Amon: One Eyed King of Clowns

What is this exactly? An introduction of another one eyed king when the manga just went through an arc establishing two other ones. Eto’s words on the king would have led you to believe that it was only one individual, but as others @hysyartmaskstudio have pointed out, rather than a prophecy for one destined person to step into the mantle it’s just a title in the end.

Then, if Amon were to become king what exactly would he become king of? There’s only two factions remaining in this fight, the ghouls fighting for independence already have sworn their loyalty to Kaneki and the Furuta is currently vying for control of the CCG with no competitors.

Having three one eyed kings sounds like the role might even get a little crowded. After all there are only two active players in a game of chess, one on the black side and one on the white. That is until you realize counting Arima (Arima, Kaneki, Furuta Amon) that there is actually the capability of four kings, if you compare this to another game.

In a deck of cards, there are four kings, one of diamonds, hearts, spades, and jacks. Not only that, but the suit that Amon inhibits, the king of diamonds is known as a one eyed king due to the way the face is drawn as a silhouette with only one eye showing. A style of drawing that is explicitly referenced wit the way Donato is drawn in his trump card.

If Amon were to succeed Donato’s position though, he would become the one eyed king of clown. Though it seems the last position a character like Amon would inhabit, there’s actually a lot of evidence for it which I’ll elaborate on below.

This is going to be split into two sections. The first will be Donato’s role in making Amon his king, the second will be Amon’s possible motivation for becoming king.

1. Donato

So far there is no established leader of the clowns despite much speculation on the subject. The closest shown as a de facto leader is Donato, who not only goes by the name “SS Clown” which indicates he of all people has a strong connection to the clowns to be almost synonymous with them, but also his own mask depicts a crown on the area of his forehead with crosses sewn over his eyes. Which is imagery heavily reminiscent of a king.

Uta also, went out of his way to retreive Donato of all people before going to meet ‘the king’. Which in this case they seem to be referring to Furuta. When Furuta also claims to have the clowns in his hand, Donato is shown as a representative of the ‘Clown Crown’.

Finally, this is how Donato is shown in the Root A ending card “Childhood” which was explicitly drawn by Ishida Sui. Note how even though both of his eyes are colored red, only one of them is darkened as a Kakugan would be.

Donato seems to be indicated as the current leader of the clowns. This is however, the arc of the moon and nothing appears as it seems. Both Furuta’s supposed control of the clowns, and Donato’s position of authority within them could be shallow illusions that could fade out quickly. Urie even points out that Donato’s given reason for who the clowns are following is not a real one, it sounds flippant at best. Donato is not a bad liar either, if he really wanted to he could have told Urie a convincing lie.

I find it more likely though he was erring on the side of truth. That the clowns love famous people, or rather the clowns love narrative. Somebody had to write [RE] on that container after all, and who but the clowns would actually love to sew some foreshadowing into their real life.

I posit this, the clowns are setting up a narrative within the events of Tokyo Ghoul over who will succeed as their next king. Furuta is even cooperating with it, which would be the reason for the Clown’s loyalty and willingness to die en masse for him. He’s promised to put them on quite the show.

Donato is however, the main man writing this narrative. He’s the character of the clowns who thinks of himself the most like an author, as it allows him to exert control over his reality after being behind bars for so many years. After all, in this scene who was Donato most remind you of.

What Donato and Eto are both attacking is the narrative that Urie and Kanae both have set up in their own minds. The two of them have both been working with a flawed narrative that was fragile to begin with. Urie was working fromt he narrative that what he was doing was out of pure love and loyalty towards his father, and blaming everyone else for his father’s death but his own. Kanae was working from the narrative of everything they were doing was out of pure love for Shuu, and thus blaming every outside circumstance for Shuu’s worsening condition but his own.

Donato and Eto simply revise the narrative. While they are not speaking the truth per se, they reveal the element that both characters have long been in denial of. When that happens, both Urie and Kanae broke to the point that they no longer trusted their own judgement or dictated their own narrative, but rather let Donato and Eto take control.

While Donato is not an author, he is an enertainer and what’s more an observer of people. He is just as people savvy as Eto is, and it’s very likely he realized the narrative purpose of the one eyed king and set out to use it for his own gain. What exactly could Donato want though? As the clowns motivations are vague at best. Donato though has been consistently shown to have one thing he cares about, to the point of being reminded about it recently.

Therefore, what if Donato is the one making Amon important in the narrative of the one eyed king. Essentially he would be making Amon “A Main Character” then, the kind of person the clowns would flock behind. After all, there was much speculation on what Donato could possibly be referring to when he hinted that Amon would be the one to bring Kaneki’s memories back, when it turned out to be Eto in the end.

