torupika

[torupika]

i must say, this waiting is killing me, i need to to see how urie will approach mutsuki, what he will do to finally save mucchan, but, at the same time, im afraid

I knooooow this waiting is so painful lol. At least it’s almost over?  

I think Urie has to open that goshdarn mouth and tell Mutsuki he loves him. It’s too late to call him on stuff because Mutsuki knows Urie j owe, but what Mutsuki doesn’t know is that Urie loves him. Mutsuki’s greatest desire is to be loved and feel safe, and Urie is able to meet that. If he doesn’t they’re all dying here as there is no path forward for any of them in that case; there’s no other narrative way for Urie to overcome this flaw. 

Let’s discuss Urie and three patterns: failing to be strong, failing to save people, and being saved by people. 

For the first, failing to be strong: he’s already overcome it. He failed against major ghoul opponents: Big Madam, Noro, and then Amon and Donato. And then he succeeded against Roma by making his peace with what happened to his father. Was his realization perfect? No. But it was progress.

Failing to save people… Urie’s failed to save his father (he likely views himself as not enough since his father chose his squad over coming home to him), Shirazu, he failed to save Mutsuki from Torso, and Kuroiwa so far (making his fight with Roma a pyrrhic victory). 

He’s got to save Mutsuki now or why would we believe he’d be able to save anyone. He’s capable of overcoming this, I believe it. 

Urie’s also been saved by people, which establishes a pattern that he needs to participate in. He lashed out first at Mutsuki and Mutsuki empathized with him, sparking his love for Mutsuki. And then he lashed out at Saiko and she saved him specifically by telling him she loves him. Urie’s got all the tools he needs to save Mutsuki. He loves him, and he knows being told that can save someone.

I’m also like anxious lol because that’s my personality and this is TG and anything could happen, but tbh, I honestly can’t think of a way this going poorly would make thematic sense. Like if you asked me after 153 or 54 there were more ways for it to work narratively if it ended poorly; after 155 which clearly was building sympathy for Mutsuki and emphasizing his pain and desire to die, there’s no way I can think of for this to make narrative sense if it goes poorly given the themes of love and live. Thinking logically, I’m not really worried.

[torupika]

Mutsuki, Urie, and Saiko as Love’s Dark Mirrors

So, after reading this meta which reminded me of this ask an anon sent me awhile ago, let’s talk love:

Mutsuki’s love for Kaneki

Hinami’s love for Kaneki

Kaneki’s love for Touka

Hide’s love for Kaneki

Saiko’s love for Mutsuki 

Saiko’s love for Urie

Tsukiyama’s love for Kaneki 

Touka’s love for Kaneki 

Urie’s love for Mutsuki

What do these types of love have in common? They’re a mixture of romantic, platonic, unclear, requited, unrequited, etc. But they all… have flaws that need to be worked on. Love is one of TG’s main themes. Therefore, it makes sense that Ishida’s exploring the flaws and limits of love. 

Mutsuki isn’t the dark version of these loves. It’s not Kaneki’s love=good, Mutsuki’s=bad. Rather, Mutsuki is the mirror exposing what the flaws of these loves. They aren’t healthy. Which does not mean any of these loves are doomed (well Mutsuki’s for Kaneki’s is, because it is the one the narrative is most unquestionably identifying as unhealthy, and I would say it’s the most unhealthy), or that there aren’t beautiful, healthy aspects of these loves too because there hella are, but rather that they need work to be all that they could be (aka, to save Kaneki). The Quinxes all are mirrors for these loves, actually, with their Ace counterparts–Saiko also functions as a mirror for Hide, and Urie for Touka.  

I already wrote a meta on Mutsuki and Hinami awhile ago, but whether or not Hina’s love for Kaneki has any romantic element, the same principle still applies. She’s looking to Kaneki to meet her needs, and he can’t do that (and through no fault of his own). Her identity is partially rooted in him, rather than in the value of her own life. Mutsuki’s identity is also rooted in Kaneki, in looking to him for approval rather than to someone better suited and willing to meet his needs (Urie, and Ayato for Hinami).

  Mutsuki is willing to go to great lengths to get Kaneki back. He is willing to arrest Yoriko and risk her execution, and kill Touka just to get Kaneki back. Kaneki, too, is willing to go to extreme lengths: despite being terribly afraid of hurting children like his mother throughout the entire series, he kills 100 children just to see Touka again (even when he’s making his choice in 144 he thinks of humans as better than ghouls, so he wasn’t doing it to save ghouls). 

But let’s move on to the Aces. Mutsuki is willing to forgive Kaneki all wrongdoings if he just comes back. 

That’s exactly what Tsukiyama did. Tsukiyama, remember, was also someone who has been violently obsessed with Kaneki, and who functions with high degrees of self-deception. Tsukiyama’s love for Kaneki almost killed him and he moved past it with the love of his family when he fought Kaneki on the Tower, but when they’re dead, he focuses on Kaneki again. He needs to remember Karren, and the others. Which is not the same as me saying he should abandon Kaneki because that isn’t what I’m saying. 

Hide, too, is willing to forgive Kaneki anything. Even Kaneki eating half his face. He won’t even tell Touka what happened. Hide’s love enables Kaneki to fall prey to his worst instincts, and it always has. But in the end when his inaction leads to disaster he rallies everyone to help. 

Saiko, like Hide, is willing to forgive anybody anything. She is the mirror showing the flaws in Hide’s love. She doesn’t want to lose anyone. Which is good. But she knew something was wrong with Mutsuki and only decided to act when her friend Yoriko was threatened–and then rallied Urie to act in her stead, foiling Hide in that respect. 

Her lack of action regarding Mutsuki is very, very apparent in the story. Additionally, Mutsuki’s “it would all be okay if you came back sensei” can be compared to Saiko with Urie, whom, like Mutsuki with Kaneki, she tries to push her own agency onto rather than taking agency for her own decisions. If Kaneki is Mutsuki’s security blanket, Urie is Saiko’s (though it used to be Shirazu).

Touka, herself, also says that as long as Kaneki comes back, it will all be okay. 

While Touka’s love for Kaneki is far healthier than Mutsuki’s and I’m not saying it isn’t, the sentiment is still as long as he comes back I’ll be okay (though to be fair, Touka did express the opposite during the Rose Arc: she stated that she just wanted Kaneki to be happy. She let him go, which again is where the contrast with Mutsuki comes in, and why Touken is not doomed or even close). 

