them showed up at the end of the auction arc upon seeing Akira (just like what it looks like in the last chapter, because even if he was strangling her it’s obvious he was also crying so it’s not him being completely transformed by Aogiri, his state of mind from when he was an investigator is also a good explanation as to why he turned out like that probably after being tortured by Eto and Tatara).

However, his strength when compared to Kaneki’s doesn’t have to do with his state of mind for me, because Kanou himself said that Kaneki (who was supposed to be the last test subject before the twins) turned out as his best experiment for a reason unknown to him (his number of RC cells grew a lot from its initial rate and that’s how Kanou explains his strength although he doesn’t know for sure what triggered such an augmentation); my personal guest having to do with Kaneki’s genetics rather than anything psychological (we still have nothing about Kaneki’s father so there might be some things to learn about Kaneki’s past and family).

Anyway, so yeah I agree Seidou isn’t “gone”. The question remains if he can get rid off the inferiority complex eating him from the inside and pushing him to believe he’s better the way he is by killing for Aogiri though (but maybe he could be ready to reflect upon himself if Akira is involved).