#I mean technically he also killed zeke to save humanity

[marmarparadoxa]

Hi! I find your interpretation on snk characters really interesting. So I was browsing ppl's comments regarding the guidebook and came across with many hateful or should I say ppl's disappointment in Levi's part. Apparently the guidebook says Levi was obsessed with the promise which in their opinion means he didn't care about anybody or anything else but fulfilling the promise again. What do u think? Are u disappointed by the guidebook's text too?

_

"He asked for cooperation from his friends and succeeded in defeating Zeke in the final battle. He fulfilled his last mission and faced the illusions of his friends with a calm heart" I was wondering if by "his last mission" the guidebook is referring to "fulfilling his promise" or "saving humanity"? If the former does that confirm Levi really changed his goal for fighting post-timeskip in your opinion?

Hi anons! I’ll reply to your questions together, hope you don’t mind :)

I’ve to admit that I’m not spending that much time here these days, so I had only a vague idea that there would be a final guidebook...as a consequence, I didn’t really have expectations (to be disappointed). In any case, I read this Levi’s guidebook passage, and I have a general idea what uproar the passage stirred up in the fandom.

I won't comment on other people's reactions. As for me, I don’t think the guidebook says anything particularly meaningful or insightful about the characters, Levi included. Crucially, I don’t think the reader should go search for definitive responses about a thoroughly developed complex character such as Levi in a few lines of a guidebook passage, instead of 139 chapters of story. In other words, I don’t think the passage proves or confirms anything. You can see why I don’t have strong feelings about it.

If we nonetheless want to talk about the guidebook content, it’s not explicitly stated that Levi *only* cared about the promise to Erwin, but still no mention of humanity’s future and caring for other people as part of Levi’s motivations is made. Sticking to that passage alone then, one you could end up thinking Levi only cared about, or obsessed over that; that’s pretty much the portrayal the passage makes of him. In the context of the previous lines, I also think “fulfilling his missions” refers to taking down Zeke. The passage's all about the promise, Erwin, killing the beast, a brief mention of his comrades’ vision.

To be clear, my opinion on Levi didn’t change - I don’t think his objective changed post time-skip. I do think he bore obsessive feelings for Zeke, and I do think the promise to Erwin, the need to give meaning to the comrades who died that day in Shiganshina, were a very important part of his character’s arc post time-skip.

However, I don’t think all his character revolved around it. He cared about the 104th. He cared about Hange. He altruistically saved a foreign boy he never met before in a foreign country. He didn’t kill Zeke, when that would have jeopardized their future: he never forgot what his priorities were. Levi fought till the end, even after he killed Zeke, thus fulfilling his promise, to save humanity. He lost more than anyone else, in the final battle, to grant humanity a future. Because of that, he could face the vision of his past SC comrades with a calm heart.

((I don’t think indeed I’ve seen people pointing out how grotesque an idea the phrase - He fulfilled his last mission and faced the illusions of his friends with a calm heart - seems suggesting, i.e. that he could face with a calm heart his past comrades because he had “killed monkey”. Silly of me, to think he could face them, because he had finally reached what they devoted their heart to - a world rid of titans (apparently, he also said a line about it in the original draft), because they had saved humanity.))

#levi ackerman #snk guidebook #snk 139 #erwin smith #zeke yeager #hange zoe #the 104th #ramzi #the survey corps #I mean technically he also killed zeke to save humanity #at the same time fulfilling his promise #though he wasn't looking as someone 'with a calm heart' after doing it #just saying :) #for those who think Levi could take any satisfaction in killing a man voluntarily giving up his life to save humanity

[lilylilym]

2000 years of Path Experiments and why AOT ending is the Ultimate Ending

In this essay, I will make an argument that the version that we saw in the AOT story is both an Ultimate Ending and the Last Resort where Eren has to be killed by Mikasa, which is something Mikasa could never accept before and thus Eren and Mikasa have been spending (two?) thousands of years in the path living their lives over and over again in hope of finding another way (Path Experiments). In the end, Mikasa's choice to kill Eren helped to solidify a reality and solve the Titan Problem.

The premise of my argument is that I think Eren and Mikasa have been exploring all of the alternatives outside of the main one we're watching, but every time they don't like how it ends, they restart another experiment to find a better one. This is the logic: Insofar as the Founding Titan Power exists and Eren has it, they could live infinite lives and carry on infinite Path Experiments, but once Eren (host of the Founding Titan and the Life Source) and the last Titan with royal blood (Condition for activating founding titan power) have been eliminated, the Path will close and the Titan Life Source itself will disperse. That will marks the end of the Titan Problem.

What is the Titan Problem? Both Zeke and Eren understood that what needs to be dealt with, is the Titan Life Source itself, which has been biologized and able to reproduce through blood-relation of human offsprings (subjects of Ymir). If not controlled through cannibalism, the Power of the Titan will spawn in a random child and the Titan Existence continues. Zeke and Eren could die a couple times over and wouldn't amount to anything. All you need to know is the enemy of Zeke is Titan Existence, and to a certain extent, that's what Eren is after as well. With their learned knowledge from the Path and the true matter of Titan Power, they perceived the existence of Titan Life Source itself to be the problem. If it continues to exist, it will implicate all Eldians and would be used as war machines. While Zeke wants to just sterilize all Eldians (thus prevent new children to obtain Titan Power and gradually eradicate all Titans), Eren think it would not make Paradis Eldians' lives better since the whole world already learned that Eldians are potential devils, taking away their offsprings is to sentence them to slow deaths subjected under intense discrimination.

Eren's Ultimate Plan and its Logic: At one point, it becomes increasingly evident to Eren that he needs to die in the ultimate course of action: come into contact with Zeke and enacts the rumble to flatten the world (to avoid retaliation), Zeke and Eren have to die while they were Titan shifters so these abilities will not be transferred to random children being born elsewhere (this is potentially why Eren is trampling the earth and killing off Subjects of Ymir elsewhere to avoid the situation where his founding titan power after he died just randomly spawn in a new born child. Can you imagine if he's unlucky and amongst the 20% of the population left there were some Subjects of Ymir surviving in some remote villages giving birth at that very moment?). Also, this is important: Eren can only rely on the Ackermans to kill Zeke and himself, since both of them are powerful Titan shifters, and that Ackermans cannot be turned into Titans nor controlled even when Titan Life Source acts out (as seen in chapter 138 when it releases the gas to turn everybody into Titan).

Back to my main argument about Path Experiments to find out Ultimate Ending: Let's call Eren's plan to die in that way the ULTIMATE ENDING (UE). This UE is what Eren is after, and wants to find out, but cannot control because it relies on other people, especially Mikasa and her choices. This UE, before it is confirmed by Mikasa's ultimate action, is just one of many alternatives. In a technical way, it is activated by Key Moments that need to happen, and Key Moments are both presented by Eren's and Mikasa's Key Choices + other people's choices. When Key Moments happened and Key Choices are made, they align into a particular possibility I will call Timeline. In other words, I'm saying that the path toward this Ultimate Ending is a process of experimenting with Key Choices in certain Key Moments while the time allows in the path, and eliminating the unwanted outcome. So that means, every steps of the way, since Eren was able to use Founding Titan Power, he has been bringing Mikasa into the Path to experiment different routes.

The Timeline toward Ultimate Ending, let's call that Ultimate Timeline, follows Key Moments (of Carla's death, Grisha's murdering Reiss family, Eren et al became Survey Corps, Mikasa saving the little Yeagerist girl, Armin's revival, Eldian Refugees' Conference etc) and the most important Key Choice is this moment in Chapter 123:

📷

This Key Moment presented (at least) two choices: keep fighting or running away. In the story, the Ultimate Timeline was enacted when Mikasa said "family" and then whatever happens, happens (the one all the way to the end of 139).

So, Mikasa's reflection implies that she has exhausted all options and up to this point (in real time), she has made all the choices she could, INCLUDING this Timeline:

This timeline is shown In chapter 138, a glimpse into a version of Life in the wood, (I will call that Timeline X). People have think that Timeline X is a vision similar to that of Armin's in 139 - which I argue to be untrue. Chapter 139 is Eren's stories he told Armin after having been exploring all these Timelines and seeing that the Ultimate Timeline has to be enacted. The conversation between Armin and Eren happened when the Ultimate Timeline was well underway but in reality all the events haven't happened yet:

At this point, Armin was told a version of Eren's future memory (and Eren's deduction toward the Ultimate Ending) but his memory has been erased in order for him to keep moving forward. This is why in the path Eren said this:

He knew what he decided to do, but unsure about Mikasa's choice -- only that she has to decide. Note that Eren can only be killed in a way that forms a Key Moment constituting a new Timeline by Mikasa. So he knows he had to die but at that moment she hasn't made the choice, because

Reading chapter 139 and chapter 131 together with chapter 138 leads to my theory, that: the version of the story that we see (Ultimate Timeline) is the last resort and the Ultimate Ending can only happen when Mikasa proceeds with killing Eren thus ending the Titan curse. Which means in other Experiments she refused to kill him and terrible shit happened. Both Eren and Mikasa knew it, but they are patiently playing out different scenarios. (Aka no one knows better because the number of endings and actions are near infinite so they themselves as they live these lives also don't know what is going to happen). For those who have seen Avengers, there was that scene where Dr. Strange disappears in the middle of a battle to explore all the thousands of possibilities and go back to report that out of all, there is only 1 possibility that would result in them winning the battle, so it's similar to that.

To reiterate again: Armin and everyone else (Jean, Conny, Annie, Reiner, basically the survivors of the 104 crew) were given some explanations about what has been and is about to go down toward the Ultimate Ending of Eren's death -- which he hopes/assumes/expects Mikasa to make happen -- then have their memories suppressed until he died. Meanwhile, what Mikasa sees in chapter 138 is not Eren's future memory but her own. Timeline X wasn't a conversation but a reality that was lived in its full, as one of the many Path Experiments in which Eren and Mikasa were trying to find a way out of Titan vs Humanity mess.

How do I know that?

Visually: here Mikasa and Eren both have different hair (but Mikasa still has the scar, so this Timeline X is one identical to Ultimate Timeline all the way until Chapter 123 ("What am I to you") except Mikasa chose to confess to Eren, ran away, and Eren didn't choose genocide.

In this memory, you see that Eren's face was regular (with a different haircut and everything), but by the time Mikasa said "Eren, see you later" his face has the titan mark and the scar again, and that triggers the end of their experiment.

Her "see you later" here means "aight let's rerun this experiment and I'll see if I can do something else differently so I don't have to kill you." I assume that this moment of understanding comes from all the previous Experiments that they have explored together in hope of finding a different outcome, but everytime it narrows down to the same war and the options just become whether or not Mikasa will kill Eren. I imagine that in many Experiments, they get very close to the Ultimate Ending but Mikasa always chose to not kill Eren. They probably have lived out some horrifying realities and were like "okay this is not it, let's explore another one."

In other words, Mikasa, like Eren, did not forget - she has just been living hundreds, even thousands of years in the Path (2,000 years total probably since the title "from you, since 2000 years ago" and "to you, in 2000 years" might also be referring to Mikasa-Eren in addition to Ymir-Eren). They have been living many, many lives, with every Key Moments presenting an opportunity to explore a different Timeline. Let me be clear, in all of these experiments, everything is new to them as well while they were more or less informed by what had happened, as in they can only control their choices and not others, thus they also do not know if some shit's gonna happen differently this time because of some random butterfly effects. In this way, aside from Eren and Mikasa, you can think of literally everything else as not the same -- including the existence and decisions of other people, like for example Marcel lives and Reiner dies, or Reiner chooses to stay with them, etc, everything is brand new everytime they starts a new Path Experiment.

Let's go back to chapter 138. Timeline X was triggered by the Key Moment where Mikasa was asked "who am I to you" and her Key Choice "bruh let's run and live in the wood." You can say that everytime Mikasa has a headache, that's a Key Moment in which everything aligns to present different key choices that would lead to different Alternative Timelines. Every Timelines that they live, they hit a moment when they, as fully entrenched people in that reality, are forced to make a Key Choice that would determine the fate of Paradis Eldians. It's safe to say that they have experienced some of these outcomes and did not like the aftermath. Timeline X seems to conclude with Eren's death as his Titan 13 years runs out - and Mikasa dying alone in the wood. (She can go back and fight after Eren's death all she wants but it will not have an effect on the grand scheme of thing because Key Moments have run out and an Ending has been decided, not dependent on Eren and Mikasa. In other words, once a Key Moment was presented and a Key Choice has been made, if that Key Choice prevents the emergence of the next Key Moment, then an Ending is set.)

So in Timeline X when she said, "see you again, Eren" upon realizing that there is nothing else they could do, they start ANOTHER reality -- the one we are watching. It loops back to Chapter 1. For us, the beginning of this story, the first chapter, is the start of a timeline besides the many realities that they have explored, and it IS the final resort. As audiences, we witness THE ULTIMATE REALITY after all other alternatives have been exhausted. For Eren and Mikasa, they still don't know that this is the Ultimate Timeline until everything falls into place -- Mikasa was confronted by Key Moments, had to make Key Choices of whether or not she kills Eren, ending the possibility of reliving another reality, or continue to experiment.

In chapter 138, by the time Zeke was killed, Eren no longer has founding titan power, Mikasa gets a headache - this is a Key Moment where choices have to be made. The rumbling stopped - so half of the catastrophe has been solved. What remains is Eren, being tied with the Life Source. Jean blew Eren up, separating the Life Source itself from him. What does Eren choose to do? He moves forward, turning into his Titan self instead. The Life Source itself cannot be destroyed, so long as the Founding Titan is still alive. It released the gas to turn all Eldians into Titan, except Levi and Mikasa. This is when Levi said "the only thing to do is to kill Eren." Mikasa's headache gets worse - this is the last Key Moment in which she has got to make the defining choice. In previous experiments of Alternative Timelines, she probably had been here before, but never chose to kill Eren.

The next following pages is indeed her memory of Timeline X and her favorite one because in this one, she had made a choice to confess to Eren, while Eren made the choice to not committing mass genocide, and Marley is coming for Paradis' neck in a all-out war. Them holding each other is the last of that favorite memory, because in that timeline Eren dies peacefully, and Mikasa lived a long life alone knowing they left everyone to horrible warfare and slow deaths. She remembers this, wishes she was there instead ("I want to go back to our home") but that when that timeline concludes she's fucking back in the game again to find another solution. So this time, she made the decision that in all her previous timelines she couldn’t make: killing Eren.

Back to the memory: "See you again, Eren" - that was the last time she would say that. Killing Eren ends her time with Eren in the Path and there will be no need for another Path Experiment. This is it. When Founder Ymir smiles at her, that’s because Mikasa released herself from the looping of 2000 years trying to save Eren, the boy who was meant to die (You can see Lost Girls OVA to see how this plot point was iterated before). In return, Mikasa frees Ymir from the Path and the horrible curse of the Titan Life Source.

A note on the Life Source: In chapter 137, Zeke's and Armin's conversation touches on Life Source and its true mechanic to survive and to multiply, thus led to Zeke's nihilistic view on stopping reproduction while Armin argues that life exist in the smallest way that doesn't fulfill such functions. Happiness and content does define humanity in a way that mere existence, while define all lives, does not. In AOT, the theme of survival because one has been born onto this world is in juxtaposition with the theme of humanity and free will, choices, and the beautiful stillness of life even within unimaginable catastrophe. When the Life Source found Ymir the enslaved girl, she wanted to live, so it attaches onto her. And yet, wanting to live and living a good life are two different things. In a way, Ymir sees no reason to die (because to live is to choose life) yet she chose to "sacrifice" to save King Fritz. She doesn't choose death, but the Life Source gets transferred into other bodies than hers because she was eaten and forcefully extended into bodies that don't belong to her and choices she didn't make. In the end, Ymir was also held hostage by the Life Source itself and the Founding Titan that has been Born Into This World, existing as a physical body in Eren, so the only thing Eren could do in a way that ends the Life Source is to be killed by Mikasa. That's what it means by Mikasa was meant to be the one who kills Eren. She kills him because she loves him, and like Grisha told Zeke, "From now on, everything goes Eren's way."

Back to my point of Multiple Timelines and Ultimate Ending:

I don't think that there were only 2 alternatives, but many that have to be willed through "pushing forward." There are countless moments throughout the story where difficult choices were made by Eren and Mikasa, and they often have been at odds. It is because they have different end goals: While Eren's end goal is freedom for Eldian people, even in death, Mikasa's end goal was to keep Eren alive. The Ultimate Ending is that Eren has to die in order for Titan curse to end (thus releasing Eldians from the ability to turn into Titans itself, not from war or conflict -- because it has been mentioned multiple times in the story that conflict never ends amongst humans). Mikasa is the only one that can kill Eren, being an Ackerman who is destined to bond with Eren in his own lifetime, in a way that activates the Ultimate Ending. So long as she refused to kill Eren, the ending will be horrible.

