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SnK Chapter 126 Poll Results

The chapter 126 poll closed with 1,647 responses. Thank you for your support! This month’s poll results were compiled by @shifter-lines , /u/alooulla, /u/_Puppet_, @manerein and @momtaku.

RATE THE CHAPTER 1,514 responses

“Rate the Chapter” is a genuine bell curve this month instead of having its more typical overwhelmingly positive skew. While not terrible by any means, the response to chapter 126 was the most lukewarm since chapter 107, and it was the second worse performing chapter since we started the poll.

(Kazoo Avengers theme)

By far, this was the chapter I enjoyed the least, I just hope that the ending feels realistic

Definitely fast paced, but definitely needed to finally kick things into high gear. The Calm Before The Storm…

it was pretty disappointing by aot standards, but the last 15 chapters were amazing, so what am i even complaining for.... i just hope that isayama can write a decent ending.

I feel like this is either one of those chapters that will be more rewarding in hindsight when we have more info or was just straight up moving forward so we can get to the good stuff faster and we will have to suck it up and move on. All in all I think it was a good chapter even if a little rushed.

Easily the worst chapter in years due to the fast pacing, convenient plot developments and cliche and very cheesy and cringey ending page quote.

In the anime they could make a whole episode out this single chapter instead of using two chapters to make a single episode

ISAYAMA GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!! THE SAUNA AINT RUNNING AWAY FROM YOU

Haha pie

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT? 1,519 responses

After nearly a year of absence Levi and Hange were finally back in the story so it’s no surprise that “Everything with Levi and Hange” topped the list of favorite moments with 22.1%. “Avengers Assemble” was a distant second with 10.6%. Confirmation that Levi was alive came in third (10.2%).

ONYANKOPON CALLYING JAEGERISTS A BUNCH OF CHAUVINISTS

Pieck and Hange teaming up? Eren better watch out because those two together are gonna KICK SOME ASS!

Hange needs so much more appreciation, she is such a good person. I hope she and Levi both survive this shit.

I loved everything that happened, it just desperately needs some more detail filled in.

I loved Levi and Hange interactions

Annie eating pie is just perfect

It was so good to see Levi and Hanji again and together. They suffered so much, i need an end where they both survive and can have a restful retirement

Glad to see that Connie is still a good guy. Also that he is trying his best becouse of his Mother.

But what Pieck Pieck? The greatest tragedy is that Isayama took that from us, y'know not that Eren is destroying the world or something...

I really loved to see Armin and Annie together!

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WAS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE MOMENT? 1,507 responses

Talk about polarity. “Avengers Assemble” may have been the second most popular “Favorite Moment” but it was also the landslide winner for “Least Favorite” with nearly 22% of the fandom selected it as the worst moment of the chapter. “Floch’s Speech” (13.8%) and “The Ragako Subplot” (13.5%) rounded out the top 3.

everyone called them the avengers but lets get real they are a fuckin Suicide Squad

Why are we wasting time on Louise

Avengers Lowcost version

Didn't understand Magath reasons to join forces with his enemys. It felt like some story in between was missing.

Can I just say I hate what Isayama did with Connie's character? I've never seen a character as bipolar in his development

Floch was the only good part....

WHO WAS THIS CHAPTER’S MVP? 1,503 responses

Hange (23%), Jean (16.2%) and Armin (13.4%) were our top three favorite characters this month. It needs to be said that “Pie” came in at number four with nearly 10% of the fandom selecting it.

it WAS nice to see characters choosing to be their best selves for the sake of others. For that reason, it was difficult to pick an MVP -- but I gave it to Onyankopon because he crystallized so eloquently exactly what I had been thinking since Eren started the Rumbling.

Levi and hange tho

So much Erwin nods! Yesss <333

Still love my boy Jean!

Some characters are still acting consistent: Jean, Magath, Levi (still not over killing the BT and that's good), Onyankopon and Floch.

Connies growth, Jean's motivation, I'm glad these boys are reclaiming their almost-lost humanity!

Levi. That is all.

Oh, also, I want pie.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE HANGE AND LEVI CAMPSITE MOMENT? 1,494 responses

“Hange suggesting that they live in the woods together” (27.2%) was the favorite campsite moment, followed by “Levi’s words upon waking up” (23.3%). “Hange sniping while shedding a tear” was third (19.6%))

I'm giving this 5/5 solely for Yams finally feeding the LeviHan shippers some good fucking food after so long.

I ship Levi and Hange. It's so cute when Hange realized that Levi was listening to her/him while pretending to sleep.

Shirtless Levi round two! Wit, you better do the job correctly this time!

We need a Historia chapter but it’s great to see Hange and Levi being back.

PIECK… FINGER? 1,492 responses

Pieck Finger. Pieck Finger everybody. You know how a common response to trauma or awkwardness is humor? Well 42.6% of you are primarily concerned with how “Pieck Finger” will be memed. 24.7% of you accept the trauma and say you wish she would’ve just stayed “Pieck”, and 20.6% of you are glad she has a last name, but did it really have to end like this? 6.5% of you think it’s a “cool and realistic last name”, and I think you guys scare me more than the people who vote “Snapchat” on the last question every month. More on that later.

"pekfinger" is swedish for "pointer finger" too. oh lord

Back when Pieck was supposed to be a dude, the working name was "Oliver Pieck", at least from what I read on the AoT wiki. I feel like Isayama could have just switched the first and last name around to make it "Pieck Oliver." That would've sounded far less weird.

I know a guy named Buck Ramming. Pieck Finger is fine by me lol

It's an instruction not a name.

Levi sure could use a couple of Piecks right about now heyoooooo

the fact that she got the worst titan and now also the worst name it’s so funny

What kind of a first name is Pieck?

AS PREDICTED, CONNIE’S ROADTRIP WITH FALCO ENDED AMICABLY. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF IT? 1,498 responses

The Ragako subplot did little for the readers with nearly one-third of the fandom calling it a complete waste of time. The majority (46.2%) were slightly more charitable selecting “It was ok. I’m glad it wrapped up quickly”. Only 17.5% loved the moment. The write-ins were pretty damning.

Good plotpoint, really bad execution

I cringed the whole time.

I liked the outcome, but it was handled too quickly

A complete waste of time: Connie's arc? Sharted over. The consequences about Falco? Sharted over. Possibility to exploit serumbowl or Ymir's memories? Glossed over.

All of this made no sense and it was solved so quickly it seemed unrealistic. YAMS WE NEED PROPER CLOSURE PLS DON'T WASTE MORE INK

Connie changed his mind a bit too quickly, but it was good nevertheless

Connie deserved better writing.

Felt too shallow for how quick it sprung up, needed more development. As it is now, it could've just not happened

I'm glad that Connie hasn't died yet because I appreciate him, but there's been wasted potential. Ymir's memories and Porco and Colt's deaths have been reduced to a single vignette where we can only speculate and write fics.

Missed opportunity to actually develop Connie's character. We didn't learn anything we didn't already know about Connie.

This feels like what the anime did to the Uprising Arc. It happened way too fast and honestly felt like Isayama was just checking it off a list, so to say. Which is honeslty a bit uncharactieristic of his writing. I really hope this doesn't start, or continue, a trend...

WHICH DENTAL HYGIENE MOMENT DID YOU ENJOY MORE? 1,494 responses

Before I talk about the numbers, I just want to shout out the one guy who responded “Other” and just said “why”. Anyway, a solid majority of you guys’ favorite dental hygiene moment was Hange asking Pieck rude lady questions, which frankly sounds much worse than it actually is. The next most common answer, getting just over 25% of the votes, was Connie’s Master Plan™, followed by “Both”, followed by “Neither!” I still like the guy who just said “why”.

I didn't mind it, but I heard that Isayama did this so he could get a toothbrush merch campaign going lol

Isayama has a teeth fetish confirmed

Holy Fuck what was Connies face doing when he was talking about titan teeth brushing.

Why, just why

Pie

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HOW MIKASA ACTED TOWARDS LOUISE? 1,457 responses

The fandom is almost evenly divided over Mikasa’s actions towards Louise. By the narrowest of margins, Mikasa’s compassionate nature took the majority (26.8%). The other extreme, “Mikasa should’ve sucked it up and let the girl be happy”, was second with 26.2%. A quarter of the fandom instead chose to focus on Louise. “Louise was crazy and deserves the cold shoulder” was third (23.9%).

It's not surprising that Mikasa ran out of f*cks to give. There are only so many lives she can value, and right now she doesn't have the time to spare, or room in her heart.

I don't think Mikasa had any responsibility there, and the scarf is hers. Given its significance, and that she owes Louise nothing, it seemed like the moment was morally neutral.

I really didn't care. Louise is barely a character, and Mikasa had no duty to be nice to a person who enabled and supported a bloody coup just because she saved her life once.

I don’t blame Mikasa. I don’t like and want to spend time with my stalkers either

I felt bad for Louise. She’s dying, let her think you care about her, Mikasa

I felt like Louise is completely obsessional but Mikasa is just as much. To me these kinds of moments show that Mikasa has completely lost it recently

I'm concerned about what this says for Mikasa's character development thus far, and I felt kind of bad for Louise

I'm sick of the scarf back and forth

It actually seems quite obvious to me that Mikasa pitied the poor girl, but there was nothing she could have done for her. Because she simply lacks the time necessary to care for Luise, or change her mind or make sure that she's ok.

That this is about Mikasa’s compassion or lack thereof I think says more about how we feel women should feel. I think it was fine, she barely knows Louise and there is a lot more going on. Louise is a grown woman that made her own decisions.

the most interesting part about it is that Eren asked Louise to throw the scarf away. that's it.

Mikasa already did a good gesture by visiting Louise, no one would ask Jean to do the same with Floch, so I don't see the big deal. Both cases are "protagonist sees themselves in antagonist, and realise how they mustn't become like them".

WHY DID MIKASA DECIDE TO TAKE HER SCARF BACK? 1,482 responses

“Mikasa wants it back for other reasons” was the selection of nearly half of respondents, since “wearing it” and vague malice towards Louise were the other two options.

Eren wants her to throw it away, so she's making her own decision and going against his wishes on purpose.

I don’t know if she’ll wear it again, but it’s always been her scarf and she’ll decide it’s fate when she’s ready

I think she wants to give it back to Eren.

It's still important to her. She may let go of Eren but the scarf is always gonna be there to remind her of what was and the family she once had.

It’s just simply that it’s hard to throw away a possession you held dear for most of your life. It’d be more out of character for her to throw it away. I don’t think she ever planned on abandoning the scarf—setting it aside was rather Isayama’s way of showing Mikasa’s conflicted thoughts on her relationship with Eren.

Ultimately, Mikasa's the authority on the scarf and it's emotional weight, while Louise was trying to squeeze her own meaning out of it. It wasn't Louise's place to do so, and it wasn't her scarf to take. Whatever is to be done with it, to see it used again, given to someone else, or see it thrown out or destroyed, is a choice only the scarf's real owner, Mikasa, should make.

