#thank you isayama for giving us this beyond incredible man

[simibraun]

Attack on Titan, chapter 137 analysis.

Chapter 137 has put everyone to thoughts by giving the answer which is so obvious and simple, an answer that is right before our eyes every single day, regarding the meaning of life and its beautiful simplicity. This chapter has some beautiful parts and I feel that Isayama completes my complex thoughts as a human being. After all, this is why I am so passionate about the story of Attack on Titan, because in one way or another, in the last 11 years reading his story, Isayama described to me, teached me, gave me answers and helped me in his way, to understand my journey in life. I have a lot say and I could write endless things regarding this matter, but I expressed many things in the following texts, regarding the conversation between Zeke and Armin, which is the most interesting part of this chapter. The following texts are a mixture of chapter analysis and personal expression. Let's begin with the quote Zeke said: “Maybe the end of your days are being manipulated.. all in the name of multiplication. Without ever knowing if it means anything at all.” The meaning of life sure is a complicated matter, but as far as we can understand life, a human is able to give and leave behind more things to this world, than just multiplication. A man is born to feel the completeness of his/her journey in life. But nowadays we are mostly lost in the heaviness of a dark life that we created by our own actions or created by others. We forgot the beautiful, meaningful and simple things that exist in our world and we lost our connection to them. Isayama made a story that most of it contains life struggles, we felt many times sadness and heartbroken while reading a chapter. The things that happen in his story and the experiences of his characters, are reflections of our reality and in each reflection, there is a part of us or a part of someone we know. Those reflections evoke to us the emotions from something that happened in our life, and we keep it in our memories. We too struggle in our reality, nowadays we are so busy dealing with problems and we mostly forget to observe and enjoy the beauty of the simplicity that surrounds us, because we are lost in worries and we are blinded by fake sights. I bet you can feel it too, you can see it too, how our daily life is filled mostly with problems, antagonism, people with fake personalities who cannot  even understand their own selves, showing something that they are not. And the result? Spreading misconception which can lead to hatred, setting high standards, do bad actions only to offend other people and see their downfall. That is something that happens too in the story of Attack on Titan, we see reflections of our reality. A human is not born to be lost in the worries and heaviness of a cruel world, which is something that has been created by his own actions. A human is born to connect to life, create, daydream, philosophize and feel its completeness in his/her journey. When Armin held that leaf and then the baseball, he said while showing it to Zeke: “To my eyes, even if there's no need for something like this in order to multiply, it's still something incredibly precious.” And Zeke said: “It doesn't mean a thing but.. you are right.” Reading this part, I can only think of how it is also in our reality, how some people became pragmatists-realists to the point as if they are paralyzed in their own thoughts and cannot allow themselves see and feel the simple beauties in life, feel fondness towards something. Some people cannot understand someone's fondness-affection towards some things. They believe that some things we love, are meaningless, because they don't have a specific purpose in life, rather than just being lifeless objects. You can see it every day around you, each one of us has different interests, different passions, some people may even ask you about the things you love and cannot understand why you love them so much. Regarding the things I love, these are some of the questions I've been asked and not only from people I don't know that much but from people who are very close to me: “Why do you buy all this merch?” ”Why would you spend so much money for these stuff?” “Why are you so obsessed with this anime-character?” “Why do people give you their money, to draw them a fictional character?” “It's funny how you people get so obsessed with these things, why do they even pay you to draw something that is not based in real life people or events? Let me bring you back to reality, they don't exist, there's no meaning to it.” To each one of these questions, the answer is: “Because in every part of these things, are memories and memories evoke emotions." and it's also the opposite, there are emotions that evoke memories. There are some things that people fail to understand, even if they think they do and still they believe that the things we love are meaningless, in reality they are not. A memory is evoked by emotions that are connected to something that happened in our life. Be it a story, a fictional character, an object, an image, these things can connect us to those memories, those emotions that we once felt and to life in general. This is why we love owning some things and are passionate about them, because we see a part of ourselves, they make us feel comfortable, they