#shingeki no kyojin critical

[shmlnbstrcnd]

Things Arcane tried to do that Attack on Titan did a million times better:

- cycle of revenge and long lasting conflict between two cities/countries

- tragic protagonist who grew from a doe-eyed child with some violent tendencies to a terrifying and capable mass murderer, and made into an icon for an extremist revolution

- girl who was groomed and abused into joining the military that oppressed her her whole life, and brainwashed into fighting against her own people in a war

- big finale in which former enemies on both sides of the war have to unite in order to stop a greater enemy that threatens humankind

- bootstrap paradox time travel shenanigans

[devildmeggs]

anatomy/shading practice with muay thai levi

[chaotic-on-main]

what's it like for those who like things a normal amount

[clfixationstation]

It drives me a little bit crazy when people insist that Mikasa is obsessed with Eren or unreasonably attached (unhealthily is another question)

a) Eren is the only family she has left and she is terrified of losing him the way she lost everyone else, it's only natural for her to be very protective of him. He is the last piece of the home that was stolen from her as a child TWICE.

b) Eren first appeared to Mikasa as a hero, saving her from being trafficked and giving her the strength to fight for herself and others. Of course she's going to see him in a very good light (until she realizes the horror of his actions in s4 & readjusts her view)

c) Mikasa is quite protective of her other teammates too, especially her other best friend Armin. Remember when she almost killed Levi for him? When she comforted Armin (to the best of her abilities) after he was kidnapped? Intense care for her loved ones, and others as she grows as a person, is just one of her main character traits.

d) I've seen people be angry at Mikasa for not defending Armin during the table scene, but excuse her for being shocked that the person that she's been desperately trying to protect for almost half her life apparently hates her, and that her other best friend, who's known for avoiding fighting, threw the first punch on her behalf.

Of course she doesn't want them to fight

Of course she's going to watch in disbelief, in horror, needing to see just how gone Eren is

Of course she still won't want to kill him at first, won't want to sever her last family tie by her own hand

But she does

Because she isn't obsessed and she isn't selfish

And she still keeps his scarf by her own will (and in defiance of Eren's), in memory of her closest friend and last family

Because she's not a slave to anyone's will

And acting despite all the love she has for Eren, refusing to allow her love to keep her bound - that is what frees Ymir

[sshirakumo]

seven favorite levi scenes to count down to his birthday -> 3/7

episode 22 - defeated

bonus: him being pretty

[amadholes-lostre]

I absolutely hate seeing this quote every time I come across a ship discourse. It's not because the meaning of the quote but how it is used for. Every time I see this quote being used for, it's always a queer ship, never a hetship. If it's a Frodo x Samwise discourse, someone will reply with this. A yumihisu post anout the canonical legitimacy of the ship (which is explicitly canon), someone will reblog it with this quote. Now I see people using this on Falin x Marcille arts, pretty much just shaming the artist and people who like the ship. Meanwhile, said people will post excessively of Marcille x Laios arts and discussions, neither caring for the quote nor the irony. It is because the quote is meant to halt any debate, any legitimacy of a queer ship and its shippers.

Concisely, people who post this are saying: "stfu, faggot."

[themastermarkus]

Why Erwin Smith in Season 3 and the Choice in Midnight Sun Doesn't Work.

In Season 3 (excuse me for using “seasons” to mark out the arcs, as I do mean the equivalent time in the manga, it’s just simpler since this problem is spread out between all the arcs in that season), Isayama sets up Erwin’s intense guilt over sending soldiers to their deaths for his goal of wanting to learn the truth of humanity and the titans—dspite it making no sense for him to feel like his goal is selfish, as finding out the origin of the titans is already established to be part of the goal of the Survey Corps. It’s fine for Erwin to feel guilty for making calls that lead to peoples’ deaths, but Isayama seems to write Erwin as though he is objectively in the moral wrong despite the fact that using people to fulfill his personal goal is indistinguishable from if he just took over the Survey Corps and kept doing what they already did. I suppose it might be implied that he encouraged more research about the titans which… is not a bad thing when they fight the titans. Otherwise in the rebellion arc he has Survey Corps soldiers dying for him in fights against the government, but I never got the impression that he was forcing anyone into it under orders.