Urie is more like Touka, too, I think: they know something is wrong with the people they love, but choose not to say anything when the evidence confronts them. These two scenes are almost certainly meant to be compared:

Touka knows Kaneki’s floundering as king, but would rather discuss their future (her choice in this scene was a good one for her child, but she can still choose Kaneki and the baby and confront him). Urie, too, would rather discuss the future and his romantic prospects with Mutsuki than confront Mutsuki. And so, Kaneki and Mutsuki both spiral. Kaneki becomes a monster who killed children. Mutsuki’s attacking a pregnant woman. 

Anyways, where does this lead? To the same place. Either they can’t save Mutsuki, and his demise opens the door for them to understand just where they’re all going wrong, and his death shows them what their lack of holding Kaneki accountable leads to. But I think that would be hard to pull off narratively, because Touka, Shuu, and Hide don’t know Mutsuki enough to care about him, or the Qs well enough to understand just what his death would mean or do to them. Plus, the foreshadowing Mutsuki helps stop Dragon. Or, they have to save Mutsuki. And seeing how the Quinx save Mutsuki and realize their own flaws might help the Aces do just that too, and help them realize that saving Kaneki is not just dragging him out of Dragon, but rather it’s a process that will continue after he’s taken out. 

There’s also an even darker mirror to Mutsuki’s love that the narrative paints as even more unhealthy: Furuta’s love for Rize. He went from setting Rize free to capturing her and mining her body when she didn’t give him the gratitude he wanted/chose to live her life in a different way. He objectifies her like Mutsuki objectifies Kaneki, but to an even more extreme extent. And he’s completely given up on receiving love. As messed up as all these characters and their loves are, they have not given up on love. And I think that’s very, very important. 

[torupika]

What mucchan said to urie was terrible but ppl are forgetting that urie said something similar back in the day too?? Also I agree with you, he needs to say what's on his mind, act on it, and not think in the space of duty. Mutsuki is in deep waters bc Urie (and Saiko) never confronted them.

Yeah, it’s the exact same thing Urie said to him back in the auction arc, which increases my suspicion that this is setting up a deliberate parallel.

Urie: isolates himself from the rest of the Qs, focusing on his individual goal: promotion.

Mutsuki: isolates himself from the rest of the Qs, focusing on his individual goal,: Sasaki.

Urie: during a very important mission puts Mutsuki in danger to pursue his selfish goal.

Mutsuki: during a very important mission puts everyone in danger to pursue his selfish goal.

Urie: when everything goes wrong, tells Mutsuki and everyone to die:

Mutsuki: tells Urie (maybe, depending on the translation) to die:

Predictions: Mutsuki will wound Urie in the abdomen:

And then we may just get a parallel of this scene:

Because Urie owes Mutsuki for that, and thus far, he’s blowing it.

[torupika]

A Tale of Two Toddler Fights

There’s been a previous comparison made between the Saiko, Urie and Mutuski confrontation and the Akira, Amon and Seidou confrontation. While the situations are not exactly the same (they don’t have to be for the sake of parallels) there are several things in common. 

The aggressor is an individual who after becoming a victim of torture has their hair turn white and suffers from severe dissociation. 

The defenders and in both cases, the ones attempting to rescue the victim are also people who have for a long time neglected any cronfrontation at all with the victim and let them stew until it boiled over, and they ended up with the worst possible time for a confrontation.

However, the most important point of comparison between them for me is this. The two confrontations end on opposite notes, the message Seidou is told is this: 

While the message Mutsuki is told is this: 

The exact implications for the resolutions and final messages of both fights lead reflect some interesting ideas in both parties and can probably lead us towards some predictions on where exactly Mutuski’s arc will go next. So let’s head there under the cut. 

Keep reading

[torupika]

In a mirror, darkly; but then face to face

This is based on an earlier meta I wrote that I decided to clean up a bit in light of what’s happened recently in canon. Take it with a lot of salt because it contains a fair amount of speculation.

The Quinx are foreshadowed to play a role in bringing down Dragoneki. As we’re still in the moon arc, that means Kaneki hasn’t been able to look at himself or his flaws properly. Fortunately, we have the literal embodiments of three of those flaws and the possible undead embodiment of another flaw trained specifically to take down Sasaki (aka Kaneki’s illusionary self). Ishida kind of outlined these flaws for us pretty early on in :re:

Urie: will keep his mouth shut again

Mutsuki: will lie again

Saiko: will sleep again

Shirazu: will carry the burden again

Keep reading

[torupika]

Why does Kaneki still try to do everything by himself? I always felt it was because he thought he needed to if he were to be loved by others, but Touka pretty explicitly showed him how much she loved him. My guess is that he thinks he has to continue to do everything himself in order to maintain that love, but also because Touka hasn't directly confronted that flaw of his. Hopefully you can clear it up, I love your metas :)

Ahhh thank you! So there are very complex reasons behind Kaneki’s motivations to do everything on his own, but let’s look at the other characters who explicitly embody this trait as well: Shirazu and Urie.

I think it’s notable that the reason Shirazu takes on all the responsibility is not because Kaneki saddles him with leading the squad (Shirazu was a good squad leader), but rather it’s connected to his upbringing. After Haru got sick, his mother left, and this happened to his father:

His father hung himself, leaving Shirazu as the only one who could possibly care for Haru. That’s why, when he’s dying, he genuinely thinks the world is cruel. He doesn’t trust the new family he has–Urie, Saiko, Mutsuki–to try and save her, and why would he? His mom left and his father also left when things got terrible. So he asks them to let her die, because without him, he thinks there’s no chance for her anyways.

And then let’s look at Urie. He takes over the Squad after Shirazu dies, and kind of is not a great leader, unlike Shirazu.

His determination and desperation to be strong and to overcome Kuroiwa is pretty clearly rooted in a childish desire to tell his father he didn’t want his father to leave him and to prove he was worth his father not sacrificing himself, because in Urie’s mind, Mikito prioritized his squad’s lives over coming home to him.

Basically, Urie does not want to be his father, but he’s become just like him anyways, and it almost killed him when he framed out, but Saiko saved him.

