#she knowingly went along with the empire's evil

[jewishcissiekj]

SELYTRA TARRRRRTFDTDFXDGHDFGHXS

[arlingtonpark]

SNK 102 Review

Can I start off by just saying how great it is that there are people in this world who actually care?

Marley is a country that weaponizes civilians and forcibly transforms them in to monsters as a means of bombardment. They persecute the Eldians who live under the authority of their government. They have no qualms with knowingly violating the rules of war if it gives them the advantage.

Eren, for his part, showed a clear disregard for the lives of the people in the apartment building he destroyed and for the lives of Reiner and Falco, both of whom had surrendered to him and showed no signs of resisting.

When the Survey Corps trapped Pieck and Porko, they laid straw at the bottom of the trap so their fall would be cushioned, and they even gave them food and water. Jean scolds Floch for fighting in a way that needlessly endangers civilian lives. Mikasa is tearing up at the sight of what Eren has done.

When the SC fight, they fight with civility and humanity. They treat even their greatest of enemies with care and compassion. They do not try to blow them up for no reason.

God bless these people. They care. They f!@#ing care.

Well, most of them anyway.

My initial reaction to the new Floch is “what the heck!?” Last we saw, he was scolding Eren as immature and hard-headed. Now he’s practically a member of the Cult of Eren.

Have you forgotten how much of humanity inside the walls has [sic] been killed by these bastards outside of it? They ate us alive, you know!

This is literally something Eren could have said towards the start of the series when the focus was fighting the titans. Now, for Floch at least, it seems humanity outside the walls are the new titans.

But, of course, they aren’t like the titans. They’re human beings, and their inherent dignity as human beings must be respected. It reflects very poorly on Floch that he doesn’t understand this.

This isn’t even close to payback!

Payback? Hey, Floch, that’s an Eldian apartment building you’re blowing up there. Whether it’s the mainland Eldians or the Paradis Eldians we’re talking about here, at the end of the day, they’re both groups of Eldians, and they’re both hated because they are Eldians. They’re all in the same boat here, but Floch is apparently too blinded by his hatred to realize this. He seems to believe that everyone outside the walls are devils that need to die.

There’s an important question to be asked here: how many more people have been taken in by this way of thinking?  

Eren showed us. He said to fight. We can’t just wait inside the walls for death to come. That’s the devil we need right now. 

The implication in this dialogue are very interesting.

It makes sense that after the revelations regarding the outside world, the question of how to approach the outside world would dominate not just debates among government officials and the military, but also the general public.

The clear implication of what Floch is saying is that Eren took an aggressive, hawkish stance on what Paradis’ foreign policy should be. Would it surprise anyone if there were other likeminded people on Paradis for Eren to align with? And would it surprise anyone if these people looked to Eren, holder of the Founding Titan and war hero, for leadership? If they rallied around him?

What I’m saying is that the Cult of Eren might actually be a thing. If only informally.

Eren showed us. He said to fight. We can’t just wait inside the walls for death to come. That’s the devil we need right now.

Not only that, but what does Floch’s actions and statements say about Eren? Floch believes that Paradis needs to fight to survive, and he’s getting that from Eren. And what about his belief that those outside the walls deserve to die as reprisals for what they’ve done to the walldians? Is he getting that from Eren too? Or is this just his own way of thinking?

Picture this scenario: let’s say that Eren did lead a faction on Paradis calling for aggressive action against the world. Let’s also suppose that after spending time on the mainland, he realizes he’s wrong. He still kills civilians, of course, but he does so not out of animus, but because he sees it as a necessary evil. The point is that Eren realizes he went too far, so he’s been “reformed” in a sense, but that still leaves all the various people who’ve been radicalized by him to deal with, and they’re not just going to let go of their animus simply because their leader is getting cold feet.

In other words, it’s “too little, too late.”

I’m not so bold as to say this is what happened, it’s largely speculation, but something like this would not be out of place in this story. In fact, it would be downright tragic. Eren sees he was ignorant, but in his ignorance, he’s created a monster that will outlive him: the people who will continue to believe in his ignorant ideology even though Eren himself no longer subscribes to it.

