Lily of the Valley

Theory crafting witch of Rokkenjima. Currently immersed in Tokyo Ghoul.

[tg-files]

Administer the Cleanse

Analyses and Discussions 

Why Arima Won’t Kill Kaneki - An analysis of Kafka’s The Crossbreed by @tokyoghoul-art

Hinami and Kaneki - About the slap by @bloodycarnations 

Why Number 33 - A tarot Interpretation by @coollanna

Oh no, RC gas! But wait, aren’t these gas masks? by @makyun 

Miscellaneous meta of the week

A Comparison of Matsuri and Furuta by @sans-san

Akira and Seidou - Like Cats and Dogs by @ladymoonstache 

Hairu’s Vision and Fighting Style by @drunkmado 

Tsukiyama and the Sleeping Beauty by @linkspooky 

What is Furuta planning? by @hysyartmaskstudio 

Arima’s Vision at V14 by @neropet

Arima Kishou’s Name by @makyun 

CCG’s Ghoul Rating System by @harostar 

The One-Eyed King’s relations to the Washuu Clan by @madame-pongo-de-pompadour 

[needmorec0ffee-blog]

Distracting a Fruit 101

[supamikach]

Been hoping for a reunion with Arata. Close enough, I guess?

[supamikach]

Tokyo Ghoul:re - What the CCG and V know about Eto and the OEK, and Kaneki’s plan (Spoilers of course)

I’ve seen a bit of confusion regarding what exactly the CCG and V know about Eto and the King, so I thought I’d give my input. Keep in mind this is based on my observations rather than it being outright confirmed, so take it with a grain of salt. I’ll also give my thoughts on Kaneki’s plan, as it’s related.

During the meeting where the ratings of various Aogiri members are revealed, it’s stated that Eto is an S-rate, meaning the CCG did not know she is the Owl at the time. Kaneki claimed he suspected Sen Takatsuki of being the Owl. Shiono apparently revealed her real name “Eto Yoshimura” during his interrogation, and Eto turned herself in. Arima and Furuta were shown meeting with Kaiko at V’s very super villain-y lair, where it was said that V suspects Sen Takatsuki of being the OEK. However, when Furuta speaks to Eto, he makes it clear that the higher ups actually know she isn’t the King. So how and when exactly did they realize?

I believe it’s because of an earlier incident, at Rushima (Rue Island). Hachikawa, Tooru and Ayumu were listening to Eto’s speech there, where she declared that she is the One Eyed Owl, the leader of Aogiri, but not the One Eyed King. Ayumu was able to survive and report back to the CCG (specifically the Washuus, who are associated with V) about what happened on the island. I believe she would have mentioned Eto’s speech. Her report took place after the initial meeting between Furuta, Arima and Kaiko, but before Furuta’s conversation with Eto, meaning the timing fits. 

So now, the CCG knows Sen Takatsuki, real name Eto Yoshimura, is the SSS rate One Eyed Owl, and leader of Aogiri, which means Eto is imprisoned in the SSS level of Cochlea, not the S level as some people believe (due to her earlier mentioned S rating). This brings me to Kaneki’s plan.

As stated by Kaneki himself, he intends to save Hinami and then die by Arima’s hand. It sounds simple, but pulling it off required a lot of planning. He’d need to be assigned to Cochlea while the bulk of CCG’s forces are occupied, otherwise it would be impossible to get Hinami out alive. This required a reason for him to remain at Cochlea during a large scale operation. 

Holding Aogiri’s leader in Cochlea would be the best way to keep Arima and himself at Cochlea during the Rushima Raid. Despite knowing for a fact who she was, he withheld this information and proceeded to conduct the investigation as if he only suspected her. I believe this is because he needed to delay her capture to precisely the time of the Rushima Raid (when the majority of the CCG would be on the island), since they plan to execute her. If he captured her too early, she’d be killed before the raid, meaning he’d lose his chance to save Hinami. It also explains why he was pretty desperate to find her at the last minute, as it was the precise moment he needed to capture her.

With Arima and himself at Cochlea, and the majority of the CCG at Rushima, he can try to rescue Hinami and then have Arima kill him like he planned. Of course, I don’t think he expected the Kirishima’s and Banjou group to appear, so things might not go according to plan. Furuta is also a wildcard, since we don’t know what he really plans to do.

So basically, that’s my take on the recent events. I could be mistaken, but I think it fits well.