So in all of these realities, while come with different courses of action, the death of Eren is inevitable - and Mikasa has to be the one who chooses it because it's literally up to her given

a) Eren can't fuck with her memory,

b) she was meant to be the one to save AND kill him at the right moment and

c) he wants her to make her own decisions about her life -- whether or not to hold on to him or let him go, she has to decide because even though Eren knows he has to die for the cause he still deep down wants someone else to save him, stop him, do anything outside of what he has to do on his end, you know?

Mikasa is aware of ALL of these alternatives, and just like Eren she was accumulating all these knowledges about what she was supposed to do, meanwhile literally wrecking her brain in order to find a way for herself to save Eren. That explains why in the very beginning, even as a 15 year old girl why she was ready to fight a whole army to keep Eren safe -- because in the thousand years of stimulation in the path, she refused to lose Eren every time, while knowing that Eren dying is likely the only thing she couldn’t change. So for her, life kind of becomes how to have the best ending possible with Eren throughout these Timelines in the path, and all her choices were informed by the fact that Eren will eventually die, and the only thing she can change is the condition in which other lives are happening surrounding Eren's death (aka when are how Eren dies). That's why when Annie was asking if Mikasa could kill Eren she was all reluctant, she was really out here trying to the bitter end to avoid killing him. But the choices were limited to begin with. So, the reason why she was reluctant is because if Eren dies in her hand, they will not be able to spend eternity in the path anymore, and the Ultimate Ending will confirm that one Timeline as, for the lack of the better word, reality.

In other words, the ending that we get in 138 is an Ultimate Ending because only this time Mikasa makes peace with killing him, goes through the act, which ends the Path Experiments.

tl;dr: Mikasa and Eren have been exhausting every single possibilities in the Path together everytime the time comes for them to be able to do so. It wasn't an imagination nor a future memory. They explored these experiments together, and eliminated all the alternatives on by one, until it boiled down to the ultimate outcome, which is Levi killing Zeke and Mikasa killing Eren after he enacts the Rumbling. This ending is inevitable, but it was not inevitable how they get there; Mikasa will have to make this choice, otherwise this shit will never end.

#mikasa ackerman #ymir the first #ymir fritz #og ymir #eren yeager #aot #aot spoilers #aot theory #armin arlert #snk spoilers #snk thoughts #snk theory #lilylilym #text post #snk ending #aot ending

[aotopmha]

asdfgh can I also just add: Eren was like "Imma commit genocide" and Historia follows with "What were you to say if I got a child?" she recovered very quickly and found way to save herself from being fed to Zeke. I probably sound like a hater but I never paid much attention to her and now seeing people thinking she did a 180 in the finale, just makes me feel..the evidence had been in front of us the whole time, maybe I missed sth why people are giving her the benefit of the doubt

I read this and the previous ask I got, but I couldn't figure out if you were the same anons, so I'll treat these as separate asks.

People have been saying that characters have made a 180 for a number of characters at play here.

Apparently Reiner is back to where he started and preposterously cares for his friends on Paradis (when in reality he probably just got to rest a little bit and he didn't actually end up hating any of them and felt intense guilt for hurting so many people on Paradis).

Apparently Eren is unrecognisable from his character (when he has been a very impulsive and single-minded character for pretty much all of the story *together with* the changes in his character, there are a lot of moments where he cares about Mikasa, he even directly asks what she is to him and we know for a fact memories are screwing with him).

Apparently Mikasa never got an arc (when in reality she killed the person she loved the most to save the world). The most frustrating elements for me in terms of criticism I see for Mikasa's arc is that she should "grow independent" from Eren.

It's been a criticism for as long as I remember, but I think that would be a lonely and miserable thing. Eren's and Mikasa's relationship is complicated, but it slowly grows more healthy as the story goes on. I think her suddenly just stopping to care about Eren would be the solution that would be wrong. Remembering him for the good moments they had is absolutely the way to go. It could've been empowering if Eren was an uncomplicated abuser, but he's not.

Immediately pairing her up, more specifically her "needing another man in her life" as some people put it is the actually sexist thing to do, too. A woman should be allowed to have feelings, even if it is about another male character.

Giving her personal time and solace in good times and friends coming to see her instead of instantly pairing her up with another guy is the more respectful move because pairing her up with another guy immediately after the person she cares about dies would be treating her like a prize passed over from guy to guy.

(In fact I like that none of the female characters are left off as solely to be mothers. Even Historia.)

But speaking of Historia, to finally directly address your ask, I think her motives absolutely were selfish, she probably did this with the reasoning to survive/refuse the Titan cycle, but at least her ultimate desire was a world free of Titans.

I do not think she is cheering on the death part of it at all, at the very least.

I have a firm wall between fiction and reality so I don't particularly care about the moral implications if you zoom in there to the very basics, rather I care about the framing of this entire thing.

Is Eren actually celebrated as some grand hero who saved humanity here, textually and subtextually?

No. Armin is the hero here.

For stuff like this, morality and scale of a situation is actully pretty irrelevant.

Evangelion's Shinji gets shit for this very same reason. His hesitation is putting many lives in danger, but this is technically irrelevant to framing and what the story wants to say. I think the world wasn't at stake a lot of people wouldn't rag on his character so much.

What is the intention here? Because I think if Eren would've killed any amount less and the story would say he was a great hero and he would get a good life with his friends, it would still be horrendous storytelling in my eyes because the point would be that what he did was okay. I can nitpick the details of the situation all day, but that really doesn't mean anything if a narrative delibrately paints disgusting stuff in a positive light.

I think this is the primary reason why fascists are disowning this story. The vibe and points made don't check out. The big parade and Eren's motto are framed in a sinister light, not for heroes coming home.

This even goes for the general claims I see around for the tone of the ending.

It's not a pure power of friendship ending: 80% of humanity is dead, the Yeagerists are still alive on Paradis and for all we know, just like Pieck says, their ship could just be sink the moment they arrive.

It's a hopeful ending, but it is also the beginning of a new struggle.

Thank you for the ask!

#Attack on Titan #Shingeki no Kyojin #AoT 139 #SnK 139 #Reiner #Reiner Braun #Eren #Eren Jaeger #Eren Yeager #Mikasa Ackermann #Mikasa #Historia Reiss #AoT #SnK #Asks #Historia

[ryuichirou]

Random question but which SNK character/s can you not take seriously? Like you can’t help but look at their actions and chuckle or have some sort of reaction when they do something. For me personally it’s Levi, like for some reason I can’t take him seriously, don’t get me wrong I like his character and the two times I did take him seriously was his talk with Erwin before the mission to take back Shigansina and his final talk with Erwin before the suicide charge. Like before I watched and read snk I saw him everywhere and thought he was cool but now I just see him as tiny little gay gremlin who dedicated himself to one man and is hell bent on killing monke. (p.s this turned out long sorry) (p.p.s I also can’t take him seriously around women take makes howl with laughter)

YOU ARE SO RIGHT ABOUT LEVIIII he really is just a tiny little gay gremlin hahHAHAH. I hope our little gremlin gets to kill the monke, he deserved it. I agree with you 100% about him being awkward around women too. Let our grandpa be, he’s just a smol bean.

For us it’s Zeke, for sure. He is hilarious, both intentionally and unintentionally.

Unlike Levi, I don’t think anyone takes Zeke too seriously, but still: I love the faces he makes, his screeches, his sass, his stupid jokes about butt wiping. His “NOT AGAAAIIIN” moment is something that I have saved on my phone just to look at it from time to time and laugh.

He’s just… ugh, he’s so smart, he’s smarter than Erwin Fucking Smith, and yet he’s SO STUPID. Just because he’s pretentious and loves to underestimate everyone around him. It’s so funny to watch him fall on his butt every time he gives a speech about how humanity is foolish and how the end is unavoidable.

Not to mention he calls his plan “euthanasia” even though technically it’s sterilization… I mean, euthanasia sounds poetic and stuff, can’t blame the man for being pretentious lol

#replies

[theotherackerman]

Carry on My Wayward Son

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: Any recognizable elements belong either to Supernatural, Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, or Attack on Titan.

Notes: 

The Fae deal mark is inspired by a court of thorns and roses. You can see it here

Zeke's necklace is Dean's from Supernatural.

The potions, Feywine, Mikasa's ring, Hange's bracelet, and Eren's necklace are all from DnD 5E.

If you want to see pictures of the jewelry, go here

CHAPTER FOUR: WHAT A STRANGE TRIP IT’S BEEN

Demon Deals were breakable.

No always but the demon could call off the deal.

Fae deals?

They were a whole different ball game.

Fae deals were more than just deals between two parties. They were a magical binding contract, more so than demon deal.

Once the deal was made a mark would appear on the skin of the two people who made the deal. One could mistake the mark for a tattoo.

Eren had not been wrong to think that Mikasa’s tattoo could have been a mark of a deal. However, Mikasa had truly just gotten the sigil of her mother’s clan on her skin in reminder of her.

The deals made with members of the Fae left a certain scent of magic on everything. Even humans could smell the magic in the air.

So the screams from Mikasa and the sweet, sticky smell of the fae deal caused Levi, Zeke, and Hange to rush into the basement.

"No. No. No. No. No. No," Mikasa muttered as she ran her hand over the black inked mark on her right shoulder.

If one didn't know what it was, it was easily mistaken for a tattoo.

"Mikasa…" Hange started.

"I never wanted to do this. I never wanted a deal," she muttered as she pulled her legs closer to her body.

Eren swallowed as he rolled up his sleeve to reveal the same mark on his left shoulder. It was identical.

"Yggdrasil," Hange whispered as they looked over Mikasa's mark. "It's the tree from Norse mythology. It holds all the nine realms within it. Interesting. What sort of deal did you two make? It's said the Fae deal mark is the deal in a physical."

"I don't know. I don't want this. Get it off, Hange. I want it off," Mikasa muttered as she closed her eyes.

Eren had never seen Mikasa like this. Even when he had said such hateful words to her, she hadn't broken like this.

"Eren? What happened?" Levi demanded.

"I don't know. I was just sitting here thinking about how she promised me that she wouldn't get hurt anymore. Then I muttered something and my arm started hurting," Eren replied as he pulled the sleeve of his shirt down.

"What did you say? Exactly. Words are very important to fae," Hange explained before pulling Mikasa's sleeve back down.

"We had a deal…" Eren muttered.

"You made a deal?" Hange asked.

"Not technically. I didn't think it would count. It was more of a...I don't know," Mikasa's eyes finally met Eren's.

And he broke.

This pain was worse.

Had she not said the day before how she didn't want to make deals?

Eren had royally fucked up.

Again.

"There's nothing you can do about it then. Words have power. As a member of the Fae, you should know that. You made a deal. Now you both bare the mark. So I suggest you two talk and figure shit out," Levi commanded.

Zeke hesitated but Levi grabbed him and dragged him upstairs.

Mikasa and Eren were left alone in the basement.

Mikasa didn’t move. She didn’t speak.

“I’m sorry,” Eren muttered as he looked down. ““I'm sorry about the thing at the hotel with the kiss and…"

“Sorry for kissing you back. You were under the influence, you weren't really consenting, and I know you didn't want to kiss me anymore."

"Hey," he said, causing her eyes to meet his. "It's not that I don't want to kiss you anymore. And it wasn't like that was all something I didn't want to do. I mean...Mikasa...I just...can't. I'm sorry. I'm the one who should be apologizing, not you. You saved my life. Again."

"It's fine."

"When were you going to tell us that it takes years off your life every time you heal?"

"H..how do you know that?"

"Hange told us. Mikasa, you can't do that."

"Fae live like lobsters. Unless something kills us, we can live for forever."

"Even as half Faery? How many years did each of those heals take from you?"

"I don't know. Just some. What does it matter?"

There was so much anger in Mikasa.

The way he had treated her since the dorm, the fact that her skin was now marked with a mark of deal.

Levi had ordered them to figure it out.

“I don’t want this anymore,” she confessed.

“What?” Eren asked as he looked over at her.

“Any of this. I don’t….I can work the job. I have no choice but to uphold my end of the deal. Other than that, I don’t….I’m not….I don’t think we should be around one another anymore.” Mikasa looked down at her hands. She folded them and then unfolded them.

“Oh,” Eren replied.

“Yeah.”

“Okay then,” Eren said as he stood up.

“I’ll let you know what I find out about The Colt,” she answered.

“Okay,” Eren replied before he headed towards the stairs.

The truth was that Eren was anything but okay right now.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christmas

Eren sat in Levi’s kitchen. Mikasa and Hange were in the living room.

He hadn’t spoken to Mikasa since they had talked in the basement.

Mikasa continued to work jobs for Levi and research for the Colt. She avoided Eren like the plague.

Hange had been coming around, they were never far from Mikasa.

Hunting was a thankless job so Eren and Zeke often used fake credit cards to pay for the things they needed. Zeke was pretty good at hustling pool at bars for money too.

Christmas meant that they were using their credit card schemes to buy things for those they loved. Levi had already given Eren and Zeke their gifts by paying for their anti possession tattoos that they both now sported on their chests. They had got Levi some very expensive tea from a shop that they had helped out with a ghost problem.

“Merry Christmas, Eren!” Hange said as they walked into the kitchen. They had a small box.

“Thanks, Hange,” he muttered as he looked down.

“This is just a little something I cooked up with magic,” Hange said as they sat down across from Eren.

Eren opened the box to reveal a small potion bottle. There was a red, glittery liquid inside of the bottle.

“It’s a very basic healing potion. Won’t bring you back to life but may help you hold on when you’re dying. I made one for Zeke and Levi too,” Hange smiled.

“Thank you, Hange,” Eren said as he looked up at them.

“You’re welcome. Merry Christmas, Eren,” Hange said again as they stood up.

Zeke entered the room.

“Here,” Zeke said as he came into the room with a box.

“I thought we agreed on no gifts,” Eren grumbled.

“It’s not a real gift,” Zeke said as he tossed the box to Eren.

Eren caught the box and unwrapped it to reveal a box with a bottle of vodka in it.

“You’re right. It’s not a real gift,” Eren scoffed.

“It’s pay back for buying me that bottle of whisky. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

“I won’t.”

“Good.”

“You going to give her the thing?” Zeke asked.

“I don’t know. She said she didn’t want to be around me.”

“I know. But it’s Christmas.”

Mikasa wandered into the kitchen, putting more of the Christmas cookies onto her plate. Mikasa had always had a sweet tooth.

“Hey,” Zeke said as he gave her a small wave.

“Hello,” Mikasa replied before ducking into the living room.

Zeke raised an eyebrow at Eren.

“I told you that she didn’t want to talk to me,” Eren muttered as he looked down.

“Maybe try getting her alone later,” Zeke suggested before he patted Eren on his shoulder. It was the same shoulder that bore the mark of the Fae deal that Eren had made with Mikasa.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Christmas went on.

Levi and Zeke gave Hange a bracelet of protection against fire they had picked up.

Zeke gave Mikasa a tea cup and some flowery tea.

Levi had also paid for Mikasa’s anti possession tattoo while Mikasa gave Levi what looked like the world’s smallest teapot. It was made from a walnut.

She gave Zeke a bottle of Feywine that she had received from working a job.

The hours quickly faded as Levi and Hange drank far too much eggnog. Zeke had made it, the sweetness covering the alcohol.

“We should sing Christmas carols!” Hange suggested.

“No one wants to hear you sing so I’ll sing with you,” Levi’s words slurred together.

“I’ve never seen him drunk in my life,” Zeke muttered.

“ Dashing through the snow…” Levi and Hange sang together.

“Alright, I’m going to bed. Goodnight,” Mikasa excused herself from the living room.

Zeke waited for several minutes before he spoke.

“Go give it to her!” Zeke said as he stood from his seat.

“She probably….” Eren started to say but Zeke was pulling Eren’s arm.

“Go!” Zeke ordered.

Eren sighed before he stood up and went down the basement.

Mikasa had changed into a tank top and shorts. Eren could see her anti possession tattoo peeking out the top of her tank top. It was in the same spot as his, on her chest, right above her heart. She was holding her toothbrush and toothpaste in her hand.

“Oh,” Mikasa said when she saw Eren.