THEY FOUND ANNIE BY SITTING NEXT TO HER WHILE SHE WAS EATING PIE, THOUGHTS? 1,497 responses

The reunion with Annie was another chapter moment that fell flat for the majority with only 21.8% expressing approval with it. The majority (31.8%) thought it would’ve been ok if there was more time for conversation and reaction and 22% were primarily bothered by the coincidence involved in the reunion. The remaining 20% found the lazy writing unforgivable.

*sigh*

There was way too much build up just to have it end in a gag. It was cute, but it... just doesn't work?

Are you telling me that every time you talk about Robert Downey Jr. he doesn't just appear right next to you?

Humor was not appropriate in this situation

I fucking loved it

I think it's lazy writing but it made me laugh pretty hard so I'll give it a pass

It was a funny moment but definitely not how I had imagined nor hoped Armin/Annie's reunion would happen

Sitting together like nothing happened before and eat and laugh… are you serious?!! It’s not funny

SNK has always had funny moments like this woven into it, especially when the 104th were still trainee's, and it's nice to see a tonal flashback to the past like this.

Stranger things have happened. Floch's hair, for example.

WHAT SORT OF PIES DO YOU THINK THEY WERE EATING? 1,469 responses

Fruit. Definitely fruit.

...

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

What's the point of this question?? I'm confused

What the fuck is a meat pie?

We're missing PIEces of the puzzle still

WHAT PIE WOULD YOU SCARF DOWN THAT FAST IF YOU WERE ANNIE? 1,459 responses

Apple (23.9%), and chocolate (16.2%) are our favorite pies, with Meat and “I don’t like pie” tying for third (11.4%). Several respondents were rather vocal about this even being asked. To them I say Isayama is the one who started this :P

Apricot, you American heathens

Duh. Pineapple of course

I'd be more worried about getting home to my dad before he's crushed by a psycho

Marleyan organ pie made by the Usurper Chad himself!

nectarine pie.... you should try it

Rhubarb pie. Best Pie Ever.

Sweet Potato Pie!

There are so many interesting questions you could have asked in this poll yet didn't, but you're asking about pie? (A/N: There are so many interesting things Isayama could have drawn in this chapter yet didn't, but he's drawing about pie? )

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT HITCH BEING LEFT BEHIND? 1,479 responses

While the majority thought it was a good way to write her out (36.3%), there was plenty of disappointment (26.2%) and many who thought it could’ve been handled better (16.6%). A segment of the fandom (18.5%) thinks she’ll be back since there is more she has yet to do.

Perfect. She is always left behind throughout the series. The continuation of this makes sense.

Does the lack of Hitch means the lack of pies? Because this is unacceptable.

Glad that she'll survive probably, but she was such an interesting character

Annie and Hitch were my new otp, so just sad feels

Hitch is safe from now on. Ok for me.

I felt so sorry for her, because Annie's disappearance reminded me a bit of Hitch's relationship with Marlowe. Once more it seemed like the Survey Corps was taking someone precious away from her, off to an unknown and risky fate

I never had pie so Idk.

WERE YOU WORRIED THAT JEAN WOULD JOIN THE JAEGERISTS? 1,480 responses

For this question, 21.5% of you were a little nervous that Jean might join the Jaegerists, but a much more significant 69.2% understood the implied fact that the Jaegerists only accept humans, and Jean is a horse, and therefore there was never any threat of him allying with them. You’d think that with like four hundred years of this series being out, I’d think of a better way to make that joke, but here we are. Anyway, the last 9.3% of you think Jean would do more to help Paradis if he joined the Ab Church, which is an excellent parallel to the Wall Church in the beginning of the series, I might add.

I still wish more time was given to the subplots such as more time to stew on Jean joining the Yaegarists

LAST MONTH 75% OF THE FANDOM THOUGHT JEAN WOULD BE THE PERSON TO TAKE DOWN FLOCH. DO YOU STILL THINK THE HAIRBOWL WILL HAPPEN? 1,463 responses

Remaining in the strong majority, 72.6% of you guys think there will be some sort of confrontation between Jean and Floch, though whether that means you think Jean will be the person to “take down” Floch or not is beyond me. I don’t know. I didn’t write this question, I’m just writing the blurb for it.

I'm still betting on Floch shooting Jean in the head as a punishment for not going along with the flow

take down Floch please!!!! ..

FINAL WORDS. WHO DID IT BETTER? 1,479 responses

With 43% of the vote, Onyankopon’s... several... words? beat out Yelena’s strong and (mostly) silent type response (which got 33.1% of the vote, by the way) at their “execution''. 23.9% of respondents said “Both”, and while technically “both” couldn’t have done it “better”, I’ll let it slide, because they were both pretty cool, and semantics don’t matter.

Best boy was Onyankopon. We only used to get glimpses of him and finally he has rebelled, showing that he has more guts than some of our main characters.

JEAN AND HANGE’S PLAN TO ESCAPE SHIGANSHINA HAPPENED OFFSCREEN. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? 1,473 responses

Three-fourths of the fandom expressed some disapproval of how the offscreen planning of the escape from Shinganshina went down calling it sloppy(18.1%) and confusing (13.9%). Of those, the majority (39%) will be ok with it if a future chapter provides more details. Only a quarter of the fandom completely loved the handling of this.

Even if flashbacks fill the gaps later, they won't make 126 a better chapter.

How did they even communicate? I thought it was all planned between Jean and Mikasa

on the page with the titans marching at night, you can see a figure standing outside jean's window. could be hange coming to discuss plans

I liked it, but I think I like it even more if it's explained in the next chapter(s).

I think he did it that way to add surprise. I feel like lately he has been in general illustrating with a more cinematic eye and by writing the scene this way it will play better in visual media. Lately I feel like he has been thinking this way, it’s been a trend for a while now.

This is why you shouldn't cram up 3 chapters worth of content into one. I don't care if Isayama has to end his volume on some goddamn awful page. You don't mess with certain parts of the narrative.

It was fine, it wasn't necessarily a scene that needed to be included so I'm fine with it.

WHO WAS THE PERSON IN THE WINDOW? 1,456 responses

Who was the person in the window? Was Chapter 116 the last time we’ll ever see Eren transform into his Attack Titan? How to turn into a titan without alerting the military police??? When will I stop asking questions? Right now!

Just under two-thirds of the votes for this question went to Shadis. Following Shadis at a clean 10% is Zeke, trailed by Zombie Erwin at 9.6%. Given the theories about Eren’s body at the end of 117 being a Warhammer clone, I never thought I’d see the day when Zombie Erwin beats Eren in a “who is the mysterious character who is not inside Eren’s Titan” question, but here we are!

CHADIS

Keith Lurkdis

Erwin never died! What even is that option 'zombie Erwin'???

Farmer-kun

Idk but whomever it is I hope they're a good guy.

Male adult figure... Must be my man Shadis. There's no way Zeke would wear so many clothes.

Ugh I have no idea. I’m not going to pretend I can predict anything anymore.

2Pac

WHY DO YOU THINK MAGATH DEMANDED THEY CAPTURE YELENA? 1,465 responses

Why did Magath bring Yelena back with Jean and Onomatopoeia? ~20% of you thought it was because she’s need for a plan involving Zeke, ~17% think he wants the details of Zeke’s plan from her, just over 14% said he wants information about Eren, 4.4% of you think he wants her as a prisoner, and the overwhelming majority, at 44.6%, think it’s all of the above.

My theory is that Yelena is Magath's daughter

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE FINAL PANEL? 1,478 responses

Another close one. If we disregard those who selected “Avengers Assemble”, which even though we added it I have no idea if it’s meant “Hell yes, can’t wait to see the Hulk and Black Widow together again” or “Please let Tony Stark’s legacy RIP.”, The “I didn’t like it” beat out the “I liked it” by 0.3%. However you look at the data, it’s astonishing that essentially one-third of the fandom did not like this ending.

*sigh*

Get in loser, we're going to save the world

A nice cringe to start my day with :)

The old gangs back together but with ADDITIONAL TRAUMA

I think it was supposed to be satirical. A lot of us expected that the warriors and the 104th would unite again so I think Isayama made it as cliché as possible to 1)offer the readers some comic relief, 2)maybe mock his own plot and show that he's aware that this alliance is kind of cliché.

At what point did Annie and Reiner deserve to be forgiven and taken in by the SC? And why do they think they actually can (or even should) stop the Rumbling?

Marvel copied the last panel

It is a reference to Reiner’s long time ambition, and an indication to his next role. Helos perhap. But I don't think isayama would let him save the world happily. Maybe he will save the world in an ironic and tragic way.

Brilliant !!! Finally it's Connie's turn to shine.

Can't wait to see this optimism crushed. Great moment, though.

I don't understand why people think it's such a cheap cheesy ploy when it's honestly kinda obvious that they're being set up for a fall. Optimism almost always meets at the very least a bittersweet reality in this story.

It's cheesy, but people don't consider it's Connie who's saying this who is an idiot

REGARDING THE LAST PANEL, DO YOU THINK THEY HAVE A PLAN? 1,475 responses

Nearly 70% of you believe that Final Panel Gang have a plan, while just over 30% think they’re just gonna wing it. Get it? “Wing it”?

For more serious commentary, we’re normally used to seeing “Yes/No” questions a little more perfectly split, especially the ones that involve Eren. It’s interesting to see a more unified response, even if it means that SOMEBODY on Reddit is going to say “Nice.” about the Yes vote.

Isayama will probably do a flashback of the plan, he likes doing this sort of thing lol. It was fine.

It's fine IF the planning is shown in the following chapters, but if not then it'll feel like Isayama couldn't come up with solutions and did everything off screen just because of that.

Telling the plan to the reader only works, if the plan fails.

I feel like the pacing of the chapter was this fast so that Isayama could end with the "Avengers Assemble" scene as the big volume cliffhanger for the next one, so he tried to get through the events quickly to give it that poetic ending. In that case, it's possible Isayama might show how some of these events unfolded in the next chapter or two; he usually does that kind of thing when showing big events for the first time. If the next chapter fleshes some of the scenes from this chapter more like showing Jean discussing the Avengers' plan with Mikasa and Armin, I think that could make this chapter better when we look back on it.

WOULD YOU RATHER THIS CHAPTER HAVE BEEN SPLIT INTO TWO? 1,468 responses

Remember what I said about being accustomed to more split votes? Well, 39.5% of you said that you would prefer this chapter have been split into two, citing a lack of development, while 39.2% of you said that you’re glad Isayama is, *ahem*, moving forward with the plot. The near-perfect divisions breaks off a little bit when we consider that another ~12% said no, blaming the plots themselves for the problems with chapter, and 6% effectively voting yes, saying that the chapter should’ve been split into three.

Ask me again in a few months when we see how the whole plot wraps up and if Isayama adds any additional details via flashback.

Honestly all of these plot points could have been arcs within themselves and i wish it had been given enough time to become that

I like that the plot is progressing but i don't like the subplots being rushed

I'm happy it's going forward and not dragging on, but I would've loved more of an interaction between the scouts and annie/reiner.

One and a half

𝜋

There are various holes (lack of reaction during Annie's appearance, poor coherency of when Eren managed to speak with many people) but Isayama is giving us cool alliances, so it's half okay.

