Talk:Ken Kaneki/@comment-220.245.245.249-20141201072952/@comment-10733658-20141201134428

I'm......not entirely sure what to make of Arima, to be honest. While it is easy to write him off as merely seeing Sasa-neki as a puppet and lying to him, I have to wonder. There isn't much we know about him, even with getting to star in a 7-chapter sidestory. But honestly, Ishida really hasn't given us any characters that are pure evil, even the worst of the worst have been given SOME redeeming quality or positive moments. (Even YAMORI gets them, in the bonus material with him actually acting like Naki's cool big bro.)

What little we know about Arima is that he's never had any attachments, as he just kind of goes where he's sent. He told Taishi in "Jack" that he never knows when he might die, but we're also told by Hirako that Arima always hands in a blank Will. That suggests he's probably very isolated. Japanese literature fans also noted that there's two people he speaks casually to (ie: as a peer, instead of a coworker or superior) -- Juuzou and Haise.

Looking at our apparent new theme, Kafka's "A Crossbreed", I have to wonder if not only is it giving us hints about how Haise but also Arima's feelings on the matter.

"Sometimes I cannot help laughing when it sniffs around me and winds itself between my legs and simply will not be parted from me. Not content with being a lamb and a cat, it almost insists on being a dog as well. Once when, as may happen to anyone, I could see no way out of my business problems and all that they involved, and was ready to let everything go, and in this mood was lying in my rocking chair in my room, the beast on my knees, I happened to glance down and saw tears dropping from its huge whiskers. Were they mine, or were they the animal's? Had this cat, along with the soul of a lamb, the ambitions of a human being? I did not inherit much from my father, but this legacy is quite remarkable."

While it may all be an act, Arima seems far more casual around Haise then we've seen him even in "Jack". I have to wonder if maybe, even if just in the way a person takes comfort from a dog, he has some affection for Haise? I don't doubt he would kill Haise if ordered to do so, but I'm not sold on Arima as either a Stone Cold Liar or as Papa Arima. I think the real answer is probably going to be more complex.