“Hi. I...I got you something. It’s not a big deal. It was from a job we worked and...nothing else. I just thought it’d be useful for you,” Eren rambled as he pulled a small box from his hoodie.

Mikasa sat down the things she had been holding in her hands before taking the box from Eren.

He watched her.

Suddenly, he became very nervous.

He knew he deserved everything that she had said to him.

He knew it was all his fault. He knew he hadn’t been fair to her. He hadn’t told her the truth either.

The more jobs he worked the more the lines between monster and human seemed to blur.

Maybe the world wasn’t as black and white as he thought.

Mikasa slowly opened the box to reveal the purple stone ring inside.

“It doesn’t have any iron in it, in case you’re wondering. It’s...it’s a ring of protection. The stone is amethyst. I thought since you’ve been working a lot of jobs by yourself, you could use it,” he replied as if it was no big deal.

Why was he acting like a stupid school boy with a crush?

“Thank you,” she replied as she took the ring out of the box and slipped it onto her ring finger. “I...uhh...I have something for you. But it’s from...we found a human who has contact with the Fae realm. He was being haunted, so I helped him. He gave me some things from the Fae realm,” she explained as she walked over to the plastic drawers she was using as a dresser.

“So that’s where the wine came from,” Eren mused.

“Yeah, the tiny teapot too,” she opened the drawer and pulled a small box out.

She held it out to Eren who took it. He slowly opened the lid to reveal a brown corded necklace with a single red feather attached.

“It’s a Phoenix feather. It’ll keep you warm. I know how you don’t like the cold,” she muttered as she looked away.

“Thank you,” he removed the necklace from the box and put it on.

“What did you get Zeke?” she asked.

“Oh. I gave it to him a little while ago. It’s the necklace he’s been wearing, the brass one. It’s supposed to be a powerful protection charm,” Eren explained.

“Where’d you get that?”

“Levi. The bracelet we gave Hange and your ring came from a physic in Indiana,” he explained.

“When were you in Indiana?” she asked as she sat down on her bed.

“Two weeks ago. Why?” he asked.

“Oh. I was there about a week ago. Ghost issue. You?”

“Also a ghost issue. You notice they’re getting more active lately?”

Mikasa nodded. “It’s getting weird out there. Weirder than normal. Did Levi tell you about the Werewolf?”

“Yeah, I still can’t believe how big that thing was. Any ideas why everything is like this?"

“I don’t know. The guy I met, the one with the connection to the Fae realm said they’re scared. They’re staying out of it. They wouldn’t give him any information on why they said that but if the Fae are scared, I’m sure it can’t be anything good.”

Eren nodded as he leaned up against the wall. “My dad left Zeke a voicemail. He said something big was coming. He never told us why and he didn’t leave any information about it in his journal. We’ve been hitting a wall on finding any information about the Yellow Eyed Demon.”

“I’ve not had any luck with the Colt either. It’s mostly dead ends. I’ve tracked it a bit but then it just vanished. Hange got a few old journals from some recently passed hunters so I’ll start going through those soon. If I can ever stay out of the field, that is. Levi keeps having to send me out. It feels like there are less hunters to go around.”

“A lot have died recently. I guess it’s to be expected with everything going on.”

Mikasa nodded.

“Your dad….he was a hunter?”

Mikasa nodded again. “He was. That’s how he met my mom. She was injured after she came here from Japan. She wanted to see the rest of the world. Her magic went wild due to her injury. Then my dad found her and helped her. She began to help him hunt. Then they fell in love, married, and had me. Then they were killed by demons.”

“Who’s tracking you?”

Mikasa sighed. “Who isn’t? Demons, some other Fae. They want me to take up my birthright.”

“Birthright as what?”

“I...fairies have court. There are rulers. They don’t do much, Fae sort of do whatever they want. They’re run out of my bloodline. I’ve stayed off the radar.”

“So...you’re a fairy princess?” Eren smirked.

“Try a Queen. But I know nothing about the Fae realm or the courts. I have no desire to navigate politics. Besides, they’ll give up looking for me eventually. They’ll find an actual ruler.”

“So why did your mom leave then?” Eren asked.

“I don’t know. She never told me.”

“But shouldn’t you take up your birthright?”

“You know how humans get to the realm, right? They stepped in a fairy circle. Then they get stuck there for seven years if they eat the food or drink anything. I have no desire to rule in a place where I can’t eat or drink.”

Eren laughed, “so it’s our English class sophomore year?”

“Yeah. Mr. Dawk hated us.”

“He shouldn’t have made his only English class at 8:00 in the morning then.”

“I’ll never forget when you brought in that portable blender and made smoothies for everyone.”

“It was Floch’s idea. Remember how Hitch brought in the portable grindle and started making pancakes?”

Mikasa laughed as she nodded.

Eren had missed hearing her laugh.

He was an idiot for putting her through all of this. He had been awful to her. As he watched her laugh and smile, the guilt began to swarm him.

“I should let you go to sleep,” he muttered as he looked down.

Her laughter stopped. “Okay,” she replied softly before standing up.

“I was worried that you hated me too much. I just saw the ring and thought of you. Thanks for taking it ,” he said before he looked up at Mikasa.

“I don’t hate you, Eren,” she muttered. “I just think it’s better this way. I’m not going to ignore you or be rude. It’s just better for both of us if we’re just…...two people who are semi friendly. It would be rude if I got everyone a gift but you.”

She was just being nice. Of course, she was. Eren giving her a gift couldn’t make up for all the horrible things he’d said to her or what he’d put through.

“Thanks for the necklace. It’ll be good for these cold months,” he esaid.

“You’re welcome,” she smiled.

“Merry Christmas. Goodnight, Mikasa.”

“Goodnight, Eren.”

---------------------------------------------

The next morning Mikasa was long gone by the time Eren woke up.

“She missed Yule and meeting with her friends,” Hange explained as they drank their coffee.

“Oh. Right. She did go home for winter break,” Eren sighed as he sat down.

“It’s one of the few times she spends with other half Sidhe.”

“Wait. I thought Mikasa didn’t have contact with the Fae realm.”

“She doesn’t. But you didn’t think she was the only one I had in my care back in the day, did you? I didn’t know what she was at first. There are other hunters who did,” Hange explained.

“Oh.”

Suddenly Eren wondered if Mikasa’s friends knew of him. Did they hate him? It worried him. If she told her friends, there may be no coming back from that.

Why did he care?

It was a dumb question. He knew why he cared. He still loved her. Last night, he had seen the girl he had fallen in love with again.

Suddenly, a headache swarmed Eren.

He held onto his head as images that made no sense swarmed his head.

Then Eren fell to the floor.

#comwws

[yaboylevi]

Hi vivi, there's smth I didn't understand, about when Levi was ignorant about Erwin's true motivator then when he knew it. In the beginning he used to talk about freedom stuffs but after Shiganshina battle he almost didn't? Was those freedom stuffs related to his fake vision of Erwin?

Hey there!

Honestly, I'm not the best person you should ask this to. I'm pretty sure I've proven myself to be someone who does not understand Levi very well. Or maybe, what I understood of him was either wrong all along, or it is simply something I don't like anymore, and that I find pitiful (especially if this is all there is to it), after putting together all the pieces of his character arc until now and in light of more recent highlights of his character when paired up with his past.

For the sake of giving you my opinion, since you asked, I think Levi has lost himself, and that's why he doesn't bring up freedom at all. This is just my rough interpretation of a part of his psychology that I've never quite seen analyzed so I could just be wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  tl;dr at the end.

I think he lost confidence in himself all the way back when Erwin made him think that Isabel&Farlan's death, his family, was his fault, 

"A heavy sense of regret cut away at his heart, more sharply than the blades he held in his hands. Levi thought. That's right—what Erwin said was right. The one who's wrong was me. I lost a fight that I could've won; I'd even gotten my allies killed. The responsibility for all that falls on the one who'd made that decision…me." x

and so Levi made his life all about following Erwin and his superior, bigger goal, without knowing what it was, with the belief that it was something selfless and that he couldn't understand it simply because he himself wasn't worthy, was inferior. Just like Kenny thought he was inferior to Uri until the very end (but at least Levi had the much-awaited epiphany that no, it wasn't the case. Though I'm not sure if he absorbed the lesson or not - I think he didn't). Anyway in his mind, that goal he couldn't see could make all the sacrifices worth it, it made you a better person, one that had no regrets. And this, in particular, is Levi's biggest struggle - you'll always have regrets, but you can accept them if for the right cause. The moment this cause is no more because it was sort of a fraud, how do you deal with those regrets and sacrifices, how do you make them worth something again? -> simple, pick someone you hate, pin all the fault on them and kill them. This is what he's grappling with, currently.

He's been stuck there for 4 years because he was used to not having "mental autonomy". Erwin's idealized goals became his, simply because Levi considered himself inferior, without a worthy or right goal, only able to mess things up and causing others' deaths, so he should naturally follow someone superior. He gave up thinking for himself when he decided to follow Erwin, because Levi had lost faith in his qualities as a human - he got his friends killed, right? It was his fault, right? He can still think for himself and he has his own opinions, but when it comes to the future, or to making big decisions, he is unsure and scared and lacks confidence and so he leaves it up to Erwin, to following Erwin's orders. This is what I mean when I said he isn't used to "mental autonomy". Because he gave it up for the longest time. Why do I think so? Let's go back to ACWNR, the origin of our current Levi...in a moment of full despair and insecurity about his own decisions and decision-making skills, in my mind, it's like Levi gave up on himself and decided to put those skills and his strength at the service of Erwin's goal:

""All right… It looks like you have something that I lack. Until I know what that 'something' is, I'll go with you.""

What I get from this, and from what we have in the actual manga, it seems like Levi had thought Erwin's goal was a pure and superior one. He idealized Erwin and never really understood him. For years. He could accept all those deaths - of the soldiers they sacrificed together, and of Isabel&Farlan - only because he believed in this goal he didn't really understand and that he thought was a selfless one. He even sacrificed his own feelings. He disliked how Erwin used his soldiers as bait, but accepted every order because he believed in him and the goal he believed they shared. 

In the end, he found out Erwin's goal had selfish motivations. He was shaken up and confused and disgusted initially. This is proof that Levi really believed in saving humanity, in freeing it. But then, since he was Erwin's friend, he decided to accept that the real Erwin and his idealized version of him weren't the same. And he chose to keep avoiding making choices and to keep believing in Erwin, for some reasons that I tend to identify into two categories: 1. Erwin was his friend, you tend to forgive and accept things in your friends that you wouldn't accept otherwise, even if you disagree (and Levi disagreed plenty); and 2. Levi's delusion had to go on or he would feel the weight of all the sacrifices he made and he would get crushed - he wasn't ready to decide for himself, so he chose to still follow Erwin. In the end, he was forced to in RtS by circumstances when Erwin failed to make the call for Levi like he used to, failed to give him orders. When Levi tells him to die with the recruits, you can see on his face that this is the first time in a very long time that he actually takes full responsibility for those lives. Before that, I feel like he halved their weight because they were all Erwin's decisions, not his, he was merely following orders for a greater cause.

So, yeah, I think Levi had given up making important decisions (outside of the immediate ones in moments of dangers/on the battlefield), and then he was forced to make 2 very important ones in RtS all of a sudden. After giving up his "freedom" to Erwin's orders and decisions and goals, he was thrown back into reality full force. Making choices is hard and painful. He already knew (that's the whole point of him avoiding having to make them), he is aware of it on a personal level and he directly acknowledges this when dealing with Eren and imparting his lessons to others. But it's actually quite ironic because he always followed Erwin's orders to a T (even when he felt strongly against them), successfully avoiding choosing. In my opinion, his blind belief in Erwin was exactly the result of Levi never properly dealing with his own guilt re: Isa&Far. Because of it, he ended up thinking he's unfit to make choices. So he left the task to someone he deemed more capable and superior (and this is how the whole "Ackerbond" thing was described, basically, but you need to add to it Levi's self-deprecation and feelings of inferiority caused by his guilt, which make the whole thing even more codependent imo). The two decisions in RtS ("Give up on your dream and lead the recruits to hell" and the serum choice) meant he was responsible of the death of almost all the SC and also of their Commander. With how the situation is now in the manga, he may feel even more guilty. Because of those 2 choices, and of his failure at killing Zeke in Shiganshina, they're in this situation: Hange can't lead them, Zeke played them like a fiddle, the SC has never been this corrupted and divided. (For the record, I don't think Levi should be considered fully responsible for this bc it would just take away agency to all the other characters involved, but he sure did nothing to help the situation, that we know of.)

Hence why he's so hellbent on repaying those lost lives and on destroying Zeke, even if killing Zeke wouldn't mean victory for their current situation. Even if those deaths have already been proven to have been useful, not in vain. He's obsessing about this, not seeing past it, not seeing the freedom he was striving for before, because of his inner demons (his guilt and his insecurity about his own ability to make choices). That's why he's always there in the background doing nothing, barely expressing his opinions about the circumstances they're in. That's why his only two modes are conflicted and violent, because he's lost, and he has regressed in the sense that he thinks he can solve anything with violence like he used to. I'm glad the story has proven him wrong. Hitting Eren has amounted to exactly nothing. Being viciously sadistic with Zeke only blew up in his face (ah! sorry...).

I'm not saying he needs to repress his feelings. But everyone has condemned Connie's violent and irrational behavior (caused by pain and confusion) recently, but nobody can acknowledge the problems in Levi's behavior, though it is just very similar to Connie's. The difference is Levi is an adult and should technically act more like it. But I guess his development has been stalled since he met Erwin, because as I said, he gave it all up just to avoid dealing with his own feelings and responsibilities, something that would've made him "grow up" emotionally. So I really really hope he'll finally have this growth he needs to undergo, next time we see him. Just like I hope there is a positive resolution to Connie's internal conflict.

tl;dr: I think Levi really did care for humanity's freedom, he wasn't just parroting Erwin's public speeches. That's why he was disappointed in Erwin, because he implicitly did come to care about their freedom, as he explicitly said to Eren. However, he lacks confidence in his long-term decision-making skills, so he's focusing on the past, rather than the future. The only time he chose something that impacted the future was in RtS, and that "future" he's living in right now seems hopeless, probably also because of his choices (or so he may believe unconsciously). So I think he's been obsessing about the past and his past choices in particular, though this just stumped his growth, made him regress and actually made it impossible for him to create a vision for the future for himself - hence why he never brings up ANYTHING about the future of the island in a positive way like he did before...he doesn't have the confidence to believe in anything regarding their future atm; meanwhile, in the past he gained that confidence through following someone else's leadership. Some find it pure or romantic, I find it looks like codependency. If he managed to kill Zeke, he wouldn't have had anything else going on for him and this is...not a good look for a character, simply from a narrative pov. That's why I knew he would've never been able to kill Zeke and there was zero tension in their most recent fight for me.

In general, though, Levi has directly brought up freedom only once, to Eren. He has always fought more for individuals and to repay their sacrifices (almost as a self-inflicted punishment/strife to atonement for what happened to his friends). But I agree that we all were under the impression that he had the goal of freeing humanity inside the walls. This is also why I say I may have been wrong all along about him, and I have never truly understood him.

Why do you think he doesn't bring up Freedom anymore?

#shingeki asks #Anonymous

[dannydevitosheight]

Levi Isn’t Dead!

I don't think many will read this post but I feel the need to throw in my two cents on 114. 

First of all, how many times have we been left with a cliffhanger when it came to the status of a character? May I remind you the four months we had to wait on Reiner and Falco’s status? (Ch 101 - 104) I mean we had Reiner’s bite to give some comfort but we still had no idea if Falco was okay and if Reiner was going to let himself die. Actually there are a lot of times Reiner could have been dead. There have also been cliffhangers that indicated Jean was dead and that Hange, Molbit, and several other SC members were all dead (Ch 78) Not to mention Erwin, Armin, and Floch being presumed dead for some time. 

Second, while it was disappointing that Erwin didn’t get much reaction after he died, there was plenty attention and care given to him and Armin during that decision making. Sasha was given more care and was not left to a cliffhanger. In fact, I can’t think of any deaths that were confirmed to be true following a cliff hanger. The cliffhangers are meant to cause distress and leave us wondering and wanting more, but as it has happened many times in SNK, they are resolved in one way or the other within the next few chapters, at the very least. 

Each major character death may have head some nail biting lead up, but as far as I can remember, they always happened during the chapter. With room for reaction by other major characters. I’m thinking specifically of Sasha. We had the foreshadowing of her death and it happened without us wondering whether or not she made it. She was shot, cared for by her loved ones, and pronounced dead in the same chapter. Not to mention the continual love they show for her several chapters after. 