Perhaps rather than knowing what would happen next, Donato was simply trying to arrange things this way. He liked Sasaki in a way, or at least viewed him as a main character the same way the rest of the clowns did. Therefore by associating Amon with him, he was hoping Amon would rise up to become a main character as well. So therefore when Amon refused to appear onscreen, and hid for the majority of the plot, that was not simple bad writing or Ishida forgetting about the importance of his character, but rather that was subversion. More on that later, though.

The final piece of evidence connecting the two is the narrative of how the one eyed king ascends. Every king so far, has taken the title after killing a father.

Donato and Amon’s father son conflict however, has existed much longer than even Arima and Kaneki’s, going back all the way to original Tokyo Ghoul. Therefore that’s all the more reason for the clear path to be laid out in front of him. All Amon needs to do is confront his own father, and become the king. Then the question in, why hasn’t he yet?

2. Amon

One of the most common complaints of Amon has been his writing so far in Tokyo Ghoul: RE, or rather his lack of relevance. This is especially easy to spot because Amon has every reason to be relevant in the RE. Not only was Kaneki occupying his former position as investigator for the longest time, but many of RE:’s characters on the CCG side knew Amon, and knew he was a legendary investigator. He also sat on information that Eto had revealed to him about the Sphinx corporation, and by this point is likely to have figured out the CCG’s corruption. All the ducks are in a row as one would say. Everybody has been looking to the writing to blame for Amon’s lack of relevance in the arcs so far, but what if the answer lies more in his character instead.

What if Takizawa is not lying or exaggerating here, and all Amon has done is scurry in the shadows rather than take definitive action. Isn’t it a bit strange as well, that Takizawa has been given a full narrative arc and ample screentime compared to Amon, even though originally Takizawa was a much more minor character.

Though if you take the wants of the main characters into perspective again it makes sense. Takizawa wants to be a main character.

As a part of my statement, I am going to argue that Amon, does not want to be a main character. This arc, the arc of the moon, of revealing liars and hypocrites is an excellent backdrop to be establishing that point.

First though, the card Amon has been associated with. This has already been covered in an excellent meta by @pipirupirulance​, to quote:

In the Minor Tarot Arcana the Pentacles has the same value as the Jack Diamonds. And the Knight of Pentacles is described like this: “The Knight is engaged in the often toilsome, routine efforts required to realise the dreams of his heart. He is building the foundations to support his dreams and his goals.”

Knight of Pentacles represent the people who are methodical and put all their efforts in their believes, and they can focused in the success of this goal. They’re responsable persons, and people can relay in them because of this. They’re hard workers, patient and trustworthy persons. They also have a perfectionist side, they have done all the job and usually never do a thing without finish it. But (remember the “but” that i mentioned before) The Knight of Pentacles is the only Knight that isn’t moving. He’s cautious, and he’s thinking in the present and future events and how his actions will affect the coming events. It’s like a soldier waiting for orders.

Amon is definitely somebody who is both a person who “Puts all their efforts in their beliefs” but also acts like “a soldier waiting for orders.” That is what made him such a succesful member of the CCG that he moved forward passionately, but at the same time always obeyed orders. To talk about narratives again, this is Amon’s great strength, but also his flaw. Once he is sure of himself he barrels ahead at full speed, but at the same time if he is not sure of himself he cannot take a single step. In the narrative of the CCG this problem was not as present because Amon did not have to think for himself. He could simply live on the narrative the Washuu provided for him.

However, as a ghoul Amon is no longer a part of that framework. Eto succinctly points this out, “He was”, now Amon being part ghoul not even by his own choice is entirely disqualified from that. Unfair right? However, this reflects Amon’s own beliefs on how former humans turned into ghouls should be judged.

Amon even asks in the face of being force fed, and ghoulified.

Though the answer to that is simple, if you look at it in narrative terms. Amon is experiencing narrative Karma, because he has yet to come to a truth. His karma comes in the form of the tables turning on him, and him being subjected to every horror he put ghouls through within Tokyo Ghoul while dismissing them as an evil who needs to be exterminated. He looked down on ghouls for needing to eat humans, then he is force fed human flesh itself. He wore the Arata armor without realizing it was harvested by a kind hearted dad who went out of his way not to hurt people despite being a ghoul, and now Amon was captured and harvested by the CCG in a similiar manner.

That is how the rules of a tragedy work. A character has a certain grace period where they are not subject to the consequences of their actions, Romeo and Juliet are allowed to fall in love, Hamlet is allowed to stall on avenging his father for a great time, then suddenly it will all come crashing down and the consequences hit you all at once.

What did Amon do to receive such narrative consequences though, he was after all estabilshed as one of the most honest and kind hearted characters in original Tokyo Ghoul. A man who lives solely for the pursuit of justice. This is the moon arc after all, and certain things have just now been revealed about Amon’s character that puts him entirely in a different light.

it was long believed that Amon felt guilt for not realizing who Donato was until it was too late. That his sin was buying into the dream of having a family, and the moment he discovered children in the basement, he turned Donato into the CCG and Donato surrendered and allowed himself to be imprisoned. Therefore what he was repenting for was ignorance. This narrative is very generous on Amon’s side, as it makes him look quite noble in the face of what is now known as reality.

