#*glory watches snk

[byunsole]

worked normal hours, watched snk w bf and ate sushis, went to my pilates classes, dinner, genshin, and now. the glory.

[inhonoredglory]

i dont think you ever received my last ask a while back, but now i gotta know what ur favorite duos are! (platonic or romantic!) - armin anon

o h mygod forgive me dear armin nonnie!!! the last weeks of school threw me off and then the trollhunters trailer hit and I got distracted. but I hope you’re still out there hearing my answer. I really have fun chatting with you, so thanks for this second question!

My favorite duos, oh gosh. I could even talk about my favorite trios, the character relationships in SNK are so well developed and rich.

Erwin and Levi

My top duo is of course Erwin and Levi. (My summer project is to make a receipts AMV of all the wonderful things Isayama and others have said about the pair.) Their closeness is something else, built on such mutuality, maturity, and love. Erwin looks like a devil to everyone but Levi, who sees his innocent humanity; Levi looks cold and unemotional to everyone but Erwin, who sees his compassionate nature. Erwin changed Levi’s worldview––allowing him to see beyond his own small world to a bigger one, where freedom was possible. Levi saw the darkest side of Erwin’s heart, and still trusted him implicitly, believing in him and selflessly giving up his own need for Erwin to stay in his life in order to give him peace and redemption instead. And as Isayama said,

“Levi had always seen Erwin’s goal of doing things for humanity’s future as an unimaginably altruistic act, and made it his life’s mission to reach the same heights.”

And with that final act of letting Erwin die, Levi did just that––become selfless in the hardest way possible. To let go of the person that gave your life meaning, because in death was healing, in death was innocence, in death was love.

Are they romantic or platonic? To me, love is beyond those labels. People can be romantic with each other and not really have real love. People can have real, dedicated love and never ever kiss or want to. Levi and Erwin share an undeniable soulmate bond, and while there is definite signs of romantic Eruri (Isayama hinting Levi’s type isn’t women, but tall people; Erwin getting flirty in supplemental short stories), to me the important part is that they are each other’s special person and that’s why I adore them so much.

(Artist: rozavay)

Jean and Armin

Because Jean and Armin were two of my first faves from the show, I naturally gravitated to the pair. What I adore about them is how much each one of them defends the other, desperately rushing to each other’s aid on the battlefield and trusting one another. Going through the manga, I found a really touching moment when Armin was fixing a prisoner's gag (the man who had sexually harassed him) and getting visibly disturbed. Jean felt that, and intercepted the moment, getting Armin out of that situation. Jean’s actually really good at detecting people’s emotions, so it was beautiful to see him sensitive and caring with Armin.

I don’t see them as romantic, but I enjoy some good Jearmin just the same, and there’s something to be said for Jean’s canonical jealousy of Armin spending so much time with Eren. Armin’s just that good a catch LOL.

Jean and Marco

Marco changed Jean’s life, gave him a reason to be more than himself. He believed in Jean, trusted him, and encouraged him. I find it incredibly moving that Jean keeps coming back to Marco to remind himself why he chose the life he did.

I totally got on board the ship with this amazing fic about the two of them: To Everything There Is A Season by flecksofpoppy

Canonically, I don’t believe it’s romantic, but they share the deep, beautiful bond of one person owing their entire life’s purpose and sense of meaning from the other.

(Artist: kaa05n2)

Bertholdt and Reiner (+Titan Trio)

Since Bertholdt was my bean in season 2, I really felt drawn to his relationship with Reiner. My sister loved Reiner too, so this duo was a good one for us both to enjoy. Bertholdt was always so insecure in himself, afraid to do or say anything in the big scary, foreign world he was dropped into as a child warrior. He relied on Reiner, and yet so often he couldn’t access him emotionally, since he was dealing with their tragic lives in his own way. He had to grow to be Reiner’s anchor, while still awash himself. They fought for each other more than for their homeland, fought for the things they both came to care about growing up on Paradis, and they were inseparable. Bertholdt risked his mission to see if Reiner was okay in the Return to Shigonshina arc, and he drew strength from Reiner’s trust in him to make his own choices and act on his own in that battle as well. As much as it pains me to see him fulfill his character growth in such a dark way, I still have a spot in my heart for him and his friendship with Reiner.

Levi and Furlan (+Underground Trio)

I got hit in the face with this relationship after I read the No Regrets manga, which shows so much more than the anime version regarding the equality in trust between Levi and Furlan. In the manga, Levi didn’t have subordinates (denying the term for them), he had friends who he had made his family. Levi bet all their lives on Furlan’s plan, and when he went on his first mission, he had such a falling out with him because Levi wanted to protect him and Isabel. Furlan was so grieved by the darkness in both Levi and Isabel’s hearts and put everything on the line because he believed he needed to get them out of the darkness of the underground. Their relationship is a beautiful insight into Levi’s early years and his inherent compassion and deep care for others.

^ The Levi Ackerman actually stopping to hearken to the command of someone else (who’s not Erwin lol), trusting in Furlan’s bigger plans with this stranger than just merely kicking him out, like Levi wanted to do.

Armin and Eren (+Shigonshina Trio)

The entire rooftop sequence and serumbowl shows how much Eren (and Mikasa) care and love Armin. In a way, Eren and Armin are the mirror for Levi and Erwin, with Erwin’s bigger dreams of the world outside the walls turning Levi’s motivations, built on tragedy, into something positive and forward-looking. Likewise, Eren’s darker need for anger and revenge is turned into something good and innocent when he shares in Armin’s dream. Armin’s hope makes Eren feel confident. He believes in him even when Armin doesn’t believe in himself. And of course, that painful way Armin tells him, “I’d never lie to you, would I?” because he knows Eren would never let him go through with his selfless mission if he’d known what he meant to do. To Eren, Armin is a better person than he’d ever be.

Now why couldn’t we have just ended the whole show right here lol?

Ymir and Historia

One of the few explicitly canon romantic couples in SNK! Their story is tragic, beautiful, and inspiring. Each one of them telling the other to be free of society’s expectations of them, to stop living for other people and to live for themselves––together. The change in Ymir, going from someone selfish to someone who would die for Historia’s happiness, is a gut-wrenching thing to watch. Their shared arc is complex, messy, and struck through by the goodness of a young girl who found the humanity in someone who never thought themselves worthy of love.

aaa I think that covers my favorite duos in SNK!

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Levi Ackerman - Last man standing

Four years ago, when Erwin died, after I reluctantly started to come to terms with the devastating shock and disbelief, the thing that hurt me the most was the knowledge that Levi would have to go on living and breathing in a world without Erwin in it.  It just seemed so Impossible, so unfathomably sad that Levi would have to go on fighting, desperately trying to fulfil his vow to Erwin and their fallen comrades, after loosing almost everyone he ever cared about.

The Answers book, which was published in Japan the same day that chapter 84 came out, provided a small crumb of comfort, by reiterating what an important presence Erwin was in Levi’s life.  And later the Character Guide clarified unambiguously that Levi chose to save Erwin by allowing him to die, however it also twisted the knife cruelly by confirming that Levi had lost someone irreplaceable to him.  And that’s what really hurt; knowing that Erwin was gone, the relentless irrevocability of his death.  Because despite the fantastical nature of the SnK world, death for everyone but the Titans and the Shifters was visceral, permanent and very, very real.  Once a person died that was it, they were gone in all but memory.  The only glimmer of hope was Isayama’s love of flashbacks and his hint that, even though Erwin was dead, he might draw him again.  And bless Yams, he turned out to be as good as his word.  Erwin might have been dead and gone, but he lived on in his comrades’ memories as an inspiration and a vow.  But he was never more than a memory, an absence at the heart of the story.  

Despite the revelations of the post-Shiganshina arcs, and the realization that there was a whole other plane of existence that Eldians could be transported to, the Paths dimension, there was never a hint of any kind of afterlife for anyone but the Shifters and Ymir herself.  That was left for the fic writers to imagine, and boy did we imagine it.  We’ve written reams of stories featuring Erwin watching over Levi from beyond, some of which I’ve linked below.

Consequently, the appearance of what seems to be some kind of legit afterlife in the canon world is unexpected to say the least.  It’s still not remotely clear what kind of afterlife Isayama has presented us with here.  It’s doesn’t appear to be the Paths dimension, it looks very much like the “real” world. Previously when we’ve seen the Survey Corps dead they’ve been mute shades, bearing silent witness to their comrades trials and sufferings.  

This is very, very different, Erwin and the others seem real and corporeal and conscious of events going on in the world.  Seeing Erwin’s open smiling face melted my heart but knowing that he watched the plane carrying Levi take off almost destroyed me.

So where does all this leave Levi? On the one hand, knowing that Erwin and his soldiers are watching over him, waiting there for him in some kind of apparently benign afterlife eases the pain of his suffering somewhat, but knowing that he is not just the last of the Veterans, but the last of his generation is soul destroying.  

Ever since it became clear that Levi would not be going out in a blaze of glory immediately after Erwin’s death, my two greatest fears have been that some plot device would prevent him from being able to kill Zeke, and that he would be the last man standing, alone at the end of the world.  So far, I’ve been right on the first count, and it looks horribly likely that I might be right on the second count too.

There’s been endless speculation about how the story will end, and as far as I’m concerned the absolutely worst possible ending for Levi would be for Eren to wipe out humanity and then erase the memories of the people of Paradis, leaving them with no recollection that humanity had been destroyed in the name of their “freedom”.  Only Levi (and Mikasa? Will she survive? I don’t know.) would be left to live on, alone with the knowledge of his failure. Knowing that he failed to save humanity, failed to honour his comrades sacrifice, failed to fulfill his vow to Erwin, failed to even die.

I hope beyond hope that this doesn’t happen, but as things stand, it could be a very real possibility.  There doesn’t seem to be any one or anything that can stop Eren right now. Also the mind wipe is the one power of the Founding Titan that we haven’t seen come into play yet.  We know that Eren is willing to use it though, as he’s already threatened Historia with it.  Why would Yams go out of his way all those chapters ago to reveal that Ackermans are immune to the mind wipe, if it wasn’t going to come into play at some stage?  I sincerely hope I’m wrong here, but this has been niggling at the back of my mind of years now.

The other thing that makes me fear that Levi will still be alive by the end of the series is that Hanji got the death than many of us hoped for for him.  Lots of people have already commented on this.  Hanji really did have the perfect ending; they got to say goodbye to their soldiers, flirt with the cute Titan shifter, say a touching farewell to Levi, before dedicating their heart to humanity and going out heroically, fighting to buy time for their comrades to escape.  And as if that wasn’t enough, they wake up in the afterlife where they get to complain to Erwin about how tough it was being commander, and constant faithful Moblit is waiting there to help them to their feet.  

It’s beyond perfect, and it’s everything that Hanji deserved.  But it’s also what Levi deserved, and now I fear he won’t get that, because as many others have already pointed out, with the end of the story looming, it’s unlikely that Isayama is going to repeat himself.

Never have Kenny’s final words rung more hollow and more true. Everyone is a slave to something and Levi is a slave to his strength, to being a hero in the service of humanity.  Maybe there was a glimmer of truth in what Eren said after all.  Ackermans may not be slaves to their lieges, but they are slaves to their strength and their power.

I haven’t quite given up hope yet though, and odd as it might sound, but I’m pinning my hopes on Eren and Zeke, both of whom Levi has sworn to kill.  I don’t think Levi will be the one to attempt to stop Eren, that responsibility surely has to fall to Mikasa and Armin, but Zeke’s ass belongs to Levi. Not like that.  Zeke has been MIA for months now and it’s entirely unclear if he’s alive, dead, or trapped in Paths limbo for eternity.  But if he is still alive in any meaningful way, and he re-enters the fray, that will surely give Levi his last chance for salvation and absolution.  Surely if anyone has earned peace and redemption, and a place in the afterlife beside Erwin and his friends, its Levi.  Come on Isayama, is that really too much to ask?

Fic Recs

After by @zorthania​

Promises by @world-war-eruri​

One last night (To say goodbye) by @darkcyradis​

remember these walls we built (chapter 25) by @galpalpetraral​

Almost by @lostcauses-noregrets​

At Last... by @lostcauses-noregrets​

Promise by @lostcauses-noregrets​

[foxfindyour486]

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[sahara-solaris-solace]

In Defence of RBA from SNK/ AOT in chapter 96 ( The Door of Hope)

It sickens me that most people are laughing and saying Reiner deserved it, saying Annie did not kicked him hard enough, as well as saying Bertholdt simping for Annie. Now I understand we live in a fucked up society that only those in their twisted version of strong can survive and sadly we saw them more than saw survivors ( example a fraud got away with a lot of money, a rapist got away due to his daddy being someone important, act)

Here’s what I truly viewed in the chapter, WAIT, scene!!!!!

Marcel’s death is ACTUALLY a tipping point for everything that ends in catastrophe, as well as revealing their true colors!!!!

Yes, a tipping point of where everything is no longer in glory or being in a fairy tale trope.

Wanna know why Annie considered the mission a failure as soon as their friend died?? Hmm, let’s see!!! Aside from having to keep everyone alive for Marley’s nation, who is the one who’s the most level- headed? Who is the one who always break up fights? Who is the one who always consult with everyone and have the charisma to lead people and have them listen with no questions? The award goes to Marcel Galliard, AKA leader, AKA jaws titan and AKA the bridge!!