When it came to Erwin and Armin, we saw the decision happen and were left with Armin emerging from his pure titan. We also witnessed Hange and Levi saying their last words to Erwin and Hange announcing him to be dead. 

And I’d also like to point out that Reiner’s head being blown off was a cliffhanger for ch 77 and after some flashback in 78, Bertolt confirmed to us that Reiner was, in fact, alive! At the end, Jean questions if they are the only ones left alive. In this case, a lot of nameless SC members and Molbit did die in his instance, but I would argue that Molbit wasn’t close enough to the main cast for Isayama to give him more attention. Marlowe had a bit more attention which is why I think Isayama chose to show us his final thoughts before being killed by the Beast Titan. Even Reiner’s suicide attempt wasn’t a cliffhanger because it was a crucial moment in his character arc and was extremely emotional. It seems to me the cliffhangers are more for the shock factor than a character’s end and/or development. 

I highly, highly doubt Levi would die in a cliffhanger like this, with no other major characters around to confirm his death. And I don’t think it would work in this frame of story telling to chalk it up to a tragic death to show how cruel the world is. We don’t need that to know how cruel this world is. It’s already been very plainly given, with several characters saying it in critical moments, and how many characters have had such shitty lives. 

Levi has proven as a character time and time again how resilient and strong he is. Erwin Smith’s arm was chomped off by a titan and he still attacked Bertolt and freed Eren. Levi is humanity’s strongest soldier. I refuse to believe or even worry about his well-being. If we’ve seen Erwin be that strong, knowing how much stronger Levi is, do we really believe he’s dead? He’s obviously wounded, this we know. But he isn’t dead. 

As for the closing chapter line:

Based on what we know, hasn’t it essentially been confirmed Levi is not an Eldian because he’s an Ackerman? The Ackerman’s receive the power of the titans in human form, so it stands to reason that they wouldn’t be able to become titans themselves. Therefore, it would be wrong to call Levi and Eldian. It’s my belief that this line is, again, to add to the shock factor of the cliffhanger, but is not meant to confirm Levi’s death. You could argue Levi is the merciful man, because he technically gave Zeke a way to commit suicide (tying the thunder spear fuse to Zeke’s neck), and they’re trying to say Zeke, an Eldian, had a merciful death considering the fact that Levi had just said being eaten was “too gentle” of a death. But I don’t think Zeke is dead either. 

We’ve seen Reiner come back from much worse. Although we also know that if a person possessing the power of the titans can chose not to regenerate. However I don’t think Zeke is going to give up yet. This line could also be referencing all the Eldian’s Zeke as killed, since we were just told Zeke considers that mercy killing. But I’m almost certain Levi wouldn’t be considered an Eldian? 

A N Y W A Y S 

EVEN if Levi has lost a limb, I’m of course upset about that, much like I was about Erwin losing an arm, but that doesn’t make either of them any less strong, significant, or important!! I appreciate and love the disabled characters of SNK because they are living proof of how strength doesn’t come from one place, and how much a single person can change so much! We saw that very clearly in Erwin, and we see it in Hange too.  We have seen how much Levi has contributed through his physical strength and incredible resolve. Levi has always been able to do what needs to be done and honestly? I think it would make a lot of sense for his character to actually lose some of his physical ability. We got to see a bit of that in season two, after Levi broke his leg fighting the Female Titan. But we know he healed fine. 

A   L   S    O      considering all the focus Isayama is still giving to Levi’s promise to Erwin, I think Levi will get to do so. Whether it’s doing more damage to Zeke, or coming to his own acceptance or closure. Levi’s promise keeps Erwin alive. I feel that Levi will only rest when he feels he can accept he has fulfilled his own purpose to the very end. So long as Levi feels he has his closure, he can die. At this point my favorite characters of SNK are Reiner and Levi and while I love them and am upset over their turmoil, I think both of them should be allowed to finally rest. Like Levi let Erwin rest in choosing to save Armin. Levi knew life was hell for Erwin. While I miss Erwin so so much, and am going to hate watching him die again, goddamn does it feel better knowing he can finally rest. 

tl;dr: I have faith in Isayama’s story telling to do Levi proper justice if  or when he dies in SNK!!! 

Levi is not dead!! BUT When he is ready to go, I want him to get the rest he deserves. 

#snk 114 #snk spoilers #snk meta #levi ackerman #long post #snk #wow i took like over an hour to write this who am i #i'm just convincing myself but i also really think levi is okay #i have faith in yams!!! #if anyone actually read this thanks lmao

[sparda3g]

Attack on Titan Chapter 109 Review

There’s a reason why we have role models in our time. They can be inspiring and encouraging. They can help a person or people to gain a future. The only downside is it doesn’t always mean good. One can inspire them to do great things; however, it’s their decision to choose a path. This series has done stories about inspiration in the past; this time, we see the effect from the characters we followed since the beginning. This may be a chapter with more developments in story and conflicts, but it’s one that is necessary to understand the deep foundation of its long-term effect. Leader is a fitting title.

Gabi and Falco are brought to the girl’s orphan home. I believe it’s not the same home where we last saw Historia, but regardless, she doesn’t appear here at all. Instead, it’s a story of two Marley kids; one tries to fit in and the other can’t stand to live on a soil of the devil. This is quite the challenging chapter for those who can’t stand Gabi’s attitude, but it is necessary if the ending truly has its merits.

For the most part, she is still under influence of Paradis Island citizens as demons while Falco is more open to others. Once they got inside the girl’s home, he does the talking for both. If Gabi were to talk, it’s an early game over for them. Falco may not be strong, but he is wise to think carefully. He thought of a fake name for both and a fake backstory on the spot. The way he speaks appears like a bad actor. If so, I would love to see it animated.

The Braus Family welcomes them to the farm. As you can guess, they are nice people, helping others like they are family. It was all nice and charming with the mother patting Gabi’s head like a nice kid, until Gabi knocks her hand violently. It really got awkward at the dining table; almost like they are about to scream, “Evil!” Falco reacts quickly to ease the mood and eats his breakfast with glee. Seriously, I believe he’s pulling a bad acting skill. I really want to see it animated. So everything seems back to normal. For now.

We have a greedy lady, Kiyomi, and a strange fellow, Darius, having a chat. Basically, he greets her to the Paradis Island, the most dangerous island in the world. He actually said that, which is funny. She congratulate them for their victory at Marley. But the real important note is the invention of an aircraft run by iceburst stone. It’s designed for the flattening the world plan. The next battle is shaping up to be more devastating than I thought.

Speaking of devastating, there’s an uproar by the Headquarter. All the introduced characters from the Uprising Arc are presence here. This is like a tribute to the anime since it’s the current arc. While we’re at it, let’s also put Hange into the mix, because there’s nothing like a good old reunion. Sadly, it’s a reunion of trust slowly being tarnished.

Once again, I feel bad for her to appear disloyal to her people. With the anime recalling the moment, it’s actually sad to see this. That’s a good timing on Isayama’s part. Everyone feels like Hange has changed her way when they are told about Eren as captive and such. She can only tell them that her method is to save Eldians. It’s not the best answer but she is clearly stressed out. The one who leaked out the info is the new recruits. That includes Floch.

Usually, the new batch of characters tend to be the next runner-up to die. It could still be the case, but they are adding something else to the table, starting with Floch. He’s making it difficult for Hange since he’s more on the freedom fighter side that believes domination is the key. He wants to cause a protest to free Eren. This ensue a heated debate between him and Hange and it’s interesting.

It’s mainly because no one is really right, even if one path is already decided. One way or another, Paradis Island is in a tough position. Either die by starvation or die by fighting. I like how the one panel has them sitting in their chair silently, indicating either no one wins the debate or Floch has the lead because of the path they’re already in. He pleads once more to release Eren, which is his closing argument. Although Hange was again1st his idea, she thought he might be right. It was technically her fault to follow this plot, but she won’t let the damage go any further. Therefore, she sends them to solitary confinement.

This means she won the confrontation, right? She has, in a sense of disagreeing his proposal. However, Floch got the last laugh by not only be glad to go to jail, but doing so for the humans of the walls. That makes him look like the hero and at the same time, mocks her. The sad part is the reminder of a moment from Uprising Arc, where that guy in misery warned her that the role is played in turns. In other words, she’s playing the role now. She is slowly losing her cool, but she can’t let it go nor get some sleep. Damn, I missed her eccentric personality.

If you recall a new female recruit, she is Luise and yes, she is the one who Mikasa saved in the past. Good eyes, fans. Those two have a chat at the cell and this is where the chapter’s title becomes clear. Luise is a big fan of hers ever since that day. I can’t confirm if she loves her in a romantic sense, especially how she hoped she was in the same cell as hers, but regardless, she is obviously influenced. That all said there’s something not right.

While Luise is all about fighting to survive, her ways of handling it is questionable. She thinks if she breaks out the cell, she will be excused because she fights for honor. I know other manga excuse it like nothing, but let’s be real. It doesn’t matter because she still stand by her choice, no regret. It gets a bit personal when she mentions Mikasa’s reasoning to join Survey Corps and it annoys her. The sad part is it feels like Mikasa is responsible for Luise’s upbringing; for better or worse. It tops it off with Luise saluting; a familiar imagery from the past. That right there says it all about inspiration.

The one part that I’m still wondering the purpose is when Mikasa has a sudden flashback to when her life was changed forever. It strongly emphasized the brutality of the moment when Eren killed that invader, including the close-up shot of his expression covered in blood. It’s rather eerie with Eren casually saying not to worry in a disturbing view. I don’t know the meaning behind it or rather, what’s going to follow up this scene. It’d probably be addressed when she and Armin confront Eren.

The segment with Pixis and Yelena is more of segue to something interesting that is saved for next time. That said I did enjoy the build towards it with Yelena just chilling and Pixis jotting down all the evidences that interested him. It’s no secret that she would love to speak with the Great Eren. That is actually noteworthy because it plays a part in here.

Apparently, she was caught in an act where she requested to be placed under supervision and the one who was placed in that position was Floch. That already tells you everything. Because of him, he took her to a residential area that was pretty close to Eren’s residential area. That’s where they believe she and Eren made contact. That’s not hard to argue against. With Pixis got her attention, they’re going to have a long talk and it could be interesting. It could answer a lot; at least that’s what I’m hoping for.

I got to say, Isayama does have strange yet funny sense of humor, considering the dark nature. Case in point, the cleaning up the barn scene. Gabi and Falco are normally cleaning when suddenly the horse was channeling the fans and take a bite of her head. She then slips and falls hard; it must be fans’ pleasing moment. I laughed at that horse. Hell I think it’s laughing as well. Don’t forget the classic bucket on the head. I like how Falco keeps screaming her name for every blunder. It’s pretty funny really.

It’s also funny how they take her devil calling as a joke. She’s like, “This is the work of the devil!” Falco is like, “Uh no…It’s just the horse.” Thankfully, he’s thinking straight to keep it calm, making the best out of the situation. He convinces her to stay by noting that Marley and the world will eventually arrive to attack, though she thought he hated Zeke for the betrayal. The one worrisome to keep in mind is Falco did screw up for Marley by sending Eren’s letter. If she learns about it, God knows what will happen next.

We then have an unusual children drama segment involving with Gabi, of course, and the girl. Surprisingly, I was pretty intrigued. I must have missed it, but the girl’s name is Kaya. Anyway, it was all calming during the break, nice and easy, until Kaya mentions the tragic event four years ago. That was the trigger for Gabi. Because of the lessons that was shoved into Marley’s children’s mind, she acts like Paradis Island is filled with murderers that asked for sympathy. It is like, “Yeah, well, you did sin first, so why you’re acting like the victim.” The funny part is Kaya knew those two are from Marley and it took them a couple of words to realize what she just said. Isayama and his comedy.

What’s also hilarious is how this was an earth-shattering news to them, wondering how she knows, only the explanation boils down to, “Falco said it out loud.” Oops. So it was his fault. Who knew? Falco laughs it off but Gabi tries to attack with a pitchfork in front of others. This would have been the best time to expose them, but Kaya lies and say she only got upset due to their friendship. Amazing how Kaya comes off more mature out of this feud, though that’s not a surprise. The only question is why.

She takes them on a tour to a village where she used to live four years ago. She explains her grim experience with a titan, when she was with her mother with legs problem. If you haven’t guessed it by now, she’s in fact the same girl who Sasha saved back in anime season 2. The long-term payoff strikes again; bless this series. Also, good call once again, fans. The way she tells her story is disturbing, especially the part about her mother’s slow, painful death. I know we have seen it before, but it doesn’t make it any less scary. She then proceed to ask them a tough question that makes this segment necessary: what did her mom do to deserve it?

I believe, and hopefully I’m right, this moment is where Gabi put everything on the table and lash out from the bottom of her heart of her feelings. I said this because her attitude and mindset must change right here, right now. Instead of having her endlessly complain about the devil crap, she must put in her place and this is the time. Right from the very start, she already lost the argument when she mentioned something that happened a thousand years ago. So what?

Okay, it’s not the best choice of words, but the thing is a person should only look what’s now and later on. If there’s anything to recite a past, it’s your own, that’s it. Don’t let another’s journey carry you. Everything she spouts has nothing to do with Laya’s mother, let alone her. This is why Gabi’s mental state is so corrupted. The most effective part is when Laya begins to respond back and every time she does, Gabi slowly loses her stand. Her argument is nothing but a reach for the sake being the righteous one.

Laya has the same expression throughout the chapter until she loses it here because of Gabi’s unconvincing answer. Her stand is far more reasonable than Gabi because not only she lost her mother, but it happened not so long ago. She saw it herself and Gabi could only reference a history that who knows is even true. She’s clearly defeated; couldn’t even say anything more. Falco gives her the answer and it’s all because of the military. Simple as that. He apologizes because he has a heart. It’s not his fault but I can understand why.

After all that breakdown, Laya continues to cover them. That’s nice and mature of her, but why. It’s because of Sasha. It’s rather awkward that she mentioned about her in front of Gabi because well, you know. She explains the story of how she was saved and ultimately, changed her life. Gabi actually calmly ask why she’s helping them, which I think it’s a good sign for her character to calm down for once. Her reply hits the theme perfectly; she want to become a good person, like that girl. In other words, Sasha was her role model; her leader.

This seems to be a defining moment for them, so they can learn and grow up outside of Marley. It’s definitely challenging to withstand Gabi, but she’s a kid and manipulated to the core, so I won’t fault her that much. Now, if she remain very similar after this, I don’t know how much we have to endure. Still, if this is changing point, I’ll be glad that it happened here.

This was a pretty intriguing chapter. It continued to build up each aspects at Paradis Island, including the new weapon that I’ll bet it will happen when Marley attacks. The whole conflict within Survey Corps continued to be interesting, not knowing where this is going, including Eren. There were noteworthy tidbits such as Mikasa’s memory that could lead to interesting developments. The whole segment with Gabi and Falco can be rough for many, but if its payoff begins to surface in the next chapter, then it’s well worth the endurance. The theme was well addressed with how one generation can effect another, for better or worse. It’s why “Leader” is the chapter’s title. Life goes on.

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #chapter 109 #review #spoilers

[jewelleighanna]

Percent likelihood of characters dying in season 5 of The 100

Who I think is most likely to die on The 100 Season 5, from least likely to most likely. I try to base this on possible character arcs and patterns from past seasons, but ultimately, this is a game of guesses and odds. What’s your bet? Unlikely: .1% - Clarke .2% - Bellamy 2% - Raven 2% - Monty 8% - Murphy

Neutral: 15% - Jackson 20% - Kane 20% - Madi 30% - Emori 35% - Niylah 40% - Zeke 40% - Indra 45% - Miller 50% - Ethan 50% - Harper 50% - Gaia

At risk: 40% - Abby 45% - Octavia 60% - Echo 70% - Charmaine 95% - Kara Cooper 95% - McCreary 100% - Jaha Unlikely: These characters are unlikely to die. I can only see it happening if one the actors wants to leave or there’s a crazy twist at the end of the season. 

Neutral: If the writers need an impactful death (without going so far as a main character), it will be someone or more than one someone from this list. These are all guest stars whom the audience has grown attached to. The writers have no obligation to keep them (and actors have no obligation to stay), so there is always a higher risk for them dying. The only non guest star on this list is Kane (see my thoughts on him below).

