Talk:Ken Kaneki/@comment-79.191.17.54-20151201200232/@comment-26967758-20151201201540

Interesting read actually. But I have a different take on all of this. Ishida has used a lot of symbolisms throughout the story, from Tarot cards to spiritual animals such as the Chinese Zodiac. There's also the omake where Uta made him a Buddha mask. There's also tons of references to Jungian Psychology as it deals with the Shadow self. In spiritual beliefs, there's a "Higher self", the opposite of the shadow self. It directs the life of a person in a positive light, and although I think Kaneki hasn't exactly been in touch with his Higher self entirely, he's clearly on his path there.

The reason I think he felt that it was a mistake to "want", is because wanting is a part of desires. It goes back to Ishida's Buddha mask omake, and also how his Kakuja mask featured him with three eyes - a reference to the mystical third eye that all humans seemingly possess but only "awakens" when they've reached some form of spiritual enlightenment. Although, I have read across some spiritual books that states that the Third eye can somewhat be "opened" or "awakened" prematurely through triggers or traumatic experiences, maybe that's the case with Kaneki, that is if you take into account the spiritual context (if you even think it's there).

I think he's only a closer path to "salvation", meaning eliminating desires and gaining true enlightenment (maybe it could be his wisdom that he gains through that process that he comes up with a way to establish a path for Ghouls and humans to co-exist, or maybe he just gives up and lets everyone be the way they are since you can't exactly force someone to change their perspective unless they go through similar trauma themselves, and even then, it's not gauranteed that the same point of view will arise - see Seidou). He's desired to change people, but maybe it's the desire to change people that affected him the most, in a sense, he's forced to change himself instead.

Do I think this is the real Kaneki? Yes, but is it the whole of the real Kaneki? Nope. We haven't seen enough of him to judge anything as of yet. If his point of view were to change again, I'm hoping the fandom doesn't try to distinguish his personalities again just because he became more kind or something. People change through experiences. I've known a bully who became a nice genuine person as they got older, and likewise, a nerdy person who became an alcoholic who's celebrating he's gotten a better job than the people who used to bullied him, but in a really egotistical and looking down on people type of way.