#SNK 111

[sonofthesaiyans]

Nothing else needs to be said. 

Fuck Gabi Braun, and fuck the entirety of S4. Mr. Isayama you fucked it up. 

[mimangacaps]

“𝗪𝗲’𝘃𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗮 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁, 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁.

𝗘𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗻’ 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻...

𝗧𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝘀 ‘𝗻 𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁 ... 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻, 𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀.”

[cosmicjoke]

Alright, up through chapters 111 and 112 of SnK!

First, I just have to say a few things about Eren here and what a massive dick he was to Armin and Mikasa.  It’s hard as hell not to be pissed at Eren here, even knowing that he was trying to push his two best friends away in an attempt to keep them out of harm, and part of that is because, given what Eren later confesses to Armin, about not knowing what he was doing during this scene, I don’t think the way he treats them here IS entirely to protect them.  Armin says after the whole confrontation that Eren’s the one who’s a slave, specifically he says “You’re a slave too, and your master’s a worthless bastard.”  Eren has the gall to get offended by this, after he just spent the last however many minutes telling Armin and Mikasa both that they’re pathetic slaves with no will of their own.  But the important part here is what Armin says.  He’s referring, I think, to all of Eren’s worst traits as a human being.  He’s telling Eren that he’s let himself become a slave to the worst parts of his personality, the parts that want to hurt others, that finds gratification in hurting others.  That he’s letting himself be dictated by those ugliest, cruelest parts of himself.  I think part of Eren’s tirade against Armin and Mikasa was based very much in his honest feelings, those feelings of anger and hatred towards his best friends being born out of his own insecurity about himself.  He tells Armin that his constant attempts to “talk” are pathetic and worthless, and that Mikasa is only strong because of experiments conducted on the Ackerman bloodline.  Essentially, Eren is trying his very best here to strip away both Armin’s and Mikasa’s own merit, and cast their strengths and abilities in a negative light, treating those strengths as either weaknesses or as something unearned, some sort of freak accident of birth.  Eren goes particularly hard after Mikasa, trying to make her exceptional abilities seem somehow lesser or unimpressive because they’re only a byproduct of experiments done to other Ackerman’s over the centuries.  This smacks terribly to me of Eren taking out his own physical shortcomings on Mikasa and Armin both, blaming them for his own weakness.  Eren taunts Armin later while he beats the hell out of him, telling him they’ve never fought because it never would have been a “fair fight”, as if Eren himself was ever any kind of exceptional fighter.  It’s made a point of again and again early in the series that Eren isn’t particularly special or gifted in anything he does.  He isn’t a good fighter, he isn’t especially smart, he isn’t especially skilled.  But here we have him flaunting himself over Armin, as if Eren was ever some sort of uber bad-ass fighter who could destroy any opponent with ease.  It really does just come across as crippling insecurity on Eren’s part, on him acting out his self-loathing and insecurity in himself on his friends.  It’s really one of Eren’s lowest moments in the whole series, and especially because it doesn’t particularly feel like he doesn’t entirely mean it.  I think he does, to some extent.  

Anyway, okay, I also want to talk a little about Levi and how he reacts to the news of the Yagerists taking over the military, and Zeke’s involvement.  

What really strikes me here is Levi’s reaction to Pixis’ and the MPs plan to feed Eren to someone else, to give them the Founder.  Levi says to hell with that plan, and it’s really interesting to me, because this shows two things about Levi and how he regards Eren at this point.  It isn’t that he feels betrayed by Eren that Levi has his internal monologue about all his comrades dying in the line of duty while protecting Eren, it’s because he’s thinking about how all of those people died to protect Eren, only for the military to then turn around and render all of those sacrifices utterly meaningless by deciding to just feed Eren to whoever they choose.  A recurring and vital theme for Levi’s character throughout SnK is that he can’t abide meaningless death.  The thought of anyone dying or suffering in any way without reason, for Levi, is one of the worst things that can happen.  Pointless, meaningless death is a travesty to him.  And by deciding to just kill Eren then and there, to feed him to someone else, the military is basically shitting all over the deaths and sacrifices of an innumerable amount of Levi’s friends and comrades, essentially declaring those sacrifices null and void and pointless.  All these people will have died, it turns out, for nothing.  That’s why Levi calls the current situation they’re in a “farce”, because it’s made a joke out of all those lives lost.  And it’s why Levi won’t stand for it.  He refuses to let it happen, instead deciding it’s Zeke who should be fed to someone.  It must be more galling to Levi than just about anything, that these MPs, who never lifted a finger or sacrificed anything in order to fight for humanity’s survival have now taken it upon themselves to decide that all that effort, all those lives lost, all those morals compromised, all that blood gotten on the hands of the SC members for the betterment of humanity, meant nothing and was never necessary, that they’ll just kill Eren without any input or say from those people that sacrificed so much to keep Eren alive all this time.  And it’s not just the lives lost, like Mike’s, or Nanaba’s, or Nifa’s, or Erwin’s, or any of the other hundreds of SC’s members that died while protecting Eren, but also people like Jean and Armin having to get blood on their hands, going against their moral codes and now living with the burden of having taken lives, or Dimo Reeves essentially giving his life to protect Eren and Historia.  There’s any number of smaller sacrifices, on top of the lives lost, they’ve all made in order to protect Eren, because they all believed him to be essential to humanity’s future, that he was one of them, and could be relied on and believed in to always hold true to the ideals of the SC, to fight for humanity’s salvation.    The military’s decision to just kill Eren throws that belief back in the faces of the SC.  

