joogios

[joogios]

"Meroin: Plaster, syringes and resin. 2012. Even if this work may look blasphemous at first glance, the real theme deals with drugs and not religion. I came up with the idea of ​​transposing a sacred icon into a toxic icon. Whenever the lighter ignites under the spoon, the junkie offers his life to his perverse divinity. The work disturbs because it wants to disturb." - Maria C. Magilla Torre

[joogios]

How I see Dina

[joogios]

This is sooo my Dina!Survives au

[joogios]

(just a slight tw I'm gonna be talking about Zeke's body and weight fluctuation in this post)

Zeke going from a low percentile sized child, to an average leaning toward skinny teenager, to an absolutely JACKED adult man makes no sense to me.

Zeke was always toned, as seen in the flashbacks of inheriting his titan, but he was not nearly as large as he is as an adult. His uniform looks baggy on him. The anime makes him seem a lot more buff, but in the manga teenaged Zeke was almost bishounen looking.

Now the most obvious answer is Zeke gaining titan powers changed his body type, but I don't think so.

I believe the beast titan is a grossly distorted version of Zeke's body to represent his view of himself, and we see that despite having a "fat" torso, the beast titan has abs and FRAIL, LANKY arms.

Grisha's titan had a similar build and Grisha himself was skinny.

(Eren was skinny as a teenager but gained weight but we need to consider Eren has 50% different genes than Zeke, and his titan was always jacked, implying a similar phenomenon to Reiner's growth after inheriting a titan. Furthermore, most warriors inherented their titans as pre-pubescent children. Zeke was almost finished growing when he inherited his. When you consider their mothers, Dina was frail, borderline androgynous while Carla had an average, borderline curvy figure. Zeke has two skinny parents yet he himself is bulky)

Continuing my discussion of Zeke's lineage, as I mentioned Dina was very frail, but so is most of the Reiss family. Uri and Historia are both extremely petite. Ymir Fritz herself appears to be skinny as well.

So I have two theories that can definitely co-exist.

Steroids. They put Zeke on steroids to make his human form seem more formidable in battle. (Honestly, I think this was Magath's decision, since obviously the higher-ups wouldn't want Zeke looking too tough NOW IM GONNA STOP TALKING-). This also might explain why Zeke is much more hairy than everyone else in his family. This also explains why Zeke most likely appears far more healthy than he actually is. He appears to be in peak human condition while spinal tapping and other experimentation are causing his body function to deteriorate.

"Baby weight". Overuse of Zeke's scream literally made him gain weight, but this is more metaphorical.

[joogios]

Making my own post so zee’s post doesnt get taken over but the Euthanasia plan is just. So insanely unhinged like.

Zeke, the man who whether symbolically or literally, has been raped and forced to produce ‘children’ (Pure Titans) for Marley. Zeke-whose mother was used as a womb for a son. Zeke-whose ancestor birthed the race of Titan holders as products of rape. Has devised a plan to make sure no other Eldians will have children. He will do this by divinely removing their reproductive abilities.

He’s trying to do a good thing. For both the already existing Eldians, for the women who won’t be used as breeding machines, for the children who wont be born into a world that hates them. But it’s at its core an attempt to erase his own horrific birth, and usage, and trauma. To make sure what happened to the Fritz women doesn’t keep on happening. And it’s also invasive and reliant on force and against their will, or knowledge.

[joogios]

This is such a needed post, I would like to add!!

SECTION IV: Race-based discrimination and real life parallels:

Statistically, marginalized groups and ethnic minorities (African-Americans, Native Americans, working class, the queer community etc etc.) face a higher risk and rate of rape. This is because they face more ingrained dehumanisation, sexualisation and objectification in society, and because society is less willing to aid the marginalised victims (seen as Other) over their own assaulters. In several cases they may not even have the legal rights to take their abuser to trial

Zeke, and the other Warriors, ARE seen as lesser. To Marleyeans, they are the definition of Other. The entirety of the Warrior system-heck, the show itself-is built on the outcasting of Eldians. It is socially and legally accepted and normal to abuse the ‘lesser’ Eldians within Marleyean society. I don’t believe they have citizenship rights if those even exist in Aot considering their ‘Honorary Marleyean’ status. I don’t believe any of the officials would have batted an eye or thought twice about assaulting a handsome Eldian boy who is reliant on you and whom nobody cares about, or letting an assaulter get away with doing so.

