#this is why I get frustrated when people say SNK is about war.

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

the hardest part abt writing SNK fic is that every character is more interesting than all the other characters

[kyojuuros]

I'm the one who wrote you the anon message regarding my feelings with the manga feeling like a 'rush job' despite being fine with the conclusion. Thanks for your response. I'm going to be brutally honest and say everything after chapter 106 (the War for Paradis arc), IMHO, should've gone differently in certain ways. For starters, it was WAY too long (33 chapters) and could've used more breathing room by splitting it into two and then start with a completely NEW arc that would've been DEVOTED....

to addressing ALL the plot points and possibly leading to a more satisfactory conclusion. Eren's character arc was fine but, IMHO, needed better build up, a long with a better conclusion with more focus on him in the REAL world, his REAL persona, and not the hard-ass act and Path shenanigans. The manga has a dark setting and it's suppose to be sad/tragic/depressing/heart wrenching but I don't like a terrible terms he left with friends, Hange and Levi. I'm sorry but there's really no excuse.

I bolded the part that really stood out to me because I feel exactly the same way. I don’t think making his thoughts and feelings a total mystery while completely turning him into someone who feels totally different from the pre-basement portion of the series was a good move, like, AT ALL. It’d be like if Star Wars was presented in chronological order (and let’s say you don’t know who Darth Vader is when you start) and saw Anakin and Padme get married, and then ~time skip~ to him attacking Padme and Obi-wan and becoming Darth Vader... and only seeing his descent to the dark side just before he sacrifices himself for Luke.

People who’ve followed me for a long time know I used to be a lot more involved in the meta community and I was always theorizing and making long-ass posts about character arcs and relationships and predictions on what I think is going to happen. It was a lot of fun and even if I wasn’t always correct, I was never so far off that it actually made me upset (or if I was, it was warranted and even comical... I used to think the Beast Titan wasn’t a shifter and that there was an underground tunnel that lead outside the walls lol). I think the last extensive meta/prediction I had written was after chapter 112 had published, and once I realized that I apparently had no fundamental understanding of Eren at all anymore I completely stopped trying. It wasn’t fun anymore. I didn’t appreciate that I could no longer understand my favorite character (of all time, at the time). 

But then I think back and I’m like, no... I did understand Eren. I understood him just fine before the time skip and that’s why everything after Marley frustrated me to no end because it was like he’d been ripped away from me and replaced with a fraud. I couldn’t even cry about his death because I’d become so emotionally removed from him by that point that it didn’t even matter to me anymore (and this is coming from someone who would cry about him a lot just listening to song lyrics or getting lost in thought or rambling with friends). It continues to frustrate me because I still love him as a character, and I don’t need to defend him (there is nothing defendable) but I wish I could feel confident in at least explaining his actions properly. I don’t mind that he became the antagonist, I just hate that I continue to feel like I can’t understand why.

I think that, had Isayama just told his story chronologically, and kept us privy to Eren’s POV, that we would have understood better. Seeing him descend into the darker side of himself would have made much more sense if we had actually witnessed it in real time. Giving us a random flashback here and there, barely getting his thoughts at all, and having the most underwhelming info dump in the final chapter (that STILL didn’t even clear things up properly, it just added MORE damn questions) was terrible for his character and the overall narrative. A character that used to give me so much hope (and I was in a very dark headspace when I stumbled upon snk) became a character that just made me feel disappointed.

Rambling over Eren aside, I also agree that the final arc should have been chopped up into 2 or more arcs (I generally treat the rumbling as its own arc at this point anyway). We should have gotten more from Historia. Levi should have interacted more with the 104th. We should have been able to see Hange blossom into their own as a confident commander (and not get killed just to make Armin commander for 5 minutes???). Armin and Annie’s feelings toward each other should have been explored more. Eren developing romantic feelings for Mikasa should have been explored more. Mikasa and the entire Azumabito/Hizuru subplot should have actually amounted to... literally anything. Ymir having a connection to Mikasa should have been explored much more (especially with the revelation that this was the most likely cause of the headache’s Mikasa has had since the 2nd chapter). I’m sure there’s plenty of other things I could think about that needed addressing, tbh. 

The story feels concluded but incomplete, if that makes sense. The themes were wrapped up and are easy to pinpoint and that’s good and all, but for a story that’s very character driven to not have properly built up/wrapped up certain arcs, relationships and character-centric plot points just makes it feel hollow. So I understand why a lot of people are very frustrated and upset and ready to put the story on the shelf never to be touched again.

I’m trying to give Isayama some grace since he admitted the scope of the story was beyond his ability as an author. I just wish that instead of barreling forward with a narrative that he knew he couldn’t execute properly, he would have reconsidered the trajectory of the plot altogether and written something that he knew he could feel confident in. I can think of many ways the story could have gone post-basement that would have been both more interesting and probably more satisfying, regardless if the ending was dark, bittersweet or happy.

It’s a story I’ll read and watch again, many times, I’m sure. I’m still looking forward to part 2 of the final season. I still want to make content for it. I still want to buy and display merchandise of it. I still love these characters and the world Isayama created. I appreciate and treasure all of the joy SnK has brought me over the years. I just... disagree heavily with his narrative choices in the final arc. I’d like to think that MAPPA will somehow execute it a little better (there are things WIT did that I liked better, though they did I things I also liked less, lol), but I’m not going to get high hopes just to get let down again. 

.... It appears I have pent up my frustrations a bit in an effort to maintain a positive presence. LOL

[lehouxnap2]

SNK characters as world of warcraft players

Eren - Fury Warrior (Human, worgen)

Has 2 mains, human and worgen. Eren thinks human is the superior race even though everyone knows is the most boring. He's the typical alliance player that rages at you. "You horde scum" Not so good at first. Gets better at playing with time. Always in war mode.

Mikasa - Arms Warrior (Human)

Top dps and she's really good at pvp. Overall a natural good player. Eren always asks her do to duels and she always kicks his ass. Not interested at anything, just wants to play with Eren. Does RBGs with him.

Armin - Frost Mage (Human, Female Draenei)

Big nerd that knows all the lore and is pretty much always raid leader, he's really nice when players don't know the mechanics. Always trying to do achievements. Too scared to do pvp. Does freaky shit in rp moonguard.

Jean - Guardian Druid (Worgen)

Every worgen player i've met was a little bit of a simp im sorry. But Jean is genuinely a good guy, he just wanted to get a girlfriend when he was younger then grew out of it when older. Started as a feral until he realized being tank helps to queue faster in dungeons. It's raid leader when Armin can't make it. Main tank

Marco - Holy Priest (Draenei)

Think of the nicest player that ever helped you, that's Marco. He helps new players when they don't understand or get lost. Big patient fella, if you need gold he's gonna help you in that too. Top healer in raid. Sometimes switches to Shadow. Does random bgs with Jean just to have fun (doesn't like it much because it can get toxic)

Sasha - Marksmanship Hunter (Pandaren)

She used to be those hunters who ruined your day by tanking with her pet getting everyone wiped. But learned how to properly play and now she's top dps. She met Jean when he was tanking with his bear and raged at her in the whispers. They are besties now <3 Loves doing cooking proffesion, that's how she met Niccolo.

Connie - Enhancement Shaman (Dwarf)

He think dwarves are a funny looking race that's why he chosed them. Average player who just wants to have fun. Regardless of what he's doing pvp of pve he never rages. As a shaman he let's the elemental pets do all the work and gets overconfident, the reason why he loses. Fools around a lot with Sasha

Reiner - Protection Warrior (Orc)

Used to be Worgen and be part of the same guild as the rest but changed to Horde because of race benefit (everyone does that nowadays) He only did it because his friends did, so he feels sad about it. His new guild is called Marley. Top and main tank of the raid. Still talks with his past guild but Eren is pissed at him for leaving the Alliance and always attacks him when he has the chance.

Bertholdt - Fire Mage (Troll)

He likes trolls because they are tall and chill, just like him. Same story with Reiner. Being a Fire mage pretty much makes him top dps and someone you don't want to fuck with. He could be one of the best pvp players but prefers to keep it low and have fun. Does R Arenas with Reiner.

Annie - Windwalker Monk (Blood elf)

Same story with Bert and Reiner. She's one of the best pvp players, and does R.Arenas. A lone player, when not doing pvp she works in her proffesions and enjoys the beauty of WoW. Her dad showed her the game when she was young. Reiner and Bert asks her to do stuff together but she rejects them. Likes the company of Armin or Bertholdt alone.

Historia - Discipline Priest (Voild elf, Vulpera)

She has 2 mains. Void elf to be with her guild, and Vulpera to be with Ymir. She's always nice and helping other players but most of the time she wants to do achievements with Ymir and do holiday events. Has the BEST transmogs of them all. And pretty mounts.

Ymir - Affliction Warlock (Nightborne)

Amazing pvp player, but not a big fan of it. Specially because it can get really annoying and childish. At first she carried Hisu in dungeons because she was a "noob" giving her advice on how to properly play. Ymir when really bored likes to troll others and sometimes camp them until Historia tells her is enough.

Levi - Assassination Rogue (Gnome)

Known as one of the best players in WoW. Big fanbase. Kenny, his uncle, teached him since he was a kid to play the game and ever since then he mastered it. He chosed Gnome as his main because even though gnomes are always the butt of the jokes he thinks getting your ass kicked by one is satisfying. Used to play with his two friends until they quit the game, then had his own guild and they also quit the game. So he feels nostalgic sometimes.

Hange - Beast Mastery Hunter (Night elf)

Geek. Knows all about lore but also is really good at being BM hunter. You just can't escape their traps ;). Big big fan of WoW, you are not sure how long have they been playing this game. Never misses Blizzcon events. They are always with Moblit who remindes them to take a break from the game and go have some rest. They have a lot of rare objects and mounts. Likes to hang around with Levi.

Erwin - Retribution Paladin (Human)

Do I even have to say something? He's a human paladin. Guild Master of Survey Corps, used to be really active when younger but as he got older doesn't appear much. He did a lot of pvp, one of the best. Was raid leader along with Mike and Nile. Just like Eren he believes in the Alliance and knows a lot about lore. Ask him anything.

Porco - Feral Druid (Zandalari troll)

He thinks zandalari are the coolest race blizz has ever thought of. He's an average good player. Played a lot with his brother Marcel. Until the later quit the game to focus on other stuff. Used to make fun of Reiner for being bad at it, but now they play mythics+ together.

Pieck - Guardian Druid (Tauren)

Average good player, she's calm and trust her teammates in raids even when things might not look so good. Second tank. Loves being a druid because she can carry her party members in deer and bird form. At some point she met Jean and exchanged tips

Zeke - Elemental Shaman (Pandaren)

He's that player that frustrated you so much you wanted to throw your computer at the floor because he wasn't doing the mechanics right or in bgs. And you know he's doing it on purpose. That troll motherfucker that ganks you even when hours passes and you wonder why people like him exist. Has a monkey pet named as "Monke" that he takes everywhere. Has macros where he says weird shit before you kill him. But he's actually a really good player when serious. Raid leader of his guild. If there's one player Zeke won't fuck with, is Levi.

Falco - Restoration Druid (Tauren)

He and Gabi are new players but learn fast, Falco likes to enjoy the game slowly appreciating the stories, characters, and overall have a good time with his friends. Ends up stressed healing Gabi's ass since she keeps tanking without a care. Tells her she should listen to Reiner's advice as a tank.

Gabi - Protection Warrior (Orc)

She saw the way Reiner played and wanted to be just like him. Gabi levels up really fast with war mode and dungeons. Problems comes she lacks experience so she needs Falco by her side healing her. Eren once saw her in war mode not giving a crap she was a low level and ganked her.

Floch - Unholy Death Knight (Human)

Level 58 DK. That dude that all he does is complain in the chat. In bgs he shits at everyone for not doing their job while he has low dps. In trade chat you are always gonna see him having a discussion about how the game is dead, everything sucks, back in the day "when classic was good". Always joins Eren's RBGs.

Im sorry this was so much fun to do. I didnt plan this

[ghostmartyr]

SnK 133 Thoughts

They’re trying to stop the apocalypse but they’re dummy traumatized and the clap of their sins keeps alerting the glow tree.

Kids, just remember: Body count doesn’t matter, it’s how you feel while producing that body count. If you’ve killed people to stop genocide, you are not immune to being party to genocide. ⭑⭒⋆

I’m being reductive because I’m not too eager to go over how not all murder is created equal again.

Going by a good faith read, I do think what the narrative is attempting to establish is that these characters all know what it’s like to be backed into a corner and do desperate things they’re horrified by.

Putting aside the extra psychological difficulties of his childhood preceding the choice to knock down the wall, Reiner believes he’s saving humanity. There’s an island full of devils, and he’s attacking them. He, Bertolt, and Annie are dumb kids who do what they’re told. Because they think it’s right, or because they want to go home, or just because they are dumb kids.

Armin’s killed plenty of people with the power of the Colossus. He can’t plead innocence; he attacks Liberio’s port intentionally, knowing exactly what terror the people on the ground will be going through.

Connie kills the friends he’s trained with for years, when the worst thing about Reiner and Bertolt revealing themselves is feeling betrayed by comrades he loves.

None of this is directly equivalent. Dumb children at war are trying their best. Always, this conflict has been orchestrated above their pay grade. RAB get abandoned behind enemy lines and are told to make the best of it. Armin destroys Marley’s port because Marley will not stop going after Paradis, and Eren has forced a renewed conflict that they need to move against fast. Connie betrays his friends because they’re okay with letting the rest of the world die.

No one on this ship has enjoyed any of this. They have consistently been doing their best with the information given to them while people with more power drag them into fights that never should have happened.

Shiganshina falls because Marley chooses to murder Paradis.

Liberio falls because Eren turns himself into Paradis’ only hope and puts himself into a situation he can’t win alone.

In the crudest way of putting it, these people are grunts. They’re not the ones who picked the game being played. They’re the ones being manipulated into war after war.

That’s why they look at each other without counting the bodies. It isn’t the scale of their actions that hits at this moment, it’s the decisions they’ve made to be part of it. They choose to keep fighting. When it creates an outcome they hate, what can they say? ‘Look what you made me do’?

Whatever their reasons, and whoever set up the board, they are the ones who participate. In this case, pure moral imperative is the driving force. Daz and Samuel die because they’re willing to let genocide go uncontested. That’s on them.

Guilt doesn’t work like that, though. Daz and Samuel die because they are killed. Connie kills them. He betrays their trust.

All of this is to say that the people on the ship truly do understand each other perfectly, even despite the difference in scale. It’s a bit on the nose, but I don’t think anything they’re going through is at odds with the people they are.

Applying that feeling to Eren is a feat of misguided grace that... hell, I don’t know.

As a human person, I like grace as a concept and want more of it. I don’t want the world to burn, I want the burning to stop, and for everyone to be okay in the end even if they don’t deserve it. A world where we all get precisely what we deserve seems an incredibly dark place to me. That doesn’t leave room for mercy or kindness. You get what you earn, and nothing more.

The more time we spend on this portion of the story, the more I’m inclined to think that the themes agree with me. Our heroes at this point aren’t full of the rage they’re entitled to. Every inch of them is tired, and they’re not here for more death. They’re willing to keep going, but even the thought of killing Eren, when he’s massacred thousands, makes them all hesitate.

Everyone wants to go home and have the fighting stop.

That’s all.

Whatever happened, and whose fault it is -- forget all of it, just give them a place to rest and have it be over.

Thematically, yay. I approve. Beautiful. We start out with a series that makes a name for itself almost entirely on the back of the spectacle of violence, and after years of participating in that violence, the main cast wants nothing to do with it anymore. Love it.

Within the plot, I am not in the mood to have Eren’s traumatized friends apologize for not understanding him.

I get it.

I get why they all feel this way.

I do not like reading it.

They’re projecting their own guilt on someone who has shown a reckless disregard for their lives and sanity.

They’re trying to reach Eren as a human being and friend when he’s done his absolute best to make himself unreachable.

That’s sort of the point Reiner thinks is being made. Eren has intentionally set them up as his adversary so that if he has to be doing all of this, maybe there’s still a chance someone can stop him.

Okay, fine.

It falls short for the same reason all of Eren’s stuff is falling short.

We don’t actually know what the fuck is going on with him. We’re guessing.

You know those picture puzzles you do as a kid? Draw a line from bubble 1 to bubble 2 to bubble 3, and eventually you will make a bunny. Or a dog, or flowers, or something that looks like a picture in the sloppy mess of numbers.

Eren’s general portrayal matches that of a toddler who doesn’t yet know his numbers, and understands the instructions to be that he’s trying to get to the last bubble by scribbling lines through all the other bubbles.

Look, it’s a bunny.

And Eren’s friends are all like, oh wow, that’s such a good job! We’re going to put it on the fridge!

Then people come over and are like, why is there a constellation of a deer jumping through a house on the fridge, but they hear the child did it and immediately are like, oh yeah, that’s the best bunny I’ve ever seen, I can’t draw like that.

The child, being a child, is like, ‘Damn right. I’m going to be in bunny museums.’

Meanwhile, I’m just going to come out and say it.

It’s not a fucking bunny.

What it is, I don’t know, but it is not a bunny, stop calling it a bunny, it is actively erasing the knowledge of what a bunny looks like in my mind.

So ends this skit on what Eren’s portrayal has been like.

Eren has decided that this is all necessary. He doesn’t like it, and wants someone to stop him, but he is totally going to do it, and he knows he’s going to do it because future vision told him so and he’s really sad about that even though he’s emotionally in a place where genocide sounds like the only way out but that is wrong.

I think I’ve said before that Eren getting to this place mentally isn’t too off the rails. His sanity has been deteriorating with each mission, and he’s nineteen. Snapping like this could arguably be expected.

But the last we see of Eren’s thoughts, we still have this back and forth of how he refuses to yield the future to fate, but he already feels condemned by that future because he chooses to cause it.

Eren is clearly trapped by this web of contradictions, but his motivational core is so obstructed that it’s hard to actually connect to. It is easier to say that Eren’s gone off the deep end than it is to spend any amount of time asking how Point A became Point 3.

That’s frustrating, as a reader. I don’t want to be told a story, I want to experience it.

Eren’s experiences are not universal.

I need some hand-holding here. There needs to be a few more clear indications of Eren The Person, and how the individual we know wrapped around to making these choices.

Hooray, he’s not taking away their powers.

The guy he let run his cult still nearly killed all of them.

Hooray, he’s protecting his island.

He just actively courted an international incident so everyone wants the island dead.

Yes, Eren thinks that hope is lost before he makes these choices. That’s how moving forward drags him to this place; he doesn’t have the vision to imagine a world where this isn’t happening.

If you don’t fight, you can’t win, and Eren’s still fighting. But he’s forgotten what winning looks like. All he knows is the dreary march forward.

I would like for that to be explicit, not me extrapolating. Because even as I’m typing all of that, and feeling like it makes sense, it has the confidence of tissue paper, and I know my numbers, but half the numbers making this bunny were missing, and I’m not an artist.

The story I’m digging around here for is one I could like, but I don’t trust that it’s actually the one being told, because too much feels unexplained and weird. You can’t just make your main character nuts and use that as an excuse for anything.

Well, okay, you can.

You shouldn’t.

Please don’t do that.

Which I guess leads us to Eren and OG Ymir doing a Shining twins thing.

Here is my wild speculation.

The Attack Titan is the only Titan capable of resisting the Founder. It cannot be controlled, it simply continues forward, fighting for freedom.

When Eren talks to Ymir, her eyes losing their shadows are the cue for him taking full control of the Founder.

Now we’re back here, and her eyes are shadowed again, with Eren’s joining the ride.

