aotopmha

[aotopmha]

I got to thinking about my taste in anime, manga and video games and considering how the stories I see as my personal favourites end up divided, I think I'm forever cursed to either get into series with massive fanbases (which come with a sizeable portion of annoying/awful people, which eventually leads to me enjoying said series mostly for myself) or series with dead fanbases (barely any activity, but generally decent people).

I end up loving either super popular media like the Ghibli movies, Attack on Titan, the Final Fantasy series and Dragon Ball or series that are dead because they're relatively short, long done or with a slow release schedule like Nier, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Twelve Kingdoms, FMA (2003), Berserk, From the New World, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Princess Tutu.

It could be that this is just how fanbases work now because of media being tied to a window of relevancy, but it's the least fun of both worlds to me. I liked the middle-of-the-road decently popular, but not megahit level activity for fanbases.

It could also be my general decreased activity in fandom spaces, but when something isn't relevant and generally very popular, it almost always feels like it's dead these days.

I also realised that as time has gone on, a lot of Shounen dropped out of any of my lists.

I just have no desire to ever go back to My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen or One Piece, for example.

I think stuff in that bracket I didn't like to begin with like Naruto and Bleach are now just slop to me.

Early Bleach is maybe okay, but the rest, not really.

One Piece actually hurts a bunch because I've followed it on and off since 2003. It kept me around for pretty much 20 years.

I want to say it's because of how Shounen manga treats female characters finally catching up to me or how much I've grown up because I'll soon be a 34 year-old woman and I should be above children's media (I like to think I'm self-aware enough about being far outside of the target audience of some of these series and have diverse enough interests to not be like the worst of Disney adults or those whose media diet consists exclusively of Shounen manga), but notice how Dragon Ball and Attack on Titan are still up there?

I'll fire up season 1 of AoT or the Freeza arc or Yu Yu Hakusho's Dark Tournament episodes any day I feel like chilling. Battle of Gods and Superhero are pretty much perfect popcorn material.

They're all great, easy to digest (regardless of some of the subject matter) entertaining action series despite any issues I have with them.

And the others just aren't. Final Fantasy XIV has come very very close, but I still haven't found a story I was as "into" as Attack on Titan when it was still running. I started talking about stories on the internet because of AoT. It's not a perfectly written series by a long shot and I've found several series during and after it that did what AoT does better, but it did have a great way of making me invested.

I still value the first half of One Piece a lot, but the series actually isn't that easily digestable. Modern One Piece especially is a cluttered, unfocused mess from visuals to script.

And to me Shounen should be the easily digestable popcorn media with some meaning in it.

I also realised I haven't actually consumed a lot of media made for specifically adults for a bit and I think it's because anime, manga and video games are something I use to chill and I haven't been in the mood for anything heavier (my AoT rewatch is my first heavier story in a bit, but at its heart it's still action Shounen) which is what usually comes with the adult tag.

(Anyone have any recommends for chiller adult series?)

If something I want to check out ends up with an M rating, so to speak, sure I'll check it out, but I just pick up stuff that looks interesting or fun.

I definitely want to get to Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur, but because I'm revisiting AoT right now, I think I would like something more chill after I'm done with it and that would be the perfect time for me to dive into the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters.

One thing is for sure: I think I'll never run out of something new to check out.

Still have Mirror's Edge and Okami sitting in my Steam library, too. And I've still not done everything I've wanted to do in FFXIV, either.

Anyway, I'm actually super in the mood to talk about either any of the series I mentioned in this post or just talk about my opinion on any series anyone is curious about in general.

Send me asks, here?

Recommendations are also welcome, I'm equal parts aiming to catch up with my backlog and aiming to make it bigger.

[aotopmha]

(Chapter 60)

I like how Attack on Titan understands that the key to defeating an oppressive regime is persistence and the courage to speak out against it, not negotiation or appeasement.

Again, fairly simple/standard dystopian writing, but I like it.