remind us beautiful memories and emotions, simply they give us life. Nothing is meaningless, no matter if some people cannot understand some things, the emotions that are being evoked through the things we love, will always be personal, not everyone is able to understand them completely and we don't always have to explain to them, simply because they are personal, only we are able understand them deeply. Those who have been following me throughout the years, you may remember some of my comments or talking on livestreams regarding this story, that the reasons for being so passionate with AoT and feeling so attached to it, are reasons so deep and personal. Armin describes his memories, about enjoying the simplicity in life and when describing those moments, he feels peaceful. We often recall memories that evoke a nostalgic feeling about the good old days and somehow, even for a moment, we feel as if we are there living that moment again and we feel peaceful and complete. Those are the moments that connect us in life. As Armin describes some of his beautiful memories and thoughts to Zeke, I want also to describe to you some of mine. Memories that I keep remembering and still cling to them. Some of the memories I keep remembering, are the days I've spent in nature when I was younger, my first house was right in front of the sea, so daily I used to play around the shore and on the other side of the sea, was visible mount Olympus. What a beautiful sight it was. There was a small harbor close to my house and I remember we dived there with the other kids from the village to take out the starfish that were laying on the harbor, we brought them out to the shore and we observed how they were moving their legs and slowly went back to the sea. As Zeke misses and feels about Ksaver, that's how I feel about my grandfather, I remember how I walked with him and his two dogs in a beautiful forest that was close to his house, and specifically I remember the image of a path we walked deep inside the forest. The image of sunlight falling among the branches still frames my thoughts so clearly. I really miss him and those moments, I even saw these memories in my dreams. It felt like I was living it again. Another memory of a village I used to visit, which is among mountains, we used to climb on the mountain's slopes with some kids and we had a specific spot of a rock that was very slippery. We called it “the slide” it was our playground. As Armin remembers that sweet warm breeze, I can also remember that chilly breeze of those moments in the mountain and the sight of its wild nature. I sure cannot forget these memories. Every time I think of them, I feel peaceful, moments so simple yet they make me feel complete, because I was completely connected with life. I remember someone asked me a question on one of my IG livestreams: “What is inspiring you? How do you convey your inspiration into art?” and here also, with this chapter Isayama completes my answer to this question: I said that, anywhere I go, be it for a walk, travel somewhere, even when I just have to go to work, from the moment I step out, I observe everything around me. I don't like to look down as I walk, if I do, it will be only because I am lost to some thoughts that take me to another place. I always observe the things around me, observe the sky and its colors, the clouds and the sunlight, the birds flying, I observe the flowers how they dance in the breeze, I will catch a glimpse of the gaze from the person walking past next to me, sometimes I see beautiful sad gazes, sometimes bright ones, sometimes a smile, it's as if I live in my own world and I see everything in a cinematic view. I love observing, and I love to see things beyond of what I observe, I love trying to understand the deeper part of what I see. And all these emotions along with personal experiences, make me create worlds in my mind that I convey into art. I guess this is why I am so passionate about this story, because it completes my complex thoughts. When Zeke says “So I suppose, I'll thank you. Dad..” to Grisha, it's like what we are used to say regarding some of the hardships that we've been through. That no matter how rough some of our experiences have been, in the end, these experiences made us who we are now and made us stronger. We saw and understood a different part and meaning in life. If Zeke wouldn't have been through those hardships from Grisha, he wouldn't have met and have those precious moments with Ksaver. Although, sometimes we wish that it would be preferable not to have been through these hard times, but still, isn't it somehow a magical thing that we are able to feel such deep emotions that were evoked through hardships? A human is made and is capable to withstand all the hardships of the world. This is also a part of life, to be able to understand its different perspectives, both good and bad ones. These moments and memories give me joy, and I want to continue to create more beautiful memories, even if there will be sad ones too and even if I've been through really tough hardships so far, I still want to feel its completeness. Which beautiful memories and experiences, are the ones that you keep remembering, have the nostalgia to go back to and live them again? The ones you think about, are the ones that prove that you were truly connected to life. Thank you for reading my thoughts.