I think that where we’re going to end up is that Eren’s mental fragility made him incredibly susceptible to the Attack Titan’s core nature, and enough of that nature aligned with Eren’s that everything except pursuing a way forward fell away. The Attack Titan is Ymir’s furious will, and she’s had it suppressed for 2000 years. I don’t think either one is emotionally capable of surfacing and deciding to resist the urge to march forward and destroy this world that has cursed them so.

Making my theory that yeah, okay, Eren’s lost it, but he lost it with the help of ancient plot magic, which we are now seeing the full extent of.

Does that have any basis in anything?

Who the fuck knows.

But one thing is very clear: Eren’s not free.

“In order to gain my own freedom... I will take freedom away from the world. [...] You are all free.”

The Attack Titan “has always moved ahead, seeking freedom. It has fought on for freedom.”

Eren, embodiment of the Attack Titan, is the first one to hear Ymir in 2000 years. Going with the vaguely logical theory that Titans are all pieces of Ymir herself, the Attack Titan is the part that rebels against every indignity she bows to in life.

Zeke frees the Founder from its promise of peace. Eren frees Ymir from the chains tying her to the royal family’s will.

All that’s left is 2000 years of trauma, and the ability and will, for the first time, to lash out.

It’s not what you’d call surprising.

It’s the getting here that I take issue with. Now that we’re here, yeah, got it. But I really don’t feel like Eren’s journey here has been done well enough to capture the emotional rawness that is trying to be accessed. His friends are shouting for someone who is effectively dead, for all the presence he’s showing.

Then you’ve got Annie and Kiyomi sad.

ON A BOAT.

While Falco wants to be a Titan with WIIIIIIIIIIINGS.

Kiddos, you’re very cute, and I support you not wanting to sit still and do nothing while the world is ending, but I can’t begin to express how little I care.

Except that your families are alive and you two and Annie deserve to be reunited.

SO FINE, OKAY, FALCO CAN HAVE HIS WINGS AND SAY HI TO HIS PARENTS AND GABI CAN SAY HI TO HER PARENTS AND ANNIE CAN SAY HI TO HER DAD AND IT’LL ALL BE FINE DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THE FUCK WE’RE GOING TO DO ABOUT EREN?

BECAUSE YEAH, I’M SURE THE AIRSHIPS ARE JUST GOING TO SPLODE HIM AND END ALL OF THIS AND EVERYONE WILL HOLD HANDS AND SING SONGS THAT THE EVIL HAS BEEN DEFEATED AND THAT WILL BE THE END OF IT.

Conversation: FAILED

Attack: probably FAILED

GO AHEAD, MANGA. SHOW ME THE DEUS EX MACHINA. I’M NOT GOING TO LIKE IT, BUT I AM PREPARED FOR IT.

inb4 yeah they just are going to bomb Eren with Armin that’s how we end this.

133 status: Still Looking For A Win Condition (This Ain’t It Chief)

[cosmicjoke]

Okay, I gotta talk a little about chapter 65 of AoT, and really some of the themes being put forth in general in this chapter.  This is probably gonna be totally incoherent, because these are some big brain concepts that largely go over my head, I’ll be real, haha.  But I’ll do my best.

I want to focus on Kenny’s conversation with his Grandfather, because it’s here that we get into some of the more broad ranging and world relevant themes of SnK, particularly dealing with issues of racism, xenophobia, isolationism, and concepts of homogeneity.  

Kenny’s Grandfather talks about how the Monarchy doesn’t hate the Ackerman’s, but rather fears them, because they can’t be controlled.  Because the Ackerman’s, along with very few other bloodlines that somehow ended up behind the walls, are all of different races than the majority bloodline, meaning, of course, the Eldians.  And because of this, the power of the Titans doesn’t work on them.  The Monarchy then comes to think of these other bloodlines as threats to the peace it’s attempted to cultivate among the people behind the wall, because their memories aren’t able to be wiped.  So they end up using threats of violence, death, intimidation, and the like, in order to get these bloodlines to comply with their demands and keep quiet about what they know about the truth of the world and human history.  Most bloodlines end up complying under duress, but the only two that don’t are the Ackerman’s and the Asians.  They rebel and refuse, the Ackerman’s in particular giving up their position as the sword and shield of the Royal Government.  Until the head of the Ackerman clan decides to not pass down any of his generations knowledge to their children, and offers himself up for execution in an attempt to protect the Ackerman’s from being purged.  His efforts end up being in vain, though, as the Royal Government still finds itself unable to tolerate a group of people it can’t control, and thus the persecution of the Ackerman’s continues, until they’re driven to the fringes of society, forced to into desperation and poverty.  

What’s really interesting about this is how it reflects so many real life situations throughout human history, and where concepts of tribalism and nationalism and isolationism come from.  It’s usually because some governing power wants to control its population, its citizenship, and they do this by cutting them off from outside influences, indoctrinating them into a certain belief system and way of thinking.  We see this, for example, in countries today like China and North Korea.  This all is represented in AoT through the erasure of human history outside the walls, and the altering of historical texts to push the narrative that all record of human history older than 100 years has been lost.  The ruling government, in this case, has forced generation after generation to be taught that humanity simply doesn’t EXIST outside the walls, thus stomping out any hope or ambition to get outside those walls, and interact with the outside world.  If there’s nothing there to find, then why bother?  Of course, it’s an imperfect system, given it’s essentially impossible to quell human curiosity and, as another prominent theme in SnK, the desire for freedom, to be able to choose for oneself and have agency over your own destiny, etc...  Not only does the Royal Government employ these false teachings as a way of controlling the populace, but of course, also, the threat of the Titans beyond the wall.  If the “reality” that there’s nothing left of humanity out there isn’t enough to stop the more curious and skeptical among the population, then the threat of a horrific and painful death should do the trick.

If you study any sort of regime throughout human history that utilizes terror as a means of control, one thing they often do is get rid of the smart people first.  They cull intellectuals, artists, philosophers, etc...  They kill them or censor them so that they can’t influence or impact the general populace with rebellious notions, or instigate in people any ideas that their government might not be treating them right.  They want there to be no contention, no differential in thought, no real ideas or any sort of chance for clashes among groups.  They want everyone to look, act, think and feel the same, because when that’s the case, fewer quarrels arise, fewer tensions, fewer instances of rebellion, fewer cases of people clashing with one another, for various reasons, which can lead to critical thinking and ideas forming, to thought patterns and beliefs being challenged.  They want everyone to just sit quietly and not THINK.  They also, often, will target minority groups, and cast them into a kind of scapegoat role, a target for the general populace to aim their grievances at, to blame all their problems on, directing their unhappiness away from the true source of their woes, that being the government itself.  This is something we often see throughout human history.  One of the most prominent and tragic examples is the Jews in Nazi Germany.  Jews were, at first, skewered and debased through propaganda, painting them as the enemy of Germans, the great source of all of Germany’s plights and woes, essentially working the populace up into a frenzy of extreme feelings of bias and prejudice against them, before that escalated into gathering up and forcing them into cut off ghettos, away from the general population, before it took a much darker turn still, wherein they were gathered up and sent to death camps to be exterminated.  

Within the world of AoT, the same thing happens to groups like the Ackerman’s and Asians, and whatever other, unnamed minority groups exist behind the walls.  They’re persecuted, badmouthed, hunted and threatened into compliance, their ability to do business and make money, thus make a living, cut off and blocked.  Pushed into a corner until they eventually start to die out.  

It’s really fascinating, and brilliantly depicted by Isyama, how the Monarchy’s self-delusion leads them to believe they’re preserving peace and prosperity for the homogeneous population by hunting down and terrorizing groups of minority bloodlines and ethnicity’s and races, creating for these subsets of people a world and a life of endless suffering, and blinding themselves to their own, tyrannical exercise of power over a large population.  Of course this sort of thing also leads to greed and a lust for power, a need for ever more control, ever more expansion of that power, which in turn leads to the very thing the Monarchy here claims to want to prevent, which is war.  Even if the Royal Government, and the Monarchy, and the King, started out with somewhat noble intentions, it eventually morphs into a twisted and persistently corrupting power play.

There’s also the theme here of scapegoating an entire group of people, and holding them accountable for sins they themselves did not commit.  We see in Historia’s memories of Frieda, and how she would at times begin acting like another person, how she became vitriolic and almost violent in telling Historia that she can “never cross the fence”, proclaiming that they’re all “sinners” and thus need to be punished by being imprisoned.  This is where the original King’s philosophy begins to become deeply problematic and dangerous.  In order to control the population, he’s forced each inheritor of the world’s memories to also inherit his philosophy, forcing each heir to labor under the belief that the Eldian’s are somehow responsible for the atrocities committed by their ancestors, and thus should continue to pay for them, even though not a single person at this point living behind the walls was even yet born when those atrocities were committed.  The danger here is in the possibility of those people being held accountable for things they didn’t do, realizing the injustice of that, and in turn, growing angry and resentful for being made to suffer for crimes they didn’t commit.  This in turn leads to a desire to hit back, to fight, to defend themselves, etc...  This same scenario plays out on a smaller scale with the Ackerman’s, with the future generations of Ackerman children continuing to be hunted and persecuted, despite none of them having any knowledge whatsoever of the history of humanity or the world.  It’s all a vicious cycle.  

Further, this kind of attempt to play God, by dictating to an entire group of otherwise uninvolved people what they do and don’t deserve, and in turn deciding for them that they should be punished for things they did not do, is morally bankrupt.  Deciding, in general, for an entire population, how they should be allowed to live is also morally bankrupt.  And this exposes the Royal Government and Monarchy as corrupt, among about a million other things in story.  Essentially, it’s a condemnation against the concept of any, one person having absolute power.  That never ends well, for anyone.  

Well, anyway, I’m just rambling at this point, lol.  It’s just really fascinating and amazing how Isyama weaves all of these deep themes into his story, I think, and forces the reader to really think about these kinds of things.

Also, I missed the fight between Levi and Kenny!  I’m glad they added that to the anime, haha.  

I also noticed how Historia might have had an unintentional impact on what Eren later decides he has to do.  She keeps going on and on here about being an “enemy of humanity” and wanting to “destroy everything”.  And while Historia clearly doesn’t actually mean what she’s saying, and is only acting out in her frustration and anger at her douchebag of a father trying to manipulate her into sacrificing herself for his delusions of grandeur, what she also says to Eren about her “being humanity’s enemy, but Eren being her FRIEND.” is clear foreshadowing of what Eren later decides is his best and only course, to do whatever it takes to protect his friends, including killing the rest of humanity.  This probably also ties into Eren’s choice to not reveal what he learns from his father’s memories, in an attempt to protect Historia.  But I haven’t gotten to that point yet, so I’ll come back around to it later maybe.

[shizekarnstein]

N, T, U?? :>>>

<3

N- Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

Fruits basket: honestly my experience in this fandom has been... wondeful so far. I'm genuinely surprised by how nice the majority of you all are, and how everything is properly tagged and how when sometimes when I enter the tag yes there are a couple of posts debating certain points from different perspectives but always in a polite fashion! Yeah there are ocassionally bothersome anons but most of the time it's really... nice to be here. So one of my whishes is for that healthy atmosphere to continue. As for especific content mmm maybe for metas about the curse lmao yeah I could write but the more the merrier 😂. Also... it would be nice :) if some people would stop making Yuki and Tohru's relationship :) about kyoru :)

Snk: 1) could you all tag your shit properly. Like a post is an edit about Armin and it's tagged as rivamika or erehisu CHILL PLS. 2) For people to stop bothering others for liking a fictional character and accusing said fans of being idk horrible human beings for being invested in certain characters regardless of what they do in the story. (With that same logic all SW fans are garbage human beings for stanning Darth Vader lmao). 3) For ship wars to fucking stop god you're all so annoying. 4) For fans to take a page out furuba fandom and learn to let people be for not agreeing with your personal takes on the story or characters. Also 5) Imagine a fandom where people idk MADE their own opinions instead of automatically adopting whatever the most popular "meta blogs" decide?? That would be nice :).

T- Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

AS A MATTER OF FACT OF COURSE I DO.

Fruits basket:

Yuki and Kyo eventually tell Tohru about their side of the Hat story.

Yuki Sohma definetly caused the ruin of numerous cafes and restaurants by attracting hordes of rats every time he went to eat out there. Shigure still finds it hilarious to this day.

Yuki once enrolled in cooking classes bc he wanted to surprise his friends and girlfriend with a homecooked meal. All his classmates were terrified of him and his instructor cried when he finally withdrew. Of course he's stubborn and continued to practice in his apartment. It didn't end well. The firefighters know him by name levels of didn't end well. Finally both Machi and Tohru take pity of his ass and teach him. Under their careful guidance he eventually learns how to make rice and soup.

Tohru Honda daughter of Kyoko Honda defiently knows how to throw a punch and one day when she and Kyo were fighting/flirting without realising she catches him off guard and accidentally gives him a black eye. Tohru spent the evening trying to apologize while pressing a bag of frozen peas to Kyo's face while he was like... in awe bc HIS GIRLFRIEND IS SO STRONG. When Arisa finds out what happened (bc Tohru totally called her) she almost dies laughing her ass off and never let's Kyo forget that happened.

Snk:

Carla Jaeger most certainly taught his son how to cook and he's very good at it. Roping him into helping her cook was one the only ways she could keep an eye on him and be sure he wasnt fighting or getting into trouble all over the town so she commited to her plan. It went better than either of them expected.

Jean had a crush on Eren at one point and no I'm not taking criticisms. One day he was busy glaring at him for walking alongside Mikasa and suddenly he was like... huh Eren's pretty cool actually. I admire him. Right??? And he spent days agonizing wondering if he wanted to be Eren (to be close to Mikasa) or if he LIKED Eren too and his poor bisexual ass suffered so much. Those were the days he was so frustrated with his double crush he would find any excuse to start a fight. Btw Sasha saw right through him and Jean still doesnt know how on earth she noticed.

U- Three favorite characters from three (two) different fandoms, and why they are your favorites.

Fruits basket: You all know Yuki is my sun and stars like I'm not exactly subtle. So instead I'm gonna talk about my three favorite female characters.

1) Machi: she arrived late to the party but when I realised she had become my most favorite female character. She's just... so relatable. A big part of why I connect so strongly with her is bc I saw a lot of my 16 yeas old self in her. When I read chapter 94 I had to put down my phone and took a deep breath bc... Machi was me. It's insane how strongly I related to her.

2)Tohru: my mad respect for Tohru knows no bounds. All alone and trying to be so strong. I love Tohru for how good she is and her story of finally opening the lid and confront his trauma in order to be able to move forward is... excelent. I could spend days taking about Tohru Honda and how wonderful and human and flawed she is. One of the best constructed female protagonists I've even seen.

3) Akito. I love Akito. She captured my interest for the very start and oh how she kept it. I adore Akito bc she does terrible things that can never be undone and at the same time, is the one to finally put the horror to end. Akito stops the circle of violence of the curse and does her damn best to become a better person, even removing herself from the lives of the ex zodicas bc she is very aware of how she wronged them and doesnt want to make them uncomfortable. I adore her struggles with her identity and her internalized mysoginy and everything about her. Also... Akito hot 💅.

Snk:

Eren is the light of my life what more can I say?

Mikasa is wonderful and a fascinating balance between vulnerabilty and strenght. I loved Mikasa as soon as I saw her and she remains one of my most favorite characters of snk.

Jean. Oh man JEAN. The character with the most satisfying character development of the whole story. I already loved him to bits after Trost but then he went and said the very same thing I was screaming about since day 1: it is really ok if in order to defeat these monsters we become worse than them? A KING. I adore Jean and his courage and growth and how he always retains a cool head over his shoulders and hnnng. Jean Kirstein.

[makiema]

I was just reading Snk 123 again and somehow I’m just so sad that Isayama literally flipped Levi out of Eren’s life just like that. I mean this has been hard to accept for a long time now but with all the miscommunication between AM and Eren in this chapter, it is even harder to take in. Levi has played such a big role in Eren’s development and has always understood Eren better than anybody. His pov is extremely important at this point. And I’m just a lot frustrated at how Isayama keeps pushing him out of the whole conundrum. So basically I wanted to write a meta but I was just too sad to write a meta so below the cut is just a whole rant about Levi and Eren and why we need Levi back in Eren’s life. Eh, it’s like really long but I just had to get this off my chest.

I just want Levi to talk with Eren once more before the manga concludes. His POV is extremely important rn, more than ever, given that he was the only one who acknowledged Eren for his whole self ( yes both his darker side and the baby side). Additionally he was the only one who talked to Eren in his language (like freedom and choice) something that would later influence Eren’s outlook and consequently his speeches too. I don’t have anything against AM (in fact I love both of them a lot) but really the fact that they CHOSE to see only one side of Eren is something that’s undesirable and unfortunate. I mean, every living person has a darker twist associated with them. Nobody is flawless and it’s important for us as well as people around us to acknowledge the flaws, to accept a person for who he is. Choosing to ignore the darker aspects and accepting only the idealised version of someone is rather naive and immature behaviour.

And here I just wanna point out how Levi was always aware about the darkness that Eren possesses inside him. He has always spoken in terms of duality when it came to Eren like to him, Eren was both a “tameless monster” that might be dangerous and also his “source of all miracles” ,i.e., his hope. Levi is someone who never had a Romantic perception of Eren. But for AM, it was just the opposite. Could it be because AM were somewhat afraid that if they chose to see Eren’s darkness it might make them love him less and also shatter the idealism they associate with him? And am I blaming AM for having this outlook? Hell no. It’s a personal take but tbh as teenagers that’s not uncommon. I mean we do like to think that the people closest to us are absolutely perfect. We like to believe that they can never be in the wrong, specially when it comes to family and childhood friends who’ve been there for us since forever. It’s hard to accept that they might have a darker side to them. AM love Eren so much that it makes them turn a blind eye to reality and they “did not want to see” the slow transformation in Eren because that could lead them to confront Eren’s demons. 

However, coming back to Levi, he really foreshadowed Eren’s whole character arc in his understanding of Eren’s nature. Yes, Eren does have a darker psychological side: he is essentially a monster that cannot be hold in check by anybody. Mikasa and Armin tried in 112, but sadly they couldn’t get through to him. And also, let’s talk about the difference in approaching Eren when it comes to AM and Levi. Armin, in all the instances he managed to talk Eren out of his delirious state, has always made references to the outside world and elaborated on the beauty and variety that lies there. It was kind of like projecting his own dreams onto Eren and not realizing that Eren doesn’t care about oceans or mountains or deserts or anything. For Eren, it is not about the beauty of the world or the variety in it, it is the FREEDOM and the FREEDOM OF CHOICE that a person who’s not oppressed has when it comes to seeing and experiencing the world. In contrast to Armin’s way, we have Levi’s way of approaching Eren where he talks about the different taste in air outside the walls because the outside has what BOTH OF THEM value: FREEDOM. Levi also talked about how hellish the outside is, in contrast to Armin always associating beauty with it. And when Eren later talks to Falco he tells that what awaits him might just be another hell, but it could be hope too- the hope of finally being free. Levi has a superior understanding of Eren, of what he needs to hear, etc.- something that can’t be just thrown out of the window. (Isayama did just that by denying any involvement from Levi when it comes to Eren’s recent actions/attitude. He denied us the talk that was much needed)

Now the VN isn’t exactly canon given that it wasn’t written by Isayama but we can consider it semi-canon as it required Isayama’s approval. So, the whole thing highlighted the message that “Humanity’s strongest understands Eren Jaeger very well” and yeah, even going by the manga we know Levi is integral in Eren’s development and is the only one who saw through the duality in Eren, understood his drive and his will. So why all the focus on Levi’s understanding of Eren if it is supposed to amount to nothing in the end? I get that Isayama wanted to set it up like Levi’s role in Eren’s life is over but it is just so abrupt?? I mean, okay I accept that when Levi said “He’s fifteen. Everyone has a phase like that”, it was an indirect reference to the fact that Eren is in the teenage phase™️ where he wants to be left alone with only his friends and therefore, Hange shouldn’t be so inquisitive (and maybe Levi too should not concern himself with Eren as much as he used to before??) Like, if we look at this way, it justifies Levi’s distance from Eren post the basement revelation. Since then, we got no other moment of conversation between them while before that, there’d be plenty. I get Isayama’s motif of taking Levi out of Eren’s life to add fuel to Eren’s gradual isolation from everybody but then why did he bother to put so much emphasis on Levi’s understanding of Eren in the beginning? It should have some ulterior purpose right? If the Rumbling does happen and the world is really destroyed (i’m not ruling out the possibility of the world destruction not happening im just considering the situation if it really does comes to the worst), there has to be someone who reproaches Eren, someone who berates him in a way that he understands and reflects on what he has done; someone who brings up the topic of if this is really what freedom demands and actually gives us the answer to the pertinent question: if this was the only way? And I cant think about anyone else really suited for this other than Levi- someone who realized the potential for danger that Eren holds? someone who always realized his desire for freedom? (Also, Levi and Hange are the only senior officers left right now so it ideally should be either of them but because Levi played a greater role in Eren’s life compared to Hange, I side more for him being the one to deal with Eren.)

