Tag: rio

idk if it’s just me but it feels like Ishida will rush the Clown backstories. i’ve seen a lot of theories around the fandom about uta’s backstory going to end up similar to kaneki’s current ordeal with dragon, donato will probably do something horrid and amon will lose control and cannibalize him in his kakuja form, itori is up in the air for now, not sure about nico but i suspect he’ll be tied into V somehow, so my hype is kind of dwindling. the only clown i truly want focused on is rio

Haha, another clowns ask! 

I’m going to voice an… unpopular opinion here. Please don’t hate me 😛 (I’m joking but I know this is going to be unpopular): I don’t think the Clowns are nearly as important to the story as we might like them to be. They’re observers mostly. They don’t move the plot forward very much; Uta’s provoked Mutsuki and Kaneki but beyond that Uta and Itori’s claim to the plot is via their friendship with Yomo, which I personally find the most intriguing part of them as characters! I agree that the only backstory I see mattering is Uta’s if he is indeed the Nagaraj, and Itori’s as it connects to Uta’s (or if Itori is the Nagaraj), and how those connect to Yomo’s arc. I honestly don’t think that reveal will be a huge game changer either. 

I agree that Donato will die during that confrontation with Amon most likely but I don’t necessarily see Amon cannibalizing him–I’ll wait until it’s actually going down to decide haha (wheeeeeeeen). Nico will be fine in the end, but yes, Rio! I don’t really consider Rio a clown–he was too sick to make his own decisions. I don’t expect a ton of focus on him, but I do think Rio will get a happy ending, even if we just see like a panel or so confirming it. 

I really miss my bro Shikorae. It’s like, for a character who has his own spin-off and foils Kaneki on many levels, plus his arc ties into the main story, he just isn’t relevant enough. Not only that but he’s a member of the Pierrot, and they’re riddled with mystery. Eventually all the Clowns will get punished and likely die for their misdeeds, but I truly expect Shikorae to escape from that since he’s a broken, lost cause who never wanted to be included in this, he just wants his brother.

I love Rio! I’m not sure about all the clowns dying (some will probably though), but I agree that I do not think Rio is going to suffer a gruesome fate. He needs love and healing, and as minor of a character as he is, I can’t see how him dying lost and broken really fits with the manga’s themes. 

Do you think V will be the endgame villain?Considering that it was heavily hinted that Kijima was part of V, do you think Shikorae will have an important role in the future arc? Maybe we will get more info with regards to Yoshimura’s body as well! I would also like to thank you for taking the time to reply to every message and write metas :~)

Thank you!! Honestly thank you for listening to me blab and for sending me questions; clearly, I think about TG a lot.

Yes, I’ve thought
for awhile now that V is the endgame villain. The other big possibility
was Kanou, but even if he comes back as Kanouzombie, I think he would be
Judgment’s villain and not the final one seeing as the fact that he was
referencing wanting to break away from the lies V has set makes them
almost certainly our endgame villains. Which fits because the last card
in the Fool’s Journey is The World, and Amon has pointed out to the
world as a villain.

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(Yes, I do think Amon’s deflecting
personal responsibility here since choice does matter in TG, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s
wrong in pointing out that the world has orchestrated these
circumstances. Like, he says the world is the problem, and then instead of trying to fix it he runs and hides)

I do think Shikorae has a role in the
future, even if it’s just in that Rio needs to be saved. Rio is honestly the character
who has had the least choice in the entire series and paid the most for
things that he did not deserve.

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He’s the world’s ultimate victim,
really, even more so than Eto, because Eto still chose to make something
of her life. Rio, by nature of being born with four types of kagune,
was hidden to be protected, his protector was killed and he suffered
from a severe dissociative breakdown, and then wound up in prison
tortured physically and psychologically by his brother’s killer.

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Rio is
basically similar to Mutsuki and Juuzou and therefore Kaneki in a lot of
senses–the dissociation and victim role–but unlike the other three he
was born a ghoul. Therefore he suffers the most.  

If
they can’t save victims like Rio, who are ghouls, then what hope can they really offer ghouls? (I do think Mutsuki, Juuzou,
and Kaneki will all be saved from themselves too–but Rio also needs to
be saved even though he’s a minor character without an arc.)