Then we have Annie Leonhardt, a skilled hand combatant with zero social skills and empathy to help those in need! Bertholt Hoover, a genius who’s marksmanship is superior to his intellect but lack the guts to do anything to take actions or charge as he’s willing to serve as a lapdog! Ooh, then we have Reiner Braun, who’s loyalty is too great that blinded his reality as well as having no skills other than being assertive and borderline brainwashed!

There, we have it!!! A catastrophe! Marcel’s death demonstrates that the other members lacked an important asset that leads to a proper group, leading. Most of them are wrapped with their own personal issues to dismiss the thoughts of taking charge or stay focused for the mission. They followed the flow as while they all listened to Marley’s authorities during missions with enemy nations, the three of them NEVER thought of taking charge or thinking ahead!!!!

I don’t blame Reiner for running away, who can stay calmly to watch a FUCKING mindless titan just appeared out of nowhere to eat your friend?? all while his other friends all stared in shock and horror. Bertholt followed suit, as I mentioned before, he followed Reiner as he’s connected to the mission.

For those of you who said Annie awesome, Annie kicked him harder, FUCK YOU!!! YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH!!! YOU LITERALLY SEE IT AS A HUMOR, SOMETHING TO LAUGH AT BECAUSE REINER IS A CRYBABY!!! ALL WHILE WE USED TO BE CRYBABIES BECAUSE OF MUCH MORE PETTY THINGS COMPARED TO PUTING YOUR LINE IN WAR!!!! STOP BEING A BLIND DEVIL AND READ THE CHAPTER THOROUGHLY TO UNDERSTAND!!!

When Annie give Reiner a piece of mind, do you SEE her smirking or smiling? Do you literally SEE her laughing when she kicked Reiner when she reached to where Reiner ran off to?? FUCK NO!!! SHE IS FUCKING SWEATING AND ALSO IN THE VERGE OF CRYING!!!! WHY?! BECAUSE SHE’S ANGRY THAT REINER DID NOT WANT TO SAY TO GENERAL MAGATH OF HIS FAULT?! IT’S WAY, WAY DARKER, PEOPLE!!! BECAUSE DEEP IN HER MIND, SHE KNEW NO MATTER WHAT EXCUSE THEY COME OUT, ALL OF THEM WILL BE DOOMED TO DEATH!!!! NO ONE WILL BE SPARED!!!! THEIR FAMILIES WILL BE SENT TO PARADISE WHILE THEY WILL BE FED TO OTHER WARRIORS!! AFTER ALL, MARLEYANS NEVER GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ELDIANS MENTAL HEALTH AS ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS BEING A SUPERPOWERHOUSE!!!! TO THEM, YOU CANNOT FAIL!!! YOU MUST ATONE YOUR ANCESTORS SINS, YADA, YADA, YADA!!!! She is FUCKING sweating and crying angrily that it’s not normal!!! It’s not a case of a crush has a crush on other girls or the girls found out your crush!!! IT’S FUCKING SOMETHING ADULTS NEED TO THINK ONLY!!! THE SCENE MAKES IT MUCH MORE SADDENING AND ANGSTY!!!! ANNIE WANTS TO GO BACK, EVEN IF IT MEANS THAT SHE WILL FACE DEATH SENTENCE BECAUSE SHE MADE A PROMISE TO HER FATHER, TO AT LEAST SEE HIM ONE LAST TIME BEFORE HER DESIGNED DEATH!!!! WHICH MAKES IT FUCKING SAD!!!

Why Annie did not attack Bertholt??? Is it because she has a crush on him?? If you remembered, she DID scolded him as well, for running away FIRST with Reiner. She did not mentioned his name when she made a statement that Reiner’s death will not affect her is not because she cared for Bertholt, because he meekly followed her trail to go back to Marley, a small sign of cooperation that Annie sees as consideration. Annie stated about Reiner’s death is just a full brunt as she shows her usual selfish self, something she had done in the past when deemed necessary. Also, you have to know that the reason she was still pissed off at Reiner, but toned down at Bertholt is because Reiner kept making excuse, even BEFORE Annie stated her selfishness!!! That’s when he indirectly make a manipulation and assertiveness of the mission. Annie, who rightfully have mixed emotions, with wanting to meet her father, tired of Reiner’s BS brainwashed mind AND THEIR DEATH ROPE IN ROW, SNAP!!!! SHE MAINLY KICKED HIM TO KICK SOME SENSES TO HIM!!! TO WAKE TO REALITY.

It was an indirect way of saying “FUCK YOU!!!! WE ARE ALL IN THIS DIRE MESS AND YOU STILL HELD INTO THAT BULLSHIT!!!! WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!! WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!! EVERYONE ARE SELFISH AND LIARS AND I AM THE SAME BECAUSE I ONLY CARE ABOUT MY PROMISE!!!! YOU WANT TO WALLOW IN SELF PITY THEN DO, IT!!!! DO IT RIGHT NOW, TO PROVE YOURSELF!!!!!”, all while reverse psychology him, with Bertholt crying because, he was so used to be submissive that he cannot bear a stone face like usual. AND HE WAS THINKING OF HIS SICK FATHER, WHO WILL TURN INTO A TITAN SOON!!! HE WAS ALSO CRYING FOR HIS DEATH!!!

Reiner got the message! Even before he left Paradis, his mother kept feeing him false hopes that he quickly revert back to reality! He sees the mess they are in!!! While it was not entirely his fault, I REPEAT, NOT his fault, these are the screams of 11 years old who have no source of anger, as the main source is much more powerful and have their families hostage! He knew the situation! He cannot play pony anymore. He quietly stood up and attacked Annie, all while half strangling and hugging as an assurance AND resolution that he will take charge, HE WILL LEAD HIS TEAM AND GET THEM BACK HOME ALIVE!!!! By the end, both Annie and Bertolt agree not begrudgingly, but because they knew they have to show some important intel to make it up to their lost, as well as making sure Marcel’s death will not be in vain!

If Annie really hates Reiner to the core, she will fight back, I mean, after all, she is literally the strongest in combatant. She relented because even in her mind, it’s the right choice!!! To find any intel as a way for making up to their lost.

As for her hating Reiner, you can see from her point of view, right? She done all the legwork and while she is angry and annoyed with the two, but only scolded Reiner because he lorded himself too much on his split personalities, making blackmail to do THEIR ( Reiner & Bertholdt ) bidding “Marco death” by mentioning about her friendship which Reiner literally ENFORCED her to do from the start, as well as making her tag along with the false friendships!!! THEY ARE KILLERS THE MOMENT THEY DESTROYED WAL MARIA AND THERE’S NO ATONEMENT TO THAT!!! 

That’s it, then. Please don’t give blind judgements on Reiner should be killed more, Annie should do more, Bertholt is a coward, please, THEY ARE LITERALLY CHILDREN WHO MAY NOT BE BRAINWASHED, BUT THEY ARE DOING FOR THEIR FAMILIES WELLBEINGS AND WELLFARE FOR A BETTER LIFE!!!!

[midlandpansy]

MISCELLANEOUS FUN FACTS

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: In a committed relationship with Sawamura Daichi

FAVOURITE COLOUR: Royal blue

LIPSTICK OR CHAPSTICK: Chapstick

LAST SONG I LISTENED TO: Jackson - Trixie Mattel (feat. Orville Peck) has absolutely no right to go as hard as it does holy shit? 

LAST MOVIE I WATCHED: @pandabaozi and I just watched The Banana Splits Movie and it was terrible

TOP THREE TV SHOWS: rn my top three are comfort shows - Call the Midwife, Broadchurch, & Taskmaster 

TOP THREE SHIPS: FUCKING GOD UH DaiSuga, Reddie, ....and am I allowed to say JeanMarco even though I haven’t looked at SNK for literally like 5 years? Their dynamic truly just be ruining my whole ass life forever? 

BOOKS I’M CURRENTLY READING: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata & Black and British by David Olusoga - I also should be reading Anxious People by Frederik Backman but I have yet to begin because I am a bumhead. 

TAGGED BY: Tagged by queen @athenianite in all her glory 

TAGGING: @mudhorns @godcomplexes (TELL ME HOW MARRIED Y’ALL ARE) @olgg @brothuania @pandabaozi @girrsah @nneiljostenn and whomsoever else wishes

[incepstla]

Tag Game:

Thank you @tatakaeeren for the tag ♡♡♡

Anime Asks:

favorite anime: I would say snk it’s so dark, the compelling storytelling and world building I love everything about it. The anime score is a huge plus lol it always gets me hyped. I also really like dbz as well (it’s old I know) but I just love everything about that too the rich characters, transformations (even the screaming), the themes and messages stuck with me throughout the years.

least favorite anime: Probably School Days someone said it’s a good horror anime little did I know they were lying.

last anime you watched: Jujutsu Kaisen I’m still not caught up yet.

favorite anime movie: I really like Spirited Away. 

anime you cried hardest at: Probably snk sometimes it can get too much for me sjsjsj 

your comfort anime: I would say Given it’s just so I don’t know how to describe it but it’s a very realistic anime, the struggles and the happy moments in it. It always makes me happy watching it.

favorite anime character: If it hasn’t been obvious Levi is the love of my life, maybe I should be more obvious about it. xD

shoujo or shounen: Shounen, I’m picky about the shoujo I watch.

if you could shift into an anime universe, which one: Idk Kaichou wa maid-sama seems fun.

Music Shuffle:

Rules: 10 songs on shuffle, no skipping allowed

After Hours - The Weeknd

Where’s My Love - SYML

Happy - Leona Lewis

My December - Linkin Park

Dirty Paws - Of Monsters and Men

Hometown Glory - Adele

Wonderwall - Oasis

Bird - Billie Marten

The 1 - Taylor Swift

In My Veins - Andrew Belle

Tagging: (and anyone else who wants to do it)

@rivaille-13 @the-silver-field @xxgiveyourheartxx @regular-john-16278 @venialityyy @fugoukeijis @jaegerists @sstarphase @zuura @ackerwlw

[kdtheghostwriter]

SNK #132 - The Song of Life

Been some time since I’ve had to write a eulogy. I wanted to take my time with this one.

My favorite thing about Hange Zoe was their love of science and discovery. Their spirit is the same one that took humanity to orbit and then the Moon. It’s the same indominable curiosity that gave us electricity and jet propulsion. This love of discovery was often confused for a separate, but still fervent, love of Titans. The first we see of Hange is them gushing over Eren’s transformation. As such, earning the reputation of Crazy Titan Lady wasn’t exactly unearned, but it’s hardly the entire story.

I still agree with Erwin’s decision to name Hange the 12th Commander. Many of the advances to Paradis Island’s infrastructure were thanks to their emphasis Research & Development. You could argue that more time should have been spent on military strategy and you wouldn’t be wrong. That doesn’t make what they did wrong either. There was no right answer and Eren’s actions made them a doormat by default, etc. I’ve spent ages on that topic so I won’t digress.

 Hange has been haunted by their fallen comrades since before they left the island; they’ve felt their eyes on them. I didn’t see this as a death flag explicitly. Erwin himself dealt with massive guilt over the mountain of mangled corpses that piled ever higher on his watch. I figure it’s a feature of commanding a fighting force. Unless you’re Big Boss or someone adjacent the loss would get to you, especially if you were the last one standing. Hange still had the kids of course but all of their fellow vets save Levi were gone and had been for some time.

The choice to stay behind didn’t surprise me when it happened. As a writer I can tell you there comes a time when a character comes to the end of their allotted time in the story. (Sort of like us in the world I suppose.) This is not a methodical measurement, mind. At least, it isn’t for me. I go where the story tells me to. Isayama, as has been reported several times, often goes where his editors tell him to. In this case, there was nowhere else to go for Hange but down in a blaze of glory. Hange even said as much to Levi before leaving.

Levi says “Dedicate your heart,” and Hange responds by saying…

The 3DMG is already engaged. Probably to keep them from changing their mind. Whether or not this “has” to be done, it’s the point of no return. It’s no different from countless other soldiers who have gone down in battle. A significant theme of this series is the passing of the baton. Giving up your whole self so that your comrades can get a little bit further. Early on, it was done for the sake of Eren moving forward; here, it’s done for the sake of stopping him.

As an aside, I did like the reunion with the late members of the Survey Corps. Whenever Hange felt their gaze it was always in a dark and judgmental sense – the feeling of being a failure to them. Having Erwin greet them with a smile and a reassurance that they’d completed their mission gives you a sense of what the true spirit of this story is: cruel but beautiful. I did find it interesting also that everyone came to greet Hange in the divot made by the Titan that ultimately crushed them. The hunt never really ends, I suppose.

 As we draw ever closer to journey’s end, I wanted to this moment to extend my gratitude to everyone reading this. I don’t write on a set schedule and life obligations often prevent me from writing at all. Visitors and followers alike have been very understanding regarding this and I don’t want to give the impression that your patience has been taken for granted, or that I’m not completely grateful and thankful for both.

Time, in my opinion, is our most precious resource. We have but a finite amount to spend, so thank you all for spending a bit of it here. The next step approaches!