[cathedrals-of-melancholy-deacti]

Here’s hoping…

Jokes, Furuta i love you <3

[the-one-eyed-goat]

Arima’s Vision at V14

This was going to be a post on Arima’s general fighting style but I’ll be focusing on just one thing this time.

Alright so I wrote this some time ago but tumblr deleted it when I clicked ‘post’ instead of … you know …actually fucking posting it.

So here I am, back to typing this out once again now that my bitterness is subsiding. It took me so long to get it all down too and now I’m doing it all over again :D

The main two points I want to focus on when talking about Arima’s fight vs Kaneki is that:

He couldn’t see Kaneki

He depends on his sense of hearing to be able to fight.

The signs start to point toward this in the first panel between Kaneki and Arima.

Arima already has problems with his vision and the dim environment of V14 (night vision being a serious weakness in people with Retinitis pigmentosa, something that Arima might have), along with the distance between him and Kaneki made it very unlikely that he’d be able to see him when he walked in. 

But he could hear Kaneki walking in (cue the creepy head turn).

Note the shading on Arima’s eyes. I’ll be pointing out the parts of chapters 137- 139 where there’s a lot attention focused on how his eyes are presented.

At this point Arima is unaware of who Kaneki is and he’s just as disinterested in him as the ghouls littering the area. He’s running on autopilot when he starts walking towards the direction where he last heard footsteps.

The glare on his glasses shows his state of ‘blindness’. In general this is something you’ll see a lot with Arima when he’s concentrating - in this case it means he’s not bothering with paying attention to his vision because it’s more efficient for him to focus on his other senses - specifically his hearing. Think of it as a state of hyper-awareness. Keeping his body physically neutral and mind focused are the two best options for a fighter with his disadvantage.

And again on the same page we see the panels focusing on Arima’s eyes.

Blank, unfocused, distant - still walking towards the place where he last heard the footsteps.

Throughout all this Kaneki is frozen in place since first stepping into V14. He’s panicking and unable to decide on his first move. 

His mistake?

Kaneki finally made a sound by stepping forward.

In that instant he’s impaled by Arima in the very next panel.

Note the position of Arima’s eyes. He’s not even sparing a glance in Kaneki’s direction. Still efficiently maintains his neutral stance.

Kaneki recovers but when he steps away in an attempt to flank Arima,

another immediate follow up to the sound.

The same pattern repeats itself above: eyes turned away from his opponent, never actually looking at Kaneki or where he’s hitting him. His face is turned downward in concentration.

You can also see that Arima has finally dropped his stance for something much more severe. When looking at the dramatic position of his left foot, it’s as if he’s a split second late in reacting to Kaneki’s movement and is catching up after having an “Ahha, found him!” moment.

At this point Kaneki completely freaks out and becomes an elephant in the room.

Swoosh swish indeed (no doubt Arima enjoys fighting). Maybe if he was a bit more tactical with his kagune’s movements he may have gotten somewhere with this.

It’s only when Arima hears Kaneki reciting Hakushuu,

that he pauses to give us that famously out of the blue expression.

“That’s … not supposed to happen.”

No but really, hearing this poem was probably what snapped Arima out of his hyper-focused autopilot and made him want to at least attempt to see what was in front of him.

It didn’t take long after Kaneki telling him the author of the poem for Arima to finally put the pieces together and figure out who it is he’s fighting.

Then randomly, Arima starts telling Kaneki that if he pays close attention he can tell that it’s raining outside by the sound of the flowing sewer water.

This is relevant to one of the main points I’ve been mentioing: Arima is a person who’s dependent on his sense of hearing. 

The fact that he would point out something as obscure as this shows that he’s a person who pays attention to the sounds in his environment and has experience in using it to analyze his surroundings. 

But I don’t think this is the result of just practice. I think it’s also possible that Arima has a better than average sense of hearing due to genetics.

He’s 16 during JACK, an age where serious stages of vision loss are rare. I’ll assume that during that time Arima did not go out of his way to hone his sense of hearing because he could still depend on his eyes, yet…

he did something that made the fandom question the species he belonged to. How could he have pinpointed Yamori’s position so precisely? Most likely because genetically speaking, Arima was born with an impressive sense of hearing.

Whatever it is the Sunlit Garden does to their children, that trait may be the result of it.

Anyways, that’s mostly what I wanted to say. Also the post isn’t implying that Arima was literally blind during V14.

The dimly lit underground enclosure + Arima’s habit of shirking his deteriorating vision aside during battles was what resulted in him behaving as if he were.