Also, Armin pointed out how he always thought he understood Eren even more than Mikasa but it turned out that he actually didn’t; the same went for Mikasa in 123 when she accepted that she’s been seeing only one side of Eren. Both of them could never accept the plausibility of Eren doing something so monstrous. But, Levi could. From the very beginning. Not that it made him love Eren any less I mean, he did say that he’d willingly go to war again to protect Eren. Besides the vow he made to Erwin, the fact that Zeke could be controlling Eren and it’s Zeke’s fault that the higher-ups don’t trust Eren, also became a crucial factor for Levi to decide going against authority and killing Zeke. That’s how much Levi still loves Eren, even after Liberio. So all I am saying is that Levi should be let in Eren’s life once this all is over and the manga concludes because imo there is no one better qualified to address Eren and talk to him as he is now. Only someone who had a vague idea about Eren’s darkness can and also should talk him down. If the Rumbling really happens, and all hell is really let loose, then is this really the freedom that Eren wanted? Is this a price worth paying? Given that Levi is the only one who has spoken explicitly about freedom to Eren, his take on this becomes extremely important and that’s why we need a Levi-Eren talk or at least Levi’s pov on Eren and the Rumbling. 

The manga has established that Levi understands Eren’s drive for freedom and his monstrous essence better than anybody else. In fact, it is an undeniably important aspect of his character arc and unless he gets to have a final conversation with Eren then his arc will never really get a proper closure. At least, this is how I feel and I’m also sad that Isa made him so non-inclusive in Eren’s life just like that and in his place, AM couldn’t understand Eren at all. I mean let’s face it he is Eren’s mentor and his influence on Eren is so visible that this cutting away of Levi from Eren’s life just doesn’t sit well with me. Maybe it’s because I’m biased idk but I strongly feel like Levi should get a final say on Eren and his behaviour, because right now, as it stands, he is the only one who got the closest to understanding Eren, all of him.

[faireth-reed]

Comparing writing styles for the routes: Moonlight Lovers

Before I begin, this’ll be a long post. I just wanted to make Raphael vs Ivan at the beginning, but there’s much more to say. I know that I can’t fully decide my preferred writing style without the 2nd half of the routes, so I’ll take that into account. Careful, there might be some unpopular opinions, and spoilers, of course.

Let’s talk about each of them, by route order. At first I expected to have Aaron and Ethan as my favourites because of my Ezarel-Valkyon love, but these guys are not copies of Eldarya’s characters, so...

Vladimir

The first one tends to have it more difficult. While he has this “main LI” aura, we had to discover all the lore of ML through him, so it meant going at a slower pace. Good backstory, both for Eloise and him, and I was surprised to see a more unique past for Vlad. While some of us felt a bit frustrated at first because of “Vlad is mad at us again”, I really enjoyed seeing his character evolution, how he opened himself up.

Bad points? The route might seem “less unique” because it took a lot of time to explain the main story, and Vlad is not really present in other routes. That’s supposed to change in Raphael’s route, but it won’t be his main writer, so we don’t know how that’ll be.

Beliath

Who doesn’t look at him and say “my man!”? It’s impressive how we expected to get a boring casanova cliché and he was so much more, he managed to make us love him in all routes. And the relationship evolution was a gulp of fresh air, more interesting and a lot of respect. Beliath’s relationship with every manor member is unique, there’s fun and camaraderie.

The only thing I’d change about his route is the exaggeration of Leandra. Even if she’s a quite good character, there’s still that “Chiino’s too perfect/seductive self-insert” vibe.

Ivan

I’ve been thinking a lot of him, because he’s given me this “little bro must protect” ideas. Many people had Aaron-like expectations for him, but the events made lots of them stop playing, and I understand it. But I’ve come to a conclusion about his route.

I used to find his route really contradicting. Half of it gave me the sensation that our Chalice was falling in love out of pity, and that all the vampires were acting too badly, even out of character. But even if we mostly see her thoughts, we are seeing the story from Ivan’s point of view.

Why the clown-wholesome dissonance in every chapter? Is it contradictory or not? Turns out, it’s just two sides of the same coin. We’ve got a young man who’s ashamed of his past (rich boy who partied too much), who’s lived a trauma as big as the Chalice’s, and he doesn’t even remember it properly.

He has this pain that he doesn’t really understand, and he has to mature for his survival, and he’s responsible of other people too. What we see every chapter, even if it makes us uncomfortable, is the amount of reasons that we have to get the good or bad ending. Ivan is really fighting to overcome his condition, but the choices are so crucial that the outcome is either very romantic, or catastrophic.

The cruelty from the beginning is his point of view, he really thinks the others don’t trust him at all. He starts getting healthier when people show him their trust. He’s in desperate need of comfort (and that is worrisome), so that’s why he wants to fight so hard his previous obsession for Constance and Loic. He really wants to begin a new life, but the trust that he receives is such an important condition that he either manages to overcome his past or not. And it turns into a life-death situation.

I still don’t know what to think about the neutral ending. Is it just meme material? Is it good instead? Do Ivan and Loic deserve each other? Probably they do, but there’s someone else suffering here. I somehow like it, but if I were an Ivan stan, I’d be probably hurt.

Aaron

Most people’s favourite, and the best beginning, but... I’m so frustrated! It’s easy to compare the first chapters with Vladimir’s, because the main lore doesn’t need to go as slow now that we already know it. Even so, I put too many hopes for him. I expected a tavern scene, but the “trying to impress you in Moondance” was also cool.

And we got interesting stuff coming. His story, the naturality of being bisexual and our Chalice’s attraction towards him, both’s relationship with Farah... Until we were forced to see her as a rival too. WHY?! Where is the feminism that we were promised? Love rivals are boring! And Farah herself said that she didn’t want to compete. I found her cool, but it’s as if we were playing A6 and its dumb self-inserts.

I still have some expectations about the ending but not too many, Rather than having a choice to express attraction towards Farah or not, we were forced. Perhaps my problem is that I wanted to voice my thoughts, and this is a pre-made Eloise.

Raphael

No, no, no... I’m really sorry for his fans because they are really cool people, but I didn’t want Leiftan 2.0, and I’m getting Leiftan after buying stuff from Nathaniel.

I can’t judge because it’s too soon, but I really need an explanation. I have various hypothesis:

a) As “religious” as he is, Raphael thinks that a Chalice is some kind of miraculous gift, so he’s in an exthasis state.

b) Considering that some people confirmed that there’s a past lover again, Raphael is having as much trouble as Ivan. He could even compare the two women if they have physical resemblance, but I don’t know.

c) With one of the previous conditions, the vampire-chalice bond has become so strong all of a sudden that she feels the strong emotions as well. She wakes up already infatuated because he’s been feeling that for a while, looking at her unconscious form.

d) Much simpler, it’s manipulation again, we know that he’s good at mental stuff with humans. That would mean that he’ll have to respect her soon, if this is properly adressed.

Either way, I’m happy that the past lover seems to be an unknown woman and not Alessio, because his design is somehow interesting, and I want to know his role in the story. But I’m still mad that Eloise hates everyone but Raph.

Fortunately, this time we can choose our reaction with Ivan instead of what happens in the other routes. We can find a middle ground where she isn’t excessively comprehensive nor harsh.

Ethan

Here comes my bastard! He doesn’t have a route yet, but we’re learning so much from him. And I’ll defend him, because I just like relatable bastards (like with a certain SnK character).

We know his main behavior is caused by his war trauma. It’ll depend on how the writer manages him. Hopefully he won’t treat his chalice very heartlessly, but she’ll be scared at first for sure.

He’s seen the worst side of humanity, had a tough time adapting, and he cannot rest. There are two recently converted people that are a reflex of humanity and himself, so he’s conflicted. We know he respects Eloise and becomes closer with her in Beliath’s route, and some of the other vampires appreciate him as well.

From his point of view, Ivan doesn’t even try to survive (it’s practically true in his bad ending, and almost false in the good one). Ivan has technically put all the manor in danger and killed someone, so once the biggest danger happens, he snaps. He doesn’t even know how to react, so the first thing that comes to his mind is scaring Eloise or breaking a few bones if necessary, so Ivan stops going into a trap, or at least, it doesn’t affect the other members. Really twisted choice, but it comes in a rush.

He’s suffering the “only love-interests” problem of this kind of otomes. Since there are almost no secondary characters, he has to be the one to do the harsh comments. I don’t want to mention routes 4-5, but in Vlad’s he seems to snap when Neil’s situation is too badly handled.

So, by now you must already know which writer I prefer, and perhaps it surprises you. But I’ll add something more. The infamous list of ML’s incoherent things.

First writer’s mistakes:

”A chalice can’t kill their vampire”. Vladimir’s neutral ending proves otherwise, unless we acknowledge that euthanasia is consensual assistance. I still don’t like how much they make it look too romantic, but I understand the point.

”A chalice is only free when the vampire dies”. Ivan’s neutral ending has Eloise being “replaced” by Loic, and that has no explanation at all.

Neil’s disappearance.

Second writer’s mistakes:

”Vampires can’t have children, unless they are hybrids”. What about Beliath’s father? He was 100% vampire, otherwise Bel would be a mixture of more races.

There is an unwritten law about chalices not getting romantically involved with other vampires. Perhaps it’s just a matter of respect, but Ethan explains it as if it were as bad as drinking their blood. Was Beliath’s comment just a joke, then? Quite weird, anyways.

”You will be given more options in the story to make it more visual-novel-like, so you can choose more freely”. I don’t know about the endings, but the illus are harder to obtain than ever. Failing Aaron’s second illu? Raphael’s first? Or is it just Beemov having bugs again?

Go up again and stare at the pic. Now look at my bastard’s scared face. I don’t want him to have another past lover, or to act too out of character, even if he has a problem.

[miitzwrites]

This is a follow up to “Don’t go where I can’t follow”, it’s a ghost au of sorts, has some spoilers for snk 115, and yeah... Enjoy!

Also on ao3

For all the tears I shed

The Ocean had always been a breathtaking sight, but it lost its appeal, at least to Eren, when he learned about his enemies. Eren knew that the ocean wouldn’t represent his freedom again until his mission was completed. And then again, it would only be a dream of freedom, or a symbol, of the people that he loved and lost in the process.

“One day, you’re gonna lose yourself into that thick head of yours,” a smooth voice said by his side, and Eren didn’t have to look up to know who was talking to him. Since Zeke got back, and since the news of Levi’s apparent death, a ghost or a hallucination -he didn’t know what to call it yet- of Levi, accompanied him everywhere. For the most part, it was frustrating. Eren was used to deal with visions of the previous owners of the Titans, he even learned how to avoid blacking out in the middle of the day. But with Levi there, he was reminded of what they had. The closeness, the openness, the trust.

Things that they would never have again.

But the sight of his former lover (were they? Or were they only using each other not to feel their loneliness?) was unsettling, and not because this Levi was a product of his mind, but because scars were starting to show up in his skin. Uneven lines, sharp cuts in his face, and a furious, ragged, red line that ran from his forehead to his chin, crossing his right eye and part of his lips. Levi looked wounded, battered, but he also looked beautiful, stronger, wiser. And strangely, this Levi didn’t have the usual frown on his face.

“You still got time, you know,” Levi spoke again, “it’s not too late to correct what you’ve done.”

“No, I don’t. I need to find Hange,” Eren replied, shaking his head, ignoring the burning gaze of Levi on him. Since the news of Levi’s death, he hadn’t been able to transform to the full extent that he needed to use the coordinate alongside Zeke. Even his brother started to notice that he wasn’t as cool and collected as he was back in Liberio, and that could put his plans in hazard. “Something is holding me back, and she has always helped me. I need to do this. I need to finish what my father started.”

Levi let out a bitter laugh, watching with something akin to pity at the man by his side. “I can’t recognize you. I saw you mature, I helped you to grow into a fine soldier. I hoped we,” Levi trailed off, returning his gaze to the ocean, “It doesn’t matter. You decided you should carry the weight of the world on your shoulders and left everyone who cared about you behind. I guess it’s what you do, doesn’t it?”

Angrily, Eren took Levi by the lapels of his shirt, bending a little to speak directly in his face, and hissing, Eren accused him, “you have no fucking right to judge me! You think I had it easy these past months? Because I didn’t! Marley was a fucking nightmare! And where were you all that fucking time?!”

But Levi wouldn’t let him have the upper hand. With a swift kick in the ribs, Eren let him go, and Levi used that distraction to grab him by his hair with his left hand, forcing Eren to meet his eyes. “Where was I? I was reading your damn letters repeatedly, trying to find a line, something that told me that the Eren I knew was still there! I trained, I prepared myself, my men, my squad to go to war. I tried so fucking hard, and for what? So, you could destroy everything we worked for? So, you and your ass of a brother and the dogs that lick the floor you walk on could spread lies and terror in the citizens?” Out of habit, Levi was gesturing with his right hand, and only then Eren noticed the lack of his index and middle fingers. His eyes widened, and he tried to reach for his hand, to examine the danger on his hand, but Levi quickly swatted him away, standing up.

“Your brother is a murderer. He has killed good soldiers, good men, and women who sacrificed their lives for what they believed was right, to protect you! And for what?”

His words left a stinging pain in Eren’s chest. People saw him like that, as a monster, or as a savior, and both were incorrect. Well, part of him would always believe that he was a monster, but he didn’t want to be their savior, it was an unfortunate coincidence that people placed him on both roles. But Eren was sure that he had to be a monster, that he had to be the big bad at the end of the story. He had to push everyone he loved away because that was the only way he could help his people, it was the only way he could get to Zeke and fix the mess that he didn’t ask to be a part of.

But the regrets, he would have to learn with them. The regret of deaths of the people who protected him, of his friends. The regret of telling the only family he had left that he hated them. The regret of killing -indirectly- the man he ever loved. And if this ghost, hallucination or whatever he was, was any indication of anything, he would always regret causing that much pain to the strongest soldier of humanity.

Eren sat down on the sand, watching Levi walk away, but he stopped, only to look over his shoulder and say, “I never stopped believing in you, trusting you. I knew you, and the lengths you would go to fulfill what you thought was your duty. You were once humanity’s last hope, and even though it changed, you will always be mine.”

Levi’s figure disappeared through the shadows, leaving Eren alone with his thoughts and his sorrows.

- - -

A week passed, and with the information about Hange’s whereabouts, Levi’s ghosts returned to Eren. He didn’t have to turn around, he just felt Levi’s steel eyes on his back. “You’re back,” he murmured, fogging the window with his breath as he spoke, “I thought you were gone for good.”

“I told you, kid, I’m here to remind you what you’ve done. You won’t get rid of me yet,” Levi answered in return, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest. “They found Hange.”

“I know. Are you going to warn her or something?”

“I wish I could, but shit doesn’t work like that,” sadness crept through his voice, making Eren turn to face him. He didn’t change from the last time he saw his ghost.

But something had been bothering Eren. A question that he didn’t want to answer, but he needed to know the truth, even if it broke him more. “Levi, why are you here? Are you really dead?”

Levi regarded him with a thoughtful expression and took his time to formulate an answer. “I'm not sure. The last thing I remember was the blinding light of the explosion, and then pain and coldness. And when I was about to drown, I appeared here. But I haven't seen any of my friends or family, so I guess I'm not really dead.”

“You thought you'd see them once you die?”

Levi smiled with a hint of sadness, and shrugged, “I hoped I'd see my mom.”

Silence fell over them again, and they knew their conversation was over, at least for now. Eren moved from his place in the windowsill, and sat by Levi's feet, pulling his knees up to his chest. “Will you sit with me?” Levi nodded and slipped down onto the floor. Their shoulders touched and without a second thought, Eren rested his head on Levi's shoulder and closed his eyes.

“Do you hate me, Levi? After everything, do you?”

“I can't hate you, idiot. You mean, you meant something important,” Levi interlaced his fingers with Eren's, and the extra space on his right hand wasn't strange as he thought it may feel. He squeezed lightly his hand, and whispered, “get some rest, you'll need it.”

And Eren fell into a deep sleep, after months of restless nights.

-  - -

A few hours later, before dawn, Zeke found his brother in that same position, with his head hanging to his left, and his fist closed. With a gentle hand on his shoulder, he shook Eren awake. “Time to go, Eren.”

Eren mumbled something, and stood up, wiping the sleep off his eyes. He looked around, but Levi was nowhere to be seen, and that made Eren frown.

“Is something wrong, brother?”

“It's nothing.”

“Eren, I know you cared about Levi, but he's dead, and you have more urgent matters in hands.” The urgency in his brother’s tone made Eren frown, but he bit the interior of his cheek, and shoot him an uninterested glance, the one that he perfectioned under Levi’s care. “His life was expendable, you should know better.”

“Expendable, you say? I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him!”

“Eren…”

“Forget it, brother,” he spatted, moving to the door and ignoring Zeke’s questioning eyes, “You’ve done enough, so let’s get this over with.”

- - -

The way to Hange’s location took them almost half of a day. From what the men sent by Floch to investigate, she was in a small cabin in the outskirts of Shiganshina, and apparently, no one but her wandered around the area. With her squad incarcerated and most of the military from Paradis under surveillance, it wasn’t a surprise.

Eren spent the ride in silence, only answering when someone asked him something. Floch and Zeke did most of the talking, and at times, he wanted to shut them up, but he controlled himself. Occasionally, too, he would hear Levi’s voice in his head, telling him to calm the fuck down and not to act like an angry brat. Brat, that simple word brought a weak smile to his lips.

When they approached the cabin, the men that followed him surrounded the property, making sure to cover any way out that Hange could use. Some of the younger cadets worked with her before this new revolution, so they had an idea of how Hange reacted in battle.

“Commander Zoë,” Floch yelled, keeping a safe distance in case Hange had a rifle at hand, “come outside with your hands over your head,” a sound of breaking glasses was heard, and the cadets aimed at the house. “Don’t do anything stupid, Hange, you’re surrounded.”

It took her too long to step out, but Eren signaled them to wait. The last thing he wanted was to have another of his people killed for nothing. She opened the door slowly, keeping her hands up, but her appearance was disheveled, her hair was down, and her clothes had stains of dirt. She even forwent her glasses.

