#it's all just an extension of how she acts like im choosing to suffer bc im too stupid to just choose not to

[levmada]

EPISODE 80 REVIEW (BC I AM LOSING MY MIND)

spoilers for the newest episode of aot (obviously)

as a manga reader i rly dont think this chapter couldve been adapted any better - the music, the darker, rustic art style, the voice acting and animation?? all so so incredible, top-tier. i think this is the high point of P2 so far.

ymir fritz has been one of my fav characters since i read the manga😭 you know you've written a great character if she has no speaking lines and yet her story still conveys itself so powerful - ymir's entire premise is that she was a slave. she suffered senseless violence and lived a life as a concubine for 13 years after having her tongue cut out.

aot draws many parallels b/n historia and f.ymir's characters, obviously. in one of the screencaps, f.ymir was holding her pregnant belly in the exact way historia was - and tho i don't rly understand why isayama (creator of aot) ever took historia in this direction in season 4, it's a very tragic turn of events for the girl who 104th ymir commanded to live for herself. im not sure, we'll see.

there were so many moments where the visual storytelling, the silence really said it all. i had chills throughout ymir's entire backstory - especially when she was blamed for releasing a pig (a conflict so senseless which is conveyed by the fact that it wasn't showed on screen) and fritz told her she was 'free' - to be hunted. not unlike faya, grisha's sister, when he took her beyond the internment zone for the first time when they were kids.

it rly rounds out aot's themes. from the very beginning, it has always been a conflict between being slaughtered by the titans and 'becoming free' by killing them, when in reality, the titans were eldians too - those subject to a long nightmare (as 104th ymir put it in S2).

it rly puts into perspective how senseless it was for her to be revered. she never seeked out the power of the titans as much as it was (seemingly) a parasite that sensed her desperation and latched onto her. without knowing any other way to live, ymir continued serving fritz bc she desperately wanted to be loved (as shown by this screencap)

so, when she sacrificed herself for fritz, perhaps to ymir the greatest act of love, and he told her nothing more than to get up - despite her powers she didn't want to go on anymore. she chose to escape to a place free from suffering, but free from love as well: Paths. she's always been a slave.

when i first saw the manga panel revealing Sina, Rose and Maria?? god what a shock. naturally, the anime rly cut down on the gore in this panel (warning for that)

when eren talked ymir into rebelling against zeke (and by extension, her existence as a slave) - showing her eyes for the first time... god it was so powerful to me. as someone who could never show her agony before, not once, who could never bare her soul - it's just incredible.

it rly felt like this episode was 5 min long. thats a testament to how good it was for me😭

also, armin and mikasa were so funny✋ im sorry. armin still choosing to believe that eren had good intentions even when the wall titans started walking is insane to me - it shows just how much trust armin put in him. it's honestly tragic.

on the bright side, zeke stans rly ate in this episode (as usual bc zeke doesn't like to wear clothes, apparently). god he looks so good.

a final note: eren's speech at the end, holy fuck it's so intimidating/awesome?? he's objectively a horrible person about to do monstrous things, but i got so many chills. the fact Mappa decided to adapt one of the most iconic panels from this arc just as it was felt so good:

Just - 10/10 episode. there's not much else to say. incredible.

MANGA SPOILERS BELOW

ALSO: i realize that the anime is skipping around, a lot. most of the episode adapted 122, only for the end, with M+A and everyone in Paths to be from the end of 123 - aka the flashback to the scouts' first expedition to marley aka levi in a suit so-

as well as the flashback of eren asking mikasa what he is to her and them all getting drunk :((

jhgjirtg

#this is my fav episode so far #(of part 2) #aot season four #attack on titan #aot #aot season 4 part 2 #snk s4 p2 #snk s4 part 2 #snk final season #aot final season #aot review #kane says