Madi and Ethan      In the neutral category but not for the same reasons as the rest, so I wanted to talk about these two in particular. I think Ethan is in danger; Madi less so. Here’s why: over the seasons we have gotten multiple leaders who have had a preteen/young teen in their care or under their mentorship (Anya, Lexa, Luna, Clarke, Octavia). Aside from Anya, the younger person hasn’t technically been their “second” nor has the relationship been strictly parent/child (the younger person is always half a generation or an average of 10 years younger than the older one). In some of the cases, there is a strong level of care, but the thing that ALL of them have in common is that involves the older person teaching the younger one. The fate of the younger person is tied to older person’s leadership and fall. 

     Tris dying was the beginning of the end of Anya’s leadership. Aden (and the rest of nightbloods) dying represented the end of the commanders. Adria dying represented the end of Luna’s people and of Luna’s hope. I don’t know if this counts because the structure is different, but even Charlotte dying represented the end of “whatever the hell we want” leadership. I can see Ethan following this path, as his death could represent the end of Wonkru and/or be a wake-up call for Octavia, if it is her actions that cause his death.       Madi, of course, could follow the same path but less likely because Clarke is the hero of the story. Not to mean that this rewards Clarke, but because Clarke is likely to learns from her own and other’s mistakes, which saves Madi. Keeping Madi safe is Clarke main goal this season; if she fails at that, then her entire arc for the season fails (unless her story is meant to be a tragedy, which as of now, I don’t see that. Octavia is set up more on a tragic path, if anyone.) That said, as of the start of season 5, Clarke is definitely on a dangerous path, bringing Madi to open fire, kill at any cost. If Clarke won’t change, that can’t end well, but more likely, Clarke will learn, that’s her arc for the season, finding another way, which will ultimately be what protects Madi. 

Abby - (and Kane)       I can’t think of a reason that Abby should be at-risk. I wrote her down instinctively, but the fact that I have no data to back me up, I wonder if it’s my own fears + fandom rubbing off on me. I lowered her percent down; but I want to talk about her anyway. Perhaps she is instinctively “at risk” because of the Abby/Clarke/Madi relationships. If we expect Clarke to loose someone this season, it’s more likely to be Abby than Madi. Perhaps there’s an internalized trope as well -- the belief that for Clarke to truly be a mom, she has to loose her mom, which of course, is rubbish. If the writers followed tropes -- with the idea that character can’t be an adult until they looses their mentor (translate to Clarke loosing her mom), then Abby would have died in season 1. That aside, we do know that there’s going to be a theme of found vs biological family. If Clarke has to choose, she will choose her found family, Madi. Abby chose her found family Kane over Clarke in 5.04 (though Kane was the only one whose life was in danger. If it was the reverse, no doubt she would choose Clarke).      Anyway, Abby’s pill addiction is a concern. If she can’t give that up, it will lead to her end. Not by the pills themselves (at least I doubt it), but the addiction. Her addiction has already led to her making choices she wouldn’t otherwise do - stealing, which led to Kane nearly being killed. She can only be rescued so many times - she will have to be the one to choose to give it up. Symbolically choose life again, including the pain that goes with it.    If by some chance Abby dies, then it increases the chance of Kane dying. Their stories are so intertwined, it would be difficult to separate them in a satisfying way. They aren’t just romantically connected, but their arcs and goals each season have always been connected. Kane and Abby are the only characters whose odds of dying increase with the other one dying. Conversely, that means, one living means the other more likely to live. In Kane’s case, though it would be a poetic parallel reversal if he has to be the one to let her go after telling her that... without Abby, his interactions are limited. He doesn’t have connections with very many people. Indra. Bellamy. Clarke. He’s never going to be a delinquent, so he is limited there. I suppose he could “pull a Jaha” and go wander the desert with Murphy. Only half-joking. There’s a world to explore there, and he could use the break.      Kane dying and Abby living is less likely. Too much like Jake parallels and the same would be true afterwards. Abby would survive Kane dying because she had Clarke -- but Abby and Clarke’s stories are so separate at this point, it would hinder both characters for them to have to start worrying about one another to the realistic degree that outcome would bring. 

Octavia     Of main characters, Octavia is at risk, though I wouldn’t write her off at this point. The writers wrote a whole episode so we would understood where she was coming from, that she didn’t want this. The question is what she has done but who she will be going forward. It seems like Octavia will be antagonistic this season. If she is in direct opposition with our protagonists, that puts her in danger. With a tagline of #NoHeroes, a certain level of non-heroics is acceptable. Still, she is in a precarious place. If she gets to the point where all she is wiling to do is kill and destroy, that will be her end. Not only that, but she is danger of leading her people to their end as well. There’s a pattern of this in the show (Cage and Mt Weather only being willing to kill rather than look for alternatives being the most extreme example. Wonkru is the new Mt Weather and the question is have they lost their humanity? Doubtful that Wonkru will go extinct but can Octavia do what is needed to save them?).     In order for Octavia to live, she has to a) change/adapt and b) reflect/look back at her mistakes. Right now, she is unwilling to do either. She could have a negative arc which ends with her unwilling to change or she could have a tragic story, where she tries but too late and sacrifices herself to save everyone. Either of those could wrap up her character. On the other hand, she doesn’t have to die -- she could reach her breaking point, either willingly helping our heroes or alternatively being “defeated,” signaling the end Wonkru. In most cases the end of a society has meant death of the leader, but the writers could take a chance to explore the “after” of a leader.  Does she try to get her power back or accept her fate? She could also have a metaphorical death, where she is taken to Eligius III or something like that where she is given space to reflect and come back with new perspective (this alternative seems particularly likely if the actress has a multi-season contract and the writers still need her “death.” This also works with the Christ imagery on the posters, although we could also read actual death into that). 

Echo - If the writers want an impactful death without reaching into characters that have been here since season 1, it will be her. And... the writers are aware of how a character is perceived - I could write a whole meta on the patterns of previous main character deaths, but one aspect is this: killing Octavia runs the risk of loosing viewership, killing Echo does not. Purely on that, Echo is more at risk. Her situation as newly promoted to main character is precarious too (consider Roan). If the writers aren’t committed to a storyline already in place for the next season, they will kill her off (not as a slight to Tasya -- most likely if this is the case, they already knew it ahead of time... in which case she would be promoted specifically to have the character have more screen time). Also, Echo’s arc, as a character, could easily lead to her death. She’s struggling to feel like she is part of the family, which could lead to her making a big move or sacrifice. If we consider her past, there’s also opportunity for her to slip into old patterns... either leading to her death or leading to her making amends which leads to her death. Not to say her death is inevitable. She’s had scenes with multiple characters already, so there’s plenty of ways for that to expand next season.   Charmaine - Charmaine could go either way. In a typical story of good and evil, our heroes would have to defeat her (in a show like this, kill her). However, Octavia isn’t a “hero,” so it’s possible this season will be different and Octavia will fail. It’s also possible that McCreary will kill her and he will ultimately be the one our main characters have to death with. So whether Charmaine dies will depend on her actions and where they are taking the story next season. I’m leaning to towards yes, she will die because of the typical archetypes, but I would love to be wrong just to shake up the expected.

Kara Copper - I’m not sure exactly what her role will be but we know that she is loyal to Octavia. I could see Kara as being the character to demonstrate the brutality of Wonkru (and Skaikru). In her first episode, she tried to kill 1100 people in a more gruesome way than any other death on the show, and she unhesitantly killed all the people in her conclave, even her own people. If we talk about lines being crossed, she has crossed them already. I don’t think that’s why she will die... I think she will die because this path that they are on will have inevitable consequences. And she was created this season (unlike, say, Miller or Indra, who could die if this war is tragic enough, but they have had roles before this season, so could just as easily have roles after.). What would Kara’s after be? McCreary - McCreary has been described as the “most evil character since Cage” (not an exact quote). While the story is “no good guys, just survivors,” it still does follow the archetypes of protagonist/antagonist. And when characters cross certain lines, it always ends in death. I see McCreary being the Cage or Pike of the season - not well liked and also not relevant enough to see another season. Jaha - Enough said.

#the 100 #the 100 meta #Clarke Griffin #Octavia Blake #Kabby #meta

[ghostmartyr]

SnK 100 Thoughts

“He has the power to wipe out the entire human race, and if we believe there's even a 1% chance that he is our enemy, we have to take it as an absolute certainty. And we have to destroy him.”

Look, if you design a character who agrees with Batman in Batman v Superman, you just sorta have to accept that bad things are going to happen to him.

Though, since we are talking about it...

Now, I’m not making any giant leaps here.

All I’m saying is that technically all Eldians have the name of their mother in common.

Which means Eren’s going to die, Reiner’s Batman, and Wonder Woman is still waiting for her musical cue. Also, War Hammer is Doomsday.

#spoilers

Obviously I missed out on calling Falco Robin, which is even more tragic due to where his life story looks to be taking him, but then we have to get down to assigning a Joker, and I guess Gabi’s a pretty easy Batgirl, but I have a chance here to keep one of these posts short, and I can’t do that if fanfiction is being written in the margin.

Also, I think someone would yell at me if I suggested Zeke for Wonder Woman (heislookingbackatabattlefieldheisdepartingsotheblockingisthereevenifthemoralcenterisn’t) so let’s just stop.

Okay, so the brief summary of this chapter is ding-dong, the witch is dead, only there’s some disagreement over whether it was a good witch or a bad witch. A similar disagreement is ongoing regarding the perpetrator.

Truthfully, the one thing that can be said is that the good or bad witch’s slippers are unlikely to be taken by the good or bad witch who slayed him. They won’t fit, and the good or bad witch murderer already has the most powerful magic in the land.

The briefer summary is that Willy Tybur continues to be terrible, only in such a way that it’s confused for nobility, and I am so very tired of Marley.

He’s willing to die for his belief that his people are irredeemable monsters that should be eradicated--but he’d still rather they not be, because life gives him the warm fuzzies, and maybe the people whose abuse his family’s been profiting off deserve warm fuzzies too.

The idea of a nobleman looking at the life of luxury he has at the cost of his own people, and choosing to make steps to change the world for the better, is not a bad one. Doing that despite a wholehearted belief in their inherent evil is actually very interesting. It’s one more bit of cognitive dissonance that allows Willy to feel guilt over what has been done to his people, even though he thinks the world would be better off without them, and doesn’t mind killing large numbers of them.

At his core, all he is is a man who wants to live in the world he’s been born into, and he’s willing to sacrifice that life for a better world.

Here’s the problem.

His version of a better world is blaming Paradis for everything so that everyone can run off holding hands to murder them all.

He’s willing to die to make that vision a reality.

He’s never met anyone on Paradis. He’s never tried to talk to anyone from Paradis. He’s used diplomacy with nations in the rest of the outside world to ease the horrific damage Marley being Marley has caused itself, but not once with Paradis.

When it comes to the island, murder is always the only solution.

Willy Tybur is the one Eldian with a position in the world that can make a real difference. He can get ambassadors to change their minds. Despite never taking advantage of it, he does have control over Marley. Under his direction, Marley might have avoided the mass series of war crimes that the rest of the world hates them for.

(not that we have any idea why that is)

He doesn’t go that route.

He determines that the best path to world peace is uniting the world to kill his ancestors’ scapegoat.

Martyrdom is not a thing you do because you’re too lazy to put effort into actual change.

It’s easy to look at what Eldians are capable of from birth and call them monsters. It’s easy to say that, obviously, they never should have existed. Even if you have that same blood, and want to be alive, it’s very, very easy to reach that conclusion.

What’s difficult is carving your place into a world that is predisposed to hate you. It takes time, and concentrated effort. It takes giving a damn about treating people decently.

Willy has the means to forge a peaceful, humane coexistence between Eldians and the rest of the world. Or at least the means to make that attempt.

He chooses to forge his peace in the blood of other Eldians. The fact that he’s willing to die for that outcome doesn’t magically turn it into a noble gesture. He’s strong enough to make a decision that will cost countless lives in a war based on nothing but fear and prejudice. And that would be after knowingly sacrificing people he thinks of as less worthy to a terrorist attack.

Ding-dong.

Speaking of, Eren’s response to Willy’s declaration isn’t exactly on the moral highground you’d appreciate from your protagonist, so that’s nice. His lunge is as horizontal as possible, but it would take authorial intervention to keep him from killing civilians when he goes after Willy.

The only way this doesn’t seem like a very bad idea is if Eren agrees with Willy’s decision.

...I want more of a warmup before looking at that too closely.

Elsewhere, Titans in pits.

Or not.

Zeke’s still the only one walking around free. Galliard and Pieck are out of whatever fight’s coming next.

None of that appears to be expected on the Marley side. It looks like they wanted their Warriors gathered when everyone went horribly wrong. Possibly to keep the level of wrongness to a minimum. How thoughtful.

It seems pretty fair to guess that Galliard and Pieck are the work of Eren’s friends, but Zeke and his fancy glasses that hide his eyeballs are a little harder to pin down. We get one shot of him, walking alone.

I’m willing to leave that for another month though, so to the other pit!

Falco being the Eren to Eren’s Reiner is painful. Here he had this thoughtful adult encouraging him all the way into committing treason. He was just being a good person, and Eren takes advantage of that.

And right after all of that hits, he gets to watch Mr. Braun self-destructing, and hears about dead friends and mothers.

Falco’s a good kid. Assuming that Reiner gets him out of this alive, he isn’t only going to take death and betrayals from this. He understands the toll of being a Warrior, and understands enough to hate that people are okay with Gabi selling her life to the role.

Eren looks right at him and says that the people inside the walls are the same as the people outside. I don’t know how well the doubt will stick, but if nothing else, I think there’s a good chance that Reiner won’t be able to keep up the lies about Paradis demons--to Falco, anyway.

Falco’s in this spot because he cares about people no one else sees. I don’t know how much of his path can be changed, given the decisions made this chapter, but I hope that the idea that everyone involved in this war is a person sticks with him.

Even though that will be infinitely more painful than just being a participant fighting off demons.

Oki doki, so.

Eren.

Eren has gone on a very educational journey of learning that people are people. Willy even helps him along by directly quoting something Eren says way back in Trost.

“Because... I was born into this world.”

They’ve all been born into this world, and they all want to live in it, freely.

Time to go attack that island!

Eren spends most of his time in the pit prying everything that went through Reiner’s head out of him. Not for the sake of condemning it. Just to hear the honest words of a man like him, who caused incredible pain in the name of saving the world.

Their whole talk is about their similar intentions and circumstances, and being understood. And finding forgiveness on a road that doesn’t deserve any.

“This whole time... it was painful for you, wasn’t it?”

“I think now... I understand that [...]

I was right. I’m... the same as you.”

So

Yeah, Eren brings down the house.

The final page is his hands extended in Titan form the same way Willy’s are when he makes his declaration.

Reciprocity. Yay.

There are a few concerning things here.

The murder’s pretty low on the list.

These would be the panels that earn Eren the kind of looks Reiner is the recipient of when he’s going through his identity trouble.

Eren, last seen back home speaking as his father and Eren Kruger, has supernaturally granted identity troubles, and not recalling death threats to the point of asking Reiner to ignore that they happened is... weird. Whether or not it means anything, who knows, but Eren’s general stability seems to be mimicking the style of someone who has recently done pot up to his magic handshake. There’s so much personal history involved that it makes sense that Eren’s the one mostly behind the wheel, but... yeah, I’ll stick with weird.

Adding to that is what he says during the magic handshake.

(the magic comes from friendship)

“I just keep moving forward. Until my enemies are destroyed.”

Once upon a time, Kruger explains to Grisha what the Attack Titan is all about.

“No matter the age, this Titan has always moved ahead, seeking freedom. It has fought on for freedom.”

Eren has altered the deal. Pray he doesn’t alter it any further.

No, but I’m not big on speculation. I like waiting to see what the next month brings instead. But I keep waiting for more on the individual Titans having sentience, and it’s hard not to wonder a little if Mr. Attack and Eren are experiencing some unnatural bleed-through.

I don’t know, some things just feel very odd.

Anyway, outside the tempting cracklands of detours, there’s a really uncomfortable prospect presented in this chapter that I would prefer being wrong about, but at the same time, hey, Eren’s causing destruction and murdering people, so clearly happy funtimes are over.

Eren smiles when Willy says he wants his audience to fight with him against Paradis. It is not full of happiness, exactly, but it is not the look you would expect from hearing that kind of statement. Some mix of acceptance and sadness, maybe?

There are a lot of people on Paradis who, if asked, would know the exact best moment to kill Willy that would encourage his message most efficiently.

Eren waits until Willy is done with his speech to kill him.

