Hang the Moon III “Elusive Truth”- Hamliet – Tokyo Ghoul [Archive of Our Own]

Chapters: 4/25
Fandom: Tokyo Ghoul
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Chapter Summary:

“Don’t lecture me about propriety, Amon Koutarou. My father raised me to be a better swordsman than you.”

Hang the Moon III “Elusive Truth”- Hamliet – Tokyo Ghoul [Archive of Our Own]

I know this can bring up the whole fiction vs reality issue but can relationships like Touken & Mutsurie (🙏)happen in real life? As far as I know it takes a long time to fall in love with some1 & Touken got together quickly (tho it may he bc of the intense time). I’m not trying to bash the ships I just want to know if they work in real life. As you are someone who understands relationships and people really well I thought I’d ask. (I’ve never had a romantic relationship b4 so I have no idea).

No worries! And LOL thank you for assuming I understand relationships and people, but I don’t necessarily terribly well! XD To quote Dostoyevsky, though, “Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man.

Well, you’re right that we can’t really say for certain because fiction isn’t reality. But it’s actually not terribly unrealistic imo. Specifically for Touken, during wartime, people do tend to elope and have kids and all because you really don’t know how long you have left, and you want to make the most of your time. It’s not really odd to me that Touken escalated from confession to marriage & baby in ten chapters given the circumstances.

For that matter, Touka and Kaneki may have not known each other objectively that long in the first TG, but honestly length of time doesn’t matter nearly as much as depth matters. So Touka and Kaneki went through life and death situations multiple times (Nishiki, the Doves, Tsukiyama, she came for him in Aogiri). Same with Urie and Mutsuki–they time they have spent together is categorized by depth. Those are the kinds of things that are hard to shake off. For example I’ve known some of my cousins my whole life but I don’t feel remotely close to many of them; I’m way closer to people I’ve been friends with for three months. 

I don’t think love has a time limit–like after a certain amount of time you’d know. I think wth some people it’ll take longer, and with some people, based on circumstances, it can be sudden. I’ve been in love twice in my life and I’d say once was slow and once was not. Of course, I’m not facing a war and I wouldn’t have just eloped with someone I loved because I don’t want to be irresponsible and divorce is expensive, messy, and painful and I don’t want lo. But if I did have limited time, or thought I might? I could easily see myself jumping head in like Touka and Kaneki, and for that matter Akira and Amon, do. 

What are the chances of Seidou and Akira having a relationship? I don’t think it’s likely since Akiramon has been built up since Part 1 but eh. Does Seidou even desire romantic love? He seems more like the type of person who wants to establish a family first, since well he lost for the most part. It’d be nice if his sister accepted him as a ghoul and Hakitori and Shikorae joined his family, Shikorae is kind of unlikely but you never know.

I think narratively Seiaki or Akiramon could be endgame. I wrote two posts on the subject, which you can find here (to this post @midnight-in-town added some replies so you can read those too!) and here. I do think Seidou desires romantic love and a family–he’s shown clearly as having romantic feelings for Akira, but his toxically masculine competitiveness got in the way and so that ended in tragedy at the end of the first TG. And Akira does say she loves him, and that has yet to be resolved. 

Takizawa’s breaking point, though, at which he gave up hope, was not either of them being threatened, but when Kanou fed him his parents. Given that Seina hasn’t been seen or heard from in the manga, I presume she’s still alive and will show up again and accept him at the end of his arc. Notably, neither Amon nor Akira still have family, but Takizawa still does. 

This is why I crack OTP Takirona: instead of calling him a murderous ghoul Kurona calls him a good man as he’s always wanted to be seen and they’ve both been tortured and lost family to Kanou. Ahem. I don’t really have canonical expectations, but anyways. It’s possible Seidou could end up with Akira, there could be a hint of him ending up with Kurona, but either way I think Seidou will find the belonging and love and hope he seeks in the sister he once ridiculed. He already seems to be very brotherly with Hakatori and I wonder if she reminds him of Seina, as there are similarities in how they interact. 

Anyways. Give Seidou Love 2K18.

