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kabookiii · 4 years ago

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AOT 139

Spoilers warning

The chapter left me with a bitter feeling. After taking some time to reflect and think about it these are my interpretations of events.

Why is Mikasa alone?

After Eren died, Mikasa is holding Eren’s remains and lets Armin know where Eren will be buried and disappears. She had to disappear in order to be able to bury Eren or else the surviving humans (Marleyans non-eldians) wouldn’t easily let her go which was proven when they raised their guns against Armin and company. Armin took the blame for killing Eren in order to protect Mikasa and to be able to become the ‘hero’ of humanity. As the hero of humanity Armin would be able to hold diplomatic talks to bring lasting peace. If Mikasa would’ve been known to be the one to kill Eren then she probably would’ve been threatened by the Yeagerists and wouldn’t be able to live in Paradis peacefully. Armin probably couldn’t return to Paradis right away because the Yeagarists saw him as a traitor and Armin had the duty to build relationships with the world to bring peace- he has to make sure Eren’s death wouldn’t be in vain. Another possible reason Mikasa didn’t leave Paradis herself is because as she saw Paradis was still threatened she decided to remain to protect her hometown and the place Eren’s remains rested. She wanted to stay to protect the place she called home. Time had to pass by for things to settle down. After 3 years, diplomatic talks are occurring as Armin and company are ambassadors that are going to Paradis to hold diplomatic discussions with Historia. After 3 years, Mikasa and Eren (his remains) will be reunited with their friends.

What was the point of Historia’s pregnancy?

Historia got pregnant to save herself from turning into a titan. Eren let her know that the Paradis government wanted Historia to turn into a titan so she could eat Zeke because they didn’t trust Zeke. Historia herself suggested that she should get pregnant to gain more time not Eren. If she got pregnant then the government couldn’t force her because they needed to secure the royal bloodline. Eren told her about the rumbling to give her another option (she didn’t have to become breeding livestock) since he would activate the rumbling there was no need for her to make that choice. However, in my opinion Historia didn’t want to risk it so she decided to get pregnant to keep herself save. She didn’t support the rumbling at that time. Historia looking out for herself is something Ymir taught her- to become more selfish and not always be ready to die and sacrifice herself. Ymir was Historia’s true love so Ymir had great influence over Historia’s character. Based on Eren’s character he wouldn’t have a child with anyone if he knew he was going to die and leave the child without a father. To him Historia being forced to bear children was robbing her of her freedom (becoming breeding livestock which he was against) so he wouldn’t do that to her. In the end Historia chose that option herself at least and no one forced her to.

Why does Eren have an emotional breakdown?

The clothes Eren is wearing when he tells Armin that he wants to live and be with Mikasa is the same clothes he was wearing the day he told Mikasa he hated her. Eren lied to Mikasa that day and now in chapter 139 we are able to know Eren’s true feelings that he felt inside. What he told Armin is probably what he wanted to tell Mikasa that day but in the end he never did. He never told Mikasa that he loved her because he wanted Mikasa to move on and not hold her to him emotionally. Armin is his best friend and the only person he could confide in his true emotions- the only person he could have a breakdown with. Eren said all this in the past as Armin is remembering his words now that Eren is dead. Eren chose to let Mikasa go after all. It was painful for Eren to give up his true desires but he did it in the end to save his friends.

Why is Mikasa the one to save Ymir from painful love?