So, Kaneki. We know that Kaneki’s mother died from overwork, because she was so desperate to bear the burden for her sister and her sister’s family. Kaneki’s father died when he was so young that his mother is really the only parental example he had in his early formative years. And even though he truly does resent her for prioritizing everyone else, it’s obvious that Kaneki’s followed in her footsteps in that.

But beyond that, Kaneki’s dad died, his mom abused him and died, and his aunt abused and neglected him. These are all things Kaneki had absolutely no control over. He is not in any way at fault for any of these. But it’s highly, highly common for abuse victims to blame themselves–especially children. See, all children are by nature egocentric–but I’m using a psychological term here, not the common way “egocentric” would be used as a negative thing. It just means that children are not able to fully grasp the complexity of the world, and so they believe that they deserve or have earned everything that happens to them. It’s interesting to me that Kaneki is shown in a fetal position last chapter:

So this chapter really highlighted Kaneki’s childlikeness for me (I should also clarify: childlike is not a negative thing; childish is negative, they have different connotations).

Because Kaneki believes he is somehow responsible for every bad thing that’s happened to him (thinking of himself as the protagonist also ties into this), and because he also doesn’t want to be his mother and wants the bad things to stop happening to both him and to those he loves, he believes he alone can stop it. Which is a faulty mindset: Suzuya made his own choice to fight in the 24th ward. So did Mutsuki. Hinami chose to stay behind and almost sacrifice herself. Naki expressed that he wanted to die. Those are not Kaneki’s fault.

Like Shirazu, due to his childhood experiences teaching him he could not rely on others, Kaneki is too scared to actually rely on others. Like Urie, he’s still grief-torn over the loved ones he lost even though he had no control over most of them. He’s a traumatized child.

And furthermore, Kaneki absolutely loathes himself. He sets up seemingly hypocritical boundaries like “killing ghouls fine, killing humans no, but I’m the ghoul king” because it’s literally the only way he can live with himself. It’s a maladaptive coping mechanism. He does not believe he’s worth love if he isn’t good enough, if he isn’t kind enough, if he doesn’t get hurt enough. Love for Kaneki is inherently tangled in him being hurt, just like his mom hurt him but also loved him. Touka is not abusive, Tsukiyama is not abusive, Hide never was, so Kaneki must hurt himself to protect them.

(I’m crying as I’m writing this, because it’s really damn relatable and my heart’s broken for him.)

Kaneki does know he’s loved. Touka, Tsukiyama, everyone in Goat could not show him more how loved he is–except they actually could if they confronted the worst parts of him, like Urie and Saiko did with Mutsuki recently (what is foreshadowing). Because he doesn’t trust them fully to love him if he’s what he fears he is (a murderer, and he is a murderer). But they love him anyways, and I expect them to show him that at the end. Like Mutsuki, he’s probably going to be in complete and total despair after this, but accept that he’s a murderer and he cannot justify his murders.

But. But Touka and the others still love him. The entire CCG and Goat are trying to save him because to them, he’s worth it, even though he killed countless CCG agents in the 24th ward and countless ghouls. Like Urie and Saiko had to acknowledge Mutsuki’s wrongdoings, Touka and the others need to acknowledge Kaneki’s, and tell him that they love him no matter what. And they will, I believe that.

Tl;dr: Kaneki is afraid to know himself, and to let others know him, due to his childhood trauma and deep self-loathing.

[torupika]

You posting the Mutsurie hug made me realise something I didn’t realise when I first read it, in the panel when Urie says “a g(uy)irl” is he resting his head on Mutsuki’s shoulder??

…

yes, yes, it would appear that way :D

Don’t even get me started on the growing up/sexual symbolism here…

Okay whatever let’s go; here’s the meta on phallic symbolism, Freudian/Jungian themes, and Mutsurie nobody asked for. Also guys please remember that this is literature/TG is Oedipal/that’s why I’m making these statements. So it’s going to get really Freudian in here and yes I’m aware I could be reading into things but I don’t think so.

Look Urie throws a tantrum and is literally called a kid.

Look Urie’s in a fetal position (hello Kaneki parallel) and crying about why, because he wants to grow up and move out of this stage in his life wherein he’s helpless (hence the fetal position–fetuses/babies are dependent on their parents and specifically their mothers), but he doesn’t know how.

Keep reading

[torupika]

Considering the fact that Urie still has a long way to go in order for his character growth to be completed, do you think any time soon he'll open up to the people he's hiding his feelings from (Mutsuki for example)? Also one of the anons' ask about Kaneki telling Urie to stop killing the ghoul reminded me of this question: Will Urie ever sympathize with ghouls? I mean he's improved from his former self and he helped Touka escape from Mutsuki's grasp but I think he still needs developments.

I mean Urie might be a ghoul himself and if he isn’t Saiko probably will be so he better XD. And yeah. The main issue cockblocking Urie romantically and in all ways of growing as a character right now is that he represses, and his job/promotion is the vehicle he uses to repress.

Yes, I do think Urie is going to open up at some point. He kind of has to or his arc is dangling incomplete. We already have some good signs this arc, which as we know is about characters learning to take responsibility:

And we had in chapter 65 of :re Kaneki pushing responsibility onto Urie to rescue Mutsuki, when as a parent Kaneki was kind of abandoning his kid. In chapter 165 of :re we have Urie telling Kaneki he is entrusting Saiko to him, because as Kaneki’s kid she is his responsibility and so, that’s a good step for Urie to stop trying to carry everyone’s burden and to be responsible for what he’s responsible for.

But you know what you’re also responsible for, Urie? Your emotions. And responsibility sometimes means speaking up. Responsibility often means doing something, not passively waiting around for things to happen.

Keep reading

[torupika]

Mutsurie/Touken parallels

I originally wrote this meta before the announcement about TG ending was made and never posted it so it might as well be my final meta about TG for now. I was originally going to finish writing it on that fateful Monday, but didn’t go through with it due to the announcement so unfortunately the Akiramon/Ayahina comparison I wrote as well is not going to be included. I noticed that it still needs a lot of polishing and adjustments and since I’m not in the mood to write about TG anymore I had to scrap it completely, sorry about that.

Now that we’re all still depressed about the fate of mutsurie, I can at least prove that it was always intended to be romantic and was leading up to the same point as Touken up until chapter 179. No idea why Ishida shafted it so suddenly, but at least the development in the previous chapters is still there.