I think, also, it’s interesting, because Levi’s still holding here to the possibility that Eren hasn’t betrayed them all.  He’s still showing that he believes in Eren, even as that belief is being strained and tested by everything that’s happening.  That Levi doesn’t just immediately wash his hands of Eren here, and say “Yeah, kill him.”, shows also that he still WANTS to believe in Eren, that all the hopes they put in him weren’t unfounded or for naught.  Even as he acknowledges that he doesn’t know if Eren is being controlled by Zeke or not, he still wants to give him the benefit of the doubt.  It shows that he still cares about Eren as a comrade and a friend.  He holds no such ties to Zeke, who’s done nothing but cause him pain and misery, and so Levi’s solution here makes sense.  Feed Zeke to one of the Yaegerists, then, after Historia gives birth, if she’s still willing, let her consume the Beast Titan.  Levi’s trying here to avoid killing Eren, both because he can’t bear the thought that all those people died for nothing, and also because he still feels loyalty and friendship towards Eren, which speaks to the depth of Levi’s dedication as a friend, honestly.  

Also, we get to see Levi’s suspicion of Zeke’s story about how and why he turned the people of Ragako into Titan’s validated, when it’s revealed that he lied about his spinal fluid, if consumed by Eldian’s, freezing them up.  The guy really is just a straight up liar.  And that particular deception of Zeke’s is what leads to the tragedy of what happens next, turning Levi’s comrades into Titans.  Like I said in my previous post, I think Levi was trying to genuinely glean if Zeke really was as heartless and uncaring as he appeared, trying to understand if there was some understandable reason behind his actions, and that he came the conclusion from reading Zeke’s tone, words and body language (just like Erwin says about Levi’s ability to see the true nature of man), that there isn’t any real humanity in Zeke at all.  And of course, what Zeke does here only proves that beyond any sort of doubt.  

Levi’s declaration here that he isn’t going to let Zeke dictate things any longer is Levi being fed up with these mind games and manipulations.  He’s known all this time that Zeke has been stringing them along, lying to them, using them, all with some ulterior motive and plan in waiting, even as he couldn’t know the details of those things, and Levi knows if he waits any longer to take Zeke out, things are going to reach a point of no return.  Levi’s instincts here are right, and have been from the start, but because he was beholden to the chain of command, he couldn’t act.  It’s the pussyfooting around that the military’s done up to this point, their indecision and fear, to trust Zeke, but also to have the balls to move against Zeke completely, that’s lead to things getting so out of hand.  Tragically, Levi’s decision here comes too late.  But man, he was ready to take matters into his own hands finally.  Someone should’ve listened to him sooner about Zeke.  They should’ve just killed his ass the second they had him on the island.

[falcon94ssy]

Is Mikasa the queen of Hitzuru? Or was that some theory I heard?

Hello anon~

Let’s look at chapter 107 and see what Kiyomi said to Mikasa:

“Lost lord” hmmm

And what did the Azumabito clan do in the past?

Mikasa is a descendant of the Shogun clan, as Hizuru is kinda based of Japan irl, that the Shoguns in the past were the de facto rulers of the country, “ruled in the emperor’s name”:

However, talking about the Azumabito clan in Snk, are the members like Kiyomi’s family still powerful and ruling Hizuru? I’m afraid not, see this:

And chapter 111

Not sure if Kiyomi is acting here and making up stories, though.

And in short I believe Mikasa’s role is different from Historia’s---not a Queen, but a descendant of the Shogun clan who used to be the rulers of Hizuru.

With limited content about Hizuru and the Azumabito family in the existing chapters, I think it’s my limit I can write in this post, hope Isayama will eventually reveal them in his remaining story ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thank you for your ask and have a nice day~!

[safflora]

Ooh, this framing in chapter 111 feels important and pointed given how 127 left off.

If you want to see a Jaegerist, Rogue, maybe look to your left. At the very least, she knows where the Jaegerists are hiding. Maybe there’s something to the idea that Floch is serving Kiyomi rather than threatening her after all.

She’s making the exact same, unreadable face she was making in 111. What is she playing at? Who is she playing? And for what?

EDIT: lol nvm

[potato-story]

What a beautiful relationship. (I know shit is going down in the new chapter but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet wryyyyyyyyyy) Twitter link to this piece.