This is my interpretation. Mikasa is an Ackerman but also holds Eldian blood. She is more powerful than the average Eldian, loyal in character and loves deeply. Ymir probably resonated with Mikasa because Mikasa had the power to chose for herself which path to take. As both being Eldian, Ymir was able to see Mikasa’s choices (past, present, future and alternate realities/dreams) and since she couldn’t be brainwashed as Mikasa is also an Ackerman she was someone Ymir couldn't influence- all was Mikasa’s free will. One path for Mikasa was to give in to love and her true desires but at the price that Eldians would continue to be titans which was shown in Chapter 138. If Mikasa and Eren ended up together and ran away together then nothing would change and the curse would continue. Eren wasn’t happy with that outcome as he felt guilt over it and Mikasa herself wasn’t truly happy either. The other choice was for Mikasa to sacrifice her love for the greater good. Why did the curse of Ymir continued for generations? King Fritz commanded the daughters of Ymir to eat Ymir to carry on the titan power. It was King Fritz- the person Ymir loved and was loyal to- who wished for the titans to continue to exist at the cost of humanity. Ymir saw through Mikasa that one must not be blind by love- Mikasa ended up killing the person she loved the most to save humanity. Mikasa freed herself from the shackles of love for the greater good at the cost of her happiness. Ymir had to put an end to King Fritz’ wish to continue carrying on the titan powers so she had to free herself from the painful love and loyalty she had to King Fritz for the greater good of all Eldians. Yes, it is odd that Ymir loved her oppressor but love itself is not always rational. Obviously Mikasa’s and Eren’s relationship is NOT at all similar to Ymir’s and King Fritz’s- only parallel is between Ymir and Mikasa. I still wished we got Ymir’s perspective but I’m guessing we never will as Isayama decided to leave it with only Ymir knows why Mikasa saved her to leave it as a ‘mystery’.

#aot139 #snk 139 #snk spoilers #eremika #aot 139

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stramberryparadice · 4 years ago

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SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN #139 - THE IMPOSSIBLE FREEDOM ?

Here is the English translation of the post I wrote here in French.

I apologize in advance for my mistakes, I'm not good in English but I hope that will be understood.

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Shingeki no kyojin is finished. A leading manga of the 21st century has just ended in tears, blood, mourning, disappointment, frustration… and love. So many emotions come to me when I read this final chapter, I needed to express them as clumsily as it is. I’m sure it’s going to get lost in the Internet, but whatever— it is necessary to remove both the joy and the frustration that I feel to pay tribute to Isayama who offered us a work as powerful as it is cursed.

As intense as it is uneven, as perfect as it is imperfect.. like his tragic hero Eren Jäger, who shows us that men are so weak and pitiful in the face of time and the cruelty of the world. How much even if this hero possesses in his hands the power of a God. My analysis will surely be clumsy, I apologize. And I will not fail to point out at the end the bitterness felt on the final development of some characters including that of Misaka Ackerman.

Eren like “CryBaby”

What a slap for the reader to witness such an emotional picture. Yes. Isayama reminds us to what extent Eren isn't a brave knight, not a charismatic hero, not the genocidal demon of this story but a child.. whose weight of Destiny is too heavy to bear. Scan 139 reminds us to what extent we have lost ourselves, just as Eren has in the way, forgetting the very essence of the story that has been told to us from the beginning. It’s not a story of geopolitical warfare, a biological parasite, titanic monsters, a northern deity, or a philosophical-esoteric trip. It's the story of a boy who wants to emancipate himself, to live for himself, tasted of the thirst for adventure, the tranquility of his loved ones but born in a cruel and alienating world that leaves room only for death, abuse of power, betrayal and despair .

A journey where the child becomes an adult at the cost of his or her life. Learning the most painful lesson… To be an adult is to renounce one’s dreams, to bend one’s knee in the face of the servitude of one’s mortal condition, to be content with one’s cage in order to enjoy the little that one can have at one’s disposal, to mourn those who may disappear from one’s life.

A young boy who dreamed only of freedom, surrounded by people who love him. A child whose inspirations, as impulsive, unreasonable and immature as they may be, will push him to his limits. A child who grew up too fast, who could not mourn his mother, aware of her physical and spiritual weakness, who was confronted with the violence of this world which reminded him of his condition of being insignificant, a pawn on the chessboard of the "Way".

A child whose powers worthy of a God then gives him the possibility to realize the unthinkable, almost the absolute fantasy of every Man : to shape a world in his image, to be as free as a bird flying above the clouds without reddish stain to touch the sky. Move forward, Move forward whatever the price… move forward for an illusion of freedom, for an infantile obsession.

And by assuming the role of the wicked “demon” of tales so that the brave knights can free this world from the evil that eats it.

Lost between the present, the past, the future.. time no longer makes sense. Only finality counts, annihilating its titans whatever the price. They have to pay for his mother. They have to pay for his fallen comrades. They must pay for reminding us of our pitiful helplessness as human beings.