“You need to come with us, Hange,” Floch announced, approaching her, “but first, where is he?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Hange replied calmly, watching Floch with indifference.

“Levi, where’s his body?”

“Why would you want to see the body of a dead man? That’s disturbing, even for a lap dog like you,” Hange smirked, and Floch was ready to hit her, pissed by her comment, but before he could even raise his hand, Eren stepped forward.

“I need to talk to you, Hange,” Eren said, ignoring how his heart started to beat faster, “I’ve had trouble with my transformation lately, and I’m sure you can help me.”

“And what makes you think I’d help a piece of crap like you?” Hange hissed angrily, “Because of you my friend is dead! And because your psychopath brother, every person I cared about, was killed. You have no right to come here and ask for my help.”

“Watch your tone, Commander,” Floch threatened, tightening his hold on his rifle.

“Floch, stop and get back. Tell the rest to wait for me outside and at a safe distance.”

“But Eren, sir. -“

“Did I fucking stutter?” Eren raised his voice, surprising his subordinates, and even Zeke, who was keeping an eye on his brother. He entered the cabin first, and Hange followed him. She didn’t give him a chance to talk, they were barely inside when she lunged at him, hitting his face in the process.

“You fucking murderer!” She punched him again, and grabbed the lapels of Eren’s parka, “It was your fault! What happened to Levi was your fault!”

Eren nodded and took in a shaky breath, before admitting, “I’ve seen him.”

“You what?”

“I’ve seen him. Before they told me he had died, he showed up out of nowhere. I’ve talked to him- to his spirit or whatever. I’m probably hallucinating. But please, Hange, please, tell me the truth. I need to see where he rests. I need to see him for the last time.”

Shock was written over Hange’s features, and she shook her head, “You’re lying again, Eren. Why would I believe you?”

“Levi lost two fingers, didn’t he? He also had multiple wounds in his face and body. He probably lost his eye, too.”

“How do you. -“

“How do I know? I told you, I’ve seen him, talked to him.”

Hange moved to the side, and raised up, warily of Eren who made no attempt to move. “You broke his heart, you know,” Hange said, and once that was out, the words didn’t seem to stop, “I don’t know what happened between you two, but I could see him better, smiling, he was more relaxed. And when you ran away against our orders, he was broken. Not like when I met him and lost his friends from the underground. No, Levi was devastated, but he didn’t show it. I knew him well enough to notice the small changes, how he overworked himself and the cadets, how he demanded perfect cleaning on the headquarters but ignored the small stains on the windows after a rainy day.

He would spend hours in his office, re-reading the same document multiple times, because the information simply didn’t seem to stick into his head. But he would also come to dinner and would look around like a hawk, and the small noise from the front door would have him in alert, only to be disappointed when no one entered. After a few weeks, he stopped coming to the dining hall with us. He would hole up in his office, and more than once I found him with a bottle of vodka in his hand. He didn’t admit it out loud, but you broke him, Eren.”

To suspect how badly he had hurt him, was one thing, but to actually know it, was different. And so much worse. He couldn’t help the tears that welled up in his eyes, but he wiped them off quickly, trying to regain his composure. “Hange, he was more than my Captain. He was my mentor, my friend, he…. My feelings for him went beyond friendship and admiration.”

“I know.”

“I just, I just need to know where he is. I want to visit him before…”

“I know,” Hange interrupted him, “But I’m not sure if I can trust you. How can I be certain that you don’t want to hurt him again?”

He didn’t reply. There was nothing he could say that would change his misgivings, so he only lowered his head. It was uncomfortable to be there, to be watched with so much scrutiny and disappointment. He raised up to his feet, and moved to the door, before hearing Hange sigh.

“This is the last time I do anything for you,” Hange admonished him, and Eren nodded, “Come this way.”

Although the cabin was small, the floor on the kitchen was irregular. Hange moved the table, and Eren noticed an almost imperceptible handle. Hange pulled on it, revealing a trapdoor. “Be quick, and don’t you dare do something, Eren, or I swear I won’t hesitate to end you.” With that last warning, Eren walked down the stairs. His legs were shaking and his hands sweating, but he forced himself to keep going until he reached the floor.

The basement was well-illuminated, clean, and not a speck of dust could be seen.

“Took you longer than expected, idiot,” Levi’s voice echoed through the small room, and Eren turned harshly to his right, smiling widely when he saw him.

“You’re really here,” Eren whispered, but Levi shook his head, smiling though his eyes showed sorrow.

“Turn to your left, brat, and see it for yourself.”

Eren did as he was told, and his breath was caught on his throat. A small cot was placed on the corner, and as he approached it, the figure who laid there, took a clearer form. A sob escaped his lips, and the tears didn’t stop once he caught a glance at Levi’s body. By some miracle, he was breathing, barely, but his chest was rising and falling. His face was almost unrecognizable, he was swollen, bloody red, with stitches poorly done, not Hange’s best job, but she had tried. The right side of his face was covered with gauze. The rest of his body wasn’t in better condition. More cuts, more stitches, more bandages covered him, and the amorphous lump on his right hand, only caused him to sob harder.

He fell to his knees, and with utter care, brushed his fingers over his arm. He wanted to rest his head on his chest, as he had done multiple times in the past, just to reassure himself that Levi was really breathing, but he stopped himself. Not only did he looked paler than normal -the loss of blood and the rushed conditions in which Hange had tried to patch him up may be the caused of it-, but he also was feverish. His body was probably fighting an infection.

“I guess I’m not dead, yet,” the Levi ghost or hallucination, said, sitting down on near the end of the cot. Watching himself in that state, brought a disgusted frown to his face, “a matter of time, I suppose.”

But he ignored what Levi said as he kept crying openly. His hands were at his hair, and strands fell messily, but he couldn’t care about his appearance, not when the man he loved was dying in front of his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Eren chocked out, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he repeated again and again until he was silenced when slim fingers tangled in his hair, undoing his hair bun completely in favor massaging his scalp, soothing the crying boy.

“I told you once to make the choice you would regret the least,” Levi’s voice was quiet, he had never been the best at comforting people, but he did try, he honestly did. “You know what you did wrong, and you’ll have to learn with the consequences.”

“But I hurt you! It’s because of me that you’re dying!”

“Then, learn to move on. That’s all we can do with our lives.”

Eren shook his head, and hang onto Levi’s leg -fuck, he, the ghost or the hallucination, shouldn’t feel so real-. “I can’t! I need you by my side!”

“You’re a stubborn shit,” Levi chuckled, taking Eren’s chin between his thumb and ring finger of the right hand, “Your passion is what will keep you alive.”

“I don’t know what to do, Levi, I don’t think I can.”

“I told you I trust you, and I pray that whatever plan is in your mind, really works.”

Eren moved closer to hug Levi’s middle, hiding his face on his stomach. It was comforting, unreal, probably, but this was the most human he had ever felt in months. Levi embraced him, wrapping his arms around his shoulders, and kissing the crown of his head.

They stayed like that for a while, ignoring what was happening around them, but a sharp intake of breath broke their bubble. The Levi on the cot started to breathe raggedly, and his eyelids fluttered. His face constricted in pain, and he started to trash on the cot. Eren stood there awkwardly, only reacting when Hange pushed him away. She carried a syringe with clear liquid in it. “It’s okay, shorty,” she whispered, brushing the bags from his creamy forehead, “It’s okay, you’ll feel better soon, alright? I got you, Levi.”

It didn’t take long for the morphine to kick in, and Levi stopped his movements until he was calmed again, just like he found him.

“It’s time, kid,” the spirit of Levi materialized by Eren’s side, shifting his attention from the dying man on the bed. “You gotta go, and so do I.”

“You can’t leave, me, Levi. Even if I can have you only as a hallucination, that’s enough, I swear,” Eren brokenly begged, and Hange, who was checking Levi’s vitals, looked at him with pity. “You can’t die, Levi, you need to keep fighting, that’s what you taught me!”

Levi was banishing before his eyes, appearing almost translucid. He cupped his face with his left hand, brushing the tears that fell from teal eyes with his thumb. “Brat, I’m doing you a favor. You’ll get sick of me if I stay to haunt your ass.” Eren tried to laugh, but an ugly sound took its place. This Levi looked at him with open affection, and tears gathered at the corner of his left eye. “I did it, Eren. I reminded you of the people who died for you. Not to make you feel guilty, but to remind you that this is what it means to be human. Call it a mission or whatever you want to, but it’s over, I can’t stay here anymore.”

Eren tried to reach out for him, to hold him one last time, but his hands touched air, just like he had arrived, now Levi was gone.

Hanged observed the whole exchange intrigued. In another time, she would’ve insisted on testing Eren, to see if this was a reaction of his titan powers. But now, she saw no use of it. Her mind was set on curing Levi and aiding him, and Eren… Well, he had chosen his path.

“It’s getting late, Eren,” Hange murmured, and Eren could only nod.

The younger man approached Levi’s sleeping body again, and careful, kissed his bandaged hand, softly, trying not to hurt him or put much pressure on the injury on his right side, Eren brushed his lips over Levi’s chapped ones, lasting no more than a few seconds. “Keep fighting, Levi. Survive! You deserve a better ending than this.”

When he finally ascended the stairs, Hange offered him a glass of water, which he took with a soft thanks, and gulped it down. “Are you going to incarcerate me again?” Hange asked, and Eren shook his head.

“In that case, it’s better if you go now, Eren. Don’t have your men waiting.” Eren used his sleeve to brush off the tears of his eyes, but at this point, he didn’t care if they saw him after his breakdown.

Eren walked to the door, but before taking the handle, he said, “Teal tea.”

“What was that?”

“Teal tea. He told me once he would open his own tea shop if he could. And he also asked me what I would name it, but I couldn’t come up with a good name,” he explained lamely, trying to make sense of his words, “Levi also said the color of my eyes were teal, which was strangely precise. When he wakes up, tell him I finally had a good name for his tea shop.”

“Okay, I can do that.”

“Take care of him for me, please. He’s a fighter, a survivor, help him regain his strength again, please.”

“I will.”

With a nod, Eren exited the cabin and closed the door behind him. He was met with curious eyes, but he kept walking until he reached his horse, ignoring the murmurs of his men.

“Sir,” Floch called him, “what about Hange?”

“Leave her alone.”

“But, sir. -“

“It’s over, Floch. I don’t want you or anyone to molest her. Leave her in peace, I won’t repeat myself.” The cadets looked at each other, but in the end, they did as they were told.

Eren ignored Zeke and his attempts at talking to him. He rode his horse at a fast pace, ignoring the heaviness on his chest, and the pain that wanted to crush him down.

[snkpolls]

SnK Chapter 103 Poll Results

The chapter 103 poll closed with 2,013 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Another month, another chapter that left people feeling excited! 98% of poll takers rated chapter 103 from good to excellent!

I just cant wait for the next chapter. I'm so HYPED

I like that Isayama for the first time since rts showcased a fast-paced action-packed chapter. Too many questions rn, but imo zeke is 100% w/ paradis, falco won’t die and the female titan will appear, regardless of its inheritor. Eren’s transformation was jizz-worthy

This chapter was both so thrilling and yet so frustrating.  On one hand, so much is happening in just the right amount of panels and it seems Isayama has learned the art of pacing in this arc more successfully than others.  I'm a sucker for tragedy, so the conflicted misery of what is going on is satisfying given the history of the series.  On the other hand, I am still very frustrated in figuring out what exactly is going on, what is being implied, specifically anything involving Zeke

I don’t know what to say. I feel so empty. But the chapter is great!

This month it was a tie for most emotional moment between “Falco trying to encourage unconscious Reiner” and “Armin finally appearing, looking haunted”. We are happy to see that people who love both sides of the conflict were able to have a good emotional tug with this chapter! 

Pretty much every panel that included Falco.  This poor, traumatized child who ran into a literal war zone to get help.

Why are all my waifus getting killed.

With Reiner having no will to live, I guess he’s just going to stay in that crystal thing. Why do we have so many shifters in crystals now (Annie, Lady Tybur and now Reiner)?

I absolutely loved the scene between Falco and Reiner. That was one of the most emotional and sweet moments in SNK. Reiner was ready to sacrifice himself to save the child. I truly love how warm and protective he is towards children. I hope that both will survive. I want Reiner to find happiness and see how great person he really is. He made mistakes but regrets them. He learnt his lesson. Now is time to move on.

This one was a landslide win with Armin’s entrance taking the victory. It seems that months of waiting to see his return finally paid off! We’re sure many of you guys are hoping to see his Colossal form next month!

Eren transforming three times within a half an hour is incredible, but the most amazing part of the chapter was Armin's entrance as the colossal titan. The explosion looked catastrophic, can't wait to see it animated!

I literally screamed when I saw Armin, I’m so happy to see him with the Survey Corps, but his face worries me slightly. I’m also sad we didn’t get to see his titan form.

Not as epic as the last one but so glad to see Armin again. Sasha's sniping skills and Eren mindblowing everybody (Porco in particular) were the best parts.

While the majority of you guys are certain Zeke is only acting on his own agenda, there’s plenty of division on whether he could be siding with Eren alone or with Paradis as a whole. One thing that does seem certain to the majority is that he’s definitely not working in Marley’s favor. 

Zeke probably thinks he and Eren are the same because they were both manipulated by Grisha or so he thinks. If he realizes that Eren probably doesn't hate their dad, Zeke's attitude towards his brother will possibly change. 

Zeke's the one with most awareness that the cycle will repeat so long as shifters exist, his unique perspective is knowing what Grisha taught him as well as having the total trust of the Marley from a young age, and having physically gone and seen the island and witnessed their struggles with the titans, and met Eren who is the direct result of Grisha's continued plans.  There is no one who should be more impartial and aware that this is a unending cycle, it seems he's finally coming to terms with having to do something about it after all his life simply being a pawn of people in what he assumed was a more influential position than him.

Every chapter I say "This is definitely the chapter we finally see what Zeke is up to" and every chapter it just gets more confusing...

I seriously doubt that Zeke is working with Paradis. One thing would be to act like an enemy but he literally killed a bunch of SC soldiers, I doubt the SC would be ok with that. Also, Levi looked PISSED AF! I doubt Zeke died and he's still suspicious but I'm betting on him having his own ulterior motives.

I don't think Zeke is working with the SC. It was hard to answer these questions when the options contradict my feelings and understanding of the chapter so much.

So. Good ol' Zeke. He's like David S. Pumpkins; he's his own thing. I'm still of the belief that he's working towards his own objective but now I'm more open to the idea that he may have something set up with SC via Eren as his point of contact (who, of course, is definitely working with/for SC). But it's clear that even if they are both aware of the chain of events unfolding before their eyes, both sides have something they want badly in the end and will probably "betray" each other without hesitation to get it at some point.

The survey corps has a plan but Zeke and Eren also have a separate plan they're not aware of. And on top of all of that Zeke has his own plan for his own personal agenda.

Zekerets

The general consensus is that there’s more in store for Zeke in this story, even if it means he managed to transfer his consciousness to his Eldian ass. ;) Most of you are positive we will be seeing more from Zeke in future chapters!

If Zeke is dead, I will watch the live action movie 10 times in a row

Levi cut Zeke out of the Beast Titan's neck while everyone was distracted by Armin's transformation. Then after Zeke made his getaway, Levi blew the shit out of the rest of the nape to destroy the evidence and make everyone think Zeke was dead.

Zeke escaped upwards using 3dmg right as levi was supposed to attack him, causing zeke to be assumed KIA

Well, looks like Zeke has been vaporised, playtime's over kids, let's head back home now!

I find it hard to believe that Zeke got taken down this easily again. I also find it odd that we don't see the clothing he's wearing inside his titan, but we do see what the others are wearing in their titans. Looking back, it seems that's the way it was before, too. But I think it would be a cool plot twist if he had 3DMG equipped this time, considering he did take Mike's 3DMG a while back.

While the majority believe that Levi is working along with Zeke, there is division on whether Levi has decided to let go of his promise to Erwin to kill Zeke. Over half of the voters believe that Levi still intends to kill Zeke when all is said and done, but a good 31% of you believe that he may have decided to let it go for the greater goal.

If the Zeke-Survey Corps alliance isn't real then Isayama must be the biggest troll ever. Also, I believe Levi has always shown that he'll do what's best for humanity/Eldia (even if it means doing unpleasant things) so I don't think the alliance is as far-fetched as other people believe.

Still waiting for that sweet Levi's Revenge™

Levi!   I love how emotional Levi gets when it comes to keeping his promise to Erwin; nothing can get a rise out of him anymore or get him to max rage except Zeke.  I hope we find out sooner rather than later what Zeke is up to, but there is no way that Levi is going to let him walk out of this alive, even if he is part of the current plan.  

Regarding Levi wanting to Kill Zeke, while he'd prefer to kill him by his own hands we already know he'd be willing to feed him to someone so the Titan power isn't lost. I personally think Zeke agreed, since he has a a year left at best,

While there was a small shift in ratio, the majority of you guys still believe that Pieck is not totally trustful of Zeke. There have been plenty of analyses floating around believing that she may have seen Zeke leaving the Beast Titan after Levi’s attack. 

The question about Pieck being mistrustful of Zeke isn't worded very well because if I answer yes it makes it seem like I'm part of the 70% and haven't changed my mind when I'm in fact part of the 30% and haven't changed my mind.

This question was mainly for fun, but Lady Tybur decidedly wins the award for Best “Bitch Please” Face™. Hopefully we get more fun looks from her next chapter! 

Imma let you finish, but Lady Tybur has the best side eye in all of SnK

Ms. Tyber has the best death glare!

There’s some division on this question, but it’s a near-tie between Armin getting involved in the fight and the Paradis crew’s ticket out of Marley showing up. 

They'll drop sour cream bombs

At this point John Cena might as well show up.

Annie will arrive (let me dream)

I think time is running for them to scape "safely", but not necessarily through a zeppelin

I think what Jean & Zeke mean by "It's almost time/times running out" is that Eren needs to make contact with Zeke before the Colossal Wall Titans arrive so Eren will be able to control them. If Eren doesn't touch Zeke before the Wall Titans arrive, everyone including the SC & Eldians will die.

I believe that the question about the lights up are relationed with Hanji, after all, Armin is too distance. In fact, I think that the thoughts about an escape through a zepplin are a little bit awkward.  And I think that zeke escaped using the DMT, wich he took when he said goodbye to piecke and porko, before eren showed up.

Most of you still believe that Jean is clinging onto his humanity (and with good reason after he called Floch out in the previous chapter for being too zealous). The expectation is that he will avoid harming Falco or that someone else will step in and do the dirty work instead. 

I noticed that jean is only attacking the shifters on shiganshina battle arc. which can tell a lot about his war ethics and strategics. he’s only fighting those who declared war on them first, almost as if trying to ignore those who got caught up into it.

Jean will kill Falco. I think becasue it's a callback for that girl from MP that Jean couldn't kill from Uprising

Last month nearly all of the scores were tied with both pessimism and optimism about Annie’s fate. This month, there seems to be more optimism, but most people are still hanging out in the area of uncertainty. We hope to get a clear answer soon!

Since Eren said that the crystal was, as expected, unbreakable AFTER pointing out it was like Annie's, I take that to mean he has tried chewing Annie's crystal open but failed like he did this time. I'm not sure why so many people seem to be taking this to mean that he was able to eat Annie when the scene actually reassures me that he hasn't

I had absolutely no hope for Annie being alive, but seeing Lady Tybur being conscious while inside the crystal changed my mind. Annie could still be alive. And if she is, she spent YEARS in the crystal while being aware of her surroundings??? I am shook

It has already been hinted several times that Annie would eventually return. I don't think Isayama would forget about her, and if it appears to be true, that she's returning next chapter, I hope to see her work with the Survey Corps, or a backstory/flashback, which explains the reason why she'll be working with the Survey Corps from now on.