Also HI! I am moving to twitter! Aside from the occasional risque arts, my parody comics tend to include naked butts, abs and well titans. Unless I start putting all of them in a tutu:

So thank you for the wonderful years here! I will really really miss reading the tags!

[danyyeleonhardt]

"Oh my God I'm beautiful"

Annie when see himself in the mirror

I LOVE ANNIE! ❤️

Follow to more Annie Leonhardt content!

[silth]

Mikasa is amazing

In this panel Mikasa stopped an angry child from stabbing the person who killed her sister... she saved a child’s life and another child’s innocence.

This scene really reminds me of Eren killing those horrible people, of course the situation here is different, but it is interesting that Mikasa chose to avoid any violence and saved these two children.

I guess it is not by chance that Gabi is touching her scarf: Mikasa is offering her that warmth she was looking for when she was a child. Little Mikasa, kidnapped in that house, was thinking that she was cold and she was saved not when Eren murdered those criminals, but when he gave her that scarf because she felt the warmth she was missing. It was not violence who saved her, but love. And she’s trying to do the same, she avoided useless violence and tried to save those little girls.

I love Mikasa and I love the amazing woman she became.

[reinerbraunprotectionsquad]

Armin and Eren reuniting in Snk 111

[super-peace-fangirl]

Shingeki no kyojin volume 27 cover illustration

[nelldya]

Mikasa protecting Gabi was one of my favorite things in this chapter, so here it goes

[denjighosties]

arumika headcanons

ok so

When Mikasa was a child, she used to read all the books she could find and used to read a lot of fantasy books

When she was alone with Armin, they discussed the book for hours until Eren notice he was alone.

When Armin got hurt because of bullies, Mikasa always helped Grisha with his wounds, reminding him how brave he was

Armin likes when she reads for him under his favorite tree. He falls asleep more easily when she's talking.

Mikasa knows he suffers from imsonia, and reads to him once a day, knowing he will be able that way

[toukatan]

she saved me from this good-for-nothing war.

[falcon94ssy]

What she said: The Azumabito family changed during these times of great turmoil. Now we're stigmatized as nothing but a bunch of money-grubbing, scheming foxes...

me: A civil war between Azumabitos with different political ideologies, complicated relationships between the family members, each struggling to survive harsh situations...and people call it The Dance of the Dragons.

Hey wrong fandom.

Also a description thing of my blog picture

[superjaegerbros]

"The ones who drank the wine without realizing anything are..."

[aspoonofsugar]

A Child in a Gray Forest

I liked several things in the latest chapter.

Here I am going to mention only two.

1) This is how Gabi sees Sasha:

This is how Nikolo sees her:

Both have a very black and white vision. This is why Mr Braus’s prospective is so important:

Because it acknowledges both points of view. Sasha was a person who managed to overcome her fear in order to help people. She was also a soldier who took part in an operation which involved attacking civilians. It is meaningful that her father acknowledges this. Sasha was no devil nor angel, but a person who ended up caught up in a cycle of violence.

It is this specific prospective the characters must all come to accept and I liked how it was exemplified through three different points of view on the same character.

2) Mr Braus’s speech interested me also for the importance it put on the image of the forest.

As a matter of fact we have two people who are waiting in a forest:

And a third person (the mentee of one of the two and the younger brother of the other) who is probably going to meet them soon:

Moreover Mr Braus’s description of Sasha fits Eren as well.

Sasha was a hunter.

Eren’s surname literally means hunter.

She lived while killing beasts of the forest with the bow she had learnt to shoot since she was young.

I let her go out from the forest, but the world itself was a giant forest.

This phrase specifically can be associated with Eren and the situation of the whole Paradis. They spent 100 years trapped within the walls and killed titans (the beasts of the forest) until they finally managed to reach the ocean (they went out from the forest). However, the world they faced was a giant forest itself and the weapons they were used to stopped working properly in front of such complexity. I am not strictly talking of physical weapons to fight, but of instruments to understand the world. The people of the walls had built their own identity on the idea that they were the last of humanity. They found pride and comfort in that, but right now they are facing a reality where they are to humanity what titans were to them.

Eren too is probably struggling with such a drastic change of prospective and since he is unwillingly the center of everything chances are high that he is struggling even more than others.

In short, it is probable that Eren too is a child lost in the forest and in this chapter it was stated that to guide the children out of the forest is the duty of the adults.

And here we have to remember that it has already happened that Eren almost got himself lost in a forest:

However, someone made sure he could go out:

What I am trying to underline is that Mr Braus’ speech might work as foreshadowing and build up to a future meeting between Eren and Levi (and Zeke oc). Given Levi and Eren’s mentor-like relationship and Levi’s overall role in the series I think it would fit thematically.

I don’t know how their meeting will go, but I am not particularly optimistic in the short run. By this I mean that I don’t think Eren will immediately be able to go out of the forest, but he might later on and maybe whatever is going to happen in the forest of the giant trees might play a role in it.