Tag: akiramon

Please do get started with the Electra/Oedipus symbolism with the Arata armor and Kaneki, I’m curious

Haha! So the short version is we all know Kaneki parallels Arata and even physically resembles him (just like Takizawa & Amon represent parts of Mado for Akira, Ayato fell for Hinami who, like Hikari sacrificed herself to save Arata & her kids, is willing to sacrifice herself to save the Aogiri kids, Urie fell for Mutsuki who leaves him like his father did, etc.) So there’s the Electra complex right there in that Touka marries a man like her father for better and for worse, because he also follows Arata’s path into hurting people. Touka herself says these words:

I want Touka to live up to these words with Kaneki. Still wanting to be with him, but holding him accountable, and I think she will indeed be a vital part of helping Kaneki take responsibility as he vowed to, so that he can eventually make a Judgment about his life. 

But anyways. It’s funny to me that “Arata” is the one who stops Kaneki–or rather, the legacy of what Arata became stops Kaneki.

The Arata armor is used to absolutely wreck Kaneki. The Arata armor is a symbol of Arata’s rage, and his desire for both revenge and to protect Touka and Ayato from investigators. This rage and desire to protect is exactly what took Arata away from Touka and Ayato–and Touka says it herself. Because he prioritized these things above just being with them, he lost them.

Kaneki is doing the same thing in the 24th ward when he returns to fight. Arata defeating him and then serving as a catalyst for turning him into Dragon, a symbol of his desire to protect and, to the others, a symbol of revenge even if Kaneki didn’t intend for that to be the case:

And Kaneki himself admits in 159 that he just didn’t want to lose people. Arata was seemingly motivated by the same motivations–out of despair over losing Hikari, and out of a desire to prevent that from happening to Touka or Ayato. 

Basically, Kaneki losing to the Arata armor symbolically represented what was about to happen in Dragon: just as Arata lost what he had left for his armor, Kaneki lost what he had left when he became Dragon. Touka’s trauma stems from her father abandoning her, and Kaneki’s actions there caused him to nearly abandon her too even though ironically he was screaming TOUKA TOUKA TOUKA. 

But this time, Touka is able to work through her trauma with her father and dig Kaneki out. Time will tell if he’ll be able to overcome the Arata parallel, but I believe he certainly will. I think this is also why Ayato will be important when they eventually deal with Arata: Touka can overcome her Arata-related trauma via Kaneki though I’m sure she will still play an important role when they find Arata; Ayato cannot and therefore probably needs to deal with Arata. 

Hang the Moon VI: Laughter- Hamliet – Tokyo Ghoul [Archive of Our Own]

Chapters: 7/25
Fandom: Tokyo Ghoul
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Chapter Summary: 

“If you’re going,” Touka said, squaring her shoulders. “Then I’m going with you.”

Hang the Moon VI: Laughter- Hamliet – Tokyo Ghoul [Archive of Our Own]

How would you feel if mutsurie would get an open ending like where the readers don’t know if they ended up together in the end or not?

Ishida doesn’t really do vague. Unlike say FMA Ishida has included strong romantic themes and hints throughout the entire series for Touken, Ayahina, Akiramon, Seiaki, and Mutsurie. We probably won’t get like 125 but Ishida is pretty likely to include at least a pretty obvious hint (like a panel of holding hands) or a kiss for Mutsurie and Ayahina. Honestly Mutsuki and Urie are such main characters and their arcs have both included such strong elements of romantic love that it’d be unsatisfying to leave it unanswered. Also again, Ishida doesn’t really do vague lol.

Touka being abusive is so confusing every ship has tried to beat or kill each other at some point. Kaneki ate hides face, the qs all hurt each other, tsukiyama tried to eat kaneki, taki choked akira the list goes on. Same when i see comments how mutsuki is too unstable for urie but kaneki with multiple personas and a mass murderer is allowed to be in a happy relationship.

I agree with you! Saying Touka is abusive because she has issue
communicating without violence (also she has come a long way in that)
and ignoring Kaneki is a child murder doesn’t make sense. If it was a
true relationship I would be more concerned abt the husband devouring a
Whole city tbh. Also I don’t see many Saiko’s abusive posts and people
started shipping Mutsurie in ch 29 (me too) despite Urie having
selfishly put Mutsuki in danger.
       
    

Diff asks, can be answered together.