Willy’s just asked everyone he knows for helps against the island devils, and... Eren gives them one. Whatever destruction does or doesn’t follow, Willy’s message is heard in its entirety, and he’s killed by the enemy he asks for unity in facing.

If you want to limit his support, this is, by far, the worst way to do it.

So even though I can’t imagine why anyone would reach this conclusion, I have to wonder if Paradis agreed with Willy. If they agreed that a unified world could only come about through a common enemy and a martyr.

Thematically, I have all kinds of disagreements with that, but Eren couldn’t have fulfilled Willy’s plan any better if he’d been in the room listening to its design. At the end of a grand speech, a monster rushes out and kills the only one in the world brave enough to call all people to arms against this great threat.

It’s beautiful, and... very on the nose.

You could not pick a better time to attack.

...For Willy’s purposes.

Even if this wipes out a bunch of Marley military personnel, care has been taken to keep all of the Titans out of the way. The main force is secure and breathing. This is not an attack that will devastate; it will invigorate.

And I can’t shake the thought that someone on the Paradis side thought that that was the only hope the rest of the world’s Eldians had. And having said that... it’s hard not to wonder if that someone is Eren.

Staged martyrdom only works this smoothly if both sides have the script.

Or maybe Carla just raised Eren to believe that it’s rude to interrupt people.

I really don’t know how to feel about most of what happens here. This is another chapter that I’d like to think would be benefited by future ones.

Right now there’s just this ominous dread that makes it difficult to appreciate that I don’t have to read Willy talk anymore.

Nothing next month can’t fix, I’m sure.

#Shingeki no Kyojin #SnK 100 #shingeki no spoilers #SnK spoilers #spoilers #tl;dr #chapter post

[metamelonisle]

mags and landy au stuff

I mean it’s *technically* a headcanon but i’m the maker of this au so is it really a headcanon if i’m making my own (canon, that is)

anyways

(sorry for inconsistent capitalization)

In general

Although you guys are free to interpret this through whatever lens you wish, i initially envisioned this with gijinkas, rather than the regular designs. this is primarily because i feel like humanoid designs can better express emotion through both facial expression and body language, although I admit I lack the experience to properly convey that in my art.

The event in which the Crown permanently latched itself to Landia is referred to as “The Coronation”.

Magolor’s biological parents

magolor’s biological parents deliberately abandoned him on halcandra with the intent of forcing him to fend for himself to be a powerful warrior. they view him as the key to achieving their goal, kinda like grisha and zeke from aot. unlike grisha, mags’ parents will never truly regret their actions (in their current state) . They’re fucked like that.

 Magolor doesn’t even know who they are, and only theorizes they even exist because he’s a different species than landia is and thus had to have different biological parents.

perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the parents is Hyness. It is unknown who the other one is, but I will confirm that it is NOT Zan Partizanne, or any of the Three Mage-Sisters.

After HiAD, Hyness wants to reconcile with Magolor, but instead nearly got his face fried off. Mags wants absolutely nothing to do with Hyness because of both KSA and also the fact that Hyness supposedly COULD HAVE INTERVENED AT ANY TIME, AND COULD HAVE SAVED BOTH HIM AND LANDIA, BUT DIDN’T. (Granted, Hyness was insane at the time, and is genuinely torn up at how he treated his own son like a tool, but Magolor doesn’t even want to hear ANYTHING from or about him.)

In Magolor’s opinion, landia is the only family he has. 

The Crown

the master crown is sentient. its consciousness is stored in the gemstone, and when it was cracked by kirby during the MS fight, it effectively “killed” the crown’s personality, but its power did not fade.

The master crown’s personality is cruel, vicious, misanthropic, sadistic, and worst of all: intelligent. 

The master crown is a wishing crown, much like the Crown from AT (my inspiration in this au) and the Clockwork Stars. However, due to the crown’s personality, it deliberately acts like a monkey’s paw. In order to use the crown, you must make a wish. The Crown will grant that wish, but only in a way that will benefit the crown’s desire to cause destruction and/or suffering. (i.e. wishing for reforestation causes the trees to become the new invasive peak organism similar to humans and fuck up the world. wishing for world peace will allow the crown to subjugate the entire universe, as all are equal and “friends” beneath the crown. wishing for ultimate power just lets the crown body-jack you. didn’t specify that you wanted to use it, just have it.) Even if you wish in a way that doesn’t allow direct destruction, the Crown will find a way. It always does.

Landia’s wish was to “give me the power to protect magolor.”

The crown interpreted this as giving landia the willpower to resist being body-jacked, as well as giving them full access to the crown’s power, although it came at the cost of Landia’s sanity and memories, which still hurt Magolor because his own parent can’t remember his name. Additionally, the other side-effect of the Coronation was that Landia would become physically dependent on the crown to live.

When the Master Crown was killed, it became permanently stuck on “give me the power to protect Magolor” and the crown cannot directly interfere with minds anymore. Although Landia is now immortal, and the crown can’t “hurt” them, Landia is still heavily scarred and still basically heavily mentally damaged and can barely remember their own name.

The Crown can use any number of different tactics to make you dependent on it. for some, it’s just the power, for others, it’s making you feel good/safe when you’re wearing it, and giving you severe chills/anxiety when you take it off. For Landia, a creature of indomitable will and a heart bigger than the vast oceans of Popstar, it did the scummiest thing in the world. It replaced their heart. Without the crown, Landia’s heartbeat will begin to slow, and then slow, and then slow, and if they’re not reunited with the crown, it’ll stop for good. And no amount of magic will bring them back.

The Crown only wore magolor once, and was unable to develop a dependency tactic for him before being killed.

Landia

As you may know, Landia is (even in canon) referred to as if they are one character, but is very clearly a set of four dragons that all share the same name in canon. For ease of storytelling, I decided to omit this, as I do not feel that I have enough familiarity with writing plural systems to avoid depicting it in a disrespectful manner.

The reason I had Landia go by they/them despite TKCD confirming they are male is because i headcanoned landia as being nonbinary long before tkcd anyways and i kinda just wanted to use they/them ok

They used to have a cute laugh, but the crown has since corrupted it into an unhinged cackle.

Prior to becoming a professional archaeologist and historian, Landia was a talented fighter, showing a particular proficiency with the blade and the hammer.

One thing that has never changed in all their years of raising Mags is that they always assumed really weird sleeping positions

Landia has never left Halcandra, although pre-Coronation they always wanted to travel the stars.

#paint.txt #Mags and Landy AU #constructive critism welcome

[goodguyjean]

What's up! Both Armin and Jean are my favorite characters, they were since I first got into the manga and I loved each of their character developments and overall growth. I loved seeing Armin and Jean's friendship grow through out the story, and considering the "separation" between the main trio, which I think will be due to a difference in ideals. Being Armin and Jean think alike and work well together, do you think Jean will side with Armin and get his back during the trio split? Thanks!

Hi there! Sorry, it’s been kind of a busy weekend for me and mysemester is just starting up so I’m a bit behind on my inbox ^^’ Thanks foryour patience! 

I’ve thought about this question quite a bit, and I think itwill come down to what exactly is going to be the basis of the “separation” of the members of theShiganshina Trio. Personally, I think it’s going to come down to how much each member of the trio is willing to sacrifice in order to achieve their goal–and, according to the newest guidebook, they’re starting to realize just how much their goals currently differ. As Isayama discusses in a recent interview in said guidebook, Armin wanted to see the sea for its own sake, because it was a wonder of nature, but Eren wanted to see it as an act of defiance, because he felt indignation that he was held back from seeing it by the Walls and the titans. Mikasa’s goal has always been protecting her family, but that goal has started shift as she’s dedicated herself to the Survey Corps and given herself to the military discipline that comes with being part of such a group. Eren’s view of the world is actually quite uncompromising, and realizing that he can’t have the absolute freedom he once dreamed of has led him to despair. In the face of such insurmountable odds and the revelation that the Walldians’ enemies have been other humans all along–technically other Eldians, who have been enslaved and forced to act as living weapons because of their unique ability to transform into titans–Eren clings to his comrades and refuses to sacrifice them for a cause so hopeless (to Eren’s mind post-Uprising/Shiganshina) as defeating Marley, and thus it is actually Eren who is now most closely aligned with Jean ideologically. I am not sure if Jean will be forced to “side” with any particular member of the trio, but I imagine that if it comes to that he will feel torn between his close friendship with Armin and his ideals. 

And, quite frankly, I would like Jean to stick to his ideals if they ever come into conflict with his feelings for Armin, as much as it pains my inner-Jearmin shipper to say this. Armin and Jean have always disagreed about the ends justifying the means, and I can actually envision an ending where Armin and Mikasa end up on one side of this debate and Eren and Jean end up on the other. Which, considering how ideologically opposed Eren and Jean are at the beginning of the series, would be kind of poetic. However, I can equally see Jean prioritizing his connection with Armin in spite of any ideological divide between the two of them–and there is, based the events surrounding Reiner’s capture in chapter 83, the potential that Jean is shifting into a more tactical mindset such as Armin has.

I’m sorry, this probably wasn’t the answer you (or any of my fellow Jearmin fans) were looking for, but if you want a full explanation for my thinking I’ve typed it all out under the cut. :( As always, feel free to discuss, raise counterpoints, and offer alternative readings!

When we last saw ourWalldian heroes, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were already starting to disconnect on the question of sacrifice. Armin was able to sacrifice himselfand his personal dream of seeing the ocean in order to defeat Bertolt, andMikasa was eventually able to accept Armin’s sacrifice when Hange and Levidiscussed reviving Erwin instead, but Eren absolutely could not let Armin go.Ultimately, the decision to save Armin instead of Erwin fell entirely toLevi, but we see a lack of alignment in ideology between the three friendshappening on that rooftop that haunts their confrontation with Floch in chapter 90.

Floch praising Mikasa for having let Armin go, chapter 90.

Additionally, Eren has theorized that he can activate the Coordinate that currently lies dormant within him if he touches someone of royal blood while they are a titan (the published edition says “consumes,” but Isayama has apparently corrected this mistake, which also exists in the Japanese version of the chapter). Just as he was unable to give up on Armin while he lay dying on the rooftop, Eren resolves that he simply cannot sacrifice Historia, even if doing so would give him the Coordinate’s full powers.

Chapter 89. Eren tries to tell himself he’s not 100% sure that titanizing Historia would actually allow him to use the Coordinate anyway. Armin looks at him suspiciously. Eren decides to keep his new theory a secret from everyone, including Armin.

Chapter 90. “But I’m not prepared to sacrifice Historia.”

Now it’s not clear to me that Armin and Mikasa necessarilywould be willing to sacrifice Historia, only that Eren must suspect them of being able to do so, or else he wouldn’t keep his theory such a secret. He feels he cannot tell anyone without risking Historia’s life. What is very interesting to me is that Eren is specifically suspicious of what the Corps will do to Historia, and that his decision not to reveal his idea to Armin and Mikasa means that he sees them as completely aligned with their chosen military branch. They proved their loyalty through their sacrifice: Eren, who was unable to give up Armin for Erwin, suddenly feels distanced from the very group he spent the first half of the series lionizing as the paragons of freedom. Whether or not Mikasa and Armin would actually be willing to go to such extremes to win the war against Marley, Eren has seen them sacrifice so much and feels disconnected with them on this specific issue, creating a frisson which, quite frankly, we can already feel.

Which brings us to Jean, Attack on Titan’s harshest critic of sacrificing others for a cause and compromising on one’s moral convictions, and the person who has been the most vocal about his doubts concerning the Survey Corps’ methodology over the course of the series. Ifdisagreement over the value of sacrifice is to be the primary source of tension amongthe Shiganshina Trio, I am not entirely sure that Jean will “side” with Armin, at least ideologically–it will depend on which way his arc of development is leaning. Jean’s guidebook entry speculates that he is still struggling with killing other people, even enemy combatants such as a Reiner. Of course, Reiner is a particularly complicated case because he was once Jean’s comrade, but Jean has always had the hardest time harming other people, and I never thought his qualms were “settled” by killing someone in the Reiss Family Chapel in order to rescue Eren. 

Jean kills someone for the first time, chapter 64. 

Jean is incredibly upset when he thinks he’s killed Reiner, chapter 77.

Jean stops Hange from killing Reiner, chapter 83. 

This last scene with Reiner presents some problems of interpretation for me, because even though Jean saves Reiner’s life, it’s framed as a temporary reprieve. He asks Hange to wait so that the Survey Corps can administer the Titan Serum to someone and have them eat Reiner in order to gain his shifter abilities. It is Hange who hesitates, Hange who would rather kill Reiner than force another person to take on the burden of being a titan (and at this point, the Survey Corps don’t even know about the Curse of Ymir!), although Hange is also weighing the pros and cons of just removing Reiner from the field completely by killing him. When Hange expresses doubt that the conditions for using the Titan Serum have not been met, Jean suggests that the Walled World is losing because they’re not willing to play by their enemies’ rules.

Chapter 83.

Here, as I’ve suggested in previous metas, Jean seems to be moving closer to Armin’s way of thinking, at least on the surface. Armin is not ruthless, but he has suggested that in order to “win” the war with the titans, some people are going to have to dirty their hands. In this moment, Jean makes a very Armin-like suggestion, and even chides Hange for not being willing to take a risk to acquire another shifter–a huge asset for the now decimated Survey Corps.

Chapter 83.

Of course, which way Jean is leaning ideologically depends on what exactly his motivations were for stepping in and preventing Hange from killing Reiner. Is he primarily motivated by a desire to gain another shifter, or is he grasping at straws because he’s not ready to see Reiner die? I think it could be a bit of both, and not much clarity is offered as the scene progresses.

Chapter 83. 

Is Jean questioning why he would argue for Reiner’s strategic value, or questioning why he would step in to help Reiner? Personally, I’m currently leaning a little bit towards the latter reading of these panels, because of the way Jean berates himself after Reiner is rescued by Zeke. He clearly blames himself for preventing Hange from killing Reiner, even if he did have a rationale.

Chapter 84.

Evidently, the value of sacrifice is still an open question for Jean, even though he certainly admires Armin’s resolve and understands that Armin has made sacrifices primarily for the good of the group. This scene in Shiganshina echoes Jean’s guilt over forcing Armin’s hand when he himself is unable to kill an MP, even at the potential cost of his own life.  He feels like he has failed his friends and failed the team in his commitment to a very rigid system of ethics. However, while Levi agrees that Jean’s hesitation put the whole squad at risk, he doesn’t pronounce that Jean’s values are therefore incorrect, leaving Jean room to continue questioning what he should do in any given situation.

Chapter 59. 

Given events in recent chapters, Jean has clearly not put his doubts to rest, and Levi implies that there may even be value in allowing them to continue existing even if that ultimately puts Jean at odds with the Survey Corps and even society writ large. To echo Armin’s words to Annie before the Battle of Stohess, Jean’s inability to sacrifice people and fully incorporate into the Survey Corps may make him a “bad soldier” for the Corps, but a “good person” in other situations. Jean can choose with whom he wants to ally himself; for the remainder of the Uprising it is with the Survey Corps, but he could change his position. And if Eren is also beginning to doubt, to resist sacrificing everything in order to fully commit to the cause, I can see a situation where Jean and Eren are ultimately allies. 

None of this is to say, of course, that Armin doesn’t struggle with these questions himself, or that Jean doesn’t potentially have Armin’s back irregardless of their differing view points. Jean clearly loves Armin (however you want to interpret that love: platonic, romantic, whatever) and feels incredibly guilty when Armin stains his hands with the blood Jean could not bring himself to draw, even at risk to his own life.

Chapter 59. 

Jean does not turn away from Armin or judge him at this moment; he primarily feels guilt (although, Jean was under attack, so I hesitate that the fault entirely lies with him) that he has caused Armin this intense emotional pain. Also Armin wrestles with the reality of having killed someone, someone who was herself a human, who also hesitated to shoot her enemy. Eren may, in fact, be overestimating Armin’s ability to sacrifice, and Armin and Jean may actually never fall out, particularly if Jean is sliding into a more nuanced vision of the world which can accommodate some sacrifice even if it rejects total commitment to a cause.

Ultimately, I think, Jean, Armin, Eren, and Mikasa are all going to be faced with the question of how far they’re willing to go in the service of the Survey Corps and in the service of the Walldians more generally. How they respond to this pressure will likely determine their future alliances, but I will say that I do not think they are set in stone. Although Eren and Jean disagree a lot at the beginning of the story, they come to meet in the middle, with Jean seeing some value in fighting for a cause while Eren has tried to be more responsible to his comrades and to think before he acts. They both struggle with compromising their ethics, and I think there’s a way in which they may ultimately be the most closely aligned of the remaining characters in the upcoming arc. Although I think both of them care for Armin a great deal, one can see the potential cracks in their friendship. What Isayama will actually decide to do, however … I can’t really say. 

