#and I go HEY Killing all of the protags for shock value is Never a good idea No Body Likes That. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

astridthevalkyrie · 3 years

Note

Do you think AOT is better than FMAB?

sorry not sorry for the blunt answer but no, never, not in a million years, not even close, not for a number of reasons.

few reasons under the cut, because apparently I’m doing this instead of focusing in class. obviously there will be spoilers for both shows, and obviously some of this will be based on personal preference.

1. Genocide/Oppression

so both shows have some vivid imagery of nazi germany. bradley is addressed as the fuhrer in fmab, and the eldians wear stars on their sleeves in aot. and even if the aot writer wasn’t pretty much confirmed to be a nationalist and raging anti-semite, it’s rather painfully obvious which show handles it better.

in aot, the eldians are oppressed because they can turn into titans and were originally trying to take over the world or something, which is so blatantly anti-semitic that it’s terrible. shows are allowed to tackle these kinds of topics, but they should handle them well, not be a stand in for nazi propaganda. this is something so many fucking shows do wrong whenever they make an oppressed group of people - there’s always somehow a reason for having them be oppressed. take bbc merlin. wizards are oppressed because they can do magic and so they’re dangerous, just like how eldians can turn into titans and so they’re dangerous, and that’s a bad thing to imply, because it implies that jewish people somehow deserved what happened to them and that’s a fucking dangerous idea to put into an already anti-semitic world.

and that’s exactly why i was so relieved and appreciative of how fmab did the battle of ishval. it is clear who the bad guys are in that scenario, and it’s clear that it was never deserved and that the soldiers who carried it out are war criminals and deserve to be put into jail. riza says as much herself. while i think scar shouldn’t have been as guilted as he was (sure, he shouldn’t go after innocent people, but him killing winry’s parents is not comparable to what happened to him and doesn’t put all of them on equal footing), i was pleasantly surprised that he lived and wasn’t killed off in some stupid form of “redemption.” if roy deserved to live, so did scar, a hundred times over.

2. Characters

characters in fmab are done ridiculously better than in aot. let’s compare similar characters!

edward and eren - the protagonists

up until the third season onwards, eren is very one dimensional and uninteresting. he’s entertaining, but his one and only goal is killing the titans and it’s super frustrating because they lay down the groundwork for more, but it’s never really addressed. show more how he cares about his friends, show him dealing with his trauma through anger and how it’s unhealthy. (actually, a lot of problems could be fixed if they showed more of the cadets’ training days. i feel like i wasn’t feeling as betrayed by annie and reiner and bertholdt because i never really felt they were that close to eren.)

ed is a delightful main character. he too is angry and doesn’t mind talking with his fists, but at the same time, he’s starchly against killing anyone and has multiple goals. ofc his primary one is getting their bodies back, but when he finds himself in the conspiracy about amestris, he doesn’t hesitate before making that his problem as well. every relationship he has is wonderful. i could get bored with eren on the screen, i wasn’t bored with ed.

armin and alphonse - the deuteragonists

i’m sorry but armin is literally just “the smart one.” that’s it. he’s also the dreamer but it only comes up when they’re about to do something dangerous.

i feel like i don’t even need to go into how good of a character al is? he’s very obviously multifaceted and the epitome of sweet and badass at the same time.

winry and mikasa - the love intests-ish

i don’t like referring to either of them like that, but while mikasa is the tritagonist (or deuteragonist, her and armin can interchange there), winry is not.

and surprise, surprise, this is actually where i’m not so sure winry comes out on top. mikasa is, in my opinion, the most interesting out of the trio. she also has a very single-minded goal, but seeing her interact with other characters (armin, jean, levi) who either fall in line or disagree with that goal is fun to watch. she’s also obviously super competent and i have a thing for competent characters.

