#and then she joined the military police where the special division scouted her

[soutsuji]

Idea: Tsujimura as a recovering alcoholic

[meganearu]

Heaven and Titans

Just gathering all my thoughts on the spiritual world building in snk, particularly how it parallels Christianity.

Eldians are people who become Titans when injected with a serum by whoever is malicious enough to violate them with it. Isayama has stated in the guide book that Titanizing someone is a sin. Because you are essentially killing someone and worse, dooming them to an endless life of killing other humans. Paradise Island is referred to as Heaven for Eldians, an eerie way of saying this is where they go after being “killed”, (ironic since it seems more like hell, the residence of those who have given in to sin and died). But should a Titan happen upon a shifter ability, they are able to return to human form again or their specialized Titan form at any given time. This takes them to essentially “God status”, currently held by shifters Eren, Armin, Ymir, Reiner, Annie, Zeke, Galliard and Peak.

If you’ve read my “Eren and Armin as Adam and Eve” post, you know that the path to sin in snk begins with desire (as it does in real life according to Christian mythology). But such desire begins with knowledge. Thus the path is knowledge, shame, desire, and then sin. And sin can lead to death. Desire can become lust, and lust can lead to indulgence, and reckless indulgence can lead to what is essentially a “monster”, as Armin might call them. A heartless, mindless being that cannot be reasoned with. And monsters are bound to meet their death. Bertholdt arguably achieved that monster status and thus lost his shifter ability, (his God status), because of it. Grosse reached monster status and was served an ugly death for it. (Whether sin originated in snk via an Adam/Eve situation is unknown, but a woman, an apple, and the devil are common elements between the Christian Genesis and the Eldian Genesis).

But there’s another sin that is often glossed over: suicide. (Not to be confused with a genuine heroic self-sacrifice, which is why Eren and Armin achieve their status). Suicide is a prominent sin in snk that often results in Titanization. And as Historia said to Ymir in Utgard, suicide won’t get you into Heaven. It accomplishes very little and in fact, it tends to cause nothing but trouble for the characters. Ymir died to please the masses who hated her for playing the original Ymir, and was sent to Heaven because of it. However, as a mindless Titan, she was lucky enough to receive a second chance by eating Marcel, a hapless Warrior on his mission to the walls. Another instance of suicide as Titanization is Historia’s temptation in the Reiss cave. She had a definite chance to essentially kill herself by Titanizing and eating Eren to gain the Coordinate shifter ability. Something that would’ve accomplished nothing but Eren’s needless death and the loss of her future and lifespan. But Historia rejected the chance to die and achieved a special title of “Goddess” by the poor people in the walls who love having her as their queen. Eren may hold the other shifter power, but we could probably treat Historia as the 9th divine figure if we wanted to. Snk is a very anti suicide story. Eren would have died from his reckless suicidal attack in Trost were it not for his motivation to keep fighting prompting him to get up and rescue Armin, and transform in the Titan’s stomach. This was his saving grace that brought him to God status. Note also that Armin makes his heroic sacrifice in Shiganshina and this leads to him receiving the Colossal Titan.

There is also the way Gods in this universe save mankind. King Uri and Kenny Ackerman have a very intriguing relationship, (besides seeming pretty gay to me lol), because Uri treats Kenny with a very agape attitude. He forgives Kenny for his transgressions against the crown (which to this monarchy is synonymous with God) and he forgives Kenny again for attempting to assassinate him a second time right afterwards. And as a result? Kenny is a fiercely loyal zealot to Uri and sells out his previous role as an underground serial killer to be his servant and lead his special military police division. Thus proves the power of mercy and compassion and love.

Eren has a role very reminiscent of Jesus Christ too: the sacrificial son that was sent to die for our sins. Grisha is not God the Father by any means, but this famous bible verse tends to suit his intentions for Eren to a T in a lot of ways. “For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believeth in him, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Grisha saw that Paradise was going to be destroyed and so gave his second son the coordinate power to save everyone. Not the wisest decision, it was one he made in a state of rage after all, but though he was sacrificing his son (and killing himself) for sake of many other lives, it did prove to come in handy, since Eren would be long dead without it (given that he was hellbent on joining the scouts even before the injection as well as finding indulgence in pointless fights). He’d have specifically died in Trost and likely many other places. But as he requests, if people can put their faith in him, he intends to deliver everyone from evil.

But those things are not perfect analogies by any means. Only metaphors. Eren is not Jesus. Eren is human and finds that he cannot play God and try to shoulder the burden of the world himself. Everyone in snk whom even specifically tries to play God, do so futilely in the end. King Reiss, Ymir, Historia, Eren, all of them fail to live up to the role. Because they’re all human and none are truly divine.

So what’s the solution in the snk world? What should they be doing if they had a commandment to follow? Based on the above^ I’d say: they’re meant to live. They cannot fix the world because the world is imperfect by nature. So just live as much as you can, in pursuit of happiness. Those who can overcome their sins, can achieve “God status” and they are a rare breed of hero, but they’re still human and preserve the right for others to live, and reserve the right to live themselves.