But
this is actually the first I’ve heard of Kijima being a member of V.
His cruelty would certainly fit, but I’m not sure. Can you direct me to
some posts about that theory? I’d love to read them.

Thank you for the ask, and for your kind words!

I find rio interesting, wouldnt you say that his face is always a mix of the tragedy/comedy masks? Also the blatant mime clothes, not confirming, just food for thought!

I LOVE Rio. He’s my son.

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Possibly, which is interesting because he hangs out with the clowns (who seem to be in it for laughs), but he’s probably the most tragic character in the manga (even more so than Mutsuki). He deserved none of what happened to him and is completely at the mercy of others. 

At this point, Rio’s life is a tragedy. Even hanging with the clowns hasn’t brought him any real comedy (I doubt he made a choice to hang with them either, he doesn’t really seem capable of much choice). But: Rio wants to live. He doesn’t want to be in pain; he isn’t reveling in his tragic circumstances. When it looks like he’s about to die, he runs and jumps from the window to be able to survive. 

I hope he does just that. And hopefully gets a hug or two or three while he’s at it. 

Thank you for the ask!

What about the clowns? Shouldn’t they be the final villains ?

I… don’t know if I see the clowns as villains. Antagonists sure, manipulators definitely, people who have done inexcusable things to Mutsuki and Juuzou and Kaneki and countless innocent people just for kicks, yeah. But villains?

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I wouldn’t expect an endgame villain to save Uncle Yomo for no benefit other than that Yomo is his friend. They’re not really orchestrating the world’s issues, unlike V; they’re just watching and . Roma was a pure nihilist. Itori says here that their goal is to watch:

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Whether she actually means it or not though is another question. Her words–that Kaneki did this for the ghouls–are blatantly lies and she knows it, and they seem calculated to provoke just the reaction it did provoke from Tsukiyama (and the reaction we were oh-so-close to seeing from Touka).

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Uta has said himself that he doesn’t find tragedies as fun and chose to save Yomo (still let Dragon be unleashed though). Donato is a terrible person, but a terrible person who can provide Amon a reality check as he clearly loves Amon. Nico may be on Kaneki’s side, as @kingkishou theorizes here. Rio… Rio just needs help. He’s not really a clown; I doubt he’s capable of buying into any philosophy. And Roma, our chief nihilist, is dead. I’m not saying I think they’ll all get happy endings (on the contrary really), but I also don’t think they’re all quite as uninvolved and just in it for laughs as they claim to be. 

Yomo’s ‘victory’ against Mutsuki and Aura is giving me flashbacks to Kuroiwa and Urie’s ‘victory’ against Roma and Rio. 

Please run Yomo before they both frame out I’m begging you I don’t want you to get hurt. 

What do you think will happen to my poor child Rio?

RIO. Thank you for asking about one of my murder children. I love him.

Well, if he was going to die, the scene where he’s facing off with Urie and Kuroiwa against Roma seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so and yet he lived. Besides that, he’s a character who is clearly framed as someone we should feel sympathy for, who has had little choice in the paths he’s been forced to take: 

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First he was born with all four types of kagune, then his brother was killed, and then he was locked up and tortured by the man who killed his brother, and then freed and taken by Aogiri for his ability to use all four types of kagune. I’ve said before that the tragedy in Tokyo Ghoul tends to be the result of one’s poor choices, and Rio doesn’t exactly seem to have made many choices, so I don’t expect him to be killed off. 

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As for where Rio is right now, that’s a great question I’m not sure when we’ll get the answer to. He jumped out of the window and was followed by Furuta not too long after, so maybe Furuta’s taking him with him. Or maybe he’s just running… to somewhere. If Rio’s brother is indeed dead (and I’ve seen some speculate that he’s not and if he isn’t that would be fascinating to see) I still think introducing him to the canon story as Shikorae, confirming he is indeed Rio, and having him survive that encounter means he has a further role to play in the story–maybe not a prime one, but he’s unlikely to be just fodder. If that was the case, killing him in that Furuta-Urie-Kuroiwa-Roma battle would have been the best way to go. In Jail, Rio forms friendships with Touka and with Kaneki as well, and so maybe we’ll see Rio joining with Goat at some point. Even if his brother is dead, he might be able to find other brothers and sisters who will care for him, and through forming a sort of family, he’ll find his sanity again.