  Stray Thoughts

- A smart idea writing off Floch in the same chapter as another main character. A fitting end, being felled by an Ackerman. His arc from minor supporting character to secondary major antagonist was equal parts surprising and interesting. He was wrong but he earnestly believed he was the island’s only hope.

- Watching Mikasa connect the dots between Annie and Armin was a great bit of paneling. Isayama is quite good at telling a story with expressions and body language. Annie is out of the fight, but if Armin survives maybe the two of them will have a chance to unpack…all of this.

- One of my predictions for endgame was that only the continent of Marley would get stomped before Eren got thwarted. We’re about halfway toward that prediction coming true, but the crew should really get on the fast track now.

[ghostmartyr]

SnK 120 Thoughts

A Fleeting Moment.

You blinked and missed it.

Is there some sort of deadline that I am unaware of? Because I think this is the second chapter in a row that reads so YOLO that it carries the desperation of a death soon at hand.

Yes, that’s right.

This chapter.

Is a Zekesona.

Maybe it’s because I’m a heartless monster, but my predominant thought throughout this chapter--well, fine, we’re getting to the real one later, but mostly my thought was wow, we’re really just diving straight in to the plot magic.

I’m not going to stop calling it plot magic.

Starting out it might have been a deliberate attempt to avoid the grammar of all things Paths, but at this point... it’s here to make the plot go. Sense is optional.

.

.

Zeke, you’re fucking killing me.

I.

Let me. just.

Let me attempt to form words with my fingers. Or my head. Or anything at all. This chapter has beaten me. I read it, I consumed the information, and so help me, I think if I let myself, I would never stop laughing over this.

It’s not funny, it’s just.

This, as we have here, is the pinnacle of everything wrong with letting the Yeager Bros take the wheel of a car that is not only missing seat belts and brakes, but perhaps also a functioning wheel.

In the world that is still sort of maybe occupied by sanity, there’s. Zeke.

Holding his brother’s decapitated head.

While he and his brother have an extended Inception dream sequence to manage the fact that Eren should really be very dead.

Really, I could probably spare a few minutes on that, but I don’t want to, because the logistics of how dead Eren is, exactly, when years have to pass in the plot magic in the seconds it’s been since his head was shot off--

I feel like someone shot my head off.

So okay.

A dream level up, the fight goes on in excruciating slowmo.

Meanwhile, Zeke and Eren are.

Okay, yeah, can’t do it. Nope.

This is not a criticism of the writing, as of right now. Like, I have my severe hysteria because of course Zeke has spent his Inception time growing to surpass the chains the First King adorned himself with, and of course, for some unholy reason, those chains bind Zeke at all despite him rightly pointing out he’s not of the Reiss branch and Zeke not actually being the Founding Titan.

Those are things I am noting, and I am completely failing to have a reaction to them because my entire jaw is in pain from holding back laughter, but that is not my present comment.

My present comment.

Is that these two are fucking morons.

I do not mean that disrespectfully. I mean it with the full sincerity of someone who is absolutely okay with the text making them fucking morons.

But holy damn fuck these kids do not have a clue what they’re doing.

Zeke first meets Ymir Fritz when he nearly dies in an unexpected near-incidental suicide. That’s when he has his first hands-on experience with Paths.

Sorry, plot magic.

So um.

Both Eren and Zeke plan to finally make use of the Founder’s power by showing up at this place. They don’t know that at the time they make their plan, because it’s still new to them, they just know that they’re going to hold hands and stuff and somehow things will happen.

Eren thinks the things Zeke wants to happen are bullshit.

Shocking.

Zeke thinks the things Eren wants to happen are bullshit, despite having no clue what those things even are.

Shocking.

And like.

Neither one is getting what they want, because Eren can’t actually use the power he’s journeyed all this way to get, because if this were a real anime, Zeke would have pink hair of warning. Zeke’s royal blood matters more than Eren having the Titan.

Sort of.

Zeke can dismantle the chains on the Founding Titan that attach to him for some reason, but Eren seems to still be required to pull the trigger. (ETA)

So if Inception-verse did not exist, Eren would have just gotten whatever it is he’s after, which would be bad for Zeke by measure of it not being what Zeke wants, but because Inception-verse does exist, they have all the time in the world, Zeke has the means to get what he wants, only technically he doesn’t really because he still needs Eren to agree with him and that hasn’t happened yet.

All of this work.

All...

Good fucking what.

ALL OF THOSE DEAD BODIES, BOYS, AND NEITHER ONE OF YOU HAS JACK SHIT TO SHOW FOR IT.

SOMEHOW

BEYOND ALL COMPREHENSION

BOTH OF YOU ARE FAILING TO GET WHAT YOU WANT. BECAUSE OF THE VERY SIMPLE FACT THAT YOU NEVER TRULY BOTHERED TO UNDERSTAND THE PERSON OR THE POWER YOU WERE ASKING TO MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE.

EREN MISUNDERSTANDS THE NATURE OF THE FOUNDER.

ZEKE MISUNDERSTANDS HIS BABY BROTHER.

BOY I’M SURE GLAD WE’VE SPENT THIRTY CHAPTERS ON THE CLUSTERFUCK OF YOUR MUTUAL DECISIONS JUST TO FIND OUT NEITHER ONE OF YOU HAS A FUCKING CLUE HOW TO MAKE ANY OF THIS WORK.

YOU BROKE THE WORLD, FULLY CONFIDENT IN YOUR DUCT TAPE, ONLY TO DISCOVER THAT THE ROLL YOU WERE HOLDING WAS SOME OTHER COLLECTION OF TAPE THAT SOMEONE GAVE A SILVER PAINT JOB.

THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T GIVE CHILDREN GUNS.

THEY SHOOT THINGS.

YOU INCOMPREHENSIBLY DUMB FUCKS.

Once more, this is not a criticism of the writing. I think it’s very fair for Zeke and Eren to be interacting with forces beyond their understanding, and screw it all up badly. In Eren’s case, that force is some weird demigod demon who possibly sold their soul to the devil. In Zeke’s case, it’s the will to live.

Both very confusing things. It is perfectly reasonable for them to be having difficulties.

-pre-corpses screaming in the background, only in slowmo because the moment of Eren’s head being blown off hasn’t actually passed-

-Falco steaming in the dirt-

-all Eren’s friends risking their lives so they might maybe use the Founding Titan to fix this all up-

You can tell Eren and Zeke have a doctor for a father, because their elaborate plan depending on thousands of years of history and starting international incidents fails in the face of basic common sense.

No, I’m not done.

These would be the people who would change the world.

Eren.

This is why, when you were ten, your mother was already telling another ten-year-old to look after you. BECAUSE SHE KNEW. SHE KNEW THIS IS WHAT YOU WOULD CHOOSE TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE.

LO, BEHOLD THE NEW UNDERSTANDING OF CARLA’S TEARS AS HER CHILDREN LEAVE HER TO HER DEATH.

IF ONLY EITHER OF YOU HAD A BRAIN.

I’m sorry, I know I should be making comments on other parts of the chapter, but this is all just so typical, and so blisteringly obvious an outcome, and.

Well, we got a lot of nice shots of Grisha and his family. Yay.

Plus--

Oh.

Fuck.

No no no no no, no, I don’t want that.

The thought occurred that this probably is one of the many functions of the plot magic’s oddness around people remembering things they shouldn’t, and blah blah blah Eren crying at the start of the series, but...

Grisha sees Zeke for a moment. Just a moment, but he taps into their link in the Paths.

If Mikasa goes back to watch the memory of Eren sleeping while he’s supposed to be collecting firewood, I have objections. I don’t know what they are, but there’s a visceral reaction of how dare you if that’s where this is all heading.

But you know, that’s for people who do things like speculation about things that aren’t related to people with the last name Reiss, so not my problem.

Anyway, the flashbacks are not a surprise. Grisha loves Eren. He makes his mistakes with Zeke, and comes to regret them terribly. He becomes a better man, and leaves his obsession behind to hold his new family.

This explains what happens the night he kills the Reiss family very well.

In that moment, he must have felt, so keenly, that this is all his fault. He walks away from the Founder. He leaves his mission. He leaves the power behind.

The walls fall, and in the hands of the Reisses, the Founder can do nothing to assist.

His wife dies.

The obsession returns, and Grisha’s last act is saddling Eren with all of his mistakes. Because he learned from his old ones, but he found that those lessons just destroyed the new life he comes to love. Grisha abandons his cause, and Carla dies. Eldians die. Marley creates more victims.

How many people suffer needlessly because Grisha hesitates?

That’s not a burden he takes to well, and the Grisha in these memories never wanted his last moments with Eren to be what they were. It’s one more piece to the insanity that took hold that night. One more tragedy.

When Kruger gives Grisha the Attack Titan, he tells Grisha to love someone inside the walls. The instruction becomes to make a family, but its root is in love. The important part is that Grisha loves someone. Otherwise, the cycle continues.

Grisha loves his sons. He abuses one and nearly ruins him, and takes the next and loves him properly. That’s the son who rejects the idea that they should all die. He’s been given a life that he understands has glory in even its beginning moments, and understands how horrendous it is that Zeke would remove generations of future moments.

The problem that continues, however, is one that I imagine we’ll be addressing with future flashback episodes.

Zeke loves his little brother. Until time allows otherwise, he takes it for granted that his precious little brother will see things his way. He needs so little convincing to bring Eren into the fold. Even before he knows how much control he truly has, he fully accepts Eren.

He doesn’t know Eren.

Eren knows Zeke, because the truth of Zeke’s heart is in this plan.

He knows Zeke, and doesn’t do anything with that knowledge.

Eren and Zeke use each other to reach this place, and in the end, their failure to be there for one another results in neither one being able to wield the power that their union creates.

There might be love there, but it’s the ruined kind Grisha bestows on Zeke. Control is what matters. Reaching the end is what matters.

“Your wife. You child. Even someone on the street. It does not matter. Love someone inside the walls. If you can’t, we’re doomed to repeat it all again. The same history. The same mistakes. Again and again.”

The mistake Eren and Zeke make is the opposite of the one their father chooses in this memory. He puts his love for his family over his mission.

Eren and Zeke prioritize their mission so deeply that they might as well be strangers, no matter how often they refer to each other as brothers. Of course it’s a disaster.

The audience has been waiting for Eren’s side of this story for years, because we’ve watched him grow up. We’ve watched him struggle and triumph and lose himself, and none of that was enough to establish the train of thought that led to these choices that Zeke is so proud of him for making, so it’s been a known thing to us that he’ll have some sort of eventual reveal (which we’re still waiting on; this chapter just does us the favor of confirming that we are waiting).

Zeke wants to confirm Eren’s mindset before they kick things off, since he has the luxury of time in this space.

He never bothers to confirm Eren’s thoughts out in the living world. Not actively. Eren lies, and Zeke lets it pass as enough.

These two never try to help each other. They use each other up.

Zeke can swear to be there for Eren, can swear to set him free, but he does not see who his brother is, and Eren, knowing exactly what kind of person Zeke is, chooses to ignore that in favor of playing the long con.

They fail.

They fail their family by failing to see them as such, and so fail every other task they sought to accomplish.

The story’s forcing them to deal with that now, since they have so much time, but it is so easy to see why this happens. They’re desperate, and they grab their lifelines, and they decide that if there’s something wrong, it can wait.

In the metaphor, that’s fine. They need to stop drowning.

But they see each other as a lifeline before they see each other as siblings.

Grisha sees Zeke as a tool before he sees him as a son.

The same mistakes, over and over.

Some more familiar than others.

We’ve reached the above thing.

What I’m referencing is that really, all through this chapter my only concrete thought was Eren looks a lot like Frieda. Naturally not greatly evident in the shot that’s actually relevant to why I’m bringing it up. Why should I get nice things.

Like. A lot. To the point where it starts to feel intentional, not the result of my brain linking everything back to the Reiss lands. Eren’s hair doesn’t part like Grisha’s or Carla’s, and conveniently we’ve got the comparisons readily available. He has Frieda’s. The young woman his father took the Founding Titan from.

After a long series of consensual (with heavy sarcastic quotes, yes, but putting that aside for the moment) sacrifices, Frieda and Eren are the first in recent history to have their consent overridden. Frieda’s ripped to pieces by Grisha, and has her family slaughtered by him. Hours later, understanding nothing of either Titan he’s inheriting, Eren takes up the mantle.

Eren first sees Frieda through her eyes, looking in a mirror, and I absolutely know I’m reading too much into this, but give me a sec of indulgence. I rarely get to talk about Frieda in these posts.

Frieda, the one who Eren really does look bizarrely like, is Zeke’s foil.

In the two shots above, we have an older half-sibling using their powers to convince their younger sibling to see the world they want them to.

Zeke’s having his difficulties, but Frieda has none.

Frieda has a loving relationship with her little sister, and touches her head to Historia’s gently.

Zeke bashes his head to Eren’s forcefully.

Frieda loves Historia. She has no reason but love to come and pay her visits. She helps her learn to read, she rides horses with her, and provides her company.

Historia has all those memories taken away. Their relationship only exists on Frieda’s terms until five years after Frieda’s death.