winry is a good character and i love her, but it’s always bothered me how out of place her scenes feel in relation to the entire show. and as much as i know it doesn’t deter her agency, there’s just something off about ed telling her to have an apple pie waiting for them. it actually brings in one of my few problems with fmab. while its female are pretty good, they’re far from perfect, and that’s because nearly all of them exist because of their relation to the more important male character. winry is ed’s mechanic and the elrics’ family friend. riza is roy’s lieutenant. lan fan is ling’s bodyguard. izumi is the elrics’ teacher. i’m not saying that’s all they are, but this is a major part of their role in the story (olivier and mei stand out as female characters with goals relating to themselves and not a guy around them.)

so who’s the better character? mikasa is more fierce and winry has better lines that aren’t just calling out the protag’s name. i’m gonna give it to winry, but by a short shot.

roy and levi - the op fan favorites

this one’s much easier. roy is not just a badass who’s also the hero’s direct superior like levi is, he’s a person with clearcut goals and weaknesses and he has to make sacrifices and work for what he wants. levi has all the makings for a great character, a tragic backstory and a chill personality, but he doesn’t have a reason to stay in the scouts, he just...does. out of loyalty to erwin, i guess? it’s not clear and it’s even worse if you don’t watch the ova. roy’s reasons are clear and relatable. he also has a dorky and endearing side, plus the political side of things he brings to fmab is interesting and an equally important part of the story. his fight with envy is satisfying and thrilling. levi’s fight with the beast titan, while it is super well animated and cool, kiiiinda falls flat because there was no set-up for him being the one to take the beast titan down (should have been connie). it also ends a bit too fast, honestly.

but hey, you say, aren’t you the one writing 15k worth of fanfiction for levi within two weeks? didn’t see you writing that much for roy. yeah, well, unfortunately, my attraction doesn’t determine the better character and i never said i was proud of this, please leave me alone.

there’s more comparisons i could make - carla and trisha, hohenheim and grisha (ha, trisha and grisha rhyme), roy can also be compared to erwin, there’s multple side characters, but fmab wins, you guys get it.

3. The Story, Plot, Deaths

listen, i get it. aot is a bloody, brutal show and you’re not supposed to get attached to characters. i’m not gonna complain about pointless deaths, because that in itself is the point. it’s like twd or got, it’s gonna have lots of death. but the deaths don’t have to be so stupid. i’m specifically thnking of levi’s squad, because the way they die is so dumb. gunther should not be taken down by a cadet, petra shouldn’t be flying so close to the ground, oluo should know not to engage the female titan alone. these were elite titan killers, they knew not to be stupid. there were ways to kill them off without making them look so stupid. and if there’s not, consider not killing them off just for shock value.

fmab’s deaths mean something, especially since one of its central messages is that life is precious, no matter whose it is. everyone’s life means something and no one dies in vain.

there’s more i could go into, but i just spent my entire classtime doing this and now my second one for the day is about to start, sooo i think i’ll stop here. thanks for the ask!

#fmab #anti aot #anti fmab #at some parts #aot is anti-semitic please be careful when watching it and think about the media you're consuming

94 notes · View notes

hopeymchope · 3 years

Note

hey, sorry to barge into your inbox despite being a total stranger (and feel free to respond to this privately if you want) but i came across some of your s/n/k critical posts and i just wanted to say i agree SO much. and i wanted to thank you for vocalizing this opinion because i know both i and some others agree with you. i've personally felt that everything after chapter 80 was a mistake (because i thought the whole serum fight over erwin vs armin was pretty fuckin stupid too) and it's kinda funny (i guess) to see the ending 100% validate my opinion completely. i can't believe every character was done this dirty for the sake of a very poorly constructed "both sides are bad" scenario that was also in VERY poor taste considering the explicit allegories to n*zi germany and a literal race war. like what's up with the jews - sorry, the "eldians" - once ruling the entire world via a bloodthirsty empire and also being inhuman creatures? gee, that sure doesn't sound like every antisemitic conspiracy theory i've ever heard. and way to rationalize oppression, too. the entire point of an oppression narrative is supposed to be "hey, the oppressor's prejudices have no rational basis and are literally mistreating this oppressed group due to their own selfishness and cruelty," not "oh btw marley's fear/hatred of eldians kinda makes sense considering eldians once enslaved the entire planet and can turn into giant man-eating monsters." is*yama SERIOUSLY should've just stuck to writing glorified vore lmao.