That is all thanks, feel free to message me about this because I left out some explanations because I didn’t want the post to get any longer. Hopefully that didn’t lead to any confusion :(

Bonus: I only decide to rewrite this because the people in my TG chat were seriously having fun with this shit. 

I present to you: Arimasaurus-Rex

by @daedalushlp

[frosty-petals-deactivated201612]

I get that taking off the glasses is like symbolic and stuff but like Kaneki man how you gonna see who you fighting

[blackliliana]

If Arima can do it, Kaneki Ken too. 

[blackliliana]

I've found Haise! Looks like it's time to plan a hot date.

[lreynajr-deactivated20210129]

[supamikach]

Edited Hachikawa and Kijima to see how they might have looked before they were injured. 

[caitlin-needs-a-scotchka-deacti]

Shamelessly stolen from here

[toukyoghoul]

Tokyo Ghoul 2016 Calendar Masterpost

Chinese scans of the TG 2016 Calendar that consists of artwork for each day of the year, all illustrated by Sui Ishida. 

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

[ask--kaneki-ken]

[inthesweetmadness]

eto, the one-eyed king, and the book of revelations

at the beginning of the “exterminate tsukiyama operation”, ishida sui may have foreshadowed not only eto’s appearance as the one-eyed owl, but her overall role within the series. although eto is hinted and referred to as the one-eyed king, there is a possibility she is not the actual king, as a key figure in the book of revelations may be the actual source of her character’s inspiration.

Keep reading

[the-one-eyed-goat]

Shirazu’s Death + The Flawed Quinx Surgery

Part 2 of Thoughts on The Nature of Rc Cells Co-written by @absolutetimeandspace and @coromoor.

While the part 1 and the original draft of part 2 was written by me and @absolutetimeandspace, both of us ended discussing part 2’s final draft with @coromoor. As a result we wound up adding more topics to this after expanding on each other’s thoughts and ideas. -

You’ll need to have read part 1 to understand what the hell is going on in part 2.

Main points we’ll be covering from part 1:

“…[T]he surgery work[s] better for individuals with lower Rc levels, while higher Rc runs the risk of the subjects becoming floppies (such as Amon) and/or developing the “nameless” syndrome seen in Dr. Kanou’s failed experiments.”

“NOTES: …Buuut one thing I can’t help but briefly mention is that Shirazu might have physical problems in the future (not RoS), and the fact that the cage around his kagune just broke in ch 53 just made it so much more likely. gl boi.”

- SHIRAZU

…[T]he surgery work[s] better for individuals with lower Rc levels, while higher Rc runs the risk of the subjects becoming floppies (such as Amon) and/or developing the “nameless” syndrome seen in Dr. Kanou’s failed experiments. - Part 1

The reason Light and I said Shirazu would have problems in the future was because we assumed he had a high Rc count before the Quinx surgery from shared genes with a sister suffering from ROS (giving him a predisposition for a higher count and lower quality) and as a result putting him at a higher risk of future complications with the compatibility of his kakuhou.

This point stems from what we’ve seen in Kanou’s failed experiments; a volatile kakuhou that can result in the host being devoured by the organ.

Since it’s nameless we’ll be calling it Kanou Lab syndrome (KLS) for now.

During the making of part 1 we concluded that if the metal frames around Shirazu’s kakuhou were to break down or be removed, he would develop some form of KLS. Though it was hard to say what the exact effect that would bring to a Quinx because of their different biology from artificial half-ghouls.

This brings us to what we believe is the real reason behind his death. Ishida’s shown Shirazu getting stabbed through the abdomen two times before the fatal third by Noro; first by Kobayashi, and second by Nutcracker.

So why did the third hit specifically (third time’s the charm) kill him when he shrugged off the other ones with no problem? It’s possible that it’s because the third wound was sustained when he was not a Quinx, but an artificial half-ghoul. Some theories at the time were reasoning that this could be a good thing because of the increased regeneration, but it seems that turning into a half-ghoul was what could have killed Shirazu. Once there were no frames separating the kakuhou and the human body, Shirazu would have instantly become a failed experiment and developed KLS. Instead of healing him, the kakuhou would begin to eat him alive and nullify any healing. Urie may have mistook this for the beginning signs of Quinx regeneration.