IF YOU COULD DROP A SUBPLOT, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE? 1,463 responses

A fairly close call here, with the trip to Ragako Village being out in front with 42.6 percent of you claiming this is the subplot you would drop; Louise and Mikasa’s plot about the scarf is close behind on 36.2 percent. Perhaps readers feel the time for small subplots is done, since there’s so much still to do with the main plot we do not understand? A lot of responses indicated Mikasa’s perceived ‘cruelty’ (you’re all wrong, just so you know!) towards Louise, so perhaps this is indicative of why so many people would choose this event to be the subplot to drop.

Mikasa is just dead inside atm, but i feel bad for Louise

Mikasa knew Louise wanted that scarf, but she knew she needed it more. Plus I can barely remember Louise lol

Mikasa's behavior isn't good, but it's understandable---there are numerous mentally taxing events occurring.

Ragako stuff kinda sucked.

Goddamnit, this chapter was smelly poo. Not only we spent 3 months for nothing with that stupid Ragako plot and now everybody is holding hands just like that. If you're bringing an alliance you're not gonna make it happen offscreen with no detail whatsoever?

Ah and the Ragako subplot missed addressing the serumbowl as well: all we got is Armin whining about not being like Erwin and that's it. No Bert, no Ymir being addressed.

IF YOU COULD HAVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ONE SUBPLOT IN THIS CHAPTER, WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE? 1,466 responses

Another close one! “The Armin and Annie reunion” is the subplot the majority wished for more information about with nearly 30% selecting it. “The conversation with Hange and Magath” was second (25.2%) and “Escape from Shiganshina” (17.7%) was third.

I was just expecting Levi, Hange and the corps interaction would be more surprising. The same goes for Annie and Armin's convo.

The mikasa scarf submit definitely could’ve happened in another chapter. This was too rushed and I really hope no other chapters feel this way. This chapter should’ve just been the Tagalog subplot, and then Annie and armin reunion. Then another chapter with hange/levi, Jean/flock and how they all came together to join forces.

It's so obvious this mad lad Isayama wanted to break the tension from the Armin / Annie reunion scene. We never know where he's going to trick us, do we ?

I do think that many things were kind of glossed over to save time. I'd prefer that things slow down a bit, just so we can soak up all that context. For example, the conversation between Hange and Magath, Annie and Armin's reunion and others.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HOW EASILY THE ALLIANCES WERE FORMED? 1,474 responses

A mere 17.5% enjoyed how easily the alliances were formed. The majority (43%) called it “OK” while a more than a third of the fandom (36.2%) hated it. Some folks seem to indicate it was expected and just needed to happen quickly so the story could move along. However, the amount of people who hated it was too large to ignore; and largely for similar reasons, that it appeared too easy. Maybe the mistrust and emotion will come as the story moves along? Some of your responses indicate trouble ahead, if not behind.

Also Hanji sides too many times with "benefactors". I'm expecting the alliance to be shaky, with probably backstabbings and double-crossings. They seemed to make an agreement over killing Zeke (since no side likes him), and I doubt characters like Mikasa, Armin or Jean would be ok with killing Eren.

I don't get all the madness over the alliance, It was obvious it would happen. Also it's obvious all the things glossed this chapter will be shown in Flashback if important, like what lead Annie join them, on how Hanji contacted Jean (although i think a lot of people didn't notice the shadow in the window on that panel of Jean in the bed).

It was warm and fuzzy and I really needed that, but the actual details of the new alliance will absolutely need to be expounded upon soon.

it wouldve been better if connie's mom plot didn't exist we could've got a better build up to the alliance

Overall, things were way too rushed, as if Isayama just wanted to get to the last page. I'm expecting to see how this alliance was made in flashback form, as is typical for Isayama, but that won't fix the inherent issues of this specific chapter.

Hange getting so along with Pieck, who fought against them when Erwin was killed, was a complete joke.

I don't get all the madness over the alliance, It's was obvious it would happen. Also it's obvious all the things glossed this chapter will be shown in Flashback if important, like what lead Annie join them, on how Hanji contacted Jean (although i think a lot of people didn't noticed the shadow in the window on that panel of Jean in the bed).

I love seeing them all but oh heckin it was just a little too fast

WHICH THROWBACK DID YOU ENJOY MOST CHAPTER? 1,465 responses

“Jean remembering Marco” (31.9%) narrowly edged out “Annie kicking Reiner”(30.3%) as our favorite throwback. Levi remembering his promise was a distant third (16.2%).

That Marco’s throwback really hit me . *SOB*

I didn't like the Erwin reference when Armin tried to sacrafice himself for connies mother, instead of falco being eaten.

Armin recognized a very important thing to himself (he can't stay trying to Erwin, he suck on that, he needs to do what he is good on it, but as his own person and not shadow of Erwin)

Where was Jean at the end there? I want him to confront Annie over Marco. Poor guy had the worst death in the series. He was murder in cold blood and then it got covered up. Plus, the only person trying to solve the mystery is Jean. Bless Jean he is such a good friend

It makes sense that Connie would say that to Reiner of all people (that line come back to his childhood trauma). Fandom freaking out and fearing a cheesy happy ending is ridiculous.

I didn’t think it was cheesy at all. It circles back to Reiner’s declaration to Keith back during the training arc.

I'm kinda sick of Reiner's Kick The Dog treatment too. I know Annie hates him but still...

REGARDING HOW THE AVENGER'S MISSION AND THE ENDING WILL GO, WHICH OF THESE IS PREFERABLE/ACCEPTABLE TO YOU? 1,465 responses

Fans proving as ever, that they are a divisive bunch! However, it's clear that the smallest amount of responses favour the rumbling being stopped and world peace occuring (hippies!). Some responses indicate that this chapter made them nervous for the ending being overly optimistic, even with Eren as the apparent antagonist. Endings where Eren achieves an extreme form of Brexit (Paradexit?) with a victory over the armies of the world have a fairly even spread of positive responses, proving that he still has a lot of fans on his side. However, most of you responded in the vague sense of feeling like Isayama knows best and at this point, just seeing where this wild ride takes us.

I keep seeing this popular prediction on almost every platform: Eren destroys the world outside Paradise, goes back to Historia and her newborn kid (in this sort of prediction it is always assumed that he's the father), tells his kid (who is also thought to be reborn Ymir) "you're free" and goes on to be a good dad - End of story. Honestly the thought of this type of ending pisses me off so much. Not only because its reeks of typical shonen ending, but because it goes against all the themes and ideas that Isayama has written into the story over the years.

I would not be upset with a 'golden' ending. Some part of me wants that to happen.

It setup the shonen cliche route and can ruin the ending

It was very unusual for this manga. I hope that the author will come to the most logical ending and will not use the power of friendship.

Least exciting chapter I can remember; it has me apprehensive about the ending.

I hope Eren's conclusion will end with him winning, however I do not him accepting his morality and to be shocked at what he's done but to come to terms with what he's done.

While I'm more supportive of Eren, I'm fine with whichever side comes out on top of this as long as it doesn't involve Eren being stopped through Power of Friendship or Talk no Jutsu. That would feel too cheap.

WHICH RALLYING CRY DID YOU PREFER? 1,445 responses

While the Ragako subplot wasn’t exactly loved, Connie’s rallying cry was the fandom favorite (28.4%). Hange’s plea to Magath was a close second (26%) while Floch’s message of freedom was third (25%).

AT THIS POINT, AROUND WHICH CHAPTER DO YOU EXPECT THE MANGA WILL CONCLUDE? 1,472 responses

The pacing of this chapter and the way its implications relate to the entire manga was, if I may be so bold, one of the more talked about meta points this month, from what I’ve seen. Maybe that was the thought process behind this question. I don’t know. I didn’t write this one either. That’s a good thought process though.

Anyway, a borderline overwhelming majority of you said that the manga will end around Chapter 134 (48.4% of you). The next most common answer was Chapter 138, which would give us 12 more chapters. Chapter 130 got the least amount of votes, at 7.3%. The remaining votes went to Chapter 142+, and I appreciate that optimism, because I for one hate thinking about this question.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST HOPING TO SEE NEXT CHAPTER? 1,475 responses

“Historia when?” (26%) tops the list followed by the long awaited Eren POV (23.5%). “Details on things glossed over this chapter” was the third pick (22.7%) followed by “Zeke, Eren and OG Ymir” (11.6%).

I can't wait to see Zeke's reaction at seeing Levi AGAIN ready to fuck him up.

Historia when?? Also, Hange needs a hug, Levi needs sleep, Armin and Annie need to talk, Falco needs to deal with his brother's death some more, and we all need Erwin to come back :(

I hope we get flashbacks to explain all this off screen development.

Isayama please for the love of god remember that Historia exists.

Where is HISTORIA

where is zeke?

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 1,401 responses

Reddit continues to dominate this question, pulling 44.9% of the vote. “I don’t” actually takes second place this month, with Tumblr coming next, followed very closely by Twitter, which is in turn followed closely by Discord. In descending order from there, we have real life, 4chan, Youtube, a two-way tie between Instagram and Facebook, and everything else has less than 10 votes.

Before I move on though, it’s absolutely critical that I draw your attention to last month’s poll. Last month, I said, and I quote,

“Lastly, something ominous is going on in the Snapchat cult, because there were only two of you this month, down from five last month. That’s still enough to reproduce though and it makes me uneasy.“

“Why are you bringing that up?” you may be asking yourself. I’m bringing it up because Snapchat got SIX votes this time. “Why does that matter?” you ask yourself next. I’m glad you asked. That’s a 300% increase. If that rate continues, in just five month’s time, there will be more members of the Snapchat cult than the rest of you COMBINED.

That’s not to say anything more than it says, but I should add that I was totally vindicated on the Snapchat cult reproduction theory. Having done the math, you guys DEFINITELY scare me more than the people who liked “Pieck Finger”.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE CHAPTER? 375 responses

Remember kids, the world is currently supposed to be ending

I know most people hated how rushed it felt, but honestly, I'm glad this wasn't split into 2 months. This leaves more time for the conclusion, and would much rather the alliances be rushed rather than the ending.

While it's certainly sad that Louise may not be long for this world, I also don't think Mikasa owes her anything. Mikasa seems to see a lot of traits she dislikes about herself cranked up to 11 in Louise, and I think it's understandable to need to distance oneself from toxic ideas or people. Mikasa and Louise were never friends, they never really knew each other, and never really cared about each other. Sure, Louise idolized an idea of Mikasa, but she put herself as separate from the real Mikasa, lesser. These two strangers never had a real chance to truly know each other, and that's okay, sad but okay.

While the panel of Annie with a face stuffed with pie is a gem, I think it seemed almost too good a coincidence. Both parties (Armin, Connie and the kids and Hitch & Annie) happen to be taking a break from their travels at the same time in the same city at the same festival. Seemed a bit too lucky.