This, and also the image of Amon cowering in the basement not from Donato but from the CCG officer’s sent to liberate him, while Donato kept him hidden there points to the fact that Amon most likely accepted Donato’s original offer of playing family. An offer that most of the fandom thought Amon’s strong moral fiber would have immediately rejected.

The fact that Amon followed in Donato’s lie willingly (well, Donato still had authority in the circumstance and this was most definitely coercion, but there was still a choice to be made) completely changes his character, and what his sin is.

The narrative constructed by Amon is that he lives to repent his sin for ignorance, and therefore in his adult life he has to make up for his sin by living only for justice. Amon’s justice, is violent and comes in the form of hunting down ghouls who, like his father, he sees as making the world wrong particularly for eating humans and creating orphans and lost family members.

Even in that summary alone, the projection is quite obvious, but if you needed more help on what Amon’s motivation really is, Donato already conveniently spells it out for us.

“What a pitiful child. Just because your father died, you continue to fight. Your misfortunes, are all your father’s doing. You fight to till you’re basically in pieces… You can’t eat a thing. You choose to do these things? You wanted him to acknowledge you, didn’t you? Wanted him to pat your head in approval. And you’ve tried to make those vestigial dreams come true, by smashing them against your surroundings. Absolutely futile. No matter how much you get promoted, no matter how grand of a legacy you leave behind you, you will never feel whole. Because you do not have a real family.

Donato Porpora, 110 That Pages 11-12

Eto’s quote becomes even more relevant in this instance. “He was, you mean” nothing Amon fought for was lasting, because he never wanted any of that in the first place. What he was looking for was not justice, but rather a motivation to keep living. A reason he survived after doing an evil thing and collaborating with Donato. Just like Kaneki and Furuta, Amon is a traumatized child who has yet to grow up, and Donato is the stop gap that prevents him from accessing full masculine adult maturity no matter how strong or tall his body is, or how loyal he is to the system.

Amon, who cannot even remember the faces of his own parents because Donato has completely supplemented them in his own mind, simply wants a family. Even his current stated mission of saving his old comrades, was done because he came to view the CCG as a surrogate family as well, “his last refuge.” At the core of his character he’s simply looking for the a place to belong, the same as Urie. The both of them just mistake gaining strength and accomplishments, for having the same security as that family. That it will work as a substitute, but it will not. The characters parallel each other so strongly on that front, that is why Donato was the one to take down Urie, why Urie was the one to fight Amon, why in the most recent chapter of RE: 111, they both call out an overpowering kagune at the same time and attack what is nearest to them.

The moon brings out the shadow of characters. What is Amon’s shadow then? Look what many believed to be Amon’s role in aogiri. That he escaped, and has since then been fighting them, with the actual truth.

Amon simply did nothing, waited to die, an then was freed instead. However, without a narrative to compel him, without a place to belong and most likely with scarecrow as his only ally Amon continued to do nothing. Those who expected Amon to suddenly drop into the plot and become a major player did not realize that Amon cannot take a step forward until he has resolved many of his own issues. It’s his greatest character flaw, his inability to be sure of himself causes him to hesitate at the most important times.

Perhaps he advised Saiko to continue to think, because after being ghoulified that is what Amon gave up on for the longest time. Perhaps even in giving Seidou his cross, his burden to carry and proof of the sin that kept him alive he was content to die there. As stated above though, the narrative is not done with Amon yet.

Once Amon does confront Donato, probably in a way that parallels Arima and Kaneki he will be given affirmation that he can indeed live, and was loved truly by his father figure. That was enough for Kaneki to continue living and step up to become the one eyed king, and as his foil Amon will most likely follow suit. Except the source of his affirmation for living, and the people most invested in setting up his narrative are not the CCG, and not even the people aligned with Kaneki, but rather the clowns. Which makes it most likely that Amon will be the one to step up and meet their leadership. Perhaps he’ll be using their great manpower and strange collected influence to enforce what he believes is his own ideals, perhaps the clowns will just be using him for theirs.

One last piece of evidence. In the one shot, Kaneki as a character functions more like a fusion between the Kaneki and Amon we now know. Kaneki’s quiet nature, but with Amon’s devotion to justice and correcting the wrong world, right from the start. This Kaneki wears a clown mask. However Kaneki has never himself associated with the clowns, he’s just been one of their interesting characters. If this character’s narrative purpose was later split into Kaneki and Amon, perhaps Amon will be the one then to don this mask and become the leader of the clowns Notice how this mask also has a cross for one eye the same way Donato’s does.

But it definitely will happen. Clown King Amon, I’m calling it now.