Thanks for the note, anon. Sorry it kinda turned into me chewing over this issue; I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking on this matter, and I can’t come to any easy answers about what is going to happen; all I can say is that I don’t think Eren and Armin growing apart automatically means Jean will step up to fill Eren’s place at Armin’s side. It all depends on what exactly is at stake in their disagreement. 

#PLEASE BE GENTLE WITH ME I'm a little fragile ^^' #but i also think my reading has merit #im open to discussion!!! #and I still love jearmin very very very much #I have a jearmin shrine in my apartment #I got really drunk with my cohort on saturday and told them about my jearmin fanfic writing #so far they've been very positive ^^' #snk #jean kirstein #armin arlert #eren yeager #snk meta #replies #anonymous

[lawful-evil-novelist]

So a Few Rogue Kids and Their Family/Home Life

Since @freckledandspectacled asked and I figured I might as well, I’m gonna do a short explanation of...basically what home life is like for some of the Rogue kids.  This is essentially a summary of how a few the rogues do parenting in this verse so, as a disclaimer: the operative words are “this verse”.  I’m glad you think some rogues would be better parents than I do, but that, very frankly, is not something you need to harp on me about.

As a further note, certain homes will not be listed because there’s not much for me to say, but keep in mind there are some trigger warnings to keep in mind because these are children of Gotham Rogues.

Tobias Bloom

Tobi is adopted, Mr. Bloom wanted a child but figured it would be a lot better to adopt than to have his own.  When he was giving that thought, he actually asked to see children with a lower chance of being adopted.  Tobi was small, at the time sickly, already three, and a metahuman, foster care did not think it was likely that Tobi would be adopted anytime soon and he’d eventually just age out of the system.  Mr. Bloom took one look at Tobi and immediately knew he wanted to take care of him.

Bloom is a decent father. By the time he adopted Tobi he’d quit any overt criminal activity, but works as a partner for LexCorp, meaning he’s frequently busy.  To top things off he’s rather scatter-brained and will often forget small things. Tobi, as a result, tends to be the one who remembers important things, and their apartment is covered in sticky notes so if Bloom remembers something, he can write it down on a sticky note and put it on the fridge.  Their house is relatively clean and organized because if it isn’t, Bloom can’t find anything. It also has a lot of houseplants, Tobi likes his houseplants.

Dorothy and Pluto Crane

Dorothy and Pluto are generally occupying two worlds.  Being Diana’s children, they are technically royalty of Themiscyra and Diana is still part of the Justice League.  Dorothy is the same age as Damien Wayne and Pluto is between Damien and Jon Kent in age. They’ve grown up with those two about the same amount that they’ve grown up with Rogue kids.

As for Jon and Diana, they’re...good parents.  Jon is still a human trainwreck but he’s a lot better at making sure his kids get food and are taken care of than making sure he’s fed and healthy.  He also tends to forget to watch his language around the kids when they’re younger.  Diana is significantly better at balancing self-care and childcare, but still has some minor trouble with raising children because there weren’t any other children on Themiscyra.  The entire family spends at least a month every summer in Themiscyra, if not longer, and while there Jon and Diana get help from the rest of the Amazons.

Dorothy is painfully aware of the kind of space she occupies between hero’s daughter and rogue kid. She has been told by Damien that she is not one of the rogue kids, and while the rogue kids don’t feel the same way, there is a lingering insecurity in her that she doesn’t belong.

Pluto doesn’t feel this alienation, but instead feels alienated by the other Amazons.  Save for his father he is the only man considered part of Amazon society, and even then, Jon is still considered an outsider, Pluto is supposed to be at least half Amazon, but he doesn’t feel like he belongs, he feels like an outsider, and doesn’t like that feeling.

Ezekiel Dent

Here is where we get into very uncomfortable territory.  I do not know who Zeke’s mom is, but she is no longer in the picture.  Harvey is raising Zeke alone, which understandably has some problems.  Not that Harvey himself is an awful parent, he can be rather harsh with Zeke sometimes because he’s scared Zeke will turn out like him, but he does genuinely care about Zeke.

The problem is Harvey’s alter, who I’ll call Harv to distinguish.  Harv, needless to say, is fucking awful and should not be allowed near a child.  Harvey can’t control when Harv surfaces, so Zeke is constantly walking on eggshells around his dad, hoping he doesn’t switch while he’s still in the house/room/general area.  Harv beats Zeke regularly for minor slip ups, accidents, or just because.  Zeke regularly skips meals out of stress and is extremely thin and nervous as a result.  Harvey blames himself for Zeke’s poor mental and physical health, and is horrified if he sees bruises on Zeke after he dissociates (which can sometimes make him dissociate again it depends).  He doesn’t want to part with Zeke because he doesn’t want to lose the only family he has left, but at the same time regularly considers giving him up to either foster care or asking Bruce to take him just so his son isn’t in danger.

Evangeline Fries

Eva lives with Nora and her second husband, not Victor, but Victor is aware of her existence and has visitation rights.  He’s allowed to see her even if he doesn’t have custody.  Nora loves her daughter with all her heart but her second husband is a little wary of her, both because of her powers and because he knows she’s Victor’s daughter.  Given the chance he probably would kick Eva out but Nora would never allow it and he’d have to contend with Victor if she would.

Eva is aware of her stepfather’s wariness and dislike, but makes the most of her life with Nora. Nora herself is a great mom because come on it’s Nora, and Victor is...loving but distant.  He basically only sees her every once in a while.  It’s his choice but y’know, still.

Hunter and Ayah Jones

Hunter and Ayah were raised by their father, Waylon, their mother died soon after Ayah was born. Hunter and Ayah also have the same condition as Waylon, but to a lesser degree.  They have the reptilian eyes, the sharp teeth, but instead of full-body scales, Hunter and Ayah have slight scale growths on their bodies that didn’t show up until puberty.  Waylon feels extremely guilty about this and is very protective of his kids, perhaps a little overprotective.

Ayah and Hunter live in an apartment that Waylon pays rent for so they don’t have to live in the sewers, but he is still living in the sewers.  He takes care of them, but doesn’t feel like he deserves to live with them.

Aisling, Maxwell, and Niall Machin

So this is more uncomfortable town because Lonnie literally got Aisling, Max, and Niall removed from his custody.  Because he’s a shit parent and treated two of them like garbage.

Now Aisling, Max, and Niall all have different mothers, but all three were left with Lonnie as toddlers. Lonnie was kind of blasé about Aisling, he borderline neglected her and she ended up growing up way faster than she should have, something that became even worse when Max came into the picture.

Lonnie does not like Max. Right now. I’m not sure why but Lonnie hates Max and was determined to make him absolutely miserable.  Max had an extremely small room (think the broom cupboard from Harry Potter small, in fact he probably lived in a broom cupboard) that locked from the outside.  Max could not lock himself in his room for privacy, but Lonnie could lock Max in for however long he wanted and enter whenever he wanted.  Essentially Max was confined to a small space and had no privacy. To make things worse, Lonnie beat him if he disobeyed or did anything Lonnie deemed “disobedient”.  Max skipping meals out of stress was disobedient, for instance, which probably wasn’t helped by Max refusing to obey ridiculous demands and snapping at Lonnie.

And then there was Niall. Basically, Lonnie’s precious baby who can do no wrong.  He spoiled Niall rotten, never punished him for doing anything wrong, never told him no, but Niall wasn’t grateful.  He wasn’t ungrateful because he was a brat; he was ungrateful because he saw the huge disparity between Lonnie doting on him, neglecting Aisling, and abusing Max, and he knew it was wrong.  Niall was the one to tell the police what was happening and get the three of them away from Lonnie.  Max and Aisling have no idea that it was Niall that took them from Lonnie, Niall never told them, and he doesn’t plan to.  He doesn’t want either of them to know that he remembers vividly how Lonnie treated Max and Aisling.

Now they live with Abigail Curtis, her twin brother Jasper, and Jasper’s boyfriend Basir.  Aisling tends to still act as a mother to her younger brothers, and she and Niall are happy to see Max happier in the Curtis household.  I’m not sure how Lonnie responded to losing his kids, but considering he didn’t really care about Aisling or Max, he probably is only upset about losing Niall. Abigail, Jasper, and Basir do a much better job raising the Machin siblings.

Andrea Monroe

So Andrea’s home life is relatively happy and she and her mother are on very good terms, but there’s something that I want to bring up that is important: Andrea’s hair.

Andrea’s hair is not naturally blonde like, say, Sarah or Barbara’s.  Andrea’s hair is naturally brown like her mother’s.  Andrea dyed her hair blonde because she noticed that every time someone told her she looked like her mother, her mother would look upset, because Paige does not find herself beautiful but does think her daughter is beautiful.  So, Andrea dyed her hair blonde so people would stop telling her she looked like her mom. This is a running part of Andrea’s personality.  Because her mother is often melancholy or morose, Andrea forced a sunny disposition because she felt that if she was happy, her mother would be happy.

Barbara and Todd Quinzel

To make a very complex issue simple, Todd nearly died when he was born.  The birth went fine and everything but Todd was barely breathing when he was born and extremely frail.  He was rushed to NICU and one doctor, a poor soul who was nearly killed, had to go over to Joker and tell him his son might die and that he was weak.  Todd survived, but Joker was internally reliving losing Jeannie and his unborn child and nearly had a nervous breakdown.  He also nearly killed a man so, you know. Nevertheless, Joker, from that point on, was extremely protective of Todd.  He lets the reigns up slightly but will regularly get very upset if Todd does anything dangerous.  It doesn’t help that doctors attributed Todd’s albinism, asthma, and hypotonia to possibly being Joker’s fault (the theory goes that the chemical bath Joker underwent damaged his biology so it was very likely that the conditions Todd suffers from are a result).

Barbara is the princess of the family at times.  She’s pretty, can easily match her parent’s energy, and clever.  Not that Todd isn’t any of those things, but Barbara is louder so it’s a little more noticeable to other people.

Harley can tend towards being a bit distant with Todd and Barbara.  When she is around she takes care of them and loves them but if Joker and Harley have a fight, Harley will leave for a few days and either come back because she’s over the fight or because Joker ended up in Arkham and the kids need a parent.

Leon Sanchez

So considering Leo is the way he is I think it’s a given he does not have a great home life.  Bane’s still an active villain and for a good portion of Leo’s early childhood, he was being looked after by either Zsasz, which is the #1 worst choice for a godfather ever made GG Bane, or Bane’s men, most of which took decent care of Leo but were occasionally not exactly nice to him.  He was never hurt by any of them or at least, the ones that did didn’t live long afterwards, but generally Leo was a kid in a place kids didn’t belong and Bane’s men were sure to let Leo know. Bane didn’t call Leo anything besides Leo for a long time, and Leo picked up the habit from his men of calling Bane “jefe”.

This kind of mildly uncomfortable and strained relationship was not the kind of relationship Bane wanted to have with his son, and when Leo was twelve, he started calling Leo “mijo” in hopes that Leo would pick up on the action and return the gesture.  It took Leo time to transition from “jefe” to “papa”, as in two years, but of all the problems in Leo’s home life, his relationship with his father is a lot better than it was when Leo was small.  The other problems, like Bane’s men being a lot more aggressive toward Leo as he got older because they realized Bane may rise to defend an eight-year-old, but he isn’t going to defend a thirteen-year-old, and Leo literally living in a drug den, aren’t so easily solved.

Gwendolyn Tetch

So Gwen does not live with Jervis, she lives with Barbara Gordon, and this is because when she was born, her mother didn’t want to keep her and Jervis was to mentally unstable to care for a child.  Jervis is aware of Gwen and even got to name her, but Barbara Gordon has custody of Gwen, not Jervis.  Gwen is aware of why she cannot live with Jervis but is extremely upset about the fact that her mother didn’t want her.  Barbara does what she can, but doesn’t feel like she’s an adequate substitute for Gwen’s real mother.

Marcus Wesker

I’ve talked about Marcus a bit before but I want to go over it again.  So, when Marcus was about four or five, his parents left him with Arnold Wesker, his grandfather, effectively abandoning him.  Marcus was old enough to remember it, and still has abandonment issues as a result.  To make matters worse, while Arnold was, passable as a caretaker and Marcus liked him fine, Scarface is a different story.

Scarface verbally abused Marcus regularly, shouting, swearing, insulting, and threatening him. If that personality had the ability, he probably would’ve gotten physical too; he certainly threatened it a number of times.  As a small child, Marcus couldn’t make the distinction that Scarface was just an alter and was not actually alive.  He is now utterly terrified of all ventriloquist dummies.  He still lives with Arnold, and while he’s tried finding his parents or talking to them, he’s never been able to track where they went and has no idea why they left him.

#gotham rogues children #roguesmols #tobias bloom #dorothy crane #pluto crane #ezekiel dent #evangeline fries #ayah jones #hunter jones #aisling machin #maxwell machin #niall machin #andrea monroe #todd quinzel #barbara quinzel #gwendolyn tetch #leon sanchez #marcus wesker #most of the other kids have relatively happy home lives #abuse tw #tw abuse

[aotopmha]

Attack On Titan Chapter 115 Thoughts

Yeah, looking at the full chapter, Levi isn't dead.

This is frustrating to me for various reasons.

Levi's face is smashed in and it looks like one of his hands is probably unusable, as it seems like fingers were blown off of it and are stuck on the blade he was using:

Hange also dives into the water with him - with that kind of setup, I think it would feel off if he died here.

He might eventually, but that wouldn't feel as weighty to me anymore because he already survived here.

In addition, if Levi dies or survives without having any effect on the plot from here on out, all this dangling of his fate and the cliffhangers were pointless and just there for shock value to keep the readers coming back.

My least favorite part of the serum fight at the end of the Return to Shiganshina arc was how contrived it was. Both, but particularly Armin, surviving that long felt like a pretty big stretch and I think we see some of that here with Levi, too. I think his survival is a pretty big stretch because he took the Thunder Spear head on.

We know the Ackermans could possibly have healing powers since we had a possible hint like that with Mikasa back in chapter 51, so Levi could end up having this kind of healing and it could somehow save him:

We also now know they are products of Titan science, so it would "make sense", but it all still reeks of character favoratism and flies in the face of one of my favorite thematic ideas of the story: the idea that all of the lives of the characters are equally valuable and each character is treated the same way regardless of how major or minor they are. 

Unlike Levi, Armin, for example, was involved in a choice (so either way, one had to go), while this was an individual moment for only Levi alone, singling him out narrative-wise. Most of the big survival moments (Eren, Ymir, Reiner) were also related to Titan powers, making it all specifically dependant on the narrative element of the Titans and leaving the human aspect fairly grounded, only mostly limiting the impossibilities to the Titans. The serum was there the whole arc and the Titans/shifters have specific established abilities that might be twisted and turned, but are still consistent and related to prior abilities.

Armin surviving wasn't as much of a favoratism-filled of a moment to me because of these aspects (the reach/contrivance came from how the situation was set up to me, rather than the components and content of it because it went against the more grounded way of how regular human characters were treated, and I think the only other time this was stretched to it’s limits was with Erwin in chapter 50), but I also don't think Levi is a nearly as well-developed or potential-filled of a character to merit giving him more chances. I think interesting stuff could still be done with Armin and we see glimpses of that, but I don't see much of that with Levi - I think most of the potential in his character was wringed out in the Uprising arc.

He softened up and became more of a protector figure and we saw the results of that in the Return to Shiganshina arc.

Thematically, the contrast between Zeke and Levi was neat, but it was also the general contrast between the SL and Marley. Levi keeping his promise and killing the Beast Titan is also something that the whole SL (specifically those that aren't in fractions working against them at this point) is fighting for in a general sense - it’s one of the SL’s general principles that they fight to make sure all of the sacrifices made by soldiers that came before could have meaning.

There isn't much going on for Levi *specifically*. Anyone could avenge Erwin or defeat Zeke because it would have the same thematic meaning regardless of who does it.

The counter-argument to this would be that Levi had the most fleshed-out relationship with Erwin, but that doesn't really translate to actually doing anything new or interesting with his character.

Plot-wise I can accept him healing, but not completely regenerating. Again, in comparison, I think the Titan stuff with Zeke is also just fine because he actually is a shifter (and has the Founding Titan power at that, the most special of them all) and the whole point of the story and the Titans is that we don't know much about them - not even the characters that know the most about them don't know everything.