In an attempt to keep this post from turning into me shouting about how the Reiss family is symbolic of the manga as a whole, and Historia needs to come back and rightfully re-dethrone Eren as the main protagonist, I’ll be brief:

Frieda screws Historia up.

She adores her little sister, but in a world without Frieda, Historia is left with neglect and an overwhelming sense that no one wants her to be alive. Frieda routinely takes away the memories that prove that belief wrong. For complicated reasons that a teenager shouldn’t be expected to handle, but Historia’s problems are still actively exacerbated by Frieda forcing her will on Historia.

Eren has more say in what his brother’s trying to pull, thanks to his own plot magic, but we see the problem, with the same dynamic.

Zeke loves Eren.

He can’t see past his view of the world to see Eren well enough to try to do what’s best for Eren.

This is not a collaboration. It’s two people fiercely opposed who have put that argument off until the last possible second rather than approach one another as equals.

Eren’s head is blown off. He’s due to be dead.

Zeke is still trying to rescue him from his own free will.

Love without respect is useless. It’s what turns the emotion selfish.

Idiots.

I’m torn on what this chapter means for future chapters, because I don’t see how Eren and Zeke are moving past this roadblock without finally dealing with the issues that landed them here, aaaand theoretically that means that Eren’s plan wins.

I guess we get to look forward to what that means if that’s the case.

But Eren’s head is still kind of. Not. On his body.

Which makes me think that whatever decision makes it out of Inception, it’s probably going to be one that alters the reality they’re playing with, and that is really hard to do satisfyingly.

Those are problems for another month, though.

I have trouble calling this chapter good, because a lot of it is. well, what did you expect when you chose to do things like this? There’s some satisfaction in the fact that the characters are truly being respected as the numbskulls they’ve behaved as, but that does little to make the overall situation better.

Thankfully, emotional flashbacks pander to my needs directly, so this will be a satisfying trainwreck, but, uh.

Yeah.

Local siblings don’t listen to each other on family roadtrip down memory lane, feat. apocalypse in the background. That is the chapter.

It needs to be drawn as the Renaissance painting it clearly is in spirit.

[omgthinkinghardworld]

About SnK 113 and 114

Before going into the content of these chapters, I would like to talk about a structural matter: time. I am just very surprised that Isayama has the luxury of taking his sweet time making his characters suffer, instead of advancing with the story. I am surprised he is allowed to by his publisher, given that the end of Shingeki no Kyojin has been already announced.

In my opinion, Isayama´s narrative has always been slow, his story just doesn´t have the gift of synthesis. At the time, I just took it as a trait of his work and got used to it. But since the begining of the Marley Arc, this characteristic has increased, and in the latest couple of chapters it was painfully obvious, especially on chapter 113.

I just think that Isayama is taking too much time to tell a story which main guidelines have already been discovered a long time ago. Since Ymir´s speech in the woods and by her letter to Historia, most manga readers have intuited that the warrior kids were not evil but coming from a similar terrible situation as the people inside the walls. I feel I didn´t need a year long explanation about that. Of course Zeke has a very traumatic childhood, he wouldn´t be as he is now if it weren´t like that. I don´t want to say that Isayama shouldn´t have narrated this, of course he had to, but, from my point of view, he is taking a lot of time to say things we already know, without adding some sort of original type of narrative which would justify such amount of time invested.

That said, I am going to the content

About chapter 113

-Floch is really going out of control here. He is a highly unpleasant character, but I am really interested in seeing where and how he is going to end. For me, Floch represents the resentment of the “normal people”, these which are not particularly clever (as Erwin, Hanji and Armin), not specially strong (as the Ackermans), nor have special powers or are “destined” to archive something world-changing (as Eren), but still were outside the wall looking for something, most of them dying on the journey, painfully and without any kind of glory. Keith and Floch confrontation was really interesting, because Keith understands where Floch is coming from, since he is (was?) the same. They both take hold of what little power are able to archive and use it to abuse people: Keith to the cadets and Floch to pretty much everybody he can get away with. I suppose Isayama´s decision about the Floch´s fate (even more that the talk between Keith and Karla, in chapter 71 ), would be a statement of his view about this kind of view of the world.

-Levi´s suffering face is never less sad to see. But as sad as it it, I still prefer a Levi with facial expressions to the bishonen-always-stoic-faced Levi from the anime. (What is that about going into battle while standing on a horse, by the way?)

-I hope Hanji has still some people who belive in them, and can give them a little help. Please. Their sad face is also painful to watch. I miss Moblit.

About chapter 114

-Long flashback about Zeke´s childhood, which, as expected, was awful, except, apparently, for Mr. Xavier´s friendship. Dreadful chidlhood´s experiences are the rule in SnK, so not surprise there (even less when remembering what we know about Grisha´s story, no way good parenting could come from him). It´s good to know that Zeke had a loved person. Now, for my part, he can go.

-The euthanasia plan stands out by itself for its mostrousity, but also for the fact that it comes as an idea created and put in motion by two brothers (apparently, we still can´t be sure about Eren) who tend to think that they have the duty and the right to solve everybody´s misery, by taking any measure they estimate necessary. Someting like “I will save you from your suffering, you like it or not, mate”. Comparing this actitude with that of Historia, or even Mr. Xavier, both of which know and acknowledge their personal, selfish but honest motivations for their actions (Erwin, at the end, also acknowledge his own and, by doing that, he can carry out his duty as a leader), I can´t avoid to think that the Jaeger´s brothers have a little too much of a messianic complex. Clearly, we can see where that would be coming from: again, Grisha´s terrible bad parenting. Zeke and Eren seem unable to process their own individual pain, so they have to make it a world-wide problem that only them can fix, in order to be able to deal with it. I wonder if Isayama thinks that new experiences throughout a person life time can change that which was learned very early in their live. I guess that Zeke and Eren´s fate will give an answer to that. More that wanting them to change the euthanasia plan for another (surely equally terrible) one, I would like to see them changing the “I am going to save/free the world (in my own twisted away)” state of mind. One can always hope.

-I love Levi, he is one of my favourite characters in SnK, along with Hanji. I do not really think he is severely hurt after the explotion. We have seen Mikasa´s recovery capacity some times before, and we can asume Levi has the same power, so I am not very concerned for him at the moment. But I do worry for him, because I am not seeing any progression on his character development. I have the impression that Isayama doesn´t know what to do with him anymore. It would be a pity for Levi´s character to become a parody of the classic shounen heroe. I want him to be a complex, interesting character until the end.  

[snkpolls]

SnK S3E2 Poll Results (Manga Reader Version)

The poll closed with 590 responses! Thank you to everyone who participated. 

Please note that this is the results of the manga reader poll. Anime only watchers are suggested not to read if you do not wish to be spoiled about certain events! Anime only viewers, click here to view your poll results! 

Rate the Episode

The vast majority gave the episode their approval, with the largest percentage rating it a five.

Levi vs MP chase blew me away and I didn't remember rest of the show except Linked Horizon.

Animation blew me away and Kenny is better than I had imagined him in the manga.

They made Levi more bishy and badass at the same time. As expected of WIT. I find myself surprised at some of the changes and the new pacing, but I’m just here to enjoy this wild ride, so I’m open to anything. I can’t wait for Frieda to finally appear and confuse the fuck out of anime-onlies.

ep2 has already become my fav episode

It feels rushed. But I can only hope they make up for it later on.

I enjoyed it, especially the fight scene! A lot of things were missing from the manga, but I'm thinking they will be included in a different context. The ED was absolutely perfect! I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

It was super enjoyable in its own right even if I'm a bit skeptical of the changed pacing.

The animation in this episode was amazing!

Rate the Ending

Respondents have agreed that the ending is a bop, with votes heavily favoring the positive. Feelings were much more mixed for the opening. We’re happy to see that most were at least satisfied with the ending!

I think it's the perfect mood for an ED. I'm really glad Historia got such a great focus; the OP focuses more on several characters an the ED on her.. I like it that way.

It's great! I love Red Swan so much and I'm happy with both songs!

Loved it a lot. You could immediately tell the signature Sounds Horizon influence, which is great. The song’s been stuck in my head for days. I also love the fact that the visuals are Historia-centric.

I don't think it should've been the opening per say......maybe with different visuals but I absolutely loved it. I'm glad that unlike the opening it didn't disappoint.

The Sasageyo in the middle caught me off guard lol

but like why did they have to make me feel so many emotions over that ending tho???

i'm literally in love with the ED it sounds like a fairy tale and i need the full version stat

the ed took me to nirvana

The ending was really beautiful. The animation with little Historia was beautiful because we will see more of Historia. Heck, this is her time to shine. This is her spotlight.

How do you feel about Linked Horizon performing the ending this time?

The majority of respondents are happy that Linked Horizon is back this season, even if it’s the ending instead of the opening. A smaller percentage still wished they had done the opening instead, however.

Who Linked Horizon is?

I hope they perform the opening for the next arc

Ending or opening I wouldn't care. As long as we have Link Horizon.

I'm glad they are still sticking around but I'm still so upset the OP/ED were 100% from some romance high school anime.

Which one is your favorite ED?

Do we as a fandom have a bias toward Linked Horizon? Quite possibly, as the new ending has already captured the hearts of the largest group. Great escape came in second, and Yuuguri no Tori remains the least liked ending of the series.

The new ending is beautiful. The scenario, music, how sad it is considering the recent events in the manga. Beautiful. I've to admit that I prefer by far the ending to the opening.

Which scene(s) did you like best?

It goes without saying that the Levi vs. Kenny/MP chase is what blew away the fandom this week. It was the favorite scene by a huge margin. The runner up was Armin taking aim and shooting in order to save Jean’s life.

I've been waiting five years to see the bar scene, BANG! BANG!

not ashamed to admit I rewatched the Levi vs Kenny chase dozens of times

Favorite anime-only scene: Sasha saved Armin this time, i couldn't be happier for my girl. She ain't useless and definitely not a comic relief, i hope Isayama will do something in the future so that people appreciate &miss her more when 105 is animated.

Also, something I'm loving this season and doesn't receive enough credit is to hear Traute's voice. Her voice sounds so badass. Love it

The animation is so gorgeous and literally jaw dropping. I enjoy absorbing every single second of action. And seeing and hearing the scene of Jean almost being shot and Armin killing somehow has made me officially ship Jearmin.

On a scale of 1-5 how much did the animation during the Levi vs. MP chase blow you away?

As expected, the animation left the majority of respondents in awe. It took one month for the animators to get in that 30 second sequence and it was so worth the efforts of the animation staff!

The Levi fight scene was breathtaking. Genius.

Best animation. Ever. Levi you awesome badass.

On a scale of 1-5, how daddy is Kenny?

While a fair amount of voters wouldn’t let Kenny touch them with a 50 foot poll, a larger portion of voters agree that Kenny is daddy material.

I want Kenny to be my daddy :P

The only thing so far that is completely good is KENNY BANG BANG ACKERMAN! They're making a wonderful job with him and I hope the dudes from Wit studio won't turn him upside-down or change some important scenes. In the end... KENNY IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND COOL UNCLE/COWBOY ON EARTH. I'll always follow him

Kenny is even colder bastard than he was in the manga. I like him!

How did Erwin light the match with one hand?

Will the mystery ever be solved? We don’t know, but the majority of voters are quite certain that Erwin’s chiseled jawline may have something to do with it!

How excited are you to see kidwin’s eyebrow game next week?

61% of respondents are ready to see Kidwin moving and talking. Possibly also the heartbreak that will follow as we watch his backstory unfold. We’re pretty excited for small Erwin too!

Is your heart ready for Historia’s childhood flashback?

The majority of voters are ready for Historia’s “not very happy” backstory to unfold in episode 40. Some are eager, some just think she’s cute as a button and others are ready for their hearts to hurt. About 12% of voters aren’t as enthused, however.

I hope we will finally see Frieda in the next one !

On a scale of 1 - 5, how much do you relate to Bartender-kun?

I think we can almost all agree with the bartender when he says “EEEK!” It’s quite relatable really.

It took 4 years to finally see Bartender-kun in his moe glory and it was beautiful. 10 outta 10 would EEEEKK again.

EEK!

Would you want Levi as your motivational counselor?

68% of you would appreciate Levi’s straightforward and blunt was of saying things in order to help you cope and sort things out. 32%, however, would prefer a more gentler approach.

Does Erwin have a gambling problem?

68% of respondents agree that Erwin’s gambles are a positive thing! The thrill of it all is quite a ride for both the Survey Corps and the audience. We look forward to watching his gambles pan out in animated form soon!

How are you guys holding up?

The largest group of voters are unsure about the changes and feel pretty sketchy toward WIT and Isayama for making and agreeing to the changes. However, a combined 50% of respondents overall are enjoying the anime so far, with 31% of those voters having a great time watching the events unfold in a new way. 8% of voters have already lost all hope at enjoying the adaptation.

Jokes aside, the pacing's still left me reeling a little. But I can see how this might make sense from the studio's perspective. If I was an anime-only, I think this episode would have THRILLED me. So yes, I am still invested in the anime and am looking forward to the rest of the season!