[inhonoredglory]

i dont think you ever received my last ask a while back, but now i gotta know what ur favorite duos are! (platonic or romantic!) - armin anon

o h mygod forgive me dear armin nonnie!!! the last weeks of school threw me off and then the trollhunters trailer hit and I got distracted. but I hope you’re still out there hearing my answer. I really have fun chatting with you, so thanks for this second question!

My favorite duos, oh gosh. I could even talk about my favorite trios, the character relationships in SNK are so well developed and rich.

Erwin and Levi

My top duo is of course Erwin and Levi. (My summer project is to make a receipts AMV of all the wonderful things Isayama and others have said about the pair.) Their closeness is something else, built on such mutuality, maturity, and love. Erwin looks like a devil to everyone but Levi, who sees his innocent humanity; Levi looks cold and unemotional to everyone but Erwin, who sees his compassionate nature. Erwin changed Levi’s worldview––allowing him to see beyond his own small world to a bigger one, where freedom was possible. Levi saw the darkest side of Erwin’s heart, and still trusted him implicitly, believing in him and selflessly giving up his own need for Erwin to stay in his life in order to give him peace and redemption instead. And as Isayama said,

“Levi had always seen Erwin’s goal of doing things for humanity’s future as an unimaginably altruistic act, and made it his life’s mission to reach the same heights.”

And with that final act of letting Erwin die, Levi did just that––become selfless in the hardest way possible. To let go of the person that gave your life meaning, because in death was healing, in death was innocence, in death was love.

Are they romantic or platonic? To me, love is beyond those labels. People can be romantic with each other and not really have real love. People can have real, dedicated love and never ever kiss or want to. Levi and Erwin share an undeniable soulmate bond, and while there is definite signs of romantic Eruri (Isayama hinting Levi’s type isn’t women, but tall people; Erwin getting flirty in supplemental short stories), to me the important part is that they are each other’s special person and that’s why I adore them so much.

(Artist: rozavay)

Jean and Armin

Because Jean and Armin were two of my first faves from the show, I naturally gravitated to the pair. What I adore about them is how much each one of them defends the other, desperately rushing to each other’s aid on the battlefield and trusting one another. Going through the manga, I found a really touching moment when Armin was fixing a prisoner's gag (the man who had sexually harassed him) and getting visibly disturbed. Jean felt that, and intercepted the moment, getting Armin out of that situation. Jean’s actually really good at detecting people’s emotions, so it was beautiful to see him sensitive and caring with Armin.

I don’t see them as romantic, but I enjoy some good Jearmin just the same, and there’s something to be said for Jean’s canonical jealousy of Armin spending so much time with Eren. Armin’s just that good a catch LOL.

Jean and Marco

Marco changed Jean’s life, gave him a reason to be more than himself. He believed in Jean, trusted him, and encouraged him. I find it incredibly moving that Jean keeps coming back to Marco to remind himself why he chose the life he did.

I totally got on board the ship with this amazing fic about the two of them: To Everything There Is A Season by flecksofpoppy

Canonically, I don’t believe it’s romantic, but they share the deep, beautiful bond of one person owing their entire life’s purpose and sense of meaning from the other.

(Artist: kaa05n2)

Bertholdt and Reiner (+Titan Trio)

Since Bertholdt was my bean in season 2, I really felt drawn to his relationship with Reiner. My sister loved Reiner too, so this duo was a good one for us both to enjoy. Bertholdt was always so insecure in himself, afraid to do or say anything in the big scary, foreign world he was dropped into as a child warrior. He relied on Reiner, and yet so often he couldn’t access him emotionally, since he was dealing with their tragic lives in his own way. He had to grow to be Reiner’s anchor, while still awash himself. They fought for each other more than for their homeland, fought for the things they both came to care about growing up on Paradis, and they were inseparable. Bertholdt risked his mission to see if Reiner was okay in the Return to Shigonshina arc, and he drew strength from Reiner’s trust in him to make his own choices and act on his own in that battle as well. As much as it pains me to see him fulfill his character growth in such a dark way, I still have a spot in my heart for him and his friendship with Reiner.

