#rize and shachi

[kyanitedragon]

[ID: Manga panels from the redrawn version of Chapter 1.

Image 1: At dinner with Rize, Kaneki asks "What's at the top of your list of books to recommend, Rize-san?" She replies "Oh? What would I recommend? Hmm... I'm not sure... I like things like "industrial" where they try to outsmart each other in a secret room... And the sorrow of wanting one's parents even when inside the terrifying "otoshihako" was beaitiful... However, my favorite at the moment is her newest work, "Black Goat's Egg". The devilish, murderous mother, "The Black Goat", and her son who sympathizes with her even though he doesn't want to on the basis of karma... The inability to resist one's heritage and circumstances... It really makes you think."

Image 2: Rize says "My family circumstances are quite complicated as well... Although I may not seem to be the type, I would get in fights with my dad quite often... Fufu... There was a time I ran away from home as well..." Kaneki responds "What?! You did?! That really is unexpected." End ID]

[rehide]

just barely started my reread but. i think one of simultaneously both the most interesting and devastating aspects of rize, whose entire character is about her stolen autonomy, is that we never really get to know her outside of other characters perceptions of her. we know her through kaneki's brief meeting with her and his once hallucinated version of her, through furuta's idealized memories of her in the garden and the twisted perception he has of her now, through tsukiyamas run-ins with her, briefly through shachi's ideas he got of her as she was growing up, but we still rarely get to hear from her. and despite this, she's still overwhelmingly present in the narrative, though more as a concept than anything. we do briefly get that scene in re where she talks to kaneki about the garden, but it still cycles back around to what he has to accomplish going forward. a lot of the information we know about her comes from the people fighting so hard to control her and take the autonomy her entire arc is about in the first place. just something i've been thinking about. how we know rize is so overwhelmingly present in the narrative but the people who she's tried to escape from her entire life are primarily who we've learnt about her from.

[ipsen]

Kamishiro and Kirishima: Ends of a Spectrum

(Alternatively: Women Too Pretty to Ignore So I Wrote About Them)

Thanks to @just-another-tokyo-ghoul-fan for unlocking a part of my brain I didn’t even know existed. It’s definitely not like Touka is tied for 2nd place for my favorite character in TG. No, sir.

As always, I’m using the official translations because of my monolingual curse.

Under the cut.

Let’s get this out of the way first. Rize and Touka are not friends. I doubt they could ever be friends due to their opposing philosophies. They are fundamentally different people who should not be left in the same room together. Why?

(she hates her so much)

Besides the obvious, it’s because they view their common circumstance-- being born a ghoul-- very differently.

(TG ch3)

(TG 46.5)

Touka blames her status as a ghoul on the reason why she’s had to run and hide her whole life, especially after losing both her mother and father. Rize prides herself on her ghouls powers because being a ghoul in the Garden meant a lifetime of imprisonment, and she wanted out. Touka is tethered down by her identity, while Rize flies around using it.

Ironically, Touka becomes “free” at the end while Rize remains trapped and dies. Let’s tackle that next. Why, in the context of the overall story, does Touka live, and Rize die? It’s pretty straightforward, fortunately.

Rize doesn’t confront her problems, instead electing to always run away. Whenever she gets bored, she leaves. Whenever someone, in her view, tries to tether her down, she leaves. Because she doesn’t want to return to anything resembling that helpless womb in the Garden. Watch:

(TG 46.5)

(re 64)

Running away isn’t a bad thing in a vacuum. Personally, I think you should try to run away when you can afford to. But the thing about Rize’s brand of running away is that she forces the consequences of her actions onto someone else. Like Banjou, who was forced to take over the 11th ward because she killed the last one. Shachi as well, who takes the fall for her and gets imprisoned in Cochlea.

And as a result of her constant running and tendency to leave behind no trace, any chance at a meaningful connection is lost. No one really helps her, because she’s already disappeared. She literally cannot be helped. One of the positive themes of TG is the achievements people can achieve together. Rize, embodying the opposite of this, does not achieve anything substantial. And in the end, she is reduced to someone else’s plaything with no mind of her own.

(re 119, featuring the tip of Touka’s head.) ("Tip of Touka.” “Touka’s Tips.” Someone should use those. She offers very sound advice.)

It’s sad.

Meanwhile, Touka reaches out to people (when the story wants her to). Because unlike Rize, who does the leaving, Touka is the one who is left behind. She deeply understands the loss and hurt that comes with it, and she has tempered that helpless feeling into a kind hand to reach out to anyone.