And Floch calls Eren “the devil we need right now.” Clearly, this is a reference to his attitude towards Erwin, whom he also believed was a devil that they needed. Floch realizes the difference between the two, right? Because they’re not the same.

You know, when I started off, I was not expecting to write so much about only two pages out of 46.

Moving right along, someone should give Gabi a hug. It just goes to show you that no amount of training, even training you excel at, can prepare you for the horrors of war.

The one thing that puzzles me though, is what role will she play in this battle? She’s only a kid, she has no titan powers, and she’s only armed with a rifle. Presumably, Isayama plans for her to make a meaningful contribution to the fight, but how? This had better not end up being like Touka in the Tokyo Ghoul finale. 

My best guess is that she’ll show up out of nowhere at a crucial moment in the fight and get off a shot at one of the major characters. They’ll either be seriously wounded, or maybe even killed outright.

The Warhammer Titian is easily the coolest titan. Having the pilot not even be in the body? That was so clever! I mean, just, oh my God, that is so cool!

And I’m curious about the nature of their ability. Clearly, the stuff that’s covering the Warhammer’s body is made of the same material as the spikes on the ground and the various weapons we’ve seen them use so far. And yet, this materiel doesn’t seem to impede their mobility. This hardening materiel covers them, but they can move freely. Does this mean they can control the tensile strength of this materiel at will? That would be so cool! If that’s the case, then they would get the benefits of armor without the drawbacks of impeded movement.

There’s another thing to discuss here, and I’ll let Magath say it:

Run amok while you still can. You’re fates are sealed. Every major nation that lost government officials in this massacre is now a party to this war. The whole world now knows of the threat of the Eldian Empire, as Willy Tybur had planned. This world can no longer allow any of you to live. But those devils have to realize that themselves. And in that case, what exactly are they thinking if they’re doing this and--

Good question. Why are they doing this?

My initial impression was that the Survey Corps was here to bail out Eren, who had gone rogue. I still believe this. Mikasa’s reaction clearly indicates that they were in the dark about at least some of Eren’s plans.

Really, it’s just a question of how much coordination there was between Eren and the Survey Corps. There seems to be an understanding between the two that they need to take out the Warhammer Titan, but it can’t be known if this is due to coordination beforehand, or if it’s just so obvious that this is something they need to get done that they’re all on the same page without needing to talk it over.

Long term though, I think the Survey Corps is in a bind. They’re deep in enemy territory; the Jaw, Cart, and Beast titans have entered the fray, and they, unlike the Warhammer titan, are not fatigued from battle yet; and that’s not to mention the reinforcements coming. Also, Eren has been impaled again. The situation is on the verge of spinning out of their control, and things can only get worse the longer they stay.

One final thing. At the start of the chapter, Magath is calling in reinforcements, including the navy. Why the navy? Is Liberio a coastal city? If not, then what would be the point?

And then there’s the soldiers Magath is calling in. All 30,000 of them. What? Can 30,000 people even fit inside the internment zone? (Note that I’m assuming the internment zone is only the size of a large neighborhood.) There’s no way the Survey Corps managed to sneak more than a few dozen people in here. Add to that the fact that they only have one titan on their side compared to the four Marley has, and 30,000 just sounds unreasonable.

I should probably talk about Zeke and his allegiances, but I’m not going to.

He looks shady, and as per storytelling 101, people who look shady do shady things. He’s implied to have met with Eren, but there’s just too many unknowns to speculate, so I’m not going to.

I will say, however, that I don’t think we can rule out this being an elaborate ruse on Isayama’s part. This wouldn’t be the first time he’s yanked our chain. Remember when he used some creative editing to make it seem like Historia turned in to a titan? And what about just a couple of chapters ago when everyone was talking about how Helos was Jean in disguise? Yeah, that ended up being a whole lotta nothing.

In fact, go back to chapter 99 and check out how Helos is presented. Right off the bat, the first we see of him is a close up on his face, but framed so we can’t see his eyes, inviting us to guess who he is. Isayama wanted us to guess, even though he had no intention of Helos’ identity amounting to anything. Because he wanted to toy with us.

This may well be the case with Zeke.

I don’t know what Isayama has planned, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.