Levi and Furlan (+Underground Trio)

I got hit in the face with this relationship after I read the No Regrets manga, which shows so much more than the anime version regarding the equality in trust between Levi and Furlan. In the manga, Levi didn’t have subordinates (denying the term for them), he had friends who he had made his family. Levi bet all their lives on Furlan’s plan, and when he went on his first mission, he had such a falling out with him because Levi wanted to protect him and Isabel. Furlan was so grieved by the darkness in both Levi and Isabel’s hearts and put everything on the line because he believed he needed to get them out of the darkness of the underground. Their relationship is a beautiful insight into Levi’s early years and his inherent compassion and deep care for others.

^ The Levi Ackerman actually stopping to hearken to the command of someone else (who’s not Erwin lol), trusting in Furlan’s bigger plans with this stranger than just merely kicking him out, like Levi wanted to do.

Armin and Eren (+Shigonshina Trio)

The entire rooftop sequence and serumbowl shows how much Eren (and Mikasa) care and love Armin. In a way, Eren and Armin are the mirror for Levi and Erwin, with Erwin’s bigger dreams of the world outside the walls turning Levi’s motivations, built on tragedy, into something positive and forward-looking. Likewise, Eren’s darker need for anger and revenge is turned into something good and innocent when he shares in Armin’s dream. Armin’s hope makes Eren feel confident. He believes in him even when Armin doesn’t believe in himself. And of course, that painful way Armin tells him, “I’d never lie to you, would I?” because he knows Eren would never let him go through with his selfless mission if he’d known what he meant to do. To Eren, Armin is a better person than he’d ever be.

Now why couldn’t we have just ended the whole show right here lol?

Ymir and Historia

One of the few explicitly canon romantic couples in SNK! Their story is tragic, beautiful, and inspiring. Each one of them telling the other to be free of society’s expectations of them, to stop living for other people and to live for themselves––together. The change in Ymir, going from someone selfish to someone who would die for Historia’s happiness, is a gut-wrenching thing to watch. Their shared arc is complex, messy, and struck through by the goodness of a young girl who found the humanity in someone who never thought themselves worthy of love.

aaa I think that covers my favorite duos in SNK!

[ephemeralnerd]

SNK 119: Big Brothers and Little Brothers

(AKA Paths No Jutsu and Central Nervous Nonsense)

Even before we get into the chapter, I would like to say that this is one of the best chapters in a while. Of course, not every chapter can be high-stakes desperation, but this chapter was exactly that and exactly what we needed. We haven’t felt anything like this since RTS. The Grim Reminder 2.0 at the festival was quite destructive, but it was nowhere near as brutal as this arc is. What shall we call this arc, anyway? Return to Shiganshina again? The Great Shiganshina Massacre?

Massacre is a very fitting word to use, since this chapter saw off many characters. 

An F in the Chat For:

Nile Dok, Dot Pixis, Rogue — basically the whole Military sans the SC

It hurt to see Pixis and Nile get titanised. Pixis is one of those characters that deserved an honourable death — he consistently put humanity before his own needs and being turned into a titan feels more an injustice towards him than anyone else in the military, in my opinion. While Nile wasn’t such a fan favourite, his actions over the past few chapters have proved that he was a good person too, even though he didn’t have the same kind of selfless abandon to risk his life on the front lines. We haven’t seen them in their Titan forms, though, which leads me to think that something relevant could happen with them. 