And I mean anyone.

(re 69)

Even the brother who, when she last saw him, violently tore out her kakuhou. She doesn’t blame him, only supports him when he needs her.

(re 120)

Even the daughter of the man she killed.

God, she’s so cool. Peak big sister. I wish we saw more of it; her contributions to Goat would have changed the tides if the story just let her.

Sorry, focusing. Okay.

But it’s because of this willing to work together with people, seek peace through proactive methods, that she succeeds and lives through the horrors of the world. She uplifts those around her and is lifted up in return. Kindness begets kindness, and I’d say kindness is one of the best parts of living.

It’s nice.

... “What about their relationship to Kaneki?” What about their relationship to Kaneki.

--

Anyway, hopefully this made sense and you got something out of it. These lovely ladies are such a joy to talk about.

Thanks for reading!

[elmaxlys]

Arima's plan was so stupid like the dude was completely unbeatable and instead of fighting V on his own with also unbeatable Eto he?? left his title and life dream to some guy that could barely touch him in combat??

The impact from having THE ghoul investigator teaming up with ghoul would have been soooo much more, for the humans especially, than whatever Kaneki had going on. Especially paired with the Takatsuki is a ghoul reveal and her new book release. As for the ghouls, all Arima had to do was. stop killing them.

And instead of that, he killed Shachi and gave Rize to V and then made Kaneki his successor like???

[jupiterj0]

I was reading TG volume 11 this morning and I just need to share my favorite little afterword (the Rupunzel one with Nishiki and Shachi being my second)

Ayato, Jason and Rize as the ugly stepsisters 😂

….the Hide fairy???

Kaneki calling Shu a pervert.

It’s so perfect 😂

[ghoulsbian]

Do you have any Rize headcanons? :>

certainly i do!!

• she has nightmares about the washuus finding her, even to this day. back when she was young and living with shachi, she would frequently awake screaming from these nightmares. she'd shake and sob, and shachi would hold onto her until she cried herself into an exhaustive state and fell back asleep. i think he would frequently have to sit with her as a child as she fell asleep, holding her hand, just to assure her everything was okay. the nightmares have become less like night terrors but they still have her waking up drenched in sweat.

• she loves scented candles, and prefers to light those instead of having the lights in her apartment on. rize only gets floral scents, of course. any food scented ones would be entirely too nauseating. her favorite scent is jasmine. she wears a specific jasmine perfume everyday too. she's been using the same kind for years now, jasmine is her signature scent.

• i see rize as a cis woman, who typically uses she/her pronouns but wouldn't be offended by any usage of they/them. she's also a femme lesbian to me. it's never been any question to her that she was a lesbian, i think that she's literally never felt any semblance of true attraction to men. she loves leading them on to psychologically hurt them though, when she's not doing so to kill and eat them. it's like a game for her- how pathetic she can make a man act to try and impress her, knowing she'll never ever reciprocate.

• i've had this headcanon for a long time, but i really don't think she kills women. now, she's no human sympathizer, but there's something about killing or hurting women that just is distasteful to her. rize would NEVER admit to this but i think that she avoids killing women because she understands what it's like to be a woman who is being hunted, and it's just not something she'd be willing to inflict on another woman, human or ghoul. though, i think she has fought with fellow ghoul women before, as she knows they're more durable, but she's never killed them.

• there was a period of her life in which she kept her fingernails very long and very sharp. this was because she found it pleasurable to reach out and suddenly slash men's throats when they least expected it. i think that she ditched this style of nail though because she got tired of having to clean out the dried up blood underneath them! rize misses them at times but wouldn't ever try to get them back.

• she is a very popular book reviewer online! i think she has this whole anonymous blog dedicated to it lol. it's grown quite a fanbase over the course of a few years. everyone eagerly awaits her next review, and gives her suggestions for new books to read and review too. it's something that keeps her sane. she does Q&As on her blog too! her fans are always more than happy to participate.

• rize has a very well-loved stuffed rabbit that shachi gave to her as a girl. she's had to replace the bow around its neck since she got it, but it's still in good shape. it sits on a special shelf in her bedroom, along with a semi-weathered picture of her and shachi and a dried rose. the rabbit is white and named yuki. the ribbon around its neck is baby pink with white lace on the ends.