THE QUINX PROJECT

After Shirazu’s death was confirmed in the next chapters, we started to discuss the theory once again and realized that if this was the real reason he died, then the CCG might not have realized the cons in the criteria they use to find humans most compatible with the Quinx surgery. The problem could lie in them testing for Rc quantity - specifically individuals with abnormally high levels - with the intention of creating Quinx who would avoid eating human flesh because of a naturally occurring high reserve of Rc to sustain their bodies while also still being able to generate a kagune. The CCG’s criteria successfully gave them these exact results they were aiming for. Not only that but, while Part 1 states that the lower the Rc before the half-ghoul surgery, the stronger the resulting half-ghoul, the opposite happens for a Quinx; the higher the Rc before the Quinx surgery, the stronger the resulting Quinx. This is because a perfect Quinx doesn’t need human flesh to sustain its body, and the higher quantity creates a more durable kagune while still maintaining that fact (at least until you start removing frames to tap into ghoul strength).

But why can the Quinx get away with having a high Rc count before their surgery while artificial half-ghouls can’t? The answer is, they don’t. They still pay the price for it one way or another.

The thing is, while the CCG may see these large pros of choosing based on high Rc count, they might have yet to realize the equally as large cons. As we know, the problem with performing the ghoul surgery on people with average (and especially higher than average) Rc is that they become failed experiments, may develop KLS, and then risk falling victim to a volatile kakuhou. This means that the Quinx, who all have a high starting Rc count, would also suffer the same fate as Shirazu if their frames were to be removed. These frames are the only barriers preventing direct contact between the ghoulish organ and the incompatible human body; a life support for a body that shouldn’t be able to exist in the first place.

Essentially the Quinx surgery is a death sentence, and each Quinx a ticking time bomb. Results may vary for each individual considering there are different degrees of “floppy-ness”, but the overall effect could be devastating.

URIE

Now the fewer frames the closer a Quinx is to becoming a floppy half-ghoul. Urie is currently experiencing some of the side effects of this with the changes in his senses - specifically his sense of taste. His mental stability and/or health should also be degrading with each removal until the power boost drastically drops off after the last frame. Hopefully Kaneki’s jab at his strength won’t be the deciding factor for how far Urie is willing to take the frame removals, otherwise Kaneki could indirectly be the cause of Urie’s demise.

KANOU

The reason Kanou is so fascinated by the Shirazu’s frames is because the technology just opened up the possibility of a much higher “success” rate for his experiments, creating half-ghouls that would otherwise have end up as floppies.

Something Kanou said concerning the Quinx surgery in :re Chapter 59 was interesting.

Gradually acclimatizing a human body to a ghoul’s kakuhou

Obviously this seems to be the key to successfully creating a half-ghoul and is what the Quinx frames do so effectively. Post-transplant, a kakuhou must establish itself, or as Kanou says acclimate, to the new human host body. Kanou gave us a hint about this back in TG Chapter 99 that at the time didn’t make a lot of sense - the ghoul surgeries are linked to the RC cell walls that were found in his lab.

As long as the walls still have nutrients, it will continue to propagate and grow - it is self-sufficient with a constant supply of RC cells. Perhaps this phenomenon explains how KLS develops; a constant supply of RC cells allows to kakuhou to grow too rapidly and aggressively to a stage where it devours the body, rather than gradually acclimatising and becoming a part of the new host’s body. In Kaneki’s case, the combined results of a naturally low Rc level, blood loss from Rize’s attack and months of sustaining himself on only “sugar cubes” may have inhibited the kakuhou’s activity, and in turn its ability to aggressively propagate and digest the human host’s body.

TL;DR pain? pain.

- NOTES:

There are none this time because we’re too lazy to go over the parts on Saiko, Mutsuki, and the 7th Quinx that we took out.

[miaojuna-deactivated20161116]

i forgot the gloves (QQ

[hysyartmaskstudio]

Matsuri is such an ass. God. SUCH. AN. ASS. 

He is, unfortunately, also smart. Shoving all the blame for the failure onto Ui when Ui was down from a personal and professional loss was a smart, very Washuu Matsuri move. Matsuri brought himself on that mission, but didn’t bring any of his own resources as far as we know, so any loss at all was going to be one that hit Ui, professionally, harder than it hit him. Ui is also a good person who thinks the CCG should represent the ideals of heroes of justice. Matsuri daydreams about his rival officers getting killed while he observes the battle (seemingly) out of harms way in a helicopter or command center.

I might be totally wrong, but his move to commander of S2 seems new. Before he was Division II, which is intel and non-combat. S1, S2, and S3 are combat squad designations. It seems like Matsuri is making a foray into combat management (instead? as well? why?) and trying to reach director via that route - from head of S2 to head of S3, to director.

