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ephemeralnerd · 3 years

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Attack on Titan The Final Chapter: The “Good” Stuff

I read the typeset last night and slept on it.

This final chapter has just so much going on that I may write a different post for my critiques and then everything else that just made me go “huh?”.

But for now, let us focus on the positives.

1. I lucked out with my favourite characters.

My favourite character in SNK, as you may know, is Jean. I was hurt about the end of chapter 138 because I felt that he and Connie (and Gabi and Karina) were completely shafted with an insufficient send-off. So to see them both alive was all I really wanted, and I kind of felt it coming.

Connie has his mum back! The fact that she was still alive also hinted towards the titan powers becoming undone. Still, I’m happy that Connie has someone left.

Unfortunately if you’re a fan of one of the main characters, I think you’ve had it way worse, which is usually the opposite of how it should be, because main character “should” = more screen time + better development

2. Gabi and Falco with Uncles Levi and Onyankopon in London

This is cute. Onyankopon’s showing the others around the world they were always forbidden to see. Gabi and Falco have each other, everyone’s looking pretty fresh with those outfits, (seriously I love Gabi’s pantsuit) Levi survives and has someone to take care of him after all the fighting he did to ensure the survival of everyone else. I just wish Hanji was here

3. Eren was never free.

Eren being a slave to freedom is emblematic of one of the story’s main themes, succinctly put by Kenny as “everyone is drunk on something”.

Mikasa is drunk on her love for Eren, (and apparently Ymir is too for Karl Fritz, but more on That in another post) Erwin was drunk the truth of the outside world, Armin was drunk on the salty salty umi da.

So why would Eren be any different? While the execution has unequivocally been botched, it is not like this came out of nowhere.

Eren never grew past this mental state, of the child who wished for freedom. He has always been a selfish, yet sacrificial person, seen by wanting to join the corps in the first place. He steeled himself in the Reiss cave despite wanting to die, realising the responsibility he had and only he could have.

The responsibility just became too much for a kid.

Here are the ideologies that Isayama set out from the beginning:

that everyone is a slave to their desires

that mass violence is a cowardly route

and that the world’s problems can never be fixed.

Yes, if Eren destroyed the world and went back to his child (going along with that common theory for a sec) that would follow the ideology, because he became a slave to freedom and in that process a mass murderer. Only when nobody remains will there be peace.

But what I think Isayama is trying to say is that even that won’t work. Eren could never “win”. No matter how many time shenanigans occurred, no matter how far ahead Eren knew, he could never concoct the perfect plan because that is too much for a person to take.

Eren is just one kid. An immature kid who was crushed under the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Like I said, execution and logic leaves much to be desired (why did Eren have to kill Carla??) but I am happy about the thematic conclusion to Eren’s character.

4. Historia is... happy (?)

At least we see her smiling here, and her baby is so adorable. It’s no consolation for her being benched half the story just when her character was getting good, but I will take anything at this point.

5. Other cameos

Grouchy Flegel and Jaegerist Rico.

6. Concluding thoughts

I have many mixed feelings, and I’m definitely not alone in this. I believe this chapter changes the trajectory and meaning behind so many character arcs that happened or we expected to happen. it’s going to take a while to parse and think out but we’ll get good takes from it. Or at least interesting ones.

Discourse is the basis of fandom interaction, after all. I’ve been in the snk fandom since RTS in 2016 and have enjoyed discussion, for the most part. So here’s to more discussion, I suppose. SNK is one of those fandoms that I think will never die.

#snk #ephemeralnerd #snk 139 #snk manga spoilers #aot manga spoilers #snk spoilers #aot spoilers #ephemeta #complex feelings are complex #this took a weirdly sentimental turn

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ephemeralnerd · 5 years

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SNK 119: Big Brothers and Little Brothers

(AKA Paths No Jutsu and Central Nervous Nonsense)

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

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

An F in the Chat For:

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

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

Porco Gaillard

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

Colt Grice

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

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

Dead, or just cosplaying as a corpse?

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

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

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

Morality, My Favourite Shade of Grey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Questions, Questions, and More Damn Questions

1.Eren’s mortality.

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

2. If life gives you lemons, make sandcastles?

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

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

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

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

But what if none of this is even necessary?

3. It was all just a dream...

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

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

Pieck regenerating and re-transforming very quickly

Gabi riding a horse despite not knowing how to

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. Yelena

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

6. The Fate of the Formidable

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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