Isayama has a bias against the yeagerists too. Portraying them as mindless dumbasses that are evil for no reason. Look at Floch everytime he has a moment it gets cut short for a "oh look at this dumbass" type of conclusion like him missing the shot at Shadis and getting duped by Jean and the 104th.

my dumb shipper’s heart wants Pieck’s reaction to Porco’s death.

this chapter felt too 'super hero movie' to me, in the sense that it was way too optimistic and cheesy, nothing like the Attack on Titan I know and love. Isayama's been watching too much Marvel.

A rushed chapter, Isayama may have messed up some timelines (e.g. Louise's talk with Eren, the changes in day and night), maybe Isayama was too focused on SAUNA SAUNA SAUNA when he was drawing the chapter but anyway, if the chapter was rushed because he wants to move to next plots (eee....east...eeeek...Ki....), I'm fine with it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Chapter Would've been terrific if it weren't for the rushed forced alliance. Mikasa's character also seemed out of place this chapter.

is not a bad chapter but at the same time is not a godly chapter like others but i have faith on isayama that he will blow our minds

Felt very disappointed and it is as if this story is moving to black and white territory again.

Good fast development, optimistic that what was glossed over will be addressed. A bit antsy that this is a setup for some tragedy but I don’t expect total senseless ruin for the characters.

I don't really see where all the complaints are coming from, to me the chapter must be one of my all time favorites ever since I've started reading the manga at the regular monthly pace. I think the build up and the tension have been steadily increasing slowly enough up to this point, and now we've finally reached the top of the roller coaster tracks, and it's time for the ride to the conclusion. I loved the mysterious plan, it reminds me of the uprising arc (ah the good old times).

I hope the author just got a bit lost and had to put things back on track quickly. I want to feel for these characters, not find out that I followed their struggles for chapters to see them dissolve for the sake of the plot.

Eren has suffered a lot over the years and a lot of things have been TAKEN from him - but do you remember "In order to achieve something, you have to give up something important"? I don't think Eren has ever GIVEN up something of his. He's always been a little maniac intent on killing the enemy (which is what he is doing right now). There have been so many characters in the story that have given up their dreams and finally their lives, why is Eren the one that gets to have his cake and eat it too?

I love it cause we need some time of just relax and be happy before the sad ending

I’m hoping the next chapter will make this one better by fleshing things out. Also seeing Annie and Reiner reunite made me deeply miss Bertolt this month.

JE VEUX PAS QUE CE MANGA FINISSE OMG

Reiner getting kicked in the face to wake up and understanding nothing is all of us

The more things don't seem to add up, the more you have to pay attention, that's what I learnt reading this series. And a whole lot didn't seem to add up in this chapter so I'm super hyped!

This is easily one of the weakest chapters Isayama has ever written. After creating all of these subplots that we were expecting to go somewhere and hold emotional weight for the characters were written off into cheap one-liners, off screen reactions and discussion, and just overall completely weak subplots that left us with no emotional payoff.

Boii I'm glad the development on the characters matters only when its relevant to the plot, I almost forget that I used to like them. If Reiner of all people doesn't point out how creepy and disgusting it all is I don't know what to say, what a waste of time of a series.

Connie mentioning Sasha made me cry! Actually makes me wish Eren pulls some time travel shit so that we can have our girl back.

Can I just say I find it funny, and I really love Pieck regardless, it is just a last name after all.

Good, but the former-enemy to friendly-pie-eating turnover rate was wayyyyy too fast!

I thought this chapter was it for Connie, who has been one of my favorites since the beginning. It was a bit sudden but I'm glad him not feeding Falco to his mom is Canon AND that it strengthened his bond with Armin.

It feels like none of the Jeagerists really see clearly what the situation is, or at least don't have an ounce of understanding or sympathy why everyone else is scared and freaked out by what has happened. That in turn makes it harder for non-Jeagerists to act with sympathy, what a vicious cycle.

What bothers me the most is not the way Mikasa interacted with Louise, but the fact that she wanted the scarf back. On a symbolic level, she left it behind a few chapters ago, which meant that she no longer put Eren first and started thinking about herself. She recognized that her bond with Eren was severed. So why take that scarf back now, when it's not supposed to have that much importance anymore?

I can see either the next chapter or the one after showing a flashback of Jean, Armin, and Mikasa discussing that plan. Cutting some parts of a scene and showing it in the following chapter or two is usually an Isayama thing to do.

I don't know why everyone's expecting every single piece of exposition to be laid out for them like meeting minutes. This isn't the first time we've understood what's been going on behind the scenes after the fact.

At the start Connie struggles to hold his emotions, and suddenly he's a hero, cheesy and cliche

Excuse me but can we stop making Gabi involved in everything? Shes so OP at this point

I loved the mockery of the cliche superhero assemble bullshit

STARDUST CRUSADERS

The cringe made me develop a permanent seizure. Also both my eyeballs are still stuck in the back of my head because of the excessive force I used trying to roll my eyes.

The team-up should have been given more time to develop. It wasn’t all bad though.

X-Men on their way to stop Magneto (Eren)

The problem does not lie so much in the pace as in the script tension, which Isayama killed a little in this chapter but intentionally I think. I mean the guys are literally sleeping and eating like it was a party during the freaking end of the world, do you really think he would have let such a thing slip out of clumsiness?

I'm pretty sure that Levi will have the role of "Helos", and Hange his 'Tybur' collaborator, because she's holding a hammer like the guy/girl next to Helos during the play (ch99).

Not the usual quality.

8/10. I liked annie's reunion the best, but wish that hitch had more characterization and wasn't written out so quickly. Ragako subplot was fine but predictable. Louise subplot kinda boring. Avengers assemble at the end was very anime and I liked it.

A peaceful chapter before the storm

A thought: What if Ackermans are the only ones able to actually kill off the Nine Titans? We know they’re byproducts of titan science, maybe they were created to annihilate them? That’d be devastating to see Levi or Mikasa kill Eren and Armin. I’d love it. 😂

Annie is the best girl

Anyone pretending this chapter wasn't utter shit is in hardcore denial.

Did not like the assemble. Nobody can forget what happened in the recent past of Paradis and what the warriors did. But have hope in Isayama

Do Gabi and Falco know that Armin is the Collosal Titan? I thought Connie might let that slip to them and it might create tension between Gabi and Armin but.... No. Everything about that subplot was insanely rushed, there were a lot of ways it could have played out.

Aforementioned last page quote that is so unlike SnK up to this point. Cringey and straight out of an Avengers movie, I can't believe there are people who actually like this development.

I hope Isayama isn't overworking and rushing himself to finish the manga just for the sake of finishing it this year, but I still believe he will finish SnK in a satisfactory manner that will be memorable for decades. However, this chapter as well as 125 were very disappointing and lowered my expectations considering how good the entire final arc had been up to this point.

Errrwiiiiiiiinnnn!!!!!

game of thrones level of trash, i hope for god that the aot ending isn't as bad as final season game of thrones

I didn’t like the Ragako subplot, but I did like Connie saving Armin and their heart-to/heart afterwards.

I don’t think the chapter was rushed. Glad to see Armin finally doing SOMETHING, and I hope it was more a gamble than him wanting to die. Hange’s monologue was so out of character, everyone knows Hange would never want to live in the woods, yet it looks like Hange always gets discouraged and needs encouragement from somebody else. Seriously, that’s not the Hange we all know. Where’s the ‘defeat is all the Survey Corps ever knew, let’s kick asses!!’ Hange?? that interaction with Pieck brought some of it back thankfully

I don’t understand why everyone is complaining lol

I enjoyed how quickly it moved. We’ve been down in the doldrums since December, so I’m glad to see the characters & the pace picking back up again.

I hate how quickly Hanji becomes depressed. Armin, Jean - they overcame their doubts by themselves. Yet Hanji always needs someone else to tell them to stop being ridiculous. It’s like Levi is babysitting Hanji :/ I miss good, old, badass Hanji

I miss hitch already

I noticed that the way Floch gesticulates during his speech was very reminiscent of how Hitler gave his speeches

I really like Hanji and Levi’s friendship and how Levi always knows what to say to encourage his friends but can we please stop with Hanji being so emotionally weak? I love Hanji, but c’mon- Levi was seriously injured and still needs to treat Hanji like she’s a wounded kid. Jean came to his senses on his own, same for Armin and Mikasa. All they needed was to remember people who died, did Hanji not lose enough comrades to find her strength from? Hanji is one of two veterans left and the commander(!), it really hurts to see her so pathetic, that was hard to read. Glad she looks more like old Hanji at the end of the chapter

I wanted more Annie and Hitch adventures and feel deprived.

i wish there was more to the reunion of Annie & co, but whatever, let’s just move on with this plot.

I'm in the minority here, but I actually liked the chapter. Sure the pacing was a bit off, but this may be because we're getting a detailed explanation for it in an upcoming chapter. Other than that I find it somewhat amusing that so many people that a team-up wasn't happening. Like there was so much goddamned FORESHADOWING about it. Plus the fact that Isayama basically flat-out admitted that he was going to create a team-up a-la Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm not expecting roses and fluffiness at the end of the road, I see a lot of people dying. And I still don't know who's gonna be the victor at the end. It just seemed really clear to me where these character arcs were/are heading. I still have faith in Yams. He hasn't disappointed me yet, so let's just see what he has in store for us.

It feels like Isayama is rushing to finish it off just like Kishimoto did with Naruto Shippuuden and that makes me very sad. I'm worried he'll destroy everything he did until now.

It felt incredibly unrealistic. What I have appreciated most about SnK is its narrative integrity and ability to produce results proportional to the protagonists' abilities. Currently, this feels rather forced. When did they come up with these plans? How could they possibly have alerted Jean ahead of time without anything being shown? It feels like a cheat. Also, I don't like that its just them going after Eren. Realistically, in SnK, a small group of characters, even with their level of power, shouldn't consider going after him how they have. If anything they need to face reality and prepare for the world to come after the rumbling, since if I think anybody in their position would think it is utterly impossible to stop it.

It was warm and fuzzy and I really needed that, but the actual details of the new alliance will absolutely need to be expounded upon soon.

It was...fine.

It wasn’t so bad, the hate is really annoying.

It's clear SNK is ending soon so before we see Eren and what else is going on with the rumbling Hisayama wants to close plots with other characters BUT IMO the price of this is giving us less hyped chapters since the walls broke and we still have to see the new Eren titan form…

Just to clarify, "Which throwback did you enjoy most chapter" is intended to be an English sentence, yes? Quality work here as usual, tumblr/reddit big-shots. I hope no one lets you guys near an actual workplace where what you do matters. (A/N: Well you didn't capitalise Tumblr or Reddit so who is the real villain here?)

Let Levi kill that ape. Please. He’s gone through so much and lost everything. Give him just this one little thing

Let's say we generally agreed that this chapter is bad.

Not nearly as bad as people say it was like Jesus heck calm down. I mostly feel bad for isayama tbh he’s probably being pressured to wrap it up and he’s not usually one to not give moments like this chapter proper time.

It's hard to say why Isayama decided to wrap up things fairly quickly, whether he has later flashbacks planned or whether he was overwhelmed with time pressure/suffered a writer's block of whatever. I think, in the end, if the rest of the story wraps up strong, it doesn't matter much.