• rize a very good dancer in my eyes. it's like she has a really natural sense of rhythm. her moves are so lithe. her hips sway smoothly, as smooth as water in a stream. it's utterly entrancing to watch her dance, i believe. she's just so good at it. mayu in particular could watch her for hours.

• it is a rare occasion in which you will see rize in pants. the flowiness of a skirt or a dress is just what makes her most comfortable. i don't even think she really owns pants, minus a pair of sweatpants or two. you'll only see her in these sweatpants if she's feeling under the weather and having a sick day at home. otherwise, to lounge around, she prefers to wear a silk nightgown or a big t-shirt and a pair of panties.

• she's very crafty with the ways in which she styles her hair sometimes. i think she taught herself all sorts of braiding techniques, and she loves to do her hair in different updos and braids. most of the time it's just down, but she likes to spice it up with an updo/braid at times! at least three or four times a month.

hope these will suffice <3 i love my girl rize so much

[thunderingblacksteel]

[superryunosukeyuki]

Rize’s Rebirth

In the final arc of Tokyo Ghoul :re, a number of plot points were left unanswered. The most prominent and mysterious of these points was Rize Kamishiro, who was the driving plot point of the arc. After Kaneki (who became a one-eyed ghoul by having Rize’s Kakuhou implanted into him) ingested the Oggai (who each had a Kakuhou of Rize’s as well) and a “core” from Furuta’s body, he transformed into an enormous Kakuja called “Dragon.”

After Kaneki was extracted the Kakuja dissolved, but it left behind a number of oviducts that continued to function. The core of the 19th ward oviduct turned out to be Rize herself.

However, if you look closely at the egg membrane in the first panel, you’ll notice that there doesn’t appear to be a body inside. There are merely tentacles writhing around, but these tentacles consolidate and then Rize herself burst out of the egg. This suggests Rize was formed from the egg rather than already being present in it. But how could Rize have been “formed” if she already existed? Also, why did she later form strange, animalistic features when she was confronted by Kaneki?

“The core”

As shown in the first image above, Kanou stated the final step towards creating Dragon was a “core” placed in Furuta’s body. @littlemissymonster​ once speculated that this core could have been Rize’s main Kakuhou. In the series, it’s confirmed that severely damaging or destroying the kakuhou is a death sentence for a ghoul. 

During Nishiki and Kurona’s fight with Roma on Rushima Island, Kurona tries to pierce the latter’s Kakuko because it would presumably be fatal. In the original series, Nashiro is unable to recover after having most of her Kakuko destroyed. Also, in one of the Tokyo Ghoul novels (Void), a ghoul named Noyama dies after Kaneki eats his Kakuho. However, there are also references in the series to ghouls that have multiple Kakuho sacs.

Eto (and later Yoshimura who posed as her) was determined to have 6-8 kakuho during her initial battles with the CCG. Later, during Kaneki’s battle with Shinohara in Kanou’s lab, Shinohara suspects Kaneki has multiple kakuho after he unveiled a new kagune form. 

For six months prior to the battle in Kanou’s lab, Kaneki engaged in several acts of cannibalism to increase his ghoul abilities. This consumption of excess rc cells is likely what caused the formation of new kakuhou beyond the original one he received from Rize. The same is likely for Eto as she grew up in the 24th ward where it’s said cannibalism is common place.

However, this creates some confusion. In several places it’s mentioned that damaging the kakuho can be fatal. In addition to the above examples, it’s mentioned that in Yoshimura’s first fight with Arima his kakuhou received “lethal” damage. However, Shinohara managed to destroy a few of Kaneki’s kakuhou during their fight, but he continued fighting just fine. It seems that only if a ghoul’s original kakuhou (not those formed by excess consumption) is damaged then it is lethal.

This would explain why Rize was able to survive multiple Kakuhou extractions. After Furuta dropped steel beams on Rize in the first chapter, she was handed over to Kanou to extract her kakuho to create one-eyed ghouls. While Rize was never stated to be a cannibal, she did eat several times the number of humans a normal ghoul typically eats (hence her title “Binge Eater”). This could lead to the formation of extra kakuho, and so for Kanou’s experiments he would extract these extra kakuho to implant into humans. By leaving Rize’s original, or main, kakuho alone he could keep her alive and wait for these extra kakuho to grow back for further extraction.

So, the “core” that Kanou implanted into Furuta was likely Rize’s main kakuho. Extracting this would lead to her death, and this was necessary for Furuta’s plan to resurrect her (will explain below).