Porco Gaillard

R.I.P salty pork boy. I’m sad we never got more coverage of him relaying Ymir’s memories (I would have liked to see him interact with Historia, despite the lack of practicality in this situation), but his death was so fitting. Porco, despite having his doubts, was pretty loyal to Marley and his duty. His mission and his hate for Reiner were his two motivations, and they came together perfectly as he sacrificed himself for Falco. Since he was beyond regeneration anyway, he didn’t want Marley to lose the Jaw power. He also gave one last fuck-you to Reiner in two ways. One — reminding him that he was better, all the way to the end. Two — not putting Reiner out of his misery and letting him die. If anything, he just prolonged Reiner’s suffering and guilt at letting Marcel get eaten by Ymir. However, Porco didn’t die resenting Reiner. Seeing Marcel’s memories when Reiner touched Eren and he touched Reiner, Porco finally got the truth as to why Reiner inherited the armoured titan. It all just clicked. This was a perfect arc for a pretty good character, but if I have any criticism, it’s that Porco’s death felt quite rushed and out of the blue. 

Colt Grice

Dang. This one hurt the MOST. Colt wasn’t a remarkable boy by any means. While him qualifying to inherit the beast is a feat, he hadn’t really done much. But not every character needs to do much. Colt loved his family and no better is it shown here when he launches an emotional tirade at Zeke in an attempt to save Falco. He casts aside his loyalties, not caring what happens to Marley or Eldia — he just wants his brother to be safe. Colt constantly put himself on the line for Falco — when we’re introduced to him, he’s saving Falco’s life, sacrificing his helmet for him. He never has to do any of this. When Zeke screamed, he could’ve run away and saved himself. But he didn’t, because he didn’t want Falco to be alone. 

Gosh. That panel of him holding onto Falco is heart wrenching. Despite not being a stand-out character, Colt got one of the saddest deaths in the series. 

Dead, or just cosplaying as a corpse?

Theo Magath’s fate is pretty up in the air. This guy has survived every that life as thrown at him so far, and it would be most unceremonious for Magath of all people to go out like that. However, it’s difficult to survive a thunder spear blast. I mean, look what it did to Levi. 

Speaking of Levi (whom I will get to later), we still have no confirmation on his fate. Of course, Hanji wouldn’t rush away with him like that if he were dead, but we know nothing of the extent of his injuries (except from the fingers he lost). 

Did Shadis drink the wine? I know Shadis has basically no relevance now, and having him titanised wouldn’t affect anything at all, but it would be something poetic if the “non-special” one is the only one to survive. 

 Morality, My Favourite Shade of Grey

This chapter has made it increasingly difficult to predict what is going to happen next. How are our characters going to move forward? Are Paradis even doing the right thing? 

Everything is a mess. The commander is nowhere to be seen, the survey corps are in ruins, and our protagonist is headless. Suffice to say, things really could be better.  

Should Gabi have shot Eren? From a plot perspective, obviously not. We like our protags with their heads on, thank you very much. From a Marleyan perspective, Gabi’s basically Helos. She’s defeated the Eldian threat for the sake of Marley. But is Gabi doing this for Marley or for herself? Recently, her driving force has been the destruction of Liberio, and after Pieck talked to her in her cell, she could finally wake up and realise that Marley doesn't care about her one bit unless she’s used as cannon fodder. 

From an Eldian perspective, Eren’s death is the worst thing that could happen. If Marley possess the founding Titan, then the Walldians have no leverage in the world. It would essentially reverse all the work they’d done in tens of years.

But what if the Founding, Attack and Warhammer are passed on to babies in the walls? What if someone manages to inherit it? Remember what Magath said — they only need Eren’s spinal fluid, not his head. If there were any blatant foreshadowing in this chapter, that’s it. 

With Eren’s reckless behaviour, is he really the best person to hold all this immense power? One could argue that the pressure and holding the fates of everyone he holds dear within his hands could be the reason for his behaviour, but even then, all the characters are losing their trust in Eren, fast. Would it not be a relief for the wild goose chase to end? Or should they adopt Mikasa’s view and trust Eren to the end? Will the result of his behaviour justify the destruction, the distrust, chaos?

Another thing that I’ve been battling with is whether Zeke is an “ends justify the means” person or whether he is just plain heartless. Zeke has only shown proper, true affection for two people — Eren, and Tom Xaver, and that’s only because they would advance his plans and “agree” with his ideals. Well, the jury’s still out on Eren agreeing with the Euthanasia plan. 