and while all the characters were either killed, turned into plot devices, or both, it hurts that EMA and the main protag himself suffered this treatment as well. i still think pre-timeskip eren is utterly irreconciliable with post-timeskip eren and the fact that both fans and the author himself try to make it seem like "hey he was ALWAYS a batshit crazy psychopath from the start!" is sort of pathetic to watch. like yeah, lemme just ignore the first 80 chapters of character development for this guy. or lemme pretend that the author didn't spend the significant majority of the decade making eren the most empathetic character in the entire series. or let me also pretend that eren killing those human traffickers to save a 9 year old girl from being a child sex slave is somehow evidence/foreshadowing/etc of him eventually growing up to destroy 80% of the planet. like, what? not to mention he even rebuked himself for recklessly killing those two men like that in chapter 17...so am i supposed to ignore that too?? and don't even get me started on the "eren went insane and accidentally caused his mom's death." bro. BRO. i've watched the entirety of game of thrones yet i STILL have never seen this level of "edgy plot twist for shock value with no benefit or relevance to the story whatsoever" in any media to exist.

well anyway...sorry for ranting in your inbox like this LMAO i really just wanted to tell you that i agree with your opinions about both the series ending and the series as a whole. i doubt i'll ever engage with this cursed manga ever again but at least pre-chapter 80 s/n/k will always be a thing and i can pretend they all got reincarnated into a modern AU where eren and mikasa are happily married and living with their bff armin in a nice condo or something. they alternate between visiting carla and grisha or mikasa's family on weekends. yeah that sounds pretty good. if you made it this far then kudos to you and thank you for reading lol

Thanks a ton for the kind words of commiseration. It feels like there’s a plurality of people who are unhappy, sure... but it comes off as still being a minority, and even among that minority, it seems like most people are still fine with most of the timeskip so long as they stuck the landing. But I think they were much too far off-course pretty fast after the Timeskip started to really correct it very well. It was possible, but the writing was on the wall. The intentions were already clear pretty early on after the skip.

That said, I try to keep this Tumblr mostly positive and DR-focused, yet I still absolutely had to rant about SNK 139. The more I thought about it, the more I disliked it... and this comes from someone who was already unhappy for a while, obviously, so. Yeah. Of course I was gonna dislike it on some level, but I thought it’d at least provide closure to the Timeskip arc, even if I do think the Timeskip arc feels at odds with everything else the series was for 3/4 of its run.

And HOLY SHIT I literally forgot about the Eldians’ history of apparently being horrible, vicious rulers of a sinister empire. You know why? Because I NEVER BELIEVED IT. I was so 100% certain that it was going to be outed as bullshit propaganda from Marley that I never once thought it was plausible, so I just... pushed it out of my mind as soon as I read it. After all, all that kind of talk about the arch-conspiracy of Jews has always been total bullshit from anti-semetic monsters, so why would I put any stock in this kind of talk being applied to the Jewish race of Attack on Titan?

But now, at the end of the story... yup, I guess he never DID go back on that! So it was fucking true?! The Jewish people in this WWII analogy were apparently an evil master race at one point?! Oh. OHHHHH. Go fuck yourself with a shovel for that one, Isayama.

And yeah, Eren... god, what a sad story. He becomes unrecognizable as the same character thanks to the Timeskip, the new characterization is never explained or justified retroactively - it’s just opposite day now, forever - and he dies accomplishing nothing. I don’t know what to say, except I do know how much I loved that character and this series before things went south. I didn’t even mind the backstory for the Titans and the horrible story of Eldians in Marley... because it seemed so obvious that it was setting up a battle against a hateful, technologically advanced foe that was beyond the darkness of anything they’d fought before, y’know? Marley, as it was set up in the flashbacks before the Timeskip, is Nazi Germany if the Nazis had tech and scientific horrors and numbers far beyond what the Allies had. And nobody EVER feels bad for killing Nazis, so this was obviously going to be a final battle to destroy the Marleyan military, with Zeke likely to serve as a Final Boss who has totally 100% bought the propaganda and who hated everything Eren stood for. It was all RIGHT THERE. Maybe it was just too easy to tell that story, because instead, Zeke is suddenly supposed to be a gray character (very hard to accept given his backstory), and we end with the “uwu both sides were bad bc war is hell” message that is really pretty fucked up, as you already correctly pointed out.

