Talk:Uta/@comment-108.41.123.128-20141014045214/@comment-96.59.114.196-20141018041414

He didn't betray any characters within Tokyo Ghoul so much as he betrayed the audience's expectations of him. He never offered explicit promises of "being on one side" - he was merely a third party who was cute and occasionally helpful, which the audience took to mean he was on "the good side".

And I don't particularly think that the discussion that took place after the big reveal constituted "spreading lies" (in response to the anon above). Ishida did say that the answers are all in the manga. It just takes a bit of hindsight to understand. Uta is part of the Clown Gang along with Souta, Itori, Nico, and Roma. So let's examine what they've done in the novel (major spoilers below, of course):

- Souta killed Rize -> beginning of tragedy.

- Itori deliberately pushed Kaneki to go to the Ghoul Restaurant for information (info that she didn't even need, considering Souta was already a part of the restaurant) -> Kaneki's trauma.

- Nico told Yamori of the escape plan during the Aogiri arc -> well, you know.

- Uta joined the rescue team because Kaneki was his "precious customer", but I think this can be taken as "Kaneki was his source of entertainment". The quote about Kaneki finally coming to suit the mask (that Uta made, btw) is also suspicious.

- As for Roma, her role is debatable. There's a possibility that she was the one to tip the CCG about Anteiku, but unlike the previous points, Ishida raised multiple flags for this event from different directions (V, CCG conspiracy, etc).

There's no word on the extent to which the Clown Gang and Uta were involved. We also don't know whether the members actively cooperated to make a tragedy; we don't know whether Kaneki was targeted specifically, or whether he was just a coincidental victim; we don't know their connections to other ghoul/human organizations; and we don't know whether Uta is the ringleader of the gang or just another member. Nevertheless, it's clear that the Clown Gang have been present at every stage in Kaneki's descent into madness, and Uta's association with them is pretty damning.

It's important to consider Tokyo Ghoul as a fictional work as a whole, too. Since the first chapter, Ishida Sui has repeated the motif of "tragedy" - not just the genre, but the actual play variety. By the end of the manga, there's a very clear juxtaposition of "comedy" (the Clowns) and "tragedy" (Kaneki) as the dual parts of Tokyo Ghoul. Ishida strikes me as the literary sort, and like any capable author, he inserts some trenchant symbolism in addition to that motif. If Kaneki's life were a tragedy in theater, then the Clowns would be the directors, or at the very least the entertained audience. And kind Uta being involved with the Clowns, who were involved with Kaneki's breakdown? Makes for one hell of a plot twist.

Uta is a pretty fascinating character (who, for clarification, I do not hate or want to blame), and Ishida is a pretty good author. For this reason, I think that he'll definitely elaborate on the origin of the Clowns, Uta's involvement, etc. But after building up that development that works on multiple levels, both within the novel and for the narrative as a whole, it would be an insult to Ishida's capability and the audience's intelligence to take it back with an "lol jk the clowns aren't that important, i didn't plan it out beforehand at all, i basically pulled this plot twist out of my ass and made it more meaningful than it actually is." Good authors implement clues for their readers to put together; bad authors dump exposition on top of their readers.

Sorry this ballooned into a mammoth of a comment, but Tokyo Ghoul is a complex work that deserves critical reflection, and I, too, anxiously await the next installment.