RC Cells as Memory Cells

In a ghoul biology post by @coromoor​, it’s hypothesized that rc cells are a type of blood stem cell. This is evidenced by their presence in the bloodstream, their appearance being similar to blood cells affected by sickle-cell anemia, and their ability to regenerate multiple types of tissue.

Stem cells are able to differentiate into any type of cell. This includes memory cells, and if rc cells are a type of stem cells than this explains why Kaneki (who has Yamori’s rc cells as he ate his kakuhou) is able to replicate Yamori’s kagune. 

This would also explain Kaneki’s visions of Rize. In part 1, whenever Kaneki was in a mentally low state, a vision of Rize would appear and speak with him. If rc cells also double as memory cells, then this could explain these visions. As Kaneki had Rize’s kakuhou (and therefore her rc cells) he also had her memories inside of him.

Later, when Kaneki is inside the Dragon in part 2, he has another vision of Rize. She refers to the Oggai as “small coffins.” A coffin is a container for dead remains, and this further supports the idea that she died after her her “core” (main kakuhou) was extracted from her body to be implanted into Furuta. However, her core and dozens of her other kakuhou have now been reunited inside of Dragon. 

One of the panels shown at the beginning of this post showed Rize’s body forming inside of an egg. If rc cells are stem cells, then they can differentiate into any cell or tissue type (skeletal, muscle, blood, brain, etc.). By bringing together so many of Rize’s rc cells, it’s essentially created her a new body. It created a new Rize.

When this new body is formed, it’s still lacking its lower half. However, when Kaneki encounters it in :re 178 it appears more developed. It seems the purpose of Dragon was to gain energy (by eating humans) so Rize could be fully reformed.

Purpose of the Resurrection 

All of this begs the question: why would Furuta go to all this trouble of resurrecting her when he could have avoided killing her in the first place?

It’s implied that continually extracting kakuho on a ghoul has negative impacts on their mental health. In a flashback in :re 65, Shachi mentions that Yoshimura’s kakuho is constantly being extracted by the Aogiri Tree (for One-Eyed Ghoul experiments). He says this has left him incognizant (lacking knowledge or awareness). This suggests the extractions have left him in a vegetative state.

This seems to be the same case for Rize (who also suffered from multiple extractions). While Furuta is talking to her in :re 119, she doesn’t acknowledge him or any of her surroundings. 

Furuta’s goal from the beginning was to overthrow the Washu clan and to destroy the system they created, and to do this he needed Rize’s kakuho. However, he was also in love with Rize (having helped her escape the Sunlit Garden) and wanted to marry her. So, he used her to destroy the “cage” created by the Washu and V by unleashing the Dragon. Then, he planned to use the same Dragon to resurrect her so he could be with her.

In the end, all Furuta really wanted was a normal life.

[star-fiend]

[brave-symphonia]

So Rize was like a daughter to Shachi?

And this explains why Yomo kidnapped Rize from Kano. He was probably asked by Yoshimura as a favor to Shachi.

[diamondgore]

Fandom: Tokyo Ghoul Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Kamishiro Rize & Kaneki Ken | Sasaki Haise, Kamishiro Rize & Other(s), Kamishiro Rize/Tsukiyama Shuu Characters: Kamishiro Rize, Tsukiyama Shuu, Kamishiro "Shachi" Matasaka, Furuta Nimura, Kaneki Ken | Sasaki Haise, Original Female Character(s) Additional Tags: Near Death Experiences, Canon-Typical Violence, Family Drama, Family, Death Summary: Rize Kamishrio always lived life at its limit.

Part of this year’s @tokyoghoulreversebang! Please check out sketchyatbest’s art piece that goes with this!

[kyanitedragon]

[ID: Tokyo Ghoul manga panels. The first shows Kaneki activating his rinaku kagune and Shachi angrily baring his teeth as he mutters "Nu... Rize", recognizing her kagune. The second shows Shachi meditating with a speech bubble filled with ellipsis. Behind him are images in his mind: Kaneki dressed as his alias Eyepatch and with his kagune out, and a younger short-haired Rize splattered with blood and grinning. End ID]

[dreamofcentipedes]

I’m by no means an expert on Japanese language, but can’t Kamishiro be read as ‘white god’?

As the host of Dragon, the most powerful ghoul to ever live, Rize was a kind of god, and evidently a very white one. Additionally, Matasaka Kamishiro was killed by Arima, the white death god. That’s some bomb-ass foreshadowing.