I'm happy with what happened in this chapter, except the fact that it was rushed and Levi's plot armor, I mean Ackermann blood. He should have lost at least a leg...

The only solace I take in all of this is that the plot can finally move forward. This has been an entire volume of seemingly pointless side quests and I'm ready to focus again on the main story. Frankly, I'm exhausted. I just want answers and I want to know how the story finds resolution.

We had several excellent chapters recently, a subpar one is understandable. Hopefully the Anime will expand on it a bit

#snk poll #snk polls #snk 126 #snk chapter 126 #snk poll results

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hamliet · 5 years

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The World is Cruel, Beautiful, and Chiastic

Or, because I see people talking about this and I wrote this during Tokyo Ghoul:re’s final arc (which ended up being accurate), I wanted to be a nerd and outline just what Shingeki no Kyojin’s chiastic structure is.

A chiastic structure is a narrative structure used for millennia in storytelling. It refers to a paralleling structure, wherein events or motifs parallel other events and motifs. If you chart it out, it forms a chiasm or a ring (depending on if you feel like charting a triangle or a circle. (It’s also referred to as ring structure if you go with the latter; hence “come full circle.”)

Chiastic structure has been used for ancient epics (the Iliad and Odyssey, Paradise Lost), religious texts (many narrative books of the Bible, including Ruth, Jonah, Samuel, Genesis, and the Synoptic Gospels use it), and modern classics in both literature and cinema like Harry Potter and Star Wars employ it. In anime/manga, Tokyo Ghoul used it, and Bungou Stray Dogs strongly appears to be using it (but it’s harder to say definitively or to chart it out because we seem to be in upwards end of the middle arc right about now).

So, what’s SnK’s chiastic structure?

A) Fall of Shiganshina: The World is Cruel (and beautiful)

B) Training Corps (yes, it belongs here): Cruelty to Children

A) Trost: Cruel Loss, Beautiful Hope

C) Female Titan: Cruel End to Friendship

ABC) Clash of the Titans: The World is Cruel and Beautiful

C) Uprising Arc: Beautiful Beginning to Friendship

A) Return to Shiganshina: Cruel Loss, Beautiful Hope

B) Marlay: Cruelty to Children

A) Final Arc: The World is Beautiful (and cruel)

Of note, this is not me saying that none of the other arcs parallel each other--they clearly do. This is just a look at the chiastic structure in particular.

A note about the AB pattern. Arcs that have A all have common elements even if they most directly parallel the arc they line up with. The central chiasm contains elements of all three.

Fall of Shiganshina Arc: The World is Cruel (and also beautiful)

I’m not sure I need to say much here lol. The story’s opening chapters are renowned for their horror and display of cruelty. Yet we see beauty too in the Jaeger family having taken in Mikasa, in Eren defending Armin from bullies.

And we see it in how Hannes saves Eren and Mikasa.

And there’s more cruelty in the vow Eren makes, which, of course, he’s now bringing to fruition:

The Training Corps Arc: Cruelty to Children

Yes, this one belongs here. I know that it technically occurs post-Trost in the manga, but it’s the only flashback arc in the entire story, and I think we’d all agree that pacing-wise it’s... not well placed post-Trost. The anime did a good by moving it to immediately follow the intro arc.

Basically, the main theme here is that innocent kids lose innocence. From the humorous to the cruel, we see it. The kids shouldn’t be joining the military; it’s awful that they are.

It introduces Sasha:

And makes sure to show us them just being kids:

Additionally, it shows us the determination Eren has to work hard and be the one to destroy the titans:

Eren’s determination leads to his success in his training, but as we’ll later see, his obsession is destroying him.

Trost Arc: Cruel Loss, Beautiful Hope

Or, the arc that contains one of my favorite moments, but also almost led to me stopping watching SnK when I first got into it.

The arc begins with our first rematch: humanity vs. the titans, round two. (Thus, it parallels the Fall of Shiganshina).

So let’s discuss that favorite moment of mine: when the 104th teams up to defeat the titans. Even Annie, who is later revealed to be an enemy, saves Connie.

Trost, of course, contains the first big “WTF” plot twist of the story: when Eren is “reborn” out of the belly of a titan. When a character is in an enclosed space in literature, especially one with liquid, viscera, and blood, it’s probably a symbolic rebirthing scene. From, at that point, Eren’s lowest moment of defeat, Eren realizes he has the powers to change things.

But Eren is not the only one who comes to an important realization this arc. Like the Fall of Shiganshina, Return to Shiganshina, and the final arc, there is EMA focus. Mikasa makes a decision to live on despite loss:

And Armin receives affirmation of his self-worth and realizes that even if fighting isn’t his skill, strategizing is just as valuable:

This arc also contains Marco’s death, marking the first time the 104th have to cope with the loss of one of their own.

The arc’s final fight is concluded with Levi Heichou shows up to save the day.

And, of course, the concept of blocking the hole in the wall is first brought up (this time with a boulder), and the military needs to make a choice about whether to use Eren or exterminate him; Armin is able to convince them to trust Eren.

The Female Titan Arc: A Cruel End to a Friendship

The arc contains a notable moment of Eren deciding to trust his colleagues--Levi’s squad--only to lose them all.

Additionally, Eren’s relationship with Annie ends poorly (obviously. Should Annie be in the paths right now, as she likely is, I don’t think she’ll respond well to Eren either and is more likely to help take him down). Like Eren taught Mikasa to fight and to live, Annie taught Eren how to fight as her father taught her.

What’s notable about this is that Annie’s relationship with her father is cruel and beautiful--he clearly wanted nothing more than for Annie to survive and he’s still waiting for her. Annie embodies this dichotomy as well: Armin notes that she is exceptionally kind, yet the world doesn’t give her a choice. She is so kind that she spares Armin and goes along with his plan to capture her despite knowing it is a trap, because she does not want to hurt friends, because she wants to be a good person. Annie wears a cold mask, but she is truly kind.

The Female Titan Arc concludes when Eren accepts the monstrous part of himself, using everything he has to fight Annie. It’s not a coincidence that the arc ends with Annie ripping off part of the wall, revealing the titans within. This symbolizes that the structures that ostensibly were erected to protect society are built around the monstrous, and thus sets up the Uprising Arc.

Clash of the Titans Arc: The World is Cruel and Also Beautiful

My favorite arc.

It contains several important elements: it’s where Ymir hints at the true enemy of the story, and it’s where we start to see that the Survey Corps might be capable of cruelty as well.

Erwin sacrifices his arm, foreshadowing his later sacrifice of his life, Ymir and Historia assure each other of their love (almost like love, connection, and humanity are braided themes)...

It’s also where Eren is revealed as the Coordinate, and where the central relationship of the story as @linkspooky writes (and theorizes) about here develops in a moment that is truly beautiful and cruel. Mikasa declares her love for Eren, but Eren pulls away because he needs to fight titans to keep living.

It also foreshadows and acts as an inverse to Eren’s tragic current choice: he chose to fight instead of to accept love, but he had little choice then and was acting heroically. He had choices now.

Additionally of note, since this arc is the central chiasm of the story, it contains elements from both the A and B parallels. Such as, for example, Sasha receiving development and the focus on the suffering of children, from Sasha saving Kaya (beauty) to Nanaba and the others dying to protect the 104th:

Also, the Hannes storyline reaches its conclusion with Hannes’ death, proving for once and for all that Hannes is no coward:

The death of Hannes is symbolic of the EMA trio moving from a child stage to an adolescent stage in their metaphorical development. It parallels Carla’s death, and Levi’s (the final mentor figure for EMA) current near-death experience (I don’t think Levi needs to die nor do I think he will at this point, because he seems to have survived the parallel incident).

The Uprising Arc: A Beautiful Beginning to a Friendship

There are quite a few parallels here with the Female Titan Arc. We have two parallels with Annie’s complex relationship with her father: Historia and Levi (with Kenny for Levi). Like with Annie’s father, Kenny is not a great father figure, but he did want Levi to survive and gives him a life-saving tool right before he dies (the titan serum). Historia has the direct opposite relationship with her father as Annie: Annie’s father loves her but treats her harshly to teach her to protect herself; Historia’s father appears to treat her kindly, claiming he’s always wanted a relationship with her, but he actually does not care about her at all.

Historia and Eren’s relationship also foils Annie and Eren’s: if Annie and Eren’s relationship leads to Eren accepting the monstrous/titan part of himself, Historia and Eren’s relationship leads to Eren accepting the weak, unspecial part of himself.

Additionally, this arc focuses on the new Squad Levi, replacing Petra, Oruo, and the others--and this time, Squad Levi really does come in clutch, saving Eren and Historia. These scenes are deliberately paralleled--as in, there is a literal flashback in the Uprising Arc to Eren having to make a decision re: Squad Levi. When Eren acts on his own instincts this time, he saves them.

Return to Shiganshina: Cruel Loss, Beautiful Hope

Like the Trost Arc, it contains a rematch between humanity and their enemies; this time, however, it is not mindless titans who are the real enemies, but Bertolt and Reiner (and Zeke), demonstrating how personal this fight has been (going from a journey of strange monsters-->friends-->your own internal heart in the current arc). It also, on a more basic level, contains the goal of plugging up a hole in the wall, this time with Eren’s hardened shell.

It also contains the 104th teaming up to take down an enemy. Only, this time, instead of Annie and Mikasa dealing the killing blows to titans about to kill Sasha and Connie, they are teaming up to kill Reiner, a former friend.

Like in Trost, when Eren was “reborn” out of the belly of a titan, Eren experiences a moment of awakening here. He realizes he is not the hero of this story: Armin is.

And likewise, Mikasa makes a decision to accept loss and live on.

And Armin receives affirmation of his self-worth and his strategizing doesn’t just save Eren this time, but potentially humanity:

This arc also contains the flashback to Marco’s death and, of course, Bertolt’s death, which heavily, heavily parallels Marco’s. Like with Marco, Bertolt’s once-friends are watching and weeping, but they choose not to help him for the sake of their mission (again: you become the monster; this is however NOT a commentary on the morality of such decisions, but instead is an observation. Bertolt’s death, even if you choose not to blame the Survey Corps, is horrific and agonizing and cruel).

And of course, guess who saves the day and determines the future of the story? Levi Heichou. However, again, in keeping with the motif of conflicts getting more personal, Levi does not have to kill a monster titan (in fact, he fails to kill Zeke, though he does take him down). Instead, he has to choose to let his best friend die. Like in Trost, where the military needed to make a choice about whether to listen to Eren, Levi chooses to save Armin (though not because of Eren’s please necessarily, but because of his own care for Erwin).

The battle of Shiganshina, like how the Battle of Trost ends with Eren emerging as humanity’s hope, ends with a revelation to change the story forever. Humanity is not extinct.

The Marlay Arc:: Cruelty to Children 2.0

Innocent kids lose innocent in both the past and present in this arc. The arc sets up copious Reiner and Eren parallels, showing how they both worked hard in training to become heroes.