Basically the manner in which Touken and Mutsurie are paralleled is that Touka and Urie share their roles while Kaneki and Mutsuki share theirs for the most part. In the beginning Touka and Urie were hostile towards Kaneki and Mutsuki, though both did it in their own ways, Touka by being openly rude and Urie by not expressing his feelings out loud and only being salty in his mind. They disliked the other person and had a wide array of insulting names to call them, hypocrite, idiot, dumbass etc. Kaneki and Mutsuki on the other hand tried to be kind towards Touka and Urie and had no ill will towards them. They tried to get along, but it didn’t always work out too well

Touka started warming up to Kaneki over time and Urie changed his way of treating Mutsuki after the Auction, but I’ll get to that in a bit. Before that the important parallel moment is the first big battle where the two are fighting together. Leading up to that moment are the first Tsukiyama arc and Auction parallels with Kaneki and Mutsuki going through very similar experiences. Both of them for example end up on display on a stage and have a dangerous ghoul after them, Tsukiyama wants to eat Kaneki while Big Madam buys Mutsuki at the auction and wants to make them her pet.

Kaneki and Mutsuki eventually come face to face with Tsukiyama and Big Madam, but this time they are joined by Touka and Urie. They do most of the fighting since Kaneki doesn’t really succeed at anything he tries and Mutsuki only rather unsuccessfully deals with Big Madam’s lackeys. They’re still very bad at fighting so they just get kicked in the gut and are unable to do anything anymore

Touka and Urie try to fight Tsukiyama and Big Madam after Kaneki and Mutsuki are injured, but are unsuccessful as well and fall to the ground defeated.

Kaneki and Mutsuki, despite being very injured, crawl over to Touka and Kaneki. What follows are two scenes that are portrayed in a very romantic manner. As a result Touka and Mutsuki manage to release their kagune.

Touka embraces Kaneki and her biting his shoulder looks rather erotic. This panel as well as the panel before it emphasizes Touka’s lips and Touka bites Kaneki on his shoulder, the same place they bit each other when they later on got married. Kaneki also afterwards looks at his scar left by Touka and thinks about this quote:

Touka left a permanent mark on him that won’t go away so the scene is pretty undoubtedly romantic. The Mutsurie scene that parallels this moment also parallels a Touken scene that happened before the Tsukiyama arc, but it gets the same point across by combining these two. That scene in question happens to be this and it is the one where Touka fell in love with Kaneki

Touka has insecurities about being a ghoul and doesn’t think her life is worth as much as a human’s, but Kaneki says her life matters to him and is empathetic and kind towards her. Mutsuki too shows Urie empathy and kindness as well as comforts him about his own insecurities, about feeling like being a hindrance to Sasaki and being lonely. This is most likely the moment Urie fell in love with Mutsuki too since immediately afterwards his attitude towards them changes drastically so there is the added romantic element. This scene is also sexual in tone like the Touken scene with the embrace, period blood, Urie figuring out Mutsuki’s sex and him penetrating Mutsuki through the stomach etc.

Urie and Mutsuki as well as Kaneki and Touka grow closer after the incident, but the peaceful times don’t last for long. Kaneki and Mutsuki end up getting kidnapped by two horribly abusive ghouls, Yamori and Torso, and are put through very violent and traumatizing torture. This changes their behavior drastically and makes them more mentally unstable. I won’t get into how similar white haired Mutsuki and Kaneki are since that would need a meta of its own, but it should be obvious anyway. Meanwhile back at home Touka and Urie are extremely worried about them and are comforted by their friends.

While both are aware of the fact that there’s a high chance that Kaneki and Mutsuki are already dead…

…they still have a strong resolve to go on a rescue mission to bring them back regardless of what others may think

Here the roles that Urie and Mutsuki have compared to Touka and Kaneki are reversed briefly, but the parallels still stand. When Touka sneaks into the Aogiri base, she comes across Ayato and ends up fighting him while on Rushima, Mutsuki ends up in a fight with Takizawa and Amon. They end up losing, but are saved at the last moment by Kaneki and Urie who appear out of nowhere

Touka and Urie are worried about Kaneki and Mutsuki’s health after reuniting with them

It’s also worth to note that Kaneki and Mutsuki engage in a rather brutal act of violence. Mutsuki after hearing about Urie ends up hurting Takizawa and Akira, Kaneki hurts Ayato after he beat up Touka

Despite doing what they’re doing, they seem to care a lot about what Touka and Urie think

In the end Touka and Urie only want Kaneki and Mutsuki to come back home and live happily together like they used to

(Touka commenting on Kaneki’s hair while blushing and being awkward is probably also a parallel to Urie checking out Mutsuki’s coat in chapter 100, which like this was the first interaction we saw them have after the fight. Touka, Urie, your crushes are showing)

Kaneki doesn’t want to stay at Anteiku anymore though and starts going after his own goals instead. Small difference here is that Mutsuki left the Qs squad already before they were kidnapped, but, started going after their own goals only after the kidnapping incident. Both of them start spiraling downwards with their mental health, doing terrible things and eating ghouls/humans to become stronger. For example Kaneki raiding Kanou’s lab and having to see Rize taken away is a parallel to Mutsuki raiding :re cafe and having to watch Sasaki escape, but again, I’m not going to focus on the Kaneki/Mutsuki parallels much since that would take too long.

Touka and Urie are aware of what’s going on and hear about the things Kaneki and Mutsuki have been doing. They take the initiative and decide to go and confront Kaneki and Mutsuki. Touka runs after Kaneki and meets him at the bridge and Urie comes to Kuroiwa’s wedding just so that he could talk to Mutsuki. However, they both end up struggling to come up with the words.

This time their approaches end up being the opposites though, because Touka and Mutsuki end up being the ones who get angry and shout while Kaneki and Urie are more meek. Touka says true things about Kaneki, but ends up lashing out and getting too angry while Urie doesn’t say and express his feelings anywhere near enough. They both just want Kaneki and Mutsuki to come back home, but Touka tells him to stay away due to getting too angry and carried away in the heat of the moment and Urie doesn’t express his feelings enough to convince Mutsuki to come back.