This is even spelled out relatively early in the arc. The entire situation is non-negotiable because the monarchists' actions spoke louder than any word could and their aim was always to eliminate the Survey Corps.

The monarchy is treated as an immediate serious threat in response to their direct hostile actions by the narrative and characters.

And even when reflecting on any of the morally questionable actions they themselves must take to achieve their goal and the long-term uncertainty of their choice to topple the current regime, the Survey Corps not only stays firm to its own principles, but also does not buckle under the very specific framing the monarchists use to justify their acts of suppression.

I think it's a super apt encapsulation of how to actually counter regimes like this.

You don't back down and you act based on your own firm moral compass regardless of any flaws the principles you hold might have because there is no such thing as a fully morally clean opposing perspective in the eyes of an oppressive regime; any kind of dissidence is framed as immoral.

The peaceful protest is a riot, the political opponent is an evil enemy of the state, scientific/intellectual curiousity is fake nonsense for losers/detrimental for peace and the creatives and minorities are to blame for all of the world's problems.

This is the one part of this section of the story that struck me as the most relevant to current times: the Survey Corps is fully aware of the flaws and the potential negative fallout of their beliefs, but fight on anyway because just like their opponents, they believe this is the right path forward for their country.

Can we have just a touch of that pragmatism in real life, please?

Taking the moral high ground against extremism seems to be turning out to be deeply ineffective.

[aotopmha]

I think part 1 of the FFXIV 7.3 live letter basically addressed most of the key criticisms with Cosmic Exploration and Occult Crescent.

The general intro note is that the polish has been lacking a bit and they'll be looking to be more diligent regarding bugs.

CE:

- They're looking to add something additional to do after failing big FATEs.

- The Gatherers will get a means of faster GP regen (how I understood it is that when you complete a mission, you will get back the GP you lost during the mission and Cordial CDs reset).

- There will be direct teleportation to the moon via tickets.

- Some of the more tougher Stellar Missions will be adjusted.

- Mount use is added and will continue to be added iteratively.

- More rewards for when you're done with the base stuff.

- Retainer Bells are added to the moon, but might have lore issues in implementation? This one was strange for me, can't you just use the EW ones or base game ones, maybe make a special bunny one since this content is only available once completing Endwalker to begin with?

OC:

- Forked Tower can be entered with a premade group.

- They'll stretch the limits of the FATE scaling as far as they can, so they don't die as fast if many players enter them or become too difficult if fewer players enter them.

- No changes to Atma. (Good, in my opinion. It's designed to be a grind. Let a grind be a grind. They even emphasised the drop rate is about 5%, while ARR's was 2%, so the problem is probably player-individual RNG.)

- No Normal version for Forked Tower because of development cost, the following iterations will have a Normal and Savage versions (why SE, this is your money maker, invest in it).

- They'll be "looking at" the loot given out from the Coffers (Gil, Materia and Fireworks ratio to other rewards).

And most of this seems to be coming in 7.3, so they're pretty fast adjustments.

There were also some really cool updates in terms of additions to the general game, though:

- Specific focus and new options for Hrothgar and Viera headwear.

- Bangs are now visible when putting the hood on.

- Teasing of raid planner and chat bubbles (but no release yet).

And in terms of new bits of content, the Il Mheg Deep Dungeon seems really cool (and now seems to have an additional challenge at the end).

I'm really happy to go see The First again.

(But you have to do the first 50 levels of PoTD to access it, so on my part, guess now I have a very good reason to finally get to it.)

Everything else seems standard: more MSQ, a new dungeon, new trial/EX and the next wing of the Alliance Raid. Those'll always speak for themselves.

Personally, I'm most sad there didn't seem to be any mention of the Variant/Criterion dungeon, which seems like a bit of a mystery promise being dragged along like Beastmaster.

My main takeaway from this is that they are listening.

Every single talking point here was addressing the loudest criticisms I've seen for the game.

I like that there is ownership being taken for the screw-ups: this is one of the reasons I feel giving my money to this game is worth it.