Almost 35% of you are ready to just see Lady Tybur kick the bucket already, but a good 28% of you would at least like to see her have a chat with Eren first.

why do so many people want lady tybur to die?? i don’t understand?? she’s cool and has done nothing wrong to anyone like ever??? she’s even called a villain?? excuse me tell me one villainous thing she did?? she’s a decent human being but i guess how dare she beat eren’s ass up and defend her people... 🤦🏻‍♀️

Eren needs to swallow her whole (insert lemmy face)

Over 60% of you believe that the Survey Corps’ goal is to kill the enemy titan shifters.

I strongly disagree with having only 2 options in the "capture or to kill them?" question. The real answer, is, I believe, either one. If they can deprive Marley of a weapon and add it to their strength, is clearly the ideal. But, if the choice comes down to kill or they escape, they'll absolutely just kill them. Depriving your enemy of a weapon is always a better choice than letting them continue attacking you with it, in the hopes you could take it later.

I still maintain that the goal was to avoid any and all combat with the shifters; hence Pieck and Porcos trap. (Why bother setting the whole thing up? Why not just kill them?) My guess is that capturing them for their titan powers was the next step, although that's obviously failed. I feel like the end game here is to gather all the titan somehow and unite them for...??? Something??? World peace??? Shit, that sounds like a good idea. Unrealistic but good.

It’s a near-tie between believing that either Zeke orchestrated capturing Porco and Pieck or believe that he did it as a larger plan with the Survey Corps.

Maybe Zeke wanted to isolate Pieck and Porco in the trap, to save their lives?

Most of you seem to have given up on figuring out Trapdoor-kun’s identity. But a fair chunk of you think it could have been a current day Eldian restorationist! There’s still a good amount of you who believe it’s Connie as well.

Hiroyuki Sawano

Erwin it was erwin. You thought he was dead? You fool he's not!  He's immortal,  he's still here and  with the strength of his eyebrows he will kick everyone's ass.

I really don't care at this point

One thing is certain, at least 65% of you guys believe that the Jaeger Brothers have the best Eldian asses! It seems nice booties run in the family! 

I can forgive people supporting  Marley, but WHO THE HELL VOTED ON ZEKE ASS?????

Everyone who chose zeke’s Titan as having the best ass is a furry goodbye

Levi is jealous of Zeke's Eldian ass.

porco got a nice ass uwu

That question.... I don't care about titan's butts -_-

I like Eldian asses

Predicting who Isayama kills off has always been difficult, but over half of you believe that Pieck is going to be toast in the next chapter, with Jean following in  second, Porco a distant third.

Gabi you better not be aiming that rifle at my husbando Jean also can everyone of Paradis and Eldia have a party at the newly created bay, I want the warriors AND the SC to live please and thank you

Pieck and Porco will likely die next chapter 😪

I swear to god Flocke if you lay even one finger on little Falco or Gabi I will personally hunt you down, you'll be lucky if I find you first though. Because other wise the Armored titan will kill you dead. You will then, rest in pieces.

Protect Jean and Falco 2k18

pieck cant die, nor can any 104th  members

At 57%, a majority are thirsty for answers on the Paradis Crew’s last 4 years. 

I need Paradis flashbacks but first I'd like to be sure no one major dies, thanks.

I stg we'll have that fucking Paradis flashback right before Levi's death. Fucking Isayama.

I really don’t want a crap ton of flashbacks I’m Ngl I just kinda wanna get moving I know the q and a said stuff but like that’s my thought at the moment.

I really hope the next chapters a flashback to paradis i mean it would be neat for the 104th chapter to be a flashback ABOUT THE 104TH

As expected of the redditors, you’re still the overwhelming majority of the poll takers! ;)

ANY OTHER CHAPTER THOUGHTS YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?

So chomping down on Lady Tybur's crystal won't break it and apparently neither will the thunder spears. We still haven't seen Eren try to use his hardening ability to break it but honestly, I think his only option now is to use the coordinate. It could be revealed soon that only the person inside the crystal can break themselves out and by using the coordinate, Eren can order her to do so. After all, we've seen Eren control mindless titans, but would unlocking the full powers of the founding titan allow him to control shifters as well?

Bertholdt's death was such a surprise to Porco... When Reiner returned to Marley, he gave his full report about what had happened, so if he was aware of Bertholdt's death, then he would have reported it, thus leading to Porco knowing that Bertholdt was already dead. Does that mean that Reiner has no idea that Bertholdt is dead? Was he hoping that Bertholdt managed to escape and was still alive on Paradis?

"Friendship ended with mr Kruger, now Reiner is my best friend." - Falco

Personally I'm not a huge fan of action heavy chapters like this as they take a few read throughs to get a good picture of what's going on. Although I do think the intention at the minute is to make us feel a bit lost as to motivations and who is supporting who. So I'm going to roll with it and be surprised when the reveals happen.

I think Porco will get Marcel's confession memory soon.

Even if it's all a plan made by Zeke and Scouts, the fact that SC soldiers still died , unaware of the bigger plan, makes me really sad. It's like with the plan to capture Annie back in the Giant Trees forest and Stohess. Back then it was Erwin who organized the plan, now it's Hanji's turn?

I. WANT. ANNIE. TO. RETURN.

I want Bert to Mufasa the fuck out of Reiner

Zeke is lucky he had royal blood as a bargaining chip to convince Paradis to team up. Otherwise he stood no chance if they had to fight for real. I don't think Zeke is a master planner, maybe he has an end goal, but he isn't a genius who has planned every step to get there. He gets lucky and bailed out by others and his conveniently relevant Senju DNA too often to be a keikaku master.

GIB COLOSSAL NO-LONGER-COCONUT

In before Jean's thrust into mortal danger via Gabi and Armin shows up to save his ass at the last second YET AGAIN

everyone simmer down like people in this fandom need to steal some of erens drinks from his apparently extensive alcohol stash like gdi I’m losing it guys I have a family and stuff I have alife and y’all losinf it and making me go crazy too like w t f.

Honestly, I was over the moon when Levi took down Zeke, but it did seem a little too easy...I highly doubt Zeke would go down easily. Also, Armin's haunted expression broke my heart. You can see the pain in his eyes, and that makes me even more curious about what's happened on Paradis over the last few years.

In my first read i thought that Armin had a ponytail and i got excited. Some users corrected me and when i re-read the chapter i found it was just his hand. I feel betrayal

Eren has more stamina than the Energiser Battery Rabbit: he can just keep on going, and going, and going...

I spent the entire chapter going "Get back in the damn titan, Porco!" I died with the panzer squad. RIP me."

Low key I have had no idea what’s been happening since 101

[kyojuuros]

SnK Chapter 94 Poll Results

Hey everyone! I’m helping @momtaku out this month with her poll and she asked me to make the final results post this month while she is away! The poll has closed with 1,212 responses! As expected, a long post is incoming.

Rate the Chapter (1,181 responses)

Not as loved as last month’s chapter. But this month’s chapter still overall seemed to be favorable among the majority with few people actually disliking it.

Pretty good chapter with great backstory. Only gripe is there should've been some bigger hint of future conflict or teasing at the Walldians invading Marley.

Since the Warriors are my favorite group in this manga, this chapter was a gift sent down from heaven. It gave further enlightenment on the outside world and FINALLY some backstory for my favs. If we switched back to Paradis at this point, I'd be okay with it.

We've had an entire volume focused on Marley. Rate your approval. (1,181 responses)   

Despite many of us being thrown off at the beginning of this volume, it turns out that it grew on us after all!

It provides good insight on the "villain" point of view, making the story more interesting as you sympathize with what you thought were the "bad guys"

I know it's bit controversial but I'm really pleased with this arc. Ive always had I bias for the warriors in general but finally knowing their motivations has just cemented how complex and tragic their characters are.

Overall a slow volume, with a much appreciated info-dump in chapter 93. Mixed feelings on it. Loved chapters 92 and 93, but not sold on 91 and 94. I hope the story picks up pace soon and the Liberio/Rebellio-Eldians soon come face to face with the Walldians.

What was your favorite moment of the chapter? (1,175 responses)

There were many different replies to this, but the top two were at an almost tie! Seeing Reiner, Bertolt and Annie as kids only barely outweighed Reiner’s account of the 104th Trainee Squad as the most loved part of the chapter.

You know I always loved Warriors. I waited for years to get their flashback and I am really happy and also broken to get it. I get why we didn't get it earlier but still I do wish we'd get it in one of those earlier chapters. It would make much difference in fandom. Other than that, SOMEONE JUST FIND MY CHILDREN. GIVE THEM HUGS AND BLANKETS AND SOME ACTUAL LOVE. THANK YOU.

Although I thought it should have all been referred to sooner in the story, I'm glad that it at least exists. Many have brought up the parallel between Eren and Reiner, I think this chapter properly illustrates just that. I wish we had morr flashbacks like this sprinkled throughout the entire series but I'm overall content that it was relevant to the volume. Also BITTY CHAPTERS ARE PRECIOUS!

Best reveal of the chapter? (1,172 responses)

People really seemed to enjoy the parallels between Reiner and Eren. Second comes the reveal that Reiner is half Marleyan.

Do you think Reiner truly believes the people on Paradis are cruel and barbarous devils? (1,172 responses)

The overwhelming majority agree that Reiner doesn’t really believe anything he’s saying.

dear Reiner, you're not fooling anyone, is that really all the bad things you could say about the 104th squad?! You made them sound like toddlers that need the naughty step rather than evil devils, ha!

Did Annie deliberately squish the bug? (1,170 responses)

Most people agree that Annie wanted that bug smashed into the dirt!

Annie killing the bug looks like when she killed humans (like Petra). I think it shows some things never changes and maybe it means something ? Like about her pov before ? How determined she was (as Mikasa) and seeing the people of Paradis as nothing else than bugs and maybe seeing everybody as bugs ? And then showing how it changed with this two and with Armin ?

I'm a little spooked by the bug squishing scene. I'm a little spooked with how she handled it and how Reiner and Bertholt reacted as well.

Prior to this chapter, did you view the warriors favorably? (1,165 responses)

Before this chapter, it was nearly a 50/50 split. Some of you loved them already, others did not, and a fair chunk of people were pretty neutral or uncaring either way. 

im not a big fan of the warriors tbh

I've always felt sympathetic towards the warriors, and this chapter just reinforced that. And I feel like I have a much better understanding of Reiner's character now.

Has this chapter changed your feelings towards the Warriors? (1,163 responses)

Most people’s opinions did not change although there are some that have come to sympathize with them more as well as those just happy to see their side of the story.

It did a really good job of further humanizing the warriors

Now I mostly feel sorry for them.

After seeing how extreme the Marley brainwashing has been and how BRA never seemed consider going against it after seeing how blatantly wrong all of it was, despite acknowledging how wrong it all is, has made me hate them even more

I feel really bad for not liking the Warriors because I know they were doing what they thought was right and it's really not their fault for what happened on Paradis so even seeing their backstory hasn't totally made me love them

Rate each warrior in terms of how this chapter affected your perceptions of them:

Reiner, Bertolt and Falco all shot up in favorability while Annie and Zeke gained small boosts or had no changing perceptions. Gabi, however, had either no change, or has started to be viewed less favorably. 

It was great to see Reiner struggle so much in warrior training, compared to how the soldiers of the 104th looked up to his strength. This chapter really solidified my love for his character.

Gabi is veeeeery overrated.

I love bertholdt so much with my entire heart and soul 

Look at Pieck! She is dying from those laps. More sweaty than Bertolt. I love her. Best girl.

Which of the Warriors would you most like to see switch sides? (1,164 responses)

With only a slight percentage above Annie, Reiner is now the most favorable candidate for side-switching. 

The way things have been set up, I don't see anyone switching sides, but with Zeke and Reiner's hidden agendas and that undercurrent of dissent in the kid warriors, I could see some kind of kindred goal appearing between the Warriors and the Walldians. After all, Zeke seems to want the Coordinate and Eren needs someone of royal blood to work it. Tenuous cooperation might ensue, though how longboard they can last without turning on each other is anyone' and guess.

Mystery man is back! Any thoughts about his identity? (1,171 responses)

By a landslide, the majority believe that Eren is amputee-kun.

If the mystery-man isn't Eren, I'll be shocked! But kind of excited, too, to see who might have been brave enough to infiltrate Marley and actually go through the war with them to keep their cover... Not to mention losing a leg. I still find Eren a more likely choice, of course, because he could keep his leg from regenerating and blend in pretty well, but if it's someone else, that opens up a lot of possibilities too.

It'd be interesting if Eren is this mystery soldier. I wonder what it was like to have to cut his leg off! If it is Eren I really worry for him!!

Will Eren meet his grandparents? (1,166 responses)

With the revelation that the Jaeger grandparents are still alive and kicking, most of you believe Eren will get the chance to meet them.

I wonder if the reveal of Zeke's grandparents still being alive is a deliberate set up for Eren to perhaps meet them?

Will Reiner meet his father? (1,165 responses)

Even though all he wanted was to be able to meet and be with his father, the larger percentage of readers don’t believe he will achieve this wish.

Is Reiner's dad gonna be important at all? To me the whole scene of Karina talking to little itsy bitsy Reiner seemed to saying, "Pay attention, take notes." Some theories have been floating around that Reiner's an Ackerman? Some say Annie and Reiner are siblings (it would explain why we didn't see Annie's fathers face if he looked like his son?

How badly do you want to return to the original cast on Paradis? (1,175 responses)

While plenty of responses indicate a continued interest in the Warriors and Marley, most are eager to see some familiar faces again.

I feel like the Warrior side of the story isn't done yet and that's fine, but Yams give us something of the Walldians!

I've been fine with the diversion on Paradis because it was good, so to me the switch to that side didn't make me frustrated, so I'm not super frustrated and demanding to go back there immidiately, but I'm still really eager.

Give me Paradis right now and no one will die.

On a scale of 1-5, how pinchable are Bertolt's cheeks?  (1,159 responses)

39.6% of you think Bert’s cheeks are too cute. But 19.2% are not impressed.

Ask Armin about how "pinchable" Bertolt's cheeks are... yeah.. cheeks

His cheeks are so squishy, you can use them as a trampoline.

Which characters do you generally like the most? (1,169 responses)

The 104th squad are still the big winner, with the vets and warriors in an almost-tie for second place.

Where do you primarily discuss the series? (1,158 responses)

Final Thoughts?

Would've liked to see more about Marcel

Bertolt is such a caring person. I think it helps the fact that the second season of the anime concentrates on them. Reiner must be feeling many contrasig seniments, he seems broke inside. Annie.. it's always so misterious, but I like her way of behaving, so distant from everything.

Really good chapter. It did it's job in showing how truly messed in the head all these children because after living in fear and propaganda for the majority of their lives.

I wonder if the reveal of Zeke's grandparents still being alive is a deliberate set up for Eren to perhaps meet them? I also wonder if Falco will be the first of the Warriors to change his mind about Paradis being the enemy. And dear Reiner, you're not fooling anyone, is that really all the bad things you could say about the 104th squad?! You made them sound like toddlers that need the naughty step rather than evil devils, ha!

Why did Marley only pick six warrior if they are supposed to have seven? Where is the ninth titan? Is Falco a restorationist at heart? Eren, wtf are you doing?

[ghostmartyr]

SnK 129 Thoughts

This month: More people screaming and dying.

Next month: Probably more people screaming and dying.

Eventually: Just a whole heck of a lot of screaming.

(Not dying because there will be no more people.

They will be dead.)

Sooooooooooooooo.

Uh.

This chapter has people screaming and dying in it.

As well as the continuing strangeness of actively rooting for Reiner and Annie.

Ayep.

Ding-dong, Magath is dead?

Yet again, we land on the problem of a chapter that is largely self-explanatory, and the perhaps deeper problem of people committing themselves to doing a thing once a month, even if they’re not sure they’re able to do said thing. There’s good stuff here, I’m just hesitant to start talking about it lest it comes out like a random spew of instantly forgettable bullet points.

Since I don’t care, I guess we’ll start with Magath dying.

I don’t care. Moving on!

Theo Magath is a man who has always cared for the children under his command. Even though they’re Eldian, he has routinely gone above the expected amount of effort in securing their safety. He is the one who worries and waits for Reiner, Annie, Bertolt, and Marcel to come home. He is the one who destroys the worst of the military he’s a part of so they can stop depending on titans. He cares.

What a fucking bastard.

Keith Shadis dies with him. After a life of trying to make himself special, putting lives at risk every step of the way, he finds an appropriate time to make his exit. He’s the one who raises every fighter out in the port. He’s the one who has watched as the other instructors kill them so that they can find the ones strong enough to make the cut.

He’s the one who picks Eren up and brings him back to his bed after he inherits his father’s burden.

One thing I do think is important to note, whenever I’m inspired to say, ‘Fuck Marley,’ is that Paradis is not great.

Paradis has child soldiers too. They’re just slightly older.

Paradis fully expects their soldiers to go out and die too. Their consent just skates through needing air quotes.

Paradis has a corrupt government run by self-interest -- until they have a coup.

Magath’s job, his entire career, has been to make the most of the enslaved Eldian lives he’s been handed on a platter. It is his job to train children up to murder people. If they are not good enough at murder, they will be fed to other children.

Shadis feels more comfortable. He’s been a reasonable authority figure for most of the manga, with his worst crimes being in his past, and even that reveal coming with a greater show of humanity than any other displayed that night. He tries to run Eren out of the military before he destroys himself. He worries for the boy, and gives a voice to the struggle of trying to be special when you’re most gifted at fucking up.

Paradis’ military, at the start of the main plot, gets its recruits via shaming teenagers into being willing to die, or starving teenagers into being willing to die.

The primary difference between it and Marley’s system is that in that section of the totem pole, the oppression level is relatively neutral. The wall systems are kind of fucked, the nobility is kind of awful -- but like. Their last genocide was what, two years ago? And it was killing poor people, not people people.

Everyone in Paradis’ military has to deal with the fact that they’re in a shrinking safe space and they’re either going to starve, or monsters are going to eat them. That is the great equalizing force. If their commanding officer fucks up, he is going to get eaten. If the person next to them fucks up, they are going to get eaten.

They are not crouching down, approaching tiny children, and explaining that it is for the good of humanity that they are the ones eaten because their blood is dirty. Anymore.

Fuck Marley. Fuck its internment camps, fuck its slavery, fuck its brainwashing, fuck how it turned Good Eldians and Bad Eldians into war rhetoric. Fuck just about everything it has to offer.

Paradis is fucked up in the spirit of everyone there being equally fucked (unless you’re rich) (or nobility). Marley is fucked up because it’s made being fascist, warmongering assholes a national policy.

So you have two men on a boat waiting to die. They’ve both sent children to their deaths. They’ve both pushed over the lines trying to let their uniqueness carry change instead of doing the difficult legwork it actually takes.

One of them is not an active agent of genocide.

One of them is.

They both have sad feelings.

It is sad.

The important part is however badly they fucked up, the traumatized children they’re leaving behind are about to be more traumatized, and they’ve realized what a bad thing this is.

Only not really because Keith did his job, did his first job badly enough to find a new job, did that new job, and has continued doing that new job up to the point where he’s blowing himself up, and has no particular qualms about any of that since he’s pretty much been acting his conscience the whole time.

I’m lingering on this because you have both people who trained up our primary cast making a choice for the good of humanity, and dying the same way. It is a clear and obvious parallel, and it is being milked.