Hi! Talking of character arcs, what do you think of Akira’s so far? How would you grade hers in your list? (the one of the arcs, not the one of the favs to be clear :))

Akira’s actually fairly high on my fave characters and arcs list. I really love her. 

Her arc is basically about trying to escape her father’s shadow and her own emotional repression. It’s not healthy to repress to the extent Akira does, and Misato yells at her for that at the very end of the first TG. 

She mothers Sasaki and really does care about him, genuinely, even loves him I believe, but her emotional repression is at this point wrapped up in her allegiance to the CCG, which stems in part from her need to honor her dead father. Like when Sasaki expresses distress and wants to know who he is, she hugs him and just says he’s Sasaki… which we all know isn’t true. 

Akira’s next emotional break comes during Rushima when she saves Takizawa. Notably, she’s in tears, and this is also when she breaks from the CCG and from her father as well:

And we see her question whether her actions her right:

Which stands in contrast to what she says to Touka here:

Like I know she’s specifically contextually discussing killing ghouls here, but like, yes you have Akira? You chose not to kill Takizawa, you chose to save him, which means that there has to be some doubt somewhere.

And then once she moves past her hatred of ghouls, she reunites with Amon and takes off. Tbh, Kaneki telling her he killed Arima probably didn’t help–like, honestly, it’s ironic because this lie led to the start of the OEK and Goat but also led directly to its downfall. Everything went downhill for Goat and Kaneki after Akira and Amon left, and honestly if Kaneki told her the truth… I think Akira might not have left, and if she didn’t leave Amon would not have. 

Like it or not, I think Akira and Amon and Takizawa are vital to the creation of a new world from a thematic perspective. Akira, however, has been stagnating since running away with Amon, but returns to help Kaneki because she genuinely does care about him. But the problem is, she returns to the CCG and Amon isn’t upfront with them about being a ghoul (like I’m pretty sure that would seriously help the alliance). She’s still using Fueguchi even after hugging Hinami, when we know she had other quinques. Basically, Akira isn’t going to be able to grow any more until she faces Takizawa, because he represents what her father was actually like, not the way she likes to think he was (like Amon). 

I honestly expect Takizawa and Donato to both show up relatively soon–within this arc at least. 

I’ve been realizing that you believe that Akiramon would be “end game” and not Seiaki. Why do you think that? I mean, Seiaki’s development is much stronger, and the feelings that they share are more “true” too. The feelings between Akira and Amon are based only on Akira’s father, sometimes I feel that he don’t really care about her, but where she came from(she is Kureo’s daughter I mean). I think it’s late to develop the feelings between Amon and Akira for something beyond her father.

Besides that, Seidou and Akira have known each other much longer and their feelings have been developing much more during this time, Amon and Akira have known each other only for months…..

I’ve actually never once said that anon. I wrote this on the subject, in which I said that either could work narratively. It could honestly swing either way. I’m literally writing a Seiaki fic write now. I like both and honestly don’t care as long as the three of them are well.

That being said, here are some more of my opinion on the subject. Akiramon is set up in the first TG far more than Seiaki was. Akira tried to kiss Amon, not Seidou, and the drunk scene focused on them two, not on Seidou. Therefore, narratively, that build-up needed to be paid off for Seiaki to ever have a chance. Seiaki is better built-up in :re, though. But I remember preferring Akiramon until it actually became canon but without dealing with the Seiaki build-up. You have to deal with both ships’ build-up to get a proper resolution to all three of their arcs.

That being said, Akiramon is the couple that is canon right now. Seidou is happy Akira and Amon are together and doesn’t cling to them–he reminds me of Shuu dealing with Touka and Kaneki getting together. Akiramon has been associated with yin/yang visually (usually a symbol heavily associated with anima/animus, which often indicates a love interest) whereas thus far Seiaki has not. Akiramon also parallels Touken quite heavily, and Touken is certainly endgame. Akira and Amon often appear together in the calendar and in omakes. Seidou and Akira do not. (That being said, the calendar/omake argument is admittedly weak because Ayato and Hinami never appear together in the calendar and seldom do in the omakes, and same for Mutsuki and Urie–Urie and Saiko appear together a lot more, but according to what’s been set up in the manga itself, it seems like Mutsurie and Ayahina are likely to end up canon, or at least have their build up paid off.)