These issues shouldn't be there to begin with, but this is as loud of a validation as you can get for the feedback given and it's being put to practice relatively fast, too.

[aotopmha]

Oh, is it patch lull insanity time with FFXIV already?

I could understand the complaints about 7.0 and 7.1, but I've pretty much got nothing this time around.

I really like Occult Crescent and I like Cosmic Exploration. I like the former much better than the latter, but I think both are good MMO grind content.

I think the most solid complaints are about the accessibility of Forked Tower and maybe its savage difficulty because a normal version would allow those who are not into savage difficulty still have the unique experience of this type of content.

But the main issue seems to be the accessibility and that just seems like a pretty easy fix by allowing premades to queue when the weather happens.

Other than that, any other issues feel like mild annoyances that should be addressed, but don't really in any shape or form ruin the experience to me.

The FATE scaling should probably be adjusted, but right now they spawn so fast, it doesn't really hurt the sense of progress when leveling.

There should probably be a system for being able to passively level another job while using a mastered job.

The rigid segmentation of activities doesn't really bother me that much, either. Again, what you do should probably be freed up a bit because options are just fun, but you're always doing some sort of activity and the pace is fairly fast, so I never actually feel like I'm wasting my time.

I think the criticism about the market devaluation of sellable items also has some weight, but I also dislike the inflation on some level. You can also still play Eureka and Bozja for more reasons, too.

All of these are more mildly naggy than disastrous issues to me, though.

And I really like the Phantom Job system, more complex CEs (and FATEs if they don't die too quick) and treasure hunting.

Not all of the Phantom Job abilities have the same substance/weight, but each job I've used so far has at least a one or two really cool/good ones and the distinct nature of them all really alleviates potential grind monotony for me.

My newest favourites are the Thief's Sprint and the Cannoneer in general.

So, I've got nothing here (outside of the issues with Forked Tower). I could at least understand the MSQ and "lack of content" complaints, this seems like the clearest case of making mountains out of mole hills.

And I only just mastered 5 different jobs, how are people done with everything already and complaining about there being no content again?

I've got other interests and irl stuff to do.

There is a solid amount of content, you just lived in the game and did all of it in a week.

[aotopmha]

I revisited Attack on Titan's English dub for a few episodes and I think I kind of hate it.

For how loud and unsubtle this series can be, it's still honest and understands the gravity of what it is depicting.

So I think snarky Marvel movie scripting doesn't work for it.

And I'm kind of thinking about how badly it would effect the later seasons if this kind of scripting was kept up.

(Though I guess looking at impressions on the rest of the dub, it seems like they at least toned it down somewhat.)

[aotopmha]

[aotopmha]

★ 【飞机云君】 「 madoka 」 ☆ ✔ republished w/permission ⊳ ⊳ follow me! insta • x • bsky

[aotopmha]

This Ivan Bilibin inspired piece was made for Lost in Cult and their issue on the Final Fantasy series! It features cover art by Yoshitaka Amano, interviews with game devs, and much more! Go check it out!

[aotopmha]

Thank you, Seto.

[aotopmha]

[aotopmha]

(Chapter 59)

In hindsight, I think this might be my favourite chapter of at least this half of the arc.

Working through this arc, I keep going back to it as sort of a central thematic pocket.

We have the same sentiment come from a bunch of characters on both sides, so the really obvious criticism here is just how much it hits you over the head with it, but again, I like how this story is willing to interrogate the nature of its own violence.

In the scenes above I like how Armin's experience is related to Mikasa's. The further I get into my reread, the more I feel like their friendship is always underplayed in discussion, I think it really is much more developed than people give it credit for.

I also like that the anime leads with Kenny's appearance and this section of the story because I think it's a much better first introduction in terms of showing the conflict instead of telling it.

By making the section more compact, some character moments do get lost, but I think the issue of redundancy is lessened considerably.

I've seen this arc being simplified down to it telling the audience just how much humanity itself is the monsters, when I think the emphasis is actually on individual perspective and how everyone thinks what they're doing is right (for the future of humanity).