It feels very out of character for Levi not to choose to save Erwin. Kenny’s line about “everyone being a slave to something” that’s referenced in the moment of that decision doesn’t work because Erwin has not been shown to have a harmful, slavish obsession, just a personal goal that he throws himself into more recently since the opportunity to achieve it has presented itself (Not to mention that Erwin is like… metres away from his goal when this choice is being made, after which point he would no longer “be a slave to it”). Not giving the serum to Erwin does not feel like a choice that Levi, the character, would make given how close he and Erwin are implied to be. Instead, it feels like Levi is making the choice as if he only knows as much about Erwin and Armin as the audience does and is making a choice that could reasonably go either way because WE know both characters roughly as much, or Armin even better than Erwin, really. The problem is that this doesn’t realistically consider Levi’s experiences with each character, which is the choice between a man he’s known for years who changed his life dramatically, who he follows loyally and holds a lot of respect and affection for, and a kid that he’s come to care for in the general way that Levi cares for all the cadets, but he’s only known for like… a year max. It feels like choosing to save Armin is forced upon Levi because Isayama wanted Erwin to die and Armin to live and get the Colossal Titan because he came up with those story beats and was going to shove his way into them somehow.

On that note: Armin is just… I would say objectively the wrong choice. Armin is a character who is shown to be clever and driven (and everyone talks about how smart he is), he’s good at deduction but he’s not a tactician or a leader. He is brought back because Isayama wanted to have him, Mikasa, and Eren once again be crucial to the story at the end of it, not because it makes sense for the Survey Corps to sacrifice their COMMANDER for a cadet who has shown to be worth something, but clearly isn’t a replacement for a man who seems to be the best leader they’ve ever had. I think the choice of Armin could be more valid if Erwin was mentoring him (though still a stretch considering there’s nothing wrong with Erwin [at least nothing worth the mercy killing that Isayama seems to be portraying not using the serum on him as] and he’s only like 35 or something), but he’s not. Armin is only really, functionally important to the Survey Corps because he is close to Eren. Also, while this is probably my least-strong argument against picking Armin, but I feel like if Isayama wanted him to be convincingly still alive at that point, he probably should’ve had Armin a bit further away from Bertholdt’s explosion. That boy isn’t just externally burnt, he should have died like… immediately.

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t even dislike Armin, nor do I think that Levi wouldn’t feel a bit of guilt for not saving him, I just hate bad writing that seems to rely so heavily on plot convenience, and I think that this point of the story is where it was really affirmed that things were going to go downhill pretty consistently (barring most of Reiner’s part at the beginning of the Marley arc, but that’s another subject).

P.S. I'm currently reading the manga for this part after having only watched the anime, so I might have more to say later, though I doubt that my opinions on these writing choices will change considering that I don't think the anime cut out SO MUCH that these choices will instead make sense.

[melishade]

I love the way you wrote the latest chapter. It feels less like Eren and Zeke are being judged by gods, and more like the AOT fans are finally giving these two self-righteous idiots a piece of their mind. It's very satisfying!

Despite me liking Attack on Titan, I still have quite a few issues with it, and I've said it quite a few times, either on Ao3 or on this blog. One of the major things being season 4 was rushed and because it was rushed, there were many character moments and build up that Isayama completely missed out on, like the Marleyans and their dynamics or Eren's descent into madness. I think that an extra season would have help a lot of the stuff that Isayama intended for season 4.

That being said:

I've have to really break down, edit and rewrite Primus' interactions with Zeke and Eren multiple times, and I'll elaborate on that in an AOP alternate scene. Primus has also withheld his identity from Eren and Zeke in order to determine their character. If Primus had said that he's Optimus' god, obviously they're going to treat him differently and hide stuff from him, so keeping his origins a secret benefitted him long term. And he was glad that he did considering what he ends up learning about the brothers.