SECTION V: The cycle of abuse and Zeke’s reaction to trauma

Aot is concerned with the cycle of violence. You can see that in the entire “Eldians enslaved other races -> Other races revolt and enslave Eldians -> Eren an Eldian commits the genocide of all races outside Paradis” situation at hand.

This may be a stretch but essentially speaking Zeke’s Euthanasia plan would forcibly take control of people’s bodies for his own goal of ensuring no more Eldian children are born. Zeke is a man who throughout the entirety of his life has had his own body being taken and used to fufil the goals of other people. Whether for violence or during rape. This may mean that taking control of others’ has been normalized to him. He may pull himself through it by saying it’s ‘for the greater good’ that no more children are birthed to endure what he has.

But Zeke. My man. Individual bodily autonomy? The cycles??

Zeke Yeager as an SA allegory and/or victim

Tw: discussions of sexual assault and abuse

Post continues under the keep reading

Ok so this is a LONG story. With this headcanon it’s less about scenes or lines, more when you consider the context of canonical events. I think me and Joogios are the main perpetrators of this headcanon spreading around Zeke Yeager tumblr, but it has existed for years. There are tons of fan works discussing the topic of Zeke falling victim to sexual abuse

REGARDLESS OF WHETHER ZEKE HIMSELF WAS VICTIM OF SEXUAL ASSAULT OR ABUSE, I BELIEVE HE IS STILL AN ALLEGORY FOR IT

-possible abusers include General Calvi and other members of the Marleyan military brass. Some people believe Magath and even Tom Ksaver were abusers but I do not agree with this (Ksaver absolutely groomed Zeke, they did not have a healthy relationship, but none of the grooming was physical in my opinion)

SECTION I: Zeke’s powers -> THE MAIN EVIDENCE. As you know Zeke’s spinal fluid turns people into titans when he screams. 

Zeke is not a screamer, or at least he was not as a teenager when these powers were “discovered” (his powers were discovered before he was 19 because he used them in an offensive when he was 19). He was fairly quiet and reserved. He probably would not scream unless prompted to by assault. Furthermore, of course they would already have spinal tapped him earlier, based on the fact that a shifter’s spinal fluid is always needed to create pure titans for Marley’s death penalty

The powers had to be “discovered”; no titan shifter, let alone BEAST TITAN (originally considered the WEAKEST of the 9), had possessed said power since YMIR FRITZ (more on that later!)

THE SPINAL TAPPING: due to the amount of spinal fluid needed for Zeke’s powers to be used on a grand scale, the frequency which he had to receive lumbar puncture was ridiculous. While it is not extremely invasive, it does require the patient to have their back visible in a fetal position. This means that Zeke either 1. Reported to the titan research facility daily, ALONE, to receive a procedure. Or 2. Reported to the titan research facility ALONE on a less frequent basis to receive the same procedure but it removed MUCH MORE FLUID, likely leaving him disoriented and even more vulnerable. 

YMIR FRITZ: Zeke is the first titan shifter to have these powers, as said by Colt during the Marley Arc (I don’t know chapter or episode numbers, all I know is that this is right before Zeke talks about his secret ass wiping technique). Ymir Fritz herself was a victim of rape. While the abuse endured by Ymir brought about both children and monsters, for Zeke it only creates monsters. 

tl dr: the whole concept of having your own body used as a weapon used by a person (in this case power: Marley) who has power over you, is very akin to rape. a weapon that CREATES things to be used by a person (in this case power: Marley) who has power over you, is very akin to pregnancy.