The Survey Corps stands against the suppression of information and technology and want to survive, while the royalists (and by proxy basically Uri) view what they're doing as keeping peace within the walls.

Uri in particular views maintaining the system as creating a paradise for the people before they're wiped out by the outside world, with the walls serving as a deterrent for as long as they can live in peace.

So, with the information we now have in hindsight, knowing what the royal family stands for especially helps a great deal in putting together this arc's thematic ideas.

The sentiment is that humanity within the walls should be able to protect itself: the better technology would help in the defense against a Marleyan attack (or simply just help defeat the Titans on the island) and fighting the suppression of information would allow the general populace to know about the position they're in relation to the bigger world.

It's about the government of a nation ignoring a threat to their people and just letting them be invaded/killed when the time comes.

It's pretty straight-forward dystopian writing, but I like it.

Again, there is an imperialist reading to this sentiment where this poor, poor nation just can't have its military back (because this can be an imperialist talking point), but this is also a common way of framing the armament of an invaded nation as aggression rather than self-defense.

But I just don't see this series' foundational substance and framing being this insidiously conspiratorial.

I don't buy it being a dogwhistle narrative because all of the extremists are characters acting based on "understandable reasons" (but are still evil) and all of the "good guys" are aware of their fallibility and at some point or another make dumb mistakes.

There is a clear bias towards the scouts, but never a completely overwhelming one and even the most positively portrayed scouts have very specific personal/selfish reasons driving them.

Erwin, probably the most positively portrayed member of the Survey Corps, ultimately just wanted closure for his father's dream. There is a very specific measured humanity to all of the characters.

I also don't buy the possible narrative intention that the scouts are wrong to go outside of the walls or that all of this character/thematic complexity/writing effort is there as just a formality, when the same point could've been made by very specific easier and faster narrative choices.

Just make the Titans monsters with nothing else going for them. That's it, got your fascist/imperialist fantasy right there and it still could masquerade as the same zombie series for those who "don't know to look into it".

It's absolutely possible, but I'm leaning towards the more simple answer, which is cognitive dissonance.

Since Isayama's alleged controversial statements are a decade plus in the past (doing some research, I discovered that controversial blog post is at this point 15 years old) and he doesn't seem to have doubled down on any of them, I'm going with the more good faith read of him just not realising the contradictory nature of anything he said and those specific views not really reflecting in the story.

But who knows, maybe this turns out to be the case at some point. It's still entirely possible considering some of the talking points the story uses at all.

(Maybe I, as a very naive person, really have fallen for a dogwhistle all of this time. After all, nobody is immune to it.)

For now, I continue going with the much easier "face value" read for the story, though. I think everything just makes much more sense that way, from basic framing to thematic choices.

[aotopmha]

Stay safe protesting out there in the US, folks!

Sending EU support.

[aotopmha]

[aotopmha]

a drawing of dulia-chai and chai-nuzz!! they're my favourite pair TuT

[aotopmha]

Witness

[aotopmha]

Oh wow, one of my new AoT posts has almost 70 notes.

Didn't expect there to still be so much love for it.

I mean, many reactions for the series still seem to get a bunch of views, but these days even the most popular stuff sort of has a relevancy window.

I guess the series really is that much of a phenomenon, huh.

[aotopmha]

(Chapter 59 and 139)

I promised (myself) I wouldn't touch the last few chapters before I reached there on my revisit, but here I go cheating.

Out of all elements, it's the story's reluctance to completely condemn Eren that stood out to me the most on this reread.

At this point I've read/watched a number of stories about genocide and I feel like none of them try to soften the blow for a character more than this one.

Yes, Eren drops his facade and it's clear his flawed thought process is what lead the story here, so he's definitely not the perfect saviour certain factions of the fanbase wanted him to be.

But after every acknowledgement of his actions, there is an attempt to find a good side to it.

Armin is horrified by his decision to kill 80% of humanity, but he's grateful his aim was to save them. The infamous panel isn't about him thanking him for the genocide, it's about wanting to share his burden, but does this make it any better?