#snk 139 #aot 139 #snk spoilers #aot spoilers #negativity #snk negativity #aot negativity #snk ending #AOT ending

7 notes · View notes

itsgarbagefire · 5 years

Note

What things does Shadowhunters do better than the books?

-Magnus and Alec seperately (Aside some crappy writing here or there) as well especially together. As a guy who likes guys I was hesitate because media doesn’t have a good track record. Instead I genuinely cried because Alec’s ‘coming out’ was so well written in my opinion.

There’s no biphobia, they actually exist, and really I could go on for ages.

-Raphael is confirmed asexual not just in some tweet/the mmm I’d say questionable way she writes it. Plus doesn’t get killed off for some ??? Reason. He also gets an ‘oh okay’ along with later ‘I get that and hey I don’t care about the sex’

-Everybody is 18+ so its not like 15 year olds having s*x written by an adult/far less often than reading the books and nothing dumb like ‘people are missing, hurt and possibly dead we’re also in Hell’… ‘At least I have a condom lets f*ck’ Which uh that condoms been in a pocket who knows how long and through Hell literally but sure…

-Trauma is a little bit more consistently addressed

-I*cest? Sure they did it a while/have but its not clear fetishing or gaggingly often like the books with attempted r*pe and such

-Women actually being strong independent women and not hating each other for no reason. Izzy comfortable in herself/she is fine with how Clary isn’t as much for dressing like she does.

-People dress good, and not with weird inconsistent or odd outfits that honestly even blind people wouldn’t put together.

-Clary isn’t such a whiny girl hating brat who ends up being not the strong female protag she’s supposed to be/slapping and blaming an innocent party for her friends stupid choice,etc. I mean relatively whiny/deserves better in the show but more likable at least. Even if honestly yet again forced het nonsense. Plus that gross ‘jerk who is actually a jerk and so ‘strong’ female protag is weak for him’ trope.

-Actually address Alec coming out with his parents/show the time after more realistically and without stupid nonsense like ‘so I said I was bitten by a gay spider after asked how I turned’. *end of conversation*

-Don’t kill a kid for shock value and bs 'family bonding’. Then proceed to brush it off except the odd 'remember the dead kid’. Which it doesn’t go like that losing a family member and as a sibling.. No. (Some people literally were super offended they didn’t kill Max/calling for him to die and thats fucked up)

-Didn’t make me want to throw up. The books writing,etc however did. And I mean from a writers stand point okay sure t.mi was written years ago. But to not accept even friendly criticism, act how she does, and never grow how you write. Especially when its so bad you should in theory even by accident do so. Is stupid. I could end up meeting her (not likely but just go with it) and if I only was all “uwu your books are great” she would be nice. But if I went “hey as a fellow writer and a guy who likes guys-” she wouldn’t.

-Plagiarism and t.mi is technically a H.arry Potter fanfic from what I’ve seen/heard just changed up to not seem like it.

-Alec doesn’t try strangling Clary when she magicially knows he’s gay. (To be fair I also hate it in the show but- at least its more like friendly bickering tham violent I guess)

And there’s more but this is a fair amount of a answer I hope. Which I know people will buy/support her stuff regardless. Like it,etc. I have friends who do. My biggest issue is with how she behaves, and the people who can’t debate/discuss or think critically.

I’ve had book stans praising m.alec getting walked in on by S.imon that 1 time on a post I made about their communication in the show. Been called a fetisher,etc and that is what’s not okay.