[ipsen]

scrapped thing: kanou’s lab raid but different

this is a scrapped prototype of that “root a but it’s actually kind of original” fanfic that i was mulling over the other day. i’ve been sitting on this for a few months, but the direction, while pleasing (to me) isn’t quite where i want to start. the premise was also directly lifted from someone else’s fic on fanfiction dot net that hasn’t updated in like 5 years or smth idk

basic summary: yomo doesn’t appear to take rize from kanou’s lab. instead, it’s eto who appears to stall kaneki from pursuing kanou.

below the cut!

Shachi had taken Rize and left with Kanou. Kaneki would have pursued them in most circumstances. He’d come this far, and he wasn’t about to stop now. He had to fight. More, more, and more. To kill the king, and save Anteiku. To become strong, so that no one would ever trample over him ever again, so that no one could ever destroy his home. He refused to be the one who was hurt; he would do the hurting instead.

And now, at the bottom of the Yasuhisa mansion, his goal was suddenly much closer than he thought.

(“The One-Eyed King… might be that child in bandages.”)

“It’s good to finally meet you, Ken Kaneki,” Eto said, leaning over the edge of the railing.

Her cheeks were in her hands, and those black holes stared down at him. Kaneki took a deep breath.

“Join me. Join Aogiri, and I can show you the reality of this world.”

What a joke.

If the reality of this world meant your severed toes and fingers filled a bucket while a centipede aimlessly scuttled around in your brain, then he’d destroy it. He’d destroy all of it, everything that threatened his home. Everything that threatened his safe place.

Starting with the One-Eyed King.

(Yomo. Kaya. Enji.) (Hinami.) (Touka.) (It ends today.)

That was what Kaneki thought. That was what he’d left Anteiku for. To kill the king. To protect his home. And yet—

(“Kaneki. What if I told you that a ghoul named Yoshimura was responsible for the creation of the Aogiri Tree?”)

Kanou’s words echoed in his head, over and over and over. A nuisance. A fact? Kaneki didn’t know. He didn’t know, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t care; if he did, it would distract him. It would make him falter, make him weak. He was not weak. Only the strong survive, and he had survived thus far. He was strong. He was—

“What did you think of Doctor Kanou?” Eto’s voice pierced the maelstrom of his thoughts. “Much more interesting than I was imagining, personally. The twisted birdcage analogy really caught me by surprise. Maybe I’ll steal it some time.”

(A ghoul named Yoshimura.) (The One-Eyed King, leader of Aogiri.) (The bandaged girl is the king.) (Then this is—?!)

“Cat got your tongue? This was quite the foray for you, Ken Kaneki.” His target walked down the steps, her fingers gliding atop the handrails. “The world is different from how you perceived it, and you’re having trouble digesting it.”

She was distracting him. Kaneki knew that much. Her gait was casual, her steps light; she wanted to expend as little energy as possible when confronting him. Shachi had done a similar tactic with his intentionally sluggish movements, and he wouldn’t fall for it a second time.

“After all, what good is your strength if your reason is faulty?” Eto now stood in front of where Rize had been contained. “What good was leaving your friends behind if things weren’t as they seemed?”

Left them—? No, no, he didn’t do that. He was protecting them. He was out here, so they could stay in Anteiku. Where it was safe. He was out here, plucking the bad beans. He didn’t—

“‘I didn’t leave them.’ Is that what you’re thinking?”

(what?)

“Then let me ask you something—”

Kaneki’s body instinctively leaned backward as Eto appeared directly before him. He didn’t even register her presence until she spoke again.

“If you didn’t leave them, then where are they?”

(she’s right) (shut up shut up) (shut it out she’s distracting you she’s right there) (kill the king)

Two of his rinkaku tendrils wrapped themselves around his forearm, and with the bolstered force, he swung as fast as he could, aiming straight for her clavicle. However, Eto vanished just before he made contact.

(an afterimage?) (not even Shachi was—) (no, no. calm down. relax, assess, break down.)

“Wow! Nice swing.” Eto was now on the handrailing, crouched like a predator about to pounce. “Lovely kagune, too. Nice and dense.”

Kaneki’s eyes flickered around her, trying to predict—

“Trying to predict where I’ll go next?” Even with her face obscured, he knew she was smiling. “I’ll give you a hint: down.”

(she’s lying. it’s a ploy.) (so if not down, then—)

He sent two tendrils to flank her, a third directly at her, and then a fourth above. None found their mark, only destroying the walls and glass around her.

