In this meta I am going to first list the aspects of Uta’s character that hint that he may not be loyal to the Clowns, and then propose a new theory as to what his actual goals may be after analyzing his actions at the auction.
This got much longer than anticipated so I put it under the cut.
Idiot Urie, do you have any idea what you’re so close to doing too yourself?
I honestly wonder if Urie is actually beyond caring about his humanity at this point – so long as he doesn’t feel it jeopardizes his chances to remain at the CCG, I think maybe Urie is at the point in parallel to Kaneki’s arc where he is willing to lose, “to be hurt” in order to be strong enough to save those he cares about – to get Shirazu’s body back, and now to save Mutsuki – to keep his squad safe, and to keep rising through the ranks to Special Class to help Haru (and for the memory of his father.)
Urie has always kind of reflected that part of Kaneki that needed to be strong, and he’s gone from wanting that for more selfish reasons to wanting to be strong for those he cares about.
But given where he’s paralleled Kaneki’s struggle in the past, I can totally see him sacrificing his humanity and his sanity in order to protect those he cares about, not quite fully aware of just how deep a hole he’s digging.
I’m concerned, considering at the auction raid he was already paralleling Kaneki during the raid on Kanou’s lab, the next step down is the sort of loss of self we saw in the sewers.
I’m really not ready for that. Hopefully the auction arc was more of a preview then a beginning of a trajectory? Because some of the things Urie might end up seeing and having to face on Rushima are going to be hard on his psyche.
At least he’s more stable going into this than Kaneki was.
These dumb kids need to stop doing dumb self-sacrificial things that hurt my heart.
Ok, the battle with Arima and Shachi ended the way I expected, although the info we got was so…
-Arima is going blind, I feel like this is no kind of regular blindness, at this point I’m just expecting him to be either a ghoul or an enhanced superhuman (genetically) I’m leaning towards the latter, mostly because it would explain most of the way he acts, incluiding his unhesitant obedience, as Shachi said (before he was painfully and horribly ripped from us(I’m not gonna be over this for a while, he was finally getting some character development, dammit)):
And I would really like to see if that could start to falter, though I doubt it (if he is genetically altered it could be impossible from the get go)
-Rize is alive, and apparently has her eyes back, I would assume her legs too since she has arms, and from what, again, Shachi himself said, I think we can expect her to come back into the story (And might even work in provoking yet another change or revelation in Kaneki, along with Eto, since it was his interaction with her both in his mind and outside of it which triggered his first physical and mental metamorphoses) as an active participant.
She however does look plenty traumatized, which could dampen this effect, and we don’t really know if she as much as has a kakuhou, because it has never been specified whether those can even be regenerated (the only referent we have to the extraction of one we have is Yamori and he died right after.) And also, from what SHachi says, V’s probably not going to leave her alone either.
Moving on, we have the new Quinx, subtly, very subtly, I would say, I think we’re being foreshadowed that Ginny will be hella strong, that whole conversation about how stamina is what an investigator will always need most and the placement of the panels as well as how she was presented a while back is suspicious, I guess I hope she won’t end up being the kind of character that is foreshadowed to be strong to just be obliterated by one of the many powerhouses in the series.
Urie himself continues with his pushing past the limits and I’m really, really almost certain that he’ll end up a full half-ghoul at some point (and other things, but yeah)
(I’m saving the whole Kaneki-Urie conversation for later, so lets move on to Banjou and Ayato)
Now, the whole thing with Ayato’s plan for saving Hinami was expected, he has always been rather stubborn, and it’s stated that he joined Aogiri for the power to do what he wanted in a world where weakness means subordination, and that was fine, until the branches of the Tree started preventing him from doing (protecting) what he wanted to do, because, no one ever had a problem with him protecting Touka, at least apparently and Eto probably knew, but now that in the midst of this whole thing he’s not allowed to go and save Hinami and is instead told to shut up and blindly follow orders, it makes sense that he would act against orders, especially since Tatara is probably fully occupied with managing Aogiri while Eto is away.