Once again, here you can see that Zeke doesn’t care about anyone that isn’t useful to him. Even though he calls Pieck his “little dear”, he still doesn’t care whether she lives or dies, or what happens to the rest of the Marley crew. 

You could argue that him listening to Colt’s plea is demonstrative of empathy and that Zeke feels that what he’s about to do is truly unfortunate. However, I don’t buy it. For me, it just seems like Zeke is rubbing salt to a very raw wound. By hearing Colt out, essentially being like “too bad, I win”, and then screaming, all Zeke did was break their hearts even more. 

All he’s done is double cross people and murder for his own selfish gains. And while I could see his perspective — the sort of self-loathing he must feel is obviously incredibly painful — Zeke is ultimately pathetic. For a man with 11/10 smarts, his plans have fallen apart spectacularly, a plan which had a major flaw from the start. 

Eren is in control of the founding power. And what happens to that founding power after Eren’s beheading at the hands of Gabi?

If there’s someone you can count on to fulfil their promises, well… it’s Gabi. Not even Levi could fulfil his promise to kill Zeke (yet!). 

The ending panel leads us to the theorising side of this month. 

So, going forward, let’s address the most pressing questions.

 Questions, Questions, and More Damn Questions

1.Eren’s mortality. 

I’m personally confident that Eren isn’t dead. I think that the reason why Ymir (or Bucket girl, though I believe we can assume they’re the same person) resurrected Zeke was not for his own plan — because why would Ymir want her people to go extinct — but because he is instrumental to Eren’s. I think it’s obvious that this story will begin and end with Eren Jaeger. How he will recover from having his head lopped off, though…

 2. If life gives you lemons, make sandcastles?

I suppose the obvious way to go is for Eren to go to the paths dimension and get moulded like Zeke did. After the scream, there are tons of mindless titans around for this to happen. I don’t think Eren has been in the paths realm yet, so his reaction would be interesting to see. I imagine it would be something akin to him in Santa Titan’s stomach, less rage-y, but still good old “I’m free because I was born into this world” Eren. 

There aren’t many other ways. Consciousness transference seemingly won’t work in this case, since he’s not in Titan form and his CNS has been completely severed. 

A sort of plausible way is that he could be decoy 3.0 — he’s got a Warhammer-esque body underground and somehow this body is just a decoy. I don’t know how that’s going to work, and if I’m honest, I don’t really subscribe to this. 

The other way is if Zeke catches his head and somehow, they activate the founding powers. Remember, brain activity doesn’t stop immediately after death — even after a beheading. So, if Zeke’s reflexes are still point, which I imagine they are if he has a chance to complete his euthanasia plan — they could possibly enact it that way. 

But what if none of this is even necessary?

 3. It was all just a dream...

I suppose the wackest theory that’s circling is that Eren is conducting some       P A T H S memory game with us all. People have pointed out inconsistencies in the chapter that could just be chalked down to Isayama continuity error. Things such as:

Eren’s shirt changing, and him jumping out of his Titan with shoes and trousers after getting his legs bitten off

Pieck regenerating and re-transforming very quickly

Gabi riding a horse despite not knowing how to 

Colt’s rifle should be scorching hot after he got fried 

The only point where Zeke and Eren would have come into contact was through Zeke’s blood when he got shot. He’s actually not that far from Zeke when he falls from the wall. 

Another contact sub-theory is that Zeke touched the decoy Titan on the outer gate as he fell. That’s got to have Eren’s DNA on it, right? But the issue with that is Zeke isn’t the one to control the founding. I always assumed that the important point of contact was Eren, since he holds the power. 

Another issue that there are plenty of non-Eldians around, such as Mikasa, Yelena, and Magath. So, unless bloodlines are a lie… there’s no way that Eren can pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.  And now that it’s been confirmed that Yams had to rush 21 panels in 2 days, I’ve got to say this theory is starting to hold less and less water to the point where it’s almost debunked. 