But the Demon also has a heart, remorse, feelings, there are people who attach him to this world. Therefore, what to choose?

Divine Freedom or Mortal Love? The impossible equation... Although Eren may have travelled the road in search of the answer, how can freedom and humanity be reconciled? Free your people and protect your loved ones, though imperfect?

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He will not find the answer— neither by searching the past of the goddess Ymir, not by consulting the other Titans carriers, not by creating the different alternative realities that led to the same observation… only death can free the bird from its cage, only the death of Humanity is able to reconcile the sublime and the hideous. Or rather, a common enemy that will crystallize all their ills. But who would be crazy, brave enough to accept being the victime ?

Like a Christic figure, Eren will assume this role. But not without having to confide his last wishes, his last secrets that can no longer contain… because yes, the demon is limited by his adult condition of 19 years. Yes.. the child has grown up. Recklessness, impulsiveness, daring in the face of death, the omnipotence of the child leaves room for a teenager who is now afraid of dying, who has succumbed to love, who doubts, who is aware of his weakness.

Eren has finally become a man...in pain. He finally accepts his feelings, his weakness in the face of death that awaits him.

He’s not a running child anymore. The plates are only explicit about this. The power of narration.. we come back to the fundamental of this history, which is human psychology. The feelings, the relationships that unite all people between them. Friends or enemies, men or women, child or adult, Eldien or Mahr... Despite our differences, our disagreements, we are all equal and weak in the face of death... but also in the face of the love we can bring to others.

Yes, Eren is a weak hero. Yes, he admits to loving Mikasa. He admits that until the very end, he didn't know how it was going to go. That he was himself a pawn in the divine game of Ymir. Another puppet at the service of a little girl who is also blinded by her duality, by her toxic love for her executioner. One cannot remain insensitive to this remarkable development of the character of Eren whose death was inevitable. For whoever plays with divinities can only lose his humanity, his freedom too. By the ultimate sacrifice of his selfish and human desires finally. Eren alone became the true savior of this world. He will also have kept his promise to his friends, to the beings he loves by offering them last memories through the “Way”.

Selfless Love or True Freedom

As Mikasa said: The world is cruel, but also … Very beautiful.

Whoever sets a glance without hatred on the world, with compassion, with love for his neighbor will be able to claim to touch with the finger this Freedom so sought.. a selfless love, not turned to satisfy one’s own selfish desires.

Because Love, like hate, takes different forms.

Love connecting us to our roots, our family of blood…

Love binding two beings who love each other, desire each other, cherish each other, seek each other….

Love that binds us to his comrades, his battalion, his family of choice, his heart…

Love that life brings to us in all its forms…

Love… this power that is unpredictable and uncontrollable.

And that can become the obsession of a lifetime. It is by becoming an obsession that love becomes as destructive as hatred, and sends us back to our condition as an alienated Man… locked up in his “Path”, in his cage.

It's by demonstrating resilience and self-sacrifice that man can taste freedom. We can find redemption in the love that others have for him, that we also have for him. For a few hours, a few years…

At the cost of a renewal of the cycle of hatred, because man remains selfish, not all are ready to make sacrifices. Therefore, Mikasa and Eren have made the greatest of sacrifices for the survival of their comrades and the world: they give up their chance to be happy together, sacrifice their desire to be together for the rest of humanity. As in tragedies, the main heroes are victims of Destiny, are those who will pay the price so that others can flourish and live. The children have become adults.

Just as Armin is no longer the whiny little boy to protect. Unlike Eren, he managed to learn from his mistakes, grieve, face his own fears, confess his love to the girl he loves. It is finally he who will raise the wounded little boy, who will comfort him.

The frustration

Mikasa is the main character of the story. It's through her that awakening is made, it is through her hand that she closes this long journey. In Eren’s memories, it is always central. It is the key, the final solution.

It's his psychological, his emotional journey that we will follow throughout the manga. Eren is only a complement, the character who crystallizes his goals. In a world where men are “dominant”, the woman must bend her knee, support her prince so that the light shines on him. Isayama knew how to play perfectly on this classic code of narration. Whether one agrees or not with the conclusion of certain female characters, the work often highlights the fact that men are only victims of their passions and obsessions.