Thoughts withheld until we see how the rest of the arc is adapted

i thought it was really good! most manga readers disagree, but i have hope that important scenes will be included later, and we shouldn’t be so quick to judge only 2 eps. i think we should be grateful that the scenes they DID include followed the manga pretty well. i have faith in the changes isayama wanted to make, he is the creator after all. have hope yall!

How do you feel about the restructuring so far?

We were quite surprised to find that 57% of respondents are still open to  the changes, looking to see what happens next before ultimately deciding if the anime is in good hands or not. A small 15% are excited for the changes, while another 15% are not feeling them at all. A very small percentage aren’t enjoying anything about the restructuring so far.

I'm really trying to enjoy the season and not judge too fast before seeing all of the arc, but damn WIT, Isayama, you guys are making it so hard, I'm hella confuse by the changes you're making

In my opinion, the change of pace is for the worse. I'm sad Isayama hates the arc this much, and that he agreed to many crucial character scenes being cut. I think the arc in the manga only felt slow because of waiting for the next monthly chapter.

I'm confused by all the changes but it's only episode 2 so I'm waiting for what's coming next. The animation is beautiful, Levi is beautiful (even with his shirt on) so I like it so far!

Still generally hyped about the season, but wary of the changes. A little bit disappointed about the cutting of the minor characters' (dimo, nifa) screentime/character moments. But I'm gonna wait with my judgement 'till the arc's over.

Character development will not be the same. Hopefully they can build up Armin’s and Erwin’s characters in time for RTS or nobody will care.

What best describes what you think about the missing scenes so far?

While we’re all a bit sad to see some of our favorite scenes lost, the largest group of respondents have accepted that as a fact and are ready to just move forward. 26% are holding out hope that everything will be implemented one way or another. 13% of respondents are finding that the missing scenes are making it very difficult to enjoy anything about the season so far.

I literally want to fly to WIT Studio, go in banging a cowbell in everyone's ears until they put the cute scenes of titan eren and his dorky yet fine ass back in the anime.

I'm afraid that loosing some scenes now will take away more important ones later on. No Dimo telling Historia to give Levi a good punch. No Levi basically threatening Historia to take up the mantle of Queen. These interactions added depth to the characters. There's still time for them to include a few other things in flashbacks, but the changes have me a little on edge. Maybe it's just cognitive dissonance - I'll not write off WIT's and Isayama's restructuring efforts yet. But I will sit on my hands and bite my tongue when I ask my Anime-only friends about their thoughts on the pacing thus far.

the only thing I’m really upset they cut is the scene where Armin talks about how to manipulate the mass and everyone stares at him horrified, everyone’s bitching about the abs but the true loss is not seeing the horrifying expression Armin makes

Dimo's the real victim of the cuts here ;_;

My hype for this season died seeing how they are dealing with this arc

I think that people  complain too much about snk anime. Yes, some things are different and even some favourite scenes of mine where removed but overall this is still the best anime of the season, maybe even the year.

How do you feel about the scenes they did keep?

A combined 63% of voters were satisfied with the scenes that we did still get and many of those believe WIT excelled at executing them. 29% thought the scenes were still alright, but lost some of the impact they had in the original work.

The animation of all of it is phenomenal, but all the scenes/events are jumbled in comparison to the manga. It has me like ?????

The whole bit with Jean being "shot" was better in the manga IMO

Again, as before I am not the Uprising Arc's biggest fan, but one thing I did enjoy was whenever the focus was on the 104th kids coming to terms with fighting humans, struggling with their own morality and the orders Levi was giving them. In the manga, this takes place over a longer period of them, so you really get to see Sasha, Jean and Connie question things and come to their own decision not to kill. By reordering things now, I feel that has completely lost its impact.

The scene at the end where the SC crew learns about rod reminds me a bit of the AT & CT reveal when the way in which the SC reacted to Reiner and Bertholdt possibly being titans was withheld from the viewer so I think that maybe thats what they might be going for this season in the sense that they will find a way to cram a lot of moments in flashbacks later.

Rushed. Scenes have less impact. I’m just thankful I’ve read the manga so I have the context of how bamf these things really are.

They removed way too many Dimo scenes which makes him a very different character to the anime canon. In the manga he was a good-hearted opportunist trying to avoid the deaths of himself and his comrades whereas in the anime this was watered down significantly. Also, #BringBackGesumin2018

I like the pacing but many scenes lost their impact, e.g. Reeves death, Armin's kill.

Where do you think Rod, Historia and Eren are right now?

We definitely know they aren’t in the cave, but the largest group of voters aren’t even sure where to theorize they could be right now. Although there is a near tie between people who believe they are either at the ranch or the chapel. One commenter on the poll pointed out an area we hadn’t even considered, however: 

Because this option didn't show up in where Eren and Historia are: The Central MP Headquarters! The torture of Sannes was used as a way to find where Eren and Historia are, which is the original point of that mission. So there'd be a different, less redundant reason to go to the HQ in the first place! You can even add some missing scenes there.

How did you feel about the way the torture scene was handled?

Most of us did believe that WIT would censor the torture sequence a bit, but the largest group are shocked at just how much of it wasn’t shown at all. Nearly one quarter of voters are disheartened that they didn’t show it all. Commenters are mourning Hange’s memorable line about which testicle Sannes wants to keep the most.

THEY REMOVED THE “WHICH TESTICLE DO YOU NOT NEED” LINE. BUT THE BALL-REMOVING INSTRUMENT WAS THERE. TALK ABOUT AN UNFULFILLING CHEKHOVS GUN.

They cut out Hange's best line

Even though i expected it would be a little bit censored, but wasn't thinking it would that much, they turned it into a joke, a humouristic torture...like seriously wit?

I'm upset because they removed Hange's best line.

Where was Levi punching?

It may've not been directly shown, but sometimes there's more horror in what you can’t see than in what you can

I expected it to be censored but it's ok, they managed to transmit the grotesque and black humorous feeling that the manga gave.

im sad about hange’s line not being included, but other than that, i thought it was really good, and i didnt expect them to be as brutal as the manga anyways. :/

Armin contemplates how they are torturing and killing people because they have different views. How does this relate to the current manga events?

The majority of voters believe that this was a good foreshadowing for the events that have taken place much later in the manga. 17% of voters don’t feel that the situations are comparable, however.

Both sides are fighthing for their own good

Eh, that’s how human history has always been since time immemorial. It’s always people killing other people because of a difference in views and ideologies. Not saying that it should be tolerated, but everything is a case-by-case basis. Sometimes, you need to extinguish the enemy because the enemy alive is a far bigger threat to the world. That’s just how it is.

Everyone else is stuck in the mid-Uprising chapters while Armin is 57D pathsmancing his way to mid-Marley chapters

The uprising and ao Liberio aren’t comparable, but Armin is consistent through each

We didn’t get shirtless Levi, how are you feeling about it?

39% of voters are sad about not getting treated to some eye candy this week, while 34% just don’t care about it at all. 15% were happy just to see Levi’s nice bara tiddies outlining his shirt, while 12% of you are still holding out hope for rock-hard abs.

I was robbed of the abs I was promised and am like... really pissed off? Sad? Bemusedly confused? I know in the grand scheme of things it shouldn't really matter that much but dang, it hurts.

It might just be the lesbian in me talking but I don’t care they didn’t show abswin and Levi shirtless lol

Levi is daddy af. Thanks for exploding my ovaries bc I didn't want children. Super convenient.

But Levi still looked badass tho

What about abswin?

Similar to Levi, the largest groups of respondents either feel betrayed by WIT or don’t care about it. A larger portion than with Levi were completely satisfied simply by Erwin’s presence.

ABS ABS ABS!!!

Apparently this world doesn’t deserve Levi and Erwin’s abs... Looks like we’re not worthy of such a blessing.

I AM FEELING ABSOLUTELY BETRAYED BY THE LACK OF ABS I mean c'mon, WIT, you can't give me, a grown adult, just an angsty adolescent's steaming abs (from the Titan tyvm) and expect me to be satisfied with that.

The Ackerman reveal was handled a bit differently, with Kenny telling Traute about how he raised Levi instead of telling Dimo he is his pride. How do you feel about the change?

The majority of voters believe that the small change in the Ackerman reveal wasn’t a big deal. However, a pretty sizable portion do believe that the weight of the reveal was lost, with many commenters lamenting the loss of Kenny saying that Levi is his pride.

I think we'll have more impactful Acerkreveal to come when Levi and Mikasa talk. *nervous chucking*

Levi being an Ackerman is the less secret thing anyway, the way it's reveals hardly matter

Most of the fandom read some good ol fanfic, i'd be surprised if like 95% of the people watching it didn't know he was an Ackerman (or just log in to tumblr)

Lol so many anime-only reactors didn’t even notice the Ackerman name-drop so WIT pretty much failed at that. And it’s okay for fans to feel disappointed with the anime. We’re not **obligated** to think it’s amazing especially if we think there are parts of it that weren’t adapted well.

I expect another encounter between Kenny and Levi that leads to the talk about Levi being Kenny's pride, probably directed to Rod instead. This scene, on the other hand, worked as a wonderful namedrop and setup for a second encounter.

I love how he called Levi his pride in the manga so i’m very sad they changed it, it made Kenny’s death even more emotional.

It flew right past me oops

Levi threatening Historia didn't happen, breaking the chain of events that builds up to her punching him later. What best describes your thoughts?

It’s probably safe to say that many of us are raising questions about the loss of this scene and how WIT will make up for it or whether it was truly needed in the first place. 39% believe that WIT will still work it in somehow, while the majority believe that the scene is lost forever, with split opinions about whether WIT will make up for it in another way or whether their faith in Historia and Levi’s arcs is shattered forever.

The only thing I'm keeping my eyes on is anything related to Historia and her future step up as queen.  I'm sure she'll learn that she is royal next episode via her father, so I wonder if eventually deciding to take rule in place of her hidden relatives and corrupt government, will actually end up being her idea, which could explain why Levi's altercation with her was removed.  That would be really interesting and I think it could work out just as well!  I always thought his anger toward her was a little too sudden and misplaced in the manga, anyway, and if it's removed for good, I'm glad we don't have to live through that controversy again.

I’m kinda disappointed that they didn’t include Dimo Reeves’s redemption arc. It was very essential to Historia & Levi’s character. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing & instead Fligel will replace Dimo in that role, but Eren & Historia were already captured so I’m not sure how they intend to go about rewriting Historia & Levi’s character progression. However, the production team & Isayama do seem to understand how important character development is for this arc, so maybe they’re finding different ways to make it better in ways we didn’t even realize were possible. Maybe by the end we’ll all say “Wow! This was handled a million times better than in the manga!” But right now, it just seems like Isayama had a negative bias towards this arc & was only so accepting of the changes cause he just thought of the Uprising Arc as his worst piece of work to date despite it being the most important for character development & plot progression. I hope I am wrong though.

Which group of characters are your favorite?

Where do you primarily discuss the series?

I discuss the series in Facebook, dunno why you don't have that option :/

Additional thoughts on the episode?

Isayama reacting to S3 complaints: “Am I out of touch? No, it's the manga readers who are wrong.”

BUT NO FLEGEL QUESTION IN THE POLL!!!?!?!?!? THAT'S IT!!(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ I'm actually not going to do anything about it though. but still. Flegel is best boy.

I’m blown away by the animation!  I’m kind of enjoying guessing what might happen next and what other changes they’re going to make.  I still have faith that WIT and Isayama will deliver an amazing season three - holding out for more episodes until I lose my mind about changes.  It’s super entertaining so far.

I am aware that a 100% adaptation of the manga is impossible and I'm usually not bothered by it. However, I'm slowly getting nervous that too much could get lost and that those fans who want an accurate adaptation will get too frustrated with it to continue. I really hope WIT has a plan here and listens to the fans.

I really, really, really wanted Kenny to say that he was proud of Levi. It was really bittersweet. I hope WIT puts it later on when Kenny is about to die and hopefully he tells it to Levi straight up. But I’m not gonna lie, Levi never knowing that his “father figure” was proud of him all this time puts a tragic and beautiful twist to their relationship. There’s always been something sublime about unexpressed emotions that will forever be hidden because death claimed it first.

I feel like they're sacrificing character interactions and developments for the sake of pacing and action.  

I know lots of people are saying that everyone should chill before jumping to conclusions, but as far as I’m concerned all our opinions - mine included, as well as the opinions of those who are dissatisfied with the episode - are valid. And in my opinion, there was so much that the anime skipped. Sure, they were just small details. But it were these details that enriched the story. I trust Isayama, but at the end of the day, he too errs. He too commits mistakes. I don’t know, but if I feel overly dissatisfied with the adaptation even after the season is over, and in my defense am able to bring up valid reasons why I didn’t like it, then so be it.

It's a shame Dimo got reduced to such a minor character.

I felt a bit sorry for the girl who was killed by Armin. I didn't pay attention on her in the manga but in Armin's flashbacks she was more human. It was the proof that even such cold monsters like anti-human squad members have some heart.

I love it so far but Levi and Erwin need more love and they'll get it if they are shirtless and have moar scenes

Traute made me gay.

Ackerman bastards! How they can violate chairs like that?! Right now I can trust only Mikasa with my poor chair babies <3

everyone is like 'where are the abs' while my lesbian ass is sad about no gesumin smh

Thanks to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again on Monday! 