#anti cc #answered

18 notes · View notes

mikanrulz · 7 years

Text

Gundam ibo s02e19 exposition time: death flag abounds

That face above is my fav face in the entire ep. Behold the return of his smile, however fleeting it is.

I never thought I will ever say this, but here it is: FREE TEKKADAN 2K17

The latest two eps pretty much established that they had nothing to do with the conflict at hand despite being the protagonist

Like… how did that even happen? That a protagonist group’s storyline got sidelined somehow? Maybe ‘sidelined’ is not the right word. Just that, despite hogging the screentime, their storyline just seems abysmal and *small* in the grand scheme of things compared to that of the future big bad final boss (McGillis) and possibly anti-hero (the jury’s still out on this) Arianrhod.

This is totally the one game where the protags are too busy with the side quests they totally neglected the main story, only to be surprised when the game ends bcs despite being the winner they’re only loosely connected to the main story and don’t actually understand a thing.

Idk

I know I’d like to tell Mika and Tekkadan to just maybe go home, eat chocolate, and take a warm bath, since they don’t actually deserve all these headaches.

See what you make me say mcgillis???

No use for me commenting on this, since this ep makes it clear Orga totally regrets their arrangement w/ McGillis big time.

Mika’s uncaring attitude tho. I wonder if he really doesn’t care, or he just really has *yet* to care. I mean, he did have a weird, suspicious look in ep 5 as Orga and Mc shook hand. So it could be this time, he deems it unworthy of his attention since so far McGillis hasn’t *actively* betrayed them – even if Mc did miscalculate and may cost them their members.

The biggest shock of the ep is probably how McGillis gets called out.

I mean, I’m so used to the show treating McGillis’ soddy plan or whatever as the cleverest and cunning thing ever, so when the show actually acknowledges that McGillis’ plan is stupid, I’m kinda speechless.

And it worries me a great deal, bcs so far imo Arianrhod’s standing is still unclear. Are they the anti-hero? The antagonist? They’re certainly not the protag, despite Gae’s existence.

I’m afraid that the show decides to show McGillis as incompetent now of all time bcs they’re trying to shift the big bad final boss role to Rustal. The logic being ha ha ha look McGillis is too silly to be the final boss, so have Rustal instead, who is consistently being showed as ‘cunning’ and ‘ruthless’, even if he thinks the best of his subordinates and actually values their lives or whatever.

…I’m reaching. Probably.

Rustal is actually more likeable and has more human values than McGillis, and I do think it makes him a more formidable foe than McGillis. McGillis is just…. so distant, and like, two dimensional? It’s hard to relate to McGillis.

I’m. just. so confused???

This particular scene is weird. His face’s framing is weird. His words’ phrasing is weird. Like…. He does it for his own sake, out of his own idea. So why is he acting like he’s been sacrificed? Like he’s been forced to do it against his will, like he’s not the actual mastermind and the sole culprit?

Are we supposed to sympathize with him here? Despite the fact his ‘suffering’ is actually of his own making, by his own hand, and not done by other ppl?

I’m so confused bcs were it any other character in this particular scene with that particular framing and light, I know I’d probably give them the benefit of the doubt and maybe try to reconsider their position or whatever.

But it’s McGillis???????? Like??? WHY IS HE ACTING SO MARTYRED?????

I’M SO DISGUSTED AND ENRAGED YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

Was his past in the ep before supposed to give him leeway or something? Because I think not. No matter the motive, a murder is still a murder.

He totally thinks the world revolves around him, doesn’t he.

“Minor incidents.”

You say that to the father of the guy you killed, of course the father gonna maul you. The fact McGillis thinks getting Bael would absolve him of all sins is just. Unbelievable?????

When Rustal remarked how McGillis seemed childish, I never thought he actually really meant that. I thought he was just trying to say McGillis lacked experience or something. But then this ep proves that McGillis’ way of thinking is similar to that of a child.

You can’t say he’s ignorant, bcs he actually knows things and is willing to learn. It’s just the way he absorbs the info that’s probably rather skewed.