“I should’ve been more specific.” Eto’s voice came from beneath him. She was very small, he noticed, barely coming up to his shoulders. “Down here.”

Kaneki felt his diaphragm rupture, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor, all the air evacuating from his lungs.

“You’re such a peabrain, Ken Kaneki,” she said, squatting down as he gasped for air. “You’re clearly a very intelligent individual; I can see it in the way you approach your fights. You take in all sorts of knowledge and combine them into one fluid gesture.”

He saw a hint of verdant eyes behind those black holes, a void staring back at him, ready to swallow him at any moment.

“I was watching from Kanou’s security room. You borrowed some techniques from Martial Arts and the Body, by Gen Yasuda, didn’t you? Page 39, diagram 3?”

(why is she bringing this up? she reads?) (shit. can’t breathe…) (come on, heal!!) (YOU’RE SO CLOSE)

“Of course it was.” Eto yanked him up by his collar, and somehow he managed to stand. “And despite your rinkaku kagune, you’ve managed to perfectly replicate the Gourmet’s technique, a koukaku. You steal others’ work, then string the data together to make something all your own. How wonderful, Ken Kaneki.

“And yet, for all your hunger, all your knowledge, your view of the world is… narrow. You fashion a thin corridor for you to walk through, unable to turn around and see what you’ve wrought.”

Memories. Yamori, crying for help. Ayato, a helpless heap of his own skin and shattered bones. A ghoul, whimpering and at the mercy of someone else as they were devoured. Then another. And another. And another. A pile of corpses.

And him, the cause. His fault. His sins. For strength. To protect what matters. Only the strong survive. Only the strong eat. Only the strong kill. Then, to be strong was to be—

(“Don’t make me a murderer…”) (“I am a ghoul.”)

“Touched a nerve?” She danced around him, and he felt her use his back as support. “Good. Feel that. Remember that. Because it’ll never go away. Your sins, your ghosts�� They’ll haunt you for the rest of your days.”

A trail of skulls that followed in his shadow. Ghouls whose names he’d never bothered to learn. Whose names he’d never learn. Their hands, their teeth, their arms all wrapped around some part of his body, creating a cloak that dragged across the floor and painted the road behind him in blood.

(“Know your weakness.”)

Kaneki felt his knees shudder under the sudden weight, threatening to crush him, but he stopped.

“I… I don’t care,” he muttered.

“Hm?” Eto pressed further down on him, trying to force him down with her weight. “How heartless, Ken Kaneki.”

“You’re the heartless one here,” he fired back, and forced her off of him, standing on his own two feet. “Aogiri… kills mercilessly. They don’t value life.”

“And you do?” She appeared again on the railing, sitting on it this time. “What do you really know about the Tree, Ken Kaneki? As someone who wasn’t there during the 11th ward raid, I’d like to know—”

He swung again with his kagune, feeling his airways clear. She moved faster than he could track her, but there was a tell. She took direct paths, meaning she leapt in a direction. As soon as he shredded the railing, he felt it for a moment. A presence, like the shadow of a bird darting over you as it flew.

In one swift motion, he seized Eto’s neck, finally connecting with her. It was thin, he thought, as he slammed her into the floor.

“Well done,” she said, and he began to squeeze.

He had to do this. This was the best way to protect Anteiku. Protect Touka and Kaya and Enji and… And…!

“Are you sure this is the right thing?”

(you’re so CLOSE)

“If you’re sure, Ken Kaneki—” her voice tightened as he pinched her airways shut, but she didn’t resist— “then I have one more thing to tell you.”

(JUST DIE ALREADY)

He lifted her up and slammed her a second time into the ground. It made those stormy green eyes wince. Good. For everything she’d done, she’d wrought, she’d suffer just the same.

(“A ghoul named Yoshimura” SHUT UP)

“You…” She reached up, slowly, and patted his cheek. “You have my thanks.”

(what?) (distraction.)

“For Yamori. He was a pest.”

(but what if—) (DISTRACTION)

His grip loosened ever so slightly, and he watched her eyes crinkle in a smile.

“Ready to listen?” she asked.

He swallowed.

— 

And that’s as far as I got before I decided to fully scrap it. Posting it here makes me feel better about doing that. Thanks for reading!