Out of all characters, Eren's the voice of reason when it comes to his death and Armin tries to get through to him every step of the way.

Everyone is frustrated by Eren's actions, but still grateful that they were saved.

And we end on Mikasa remembering him for wrapping his scarf around her.

Because the final word is always positive, any negative consequences might come off as a formality.

But at the same time, the entire scene with Armin comes across to me as a final attempt to reach Eren.

Yes, Paths is technically timeless, as we see from the passing of time in chapter 139, but chronologically, it's in chapter 131, right before Hange's death, which I probably consider the point of no return when it comes to Eren.

And it explains why Eren refuses to talk in any scenes after. He said they're done talking and will be killing each other after their talk.

---

One of the reasons Eren wants to die are his suicidal thoughts, rather than any kind of desire to take accountability. In a way, him staying alive would've been the far worse punishment because he would have had to deal with the consequences of his actions, and Armin wishes to soften this blow.

He wants to carry on Eren's legacy of fighting for humanity's freedom and make it so none of Eren's suffering was for nothing.

And upon my revisit, especially, I can't say it didn't make sense or was unearned.

Eren is a product of his environment, from his own experiences to the lessons he learns from the people around him.

Him and the 104th went through some awful experiences just during Trost and it kept going through the FT and Clash arcs and beyond it, with a lot of death in their path.

And I think based on this, Eren unmistakably had the aim of freeing humanity among all of the more selfish and destructive thoughts (and also being a host to a prehistoric worm which gave him clairvoyance that destroyed his mind).

I posted chapter 59 as a comparison because I feel like it's what chapter 139 is referencing.

And I'm not sure I can condemn the empathy towards him in that sense. He's a member of a minority that aimed for change, but with his flawed perspective guiding him, did it in the worst way possible.

And yeah, this is where the victimhood complex relating to imperialism comes into play because it's really common for these ideologies to play the victim and deflect any responsibility by saying "it's not their business" what happened in the past and they shouldn't be responsible for it because they're not the ones who did it, often citing ideas in the vein of "everyone else is doing it too" and "we made their lives better".

There is often a gleeful self-congratulatory, self-important aspect to it where military retaliation towards them is seen as a "see, I told you, you did it to yourselves" moment.

I think Historia's letter is the final piece of the puzzle here.

It posits that even if Eren's more radical legacy has truth to it, they have to be above it.

Hence Armin's faith in being able to reason with Paradis. They have to keep the faith in the good of humanity, even if Eren's actions and the Jaegerists are such a strong sentiment against it.

So I think the story disagrees with the extremism, but not the spirit, which I personally don't mind on a moral level, but I also do put all of this under somewhat of a yellow flag because it can also be a fashy talking point.

Those protesters are just so violent and are only there to vandalise the streets (and not fight for their rights), you know? And violence just isn't the way, you know?

It's a tactic used to shut down any kind of opposition as barbaric.

---

Finally, I got to thinking that the presentation of the chapter is so cramped and there are so many different sentiments thrown out there in a relatively small space, that everyone zooms in on a different bit.

I actually think the clearest throughlines in there are about OG Ymir, which is basically Mikasa freeing someone from an abusive relationship and Levi's fulfilled mission, which in the same ballpark as Armin's PoV, is about the scouts' sacrifices and whether they were for nothing or not.

In a way I like how implicatory everything is because what you focus on is entirely dependant to your interests and moral compass.

With presentation like this, you are going to see what you want to see, but this makes it a bit more difficult to read for someone like me who likes sussing out the authorial intention.

I'm personally fascinated by how this entire series is dependant on one character's flawed mindset and how there was a fairly clear window of opportunity to choose differently, but it wasn't taken.

For others, it might be about whether the result was worth it or not or whether the story portrays what Eren did as morally correct or not or even how OG Ymir comes across.

In the end, I think I like the ambiguity because it can lead into interesting discussions in good faith environments.