But it’s one of those parallels that makes me twitchy the longer I look at it. Probably because of that conscience part. These men play the same role, but besides their stages having massive differences, their choices do as well.

Magath’s conscience doesn’t stop him from shouting racist rhetoric at a preteen on a battlefield. In his introductory scene.

Shadis’ conscience, however warped some of the intent is, leads to him quitting and passing his job up to someone more qualified.

...Essentially, Shadis is kind of a bastard for a lot of things, but Magath is a fascist bastard, and continues to be a fascist bastard even when he takes steps to overthrow a fascist regime, and I know and appreciate that Magath realizes this and feels bad about it, but it’s hard not to resent the manga comparing Shadis and Magath so strongly.

Magath’s fucked up a lot. It’s good he admits it.

Shadis feels like one more person who sees death as all he has to offer the world.

In a series that actively opposes that line of thought whenever it comes up, it’s really difficult not to find the whole dynamic frustrating. Yes, the manga doesn’t say these two people are the same. They’re just in the exact same boat making the exact same decision.

Like that other group over in their boat.

Shadis is looking to die. Magath is looking to make a last stand.

I don’t think I’m doing a great job of putting into words why it’s so aggravating for me, except, you know. Fuck Marley. Also Magath helped cause all of this. Keith’s sort of sat around feeling various forms of guilt for years over things he screwed up because he was trying so hard.

Shadis forfeits his life.

Every other time someone with that mindset is ready to die, it’s met with no, you’re not done yet.

Shadis doesn’t get that. He’s done. Magath is the only one there to tell him otherwise, and Magath has his own problems.

There’s a vibe here that these two old teachers have outlived their purpose. Their kids are grown, for better and worse, and they’re the ones who will control the turn of the future. I don’t oppose them making that decision, but in Shadis’ case, it really comes off as him being cool with whatever, now that he’s made his stand.

Ugh. I don’t like it, but articulating why is probably best represented by me sulking and crossing my arms. Artistically, I get it. They’re the same piece on opposite ends of a chessboard.

But they’re different people and aaaargh.

Anyway, we continue the proud tradition of making Gabi cry.

Sorry about your life, Gabi.

In other news, we continue to not have any way to stop Eren.

Like.

At all.

We have an estimate of four days before Eren succeeds in wiping out a continent.

Their only chance of stopping that is powering up an airship, using some of that good ol’ talk-no-jutsu, or killing Eren.

If they take the route of killing Eren, all of the Colossals he’s been ordering on their walk will stop being under his command. Because he will be dead. Meaning that the continent, as well as our heroes, will now have to contend with a wild hoard of Colossal Titans out for a stroll.

Which is bad.

It’s basically where Paradis started out, but worse in every possible way.

Even if they manage to have someone on their team eat Eren, there’s a good chance that OG Ymir might not react well to her savior being axed. There’s a similarly good chance that the ability to use the Founder’s power just won’t be functional.

So if they kill Eren, they will stop having intentional destruction.

Instead, we will have unintentional destruction, of which there will be a lot.

Leaving us with talk-no-jutsu.

When the last attempt at talk-no-jutsu led to Armin punching Eren and being bad at it. And Eren punching Armin and being less bad at it.

Basically, everyone’s really hoping that by communicating with Eren, they can somehow make this all go away. There is no evidence that this will work, and no evidence that any of the added backup plans will do anything but cause different problems, but by golly, they’ve completed step .5 of their 3-step plan to maybe changing their circumstances.

(Step 1: Get Air Boat Step 2: Fly Air Boat To Eren Step 3: Talk Eren Out Of Genocide)

BOY I SURE AM HAPPY FOR YOU GUYS PUTTERING ALONG WITH THAT FORWARD PROGRESS. WHAT CHAMPS. GOOD FOR YOU.

YOU’RE STILL FUCKED.

I AM SO HAPPY THAT WE ARE SPENDING ALL THIS TIME ON A PLAN THAT DOES NOT SOLVE THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM OF HOW COMPLETELY FUCKED YOU ALL ARE.

IT IS NICE THAT YOU ALL FEEL LIKE YOU ARE CONTRIBUTING USEFUL THINGS TO YOUR SOCIETY. YOU DO YOU.

YOU ARE NOT ACTUALLY HELPING.

BUT MORE OF YOUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD FOR A GOOD CAUSE.

I’m not upset, I would just really like all of this to feel meaningful. Right now there’s a ridiculous amount of stress and dead bodies going into a goal that could easily end up pointless.

There’s merit to that as a story, but none of that stress lands properly, because the tension of “will they save the day or won’t they” isn’t dependent on what they’re doing here. The ticking clock might be making the characters stressed, but it’s not where the consequences lie.

I will continue to complain about this every month because I can.

In more positive news, Connie is best boi and no one appreciates him they way that they should.

Once upon a time, Reiner bullied Annie into taking a more active role in murdering Marco.

One of the arguments he used to provoke her was that she saved Connie’s life.

Not long after that, Reiner and some other recruits find themselves stranded in Utgard Castle, where a titan gets in and goes after Connie. Reiner charges in, gets his arm chomped on, and through everyone’s combined efforts, the titan gets shoved out a window.

Annie and Reiner both make the choice to save Connie’s life, even though it does nothing to benefit them.

In this chapter, beheaded and missing their arms, Connie swoops in and saves both of them.

The first taste of this technically goes to Mikasa, because she can’t help being a hero. She doesn’t like Annie. Annie is about the only human being whose existence can make her lose her temper. When a soldier gets behind Annie, Mikasa is there to back her up. It’s done casually and smoothly, because Mikasa’s just that good.

We’re still left with multiple shots of Annie staring at Mikasa.

Later followed with her staring at Reiner.

Annie and Reiner are used to being the traitors. They’re the ones their friends have every reason to hate. They’re the ones who spend years living with the victims of a war they brought to their shores. They’ve never expected forgiveness. They’re condemned, and almost welcome it.

Their trio interplay is never great. Reiner is trying too hard, and shielding Bertolt. Annie gets stuck with the grunt work, and knows they’re the bad guys. They don’t get along. They’re comrades, and allies, but their friendship is never portrayed as anything but their last lifeline.

Reiner and Bertolt are friends.

Annie’s the only one who has her fight with the Survey Corps alone.

This time, Reiner’s there, and he’s protecting her.

If you dig into any combination of these relationships, there’s not exactly a shortage of rot. They’ve all hurt each other, and they all know it.

But at the end of the day, they’re all just a bunch of damaged kids looking to be found.

None of the surviving cast is without a shoulder to lean on. They’ve made the decision to be there for each other, and as bleak as circumstances are, Annie’s face spends so much time this chapter shouting that she’s never been able to have that.

Even Magath, who goes off with the intent of dying alone, doesn’t.

There’s still some human warmth left in the world, and that’s what they’re trying to protect.

Please just do it with an actual plan, I’m begging you guys.

Also, Floch gets shot! So that’s nice.

I do not see a corpse.

That is less nice.

Isayama also gave Falco a fucking birdsona titan.

We’re not without things to cheer.

Tune in next month for more screaming and dead bodies.

[ghostmartyr]

SnK 113 Thoughts

See, there’s this fundamental problem with Zeke’s strategy for dealing with Levi.

It hinges on Levi having a good heart, and loving his subordinates.

It hinges on the world being a kind enough place to Levi that he’s ever believed he has the benefit of that bringing him something besides pain.

Didn’t anyone ever tell you, Zeke?

War is cruel.

And Levi prefers tea.

How frustrating must that have been, though? Day after day of watching every single person in the squad take a drink. Day after day of reading the same book, over and over again, dealing with the angriest little soldier that could.

All while Levi doesn’t drink a drop.

Or was it fun? Did it bring Zeke some joy to know that Levi’s only escape would be doing what was necessary, and his too-soft heart would never be capable of doing that?

It’s hilarious how badly Zeke misjudges Levi.

Like.

Zeke.

Kiddo.

(I’m gonna call you kiddo.)

Just because you don’t value your foot soldiers, just because you don’t think twice about the people you transform into monsters, just because you haven’t grown out of thinking of them as your tiny tin soldiers you can wind up for the heck of it and pop out their eyes if they happen to not follow your orders...

You think your lengthy moral defects are the only thing that can drive someone to be willing to throw bodies upon bodies on the chopping block?

You’re so angry when that last gasp of a charge comes after you in Shiganshina, because it’s so pointless. Throwing bodies at the problem doesn’t change anything. When you do it, though, you have a mission in mind. That makes your way better, right?

You think because their constant sacrificial ways are so ineffective, their hearts are less resolute?

You think their soldiers consenting to their sacrifice makes them weaker?

Zeke’s entire plan goes so smoothly. The Yeagerists are running unopposed, the MPs are poisoned (and hell, with the range on that, things somehow continue manage to get even worse), and Zeke’s on his way out of the woods.

His one mistake is misunderstanding Levi.

Or, again:

Misunderstanding the Survey Corps.

When Levi first wins against Zeke, it’s immediately after Zeke’s scornful judgment of the Scout recruits giving their lives away. These uninventive fools can’t come up with any strategy but killing themselves. It’s idiotic and pointless.

At that point in the story, we have some idea of Zeke’s abilities, but not the extent. Not the utility. He has sent hordes of mindless titans after people. He’s performed his role as a cog in the war machine exquisitely. The idea that seeing someone else do the same thing offends him... oh, but that’s fun. The world is Zeke’s playground, not someone else’s. His methods have purpose. Your fave could never.

Only the Survey Corps has always found purpose in their deaths. They accept a hopeless mission knowing that death is coming for all of them.

Their bodies are building a bridge over the walls that keep their people caged. Their deaths will never be meaningless. They will fight the best way they can, and do it with clear eyes and proud hearts.

Their sacrifices aren’t about a failure of imagination; they’re a testament to their will. Give them an inch, they will find a mile.

The walls start them out with so much less than an inch, so they improvise, and their bodies become the tools to carve a better future. For them? No, probably not. For the world. For their people.

That’s what Zeke derides.

He’s grown up surrounded by a society selling that myth; Marley will never let Eldians have a better future. Eldians are only tools, and Warriors are suckers for believing that they have a prayer of changing things. Zeke can, but Zeke? He’s royalty. He has royal blood. His belief that he can change something is backed by something solid and real, not fairy tales of a glorious death bringing about a new world.

Erwin is the one who orders the charge on Zeke.

He does not want to give that order, initially. He wants to be selfish. He wants to learn the truth. He wants to see it with his own eyes, something that every single Scout has always been denied, and gone into battle knowing they probably won’t be the one to finally figure it all out.

Levi is the one who brings Erwin back to the best of himself. He pulls the Commander back in. Give the order. If there’s even a single spark of light, chase it, even if it kills you, so your body can carry your comrades and people further onward.

The first time Eren is saved by Levi, he sees the wings on his back.

The Wings of Freedom are Levi’s to bear.

Heavier than any iron, they still fly.

If Zeke had understood that even a little, he would have transformed with the soldiers. He would have joined the mindless squad in killing Levi instead of assuming it was a done deal and saving his energy.

You don’t win in a world like this by saving tricks for the final hour. Every hour is your final hour.

Strength, time, and choices.

Those things aren’t real.

Zeke thinks he knows that lesson, but he thinks, somehow, that a squad of mindless titans is enough to take down Levi even though it never has been.

Levi’s done nothing but kill humans his whole life. Victims.

He’s the first character to give voice to that, when Hange announces the theory. While everyone’s reeling with the horror, Levi goes straight to his actions, and the implications of what he, himself, has done. He’s Humanity’s Strongest. That translates very quickly into being the person responsible for killing more Eldian victims than any other person on the island.

That doesn’t change what he does. The awareness doesn’t diminish his belief in its necessity.

Zeke misses that. Completely.

The Survey Corps is full of insane dreamers who are capable of envisioning a better world when all logic and history dictates it won’t happen. That isn’t the same as innocence or naivety. The surviving members of the Survey Corps are people who look at monsters twelve times their size, and decide that they are going to fight until one of them wins.

Zeke’s been to the rest of the world, where Titans are losing significance, but still so horrifying that it’s only the development of heavy artillery that’s finally making it possible for anything in the world to fight them. One tiny human against a titan? That’s over before it starts.

Paradis does not have the luxury of thinking that way. Yeah, they’ll probably die, but they’ll put in some work before they leave. Such is life. They aren’t strong enough to win for themselves, so this is their only chance to make use of their limited time.

Every soldier has a choice to make. MPs, Garrison, Survey Corps.

90% death rate.

That isn’t a choice, it’s just that the options are death (of you) or death (of your people). A choice you’re forced into isn’t something you can truly embrace as your own decision. Everyone is a slave to the system, and a fool if they think otherwise.

That paragraph describes Marley’s system perfectly, and that’s what Zeke grows up with.

It also is a relatively fair description of Paradis, and I’m sure plenty of citizens would see and agree with that argument.

But the dreamers who make up the Survey Corps transform that illusion of choice into intent. This is the one option the world offers for improvement? It’s hell? You and everyone who fights for it is going to die, possibly without making a single dent in anything?

Fine. That chance of light is infinitely better than the promise of darkness if we do nothing. Bring on the gloom and death, we don’t need to be the ones to overcome it, but we’re going to make damn sure the one who does has a starting line to plant their feet on.

Marley Warriors believe wholeheartedly that if they just try hard enough, and die well enough, they’ll bring a new dawn for their people.

The Survey Corps is much more cynical in their approach. They don’t say that their plans will work. They don’t make those promises. They say that this death comes closer to change than any of the others you have available, and we’ll all fight for it with you.

Marley’s hope is a lie that’s allowed to be called truth to bring in recruits.

Paradis’ hope is a tiny flicker in the far distance that’s almost unanimously regarded as a shared delusion by the people being fought for.

Zeke’s given up on it long before he ever knew about it.

That’s why he’ll never win against Levi.

It isn’t even a fight. Zeke runs, Levi wins because he catches him. Contact happens. Zeke loses.

Zeke has always been the one in control. He’s always been superior. He might have his issues with Grisha, but the belief that he’s special goes down to his roots. Only his blood relative (and whatever Xaver is, probably) is given the respect of hearing Zeke’s truest worldview. Everyone else couldn’t possible understand, after all.

Also worth a note is that even though Zeke says that Eren’s the only one who understands, that actually does not disprove the theory that mind control is involved, because Zeke has some really bizarrely fucked up beliefs about people’s autonomy. Eren could lose his pupils and go around saying, “Yes, Master Zeke,” and Zeke could still conceivably praise his baby brother for being on the right side.

I don’t know where I stand with all of that, since I still think that Eren is making his own (very stupid) choices, but it seems that it’s Zeke hour, so here’s the latest edition of Zeke being unreliable af as a narrator.

He calls the squad Levi killed “the poor things” when he’s the one who transformed them into titans.

Zeke’s a special snowflake douche who thinks that anything’s justified unless someone else is doing it.

Going by the ominous sunlight, Levi’s done with the middleman approach, and they’re off to see Historia.

Sooo. Options.

NPC Farmer Guy eats Zeke, Historia The Obviously Pregnant waits for her offspring to be born before she eats him in a few months.

Anticlimactic, heavy on convenience, low on Zeke and whatever his fucking plan is being revealed.

Levi and Historia fight so long about her eating Zeke while she’s pregnant that Zeke finds a way to escape.

Trite, overdone, and Zeke really sucks at running away from Levi except when

Pieck is there.

I still like this. I don’t feel that where Mikasa and Armin scrambled off to in a carriage was properly answered, and that means it’s likely that those carriages were heading to see the Queen, and since Pieck’s eyes were on them, heeeey.

Additionally, I remain of the opinion that Pieck is given too many clues about Zeke’s allegiances to be accidental. I don’t necessarily believe that she’s in on Zeke’s plan, but I believe he left the door open so she could be convinced to be part of his plan, and I think having her help Marley to the realization that Zeke is alive is well within Zeke’s contingencies.

He presumably knows Pieck better than he knows Levi. Otherwise, yeesh, we’ve got a grand mastermind who doesn’t actually understand anyone’s mind, and that would be so dull.

There is also a chance that Zeke’s plan aligns with what Marley wants just enough for Pieck to go with it for now. Or maybe Pieck’s given up on hope, too, and Zeke’s one of the few ways out, if only for shaking things up.

Alternatively,

Pieck is not there. Neither is Historia. 50/50 on NPC Farmer Guy being there, but badly wounded, only not because Levi is so Done that he’d probably feed Zeke to him, which I’m not even going to wait for the end of the bullet point to call idiotic and meaningless. His name’s NPC Farmer Guy for a reason.

Give me ????? allegiance Historia and give her fucking themes a chance to actually fucking matter to the fucking plot you fucking fucked up story.

Really fast now because I know people are done caring about me being angry about this: Since so much of this post has been dancing around the importance of consent as an aspect of sacrifice, I would like to point out that it’s very much been pro-consent, which means that if Historia actually is pregnant, I hope Zeke wins and every single character dies, because they’ve essentially ripped away a person’s agency before it’s even born to save their skins, and they can all go fuck themselves if they’re at that point.

(If you think I’m bad about this now, just wait until next month. I’ll repeat that verbatim probably, only with streamers and balloons with angry Sharpie marker eyes.)

...Oh. I guess I can’t shrink or cross this part out, because it’s actually to do with the story instead of my continued grievances. Damn it. Sigh.

Personal preferences aside (ha no not even a little), the thematic implications of Historia’s current narrative continue to infuriate, because it makes all the pretty words about the Survey Corps meaningless. They sacrifice themselves. They’re soldiers. They pick this. They have barely any choice at all, but they still make the choice and make it their own.

Breeding royal children sacrifices those children. The fact that it causes their mother pain, that it might be hard for the DNA providers, is something I feel is largely insignificant compared to that detail.

Because you know what happens when that’s how you think of a child?

Zeke.

Zeke is what happens.

SO YEAH GO AHEAD AND HAVE ANOTHER ROYAL KID WHO’S ONLY ALIVE BECAUSE OF THEIR SIGNIFICANT BLOOD I’M SURE IT WILL WORK OUT GREAT.

That kid’s going to be a person at some point. Counting on that person to not hate them?

To directly quote that person’s mother:

“Exterminate the Titans?! What a pain in the ass! Who’d volunteer to do that?! In fact, I think humanity’s the problem!! We should just let the Titans destroy mankind!”

In summary, your plan is bad because it’s morally bankrupt and directly opposes the ideals your organization has backed for a century moments after those ideals did something tangible for once.

What, fifteen-meter monsters are worth fighting, but a bunch of angry humans need to be scared into compliance because trying to make something better out of it is too hard?

I thought we all agreed we didn’t like Karl?

No?

If Historia’s really pregnant, and the plan to use her kid is still greenlit (still optimistically going with ‘if’) Paradis deserves Zeke. The only question is if they get current!Zeke, or Reiss!Zeke.

....

Fine, so that wasn’t fast at all.

Meanwhile, to our left, we continue to find reasons why that quoted line of thought above is way more tempting than any of the higher moral values like five characters are still trying to keep track of.

As much damage as titans do, they’re just tools. On every single level, humans are driving the monstrosities forward. Humans are literally and figuratively the monsters, and really, if you spend enough time dwelling on that, Eren’s completely dead look starts making sense, because why the fuck do you even try for a scrap of light when people like Floch take a spark and douse it in gasoline to burn the house down?

Circling us back around to why the Survey Corps is where our protagonists are supposed to come home to roost.

Because the world (people) is so fucking cruel, but worth fighting for. There is a victory, there is a better, and lying down in the crap everyone else has made of it is not the way to get there.