What this brings me to, however (aside from the whole wave of AyaHina feels) is that he’s alone in it, he went to Banjou for help, which makes one think that he probably has at most one or two allies or he is alone, and if he even does, we know that Shachi is not among them, maybe Miza, or Naki, but none of Eto’s creations or Tatara.
As he is alone, he’s looking for help where he’s most likely to find it, with people who knew her and would help him in what is almost a suicide mission because probably, he too knows that despite lack of personnel, Cochlea will be well guarded. Even then, Banjou is not very strong, unless he’s made an amazing leap in power since we last knew of him, and so, there’s only one other group that he could go to.
Anteiku. (or :Re, whatever)
Last chapter we got this ultra random panel of Touka and Yomo, and this chapter, Nishiki was added to the Rize scene (and taking into account some earlier chapters, he seems to really have gotten closer to the crew)
What with Kaneki mentioning that the Arima squad will be guarding Cochlea during the wave, well, it’s just a theory, but I think that he’ll meet Touka and the rest there, and for me at least, that will be where we’ll get to see him show at least a little more of his cards (I’ll go back to this later in the post).
However, this does set a major deathflag on Ayato, if it so happens that Touka and co do end up coming along, he’ll be at the most dangerous place possible with the two people he apparently wants to protect.
Alson, this is a nice parallel and this pannel:
Screams to me of a rematch of the Shironeki/Ayato fight from part one, not to mention that most of the actors from then would be on the scene (I wonder if Uta too, might show up, of course, the Clowns have a hand in everything but if he will play the good guy like back then) if the :Re crew goes with. In regards to this, I think it’d end up just the same way, if it even happens, just with Ayato calling Kaneki on his bullshit this time around, we haven’t seen much of Sasaki’s kagune lately but it’s probably a lost cause unless Ayato gets really crafty or has evolved into a Kakuja at some point.
Now for the most interesting part, Sasaki and Urie conversing, there’s a couple of things that I want to talk about (this is turning out to be a long-ass post-.
Urie is clearly surprised by Sasaki even showing up (which furthers the parallels with part one) although we already knew that he’s barely looked on the Quinx’s direction since Shirazu died (and no, I am not over it, just no)
And when they start talking, he reaproachs him the fact that Eto got to talk at the conference and Sasaki says nothign about this, although e all do know that he has a hidden agenda.
Furthermore, he asks Urie to save Mutsuki, and this is what really disconcerts me, because we don’t get his thoughts anymore, so we can’t tell but it’s a hint that might go either way.
(Also, this whole save Mutsuki thing makes me think of a death flag on Urie, but I really, really don’t want that)
It’s clear from both foreshadowing and his own behavior that he’s not following the CCG’s interests but his own adn that whatever this plan of his is will be something BIG , but we don’t know which side he will fall to. I mean, he didn’t disclose that he knew who Eto was, he even went though the trouble of staging a whole investigation to do something that looked like he was protecting her from being too heavily guarded or executed on the spot when she was captured and he got her into Cochlea where Hinami is -and so this plan clearly has something to do with her, at least- btu we don’t know how much good this will be.
With the way he talks to Urie about Mutsuki and that creepy ass smile
It would seem as if he cares a little bit, and is just protecting everyone from afar, but everything could just be part of a rather elaborate facade.
And this makes me think of two theories.
-One, he’s doing the same thing as in the frst part, isolating himself and practicing a twisted form of justice that will only take into account those that he cares for in some way, and for which he wouldn’t mind allying with questionable people who follow him or share his goals (Tsukiyama in the first part, Furuta and Eto in this one) and he doesn’t mind forgoing his kindness.
Now we get onto territory that’s wholly speculative, but if the :Re crew ended up at Choclea, along with Ayato and Eto, I can almost believe that he could help save both Hinami and Eto from the prison, he would after all be reunited with Touka, Yomo and Nishiki (and maybe Uta or very improbably, Rize) Which is also what I thhnk, Eto is expecting.