Additionally, we see that being perpetuated to the next generation in Gabi and Falco, Zophia and Udo. They are just children, but they are killed horrifically and fight in wars as part of their training (it’s even worse than the Paradis military):

Like all other B parallel arcs, it also contains focus for Sasha. She chooses not to kill a child, providing a beautiful counter from the cruelty of Eren’s actions. Yet, she pays the price for this beauty, as she is cruelly murdered. Sasha may not be a child herself anymore, but she is still a person, and the focus on food for her in the moment of her death reinforces this.

We also see that our grown-up children are losing innocence as well. Eren becomes the monster he swore to destroy, becoming a titan to murder innocents.

Final Arc: The World is Beautiful (and cruel)

I know the emphasis right now is on cruelty and I don’t mean to minimize it. From Historia to how Eren treats his friends, to what Eren’s currently now doing, it’s painful.

It contains a return to Shiganshina, like the Fall of and Return to Shiganshina arcs. And like the first arc, it irrevocably changes the world. On this day, humanity has received not a grim reminder, not a choice.

Instead of Mikasa and Armin receiving help from an adult to save Eren (Hannes), they are the adults this time. It is up to them to save Eren from himself, which likely is not going to be kind enough to spare Eren’s life this time. That said, I do think/expect a moment of Eren remembering his humanity in the end. And we already know it ends with life and freedom.

#snk meta #chiastic structure #aot meta #shingeki no kyojin meta #attack on titan meta #snk 123 #eren jaeger #mikasa ackerman #armin arlert #ema #levi ackerman #yumihisu #historia reiss #annie leonhart #sasha blouse #reiner braun #marco bodt #bertolt hoover

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lostcauses-noregrets · 5 years

Note

heyy lost. I wanted to ask what you think about ppl who only care about shipping and don’t at all care about the current arc. i mean when you rlly think about it it’s kind of an insult to Erwin not caring at all about his dream aka what we learned from the basement and all the secrets about the titans being revealed now. Just a thought

I’m guessing this ask was prompted by comments on twitter earlier this week about “fake fans” who are more interested in characters and ships than the current arc. First of all I think anyone who has the temerity to label anyone else a “fake fan” shouldn’t be allowed online without adult supervision. I mean what the fuck? No one has the right to dictate how anyone else should enjoy a piece of media (or indeed anything else). That is non-negotiable. Some people are drawn to character, some to plot, some to soundtracks, some to ships, some to breathtaking animation. If you like detailed plots with convoluted twists and turns, that doesn’t make you any better than someone who prefers complex characters and nuanced relationships. It’s fine. It’s just a matter of preference.

Regarding SnK, personally I think Isayama has a real gift for creating complex and compelling characters and relationships and that’s what drew me into the series. I’m less convinced about his handling of plot and narrative. I think the series has suffered from pacing issues, and too often these have been resolved with timeskips and info dumps, which have often been jarring. That said, it’s impossible not to admire the scope of Isayama’s vision for this story. The way he is drawing together plot threads that he stitched into the narrative ten years ago is amazing. Although I’m still really hooked on the plot and dying to see how this wild ride ends, there are elements of the current arc that I’m completely nonplussed by. I have little interest and less patience with the Jaegerbros psychodrama and daddy issues, and I’m personally not a fan of the time loop / time travel trope. Eren using the Attack Titan’s ability to move backwards and forwards in time to influence events may be dastardly clever, but yeah, really not my thing. The Uprising Arc very much was my thing. I absolutely loved the political drama and intrigue and the wildcard that was Kenny fucking Ackerman. I know that some readers found the Uprising Arc dull as ditchwater, but that’s fine too, they have their preference, I have mine.

Aaaaaaanyway…as far as Erwin is concerned, he was one of the central characters of the earlier arcs of the story and he was pivotal in moving the plot forward at a critical point in the narrative. Anyone who claims to appreciate Isayama’s story arcs surely has to appreciate Erwin’s role in those arcs. And even though it’s been years since Erwin’s death, he still has a not insignificant influence on the current arc in that it’s his vision that has been guiding Levi’s hand. We still don’t know how Levi’s role in this story will end, and until it does, Erwin will continue to have a presence.

So yeah, that’s a very round about way of saying that if you enjoy a series for a specific character or ship, that’s absolutely fine, and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

#asks #lostcauses meta #erwin smith #levi ackerman #erwin meta #levi meta #snk

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sparda3g · 5 years

Text

Why The Hype: Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2

youtube

You can look at the poster and say, “Of course, you’ll be hyped. Look at it. Hype!” That may be true, but there’s other reasons to look forward to. Although it’s considered as Season 3, Part 2, it will only have 10 episodes, rather 12. That would scare an anime fan to believe the budget is low and the Wit Studio would have to rush. That’s not necessarily true. Believe me, the hype is real and it will be glorious. But why the anime fan should be excited? What is there to expect? Why the hype? Allow me to explain.

1. Prepared for the Grandest Battle Yet

Season 3 Part 1 was a different field for the series. No titans were involved aside of one, human versus human, politics talk, and a large focus on the characters. Even the opening felt different to the point some fans were bummed out on the mellow tone, though personally, it was the fitting choice for its theme. With that all said, it was very necessary for what’s to come for Part 2. Granted, every arc has a purpose, but in this series’ case, it truly factors tremendously.

It’s not essentially about cooling down before confronting titans once more, or at least, the main goal. It’s to establish these characters and the importance of their growth and beyond. Historia takes the supremacy of a Queen, Levi dealt with the past and carry a syringe for the future, and other tidbits for other characters to learn, including Armin killing a person. As for Eren, he needed the development he got here. We’re not talking about power-up; we’re dealing with him as a person. He needed to grow up, needed to understand the environment he’s in, and needed to know who he is. Going to the action without it would simply feel light in investment. Now, it has gotten much heavier. Bottom line, Uprising Arc was a must before the epic proportion kicks off.

Each development is crucial to make the scope bigger for their next conflict. Rather solely get their revenge on the traitors, clear out the titans, or even reclaim their lost home, they have more to win and lose. In the last episode of Part 1, hope has returned to humanity. From new state of art technology to rightful order of politic, it gave everyone a chance to see the light they have been dying for. Survey Corps never looked so motivated to fight. It’s why Erwin made an unusual war cry. It’s time for revolution.

The stakes are high with everything counting on this very battle, which will be in Part 2. It’s why the calm before storm in the last episode felt believable and worrisome. It’s practically the endgame; that’s also a reference. It’s the mark of an end of an old era or maybe the downfall of humanity’s last hope. It’s now or never.

2. Majority of the Cast are Involved

You know how in the recent Avengers movies have majority of the cast and focus on the villain who was introduced from the very beginning? That’s Part 2. It may sound like this always have been the case, but there’s more to it. Rather than introducing a new antagonist or faction such as Part 1, even if it was hinted, the characters who will be involved are everyone we know and soon to learn more. Instead of seeing the good guys fighting against the bad guys, we are going to see two sides in a more grey area.

As seen in the trailer, Reiner is involved, so you can expect other known characters. Not to mention, the opposing force consists titans that started the series in the first place, hence the endgame feeling. Will it be the end? I won’t say, but you will be captivated by its magnitude. Will there be new characters? I won’t say either, but the known characters are good enough for a large battle. It’s equivalent to One Piece and their own style of a war. Nearly everyone the fans know are there, so the investment is extraordinary; easily capture their attention. Same can be said with Avengers as an example.

The point is fans will be highly invested because of who will be involved and how much it means for them. Whether there will be development or closure, it’s all guessing game. The trailer did a good job on not exploiting too much of its content. It is more than intense action. It’s a ride of your life. Needless to say, there will be blood.

3. Survey Corps Forever!

In other words, incredible action galore. I often say this arc or part is the “Battle of the Bastards” tier. If you don’t know what that is, it’s from a TV hit series, Game of Thrones. It’s an episode that is often praised for its wonderful display of war; from cinematography to action, it was incredible. Case in point, the next part will deliver.

Just look at the moment where Eren soars above the wall, looking down below, preparing for a battle that will change everything. You know how grand this is with the bone-chilling atmosphere presented in the trailer and there will be more to come. Some fans would say the epicness have unraveled in the previous arc. I beg to differ. There is an untapped epicness waiting to happen here, and some will not be ready to see it unfold.

I have heard some fans were a bit upset for Season 3 Part 1 for barely having any action. This part will be the wake-up call. When Linked Horizon is back to do the opening theme, you know this part will be jam-packed with action. It’s going to be an all-out brawl; non-stop. Well, there will be some pause, but nothing to ruin the flow. It practically makes up for the last part and more. There will be plenty of incredible moments that I cannot wait to see the anime fans’ reaction. Hell, same can be said for the manga readers. I wish I can discuss on which, but trust me, it’s going to be worth war crying over it. It’s the Act 3 of Avengers movie at its best. Translation: it’s going to be amazing.

As stellar the content is, the epic proportion cannot be done without stellar presentation. Although there’s only one trailer, it’s safe to say Wit Studio will deliver it. The animation looks ready for some fast-paced exciting set pieces as well as selling raw emotions. Personally, the soundtrack is what I look forward to the most. Words have it Hiroyuki Sawano have conducted plenty of new and revamped soundtrack for this part alone. That sounds like slice of heaven there. Even the trailer’s soundtrack got me goosebumps, so imagine for what’s in store for each episode. It will have the epic feel that it truly needs.

There will be only 10 episodes, but believe me, it’s good enough; in fact, I would say it’s the best decision. Haikyuu!! Season 3 was 10 episode long and it was fantastic. I see nothing wrong with two episodes discounted. It will favor the pacing and since this will be pure chaos, why slow down. The trailer hardly cover anything. I dare to say it is only one episode content. Fans have no idea what’s coming. It’s going to be a wild ride. Satisfaction guaranteed. Okay, everyone has a different taste, but majority will be satisfied. It’s the epic scale that anime fans will never forget. Manga fans will be floored by its great presentation. It will be glorious.

This is Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2.

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #season 3 #part 2 #anime #hype

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animentality · 6 years

Note

Hey dude, if you don't mind me asking, what's going on with snk? Like I'd rather die than keep up with the show/manga so I have no idea what's going on with its fandom. Could you explain a bit or is that asking for too much?

Snk was still going strong in 2016, despite the show having been put on hiatus after 2013. The manga was still interesting, more or less, and people still desperately wanted to know all of the secrets of SnK.

But then we found out the secrets.

Eren’s basement was reached.

We saw the ocean.

And everything was revealed, more or less, plot wise.

So here’s the thing.

The dirty little secret about Snk is that a whole lot of the appeal lay in three things:

- the terror of the Titans and being hunted and mindlessly killed and consumed by terrifying beats whose motivations are not known, and who may not even have motivations. this is where the “awesome action” and “intense moments” that initially drew all the fans to it comes from, terror. Real tension.

- the MYSTERY that adds to the terror. everyone spent days and days speculating about what could possibly lie “beyond the walls.” it made snk interesting as an apocalyptic universe. even people who didn’t like anime wanted to know, what the fuck is up with this universe?

- and the very interesting and lovable, but also flawed characters who are very quirky and very unusual for shonen. they’re attractive, they have interesting backstories, they get decent development. The human aspect of the story. this is the aspect i cared most about.