[gayregis]

honestly whats interesting about geryen is that like. having only the canon book material their relationship is imo much more understandable as two victims clinging to a dynamic where they endlessly drag one another down and cant ever truly heal bc theyre both incompatible and stuck rather than some genuine romance. esp with how geralt whos like Severely starved for affection and also fully lacks emotional intelligence binds himself to a woman who at the time had done nothing but manipulate him

like idk all their cutesy romance bits in the later books feel completely out of place when from what we've seen since SOD they were apart for years with a brief break on thanedd and we can figure out that every time they were together for a longer period of time it ended horribly. they were literally never in a genuine healthy relationship (in TOC they spent a night together where they also immediately started falling back on their toxic behaviors) and idk it doesnt sit right with me in any way

also im so sorry but just as a sidenote. sapkowski fully failed in the romance department where he made it canon that yennefer needs a spell for geralt to get it up. like he cant try and make me believe theyre so in love and that its well written after he made me read that

i mean i disagree with this because i think having similarities with another victim can help you process what happened to you, to share vulnerability... i feel like they are just very similar people at the end of the day, and this can foster both a supportive and a detrimental environment. i dont think geralt bound himself to yennefer because he lacked emotional intelligence, i think he’s an adult man capable of making full decisions and he bound himself to yennefer out of compassion because they were both in pain. 

i think he and yennefer both hurt each other in the last wish (geralt was thinking misogynistically towards her, as she points out - the comment about “for the stony way you look at me, for your eyes which fish for every detail (...) for thinking that you could stand face-to-face with yennefer of vengerberg and beliver her to be full of self-admiration and arrogance, a calculating witch, white staring at her soapy tits!” and yennefer got her “revenge” for this which basically is a statement which says, you can’t use me. and her revenge isn’t a #girlboss moment, it’s not feminist, it comes out of fear of being used and disrespected, it’s a reaction to the abuse she has suffered before. neither one of them is willing to trust the other, and they bring each other down, as you said - but then geralt’s wish, which binds them together, condemns him to her, i think is like an extension of a hand from one victim to another. she can’t understand at first, she’s shocked that he would give her another look after they both treated each other poorly, she’s shocked that he didn’t kill her. he demonstrates goodwill to her when he didn’t have to, and i don’t think this comes out of a lack of emotional intelligence, i think it comes from having emotional intelligence, the intelligence to recognize that she’s in the same kind of pain that he is. and geralt, as we know from his characterization, is the merciful type that would choose to un-curse a striga instead of kill her, wouldn’t bring his sword to deal with a “devil”... he’s compassionate, and he extended this compassion to yennefer to show her that they don’t have to be enemies. however, this initial act of kindness and the honeymoon-esque love at first sight love that envelopes them then isn’t the kind of love that lasts a lifetime. they fall out of love soon enough (inverting the love at first sight trope). they then have to basically come back together to work at what love really is, because real love takes work - and at first, they can’t do it, they cant commit, but then...

i think there is appropriate context between the sword of destiny and time of contempt for why they now succeed in bein together for longer periods of time, and the answer is ciri. being parents individually helped them grow out of their more immature and selfish behaviors, made them relize that there is something more important than just themselves (more personally, i dont care if this specific part is unrealistic, because. self indulgent fantasy). 

so yeah also idk really what you mean by falling back into toxic behaviors in time of contempt because like idk what did they do in time of contempt that was toxic?? have sex????? yennefer playfully dragging him for his fantasy of playing house?? i just dont think that yennefer is as manipulative to geralt as you are making her out to be. i could be wrong since geryennefer parts tend to bore me in the books so i dont reread them with the repetitiveness and intensity that i reread a hansa scene with but thats from what i remember anyways

#its funny to me bc i really dont think i care abt this ship at all and yet i just tried to analyze it like fghjk so what is the truth then #yennefer #geralt #i dont even have a ship tag for them LMAOOO #anon #ask #im not disagreeing that sapkowski mostly failed at writing a romance but i will say that if you think about it its plausible