So when Primus does confront them with his identity revealed, he's really just watching them scramble trying to come up with excuses for their plans. Both involve genocide, which he obviously doesn't agree with as a being of creation, which is why Primus removes Zeke's ability to communicate with Ymir, both as a punishment for his crimes, and so he doesn't enact his plan.

Still, Primus does feel pity for Zeke, understands his plight, and considering the other alternative being Eren's plan, he does believe Zeke's plan is the better option. Zeke's plan doesn't kill off the current living Eldians. It just stops them from having children. Which is still a genocide, the Eldian people will die out, but it's a small price to pay for the future of the AOT world. However Primus has seen Zeke show no remorse in his actions when it came to killing for Marley's empire and didn't truly value life and the actual points of living. Zeke's plan simply reflected a deep-seated issue within himself: that he just wanted to die.

However, there's also the issue of Zeke not getting the actual results he wants with his plan, because people are going to be people and will abuse power. From a historical standpoint, I don't think that Zeke's plan would have achieved world peace. It simply would have caused a power vacuum that would have been replaced by another, possibly crueler, power.

Now, I know that people bag on Zeke a lot, and I've done that too, but Zeke has still been dealt a really bad hand, and that is something I have to acknowledge. Zeke's ultimate purpose in living essentially boiled down to wanting to die while also fulfilling Ksaver's plan. But because Primus told and showed him that his future was not possible, he loses any real will to live. At least that's how I saw it, especially since in the main AOT timeline, Zeke didn't really fight his way out of the Paths and made sandcastles until Armin showed up. Zeke had to really be broken down emotionally in order for Primus to consider him a non-threat, and all he had to do was show Zeke the futility of his plans.

Eren however-!

So imagine this from Primus' perspective: you wake up after the war is over and have been revived. You hear a cry from across the universe in an alternate dimension and go searching for it in said alternate dimension. You travel through years worth of memories without having the ability to really interact with the outside world. But then a miracle happens: you meet two humans that can see you completely! One of them is wary of him, but the other is willing to speak with him. He's rather quiet, but he's polite and considerate or Primus' situation. The two even bond for about seven years of searching through Grisha's memories, so much so that Primus even reveals his name to Eren.

But then Primus finds out that Eren had been withholding information that he clearly knew, actively attacked him with he tried to create a peaceful solution, and spoke of his disciple, Optimus, in such a vile and twisted manner even though Optimus wasn't supposed to be here in the first place. And then you find out, through searching through memories, much to the behest of the Primes to not do that, that this teenager not only wants to destroy the world, but kills one of your very first creations in the process.

Obviously, Primus is very pissed off at Eren more than he is at Zeke.

One of the few things that genuinely frustrated me when the final manga chapter of AOT came out was that Eren's friends were still treating him with kindness, respect, and even love, even though he tried to kill them and wiped out 80% of humanity. Eren destroyed the world and put many survivors of the massacre in desolate situations. The anime does improve on this a little bit, with Armin having a much more visceral reaction to being told that 80% of humanity is dead. However, what Eren did was genocide to a massive degree, and it clearly wasn't to protect his friends or even the island. It was for his own selfish gain of fulfilling a wish that never really existed. I implore you to watch this video:

Because it provides a really great breakdown of Eren's overall character which is that his main, selfish, desire, is freedom, and he will do everything and anything to get it. Even if it meant his friends and family got caught in the crossfires, even if he understood the struggles of the Eldians outside of the walls, he rejected all of that in order to fulfill his selfish wish.

And this breakdown really helped me write Eren's interactions with Primus a lot more fluidly. Because Primus has seen the goodness within Eren. He knows the good things that Eren is capable of doing, so he's so confused as to why Eren devolved into madness and death in such a short amount of time in his eyes. Primus brings up the fall of Shinganshina and the death of his mother, but Primus knows deep down that doesn't address the issue of Eren's motivation. He feels as though it is something else. So he brings up his friends, Armin, Mikasa, and Optimus to try and figure out the underlying issue. (I'll also break down the Prime voices in another ask and how each of them, and Primus, react to Eren's answers because that deserves it's own post). But Primus just sees Eren dodging the question, refusing to stand down when it came to the concern and safety of the people he cared about. He justifies his actions as protecting them, but Primus knows that none of them wanted this.