So.

let’s address these things, shall we?

We know now everything.

We know all of the dirty secrets of the universe, we just don’t know what exactly is going to happen, like who’s going to die, for example.

That takes away the terror of the Titans because...well we know what they are.

They’re just a bunch of dickhole politicians.

And...people.

Like.

I think that’s where the series really started to plummet from atop its tower.

The conflict became a political drama.

It became Game of Thrones, except that’s not what it was originally.

So now there’s no mystery.

Just politics.

And military tactics.

Which could be fun, except.

god.

Isayama spends so much time explaining things just verbally.

Like.

Show, please, stop telling me where and when things must happen, who must do this, who is good, who is bad, who needs to be talked to, who needs to draw this battle plan, who’s doing this.

God PLEASE.

Just SHOW me. Through ACTUAL STORY TELLING and not exposition dump.

The political exposition dumping is PAINFUL.

It completely dumps the characters off wherever Isayama needs them to be.

We don’t get to see people influence their stories anymore.

They are influenced by his military drama.

They are marginalized by their own creator and forced to play a part.

They don’t feel like they have any agency, they’ve become slaves to their own plot.

So there’s THAT.

Which for me personally is like driving nails through my fingers to read.

And that alone is responsible for so many fans being turned off from snk.

Because who the hell wants to wait a literal YEAR for Christa and Rod Reiss to stop fucking talking?

So that’s the general reason people were sort of turned off from Snk, the whole political uprising arc, which was dry.

Then we get to the exciting Return to Shiganshina Arc, which was the whole Serum Bowl drama.

That got people excited...except Erwin fans went ape shit over Erwin dying for Armin, because no one likes Armin.

And that turned the Eruri and Erwin fans off of Snk.

But we go further, anon.

We go further.

Because then we’re treated to like, I don’t know, just months of introducing new characters we don’t care about after a time skip.

And then it gets messy.

Because Eren is now an asshole.

And we barely know him anymore because of the time skip.

So that eliminates interesting characters.

And what happened to the FANDOM ITSELF because of it?

Well.

Manga readers used to be a diverse group of people with fascinating theories and ideas about what could be happening.

But NOW since we know the secrets, and there’s no more theorizing about the “truth,” the only theories left are theories as to who’s going to die, and what is going to be done with that whole “gotta fight the bad guys” plot.

and that’s not an interesting plot if your favorite characters are either, not being shown, which was the case for way too many fucking chapters.

or completely different than you remember, i.e., Eren being an asshole terrorist who’s not sympathetic anymore.

PLUS, the guy who was previously a villain, Zeke Jaeger, is now...a good guy.

Yeah.

Ok?

So we get told what’s happening.

and the bad guys become good.

the BADDER GUYS are just brainwashed assholes.

So what does the fandom do?

Well the people who are remaining, and this is not the quality people, btw, this is levi stans who care about nothing else and eremika fans whose entire goal in life seems to be shipping every main hetero anime ship from every shonen ever made, they just hype up every chapter like it’s the best thing ever written.

And when the anime comes back, there’s a little hype for season 2.

Not as much as there used to be, but it’s more or less “back” for...twelve weeks.

But it’s not anime onlies.

At this point, the general fandom is gone.

It’s just the diehard manga readers....who as we have established, are just a little nuts.

And half of them just skip the chapter for hints of their “ship” or for sexy shirtless Eren panels that they can coo over.

The other half is composed of people who still care somewhat about the story, but are just waiting for it to get good again.

And no, it’s not conjecture on my part.

Every month, I go to the snk tag whenever the manga updates to see what’s going on.

Every month, it’s the same ten or twelve people, literally the same people, squealing about how “good” this whole chapter of people telling one another the plot was.

There are edits of how gorgeous Eren or Mikasa are, and how squee, they were in the same panel, or there’s people drawing sexy fanart AUs of Levi and Eren even though those two have as much sexual tension as me and my fucking left foot when i’m trying to scrub dead skin flakes off of it.

But these things are not people interacting with a story.

Feeling a narrative.

Actually having a discussion about something, interacting with a medium, building relationships to it, and with one another.

They’re parroting one another and patting each other on the back, but there’s no content.

There’s so little RPing, so little new content, so little theorizing, just people saying they liked it. they liked it.

I liked it, did you like it?

Tell me you liked it or else you’re just a hater.

So season 3 rolls around.

And lemme just say this.

If you go into, say, the bnha tag.

you will find.

Fifteen, maybe twenty different artists.

who have all drawn different characters.

who may have drawn ship art, maybe not.

who maybe drew OCs, who maybe drew headcanons.

you’ll find people making jokes, memes, and talking to one another about theories about dabi or tomura.

you’ll get people warmly pointing out fandom’s acceptance of a particular headcanon.

lovingly joking about midoriya’s obsession with all might, all might as a father figure, his mother as a saint, bakugo as that one asshole everyone loves anyway, mineta as the one you hate.

and what do you get in the snk tag?

usually just stuff ripped straight from the show.

not art, although there will usually be eren and levi in some fantastical setting outside of the actual universe.

because snk is at the point where actual content about the ACTUAL UNIVERSE is boring.

you MIGHT get another ship...and it’ll be eremika.

usually eren and mikasa screenshots side by side, since the actual manga doesn’t give eremika much screen time.

but any other ship?

no.

not really.

those are the two ships, pick one.

and other characters?

forget it, this is a levi and mikasa and eren zone.

Connie, no, Jean, no, Hanji, maybe but usually no, Erwin?

the dude is dead, you won’t get that much content for him since his biggest fans went awol.

And you know what, my experience...

and this is sad, dude, but.

snk was the hottest thing of 2013, so of course, everyone made art, edits, 5000000 word essays about character development.

but now, the current state is more like...two mega nerds of the series write really, really deep analysis of specific events or characters (two people i happen to personally like, but disagree with fundamentally on what makes a good story) that are more or less ignored by the general fandom.

two objective voices.

the rest are like, twenty levi fan blogs that are all levi, all the time.

ten eremika blogs that all reblog from one another and coo endlessly about how cute eren and mikasa fucking would be.

and maybe five people who say nothing, but just make gifs of the show as it progresses.

so that’s where we’re at.

there’s no big “drama,” anon.

that’s just the general state of the fandom.

it’s....ah.

i get sad whenever i think about it, so thank you for this, really enjoyed writing this, but it’s at this point.

where people who aren’t utterly intolerable have found other fandoms to dedicate themselves to.

and the people who are left just make the fandom, at best, a dull place.

and at worst, miserable.

if you’re not an intense levi, ereri, or eremika fan, you’re just left with those two mega nerd blogs.

and they talk a lot about minute details of the snk universe, stuff you wouldn’t necessarily understand unless you literally adore every single exposition filled panel that comes out every four weeks and avidly dedicate it to memory.

so it’s really just.

ah.

it’s still a kicking fandom, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not one that i enjoy seeing anymore.

and i don’t see it at all, actually, not on my dash.

i only see it cuz sometimes i check its tag or see it trending.

but top trending posts?

ereri, eremika, levi.

and that’s it, that’s why people still follow snk.

you remember when snk was about the key to the basement, the survival of the human race, the will to survive, the pain of being the only survivor-

why no, Eren was shirtless this episode, did you see that?

did you see that?

did you see it?

are you not seeing it?

why are you crying?

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ghostmartyr · 6 years

Note

As far as Im aware Snk arcs are all generally around just under 20 chapters. Uprising being an exception since instead of ending it at the arcs end point in chapter 69 the anime instead shoved 3 extra chapters in. Is that why this Season had so many cuts? Is the next half of the season going to have a similar amount of cuts? If all the arcs are generally around the same length I'm so confused as to why this happened to this arc and whether it's happened to any of the previous ones before?

…I really like the anime. It is what got me into the series. I am what you would call a fan. I sometimes can be coaxed into admitting I like the manga, when it isn’t inspiring rage with the force of a thousand suns.

That. said.

Part of the conflict the anime seems to have with Uprising is that. Uprising is. Um. What’s the word.

Good?

While dialing its themes up to high key in the midst of toning down the monster slaying with scores of red shirts dying?

Season one is straight action. It taps into passion and uses that hotblooded enthusiasm to bludgeon you with feels that you’re hype enough to enhance into one heck of a trip. Honestly, it cuts a lot, but unless you’re an Annie fan or really, really bitter about the finale, people are largely chill with the first season.

My personal opinion is that that is because the introduction of Attack on Titan in all its forms is getting people invested for the aesthetic. Which is a funny thing to say, considering where its art starts. But people are so ready to get into humans with cool toys versus mindless monsters, and the anime does the art and the sound and everything up to eleven, that it doesn’t really matter that we don’t actually know the first thing about those five people who just died. It matters that holy fuck they’re dead.

Annie’s content, followed by season two, is where that starts to change. We’ve had smatterings of character work all along, but the pacing is so awkward that it’s much easier to connect to the fighting than the talking.

In season two, we descend into heartfelt emotional passion plays. As good as the fights are, it’s about Connie coming home to his village. It’s about Kristoria and Ymir. It’s about Reiner and Bertolt.

It’s like a bottle labeled Feelings got dumped over everything. All the stuff going on will matter to the plot, but the main focus is the overwhelming Emotion all these kids are going through, and the anime does that great.

Uprising is where the story takes a deep breath, and tries to bring the aesthetic and feelings together into a narrative driving the themes of the series.

Without the aid of gimmicks that novelty made so valuable to the original aesthetic.

Really, the first two seasons are kind of cheating. You draw action and death all pretty like, toss an awesome score on top and keep your cast from being inherently unlikable, and you’ve got a show. You have the same pretty with even more money and all the emotional heart tugging of romance and betrayal, and you’ve got a show.

Now. Try doing both those things at the same time.

The first two seasons are simple compared to the entire rest of everything. They get your feet wet. They introduce a badass world for you to roll in, then they introduce painful feelings for you to fall in.

Uprising involves actual story instead of running purely on pathos.

…I’m trying to say this politely, and that is as close as I’ve gotten. Yeah, I’m disappointed with me too.

But you can see how the anime crew tries to run season three the exact same way it runs the first two seasons, and you can see exactly how it fails. In the first season, sure it might have been better if Eren’s bond with Annie was stronger, but for the level of depth entry-level SnK asks for, it was not actually required for what story there was to make sense and be enjoyable.

In season three, those small cuts are infinitely more important, because while the narrative is developing, the characters and their emotions, having been more deeply established in the breathing room of the second season content, should be running the show.

Put… not as bluntly as I possibly can, but close, Uprising is where the writing becomes a crucial component. Before, what happens is more important than the hows and why behind it happening. During and after, how and why these plot things are occurring are the examinations that the entire series runs on.

Season three falls victim to sticking with what happens at a time where what is one of the least important details. You can’t outmatch the initial shock and awe aspect of the titans or 3DMG, you can’t hit as hard as the feels of Utgard and traitors revealed.

What makes the content work is not the beautiful blossoms, but the plant that is growing them. The blossoms are beautiful, but unlike the ones that came before, these ones need to stay on the plant to truly shine.