SERIOUSLY TO BOTH OF THESE. Let me list all the fandom ships and how problematic they are and you shall see Touken is not unique:

  • Touken: she hit him, he abandoned her, he’s a mass murderer
  • Hidekane: Kaneki abandoned Hide & ate his face off, Hide abandoned Kaneki and let him think he was dead so Kaneki was suicidal
  • Shuuneki: Shuu tried to eat Kaneki, Kaneki helped kill his family
  • Nishikimi: Kimi’s a mass murderer
  • Seiaki: she tried to kill him and thought it would be merciful, he tried to strangle her
  • Akiramon: he abandoned her and now they’re abandoning their other friend
  • Mutsurie: he put Mutsuki in danger for his own ego, punched a hole in his stomach, Mutsuki impaled him
  • Urisai; he impaled her, she beat him up
  • Uihai: he’s ignoring her own wishes
  • Ayahina: they met in a terrorist organization
  • Tsukikana: she tried to murder his other love interest
  • Arieto: they’re both mass murderers

All ships in TG are “problematic.” It’s called plot points even if many of these ships are ultimately platonic. That’s the point of including romance in a story. It can’t be just there; it has to somehow help the character grow and add to the plot/themes. TG’s themes are about gray morality and the fight against yourself.

Also: an important part of abuse is a power dynamic difference. There… isn’t one in Touken. (Or in Mutsurie, or Ayahina, or Seiaki, or Akiramon).

Honestly in Tg Touka is seen lying in bed with her parents’ ring muttering Kaneki’s name. If that’s not coded romantically I don’t know what it is. As for Ken she has always clearly been an important person to him and you can’t negate his attraction to her after re ch 9. Seeing Hina or Shuu as Haise didn’t make him feel the same way despite him caring abt them too.

Yeah… also there’s this thing when you’re setting up a romantic interest that is going to be well written, the characters need to be on an equal plane and to be shown as important to/having a unique impact on each others’ arcs really early on in their arcs.

In TG, we have that with Touka and Kaneki. Hide and Kaneki discuss her attractiveness in the very first chapter (romantic hint) and she’s the first ghoul he meets who tries to help him. In :re, we have that with Touka and Kaneki again–he reacts to her in :re how he did not react to anyone else from his past, which lets us know we should pay attention to this relationship.

In the first TG, we have that with Akira and Amon. He worries about how to bond with her and she teases him mercilessly–but also does manage to drag him out of his shell to an extent. The drunken scene made the romantic attraction obvious. The writing on Akiramon in :re is a bit more confusing because Seiaki actually got more focus but it was definitely built up from the start of Akira’s appearance in the first TG.

In :re, we have that with Ayato and Hinami who appear together in the very first chapter, and we have Ayato desperate to save her by the end of the auction arc, which tells us that given what we know of Ayato in the first TG, this is someone special to him and a relationship we should pay attention to. It’s not until Cochlea that it’s seemingly implied to definitively be romantic though, and it’s post Clown Arc when the romantic element is confirmed (the cutting away of the scene wherein he goes to put his hand on her shoulder matches with the cutting away of Akiramon’s kiss a few chapters later and Touken’s first kiss a few chapters after that).

In :re, we also have that with Mutsuki and Urie, who impact each others arcs starting from the auction. Urie is focused on using everyone–lying to Saiko and the others about Saiko being fired, etc, seeing Shirazu and Sasaki both as rivals. He tries to use Mutsuki the same way but it ends with Mutsuki empathizing with him, and then he starts protecting Mutsuki and Mutsuki stops being nervous around him. It’s not until Rushima though that it becomes very strongly implied this is romantic, and is confirmed romantic when Mutsuki says he’s in love with Sasaki to Urie at the wedding (that face yo).

are you 100000% that it will become canon? mutsurie I mean

I’m never 100000% sure of anything in TG! That being said, I will tell you that my thoughts on Touken, Ayahina, Akiramon, and Mutsurie have always been the same (for the first two since the first TG, for the latter two, since the auction)–that they have so much build up that I think their chances look pretty good. It worked out for Touken and Akiramon, so that’s a thing lol. There’s been too much made of Urie’s feelings for Ishida not to address them.

Honestly I’ve seen this idea that Kaneki fell in love with Touka simply because she was the first to act on her feelings and Kaneki would have accepted anyone’s love and like, why do people ignore that the first time Haise saw Touka in :re he thought how beautiful she was, he went to visit her multiple times and kept staring at her? He even thought of her on Christams, a lovers’ Holiday. He was obviously attracted to her! There’s a reason Mucchan got jealous of Touka after they visited :re.

Yeah, seriously. He sent her a keychain in part 1 too which was what Amon did for Akira (and both clearly had romantic undertones). Even if he didn’t act on it in part 1 it was obvious that Touka was a huge part of what he wanted to protect and when she confronted him he changed, because he valued her opinion.

Honestly people who claim Touken had no buildup are really reading selectively. It has so much build up it always seemed inevitable.