 4. Friendship ended with Flying Falco Titan, now Jaw Falco Titan is my best friend 

Once again, Reiner evaded the grim reaper, Porco sacrificed himself and Falco is a shifter. What’s going to follow for warrior Falco? Now he hasn’t “saved” Gabi from inheriting the Armoured — well, personally, I don’t think any more formal inheriting is going to happen — how is Falco going to process all of this? From Porco’s sacrifice to Colt’s death and Gabi decapitating Eren, Falco’s got a lot to deal with once he comes to. 

 5. Yelena

TF is going on with Yelena in that panel. She knows something. She knowsss. Coupled with her behaviour in her meeting with Pixis and the (admittedly beautiful) panel in which she is watching the zeppelins go down, there’s something going on. She’s completely relaxed, like she’s at home in the chaos and disorder. If she’s pulling the strings, then everything must be going to plan. And the prospect of a Yelena-orchestrated scheme? Terrifying. She’s the only “Jaegerist” with any bite to their bark (Floch’s acts are entirely for show, even though he got the cadets to beat up Shadis he has no cunning or intelligence enough to properly outwit anyone on his own), and even then, she’s definitely got personal ulterior motives. Onyankopon has made it clear that she works on her own, barely lets anyone in on her plans, and is far too comfortable putting a bullet in a fellow Marleyan’s head. 

 6.  The Fate of the Formidable 

So, what’s going on with Levi and Hanji? Ever since Hanji made a water slide out of the river and escaped with him, we haven’t seen them. I also believe that a Levi is not dead, for the same reasons why Magath and Eren aren’t. Lack of closure. There’s so much to be explored with the fall of humanity’s strongest. Where will he go from here? Will he ever fulfil his promise to Erwin? How will he cope with the guilt, knowing that his failure to keep an eye on Zeke lead to about 70 Walldians being turned to titans?

I really can’t wait to see Levi and Hanji again. I wouldn’t be mad if Isayama took chapter 120 to go back in time to them and end the chapter where we are now (the scream, Eren getting shot).

 7. What do you get when you destroy her hometown? Gabi Braun pledging to hunt you down

What now for Gabi? She’s solidified her place as a murderer now. The fandom is once again ignited in hate towards her, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the same in the story. Someone needs to do something. They can’t just let her go because she’s a child, it’s unrealistic now, especially given her track record. 

Gabi’s shot at Eren though is still within character. I’ve seen people complaining that because she came to the “Eldian ≠ Devil” realisation last chapter she shouldn’t have shot. I disagree. Gabi now realises that most Eldians (such as Kaya’s mum) just lived a peaceful existence and didn’t hurt anyone. So, she understands that not every Eldian is a devil, simply because they’re Eldian. However, she still has a viable hatred towards Eren for what he did in Liberio. He has done something, something she believes he deserves to die for. 

Whether or not she’ll have a change of mentality, we’re yet to see. I personally don’t think so. Gabi is so far removed from her fellow Eldians and Eldian identity that she could never see the benefit of Eren’s actions.

All in all, spectacular chapter. Exactly one question has been answered (will Zeke scream?) and millions of others have been asked. Is that not the Isayama way?

10/10. I cannot wait to see this animated in what probably will be 2021. 

[julystorms]

Hey!! May I know what you absolutely love about attack on titan please? There's so much negative asks here. Love you and your blog btw:)

A good message! Here are some things I really love about the series!

Marlowe Freudenberg. Just being positive here, but man, he was such a great character, and the fact that he was ended up being such a pleasant surprise. I fully expected him to never really matter at all beyond existing in the very background, so that he got his own little arc with Hitch really made me happy!

On that note, SnK has a lot of really interesting characters. Even the characters I personally want to kick in the teeth are really intriguing. There are few wasted characters, by which I mean, nearly every character gets to play some kind of role in the story and even if their purpose is in the end to die, they don’t do so without us ever knowing anything at all about them. (There are exceptions about this, but again, for the most part, this just doesn’t happen.)