-cough- Eren -cough-

Eren’s the original protagonist because he embodies that. If you don’t fight, you don’t win.

Simba. You are more than what you have become.

Once upon a time, Armin tells Eren about a body of water larger than anyone could harvest, made entirely of salt. It’s an unthinkable wonder to a child locked in a box, but Eren believes him, and one day, he sees it.

Once upon a time, Armin talks about diplomacy, and making peace with the world without war, and Eren shuts him down.

Not all fighting’s violence. That’s the most visible symptom of emotional revolution, but the fight Eren wanted all the people around him to have so badly when he was a child is that revolution, not stabbing slavers in the chest (though that’s important too).

Zeke’s stagnated. Whatever he has planned, however much it drastically changes the world, however imaginative and creative it is, he thinks he’s living in a world where certain things are inevitable. He’s jumped off the treadmill, but the meteor’s still going to hit the gym. He’s just chosen to rearrange the furniture to his liking before it all explodes.

...I say, still waiting for the actual reveal of what his detailed strategy napkin says. If it’s, “let’s gather all our enemies to this one island and step on them,” I’m going to be disappointed, and also argue that a lot of people on the island would be able to understand those intentions perfectly.

Blah.

Zeke being The Worst somehow hit critical mass for me with this chapter, but I still want to know what’s going on in the basement his head. As badly as he misjudges Levi, he’s methodical about every decision he’s making. His plan might not be justifiable, but I’d be surprised if it made no sense, or didn’t look really good in some shades of light. Hearing it would be nice.

Flashback time with Real Dad Mister Xaver (CR, how sure are you that there’s no i in that) probably holds some key to that. Ugh.

Mean-fucking-while for real this time...

Oyyyyy.

Isayama has gotten better, on the whole, with every aspect of his writing.

His determination to drive the drill as deep into darkness as it’ll go at the kick off of each major arc remains... really unpleasant to read. I won’t go as far as to call it unrealistic, because wow humans, but I would argue that it’s routinely having characters roll 1s in their morality checks in order to bolster the ideals that the good guys value.

I don’t like it when stories make the strings that visible. People do get caught up in crap like this. It’s horrific, but this is a sudden drop into an area we’re unused to, with the narrative so plainly driving it home that these people are going too far that the sympathetic feelings that get them there are lacking.

Eren looking like the best choice to an island who feels they have no choices is understandable. Floch being convinced that you need a demon to win wars is understandable. Recruits groaning over learning how to fight titans when humans are their primary enemies (kiddos, learn how to fucking fight titans. the fact that the things are capable of existing should scare you into enough common sense to want that knowledge) is understandable.

But Yeagerists are chill with civilian deaths, collateral damage, poisoning key government leaders, and generally throwing their society into chaos for reasons of, “Eren is the only one who can save us!” while the audience is left looking at the pieces on the board and saying, “cool, but how? (also who cares when you guys are being this dickish)”

The divide in methods and thinking is too stark for the Yeagerists to come across as a force recognizable as anything besides angry children who are due to get smacked down. They’re 2013 parody of fandom perception of Eren personified.

Which. is not an unthinkable development, but it makes the bad things people do a lot harder to read when the driving force of character reasoning is flouting the banner of power and glory they’re gathering behind.

I actually feel oddly weird complaining about it now that I’m actually retreading it all. I don’t mind the fact that the wrongness of what the Yeagerists represent is so candid. I might have criticisms of the graceless way it’s written, but on the other hand...

The idea that these people are awful, and encouraging people who might not be that dipped in darkness to strip and get their feet wet, is maybe better than giving the kind of thinking they’re backing the time of day. Understanding how they all get there might smooth out the writing, buuuuut.

Destroying their old enemy turned some of their own into enemies, and the challenge, again and always, for the Survey Corps, is to want better in an environment that has given up on better in favor of glory.

In some ways, having these people be undeniably wrong, no matter how they got there, is somewhat refreshing.

As graceful as a damn anvil, which will continue to annoy, but. Yeah, sure, refreshing. Gracelessness is part of Attack on Titan’s charm.

Really fucking dark read, though.

Next month should be the end of the volume.

No matter what happens, I think we can all agree no one is prepared, and drinking will make everything worse.

[ghostmartyr]

SnK 98 Thoughts

Can my post this month just have a bunch of pictures of fish flopping around on the ground? Because at this moment, that is what this chapter has spawned the greatest empathy in me for.

At least the fish get to die.

The Marley saga never dies.

It is an evil Energizer Bunny come for us all.

My ability to care about the Marley side has been dying (dead?) for a while, but I think this chapter is where I just can’t stand it anymore. I just. The last bit of my creative energy went into being envious of a dying fish. I don’t care about Marley’s continued horribleness. I don’t care about moments of levity for the young kidlets who are either going to die terrible deaths or coerce other cast members into dying terrible deaths. I do not care about Diet Reiss. The Giants aren’t in the playoffs, so I really don’t care about baseball.

Have a Zeke.

.Someone wake me from this nightmare.

Turning the volume down on my mental screams a tad... I’m still trapped in how little I care about any of this.

Large portions of it are clearly framework for things that haven’t happened yet. Staring at scaffolding that doesn’t even have the decoration of drying paint isn’t my usual definition of fun. I appreciate that the story is setting up its dominoes, and looks to be taking significant care with doing so, but--well, in lieu of repeating myself ad nauseam, yeah.

What it really comes down to, I think, is that these aren’t our protagonists. The kidlets and the Warriors are all the shining stars of the Marleyan Eldians, and Magath and Willy surely have some other grand scheme going on to propel the plot into interesting places for their country.

So what?

For ninety chapters, the story has been preoccupied with the concerns of a tiny island. Eight chapters with people who don’t consider their stories worth hearing about can’t elicit the same responses.

We get the highest concentration of levity we’ve had in ages with this chapter, and a lot of it is thanks to tiny children. They’re small and cute and innocent. The impulse to sympathize is ready and waiting, and it is very keenly exploited here. Who wouldn’t want two pages depicting how completely whipped Reiner is by a set of four children?

It’s a humanizing element, and more fun to read than much of this arc has been, but it’s difficult to feel that it has a real point.

One of the reasons previous chapters have worked, even through some pits and clumsiness, is that Reiner gets most of the attention. Reiner, happy about it or not, is a person who is familiar with both worlds of this conflict.

Paradis is not just a place with monsters to him, the way it is for Zeke. It’s the place of Reiner’s nightmares because he lived a life there, and deep down, he understands the citizens of Paradis.

His denial of that is a whole separate topic that could use a different chapter as a launchpad, but Reiner is still aware of the world in a way that the other cogs of Marley aren’t. He’s fully committed to our current perspective side, but he carries the burdens of both.

No one else has that problem. They have the age-old problem of titans in the world of humans. The kidlets are Eldians fighting for a better life for Eldians through supporting Marley. The Marleyans are trying to keep the rest of the world from eating them alive. The rest of the world is waiting to hear why they shouldn’t.

Paradis barely exists as a real place for the rest of the cast. It’s a mine. It’s there to supply people on the outside with the resources to survive.

All on its own, that’s not a bad thing to explore. The complete obliteration of any Paradis perspective is very much how the outside world functions in regard to the island. No one on any mainland cares about those people.

The audience doesn’t have that problem. Ninety chapters is a lot of history.

So that’s part of it. The other part is what I’ve been railing against nearly every month since this arc started.

Marley sucks.

The players of this arc are occupying a different story than the one we’re used to, and the fights they’re embittered in are ones that begin in such moral depravity that attempts to make their plight sympathetic fall flat. The Warriors are sympathetic because they’re being used, dragged forward by a carrot that no one seems to care about delivering. Likewise with the kidlets, since they’re too young to know anything but putting their best game face on and trying hard.

But the core of the conflict is that a bunch of jackasses can’t go a single generation without genocide, and those jackasses are not who the protagonists of this arc are preparing to go up against.

I have to compliment Isayama on how frustratingly human the night before the festival is, really. We get a more expansive look at Marley’s victims, and they have no love in their hearts for Eldians or Marley.

Willy’s okay, though.

Willy’s their buddy.

It doesn’t make any sense for people who hate Eldians and hate Marley to be okay with a man who represents both. But they are, because Willy is just one person, and he’s a person that these people have come to know. They’re familiar with him. He isn’t like those other Eldians. He isn’t like the rest of Marley. He’s a worthy human person.

No one at that party’s going to look at him and the little serving boy and think they have anything to do with each other, even though their blood has everything to do with why the little boy is going to be belittled by the people he’s bringing food to.

It’s disgusting, and it’s exactly what people do. As long as they never become the rule, there’s nothing wrong with exceptions. The idea that those exceptions mean the rules are ridiculous somehow never comes up.

As a depiction of humanity, it works pretty well, but going back to whining, it’s one more layer to how meaningless the destruction of this conflict is. This chapter’s ending tagline is, “Those who seek peace have no choice but to fight others who seek the same for themselves.”

If this statement is shooting for aphorism, no.

If it’s a commentary about Eldians fighting Eldians, yes, and the above no is why this is such a pain.

The Eldians in Marley are seeking peace from the treatment bestowed upon them by Marley. They are doing this by going after Paradis. The resulting sensible reaction to threat of genocide means that fighting happens, and that is a very sad thing.

Two sides, desperate for peace, should have the choice of not fighting. That can be very helpful for a thing like peace. But that choice has been systematically removed from one side, so. yay.

Characters with the very real and sympathetic desire for peace have all of that undermined by the active role they take in constantly keeping everything from being peaceful--in the name of peace.

What it boils down to is that the characters who have motivations that are understandable are repeatedly reaching the conclusion of genocide. You can’t sell that. Rooting for the bad guys is only fun when their selected aim is relatable.

Pulling off the perfect heist? Obviously wrong but LOOK HOW COOL

Defeating the undefeated superhero? Holy cow someone really did it.

Protecting your country? That’s normal, right?

Wanting a better world for your people? Awesome!

Genocide? ...

That is supposed to be one of the universal Not Okay things of the world. History books written by the societies who did that are very clear about it.

Even if all of the lives Marley has already cost Paradis are ignored, their mission statement when it comes to that island is that they want to steal something they have no claim to whatsoever. Solving your country’s problems by being the same entitled pricks that caused them to begin with is not a good thing.

There’s a lot of relatable material to be found in the hearts of Marleyan people. That doesn’t make their conclusions any less appalling, so all of this time devoted to this side of the conflict feels really, really pointless. Their reasons are nowhere close to excusing what they’re up to, and the story stepping into their world and listening to the side that says it totally does... The overall picture is pretty clear on condemning this tripe. These aren’t the people who are going to change the world for the better, and one thing this series consistently cares about is people trying to shoot higher. The close-ups of Marley digging a pit instead just aren’t working.

Now that I’ve said all that, the only logical conclusion is that Willy is going to announce at the festival that it is time for the world to become the bestest buddies with Paradis and not actually declare war on them or hurt them, and then they’ll be pals and prance off into the sunset with rainbows scattered like rose petals.

I’m only sort of kidding. Like I said, the story’s pretty clear on the whole that murder, oppression, and all the other things Marley picked up from their time under Eldia’s thumb are wrong. This deep into their perspective, one of the few twists remaining is doing something right, and less murder and more diplomacy might not be a bad start.

But this chapter kicks off with Reiner being ignored while he tries to help devise military strategies against Paradis, so that’s probably going to end up being too much to hope for.

I’m pretty terrible at plot speculation, which is probably another reason why this chapter finally sent me over the deep end. Magath and Tybur are clearly up to something, and I don’t care enough about either of them to be curious instead of frustrated. The basic thing was Magath needing an exterminator and an explosives expert, and Diet Reiss putting on a show, and I imagine both of those things are ominous foreshadowing of some kind and aaaaaaaaa

The one thing that I did kind of wonder about was Eren being a mouse with a baseball mitt. A few people have speculated that he’s actually in contact with Zeke, not island buddies, and if that’s the case, of course big brother is responsible for the glove, because baseball is the only way Zeke knows how to pretend he’s well-adjusted.

If it is from Zeke, then it seems likely that Eren is very much one of the mice Magath is talking about (and I’d very much like to know who the other ones are), but then that’s... its own type of weird. Presumably, Eren’s only contact with Zeke was that one awkward battlefield moment. Eren choosing to communicate with Zeke while he’s behind enemy lines just seems really, really risky, and I have no idea why he’d do that, but I also don’t know why the series would be so heavy-handed with the baseball stuff if it wasn’t meant to intensify the blood family feels in a significant fashion.

Knowing what the heck Eren is up to is probably going to help my feelings on these chapters greatly in the future.

Alas, that is not the now, and so I am left to suffer and ask myself why I ever thought writing a thing about a thing every month could end positively.

I do find it vaguely amusing that Eren’s first contact with his grandfather is encouraging him into a screaming fit. That probably just makes me a terrible person, but it feels oddly appropriate.

...Maybe Zeke left the glove for his grandad and Eren nicked it.

Wow, Eren. First stealing all of dad’s love, then stealing memories of precious moments with grandpa. This is why your found family is bonded to you through murder.

One thing in this chapter I did really like was the scene between Colt and Zeke. For Colt, watching Falco succeed is a horrible thing. He doesn’t want his little brother to end up cursed.

Galliard, watching nearby, had an older brother who thought the same thing. Marcel’s dead because of that fear.

Zeke, whose little brother is alive and who knows what else to him, understands big brother instincts and decides to go play catch with his successor (probably the closest thing to a brother he has access to at the moment).

Meanwhile Galliard sulks at the brotherly love, Pieck notices and cares, and Reiner is trying to ignore that his life is happening.

Beautiful.

Everything to do with Falco is also wonderful. He works hard, improves, thanks the person who’s helped him, and even shouts his feelings out to the girl he likes!

Unfortunately, the girl he likes is Gabi.

I really have to laugh, though:

“So you’re trying to say you’re getting in my way for my sake and claiming that you’re doing it for me??”

Yeah. That’s about what romance looks like in this series. Have fun, you two.

(The wounds Gabi leaves on Falco’s heart are the real reason he hangs out in hospitals.)

And of course, the most magnificent Falco moment comes from being so purely happy at leading Reiner down a creepy abandoned cellar to meet with an escaped hospital inmate. This kid is so jazzed over doing good deeds for Eren. He deserves a better setting. Say... a farm. On an island. With other children who have suffered the world’s cruelty. ...Would his parents have to get killed off first?

I hope his brain doesn’t break too badly when he finds out what he’s started. I also hope that one of the adults in the room asks him to leave before things get too messy. Falco’s a good kid and doesn’t deserve a quarter of the angst gathered in this dark room.

He’s smiling.

How many characters even know how to do that in this series?

Please let him die last. Or first, if that would be easier on him.

Anyway, I should probably say something about Reiner and Eren.

The only thing I can really think of is the first thing Eren says to Reiner is a reference to Reiner’s stated goal of living while they were pals, and in a similar time frame, Eren’s stated goal was eliminating every last titan.

...That’s probably reading a bit much into it.

It’s loaded enough that Eren is willing to reference Reiner’s desire to go back home. That’s the only thing that Reiner got out of that whole mission, and what he lost possibly wasn’t worth it in his mind. But of the two, he is the one who achieved what he said he set out to do, so kudos.

This really can’t end well.

I’d like it to. Eren and Reiner are both so incredibly damaged by everything they’ve done and had done to them that it would be nice if they could just agree that this is all fucked up, btw, we’re back to killing each other tomorrow, see you then, just wanted to say hi first. Or they could skip the killing each other part entirely.

I don’t know about deserving peace, but they both need it, and I think it would be nice if they could reach it somehow. Meeting underground is a good start; it means Eren isn’t looking for a brawl.

(There is no way this is a sanctioned Survey Corps assignment. Too many people would yell at him for trying to do this on his own.)

Next month, place your bets. Are we finally going back to Paradis? Will Eren and Reiner be left staring at each other for four months of infodump? Is Willy going to finally fulfill his dream of being a director? Is his play going to be any good? Will I finally stop typing the same monthly rant about Marley?

I fear the answer to that last one is no, but for the rest, oh, the possibility!

Something

might happen!

[snkpolls]

SnK Chapter 96 Poll Results

The chapter 96 poll closed with 1,469 responses. Thank you to everyone for participating. Let’s do this!

RATE THE CHAPTER (1,402 Responses)

There was an increase of strong NOPES with 6.5% rating this chapter a 1 verses .07% for chapter 95,  but otherwise like last month, the majority gave the chapter a favorable rating.

With every chapter focusing on the Warriors, they steadily climb the list of some of the greatest characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. I love everyone in this manga, but the complexity, moral ambiguity, and tragedy of these three just continues to astound me. No matter how this manga concludes and no matter how imperfect AoT is as a whole, I applaud Isayama for writing some of the best antagonists I've ever seen.

Warriors background and sob story is always good to see. However, I do want a bit more progress in the story. I can wait a bit longer to see Paradis cast.

96 is probably the highlight of Marley focus so far, and is a well deserved title. It honestly never crossed my mind for some reason that we would see the opposite side of the attack on Paradis, and it did surprise me with how much of a rush and danger it was for RBA.

I liked the other chapters better since they weren't all about flashbacks; they had a nice mix between current and previous events

I don't really like the Marley chapters but this chapter has been amazing. Best chapter of this arc so far.

It has a huge emotional content but I feel like it had less substance than previous chapter. The insight on Annie is interesting though.

i think seeing the fall of wall maria from RBA's perspective was a very good (and heartbreaking) decision for yams to make, and a good way to segway into finally revealing what the SC are up to hopefully lol

It seems like Isayama has a thing for writing heartbreaking and sad chapters in August *sides eyeing to chapter 84* and btw, I'm still not over serumbowl. I don't even think I'llbe over that someday ;;-;;

It was really insightful to see more of RAB and actually see R&B relationship with Annie (I honestly thought Annie hated them and vice versa). We didn't see 3 monsters but 3 little kids, traumatized and forced to shed innocent blood

fuck this chapter, i dont even mind the marley chapters but this literally told us nothing interesting aside from royalty not being subjects of ymir

WHICH BEST DESCRIBES YOUR THOUGHTS ON SEEING THE FALL OF WALL MARIA FROM THE WARRIOR PERSPECTIVE (1,425 Responses)

Some mixed reaction here. A slight majority (45%) loved it while 25% didn’t care or didn’t like the timing of it. 31.5% were lukewarm about the retelling of the fall of Wall Maria from the warrior perspective.

I suppose if we were going to answer various loose plot points, we might as well get them all out in a single chapter.

I think Isayama's starting to push it with the flashbacks. I'd be okay with like. Half the next chapter or less being flashbacks to the trainee days but I want the rest to be interesting present-day Marley content

This would all have been so much more compelling if it had been incorporated into the main narrative timeline. Yams seriously needs a better editor.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE CHAPTER? (1,343 Responses)

“So much Annie” and seeing both trios in the shelter together were the top moments. Bert making eye contact with EMA and loudly contradicting Annie about her ability to charm men followed at #3 and 4. But with a lot of options came a lot of opinions.

"I'm here to save humanity."  Like. Holy shit.

"Reiner is dead. If you want Marcel, I'll become Marcel" That was epic

One True God, Reigner, preaching His Holy Word to other Warriors. For He is the true savior of humanity

Reiner finally winning against Annie in a foot race

series was really just a bunch of scared kids making it up as they go

The little RBA group hug awww

The survivor from Wall Maria telling RBA his story. When I realized that I had heard it word for word out of Bertolt's mouth, it was very chilling. And Annie, seeing her break down at Reiner was one of the most heart-wrenching moments in the series

The two times we saw EMA

When it was revealed the Tybur family knew something about the Reiss family, that they have made a "vow renouncing war." OK, something is up with the Tybur Family, and I want to know more!