[elmaxlys]

TG Sexywoman Poll - Round 1

Here is the list of the polls for this first round of the competition

Masterpost

Ami VS Asa

Mitsuba Kotone VS Akanuma Yuuri

Yamagata Tsumugi VS Mrs. Satou

Big Madam VS Applehead (Muramatsu Kie)

Takizawa Michie VS Fueguchi Ryouko

Mrs. Kaneki VS Ukina

Kusakari Miza VS Kirishima Hikari

Takizawa Seina VS Miss Nishio

Skull Masks Leader VS Jiro

Gori Misato VS Harima Touko

Karren von Rosewald VS Mayu (Nutcracker)

Madam A VS Shachi's subordinate

Aliza VS Fura (Sasada) Aki

Nishino Kimi VS Kuroiwa (Kosaka) Yoriko

Nico VS Matsumae

Yasuhisa Nashiro VS Irimi Kaya

Mado Akira VS Yoshimura Eto (Takatsuki Sen)

Yonebayashi Saiko VS Hori Chie

Hsiao Ching-Li VS Itori

Sankou VS Tagata Erina

Kei VS Utsumi Koharu

Aura Kiyoko VS Washuu Iyo

Hoito Roma VS Uruka Minami

Hogi Ayumu VS Tomoe Yumitsu (Hakatori)

Taguchi VS Oohashi

Fueguchi Hinami VS Shirazu Haru

Toga Miho VS Satomi Shion

Yasuhisa Kurona VS Ihei Hairu

Karube Misono VS Ruisawa

Kirishima Touka VS Kamishiro Rize

[hamliet]

The Vanishingly Slim Line Between Protagonist and Villain

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”    --Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

I could get into how this quote applies to Kaneki and Furuta’s narrative coping-mechanisms, especially with Kaneki and the tragic protagonist idea, but instead I want to ramble about Furuta and Arima, who foil each other extremely closely, and the weirdly different framing around them as characters despite them being even more like each other than they are like Kaneki. As a trigger warning this meta is going to heavily deal with suicidal ideation, because for a manga with the main theme of “live,” the framing around Arima’s death has been... odd to say the least. I guess this ramble (it’s really more a ramble than a proper meta, soz about that) might be an attempt to make some sense of a death I see as profoundly tragic and heartbreaking in the manga (Arima’s), via Furuta’s character.

What makes a villain, in TG? I think it answers the same paradoxical way it would answer the question of what makes a monster: everyone is a monster, and no one is a monster. To quote SnK’s Armin Arlert:

I don't like the terms "good person" or "bad person" because it is impossible to be entirely good to everyone. To some, you are a good person, while to others, you are a bad person.

Everyone’s a villain to someone in this story, and so no one’s really a villain. Everyone is both victim and perpetrator. Everyone is a person. It’s not so much that every TG character receives redemption; it’s that our perspective on them changes first, and then most of them go on to live which means redeeming themselves to an extent. 

Commonly this week in the deluge of hate for Furuta I’m seeing the assertion that Furuta as the villain ruined Kaneki’s life (which Kaneki himself says is not the case in 159) and also Rize’s life. Which, I mean, sure, because he dropped steel beams on her and later mined her and teamed up with Kanou who originally mined her. But there were multiple years in-between those events, and the whole reason Furuta got his hands on Rize again was... not because of him searching her out and dragging her back.

It was because of Arima. Arima is the one who recaptured Rize and murdered the one person who truly, wholeheartedly, loved Rize unconditionally without wanting anything in return.

Arima is also the suicidal favored son of Tsuneyoshi who also carried out a genocide against ghouls with the goal of making himself a villain with the hopes that someone (Kaneki, but Amon & Takizawa were also considered) would be strong enough to kill him and thus unite all ghouls to take down the organization preventing them from living normal lives--but like, the other one, the not-Furuta one. It’s not a coincidence Ui went from clinging to Arima to clinging to Furuta. 

Does this excuse Furuta? No. His actions are condemned in every way by the manga. But why then does the manga seem to have a kinder view of Arima? Is it just because he loved Kaneki? Quite probably that explains the framing, since the manga likes to comment on how from a certain perspective anyone is a villain like the Armin quote above, a la Shironeki killing people we don’t care about and then Shiromutsuki going after people we do care about. (I wrote more about that here.) 