This is why I was okay with Reiner surviving in the Shiganshina arc, too. The characters and, by proxy, we, didn’t know everything about his and the others’ powers, that was the point. Their survivals are, again, dependant on the established rules of the Titan element of the series. You could argue there may have also been some reaching with these cases (Reiner in the Shiganshina arc and Zeke here), too, but it is also backed by smart plotting in a different sense - by the fundemental plot design of the series, which is actually a unexpectedly thoughtful detail when it comes to writing.

Many stories don’t actually make the inherit plot structure of the story as part of the thematic point of the story, and you could still see it as an cheap excuse, but I always appreciate whenever that happens because I feel like it shows the writer’s self-awareness and that they are actually thinking about the story and how it would have as few holes as possible. It might seem cheap on the surface, but it’s also smart in it’s own way.

Moving on, though, technically the Ackermans are related to the Titans, but the connection seems to be intended to be pretty loose, so anything that reveals a bigger similarity than just a vague connection automatically feels like a reach to get the plot where it needs to go to me.

I have that problem with the more magical-leaning abilities of the Titans, too - how did we get from regeneration and creating armour to memory manipulation and rewriting the DNA of a whole race?

If they actually turn out to be the same, this is another huge reach and something I am getting tired of - at this point, every Eldian might as well turn out to be a super soldier because they all have a loose connection to the Titans. I could deal with some of the reaches because they were exceptions and they weren’t as big leaps of logic. If these exceptions grow numerous, I can't believe in any of the established rules of the story anymore, be it the point of the plotting or not. There has to be some rhyme and reason to everything from a storytelling POV. 

On the other hand, though, I love AoT's wierd and grotesque imagery and along with that we got some possible details about the Titans, specifically the “paths” cleared up. The whole scene of Zeke regenerating with the help of the mindless Titan was really interesting, nasty and creepy.

I think it also makes it much more likely that Ymir could actually be alive by the end of the story.

Since not being absorbed into a Titan requires willpower and all Eldians are part of a big Titan "mass", the “paths” could work like Evangelion's LCL where a strong will allows the person to not be absorbed into this giant hivemind and remain their own person - it seems something like an invisible network of all of the Titan Shifters and mindless Titans of the past, present and future, maybe even all Eldians - though that's a less certain possibility to me. We know the matter that appears when the shifter transforms also comes from that network (as we learn from Kruger first and for now have confirmed by Xaver):

(Chapter 114)

How the matter is stored, created or appears at all is another thing entirely, but I feel like that’s how the “paths” thing works in the basics, looking at everything we know as of this chapter. So because they are all technically of the same flesh, the mindless Titan could reform Zeke’s body.

Basically, if her death wasn't a fakeout, Ymir (or any other shifter) might technically be able reform themselves, given a strong enough will and presence of appropriate flesh. The current shifters fighting the wills of the previous ones to be reformed back to their own bodies has always been a interesting idea with a bunch of character development/exploration potential to me - such as Eren fighting with the First King/his father/Frieda/Kruger/Tybur (man, he has like 5 people in there at this point), Armin fighting with Bertholdt, Ymir fighting with Porco and so on.

If it’s not something like this specifically, then I feel like these details would be relevant somehow anyway.

Finally, we have the Eren stuff. While talking with Zeke, he basically goes against everything he believed in prior to the development of his more pragmatic perspective.

It's either his father's memories and the moment in the cave having more of an effect on him than we thought or judging by his calm demeanor, him actually appealing to Zeke and manipulating him. In both cases he needs to be smacked.

In the former case, it's him agreeing with Zeke because of his hyperfocus on the moment he went through in the cave and Eren not really having truly grown past it.

In the latter case, I think his plan might actually be to rewrite the Eldians so they wouldn't have the Titan ability anymore.

One steals even more of the freedom of the Eldian people from them by denying their continued existence. The other takes away their only ability to protect themselves against the much better technology of the rest of the world and lessens their chance of survival even more, even if it removes the Titans from the world.

I think Mikasa, Armin and everyone else have to reach Eren and return the favor he did for them - telling him to fight again.

Also, hi there Pieck, I'm curious what you're planning to do.

This was a pretty alright chapter - I wish Levi died because I think it would've been a much better writing choice in comparison to the options we have now - if he dies later, I feel like it wouldn’t have the same weight, if he miraculously recovers, it's a massive stretch, if he is injured and gets no plot importance from this point on, this was all pointless shock value drama and if he pulls some miracle stunts while injured, it's also a pretty big stretch.

I think a swift death by the hands of Zeke would've been much more thematically powerful and interesting in comparison to the alternatives we seem to have now.

The most optimal option with the current situation I see is Levi mattering in a stealthy way - with a seemingly small action that matters a lot.

I guess prove me wrong and make this good, AoT, you've done it before.

I found everything else pretty interesting, though.

This back and forth between who is manipulating who between Eren and Zeke is the longest, most dragged-out seesaw game ever. It drags, but I still want to know where it eventually goes.

It might be Eren still not having moved past his moment in the cave or it might be him manipulating Zeke. These are the two options I see, but I’m not entirely sure which I lean towards because both have some holes. Maybe slightly more towards the first option because I feel like his talk with Zeke is more consistent with his talk in the cave, but I’m not sure.

The details about the paths through the Zeke scene were nice and actually did possibly tie up some loose ends about how the Titans work, just like all the info in the previous chapter.

This is such a strange chapter to me as a result. Great, interesting stuff and not so great stuff together and much of it's quality also being dependant on how it all pans out in the long run.

We'll see.

#Attack On Titan #Shingeki No Kyojin #AoT 115 #SnK 115 #Chapter 115 #AoT #SnK

[scenarios-on-ice]

WHy dO yOu HaVE tO sAY GOodByE

(well I guess he’s not referred to as a ghoul but he might as well be one now, considering that he’s framed out and can’t eat human food anymore…what’s the difference, really?

Saiko saved him from Donato but we’re still not sure how they’re going to work through it

I mean, nobody at the CCG is really going to appreciate this new development if they find out)

Peggy was actually pretty awesome…it’s still unknown if it’s true but there’s a story that a group of Tories and Native Americans once forced their way into the Schuyler mansion in Albany looking for Philip Schuyler (they were intending to capture him as a prisoner of war). Guests and family members, including Angelica and Eliza (who were both pregnant at the time) rushed upstairs to hide from the intruders, but then realize that they’d left the youngest Schuyler sister (Catharine, who wasn’t even a year old) downstairs. Peggy ran down to get her but was threatened by one of the raiders who demanded to know where her father was. Keeping a cool head, Peggy lied and said that he’d gone to get help and alarm the town, and this frightened the raiders enough that they decided to back off- but not before one of them threw a tomahawk at Peggy, who was running upstairs with the baby in her arms. She somehow managed to dodge it and the tomahawk left a dent in the banister (apparently the Schuylers kept it as a memento).

The way people view Erwin is also very similar to how people saw Hamilton- those who liked them liked them very well, but their behavior and choices also led to them gaining several enemies (Hamilton with his refusal to hold back or shut up, and Erwin with his manipulative, ruthless behavior that went against everything the government of the AoT world stood for). I also think the awe in Burr’s voice as he asks ‘How do you write like you’re running out of time? Are you running out of time?’ could apply to anyone watching Erwin becaus he really was non-stop in his own right.

(I could imagine Levi internally asking those questions about Erwin for the first few months after they met)

I like the idea of Jean-Eren Burr-Hamilton as an AU, because in different circumstances, I do think Jean and Eren’s relationship could have developed in a wrong, nasty way…

It’s either write or fight my way out in the AoT universe (for most of them, it’s fight- the only people who’d ‘write’ seem to be Erwin, Hange and Armin…possibly Bertolt, but he’s a warrior and still fights when push comes to shove)

For Schuyler Sisters, Mikasa is the best Angelica. For Satisfied and the cameo in Burn (‘you’ve married an Icarus…’) it’s Annie. And for Congratulations and her part in the Reynolds Pamphlet, it’s Ymir (I shiver at the thought of Ymir singing Congratulations. She’d roast Eren so badly).

I do think Ymir would technically make the best Angelica but Annie shares Angelica's more thoughtful streak; Ymir would probably be way more blunt during their first meeting but I can see Annie being cautious at first (‘I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, you forget yourself…’). Annie also strikes me as the type to get more emotional about whoever’s playing Eliza- ‘I love my sister more than anything in this life/I will choose her happiness over mine every time’ is Annie; ‘You could never be satisfied, god, I hope you’re satisfied’ is Ymir, in my opinion.

Ymir-Alex and Historia-Eliza sounds so awesome and fitting until you remember Say No To This.

btw, while we’re at it, why not make a TG Hamilton AU too? I’m not too sure yet but I do know I want Amon to play a major role (Amon-Hamilton and Shironeki-Burr, maybe?). And Yamori is James Reynolds.

(If it was a genderbend I could see Haise as Eliza and Arima as Angelica)

Aww, thank you! I have rhinitis so my voice usually sounds kinda nasal (even more so when I attempt high notes) but it sounds nice enough with quieter songs like Dear Theodosia

Conspiracy theory confirmed. Your shuffle is the lovechild of Furuta, Zeke and Moriarty (you’re welcome for the mental image that must have given you)

WE SUPPORT YOU AND YOUR FEELINGS QUEEN LUNA

(Also *inhales* this is so creepy…but your voice is really cute

Like, I’m jealous

And last note, sorry, but my presence here may be spotty for the next three weeks or so. I’m studying for an exam and you know that one song by Breaking Benjamin? DEAR AGOOOONNYYY)

IF I SAY GOODBYE, THE FANDOM LEARNS TO MOVE ON. IT OUTLIVES ME WHEN I’M GONE.

((This sounds like a huge setup for me saying ‘I’m abandoning the blog lol’ (suspicious squinting)))

Also, this is I have from you, messages wise ^^

Oh shit, that sounds bad o.o TELL ME MOAR, PLEASE. I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT MY PRECIOUS COOKIE

Oh wow, that’s pretty awesome! Peggy is a queen! Confirmed! However, how do you ‘forget’ a child?? Like, ‘oh look, the raiders are here! Better abandon this 1yo kid!’. I mean, I get that the panic is a factor in it, but still…  It’s a shame Peggy doesn’t have a big part in the musical ;-; She definitely deserves it. 

Erwin is definitely the best Hamilton in the whole AoT universe. He fits the personality of Hamilton perfectly, except for Write my way out. He would maybe do that, though, but only as a last resort. He’s more of the ‘I’ll manipulate my way out’ *maniacal laughter’ guy… Erwin would write 85 essays by himself if it meant reaching his goals and there’s no denying it. 

I’m so glad that Eren and Jean’s relationship developed the way it did. If their personalities were a bit different, I’d even ship them, because I’m a sucker for the enemies to lovers trope. 

You know what line fits Bert? And when push comes to shove, I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love. Because he acts all nice and then he’s like ‘whoopsy daisy, Im actually a bad guy fuck you all.’

Yeah, the different characters fit different songs. Man, Id pay to hear Ymir burn (huehue) Eren really badly. We’d be having Roasted Eren for dinner then. 

so, basically, Annie and Ymir’s lovechild make the best Angelica. Okay, that seems to make sense, since those two really are good Angelicas, yet lacking in some areas. 

OOOH YMIR-HISTORIA HAMILTON BEST HAMILTON.  What is that song? I don’t remember hearing it…

Dude, I’ve forgotten so much of TG I sat in front of my screen wondering ‘who tf is Shironeki’ for a while, until I realized it was ‘Shiro Kaneki’… I give up on life. 

AND YEEE HAISE ARIMA SCHUYLER SISTERS! Ft. Hide as Peggy.

Oh, we’re the opposites, then! I am much better with high pitch songs, which is why I usually stick to singing songs that involve the Schuyler sisters.

Yes, it is. I am beginning to doubt the existence of coincidence, y’know. It is downright evil. Seriously, sometimes, when I want to tell a story about my shuffle, I stop because it sounds like a lie.

*screech* thank yuu! My voice sounds quite quite childish, especially considering how old I am. But I’m glad you liked it ^^

Nope, I don’t know that song.

Also, you’ve seen how much I’ve been here, so yeee…

#evans #tokyo ghoul anon #submission

[sparda3g]

Attack on Titan Chapter 98 Review

There are good times to go out and have fun with friends and neighbors. There are bad times to go out and destroy enemies and former allies. Marley is preparing to hold a special festival for the earth-shattering news. It’s going to be an extravaganza event. Whom should you be thankful to? Eren. Why? We will know soon enough. While the massacre didn’t occur, the sign and omen is enough to foresee the worst in this nicely build chapter.

The preparation to attack Paradis Island is underway, but we are treated with more reflection of these characters. It’s an eerie display of four kids working hard to become the next warrior; as if it’s a normal lifestyle. It’s also sad to be reminded of Reiner’s flashback when he became a warrior; no matter what generation, history will always repeats itself.

It’s telling that Porco and Colt have their personal opinion about the system being hazy, which is a taboo thing to comment on. Luckily, Zeke is their superior, so he warns them to keep it in their head. It’s also telling how Falco outpacing Gabi at sprinting became possible once he discussed with Eren. I mean, Mr. Kruger.

The contrast between him and Reiner’s influence to Falco is noticeable, though a bit sad since Eren is technically against them. I still hope he will spare Falco. It’s rather funny how Falco worded it oddly about defeating Gabi is for her sake in a confession stand. Young kids are truly growing up so fast. Now the pairing is in tease mode, but Gabi is not having it. I do like how Zeke and Colt are casually playing catch, only to falter by the end of Gabi’s rant. It’s done in a symbolic way that would carry on to the next and prominent scene.

The setup continues on in this chapter, only this time is setting up its grand stage. The Internment Zone is a stage that claims to be the declaration of war announcement. The main priority is to gather up the high status people of countries in one setting and supposedly bring the war to an end by joining to one side. It’s a bit unsettling because the subject these kids are talking about is the ideal of no battle with everyone under one roof. It begs for Eren and others to be the one to bring that end with total annihilation. It sounds like the perfect time to take down as many as they can.

The chapter focuses more on a scenery and preparation for the major downfall that everyone is unaware of. The art is solid in capturing the atmosphere of a pleasant and peaceful time before the highly potential massacre. The night party with Willy Tybur is a possible sign to see him in all cheers one last time before the faithful tomorrow arrives. The thought of a festival is a perfect excuse of thousands of gatherings in one fixed area.

The pleasant sight-seeing of the festival is nerving due to the fact we have spent a while in this setting. I actually feel worried for the kid cast because they are still young and only doing what they were told what is right. Falco is more of breaking the mold since Reiner gave him a notice that the country is nothing but misery. Gabi did detect off-putting feeling as well. While everyone is more or less corrupted by the system, the younger generation needs to escape.

It’s funny to see how Reiner acts like a father figure to the kids and spend his money on food. One-by-one, he grows depressed in a comical fashion. At least he is providing them with care rather than leave them be; now he just have to hope for them to escape from this hellhole. The sight of them smiling and having fun gives a sense of potential last scene. It wouldn’t hurt to do a slice of life chapter…

There are two major signs or ominous foreshadows from this chapter that clearly hints Judgment Day is upon them. One is with Gabi having too much fun and sense that a change is coming. Usually in writing, this only leads to the path of great change and now the seed is planted or should I say the root is growing. The other one is the baseball hurling towards Eren. It left on an ambiguous note because we didn’t see if he catches the ball or not. It is a sense of omen that can only mean the day is here or not. Is the festival really the time for massacre or is it saved for another time? An eerie but a crucial sign.

The main highlight is without a doubt towards the end with Mr. Kruger. Whether you already guessed it or not in the last chapter, this one is concrete confirmation. I love how it was building up the anticipation for Reiner to meet someone Falco has been thrilled to see. The long passage way only grows the excitement and once they meet up, goose bumps rises.

It happens once Mr. Kruger says, “It’s been 4 years.” The confrontation somehow feels surreal; the entire build with Reiner and Eren as friends and foes is capitalized for this moment. I got chills when Eren was glad that Reiner has return back home. The one founding note of his is going back home and here they are, only not on the same term. I don’t know what to expect from this moment but I cannot wait for the next chapter.

It’s a setup chapter for a drastic event and it’s only going to get crazier from this point forward. The nice set of scenery is gentle yet behind lies a dark foreshadowing downfall. The cast are displayed more human than a warrior than usual, creating the tone of human kills human. The last pages are nothing but hype for the long-waited clash of literal two titans. Hell is knocking; it won’t be long till the door opens.

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #chapter 98 #review