 Seeing RBA talk about their mission when the Coordinate was maybe 20 feet away from them tops was a weird mix of frustrating and hilarious.

Ma boi Bert is smooth af.

Damn, Dina really hustled to be the first Titan through the gate.

  SADDEST MOMENT FROM THE CHAPTER? (1,339 Responses)

Rather than pick a single moment, nearly 38% of us selected the whole chapter as the saddest moment. As usual, any glimpse of the 104th makes people cheer. The moment of eye contact between Bert and EMA was #2.

Annie...everything about Annie in general.

Knowing that once Reiner got back to the Marley after they failed, he did listen to Annie's words when she beat him up because he did take all the blame himself

reiner saying he wants to be a "soldier" to "save the humanity"_ the poor young man really thought he was saving the "humanity" from the monsters/devils

The panels of Bastion looking over the wall were so sad imo. Knowing RBA's story makes this iconic moment so much more tragic and powerful, but in a different way than before.

The parallel made between EMA and BRA. It's so sad to see how similar there six kids are, and how differently their lives ended up.

The saddest moment was Reiner saying he will 'become' Marcel. That was Isayama tearing my heart out of my rib cage and beating it repeatedly.

Watching three broken children commit an atrocity that they couldn't fully understand the consequences of

when it was yet another flashback

  MOST INTERESTING NEW DISCOVERY FROM THE CHAPTER? (1,326 Responses)

The majority selected how Reiner became Marcel as the most interesting discovery. Bloodline talk and and the origin of Bert’s cover story were close second and third.

All of the above

Everything.

how reigner got fukin ripped, brah

reiner is hot asf

Reiner was always ripped

the explanation for why reigner went from the weakling to a buff dude (LUMBERJACKING)

Knowing for certain that RBA and EMA were (at least for a while) in the same refugee camp. My babies <3

I dont care for the plot at this point honestly im just in it for annie i discovered i love her somehow more than i originally thought

The Tybur clan detaining the information about the vow of the King. That implies they were in contact with Kruger at some point.

DO YOU THINK RBA KILLED THE MAN FROM THE REMOTE VILLAGE? (1,347 Responses)

My poll co-creator was the one who suggested this question and once asked I couldn’t unsee it. Nearly half of respondents don’t think RBA killed that man, but clearly there’s room for doubt.

I'm torn on whether RBA killed the man from the village. The idea occurred to me when reading the chapter, and I could equally see them doing it but also not doing it. isayama why!

  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE BEATDOWN THAT ANNIE BROUGHT ON REINER? (1,360 Responses)

Honestly I wasn’t expecting this to be a landslide but here it is - 82% felt that Annie was ok in her beatdown of Reiner.

YEAH ANNIE, KICK HIS ASS!!!

I want more of cruel Annie

My feelings for Reiner is kinda messed up.. Annie did beat up Reuner pretty good

i was all for reiner rescuing annie and apologizing to her but seeing what she did to him this chapter. never mind. she can go f*** herself.

  RATE EACH WARRIOR IN TERMS OF HOW THIS CHAPTER AFFECTED YOUR PERCEPTIONS OF THEM

As far as opinion changes go, 807 people view Annie more favorably after this chapter, 788 do so for Reiner, and 633 for Bert. On the other end of the spectrum, 140 view Annie less favorably. That number is 113 for Reiner, and 57 for Bert

I used to dislike Annie, but this chapter helped humanize her in my eyes.

I kind of despise reiner after this chapter, the only good thing about it was annie

Bless Annie, she not only saw through all the brain-washing that the Marley government had imposed on them all, but was oblivious to her own charms! But damn, the scene where Eren, Mikasa and Armin are reflected in the Colossal Titan's eyes? That had me in tears!

  WHICH OF THE THREE ORIGINAL WARRIORS IS YOUR FAVORITE? (1,369 Responses)

When I asked this question, I mentioned Tumblr’s outpouring of love for Annie as my reason. Now I have data to back that up. While Reiner was the combined winner, favorite character does vary by platform. On Reddit, Reiner was the clear favorite with 55% of the vote. Tumblr selected Annie with 46%. Bert is viewed far more kindly of Tumblr than Reddit. The breakdown is below:

REDDIT’S FAVORITE WARRIOR

Reiner: 55%

Annie: 31%

Bert: 15%

TUMBLR‘S FAVORITE WARRIOR

Annie: 46%

Reiner: 32%

Bert: 23%.

Reiner best character. Reiner for Straw Hat. Reiner for king of Westeros. Reiner for everything. I uh... I like Reiner.

Bertolt is such a non-entity in the flashbacks.

I can't believe I didn't appreciate Annie as much as I do now before!!! It was great to see her again and I really look forward to seeing her more hopefully

  WHICH OF THE THREE ORIGINAL WARRIORS IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE? (1,322 Responses)

No surprise here. Mah boy Bert continues to get the least love.

  WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN IN CHAPTER 97? (1,353 Responses)

88% of people think the perspective will stay with the Warriors and a slight majority believe the flashback will continue. The 12% who think we’ll have a perspective switch are probably being optimistic.

  IF CHAPTER 97 IS SET IN PRESENT DAY MARLEY, WHAT DO YOU MOST WANT TO SEE (1,362 Responses)

The Tyber family festival and the identity of Amputee-kun are what we want next. Many people think they will happen at the same time.

The Tybur Family Festival will reveal Amputee-Kun

All of this. A dialogue-heavy chapter that takes place during the tyber family festival. Right before the end, Pieck looks at Amputee-kun in the distance and says "Yo Zeke, Reiner, ain't that Eren Yeager ?" and Zeke goes "That's exactly right".

Amputee guy goes home. It is a dark house. In the corner is armin praying to an annie shrine. Mikasa is next to him on a chair drinking tea as if nothing weird at all is happening.

I'd like to see sort of visual representation of the Warhammer titan

Levi

Main cast

Reiner visiting Bertolt's family/parents

  THE FOUNDING TITAN APPEARS TO YOU IN A DREAM AND GRANTS YOU 3 WISHES FOR THE MANGA. YOUR CHOICES? (1,401 Responses)

I hope ya’ll know I can see who voted for more than three. Shame on you! Action for Annie and Mikasa top the wish list followed by “no more time skips”. There were plenty of write in votes asking for romance and canon ships and the resurrections of Ymir, Bert and Erwin. There were some rather creative options as well.

*virtually votes for Annie getting out the damn crystal three times* WE NEED SOME ANSWERS FROM HER DAMMIT!

Armin. Man-bun. Now.

Every character getting a satisfying and conclusive ending.

Explain PATHS without magic.

Honestly I wish Zackley's "art" was never a thing

Chapter once a week

Marcel's death. Again. Again

Titan shifters not having to die after 13 years, except for gaylord, he can die for all I care.

HANJI ZOE GET A BACKSTORY

one billion dollars and a mansion to live in. PLEASE

Let's talk about East Sea Clan now

Bring Bertoto Big-Boi Bertollini back to life

better pacing

Connie with luscious curls.

MORE ZEKE!!

  HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT TO RETURN TO THE ORIGINAL CAST ON PARADIS? (1,420 Responses)

The number of people willing to sell their souls to see the original cast is up 10% over last month.

I understand people are frustrated because they miss the main cast, but Warriors are my favorite characters and I've wanted to see this since forever. We'll get back to the main cast eventually, just bear with it like we went along with chapters without the Warriors.

This is honestly all I've wanted to see from the beginning of the series. No matter what happens after, I'm really glad we got to see the other side of that fateful day. Also, I love how clear the parallels between the two trios were, because that's something I've found incredibly powerful in this series, but it's never really been this clear before. I find it tragically beautiful just how similar EMA and RAB are, and yet one trio has hope of a happy ending while the other's been doomed from the start.

Just when i was finally gettibg into Marley we switch to a flashback! Lol that's how it goes. It was a good chapter, finally covering something we've been going over on a fandom level since 2013. I'm glad we finally saw it. Bring back Annie 2k17!

On one hand, the Marley files is necessary, building up to the end of the series. But holy cow I miss our main crew on Paradis! Granted, the Paradis chapters have been well done, especially on expanding the Warrior's side as fellow humans trapped in some shitty circumstances.

I just want a glimpse of how the Walldians look like. Just one panel and I can rest in peace.

I've been selling my souls for the past six months to see main casts... I'm withered now.

  WHICH CHARACTERS DO YOU GENERALLY ENJOY THE MOST (1,422 Responses)

Vets are up and the104th are down, but I suspect poll exposure is the reason for the change.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES (1,298 Responses)

Tumblr, sit down, we need to talk. I know you love your art and ships. And I do too! But can you spend three minutes taking the poll? The good folks at Reddit once again outnumber you 2-1.

Reddit: 869 (66.9%)

Tumblr: 419 (32.3%))

Discord: 84 (6.5%)

Twitter: 7 (0.5%)

  IS THERE ANYTHING FROM THE NEW GUIDEBOOK YOU FOUND PARTICULARLY INTERESTING? (1,143 Responses)

yes, seeing Armin’s parents was awesome, but my poll co-creator’s obsession with Reiner Braun is #3 and that’s all I need! That, and eruri is canon.... again  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Seeing Armin’s parents: 49.2%

Isayama’s obsession with Reiner Braun: 38.5%

Poll creators obsession with Reiner Braun: 35.1%

Reiner’s unexplained weight loss: 23.8%

4 pages of insight into Levi's thoughts: 23.4%

Eruri being canon.... again: 22.2%

Annie’s hairstyle being designed after Avril Lavigne’s: 21.3%

The Colossal Titan was designed before Bertolt: 21.3%

Reiner being described as “the perfect man”: 20.6%

Annie’s name being a joke on the word “ani,” meaning “bro”: 18.3%

Marcel and Porco aren’t twins: 16.2%

The height/weight info on the warriors and cadets: 15.7%

Reiner’s genetic predisposition to be a muscular and sexy bara: 14.4%

Birthdays for characters we didn’t know before (Finally! Moblit!): 13.6%

Reiner having David Beckham’s eyes: 11.8%

Reiner having Matt Damon’s looks from Saving Private Ryan: 10.8%

It's ok, I too am obsessed with Reiner Braun (I would marry him)

Reiner is B U L K

isayama is evil

I fucking love Reiner Braun. That's all.

reiner needs to be protected

Reiner continues to be best boy

  FINAL THOUGHTS?

This is a subset of the write in the comments we received. Thank you again for participating! See you next month!

EXTRA DANCC

This chapter was incredible and i cant wait until 97 comes out.

This chapter made me think a lot of Draco Malfoy. I mean the trio and him both were brainwashed and raised to think lies. They were just children caught up in situations they coulndt understand well. It made me feel very sad.

I wonder how the Tybur family knows about the First King's Will. Either he made the vow before traveling with the Eldians to Paradise, or the Tybur family infiltrated the Walls somehow.

Tyber family is being set up to be the "real" masterminds behind Marley's government.

Fuck you Isayama!! I hate you and I'll always will... except if you give Annie a happy ending I could rethink about it

It was really good but I would have liked just a little bit of present-day Marley as well

Again, the Tybur Family knows something about the Reiss family even though the rest of the world doesn't know what's going on within the Walled Society. Something is up with the Tybur Family, I tell you!!!

We need more Annie, Bertolt and Reiner. Also want so badly to see the main Paradis cast but enjoying so much this Marley arc so I'm very conflicted with myself on that and which side I'm now on (Warriors/Paradis)

It was lit

It was interesting to see these events unfold through the long-awaited perspective of Reiner, Bertholt and Annie. I liked how they showed those three kids having more humanity. Seeing Bertholt hesitate and Annie cry gave another dimension to their character.

I've said it before but the new shots of Bertholdt looming over the wall were so fucking incredible. When it gets animated, I hope this moment be silent, no bgm, nothing. It would make it more memorable.

The fact that this chapter is called "Door of Hope" may suggest that RBA's time having their worldview expanded will eventually lead to hope. Reiner may turn on Marley in the end, and Annie's character definitely isn't loyal to Marley. I don't think either would work for Paradis if they had a choice, but since Paradis *is* directly opposing Marley, I suspect we'll have a "enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation. For Annie at least. If Reiner switches, I think it'll be in some great final act. :'(

Im a wreck now!

As expected

Dank

I love how there are absolutely no black and white in this series

Reignar's motivation for joining the military was done really well, and I love how complicated of a situation he's been in...

I've been a fan of getting the Marley perspective and was really happy to see Annie again, but this chapter felt like it was more of everything we already knew. It didn't add emotional stakes, it didn't add to the plot, it contributed to the abysmal pacing. I realize that we can't fully judge the manga until it's complete but the fact is, this is a monthly manga, and Isayama should take that into consideration when pacing the story. Focusing entirely on a flashback this chapter felt like a really poor narrative decision, especially since while it gave us feelings it didn't add any the last chapter didn't also give us. I know Isayama is a master of the long game so maybe I'm wrong and this was an important chapter, but it certainly didn't feel like it. It feels like he's trying too hard to make us feel for the warriors, but the previous chapters already accomplished that.

I expect SC to come back in Chapter 99. With the festival upcoming, I expect two volumes of Warriors before returning to out niggas on Paradis. Also, it's Reigner, not Reiner.

This arc need to step up its pace. It's good that we had all this new info but the story is so slow!

I just want to see grown up Mikasa

Disappointing overall. Little useful new information. The part about stealing the backstory was interesting but not significant. No plot advancements, no new mysteries, no present day action, and we all guessed accurately how the wall fell from RBA's perspective. IMO a pointless chapter, and the Marley arc has dragged on for almost a year now (no problem with Marley focus, it's just been very slow). Could/should have been done differently (include Walldians learning about Marley along w/us readers, include Warriors other than Reiner)

Need less marley and warrior focus jesus fuck

Ballsy move by Isayama to continue with the Marley/Reiner stuff. It's not terrible but considering monthly release schedule it's getting tiresome and I think he's starting to lose some of the fanbase - and he'll continue to lose more with each Marley/Reiner chapter

I'm so done with Marley, wake me up when we get back to the main cast

Please just move the story forward, we don't need previous details spelled out, the audience is smart enough on their own, this all just feels like a gigantic stall.

Feels like Isayama is stalling for the big reveal of Paradis plot

RBA perspective is already overkilled its inviting irritation rather than sympathy

I feel like isayama doesn't care about the manga anymore and is just trying to wrap it up as quick as possible

ANNIE PLEASE COME BACK REEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Getting weary of the flashback. I don't mind seeing the Marley side of things, but pick up the pace.

very powerful chapter. That said, I hope that for the sake of the story's pacing in general, this is the last flashback we get for a while.

AoT is the best story I've ever read. But if there are more useless Marley chapters I might even stop reading monthly. That's how exasperated I am. Fuck i really do like RBA and flashback is nice but PLEASE LET ME SEE THE WALLDIANS COME ONNNNNNNNN!!!! Its been half a year already !!! I didnt see the main characters since i caught up with the manga wtf

Cool chapter in itself, not ok with the premise

I'm pretty sure Dina said fuck Bertolt because she was going after that slut sleeping with her husband

You know, after hatin' on the Marley POV for the past few chapter I actually am starting to feel that I'm succumbing to them, slowly but surely starting to enjoy them

The RBA hug was the sweetest thing.

would be interesting to see of armin -remembers- any of this

I finally fully enjoyed reading a chapter of this Marley arc, even if it's just a flashback... but i reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaalllly wish to come back to the original cast POV. I miss them, i wanna see them, i would sell my soul to see them. Also i think Isayama made a wrong choice doing this Marley arc now, after the timeskip, if he had done this before the fandom probably wouldn't react as the way they did (missing EMA and Veterans). I mean, after the longest time skip ever, after the most loved/hated arc with huge changes to some characters, Isayama just change the view to another characters not showing us anything of what happened. Also with this guidebook we could see that things have changed with the original cast, mainly the relationships that before were strong but at this moment we don't know fully (Like i seriously saw the EMA split apart reading this guidebook, a thing that i didn't wanted to happe, but at the same time i wanted because is interesting af. Or Levi miserable after Erwin death... I feel like Isayama will continue with this flashbacks to explain something like why Annie didn't killed Armin, and their thoughts on the Walldian, but i also feel like chapter 100 will split the fandom apart (again) (i mean we probably will get the main cast in this one, i hope)

I MISS MIKASA

Great develope of the warriors trio

EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

nice info & perspective in this chapter. but felt dragged..could've been expressed in less pages tbh.

The pacing of this whole arc has been poor. These backstories would have better served the story if they had peppered the narrative a little bit at a time over the course of the whole series, not as some last second infodump.

Only thing worse than present day Marley is flashback Marley

I DON'T WANT ANOTHER FLASHBACK JUST GET ME ON PARADIS AGAIN FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

You have a beautiful smile, but not as beautiful as Dina's.

I need Reiner/Happiness to be canon like RIGHT NOW

wjat the fuck is dina d o i n g how did she just KNOW who carla was aksdadkjs

I wish bertholdt was not dead And that he has more development.

I never thought we'd actually get to see this part from the warrior's perspective, but I've always hoped we'd at least see it in a spin off or something, so I am pumped we actually got to see it in detail in canon

Thank god for Isayama, he's a blessed man to give us so many chapters with Warrior focus.

Man I just wish I didn't have to wait so long for each chapter, but I understand it's necessary for quality.

I wasn't really enjoying the flashbacks but I loved this one

I wish we would have had some bits from the breaching of the wall way earlier. I also wish the plot would advance a bit faster. I feel too many panels were spent on the flashback. For me the chapter was over too soon, but felt like I'd learned nothing new of importance :(

I understand the flashbacks are necessary, but I hope the story will eventually wrap those up to keep the story moving forward. Everything has been going by so slowly lately, but even so, I love this series to much to just leave, especially since we're already nearing the end. Keep it up, Isayama!

Because I see all the recent Annie content as the most obvious foreshadowing of her return to the plot, that begs a new question. In Stohess, she tried to run away, not take Eren, and just get back to her father. She crystallized with that stuff in mind, she seemed ready to abandon her mission, so when she inevitably wakes up will she still have that same mindset? I think this whole thing could set up an interesting change for her character. Whether she joins the Walldians or not, she finally gets a chance to break away from the flow and suffer or thrive based on the outcome of (probably) the only time she's allowed to choose something in her life.

Damn this is depressing as hell

Dina will never not freak me out. Also hooOOOOOO REINER'S MESSED UP HOOOOOOOO

I really do hope Isayama goes back to the paradis crew in a flashback to 4 years ago. A couple months from where chapter 90 left off & the entire volume covers 1 year of the Paradis crew in between the 4 year time skip

I feel like Isayama doesnt care much for Mikasa anymore. She has become a flat character and deserves more focus.

I didn't need an entire chapter dedicated to RBA's persepctive of the fall of wall maria to feel any more sympathy than I already do towards them.

I'm really tired of the Marley focus in the story.

Loved seeing how Annie really felt about the mission outside of the hometown and ideologies. Also heart breaking to see Reiner trying so hard to make the mission work only to end up losing the only other two who understood him best in the end.

I was hoping we would get the Tyber family's festival, and there Amputee-kun would reveal his identity. However, after seeing this chapter, I realized how important and interesting the Fall of Wall Maria is in the warriors' point of view. I'm glad we got this chapter.

1. Reiner is much more than a warrior or a replacement for Marcel. 2. Dina keeps being awesome even after her death. 3. Bertholdt already being in love with Annie is awesome. 4. We've been able to see Jean!!! 5. I don't want to say goodbye to Colt...

Isayama, give Erwin back 😌!