[inhonoredglory]

something i feel is dismissed a lot or not talked abt as often is armin and mikasas relationship - i really loved their dynamic in the manga. especially the cut scene of mikasa responding to one of armins more morbid plans with “i didnt raise him like that” (i wont say anything about near the end of the series, i dont know how far youve read but like in my last ask i have many opinions) i really wish we had gotten a full conversation between them when armin killed the woman :( - armin anon

Gosh, you’re so right about Armin and Mikasa. I LOVED so many of their little moments that were completely absent(!!!) from the anime. The moment you’re talking about, of course:

First off, I get a lot of feelings for Jean still cognizant of the horrible experience Armin’s been through, and imagining it’s the reason for Armin’s morbid plan. Then Eren’s quick defense of Armin’s intellect is precious to see. And finally, Mikasa, the protective older sibling puzzled at Armin’s behavior. Because all three of them have true things to say about Armin at this point. Armin’s trying to deal with the torture happening in the other room and the realization that they’re facing much more human threats than the titans ever were. He’s going to a dark place in his mind, using his skills towards something far too cunning for his age. Mikasa’s comment really enlightens how she thinks of Armin, with an affection and love for a younger sibling.

And we see a parallel in the way Armin looks up to her and values her opinion on matters. One of my favorite underrated moments between them is Chapter 57’s conversation among the 104th about Levi’s actions towards Historia. It’s sad that most of the 104th couldn’t read Levi the way we can, since I’m convinced Levi’s physicality with Historia was a desperate plea to get her to help him (as I’ve gone in depth with in a post). While the rest of the 104th start to believe Levi is making the SC into a gang of thugs, Armin stands up for the Captain. I don’t know if Armin knows exactly the psychology of what’s going on, but he nonetheless believes what Eren believes about Levi’s actions: “We don’t have a choice. If we fail here, humanity’s just going to be eaten by titans.”

So Armin stands up for Levi and then asks Mikasa for backup. Because he knows she’s perceptive and smart about things, and she doesn’t place her faith in people easily, but when she does, it’s for good reason. Mikasa is able to bring the rest of the 104th to Levi’s side, fulfilling Armin’s faith in her.

I do desperately wish we got to see the conversation Mikasa had with Armin after Armin killed the MP. But based on scenes like the one above, I feel like she must have shared with him the necessity of what they're doing, and basically reminding him of the things Armin already believed. But above all, giving him physical comfort and understanding. It's rare to see Mikasa do this, so it's especially heartwarming to see her act this way with Armin.

In the Return to Shigonshina arc, there's so many examples of Mikasa's absolute trust and faith in Armin. She puts all their lives in his hands, encouraging him to lead the 104th and trusting in his ideas. The same ideas that saved Mikasa and Eren's lives time and time again in the past. In a lot of ways, Mikasa is the Levi to Armin's Erwin (being the strength to his mind), in a different way that Eren is the Levi to Armin's Erwin (being the one inspired by Armin's ideals and vision). She has enough faith in Armin to trust Eren to his plans when the 104th split up to fight Reiner and Bertolt, but she also has the sense of mind to save Armin when Armin's plans fall through. That's how she attached Bertolt and stopped Armin from going after him.

But of course the biggest moment for Armin and Mikasa is the rooftop serumbowl. We can so clearly see and feel Mikasa’s powerful love for Armin, the deathly stare in her eyes when she realized Levi was going to give the serum to Erwin. Her glare is palpable and terrifying and even Levi is afraid of the passion behind those eyes.

The Shigonshina trio love each other so much, and we see so much of their trust and love in the RTS arc. Thanks again for the ask! I'd love to hear more of your opinions and thoughts; it's fun to analyze the manga because there's so many little details that enrich the story.

[arlingtonpark]

SNK 109 Review

A Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Edition

-From ch. 109

-From my review of ch. 102

YES! I WAS RIGHT! KISS MY ASS YOU FOOLS1

So just as I predicted, we are seeing the start of a schism on Paradis.

On one side of the divide you’ve got a right-wing extremist faction composed of Floch, Louise, Zeke, his cult, and Eren (the Eldian Freedom Caucus, if you will) and on the other, a moderate faction composed of the other members of the 104th, Hange, Levi, along with other high ranking members of the government. (The establishment, again, if you will)

The conflict between these two factions is an incredibly political one (squeee!) with both sides trying to out-flank each other and gain the upper hand.

Of the two, the establishment faction is the one currently on the defensive. Most of the maneuvering by it’s members involves containing the EFC and just trying to figure out who’s side Eren is on. In other words, they’re being reactive, playing defense. As a result, the EFC has the freedom to seize the initiative and go on the offensive, as they have in this chapter.

It makes sense that the establishment would be on the defensive right now. Eren is such an important figure that any plan against the EFC will involve him as a key player.

Thus, before they can formulate a strategy, they must know who’s side Eren is on. The 104th has openly debated this amongst themselves, but Hange has also gotten involved as well. Their scene with Eren at the start of chapter 108, in hindsight, can easily be read as them trying to get a read on Eren. As them trying to get a feel for his allegiances.

Levi and Zeke’s bromantic comedy in the woods is also a part of this maneuvering, but it doesn’t need much expounding upon because how this figures into things is obvious. Zeke is dangerous so they’ve secluded him in the woods with their top soldier to keep watch on him.

The maneuvering by the EFC, aka Zeke’s faction, is shrouded in mystery. Because of course it is.

Has anyone here been following the news? If you have you’ve probably heard of Robert Meuller’s investigation into L’Affaire Russe, Russia’s (failed) attempt to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Part of this investigation involves determining whether President Trump was complicit in this attempted influencing.

In his writings on L’Affaire Russe, Josh Marshall, editor-in-chief of the left-leaning Talking Points Memo news site, made an analogy about conspiracies that can be applied to Zeke. Conspiracies are like black holes.

Black holes cannot be seen. All light that approaches them is sucked in so you end up with a black object against a black backdrop. But they can be observed indirectly. Scientists observe black holes indirectly by measuring the influence they exert on objects that can be observed directly. For example, the gravity from black holes distorts the light traveling around them resulting in a “lensing” effect. By measuring the degree of visual distortion, scientists can determine the black hole’s size, among other things.

Conspiracies are similar. Many aspects of a conspiracy may not be directly knowable. It’s size, scope, etc. But you can get a good feel for it’s size and scope by observing it’s apparent effect on things that are directly observable.

Take L’Affaire Russe for example. There’s the Veselnitskaya meeting, Trump’s inexplicable fealty to Putin, the fact that Paul Manafort, massively in debt to a Russian oligarch, chose to work for Trump’s extremely pro-Russia campaign for free, etc, etc. Conspiracies can’t be seen directly, but they can be indirectly seen.

And so it is with L’Affaire Zeke, which is the name I’ll be using to refer to the apparent conspiracy Zeke has masterminded against the establishment. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and there’s a fuck-ton of smoke here. Seriously, I didn’t subtitle this post “a vast right-wing conspiracy edition” for nothing. Words cannot describe how fucked Paradis is if things are as bad as they seem to be. We’re talking “Donald Trump was a spy for the Russian government the whole time” levels of bad. 

The establishment was planning on feeding Zeke to Historia immediately, but then Historia conveniently got pregnant, thwarting their plans. This implies that Zeke somehow roped the queen in.

According to Pixis, there is reason to suspect Floch facilitated a covert meeting between Yelena and Eren, and during this meeting Eren was apparently turned to Zeke’s side. In other words, L’Affaire Zeke may have successfully infiltrated the military.

It doesn’t end there though. In this chapter the EFC leaked to the public news that Eren has been imprisoned, clearly in an attempt to undermine public support for the establishment. These people may be shithead nationalists, but they’re smart too.

Floch knew he couldn’t convince the establishment to free Eren, but you know what he also knows? That if enough public pressure were to be applied, they’d have no choice but to release Eren. Eren is seen by the public as a hero. As far as the public is concerned, Eren’s reckless action in Marley resulted in a resounding victory; the revelation that he’s been imprisoned for this will naturally stir outrage. Floch knows this so he leaked news of Eren’s imprisonment to the press knowing the people would support his call for Eren’s release.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Floch Forster is leading a fucking psy ops campaign to get what he wants.

We don’t know what Zeke is planning, but it’s clear his reach, even in the midst of enemy territory, is seemingly boundless. The sooner he’s dead, the better.

The story has low-key been building up to this for a while now. I’ve mentioned the contrast the story has drawn between Jean and Floch in an earlier post. And in hindsight, the scenes in chapter 108 strongly play into this as well. The scenes of Hange and the 104th trying to deal with their Eren problem, along with the implied existence of L’Affaire Zeke. Things will only continue to escalate from here. The heart and soul of Paradis is at stake.

This fight is exemplified in the conflict between Eren Yeager and Armin Arlert. And it is a conflict that mirrors not only the real world fight for the heart and soul of the United States but also the one for the heart and soul of Western civilization itself.

The ideology of the EFC, of Zeke, Floch, Louise, and possibly Eren, is an inherently backwards looking right-wing nationalism. They long for days of past glory, of days when Eldians ruled the world. It’s the politics of nostalgia at its most toxic. Eldians are oppressed and they don’t just want restitution, they want revenge. They feel a deep grievance over the indignity their race has been dealt.

(Note that “indignity” is an understatement here. I use it because that is exactly how they would describe what Eldians are dealing with.)

But the connection goes deeper than that. Right-wing nationalism, as a way of thinking, is strongly informed by a dominance centric worldview. The right-wing worldview is defined by an unshakable belief that there is a social Darwinian war of the races where defeat means death. They see the world in purely dichotomous terms. Strong vs weak. Dominators vs the dominated. Eldians vs the world.

And yes, there is a racial conflict brewing here, but the important difference is that the nationalists believe this conflict exists as a matter of course rather than as the result of circumstance.

This dominance centric worldview naturally leads to an obsession with strength, with being strong so you can win and achieve security.

“A human who used her strength to throw a titan to the ground. The day I saw you do that, I knew. You can’t defend anything without strength.” 

-Louise.

That is the ideology of the EFC, including Eren. Eren rejects the notion of interracial coexistence completely. We all saw what he said at the gun range in chapter 106. (It was 106, right?) But what’s notable about that scene is that it saw Eren’s nationalist worldview pitted against Armin’s worldview.

If the ideology of Eren Yeager is nationalism, then the ideology of Armin Arlert is cosmopolitanism. Armin thinks the races can live together peacefully. He believes in a world where people of different creeds and ethnicities, through compassion and understanding, can overcome their differences and find happiness together. Like a true cosmopolitan, Armin sees himself as a human first and as an Eldian second.

It’s funny. This series started with wannabe spider-men killing silly looking giants. Now look at where we are. The final conflict of the series will be just as much a battle of ideas as it will be a physical one. And it couldn’t be more politically relevant to our world. Nationalism vs cosmopolitanism. That is one of the central conflicts of the series.

Decades from now, when our children are in high school, they will most likely be taught that the defining social conflict of 2018, indeed, of the entire decade of the 2010s, was nationalism vs cosmopolitanism. Not just in the United States but throughout the western world.

In the United States, this cleavage is embodied by the conflict between the Republican Party of Donald Trump (the nationalists) and the Democratic Party of Barack Obama (the cosmopolitans).

In Europe the nationalists are the various nationalist political parties that have grown in popularity in most countries. Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France, the AfD in Germany, the Sweden Democrats in Sweden, etc. The cosmopolitans are the supporters of the European Union, a pan-national organization created to emphasize unity among nations so as to avoid another continent destroying war.

This is what we’re dealing with here. Nationalist vs cosmopolitan. Republican vs Democrat. Trump vs Obama. Eren vs Armin.

(Why yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, I did just lump Eren in with the Trumpmeister.)

(*dodges thrown chair*)

Who wins here, Eren or Armin, depends on what kind of story Isayama wants to tell. Are human beings more like Donald Trump, insular and petty. Or are we more like Barack Obama, flawed but ultimately judicious with a seemingly endless well of compassion.

So who will win?

In our world the winner will almost certainly be the cosmopolitans. People of different backgrounds can and do live peaceably together and what’s more, there are measurable benefits to this. There’s a reason why cities are the drivers of economic growth and not comparatively less diverse rural areas. Bringing people of different backgrounds physically together, like in a city, allows for an easier exchange of opinions and ideas, and that leads to more creativity and innovation. That means greater prosperity for everyone. Cosmopolitanism will win because the benefits are obvious and human tribalism always yields in the face of practical benefit.

This is in stark contrast to the world of Attack on Titan. In that world, the narrative is seemingly on Eren’s side. The nationalist one. The immoral light the EFC has been presented in notwithstanding, the narrative seems to nevertheless be saying that humans are nationalists by default and that this cannot be overcome. The story apparently presents it as a tragedy, but it is ultimately inevitable.

That’s wrong. It doesn’t have to be this way.

It was almost painful to read that scene at the gun range in chapter 106 because Isayama is so obviously siding with the nationalist camp. Eren the nationalist gets to make his points clearly, meanwhile Armin and Mikasa struggle to even articulate their views. Armin’s beliefs are framed by the narrative as being idealistic and naïve even though the facts are on his side.