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Only women seem to emerge victorious in the face of the cruelty of the world : they take up arms (Historia), continue to fight in the face of despair (Mikasa), enjoy life and bring joy around her (Sasha), support other women in their emancipations ( Ymir with Historia) question their education (Gaby) disobey (Annie), go against the “moral” principles to survive (Ymir Frizt who continues to love his executioner), sacrifice for the common good (Hanzi Zoe)… But of course… without also paying the price of sacrifice and making concessions.

Historia bears a child of a man whom she does not seem to like but assumes the role of the mother whom she would have liked to have while assuming the heavy attribute of the office of Queen in a country plagued by nationalist tendencies guided by fear. With Eren’s help, she did not give in to the temptation of self-sacrifice but decided herself who she would save or not, what path she wanted to follow. Her desire was to be a mother, a good mother. Whatever the father, it was an indestructible motherly love that she wanted to offer to a child. The one she never had.

Mikasa agreed to kill Eren because, if she had given him another answer, their life as fugitives would have been but a fleeting dream and Eren’s death was inevitable.

Despite her powerful love for Eren (as addicted as he may be, explained by the power of the Ackermans?), she will break the chains of her servitude by killing her only Love. She is the light. She accomplished the journey of a true heroine by demonstrating resilience, by giving of herself for the world.

She had only eyes for Eren.. was open to others, to show empathy, a desire to continue living for other comrades who are dear to him.

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Mikasa also leads the way in Ymir Fritz… you can love a monster, you can be a prisoner of a toxic relationship but you can free yourself from it. One can become free, but the price to pay will be to carry this infinite sadness, this frustration of having been able to live another story if things would have been different. By her kiss, she showed what true Love is.

Although the frustration is present, although we would have liked her to turn the page and rebuild her life, she must also pay the price of her “freedom”, of her “survival”: haunted by the sacrifice of Eren, guardian of her memories, from her grave as if to preserve her existence as long as she can live.

Once again, women show that they are stronger than we think. So Ymir was also able to free himself of his toxic link with the King by making the Titans disappear.

In the image of the bittersweet end of the chapter, which shows us that the disappearance of a monster, of a divine force “responsible” for the horrors, is not the long-awaited salvation.

The vices, the human fears will remain the poison, preventing us from reaching this illusory freedom. Men do not need deities to dig their own way to death.

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From "occidental" point of view, it is true that this is a blow to the “strong” women of the work still alive. Reduced to being collateral victims of Love, as toxic as this link may be (Ymir-Mikasa). Reduced to attaching themselves to winning or losing romantic figures depending on whether their love-interests is the villain of the story (Mikasa-Annie). Reduced to their role as mother-benefactor (Historia-Gaby).

It’s awkward, but I think Isayama wanted to show that no one is spared. That no character can claim complete tranquility and sweet freedom.

Everyone has had to sacrifice something to survive, and women and men are equal in this judgment. Women also remain victims in a world that remains dominated also by the cruelty of Men (the human race in general). They are not completely free, they are also trapped in roles.

Everyone carries the weight of his choice. That characters have a duty to remember, to pass on to future generations the horrors they have lived to try not to reproduce the same mistakes. Even if their new life choices are imperfect, disappointing for those on the outside.

Levi sacrificed many of his comrades to fulfill his promise to Erwin in his quest for truth and to continue the fight for Eldian freedom.

Armin and Mikasa sacrificed Eren: their friend, their love, the dearest being to fulfill their promise to discover the outside world and touch that freedom.

Like Levi Ackerman and his love for his battalion comrades. As for Mikasa and his love for Eren (because she saw the human behind the monster). She has been waiting for a sign for 3 years to see him again in order to follow up on “see you later Eren”.

Finally, a bird comes to give him his wrap. To encourage him to go forward again. To continue to live…

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The most free people are those who honestly and sincerely love someone. Those who are able to see the beauty of the world despite its ugliness. Who give without waiting for return. Those who continue to look at the world without hatred, those who do not succumb to its cruelty. Tears are running down…

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