The scene ends with the boys getting absolutely wrecked and Mutsuki and Touka exiting the stage dramatically. One is beaten to a pulp physically by Touka’s fists, the other is beaten up emotionally by the friendzone. (lol)

Despite Touka managing to change Kaneki’s mind briefly, the end result is the same as with Mutsuki and the two leave and aren’t seen again for a while. They go on dangerous suicide missions to protect Anteiku and join the 24th ward raid despite having people waiting for them at home. That is due to their own goals that they still refuse to let go of, both goals in this situation being related to their father figures Yoshimura and Sasaki. Kaneki and Mutsuki of course don’t succeed at what they set out to do and end up going through a near death experience.

After which they disappear for a while and their loved ones don’t know what happened to them. Touka nor Urie make an effort to look for Kaneki and Mutsuki and instead sit still and do nothing, waiting for them to come back instead.

Meanwhile Touka and Urie go on their own missions unrelated to Kaneki and Mutsuki, Touka goes to Cochlea to save Hinami and Urie goes to save Kaneki from the Dragon, both joined by their respective groups. In the middle of the mission they happen to come across Kaneki and Mutsuki and are finally reunited with them for the first time since their fight. It is the same for Touka and Kaneki since Kaneki only now regained his memories and met Touka while being fully aware of who she is. The situation isn’t sorted out so easily though, because both Kaneki and Mutsuki are very suicidal. Kaneki is trying to get himself killed by his father figure Arima and Mutsuki, after their plans were soiled, is trying to get themselves killed by their own family, Urie and Saiko.

This is the point where Hide and Saiko come especially relevant. Hide is Kaneki and Touka’s friend (yes, he is Touka’s friend too) and Saiko is the friend to Urie and Mutsuki while Touken and Mutsurie are the intended  romantic pairing. The group dynamic is basically the exact same. What ends up saving Kaneki and Mutsuki from committing suicide in the end is actually their friend rather than Touka or Urie, though they did contribute to the cause. If Saiko and the imaginary Hide were the MVPs, Touka and Urie provided the necessary support. They for example manage to shake up Kaneki and Mutsuki and make them cry and falter, but it is not enough to stop them from trying to kill themselves.

Imaginary Hide and Saiko to the rescue, because sometimes you just got to call your friend out for being an idiot.

Kaneki and Mutsuki’s need to die is put on hold for now since they have people waiting for them. Touken and Mutsurie are eventually reunited in an place that resembles the old days at the beginning of their relationship. Despite Kaneki being the One Eyed King and the leader of Goat, the Anteiku still has been reborn in a way with Touka and Kaneki together in a cafe again with rest of the gang. The CCG too has gone through some changes with the human-ghoul alliance, but now Mutsuki is back in the Qs squad with Urie and Saiko, even Kaneki is back.

Things don’t start working out for between Kaneki and Touka as well as Urie and Mutsuki immediately though and there is quite a lot of awkwardness and lack of communication. They have one conversation together that doesn’t really go anywhere even if both Touka and Urie have things they’d want to say, instead they seem rather content with the way things are on the surface (they also have such beautiful smiles)

There’s also the moment of very obvious discontent, Touka’s bothered by being left behind again and Mutsuki’s bothered by Urie’s “work this, work that” attitude.

And those are all the major parallels we got until TG:re ended. The way the ships developed were identical and leading up to the same point, that point being them finally having a heart to heart talk together about their issues together. After the parallels I showed before, there was a big mission Kaneki and Touka were part of before things calmed down and they talked together, that being started with the famous “are you virgin” question. Urie and Mutsuki too were part of a big mission after some issues with their relationships were highlighted (the big fight with V), meaning that logically they would have talked things out too after the fight was over.

Instead though we got the time skip and chapter 179 so the parallels stopped in a rather awkward spot, right before we got the pay off Ishida had been setting up for a long time. Touka confessed in her discussion with Kaneki so logically we would’ve finally seen Urie confess his feelings to Mutsuki as well. If the parallels would’ve gone even further than that, we would’ve gotten everything beyond that point as well. So even if there was a major 6 year time skip, Urie and Mutsuki should’ve been married with kids by now, just like Touka and Kaneki were. It feels rather strange that Ishida would do something like this with the parallels to an obviously romantic relationship if he didn’t go through with it in the end. Even if mutsurie was meant to be an example of two people that never got together due to Urie’s feelings being unrequited, we should’ve still gotten the heart to heart discussion before the manga ended and Urie confessing. Now that Ishida ended it here, none of the build up lead anywhere. Why include that panel of Mutsuki looking bothered by Urie’s words if it never even was addressed? It’s clear that Ishida’s plans were always to do something different with this ship than what we got in chapter 179, but I guess that’s all we’ll still get and there’s no guarantee we’ll ever find out why. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mutsurie got a rather disappointing end, but it’s clear that they were always intended to be a romantic couple.

[torupika]

Sins of the Mother and Father

Eto’s novel The Black Goat’s Egg, from which we get our lovely ghoul organization’s name and which also you know started our story with Rize and Kaneki bonding over reading it, tells the story of a son who becomes like the serial murderer mother he despises. The sins of the parents passing down to their children is a major theme in Tokyo Ghoul (affecting idk like almost every character), but let’s talk about Kaneki and Furuta specifically, and how they’re paralleling their parents in the current events of the story to the detriment of those they love most. (Thanks to @mercyandmagic for helping me organize my rambling thoughts.)

Keep reading

[torupika]

Hello there! So I know that Kaneki has "changed" multiple times but I've always wondered why. Why does the change is so...powerful? In the sense that his hair colour changes, his way of speaking changes, his attitude suddenly changes. Like normally, these are things that change gradually. Like with Urie-boy or even with Koori. But with Kaneki, it takes a single fight and BAM. Changed.

The way Ishida portrays Kaneki’s change throughout the series is fascinating, and it is something that goes with the whole emphasis of metamorphosis that is being shown in the story both through the use of the centipede who crawls forward no matter how dire the situation, as well as with the butterfly that is born from a caterpillar and can only learn to fly after a transformation has been achieved.

Regarding his hair colour change: First of, it is a great artistic choice to show that a change has occured in the first place. A Manga is, first of all, still a story shown through pictures and the best way to stylistically make it known that something is different from before is to go with the biggest contrast possible - so here, from black to white hair.