It’s perfectly fine and I have no problem with people liking one and not liking the other because either can be triggering, so that needs to be respected. But from a narrative perspective, if you say “cool motive still murder” about Furuta, it applies to Arima too. But it’s not that simple for either of them imo. Both Arima and Furuta were forced to become child soldiers, knowing they would die young, raised in a rape garden. They’re victims, too. In the end, Arima committed suicide, and it’s heartbreaking. And he didn’t have to die/it wasn’t inevitable, as Kaiko notes for us:

Hence I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion to presume that Arima did not want to live with his guilt (compounded by having years of depression after growing up as a child soldier). But why does everyone in a manga that discourages self-sacrifice and encourages living over suicide then laud Arima as the god of death who died at 33 for our sins (like the Jesus symbolism isn’t subtle)? There are some hints that the framing around Arima’s death is not something we should be taking as the manga honoring everything he did or saying the ends justified the means.

Motives matter in how you're perceived--but they don’t actually matter to the victims who are still, you know, dead, or missing their loved ones.

Touka and Ayato will never get their mother back. Yomo will never get his sister back. Rize will never get Shachi back. That’s even what Furuta’s using to taunt Kaneki in the most recent chapter: the fact that no matter what Kaneki does, it isn’t going to bring the dead back. (I think we all can agree that whoever Owl is--probably Hairu--it isn’t a life worth living.) What’s done is done.

Kaneki himself acknowledged that he had a role in creating Dragon when he decided to bear the weight of his sins. Was he solely responsible, no, Furuta orchestrated it of course, but the manga and Kaneki accept responsibility for his role in it too; that’s all I’m saying:

Good for you, Kaneki, grow my son grow. It’s like what Urie tells Mutsuki: admit what you did. Face it. That’s the way to redemption, not in dwelling on the past (it’s also what Hsiao tells Aura during their fight).

Like Arima, Kaneki earlier did not want to live with the memories of what he’d done, so he tried to kill himself. Mutsuki, the same thing, but both of them chose to live. All of these suicidal characters are plagued by guilt for things that both are and are not their fault.

So how does this apply to Furuta? Well, if motives matter, does the fact that Furuta wanted to take down the Sunlit Garden--aka not really different than what Arima wanted--matter for him? I think the manga and all us readers might initially be like well... not when it comes to the people he harmed like Kaneki, like Rize, like Hajime. Because that harm remains. Good motives don’t justify the pain. If you act like a villain, with good intentions or not, aren’t you a villain? Or maybe, perhaps, there are no villains, and no protagonists? Perhaps there are just people. But objectively, if we say that about Furuta, we have to apply that to Arima as well--or perhaps his motives do matter in terms of his value in the story, just like Arima’s do. 

So if Kaneki decided to live and bear the weight of his sins, knowing much of Tokyo will never forgive him, and Arima could not, Furuta needs to be offered the same opportunity, like both Kaneki and Arima had that choice. Furuta is not narratively condemned to die any more than Arima was, and that’s the point. (Keep in mind that given that Furuta and Arima were both given favor explicitly because of their innate talent--aka what they could do--so the concept of facing wrongs and trying to right them has got to be absolutely terrifying, because I doubt failure was much of an option in the Garden (especially if freeing Rize is indeed what cost Furuta his favor with his dad).) If Furuta rejects this offer, as he seemed to kind of reject the beginning of Kaneki’s empathy this chapter:

...well, choices matter, so it really is on Furuta to decide whether or not he truly wants to die or whether he wants to live. If the manga fulfills his suicidal wish, he needs to regret it firstly, and it should then be used to dismantle the “St Arima who died for our sins” attitude by illuminating the tragedy of it all. Like, if Furuta isolated himself, so did Arima. Characters note this multiple times, and it still breaks me because Arima too didn’t believe he deserved to be loved. Furuta just took the mask off Arima as the CCG’s mascot of sorts, and off the CCG as a whole. Which is what Furuta’s entire role in the manga has been--taking the mask off the CCG’s actions, off Ui’s, off Kaneki’s, off Mutsuki’s, off Arima’s. 

If Furuta does choose to live, it has to be used to show that if Furuta could recover, so could have Arima--not to condemn his choices, but to portray them honestly as tragic. The fact that our other two suicidal parallels, Kaneki and Mutsuki, are recovering show us you can recover from the darkest of spirals, but it’s up to you to decide to redeem yourself, or drown. Importantly both Kaneki and Mutsuki had people to cling to, but Furuta, like Arima, has isolated himself. However, if Kaneki truly empathizes with him, that could help convince him it isn’t hopeless. But I don’t know; personally I’m not entirely that optimistic but I’m a pessimist about all characters living usually (sorry Yomo I thought you were gonna die like a million times) so who knows.