-Two: The second theory is far more grim, it has crossed my mind that we could always be dealing with something that is truly a new Kaneki, who does not care about the people he befriended in the past, and whos goal, while still different from the CCG’s, is completely different, and only requires specific pawns, like to, whom he still bothered to hide as the One Eyed Owl, and then we could see hm crossing a moral event horizon like none ever before, if he does happen to meet the people from :Re again (if it ends up being Ayato alone, i don’t think there’d be much of a problm for Kaneki to defeat him,although there always is the issue of Hinami) and doesn’t at least aid him in escaping the rest of Arima squad.
Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me if the only reason he sort of helped Eto was that he also strives to get fully rid of “the warped root” V, as well.
Finally, we have Eto being awesome
I seriously love her more each chapter.
So, I hope I didn’t bore anyone with my rant, I already want next chapter to come out
I just realized which character Higemaru’s fanboy attitude reminded me of. And now I’m really worried, because it was Seidou.
Remember just how much Takizawa respected Amon as his senior for his outstanding abilities and determination? Well, Higemaru does respect Urie for the very same reason.
I was already worried that Hige’s strong sense of justice was a parallel to Seidou’s one, but now that the similarities intensified my bet is that that very trait will likely be the cause of his fall, just like Seidou’s.
There’s an implication in the new chapter that Arima is possibly going blind. Possibly going blind in one eye.
That’s not a half-ghoul, but it would make him another kind of one-eye…
And it’s not like there was never a mention of a literally blind one-eye before…
Also it’s kind of weird that we’d find out Arima’s eyes are going (I mean besides the obvious glasses, his eye’s are literally bad he has a blind spot) at the same time Haise’s eyes are getting worse…
First the hair, now the eyesight…
Excuse me while I take this as evidence that Arima is the somewhat floppy product of some weird mad science project V’s been up to.
I have Arima feels though. He must know he’s running out of time. He’s been nothing but a tool his entire life and he’s breaking. And he knows full well what these people do to things that are no longer of use to them. Gosh, what an awful way to foil that bit with Haise thinking about how he is only going to be around as long as the CCG has use for him. Of course Arima is perfect. If he isn’t, he’s defective. If he’s defective, they’ll discard him.
So people on the Wiki pointed out a certain scene from Ch. 31, in light of this week’s chapter.
Could this have been foreshadowing that Arima’s vision is having problems?
I learned about this a year ago actually 😀 Though this would be a pretty far along case, the type of vision you see above can be caused by Rod Cone Dystrophy (RP); the slow loss of rods, eventually creating blind spots on all sides and very literal tunnel vision where the person is only able to see straight ahead.
RP is inherited and usually begins in childhood or teenage years.
Unfortunately it gets progressively worse as time passes and leads to complete blindness, usually by the age of 40 (Arima is 32). So far there’s no cure, but there are vision aids that help somewhat. Example: specially constructed glasses can help expand the vision field by bending the light.
But then I took into consideration the theories discussing the possibility that Kaneki could be developing the same problems with his sight as Arima, which obviously couldn’t be genetic in this case. I read up on some other causes of loss of peripheral vision and came up with:
Glaucoma
Retinitis pigmentosa (what I discussed above)
Eye strokes or occlusions
Detached retina
Brain damage from stroke, disease or injury
Neurological damage such as from optic neuritis
Compressed optic nerve head (papilledema)
Concussions (head injuries)
That last one though.
But anyways if Arima really is losing his peripheral vision because of one of the above, I think it’s pretty impressive that he’s been able to adapt to using the limited vision in such fast paced fights.
When I was shitposting about Arima today I started to wonder why his eyes seemed so blank and unfocused in ch 65
Apparently spoilers for chapter 65, have Eto referring to Furuta as Kanou’s clown. That would definitely further push the idea that Furuta was Souta. Furuta and Eto are seemingly chatting merrily enough.
It would also explain what Souta shoved the metal bars on Rize, and in doing so basically gift wrapped her for Kanou’s experimental use. It could also explain Rize’s shock if they were both working for V at one point, and knew each other perhaps as children.
It could also explain why Furuta told Aogiri where to find Shirazu’sbody, since Kanou wanted a Quinx to experiment on.
I wonder if he was also Kanou’s mysterious bodyguard?
It also explains why Souta is often pictured with the birdcages Kanou was one of the first people to mention.