It's only when Primus threatens Eren's freedom that Eren confesses his truth:

“I WON’T LET YOU! THAT FREEDOM IS MINE!” Eren screamed in anger, “AND THE WORLD KEEPS TRYING TO TAKE IT! THE OUTSIDE WORLD IS JUST LIKE HUMANITY IN THE WALLS! THE WORLDS BEYOND IT ARE ALL JUST THE SAME! I HATE IT! WHAT’S THE POINT OF ANY OF IT?! EVERYONE IS JUST SELFISH AND I JUST WANT TO SEE IT GONE!”

Eren just wants to see the world burn and achieve the freedom he so desired as a child, and Primus reacts appropriately by calling him out for his childishness and nearly ends his life over it. Because like the video said, Eren hasn't grown or changed. He's rejected the growth that's he's been confronted with and has always been the same person since season 1.

There's a lot more that I can talk about, and this definitely feels like it's me rambling. I'm certain I did repeat some points. However, I don't mind asks regarding chapter 90 and 91 because I really want to provide my breakdowns even further on the topics and ideas I've had.

[aengelren]

He’s perfect.

[rewrite-canon]

tragic/ doomed sibling roulette

[autumnmobile12]

This scene was a train wreck.

So they all were pretty sure the Female Titan was Annie before it got to this point, right?  They had a meeting and everything, didn’t they?

And Plan A was capture and interrogate?  Back her into a position where she would have been desperate enough to violently lash out and cause catastrophic loss of life to the military and civilians?  The plan was lure her underground where she hopefully wouldn’t cause much damage?

Shouldn’t Plan A have been diplomacy and negotiation?

In this situation, the Scouts should have tried to negotiate.  Offer amnesty for her crimes in exchange for information.  It would have dishonored the people who’d died, sure, but the Walls were in a position where they were in dire need of information.  Sue for peace, compromise, find out what the enemy wants, uphold your end of the bargain (because if another Shifter is captured, you need their confidence you’re going to keep your word,) and most importantly, figure out the Shifters’ motives.  What do they want?

“Remember, whatever the price...I'll beat it! I like living! Tyrion Lannister”. ― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones (or is this line not in the books?)

...

Throughout this part, both Armin and Eren are trying to reason with Annie...

...and Mikasa steps in and says she's heard enough and starts threatening her?

First time I watched this scene, when Mikasa steps up and shouts she's heard enough and there's no point in continuing, my immediate thought was, "What the fuck? We're done talking already?"

Annie wasn't even doing anything. She was just standing there. She wasn't saying anything aggressive. She wasn't even reaching for that ring she used. All she did was confess she found Marco's ODM gear, implying she knows what happened to him, as well as admit she doesn't know why she spared Armin. The ball was entirely in Annie's court. She still had an opportunity to say, "Fine, let's talk," until Mikasa opened her mouth.

If either Armin or Eren had any sense, they should've rounded on Mikasa and told her to sit down and shut up. "If she's not attacking yet, neither are we."

To sum up, the Scouts needed information. They identified a mole working for the enemy. The enemy's motives are at this point unknown. So they needed Annie's cooperation. Nobody is going to cooperate when they're being threatened like that. No wonder she started laughing and chose violence.

As far as I'm concerned, until Annie actually made a move against them (whether it was a verbal threat or shifting into titan form,) they still had a chance for diplomacy. No bets were off until that happened. There was no logical reason to threaten her.

The Scouts shot themselves in the foot that day.

[shmlnbstrcnd]

If Arcane writers wrote Attack on Titan:

- After his devastating attack on Marley and the battle in Liberio, Eren suddenly ditches his desire for revenge. He adopts Falco and the two live in a hideout together. His friends ask him why he has suddenly become so passive after committing that huge attack. "Eren is dead" he says, and continues playing with bugs with Falco.

- In Season 4, Hange is revealed as the true villain of the show after she goes too far experimenting with Titans. Since mad scientist Hange loves Titans so much, she now thinks that everyone should turn into Titans. She plans to steal the Founding Titan to ascend to godhood and forcefully turn everyone into a hivemind Titan army. Eldians and Marleyans forgive each other and join forces to take down Hange.