Like, instead of changing his world or fit his perspective to the facts at hand, he actually twists the facts so they fit his own perspective. It’s made even worse by the fact that he thinks he’s the only right one and that he’s above reproach.

This guy is dangerous not bcs he’s smart or cunning. He’s dangerous bcs he does what he does without knowing the real consequences, *how* it would affect the ppl involved and the lasting damage on them.

Yeaaaah, not gonna comment on this one, since I think I already ranted often enough about how inappropriate this is. But the animation here is actually quite nice? At least compared to Gae’s scenes in this ep??? Like I’m so jealous Mc gets all the nice animation like wae

Isurugi the third wheel tho. The difference between Isurugi’s reaction here to his reaction to Orga, is it bcs Almiria is just a child and therefore *totally* harmless?

Or is it out of consideration to not intrude on a couple/husband and wife’s moment?

(I’m a bit confused, I thought their status is still just ‘engaged’ but this ep Rustal says they ‘married’?????)

Also, Iok oh Iok lol

So it’s confirmed his only use is just to stand there and look pretty? XD

Rustal basically saying your men follow you bcs they respect your father and his legacy/history and I’m just.

*coughs*

Iok darling he just says you have no value on your own, it’s all your family name, and is that the real reason for your tears?

I can’t decide whether to laugh at him or be sad about him here :’)

Gaelio gets complimented twice on his look this ep like what is this sudden interest in his appearance

Kidding. Please compliment him more. I’m always interested in him so of course I’ll like anybody who shows interest in him :p

It amuses me though, both Rustal and Julieta essentially compliment him, but they do it in such opposite way.

Rustal: “You face looks more valiant than before.” He’s saying Gae’s more rugged now, more heroic like maybe, certainly not as delicate-looking anymore.

Julieta: “Your face is more handsome than I'd imagined.” 1) she actually cares what he looks like 2) she puts actual effort to try to imagine what he looks like 3) she thinks he has a more hardened face instead 4) she’s basically saying Gae looks more delicate than how she imagined him to be.

Be still my heart *___*

During S1, several times Ein had dialogues where he questioned whether what he did was the right thing, most notably in ep9 and especially in ep25.

Considering Mika stabbed him to death, you can say from the narrative that Ein was in the wrong, bcs the right one would always win in the end.

So during this scene, at first I thought maybe Gae only saying that to Julieta in response to Ein; He tells Julieta the thing that Ein needed and wanted to hear most, but never get the chance to: He gives her a validation.

But maybe that’s not quite right nor quite enough to be a reason since it implies he only sees Julieta as Ein’s substitute.

Considering during the latter part of S1 Gae himself was not quite in the right frame of mind, since he was full of guilt and doubts himself, I think he probably needed that validation the most.

I kinda thought Rustal probably gave him his validation, but considering how Rustal actually let Julieta and Iok to try to figure themselves out, maybe that’s not quite right.

WARNING: this is gonna sound sappy af, but we do have a two year period, so probably Gae and Ein kinda found their validation in each other or something – since they’re alone quite a lot and Gae actually looks ‘calm’ and ‘collected’ the first he appeared as Vidar, no longer lost or even looking to Rustal for guidance.

So that validation Gae tells Julieta? That’s pure her and her effort; he sees her and notices her dedication and her lost look and he tells her the thing she needs to hear. He could only say this *because* he himself had gone through the same thing, and he wouldn’t tell her *that* if he doesn’t think she deserves to hear it.

He’s not trying to give her a lip service.

Notice he doesn’t actually tell her whether what she does morally right or wrong; just that, as long as you do what you believe in for the sake of the person that you believe in, you’re in the right.

oh hey look first time I included a cap of Shino in my ep review :p

Speaking of death flags, everybody probably gets it this ep, but I’m kinda betting on Shino since he has more focused-screentime this ep than any other Tekkadan members (excepting Orga/Mika).

But who knows who’s gonna really bite it :p

#tekketsu no orphans #what do i tag this again #speaking of bauduin siblings gae and almiria actually look really similar when they cry #genetic is amazing #gundam ibo

23 notes · View notes