The black haired Kanekis always tend to be the ones who are intrinsically tied to human emotions, as well as black emotions - by that I mean that the dark haired versions of Kaneki always happen to be very emotionally driven, such as Kuroneki at the start of the series who is still very much human in his mind and totally tries to repel his ghoul side. Contrast this with Reaper, who dons black hair and basically has a black future in his sight - dying in style. Kaneki is hereby very emotionally driven, to the point that he self reflects constantly and basically talks down to himself.

The white haired versions of Kaneki on the other hand always tend to seek strength. We had the torture of Yamori which led to Kaneki’s hair turning white from stress, but narrative-wise it’s also to show us that Kaneki has just made a 180° turn. Gone is the friendly Kaneki that we knew, replaced by one who seeks strength instead. The One Eyed King meanwhile suffers from aging very quickly, which is one of the in-universe reasons for the hair of someone turning white. It is the same for Arima, whose rapid aging caused his hair to turn white like an old man. Narratively, though, it refers to Kaneki’s urge to seek strength in body and Arima’s constant battle with beeing nothing but a murdering machine for the CCG.

A neat middle ground of the two is Haise, who is portrayed by having salt-pepper hair, respectively. Which makes sense, considering that Haise is very much the most mature version of Kaneki, the one who can actually hold a parental role without burning out because of it. I believe Haise is what Kaneki COULD have been, but sadly Haise has always been a happy dream that Kaneki indulged in, knowing that he was playing house all along and had to wake up eventually.

Regarding why Kaneki’s personality makes a 180° turn: Kaneki is a character whose goal throughout the entirety of the series is a selfish wish to be loved by everyone. Because he got abused by his mother and lacked a father figure his parental figures in life have left him a socially inept person. Kaneki tries to erase what he perceives as flaws due to this childhood trauma, those flaws being that not everyone loves him. And that goal is insane, he won’t ever get to have everyone love him unconditionally.

Kaneki, however, does not realise that such a goal is unrealistic. Worse, the next father figure that he gets is Yoshimura, who abandoned his very own daughter. Said daughter then became a parental figure together with Arima in raising Kaneki as King, which could only fail because Arima and Eto have always lacked a sense of self throughout the entirety of the series. Eto does whatever she wants without taking responsibility for her actions, Arima lacks any sort of individuality due to being raised as a tool to be used. Those people could not, in any way, show Kaneki how to be a proper person, they were shells of people in their own right at best.

But Kaneki’s goal is to be loved by everyone!

So when calm, shy Kuroneki isn’t strong enough? Then he becomes ruthless Shironeki, because that might work! But it doesn’t, so he dreams up this reality of being a parental figure himself. And he’s good at it, because Kaneki wants everyone to love him, so of course he can be a great father role…as long as he finds use in it, at least. The moment he is tired of being Haise because Shirazu died and he failed at being a parent? He abandons the Quinx, becomes Reaper and wishes to die in style because surely THEN everyone will love him! But damn, there’s that voice of his dead (?) best friend in his head who reminds him that that is stupid, that living doesn’t have to be stylish! So Kaneki finds resolve once more, finds a reason to live in Touka and becomes King - which fails, as I’ve explained earlier. It fails so spectacularly that he destroys half of Tokyo, ends up with a body of genetic mystery and now thinks that since everyone is suddenly working together he can finally be strong enough to shoulder it all!

…which is where we are at, right now. We currently have a Kaneki who wrecked half a city and now decides that since most of the people who he cares about are bundled up in one place that he can shoulder it all and take responsibility for his actions. But he said that countless times before and his mindset hasn’t really changed. We are currently going into the last arc, but before Kaneki reaches enlightenment he will have to face Judgement and come to terms with all the things he has done.

Which means that he will, hopefully, have to face what he did to others directly - looking at Hide’s scars doesn’t equal understanding Hide’s trauma, just like how taking Tsukiyama as his shield for granted doesn’t equal understanding the loss that Shuu had to live through because of Kaneki. He will have to come to terms with the fact that he is one of the reasons why Mutsuki became so obsessed, that he abandoned people left and right.

And hopefully he will do so during Judgement! =)

[torupika]

What do your think of Shirazu's arc? Not his character (we all love shark-son), but about his arc as a Whole. I understood why Ishida killed him off and I am sure he will come back for a while as a zombie, but sometimes I wonder how his arc would have progressed if he got to live. Tbh for a while during the Rose arc I thought he may leave the CCG for a while after that operation given how stressed and conflicted he was becoming abt his job. Were you expecting his Death during the Rose arc?

I was, actually. I texted my sister during the end of the auction arc (she’d read it before me) and asked if it was just me or does Shirazu have death flags? She responded :( and then I was sad.

I think Shirazu’s death was really well done. He was the backbone of the Qs, not Sasaki. It was always him getting Saiko to work, putting Urie down a peg while also respecting him, and encouraging Mutsuki. For the Qs to grow and to realize just how much they meant to each other, it made sense to kill him–kind of like Shinohara’s coma waking Juuzou up, Shirazu’s death woke Urie up. But at the same time it set all of them on a spiral because they were all trying to get back what they lost. Anyways, mentors die usually so it wasn’t shocking, but it was heartrending. 

It’s also fitting that they spiraled because the questions Shirazu was asking about whether it was right to use quinques, whether ghouls were people, died off in the Qs for awhile–until just recently actually. Shirazu’s questioning also provoked Saiko’s questioning, and she stopped thinking about that and only focused on clinging to what she had. Urie tried to become Shirazu. Mutsuki tried to get Sasaki back because he couldn’t get Shirazu back. It all comes back to Shirazu. 

For Shirazu himself, his death made sense as a consequence of his flaw, but was also noble because he did die for his friends. Yet TG is so great in that it really takes a good long look at the concept of self sacrifice and martyrdom and asks what the results really are, as well as the motivations. We know Shirazu desperately needed money for Haru and he was scared, so scared, when he was dying. He couldn’t see them. He couldn’t hear them. He could only talk. We’ve seen the results of it–they’re alive, but it’s been really difficult. I don’t think Ishida’s condemning Shirazu’s sacrifice at all, but I do think he’s saying it’s a tragedy no matter how beautiful it was, and the consequences are both good and bad, and the concept that dying for someone can fix them doesn’t work. They gotta fix themselves, and they will. 