- Two episodes before the finale, School Castes AU is made canon and given an entire episode's worth of screentime within the actual show. Mikasa travels to the alternate universe by quantum leaping into the body of her alternate self where she has a romance with Normie Eren.

- Grisha Jaeger's remains were found in the woods after Eren ate him. From his remains, he is revived into a werewolf-Titan hybrid monster. Eren and Zeke join forces to look for him. He attacks them but luckily recognizes them at the last minute. They have a family group hug which Falco joins (Falco is there). Later they take him to Hange to be cured but things go south and Grisha goes crazy again. Falco blows himself up to kill Grisha and save Eren. Unfortunately, Grisha survives. No one mentions Falco again. Eren sacrifices himself by killing Grisha to save Zeke.

- Gabi never has an onscreen arc of realizing she is being used as an indoctrinated tool against her own people. She fights Hange's Titan army while wearing the Warrior Unit uniform. Many Eldian civilians are also convinced to help Marley defeat Hange and they are all given Marleyan soldier uniforms during the final battle. At the end of the show, Gabi is still happily a Warrior soldier. "Are you still in this fight, Gabi?" asks a Marleyan elite. "I am the dirt under your nails," she replies. "Nothing's gonna clean me out."

[loafl]

Thoughts on Mikasa in the AOT finale

i had fun overall but i enjoy being nit picky so here we go:

mikasa kind of feels like a wasted character, which is really a shame because i like her.

it feels like she had kind of a lack of character development compared to the other two (kind of ended how she started in regards to her relationship to eren which is what largely defined her unfortunately)

and because of the lack of development, it felt unearned that she was the specific person that moved ymir's heart and ended the titans after 2000 years. why were her emotions more significant than any other eldian's for 2000 years?

and dont get me started on the "at least 10 years" line from eren. the only thing that makes that better is the idea that armin was more so just being shown what he emotionally needed to be shown rather than shown the real eren as the guy we knew him as

honestly i thought the friendship between eren and armin was much more touching than eren and mikasa's… thing. eren did so much for armin, wanted to show him freedom outside the walls after the book, he became a titan in the first place because of the resolve he felt activating it while sacrificing his life for armin

meanwhile mikasa, a lot of his actions were in spite of her tbh. she was never for the survey corps. she literally chased him sometimes. it was sweet when he protected them both from the smiling titan ofc, but that didnt really sell me on their relationship from his end

if mikasa got more growth separate from eren or at least reassessing eren then maybe the ymir ending would feel deserved but i kind of doubt it.

i kind of wanted mikasa's loyalty towards eren to be assessed more. i thought her eren-titan-roof-scar was going to be symbolic of how their relationship was a little toxic at times and she'd grow or smth (she's even called out by levi and other characters for her fixation of eren), but ig not. she's literally buried with the scarf and at one point cradling his head (which was admittedly cool, but also so symbolic of their relationship and her stagnated growth)

idk i just felt like a lot of mikasa's growth and outside relationships happened in the beginning (rivalry with annie), but then her character kind of stagnated to be nothing more than a weapon and her dynamic with eren did not grow or change

[starlight-bread-blog]

Mikasa's Obssesion With Eren Wasn't Handled Well

(Spoilers for all of AoT, including the manga).

I'm pretty sure no one is gonna argue that Mikasa's entire arc and personality is centered around Eren, and that's the point. This isn't rocket science. But here's why I still don't like it:

1. Sometimes it feels like the only reason Mikasa thinks her obssesion with Eren is unhealthy because he commited mass genocide. I have no problem with that being her "wake up" moment, but it seems like she never understood that it was a problem to begin with.

2. At the end of arcs like this Mikasa should have a strong sense of self, be her own person and live her own life. So how did the writer choose to conclude Mikasa's arc?

Damn it! I know Mikasa has a great life now with I have no idea who, but why should the concludion of her arc should be in an extra?

+ I have to seriously doubt the conclusion is all that great.