In ways both subtle and obvious, the nationalist bug is spreading. The people of Paradis cheered at the victory in Marley just like how Floch and his ilk cheered on the airship. They cheered in a fit of nationalistic fervor. That is probably the clearest indication of where the series stands: people writ large are nationalists.

Okay, what else.

You know, one thing I find annoying is when writers try to give their stories an air of “seriousness” by using technical terms. Like how during Kiyomi’s conversation with Zackley she refers to him as the “head of state.”

The head of state for Paradis, the one tasked with performing the ceremonial functions of the executive,  is Historia Reiss, the reigning monarch. If I’m not mistaken the arrangement is that Zackley actually governs Paradis because the military are the ones in charge and Zackley is commander-in-chief. That makes him the head of government, not head of state.

This is me being petty, but as a politics nerd it comes off as try-hard and it rubs me the wrong way.

…

Alright, time to address the elephant in the room.

Gabi and Kaya.

Their scenes were one of the hardest in the entire series for me to read. I almost decided not to.

It has been speculated that Isayama believes in a right-wing nationalist politics. I have never had as much of a sinking feeling about that notion as I have after reading this chapter. At the very least, I think the message Isayama is trying to convey, if not pro-nationalist, is definitely misguided.

In the real world there are people who believe we should be more mindful of the crimes our ancestors committed. The imperialism of Europe, of the United States, and yes, of Japan as well.

Those people are opposed by the right-wing nationalists. “Social justice worker” is the term they often use.

If you ask one of these nationalists to describe a sjw, they’ll paint a picture of someone obsessed with “the unforgivable sins of our ancestors” to the point of raving lunacy. In the minds of nationalists, social justice workers think that crimes committed centuries ago taint the descendants of the perpetrators alive today and that those descendants cannot be forgiven for their ancestor’s actions. The clearest example of this is the case for reparations: some sjws believe that the United States government owes currently living black people reparations because of slavery, even though slavery was abolished over 150 years ago and no one currently alive lived through it. Right-wing nationalists think this is madness.

Sound familiar?

“Have you already forgotten the utter atrocities the people of this island committed against the world? Each and every Eldian can only begin their path to eternal atonement when they come to have a correct understanding of their sins. No matter how good you try to act, your crimes are too heavy to ever escape.”

 -Gabi

Right-wing nationalists often caricature leftists as being people who’ll list off every single immoral act committed by their own country (or people) at the drop of a hat. Is Gabi, at least as far as chapter 109 is concerned, one of those caricatures?

Let’s back up a bit. I’ve told you about the caricature, now let me tell you about the truth.

There is indeed a strain of thought that overemphasizes historical sins. The most famous example of this is Howard Zinn and his book A People’s History of the United States. The series pushing against this way of thinking is not wrong.

What is wrong is the conceit this series has that the descendants of the perpetrators owe nothing to the descendants of the victims.

This is false for two reasons.

Firstly there’s the governmental perspective. At the end of the day the inescapable fact is this: Paradis is the legal successor state to the Eldian Empire and so the legal and moral obligations of the empire devolves to them. The Eldian Empire ceased to exist when, after Erwin’s coup, sovereignty was transferred from the Fritz family to the military. But the legal and moral obligations of the Eldian state also transferred.

That does not justify what the Marleyans are doing. And in light of the circumstances, I don’t even think reparations are called for. But Paradis owes something to the world; it doesn’t have to be much. A formal rebuking of the Empire’s actions would be enough.

Secondly: the impact of past actions resonate throughout history. No white person alive today partook in, for example, the partition of Africa. But that doesn’t mean white Europeans alive today don’t owe black Africans anything. The wealth white Europeans alive today enjoy is founded on a system of racist, imperialistic exploitation that had the effect of impoverishing the African continent. People in Africa continue to deal with that impoverishment.

This system, more or less, no longer exists, but regardless, ALL white Europeans benefit from it to this day which is why white Europeans are collectively indebted. Europeans, collectively, are wealthy because part of that wealth was stolen. Thus, there is a debt to be paid.

Note, though, that I’m using the concept of collectivity to argue for the existence of some intergenerational obligation. This is a facet of the debate the series completely ignores which is why its treatment of this issue is shallow at best and a kind of excuse making at worst.

The government of Paradis owes the world something but Kaya is right that Eldians as individuals don’t owe the world anything. This is not, however, because of the general principle that “the sins of the father should not be visited upon the son,” as the series would have you believe. It’s because the institutional system of oppression the Eldians used to dominate the world has been dismantled. Whatever benefits the Eldians accrued has since been taken away.

The end result, on a meta level, is a message that amounts to a tautology: that people who owe nothing to you don’t owe you anything. Not the most insightful of messages to be sure.

The series seems to have this conceit that denies the intergenerational nature of the oppression our racist society enables. That’s bad. In the context of a world still dealing with the consequences of racially motivated imperialism, it’s worse.

The subtext here is that the victims of imperialism aren’t owed anything by the descendants of the perpetrators because they (the descendants) weren’t personally involved. That is a common right-wing talking point. 

If I didn’t know this story was being written by an ethnic Japanese man, I would have said it was racist.

[khalilxpirates]

New AMV , <3

[marilena-monachus]

Claustrophobia: a SnK fanfic

Rating: M

Characters: Levi, Mikasa, Marleyans

Blurb: Nothing quite as claustrophobic as being thrown in your sworn enemy's underground cell with little to look forward to except a towel to wipe your own soiled self with, is there? What if there are two sets of pliers - for you and your comrade? Levi and Mikasa have been captured following the move on Marley. Their secrets are on the line. So is their sanity. Canon!compliant up to c104.

Pairing: Eventual Levimika, not of the fluffy variety, and you will have to wait for it.

Merit: None.

Link for the ff.net relics among you.

Claustrophobia

Chapter 1

i. One stone

The air smelled of fresh wounds and disinfectant and, strangely, citrus. The bright oppression of artificial lighting close to her face forced her eyes closed. People came and went, their elongated forms casting shadows over her eyelids like cardboard puppet theatre.

"Get the doctor, I want a word," a man spoke. As the haze of sleep lifted off her, Mikasa wondered if she heard a foreign accent on him and why she had the worst headache of her life. The fact that she had to ask both these things in the same setting did not bode well, she thought with a note of alarm. She noticed her left thigh radiating heat. Something was tethered to it. She tried to touch it but was held back by cuffs on her wrists and a sharp lashing of pain made her stomach churn. Turning on her side, she convulsed and let the acidly bitter tasting contents of her stomach out until she could muster nothing but dry heaves. A hand came to rest on her back; another one lifted the strands of hair off her forehead.

The white light had been knocked over when she lifted her head. Mikasa opened her eyes at the sight of her own vomit. Scanning the room with barely contained wariness, ready to pounce at the first opening, the details of her situation lit up like red ink on parchment. She was in enemy territory, Liberio presumably. Captured by Marley, she lay on a hospital bed; her leg was slashed open seven inches long and finely stitched. A brace was holding it in place because her luck would have it be broken too. A military man sitting upright in a chair by the window threw his unfinished tangerine in the bin. Her heart raced fast, her mind faster. She breathed deeply, painfully, and considered both escape routes, by window and door, with or without taking someone hostage, killing everyone, lying through her teeth or playing innocent.

The military man had twin pistols on his hips, wore a mean face, and this was clearly not his first rodeo. Mikasa would have risked her chances against him, even in her injured state, had she not been physically restrained at the knees and ankles. She also knew nothing of the layout and location of the building, the terrain and the fate of her comrades. She calculated her chances of achieving something positive through early action to roughly nil. Breathe in once, breathe out long. Perhaps, if the gods were favourable, the others would have escaped and none of this would matter.

"That's all right, child," said a matronly woman in many layers of white robes. She was the one that had stood over her and puller her hair out of the way. Mikasa noticed her starched cap and calloused hands. She must be a nurse. My helpful enemy nurse. There was a roadmap of lines on her face. "You are lucky to still have that leg but it will get you in a world of pain, don't you doubt it," she said, stooping low to clean the vomit off the tiled floor with a tired sigh. "How is your head feeling?"

"Now that she is awake, I really need you to get Dr. Mann," the military man barked. Everything on him was square, his jaw and nose, his shoulders and air. "I can't very well go get him myself and leave her alone." At that, Mikasa though she heard a note of real apprehension. All soldiers were dangerous, as they had proved with their blood-drenched operation on the enemy capital, but she was more so. Did her ill fated name precede her?

"I am keeping watch," the nurse said calmly and continued to go about her business of wiping up the mess. "The young lady is hurt and cuffed and seems like a smart girl. So, don't go causing trouble now, hear?" she said to no one in particular.

"Don't be stupid. This is no young lady, it's a stinking pest," he said. He was suddenly bridling with passion, overflowing like a box someone poured all their bad mornings into. "Do you know how many innocent lives you twisted devils took yesterday? It runs in the hundreds. Thousands. "

And yours runs in the hundreds of thousands, Mikasa wanted to retort but said nothing and refused to look at him for good measure. The situation was too unfamiliar and her gut feeling and training told her to be as interesting as a drying piece of jerky. She desperately tried to gather her thoughts but there were gaping holes in her recollection of what had happened after they sounded the retreat. More importantly, her heart ached with the need to know whether the zeppelin made it out of Marley safely. She knew she should never ask. She would not show any weakness before she knew what was up, and not even then. Only when they let their guard down, when the chink in their armour would glow bright as day, she would strike and it would be clean and deadly.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the man rose, crossed the room in two long strides and struck the kneeling old nurse with a kick strong enough to send her sprawling on her back. She yelped, a shrill noise that grated on the nerves. Mikasa gripped the sheets tightly, discreetly, and through sheer force of will did not move an inch.

"I told you to get the doctor, pig! I don't know why you'd want to care for the devil that has ruined the lives of your filthy race and caused the deaths of so many noble Marleyans. I shouldn't have to ask twice. I am thinking your family should get a one-way trip to that cursed island," the officer said, spitting at his feet.

The doctor, a slight and troubled fellow, stood at the door, his mouth slightly twisted. "Koslow, it is noontime and I am here, like I said I would. Other patients need tending to. Nina meant no disrespect. She is very serious about her job and has helped us save countless brave men," he said, coming over to help her up. Nina was doubled over her abdomen, but her eyes had undergone the most significant change, gone dull like a dead rat's.

"I am very sorry, officer Koslow. I only wanted to clean up this disgusting smell for you. We are grateful for all your hard work and can only hope you will be able to squash these vermin that make our children's lives so hard. Glory to Marley! Glory to the Motherland!" she rasped quickly, leaning on the doctor first, then the doorframe. "Please don't hurt my grandchildren. They are all I have left. They will give their lives for Marley one day."

"I sure hope so," said Koslow and, in that moment, bathed in the light of his own hateful determination, he seemed forged out of ultrahard steel. Mikasa did not know what the future held, but she had an idea or two. She braced herself for impact, all kinds of unforeseeable impact, all of which she would bear easily if it could keep Eren, Armin and the others safe.

The good doctor Mann had not put up a convincing argument for her continued recuperation at the hospital. She supposed that he wanted officer Koslow and his entourage out of his hair as soon as possible and she could hardly blame him for it. They had tied, blindfolded and manhandled her onto a wheeled chair and then they were off on what Eren's reports had called a "car". It was faster than a carriage and noisier by far, but it was no longer in her nature to be perturbed by odd experiences, if it had been ever. She did not keep count of the turns. Even if she could make her way back to the hospital, it would not help her.

"It is best if you don't push her too much until her leg and head injuries are mostly healed. Someone hit her hard with a piece of debris when she was captured and she came in with a severe concussion. It was touch and go for a bit," the doctor had said before they left. "She may not remember everything at once. Likely to faint if you pull and shake too much. Godspeed."

She really did not remember everything, at least after the commencement of their operation on Liberio. She did, however, remember every little bit and piece of information about Paradis, Eren and the Survey Corps that the military government of Marley would be interested in. The doctor's disclosure could buy her some time and maybe a modicum of lenience until she figured out what to do, if she played her cards right.

When they arrived at their destination, Mikasa heard the familiar bustle of a town that was trying to return to normal after an unforeseen tragedy. A booming man's voice was calling out in the distance. "Newspaper, new issue! Newspaaaaper, our glorious Marley emerges victorious after sneak attack on civilians! New issue, two enemies captured by our brave military and warriors! Newspaaaaaper!"

Mikasa growled quietly in her throat. They had caught another one. Who was it? Was he or she all right? Would they play them off each other, hurting them in turns until they got what they wanted out of the weakest willed one? She would resist! She carefully mulled these dark thoughts over as the Marleyan officers lifted the wheeled chair and carried her down several flights of stairs. An increasing sense of foreboding mixed with the cold dampness in the air made her clothes stick to her skin, and she caught herself labouring over the mental image of hurt Eren or terrified Armin being tortured before her eyes, pressing questions boring into them, knots unravelling everywhere as she broke her silence and told them –

The blindfold was ripped off her, tossed aside along with her restraints, and she was picked up from the chair and thrown into a cell. She landed on her injured leg and bit her cheeks mournfully to keep from shouting out. This Koslow was clearly not one to defer to anyone else's advice, even the advice of a doctor. She looked at the men. There were three of them – middle-aged, probably mid-ranking except Koslow, entirely hostile.