I want very badly to think that he also ended up getting in some trouble for the utter failure of the Tsukiyama Family Extermination mission. He was commander in Division II, but obviously he thinks he’ll now have better luck going through Arima and the combat divisions than through Marude and intelligence. Last we saw him and Marude, though, Matsuri seemed to be trying to convince Marude that Yoshitoki wasn’t fit to be Director - I wonder if there was some fall out from that, or if Matsuri’s move to combat squads was a coordinated one (though it seems unlikely, as Marude seems to favor Yoshitoki to Matsuri.)

As far as I can figure out, the way the S1, S2, S3 thing works is that generally speaking, they are the three elite squads of the CCG (+ Arima’s squad 0 that seems to be something else and is confusing) and members of those squads are often leaders of their own separate squads. It seems like sometimes investigations call on S? members to use these subordinate squads. Like the case with Torso and Serpent at the begining was a meeting with a bunch of S2 squad members and their subordinate squads. 

Akira was, last we heard, under S2, so I think that would have put the Qs under the general purview. We haven’t heard from Akira for a while, but it seems like Matsuri, in taking the reins of S2, pulled the Qs directly under his control. Which seems to break the model I’m working with, so it seems more likely that he just pulled Urie up as a member of S2, and thus, by default, the Qs with him. They are the Quinx Squad instead of the Urie squad because that’s Urie’s lot in life and they are still CCG experiments, at the end of the day, I guess. Alternatively, S1, S2, and S3 are general groupings that all squads fall under. Though S3 at least is talked about as it’s own separate combat squad - as S3 specifically was tasked with guarding the transport at the auction. If this is the case, perhaps during the rearranging after Sasaki left, Mado was also moved and/or the Qs were taken out of her control and thus required their own placement.

Either way, grabbing the Qs was a brilliant move - Matsuri knows Urie’s desire for power, and the whole creepy as fuck bit between them where Urie’s like “if you say beg I’ll beg, if you say bark, I’ll bark” [ x ] is just proof of that. It’s an interesting move from the perspective of Matsuri’s character because he’s on the record as hating the whole Q’s project. (I think this was more about it being something Yoshitoki and Arima were heavily involved with than anything moral or ideological.) 

But his dislike of Sasaki personally went even deeper, because he has a whole thing about Arima and his “disciples”, so I imagine grabbing them up as soon as Sasaki left was a power play against Arima and S3. Though I doubt that Arima sees Matsuri as even a speck on his radar or as a challenge in the least, there is very much a one way grudge match going on there. I wonder how similar it is to what Matsuri has going on with his father.

Quick Aside -  Matsuri and Urie are far too similar. Matsuri is literally the opposite of the role model that Urie needs for positive character growth. At least as Squad Leader, Urie is motivated to help his squad-mates and keep them alive because it builds towards his own promotion. But I really hope we didn’t lose all the growth we saw in the last few chapters in these 6 months working with Matsuri. (I have a nagging suspicion there is another side to things with both Urie and Sasaki that we aren’t being shown in this chapter that makes their behavior in this chapter seem less like regression on character growth - something else going on behind the scenes or in secret plans or motivations. But this might just be wishful thinking.)

The other really smart thing that Matsuri seems to have done (and this is only implied) is that he seems to have secured Squad XIII under S2, which means Suzuya is part of S2. Which is interesting for a whole lot of reasons. Not least of which is that he totally deserves to be in the elite S3 squad. It’s possible I’m reading too far into this one panel, but the juxtaposition of that line up of Takeomi, Suzuya, and Urie with that in depth discussion of how the S? squad rankings work makes me think this is the case.

It’s also interesting because Suzuya is a direct parallel to Arima in terms of exceptional talent and rise through the ranks. And Matsuri hates Arima. What Suzuya doesn’t seem to have is the aura of godhood within the CCG that Arima does. For someone like Matsuri, who sees being a Washuu is of utmost importance, he can see Suzuya as an asset without seeing him as the same kind of threat he sees Arima as because he doesn’t feel Suzuya is a threat to the supremacy of his house. I’d so love for this to be one of his big mistakes, because underestimating Suzuya Juuzou is a bad idea.

But it might also speak to Matsuri’s intelligence and utilitarian thinking. Like I said - by talent alone, I would expect Suzuya to be with S3. There is clearly something else to it - prestige? appearance? experience? seniority? Whatever it is, it’s left Matsuri with an opening to grab an incredibly talented investigator and his incredibly talented squad and take credit for everything they do. Which is smart.

Damn him.