This isn’t me saying what I would like to happen. I genuinely enjoy both ships. It’s just me stating what are canonical facts. Also, Touka and Kaneki only knew each other for a few months too before a long separation and you really can’t judge what makes someone’s feelings “more true.” 

Now for Seiaki, I agree with you that Amon seems to project his focus on Mado onto Akira and see her as an extension of her father, whereas Seidou just sees her as Akira. That’s got to be dealt with. I think it’s very odd to set up Seiaki if nothing is going to come of it, which is why I still think the build-up for that ship needs to be paid off. The thing is, my faith in Ishida’s representation of LGBT people in TG isn’t very high so my hope for poly representation is even lower, so most likely one is going to be canon and one is not. 

I genuinely believe that narratively either ship works at this point. Akiramon needs to do a lot of work to escape Kureo’s shadow, though, but it’s not like Touka and Kaneki haven’t stagnated in this arc too. Seidou is almost certain to provide the development Akira and Amon need (and also Donato) as he basically represents what Akira’s father was actually like, whereas Amon is more what she wants to imagine her father was (though Amon is a lot like Takizawa and like her father actually was, he just doesn’t see it that way yet). I personally feel Seiaki is somewhat better written in :re, but we also haven’t seen a lot of Akiramon in :re, so there is that. 

I can see it ending two ways: Seidou outgrows his need to live for Akira and Amon being happy and finds belonging with his sister (and Kurona let me crack ship dream) while Akira and Amon help each other break away from their Kureo orbit, or Akira and Amon break up over whatever will happen with Donato and Seidou and Akira get together. 

Honestly? Both ways have the potential to be narratively satisfying imo. 

I just wonder what would be enough to make Urie confess to Mutsuki. I’m really getting the vibe that he has no intention to ever make a move regardless of what Mutsuki’s mental state is and it’s concerning. He keeps putting his job and role as the squad leader first and even said before that he’ll never be able to have a family. That still confuses me. What is his insecurity here?

Patience, young padawan.

I mean, I know. I’m impatient too. But Touken took about 272 chapters to become canon and it was foreshadowed since chapter 1. Akiramon was foreshadowed since chapter 81 and took 182 chapters to become canon. Ishida’s in no rush when it comes to ships; even with all the hope and happiness lately he’s gotta leave some things unanswered for the time being.

But I think it makes narrative sense how the confrontation went down–not perfectly since I wanted Urie and Saiko to acknowledge their flaws then, but it isn’t completely nonsensical. It reminds me in some ways of Touka’s “I’ll see you later, okay?” to Kaneki which jarred him into reconsidering his suicide plan, and his memories of Hide turn him away from suicide.

Urie here told Mutsuki he wasn’t going to let him die no matter what, and Saiko acted on it to thwart Mutsuki’s suicide attempt.

Touka could have told Kaneki I’m in love with you right then–it might have been her last chance–but she didn’t because crisis management =/= not the time. Therefore it actually makes some sense to me that Urie does not tell Mutsuki then. The time isn’t now.

I do think Urie telling Mutsuki will be highly, highly important to him overcoming his flaw in the end, but that may not happen until later on, post-Dragon–like, say, if Shirazu returns. Considering all of Mutsurie’s parallels with Ayahina, and how Akiramon and Touken parallel each other and Akiramon and Touken became canon around the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if these two ships get resolution around the same time… sometime before the end of the manga, lol.

The build-up for Mutsurie is so strong, as is the build-up for Ayahina, that it has to be paid off at some point. If I had to venture I think they’re likely endgame, but it’s also true that payoff for build up doesn’t have to mean that, so you never know. (The other ship I think might get a canon moment is Uihai, if Hairu is revived, and I think the Seiaki build up needs to be paid off as well, though I am not optimistic about Seiakimon so more likely one will be endgame and the other won’t be.) At the very least, Urie and Ayato are not going to just forget that they had feelings for Mutsuki and Hinami respectively.