Still all we see is visiting Eren, we should see her on her own. I don't want Mikasa to get a spin off all about her life, I'm saying that in the panels in which we do see her, we should see what her life is like after Eren, since it's her arc.

3. The pacing is terrible. Her arc only kicks in 4 seasons in. Which means, there are 3 whole seasons of Mikasa solely obssesing over Eren.

Mikasa spends 3 seasons having her character centered around Eren, never actually realized that it was unhealthy all this time, only for all of her appearances after the end of her arc to be only about Eren. She never fully gains a self.

[lovedaisy02]

I think I finally have my rating rating on AOT after so many ups and downs. I had to cool off first from the disappointment because it's really not as low of a show as I make it sound at times. I think solid 6.5/10

(Review contains slight spoilers without specifics)

Unfortunately, AOT is a show that has a lot of strong parts and scenes (Erens mothers death, Erwin's speech etc) but it's weak looked at as a whole. Unlike shows that have the opposite problem such as ATLA, each book individually isn't very strong but when looked at together in a progression creates a solid beautiful story. The second major flaw of AOT is it's plot, writing and overall narrative. Poor writing can be hidden behind a good narrative (not to keep using ATLA verse but some of the writing isn't very good at times especially in LOK but the narrative is good.) AOT suffers from a lack of character development and pacing issues. While Eren gets a lot of development he's still one dimensional which is not rare for an anime but the supporting cast has nothing of substance to give than what they are written for. The only character that does is Reiner and he experiences a better character arc than the main character. This, I believe, contributes to the poor storytelling because the author can't write their characters doing day to day nonsense things (until Levi comes along with his quirks on cleaning). This is something long stories like Gintama, One Piece or even Hunter Hunter benefit from. The world and cast are so in depth and rich the authors can buy time from writing plot points by writing their characters simply interacting. AOT can't benefit from that because the world and characters are limited which wouldn't be a problem if the narrative was strong enough for it not to matter. Which causes the main issue, time skips.

Time skips are used often in storytelling, it allows the speaker/author/storyteller to get where they want the characters without having to explain every step of the way. It's used all the time in small increments usually skipping a few days, hours, or just minutes. AOT skips large amounts of time, years, without explanation in order to hide the weakness of the narrative. It's use after the second time makes it obvious it's a crutch for the writer and unfortunately makes the story come off as underdeveloped,(which proven by the ending, it is underdeveloped.) I don't blame the mangaka because mangaka are often put under intense pressure to continue their story as fast as possible to the point of hospitalization.

Finally, the time travel. It doesn't logically work and fictions number one rule is that it **has to make sense**. It wouldn't be possible for Eren to influence his father unless the type of time traveled used is alternate timelines which is not proven nor mentioned. As far as the story it's present as linear or even in a circle or perhaps happening simultaneously which doesn't make sense. So if this newest part doesn't show an alternate timeline was created, then that is a huge huge flaw.

And there's no narrative driven reason for Eren to do what he did at the end. He could've had a five minute conversation that would've lead to a better ending. We've spent the entire story setting up that Armin is the smartest person to walk in that world, he somehow figured out many things that he shouldnt have been able to figure out, but you couldn't ask his opinion? If you're going to go that route you must provide a narrative driven reason why.

The animation is amazing the story is shocking thrilling the speeches are good but it is unfortunately not going to be able to be up there with Code Geass which it emulated and eventually blatantly ripped off, Cowboy Bebop, or FMA.

This is just a side note, but killing characters off screen that were part of the major cast for a while to me is really the low of the low for storytelling and reserved for episodic TV shows that need to replace actors not for anything else but that's more subjective than objective so I won't include it in the major issues.

Do I still recommend this anime? Not really. If you've watched anime for a while and/or if you've seen any Gundam and Code Geass I would pass. I would only recommend AOT to new anime fans or to those that care about seeing generationally important shows. This show made an impact on people no matter how it went.

[erwinsarmrest]

this fandom does make me laugh a little because i’ll see someone analyze a scene to hell and jump through so many hoops to prove/disprove ships using so much critical thinking and media literacy skills and then turn around and completely miss the hardly even underlying themes and messages that the story is trying to convey