SECTION II: In the context of Marleyan Society and Zeke’s Life

When Zeke got his parents arrested, he essentially indentured himself to the government. Yes he had proved ultimate loyalty, but his family remained on the chopping block. Due to his father’s sins, Zeke has to do whatever Marley wants. 

In general, being a warrior is based on real life examples of child soldiers. And children being trafficked by military officers was a problem in real life. Even adult soldiers can fall victim to sexual abuse from those of higher rank of them. 

Based on this context, any of the warriors could have received this treatment, so WHY ZEKE?

Zeke is immediately set apart from the warriors based on his age. In his crop of warriors, only one moved on to be considered successor to a titan. He was most likely completely alone until Marcel and Pieck’s crop (which is just my headcanon that they’re older, they may not be, Zeke may be 8+ YEARS OLDER than EVERY warrior)

Zeke doesn’t have parents. And due to the loss of Faye and Grisha, Zeke probably felt far too guilty to speak up about how he was being treated to his grandparents. He had nobody to protect him. 

Zeke is extra susceptible to abuse due to his trauma from his parents. He could never please them, so therefore he must please everybody else. ESPECIALLY MEN. OLDER MEN. 

SECTION III: OTHER

They keep Zeke and Pieck in Marley to protect Marley since they are the most “useful” but why would they send a literal human nuke. Neither of them are more useful than a human nuke. They know that they can get the most use out of Zeke and Pieck because they either have dead or disabled parents. 

Zeke’s character is about dehumanization and one of the most dehumanizing things that can happen to somebody is SA. 

Zeke’s character is also about generational trauma. Zeke is Ymir. That needs another post though

Actual Scenes that may serve as evidence

-Zeke flinches when Grisha reaches for him during chapter 121. This could either be taken as a response to Zeke’s trauma FROM Grisha, or it could be something he does in response to any man (I do not believe Grisha ever physically abused Zeke in any way)

-When Falco says he is being sent memories from Zeke, Annie looks absolutely HORRIFIED

-Pieck’s statement about Zeke always lying to her; I don’t think it always had to do with the Euthanasia Plan!

-When Grisha and Dina are taken to Paradis one of the officers makes a rape joke about Dina

My dear mutuals if I am forgetting things PLEASE RB AND ADD

Thank you for reading if you made it this far. 

[joogios]

AM I MAKING YOU FEEL SICK

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[joogios]

How I imagine Zeke’s Scream/Titan army to be like while at war

[joogios]

Grisha and Dina developing a weird sort of codependancy during their rapid marriage in Liberio. They’re both kind of, confined to each other in how they rely on each other for the skills they individually do not have—Grisha’s leadership and charm over the rest of the Revolutionaries, Dina’s royal blood and inherited knowledge and womb. The weird part of it is that they don’t really like (or know) each other. But their paranoias are so bad that being seperated even for a few minutes especially out on the streets is too much.

I like imagining that Dina developed bad anxiety regarding being on her own while pregnant with Zeke, that everpresent sense of danger as she was bringing another Fritz into the world, what would be done to him if anyone found out, and Grisha has something similar too in his distrust of Marleyeans and what happened when he left Faye alone.

[joogios]

Zeke was totally smoking the second he got his Titan (17) he saw regenerative powers for days and was like Yay!! Until he Realised The Horrors.

[joogios]

[joogios]

Judas Goat, Gabrielle Bates

[joogios]

Wondering rn if Zeke could even sleep without that toy. You know those nights in the forest were long and agonising. Probably what he had the caffeine for.

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[joogios]

Oh god oughhh god i’m gonna be sick. Zeke was building a castle. He was building a CASTLE, guys. Like Ymir built the roads, cultivated the lands. In the Paths she built Titans and Zeke built castles.

[joogios]

i do think Zeke started his stealing a razor blade and cigarettes ritual when he was 12 years old.

it was practice for when he gets his titan