Speaking of Saiko. It’s her turn to be reminded that the Qs are her family. 

[torupika]

do you think mutsuki will die at some point?

Nah. 

That being said I don’t think Urie and Saiko actually earned the intervention with Mutsuki in any way possible considering they did absolutely nothing beforehand to stop it, but it still makes sense if you read the scene from an angel that it was Mutsuki stopping themselves.

Mutsuki never really wanted to hurt them to begin with, and Mutsuki’s desire to die was not genuine as well, or at least they weren’t completely devoid of a desire to live at the same time. Think, Kaneki with Arima. 

Mutsuki says the time with the Q’s stitched him back together, but it’s more along the lines of now Mutsuki wants the Q’s to be the one to stop him. Mutsuki’s desire was for them to speak up for him, the same way Kaneki conjured an image of Hide to tell him to keep living. Ultimately though, it was Mutsuki all along who made the choice. 

Which is why I don’t necessarily believe that Urie and Saiko are going to keep that well on their promise of taking responsibility and stopping Mutsuki, but rather that Mutsuki is going to stop relying on others and learn to find it in themselves, the ability to stop themselves, their desire to live. All of those were present within Mutsuki all along he was just simply deceiving even himself.

As Mutsuki’s delusions and obsessions towards Sasaki also stemmed from these two similar points,  Sasaki’s perceived ability to stop Mutsuki, and Sasaki giving value to his life. Both of those are things Mutsuki wanted to do for himself, but because of his abysmally low self esteem never could.

Once again for the people in back, Mutsuki is Kaneki lite. Mutsuki will live because the desire to live was within him all along. He simply needed to look at himself seriously, rather than continuing to look away, and looking at others as a method of looking away. 

[torupika]

Yeah exactly! It's even more ironic bcs at the end of the day Urie's core is like the opposite of the toxic masculinity persona he uses and admires. He is extremely caring (yeah, he's self-centred, but still cares a lot) and has incredibly strong feelings for the people he grows attached to. He even insists for cooking despite the fact he can't and loves painting. Honestly he should just say what his internal monologues scream. People would be weirded in the beginning though.

Yuuuuuuuuuup. Exactly. Urie is not whom he pretends to be.

It’s funny, Mutsuki displays a more gentle outside but uses that to repress the violent tendencies inside. Urie uses toxically masculine violence to hide his gentle inside. Kind of like how in the beginning of TG Kaneki used a more gentle outside to repress violent instincts and Touka used a violent exterior to hide her gentleness. 

I just really love the yin/yang anima/animus symbolism between both these ships. 

[torupika]

Eat Your Words

Also known as: patterns of misleading foreshadowing.

See this? I don’t think this is a death flag. At least not for Mutsuki, Urie, or Saiko. But I do think it is foreshadowing. Let’s look at how foreshadowing works in TG. TG has a lot of… anticlimax, meaning what you think the narrative is indicating turns out to have a twist to it/not go as you expected. For example: the implication is Mutsuki’s RC count is the highest.

Except it’s actually the lowest. It might actually be super high because he’s concentrating it in an area or whatever, I don’t know, but what Dr. Shiba said was not what we expected, and it was covering a twist we didn’t see coming.

Furuta says ghouls and humans will unite to defeat Kaneki:

But actually they’re uniting to get Kaneki out of Dragon (though I do think Marude et al do not plan to let Kaneki go after they get him out). But they aren’t uniting the fight Dragoneki.

Touka is drawn with blood on her stomach and Mutsuki shows up the same chapter. Everone expected Mutsuki to harm Touka.

And Mutsuki did go after Touka, but totally not how you expected her to. He went after Yoriko.

Basically what I’m saying is that the foreshadowing in TG seldom indicates what your first thought would be that it indicates, and that’s a pattern Ishida’s set up in :re that‘s not likely to break. Unless of course it’s a line through their necks in which case RIP (except not always, because Hinami’s been drawn with lines through her neck and she’s fine).

So what does it mean in regards to the scene where they discuss the purpose of the Qs? It foreshadows this confrontation for sure: Mutsuki having to face his fear: that his friends might kill him. He might even want that at this point. Mutsuki wants essentially his new family to do to him what he did to his biological family. However, I really think it’s unlikely to foreshadow the fight ending with Mutsuki dying. For one thing, cycles gotta end somehow in this story, and clearly that would then condemn Urie and Saiko (like people who think killing his family condemns Mutsuki but want Urie and Saiko to kill Mutsuki–there’s some cognitive dissonance there). And look at what Urie says here:

Of course Urie was then the person who first framed out after saying that. You always become your worst fear/the thing you condemn most in TG. Always. And now he’s facing the choice he said he wouldn’t hesitate about. What will he do? Will he hesitate? Or will he have to eat his words yet again? There’s also a callback to this, in that the entire set-up for this Qs fight parallels the Rushima fight heavily:

Does the narrative want to reinforce Urie’s statement here on Rushima, when it previously clearly condemned Saiko’s choice to obey and for fighting Amon? Or force him to eat his words? (I think the latter.) It all ties into that theme: will the Qs choose duty? In which case they all are headed for tragedy. Or will they choose their family, the thing Urie wants most?

The thing Mutsuki wants most?

And the thing Saiko wants most?

And here’s the other kicker: they can’t save Kaneki and narratively justify killing Mutsuki. Unless Mutsuki becomes Mutsudragon, eats 100 kids, and destroys a city too, basically no one can justify saying “he gave us no choice but to put him down!” or putting any characters down after Kaneki’s actions. You can’t justify it. You just can’t. (Which is maybe actually the point, considering how the series values life.) The only characters who are beyond Kaneki in terms of crime levels right now are the people responsible for turning Kaneki into Dragon: V (final enemy probably), Kanou (dead), Kimi, and Furuta. Kimi will probably get a redemption too for Nishiki’s sake. Furuta will… probably not get a happy ending, though he might get a moment of redemption or something of the like (going along with foreshadowing not indicating what it seems, my guess is Rize will eat him, but it won’t be as straightforward as we think).