Season three cuts off the blossoms and leaves them in a nice vase.

There are excellent moments.

Their meanings are completely gutted, because for the first two rounds, that plant over in the corner really wasn’t growing well enough to belong in the same shot as its flowers.

Uh, to actually try and get back to maybe answering your question, I think each season has had cuts (likely comparable in number of panels), but none of the earlier cuts stole away so much of the content’s soul.

That’s why the third season feels so much different; it’s treated the exact same way as the first two. The problem is that the writing has improved, and there’s more ambition behind the story being told. The better the writing is, the more awkward and unbalanced cuts feel.

(For instance: I will complain about nearly every second of the first twenty episodes of Brotherhood, and all of my whining can basically be summed up with, “the manga did this better.” Because it did, because FMA’s writing is amazing, and being so amazing, changes can pretty much only make it go backwards.

Hi I’m never going to stop being mean to Brotherhood.)

That’s also why the second half of the third season is going to be so much fun. We’re back to pure action and pathos. All the whys and hows of the emotional impact of the conflict have been covered in previous material, so the Shiganshina arc can just go straight wild and leave everyone in a sprawling heap of pain in the aftermath.

The things that make the first two seasons so fantastic will make the second half of the third season phenomenal.

But the first half is a different beast put through the same paces. Things that worked for the first two seasons couldn’t fly with it.

…I really never thought I’d say anything positive about the Marley arc, but hopefully that will be complicated enough for them to realize that the story is not just constant action and shredding of heartstrings. There’s a significant narrative involved in the plot, and ignoring it for cheaper, yet still intensely dynamic, thrills, isn’t good for the anime as a whole product.

Hopefully somewhere in there I actually answered what you were asking. ^^; Thank you very much for the ask, sorry for keeping you waiting on it!

#attack on asks #Season 3

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haruyuri · 6 years

Text

Attack On Titan // Manga Analysis

contains spoilers.

this post is focused mostly on the Marley Arc and Sasha’s death. read at your own risk.

Ah, I said I would do this, here I am.

I believe pretty much all of the Attack On Titan fandom is pissed right now. Whether you are a manga reader or not, I’m sure you’ve come across with the most recent spoilers.

Yes, Sasha Blouse is dead.

We shall start with some background on her, using the anime. She was rather irrelevant during season one, I think we all agree. She was simply the ‘potato girl’, or the girl who spoke in a ridiculously polite way, but, during season two, she gained some focus for her character. Truth is she was meant to die in chapter 40, more or less, when she fought that one titan with the arrows. (Titan that was confirmed (i think) to be Connie’s father.)

She was unharmed. She didn’t have her gear on, but she did save a small child from a titan and fought it with something she was good at, shooting arrows. But though, I think she isn’t given enough credit for this. She had this whole episode for herself and still, she was still ‘potato girl’.

Throughout the whole anime, Sasha is seen as a goofball who has an incredibly high appetite. Sure, she is a rather positive character, so is Connie, but both of them have their own demons as well.

Believe it or not, Sasha was rather important during the Uprising Arc. She was one of the chosen to be part of the new Squad Levi, as long as the other 104th soldiers and she had an important role in protecting Eren and Historia.

After she takes care of Levi’s wounds, she stays on guard all night as the squad is eating and drinking.

She then takes part in the rescuing of Eren and Historia, as they know their whereabouts and, shall we not forget, she saves Connie’s life.

And, later on, it’s Connie’s time to attend to her safety, in the Return to Shingashina Arc. Being hit by the debris upon fighting the Armored Titan, Connie takes her unconscious body to a roof and everyone begins thinking about the Titan Serum. Though, she’s not injured to that point and the debate is then between Armin and Erwin, Levi ending up deciding to give it to Armin.

Even more, as they return to Trost and she finally recovers, she is exhonerated with a damn medal. Sasha is a worthy soldier.

And finally, we get to the shitty Marley Arc. Personally, it has been my least favorite arc so far. Now, having read chapter 105, I feel like I’ve wasted all the time I’ve put into reading this manga. I used to love every bit of it, even with the death and all the angst, I still looked forward to the next chapter. Now, I don’t. Now I’ll think “Ah.. Another chapter. I’ll read it later.” and just go on with it.

Alright, let’s get this Arc straight, shall we.

We had a heck ton of chapters that made us though “Where the fuck is the Survey Corps” since only hobo looking Eren and mentally fucked up Reiner were on the show. Sure, we got to know some stuff about the Marley dudes, but they’re not that interesting.

It seems to me that Eren left to Marley on his own accord, that he probably even disobeyed his superiors orders (That’d be Commander Hange and Captain Levi) and even wrote them a letter.

Both Hange and Levi show their discontent with Eren’s development and behavior. Eren, who used to be Humanity’s Hope is now nothing but a suicidal soldier, who uses himself as bait and causes his comrades to die.

He was, for a long time, talking to Falco, bonding with him so that he could get to Reiner. I’m not sure how I feel about Falco though, because he seems to be a good person and he felt deceived by Eren, because he thought Eren was a good person and he was surely though that the people of Paradis were monsters.

Falco felt used by Eren and realizes he was lied to. The kid probably has trust issues, who knows.

Despite knowing that his name is Eren Jaeger, he still goes for Kruger. He’s upset, he understood Eren is a bad guy, I guess.

But anyway, Eren masters up to fuck Reiner in the head even more and bam- he goes batshit crazy and turns into a titan. Nothing we haven’t seen before, right?

Well he goes and kills the Thor look alike and ye, look it’s a new titan!!!

You are one creepy fucker, Tybur woman.

And, of course, the rest of Marley had to come, right? We get a better look at Pieck’s cart titan and Zeke’s beast titan as well. Let’s not forget what Levi promised Erwin before he died. He would take down the beast titan.

But, surprise surprise. Zeke is betraying Marley. Or.. You can’t be that surprised, c’mon, he betrayed his own parents.

Here’s how it starts:

Eren seems a bit unamused to me, I don’t know, woops.

On another note, both Levi and Jean talk about ‘time’. That’s another confirmation note to the fact Zeke is actually on Paradis’ side (apparently) and Levi killing him, for now, is an act.

Pieck knows that Zeke just betrayed him, so.. my question is. Why didn’t she do anything about it? She probably just realised that Levi did not kill him, that he acted as if he did. So why did she just carry on battling and didn’t do anything? Hm.. Fishy.

But moving on.

Let’s talk about another character. Gabi Braun. She’s just 12 and also an Eldian and Warrior Candidate. Her goal is to kill Eren Jaeger, who trampled over her home.

So here’s the thing about Gabi. First of all, she’s a brat. Second of all, she has a superiority complex. Third of all, she doesn’t listen to anyone. We all know Falco is more inteligent than Gabi and less impulsive than her.

Don’t talk back, you brat.

But here’s what pisses me off. She made it clear. Eren Jaeger is her target. Sure, she holds a grudge against all Survey Corps members, but mostly, Eren.

So why, why did she have to kill TWO soldiers before she got Eren?

She killed Lobov and, right after, she didn’t even aim. She grabbed the gun and shot. She had no idea if she’d get anyone or not. But she did, she killed Sasha with one shot.

What was the damn logic? She shot randomly. Did she even know if she’d get someone? As much as she knew, she could’ve shot against a wall. Her aim wasn’t defined, she didn’t know what she was doing.

But no. Poor innocent Sasha had to take the damn bullet. No one was expecting that, Jean and Connie are dumbfounded as Sasha falls backwards.

Some people are supporting Gabi in here, saying she’s protecting her home, but let’s get something straight. If Sasha hadn’t hesitated back then, Gabi would be dead. Sasha spared Gabi’s life and how did Gabi thank her? She didn’t. She killed her. She killed the one who granted her the miracle of life when she could’ve taken it away.

And of course, the Survey Corps flip. Sasha is obviously dear to everyone, we can tell that everyone sees Sasha as a close friend, or even a relative. While Jean and Connie, the closest people to Sasha, try to take care of her, the others are quick to pin Gabi and Falco down and hit them. They’re seriously pissed that a brat got in their ship and shot one of them.

We all know Jean is an emotional guy. But, seeing try to stay collected, giving orders as he sees Sasha slowly slip away from life.. Damn mate.

Also, Connie asks her to hold on until they go home. I still wonder why.

Also, y’all know what pisses me off? When I’m sad/upset and people still make fun of me. And this happened here. Everyone’s sad about Sasha’s death, some people are probably sad over Eren’s state and how the Survey Corps are treating him and Sasha’s last word is ‘meat’ ?

Seriously now, m e a t ?

At this point, I can’t help but believe Isayama is toying around with us. Sure, Sasha became known at the ‘potato girl’ and someone with high appetite, but is that what her whole character is about? Apparently.

And know what hurts the most?

This probably happened about five minutes before she was shot. Both Jean and Sasha are reflecting on their mission, on what they have to do and how they have to kill. And of course, Connie plays the positive guy. Sure he ain’t smiling, but he’s glad he’s alive. He’s glad his best friends are alive. Jean and Sasha are pretty much everything that Connie has. Sure, he might be a bit close to the others, but Jean and Sasha are definetly the closest people to him. He’s lost his family, he’s lost comrades and now.. Well, he lost Sasha.

We can see the closure between Sasha and Connie and I’m not saying this because I’m a Springles shipper, but I think that there was something more than friendship, but of course romance would never, in a million years, be relevant to Attack On Titan. (cue; Hannah and Franz died rather quickly)

Sasha was smiling after Connie said she was special and soon they were happily talking about dinner. They just wanted to hang out and relax now.

But no. Sasha had to be murdered.

Jean is stressing out. Sasha is dying in front of his eyes. He’s probably thinking that he couldn’t protect her, but deep down he blames Eren for this.

The other soldiers have beaten Gabi more than Falco, of course, Falco isn’t even bleeding, but they threaten to kill both.

Gabi’s speaking shit and how they’d let the commander know and Jean just tells her she can tell Zeke in person.

On another note, Pieck is talking about Yellena, and how she knew Zeke was betraying them with Yellena’s help. Once again, why didn’t she do anything or report Zeke’s intentions to the other warriors?

Zeke wasn’t expecting that. He probably wouldn’t expect Gabi to murder two soldiers either. He thinks that these kids ruined his plan. I’m still not sure what the plan is, but well, the Corps seem to know.

Well, seems like Gabi ruined things for ya, Beardie. But calling those kids miscalculations is almost the same as called them failed abortions. Yikes.

I’m still very confused about this page, about the conversation between Levi and Zeke. Of course Levi would want to kill the one who killed Mike, got other soldiers to die and was heavily involved in Erwin’s death, not to mention he promised Erwin he would take down the beast titan. And, no matter how much he has to team up with Zeke now, Levi keeps his word.

And well, this was it. I don’t have anything else to complain about. I hope y’all enjoyed this if you reached this line. Maybe if I read chapter 106, i’ll add more to this,

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #eren jaeger #levi ackerman #sasha blouse #mikasa ackerman #armin arlert #hange zoe #reiner braun #gabi braun #spoilers #manga #marley arc #analysis #manga analysis #theories #snk #aot

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