Something I really loved about early SnK was the world. Now, you’ve all seen me harp on the worldbuilding before, so you know my thoughts about that, but something I really enjoyed early on about the series was that the world felt so…open. I felt as a reader that anything could happen. That’s not the case now to the same extent, but I like that there are always a bunch of possibilities for the future! Even though sometimes Isayama’s curveballs annoy me, most of the time I do appreciate them. Kind of like, “thank god it’s not another shounen manga where the entire plot is obvious from the start.” Sometimes it’s really nice to step back and look at the beginning again and say, “Wow, who knew it would come this far and things would be this complex?”

Even though introducing Marley made the world feel too big for me for a while, now I quite like that they’re there. I can really appreciate how fandom opinion for the longest time was that RBA were from a tiny village somewhere outside the walls with weird customs and BOOM actually the truth was that they were from another continent, Paradis is an island, and actually there’s an entire populated (and shitty) world out there! The me of 2015 would have been so shocked by this. My minor gripes regarding suspension of disbelief aside, I’m really glad that “the enemy” is bigger than a little village outside the walls. (I think it makes it easier to see things from RBA’s side this way, too.)

I’m sorry to keep going back to character things but I love that we get an extensive cast of older characters. Unfortunately a lot of them died, but at least there hasn’t been any of that “make way for the next generation” bullshit (IMO, what Erwin said was not along these lines even if on the surface it might seem like it). I find it easier to like a series that features characters of varying ages, and SnK manages to do a pretty good job. The teenagers tend to sound and act like teenagers.

More character stuff, but Jean’s character development was amazing. I also really enjoyed Hitch’s development. Eren grew a lot over the years. It’s been incredible seeing some of these characters learn things and grow. Obviously Isayama couldn’t give this to us for every character, but I think he’s managed to show us that these shifts the main characters go through have an impact on all of the characters we meet (and to a lesser extent, surely those we don’t). I’m thinking of how Eren shifted into a titan and how that must have felt to the average person to see. The main cast, too. Rico. What might it have been like to not be close to Eren and see this kind of drama unfolding in your world? I mean, hell, just the fact that Isayama’s story makes me think to ask these deeper questions is saying something.

This’ll be my last point because I’ve said so much already but I love the character interactions. Isayama hasn’t had a lot of time to develop off-screen relationships between characters (or non plot-relevant relationships), but he does an amazing job with what space he can devote to showing us that these characters are friends, acquaintances, rivals, and so on. He can be really good at giving us an atmosphere to read. Ch99 with Eren and Reiner in the basement? Man, I felt like I was there feeling uncertain and suspenseful along with the others–particularly Falco who has about as good an idea of how this will pan out as I do! But look, we’ve gotten to see Ymir and Historia’s relationship. Nile and Erwin’s. Marlowe and Hitch. Gelgar and Nanaba. Gelgar and Lynne. Mike and Nanaba. Hange and Moblit. Moblit and Erwin in S2. Erwin and Levi. Erwin and Hange. Hange and Levi. Jean and Armin. Eren and Armin. Eren and Jean. Sasha and Connie. Sasha and Jean. Pixis and Erwin. Rico and Ian. Rico and Kitz. God, this list can go on forever. My point is that he does a lovely job of showing us, with very little time or space, the kinds of relationships the characters have with one another. No, we don’t get a long drawn-out history for Hange’s squad, but we see how they interact with her enough to have an idea of the kinds of people they are and the kind of relationship they have to and with their squad leader. The thing that’s impressive about it is that it’s all done without ever turning too far away from the main plot. I won’t lie; this leaves a lot of people feeling frustrated because they want those deeper relationships; they want to see in the canon why Erwin likes Levi, for example, or what about Sasha draws Connie to her as such a good friend and close comrade. In the end, though, we really don’t need all of the little details; we don’t need to have our hands held to guide us through all of this. I think it’s an amazing feat that Isayama has given us so many characters with established relationships to one another and…all without derailing his plot. Most people can’t manage that feat, so mad kudos to him for what is probably the best job I’ve seen so far of juggling all of those things (while never really letting interpersonal relationships between characters actually suffer). (I mean I guess this could change before the end, but so far so good.)