The foreshadowing the Qs will stop Dragon seems to be a reference back to this scene too, specifically indicating that they kill Kaneki. I do think they’re going to fight Kaneki. I don’t think they’re going to kill him. Foreshadowing is not what it seems in TG. If anything, I do think the scene might indicate the ending for Shirazombie. Though I don’t think it would be like fight him down, now let’s put him down, but rather that the Qs and Shirazu would all agree to make the decision to stop giving him the medicine or whatever is keeping him alive, and let him pass in peace.

[torupika]

What aspect of Mutsurie do you enjoy the most?

This is gonna be super rambly because I’m sick (again) but here ya go. 

Much like with Touken, I love how Mutsurie emphasizes the themes of the series. Compassion, and redemption, and empathy really. Those are vital parts of both of their characters and their growth comes through each other. 

Like Touka and Kaneki, both Urie and Mutsuki are lonely people deep down who desperately want to be loved and to be safe and validated. 

This scene is a parallel of Touken’s “I would be sad if you died” scene” containing “just die” because #inverses but also Kaneki and Mutsuki respond to raging Touka/Urie with empathy. Kaneki tells Touka he doesn’t agree with her actions, but he understands them. Mutsuki sees how lonely Urie is and tells Urie it’s okay, he understands that loneliness. 

The chapter which contains the Mutsurie hug is called “To Seek a Nest” because Mutsuki opens his arms and provides that nest for Urie, and in that moment Urie realizes he was wrong to judge Mutsuki as he had. Urie then chooses to treat Mutsuki less like the “weak” “hypocrite” he’d judged Mutsuki as (just like Touka judged Kaneki as a weak hypocrite) and protects him from Torso when Kanae arranges an ambush. Mutsuki sees through Urie’s facade in that moment but does not hold it over his head and use it to hurt him; instead, he empathizes with him. 

Unlike Touka and Kaneki though, Mutsuki and Urie don’t have the species difference separating them, which again reinforces the series’ themes. Prejudice and a lack of communication and empathy are just as prevalent among humans (or Quinxes lol, and now ghouls as Urie and Mutsuki presumably are) as they are between species. Mutsuki and Urie’s journey from humans to Qs to ghouls shows this. Empathy is honestly the key to solving the ghoul-human problem, and with humans turning into ghouls, I think we’re going to see that really soon. 

I’ve talked before about how Mutsuki lies and Urie can’t speak the truth, because neither of them can face the truth, and how Urie parallels Touka specifically. But Urie is like Kaneki, a passive character, and Mutsuki is like Touka an active one (though funnily enough in the beginning we’d think the opposite), and that way it’s inversed Touken again. And Urie and Mutsuki share a flaw with Touka and Kaneki as well: they do not want to lose their loved ones. But whereas Touka and Kaneki focus on people other than the people leaving them, blaming the world, Mutsuki and Urie focus their reaction on the person they don’t want to leave. 

Kaneki: don’t hurt my loved ones hurt me instead

Touka: don’t hurt my loved ones I’ll hurt you instead

Mutsuki: don’t leave me I’ll go overboard in my desire to keep you around; 

Urie: don’t leave me but I won’t do anything to show you I don’t want you to leave. 

They’re yin/yang. They need to grow away from these extremes and toward a middle ground, and they can do this through each other, because their relationship emphasizes growth and progression of Mutsurie necessitates overcoming these flaws.

(It’s so weird to me that so many people who OTP Mutsurie don’t like Touken or vice versa. It’s such a similar dynamic and journey lol, and I won’t even get into how Mutsurie parallels Ayahina too, or Seiaki, or Akiramon, because it parallels all of those.) 

[torupika]

What do you think think about akira character i love her but the fandom kinda forget her no meta no fanart :/

I LOVE HER.

Seriously, ever since Akira appeared, I loved her. She reminds me of someone I’m close to, and beyond that, I think she’s a very interesting character. Her disappearance from the plot I think is why we have less metas and fanarts for her right now, but I’m hoping now that Amon & Takizawa are getting focus, Akira will too, because Akira is an important part of that trio and she has to complete her arc, which I believe will end in her giving her quinques (remember her father was called the quinque collector) to Hinami to allow her to bury her parents and mourn them. 

So to break down Akira’s character. She’s characterized by 1) her emotional repression, and 2) her need to honor her father. There’s also this theme of mourning that is present in her arc and in two of her foils, Touka’s and Hinami’s. The notion of mourning–Akira brings flowers to her father’s grave. Touka brings flowers to her father’s killer (as noted by @aspoonofsugar). Hinami has nowhere to bring flowers because Amon and Mado dug up her father’s grave and found her mother and killed her. 

If Touka is too harsh on her father, Akira is too gentle on him. That’s the whole point of what Touka’s trying to get across to Akira during 120: your father did some terrible, terrible things. Akira can still love the man, but it doesn’t decrease love to acknowledge that someone messed up, because we all mess up. The thing is Touka still struggles with this lesson as well (though she articulates it correctly, I believe), as seen in the reveal about Shinohara, and of course her not confronting Kaneki. Because Touka and Akira very very closely parallel each other, I expect they will both come to terms with their fathers around the same time narratively.

But anyways. Moving on. It makes sense that Akira is stabbed and almost killed by a foil of Hinami’s who also kind of foils Akira as well: Mutsuki, who also foils Kaneki, Akira’s surrogate son. Basically, the whole stabbing on Rushima thing is warning Akira that no matter what she does, if she sticks with the CCG, she is going to repeat the cycle of violence. Mutsuki who has literally just escaped Torso, aka being tortured and assaulted by a ghoul, asks Akira the same question he will later ask Kaneki, in a sense: why are you protecting a ghoul and not me? 

Akira is also confronted with the legacy of her “parenting” at the CCG. She parented Kaneki. Kaneki parented Mutsuki. Now look. Mutsuki’s about to kill one of the men she loves. 

And Akira, Akira, what about your father’s legacy? Why did he go after a ghoul instead of staying with you? (aka what Touka asks her later). What about the things he taught you? Because killing ghouls is not a way to life. Death begets death. Which is why this is directly brought up:

She can’t face them, because she knows they wouldn’t approve, but she’s doing it anyway. This is also interesting because… Akira cries. Remember I mentioned her emotional repression?

Akira’s emotional repression is a direct result of her job, as well. She may look very feminine, but she represses her emotions to succeed and to do what she must. Because, like Amon, she struggles to acknowledge herself as a person. But in this moment she has no choice but to do that.