After that last post, I figure I should mention my favorite little detail about the Washuu!Hide theory. Hide tells people to call him by this nickname, which is kind of a cultural shorthand for “this guy is really informal and friendly” seeing as in Japan, it isn’t uncommon to stick to last names even among close friends (i.e. Kaneki), and nicknames are even less common. I don’t know if this is already somewhere in @sans-san‘s many posts on the theory. If so, I apologize for the repeat. If not, please enjoy my addition.
But there’s another part to it. If Hide is actually a Washuu, than 3/4th of his name are false kanji. Nagachika Hideyoshi, the name he’s going by, is written like this:
永近 英良
If his real name were Washuu Hideyoshi, spelled with the traditional Washuu naming scheme, it would be written like this:
和修 英吉
In other words, the only “real” part of the name Nagachika Hideyoshi is 英, or “Hide.”
Saying “Call me Hide,” while he’s using the name Nagachika Hideyoshi is sort of like saying “I want you to be able to use my real name.”
Apparently spoilers for chapter 65, have Eto referring to Furuta as Kanou’s clown. That would definitely further push the idea that Furuta was Souta. Furuta and Eto are seemingly chatting merrily enough.
It would also explain what Souta shoved the metal bars on Rize, and in doing so basically gift wrapped her for Kanou’s experimental use. It could also explain Rize’s shock if they were both working for V at one point, and knew each other perhaps as children.
It could also explain why Furuta told Aogiri where to find Shirazu’sbody, since Kanou wanted a Quinx to experiment on.
I wonder if he was also Kanou’s mysterious bodyguard?
so why isn’t Kaneki complaining over how much he misses Hide yet?
Ok, there’s a theory that Kaneki believes that Hide betrayed him in v14. From Kaneki’s perspective it may be that Hide just basically sends him into Arima’s death trap.
Ok I just read the one mentioned above and…. fuck I don’t know. I hope it’s not true.
I hope you don’t mind me barging in your post with my own theories, but… Honestly, I’m rooting for the hypotesis that Kaneki just beieves Hide’s dead. Or, more specifically, that he was the one who killed him. From a reader’s perspective, there are a ton of reasons as to how Hide didn’t die (x), but you have to take into account the fact that Kaneki wasn’t thinking straight since the moment Amon dealt that fatal blow and Ken had to recoil in the sewers. Not to mention the fact that Kaneki already condidered himself a monster… Of corse the moment he finds blood in his mouth and no Hide in sight he thinks of the worst.
Also, I agree that from Kaneki’s perspective it really looks like Hide betrayed him (and in a sense he really did, (in)directly turning him into an investigator and forcing him to distance himself from his old ghoul crew). But I don’t want to believe that he really thinks Hide turned his back on him, because the thought of Hide was the only thing that got him through the whole fight against Arima. Remember this?
And this?
[Again the rectangular speech bubble, like the one Hide’s give in the panel above. It’s as if Kaneki’s talking with him, finding the strength he needs to pull off to survive and keep his best friend’s wish “to fight with all he’s got”. TO me it doesn’t look like something he would have done for someone he thought of as a betrayer of his trust]. The recent chapters informed us that Kaneki was already suicidal by the point he got to face Arima. If he really thought that even Hide, his last hope, his only tie to his humanity left, had betrayed him, don’t you think that he would have just let himself die? Instead he tries his best to survive.
It doesn’t really surprise me that Kaneki is acting cold and detached since he regained his memories. He’s literally driven into a corner. He knows Arima will kill him if he steps out of line. He knows the ccg will turn against him if he shows concern for his past allies. He probably stopped visiting Hinami in Cochlea not to attract too much attention on his change. Hinami would have noticed. And everything in Cochlea is recorded. I think the same applies to Hide. If he thinks that he’s really died under ccg’s command, and if he searches for info on the raid, they could find him out, imho.
Tbh I also think that it’s too early for us to draw conclusions. Since he regained his memories, we haven’t been shown his thoughts yet (apart form that one concerning Eto). He has his hands full at the moment. Just give him time 🙂
Relatable FE Quote or Something 