She turned her gaze to the cell, noticed how hard it was to breathe down there as though a cool, thin goo settled over her lungs when she took breath. The walls to her back and left side were of stone, big and smooth chunks overflowing with dungeon moss. On her front and right side were tall, rusty iron bars, sparse enough for a hand to go through, too tight for a leg or head. The artificial Marleyan lights in the corridors glowed dim orange. There was no sunlight – there wouldn't be any, she guessed.

In the musty oppressiveness of this place, Mikasa had a very human thought. I don't want to stay here. Would that someone could come and help – but no. Not. She could handle this on her own, she should. For her sake and that of her captured comrade's. She was stronger, firmer than the others, better equipped…

A taut invisible string was trying to pull her throat, heart and the pit of her stomach in alignment.

"Think long and hard what it is you're going to say when Commander Magath interrogates you," Koslow growled after they were satisfied there was nothing in her reach except a wooden washbasin and some straw. "He is a man of manners. Personally, I think manners are reserved for humans only, but he may disagree. Don't mistake it for weakness." The lock on the cell's door turned with a clink and she remained still until well after the men's footsteps had faded up the stairs.

ii. two birds

Hours passed. After she picked herself up and tried to have a thorough look at her surroundings, she discovered that her leg really was in rough shape. Limping and wincing would have to do, as she was already doing her best to ignore the deafening pounding sensation in her ears every time she bent her head low or at a sharp angle.

The cell was no bigger than two cots long and wide, and that was a strange way to think about it, Mikasa admitted, because there was no cot in sight. Only straw, a layer so thin she could see through it. Some of the large rectangular stones on the wall were cracked but none seemed weak enough to be pried apart without a pick, and even if one was, there was no guarantee that the whole wall would not collapse under a mountain of debris. The washbasin water was murky and contained more than a few drowned spiders. Not for drinking, she decided. Was it for that other business then? The time would soon come when she would need to relieve herself. She preferred to do it in the water than outside.

The right-hand side bars… that was most surprising. Her cell seemed to form one half of a bigger cell parted down the middle with them. She could see little on the other side except that no one was in it. The design allowed for visibility, communication and limited contact with another detainee and made little sense to her strategically, unless the captors wanted to listen in on said communication above all else.

Not long after, she heard footsteps coming down the stairs again along with some light but persistent shuffling.

"That fucking shrimp," murmured someone with long, blond hair who came in first and opened the door of the other cell wide with a reverberating bang. "Get him in here, fast."

Mikasa watched intently as they dragged him in by scruff of the neck. He was gagged, hands cuffed behind his back, legs cuffed so that he could barely walk and visibly beaten… yet, there was no mistaking that stature or the furious eyes that peeked under his hair to shoot daggers at the Marleyan officer kicking him forward. With rising discomfort, she realized they had captured not one but two Ackermans and dealt a great blow to the manpower of their forces, knowingly or not. What had happened on the way to the zeppelin that neither Captain Levi nor she could have escaped?

"I have half a mind to keep that gag on you," the first person – a woman – said, as the officer kicked him again and he tumbled inside the cell. "You have quite the sewer mouth. It was entertaining hearing you say those things to Koslow, I'll admit." The grin did not reach her eyes. "And I'm sure you'll live to regret every single one of them."

Levi collected himself and sat on his knees as best as he could. He tossed a glance at the direction of her cell and Mikasa wondered if he could see her at all. She crept a little closer. From underneath strands of bluntly chopped black hair, he met her gaze briefly. Then he turned away, and Mikasa understood that he was already expecting to find her there. He most likely had not suffered a concussion from having his head collide with a rock; therefore he must know exactly what happened.

"Mmffmm."

"Take it off, Pieter. Watch your fingers."

The officer named Pieter took out a pocket knife and cut the rag with a sharp movement that nicked Levi's jaw. No one tried to remove his cuffs before locking him in.

"You speak a lot, little man, but you don't say the right things. We'll be back, so why don't you try harder next time? We even brought you this lovely girl to keep you company," the woman said with no emotion in her inflection. "Reiner Braun told us you've known each other for half a dozen years now, so you must care what happens to her at least a little bit, no? Or maybe you are a heartless little shrimp that would still like to "take a dump on baldy's head" even as we're pulling out her teeth. And nails. And innards, God forbid. Oh no. But maybe your comrades will strike a deal to save you both." At that she laughed and turned to leave. "The boys and I have a wager on who'll break first, you know."

Levi scooted backward and leaned against the stone wall not far from Mikasa. He tilted his head back. Under the orange fluorescence of their prison, Mikasa could not see his eyes, only the outline of his jaw and throat swelling slightly, his breath regular and calm. Calmer than hers, she'd have to admit. She tried to mimic his unruffled disposition, schooled her mouth into a line, and stripped her eyes of the spark of life. They would both need to bring their best calm game, if they were to have a single chance of getting out of this alive and with their country's secrets intact.

Levi murmured something.

"What?" the woman asked, and still he said nothing. "Spit it out!"

He turned to look at her ever so slightly.

"I said: good luck with that, bitch."

[stardustpug]

Title: Learning to Love the Cold Chapter Title: Crossovers Chapter: 11/? Fandom: snk/aot Pairing: jeanmarco Summary: In this part, we spend quite a bit of time following Armin around, and some time peeking into Jean's life while he cheers his boyfriend on from across an ocean. AO3 | FF.Net

At 4:00 AM, Jean wakes up to his phone buzzing with notifications. He wipes his eyes, trying to clear the blur of sleep to see who was blowing up his phone and why. He had about fifteen snaps from Marco, with more coming in every few seconds. He stares at his phone as it continues to buzz in his hand, trying to decide why the fuck Marco would be sending so many messages this early in the morning.

Suddenly, everything connects in his tired brain and he realizes that Marco is seven hours ahead of him and in Russia. For the Olympics. He’s scrambling to unlock and open his phone because it’s the coolest thing that’s ever happened to him, and he’s not even there. He quints through the brightness and opens the snaps, letting them all play through. A picture of Marco on the plane, a video of the airport, a video of the city, and then a continuous stream of pictures and videos from the Olympic Village. Jean feels a little odd seeing the insides of the village. He had always wondered what the inside looked like, and now he was finally seeing it. Of course, he supposed the inside of each Olympic Village looked different, but still. The experience would probably be the same, being an outsider and all.

After Marco’s snaps finish, he checks out what everyone else has been posting. Mostly the same things, showing the village in all its glory and all of Jean’s friends posing in various areas. He guesses he feels a little jealous, since that’s a feeling he’ll never have. But at the same time, most people will never stay in an Olympic Village, so he shouldn’t too feel left out.

Throughout his friends stories, he sees multiple candids of Marco walking or smiling and laughing with friends. He resists screenshotting them. After all, he doesn’t want to be that boyfriend. Or, he does, but he doesn’t want anyone else to know.

Glancing at the time, it’s now 4:15 and he groans. There’s no way he could sleep now, but he really needed more sleep before he had to wake up for school. He sends a blurry snap to Marco with a thumbs up and plops his phone down on his bedside table, rolling over with a grunt. Slowly, he takes in a deep breath and lets it out, feeling relieved that he can breathe right now. He would’ve noticed it earlier if he couldn’t, but the thought hadn’t entered his mind until now. He manages to drift back to sleep pretty easily.

Armin wakes up to over a hundred notifications on his phone, the main one being that school has been delayed due to heavy snowfall. He had sort of been hoping that wouldn’t happen; he really needed a distraction from the flow of snaps and messages he had waiting him. He should be there. But he’s not. He swings his legs over the side of his bed, reaching forward to turn on his lamp. His skates are placed on the other side of the room, untouched from the last time he wore them in Boston. With a sigh, he stands up and stretches, wondering what he should do with his two hours.

A thought hits him as his phone lights up with another message from Eren. The ice will be empty today, everyone is literally in another country. He was told he would never be able to walk again, but he walks fine. What if, this one time, he tried to skate again? If it didn’t work, he could head straight home and deal with the consequences later. He desperately missed the feeling of the ice beneath his feet, gliding along with the wind cooling him off from his program. He walks across his room, picking up his skates with a newfound determination. He slowly cracks his bedroom door open, checking for any light. If his grandpa was awake, there’s no way he would be able to pull this off.

Lucky for him, his plan had worked perfectly. Grandpa was still asleep when he snuck out of the house, and the rink was, as he planned, empty. Now was the hard part. He sat in clubroom for the first time in what felt like forever, staring at his skates sitting on the floor. Did he even remember how to skate? Would he still be able to jump, or would he crash and fall?

He leans down and pulls on one boot very carefully, his fingers shaking slightly as he laces them. He could blame it on the cold all he wanted, but realistically he was nervous and scared. If he couldn’t do this, then it really would be over. This spark of hope could have been for nothing, and he didn’t know if he could handle losing skating twice in his life.

He sits there for five minutes after tying his skates, contemplating what he’s about to do. This has to work, he thinks as he stands and walks out of the clubroom, down the winding hallway, and out to the rink. He opens the door and a blast of cool air hits him and he feels so alive. He swallows down the excitement building up in his throat and chest, telling himself that this may not work and it’s really only a last ditch effort at feeling okay. He pulls of his guards and tries not to think of this as the moment of truth. It is though. If he can still skate, everything will change for the better. If not, he’ll continue to watch his friends do what they all love with him on the sidelines. Can he do that for the rest of his life?

Carefully, he steps onto the ice, his toe picks digging in for a moment before he lets the entire blade settle. Then he pushes off with his other toe pick and it’s happening. For the first time in years, Armin is gliding across the ice, guards in hand. It’s like old times. The ice may be empty, but it’s like old times.

He reaches the boards and sets his guards down, and then checks to see if the radio is in the music box. It is, but he would rather hear the ice crunch under his feet for now. He starts off with simple stroking. After all, it had been so long he didn’t want to push it. He wanted to take the moment in, and hold close to it for as long as he could, in case all he could do was stroke.

Crossovers came naturally to him and he reaches the short boards, and instinctively he turns backwards and falls into his normal warm up routine. Alternating backwards crossovers, forwards and backwards power pulls, and so on. He comes to a stop beside his things, breathing heavily. A smile crosses his face because he can still do moves, at the very least. Glancing at his phone, it lights up once more, this time a snap from Sasha. He starts to reach for his phone, but decides against it. He wants to see what else he can still do before he replies to everyone.

He skates to the middle of the rink, and pushed himself into a spin. It feels odd, like all of his blood is rushing to one side of his body, but he still managed to do it pretty well after all this time. He looks down at the markings left over and he didn’t travel too far, so he guesses he should be pretty proud. His eyes trace their way around the rink and he realizes the only thing he has left to try are jumps. He definitely can’t do doubles anymore, and really he should start with a waltz jump to keep things easy, but he wants to try something else, something harder.

He settles on a flip. Not too hard, but harder than what he should be going for. He loops around the rink to gain speed and decides flinging himself into it is really the only way to do it after so long. He turns, his toe pick digging into and crunching the ice beneath him, pulling himself up and over his leg. And then, it happens. He’s in the air.

If you has asked the Armin Arlert of three years ago what it felt like to jump, he probably wouldn’t have had much of answer. If anything, he hardly noticed it all because he did it all the time. It was normal to fly through the air on a daily basis. But now? Not so much. It was different. Similar to the feeling of landing his first double, but still. It was better. He could feel how his entire body was positioned, the crisp air against his skin, the weightlessness.

His landing is a little scratchy, a little too forward on his toe pick. But he landed it. He comes to a stop and stares at the ice, not knowing how to respond. There’s no one around the celebrate with. He glides back to his phone, finally deciding to watch all of the snaps that he’s been ignoring. Draped across the boards, he opens Sasha’s first. The snaps are about what he thought - everyone showing off where they were and what they were doing. He didn’t mind now though, it suddenly didn’t hurt as much. He wishes he could be there, that he could’ve been training this whole time with everyone, but he also didn’t want anything to take away this magical moment of falling in love with skating again.

He checks messages both from Eren and Mikasa, who are keeping him the most updated of the bunch. He can tell through their messages how apologetic they are that he’s not there. He debates if he should post a picture of his skates on his story, or maybe a video of him doing something. He sets his phone carefully against the glass portion of the boards and begins recording. He settles for a camel spin, deciding it was probably the easiest thing for him right now that still looked somewhat impressive (if he could still do it).

As he steps into the spin, he goes through each step mentally: stepping with his knee slightly bent, hunched over, whipping his arms around as if he’s clearing a table, snapping his knee, and pushing his other leg into the air. When he comes out of the spin, he feels satisfaction flowing through his whole body. He couldn’t believe that he was actually out on the ice, doing what he loved after being told he never could again.

He posts the snap to his story and realizes that he’s going to be late for school if he doesn’t leave now. He quickly checks that school hasn’t been canceled and sighs as he skates towards the door. He didn’t want to go already, not after knowing that he’s still capable. But he supposes there’ll be another time that he can come and work on getting back what he’s lost. His phone buzzes with a notification that Eren is typing on snapchat, and then a message notification pops up. He slides his phone open and taps on the message.

Eren: yooooo what the fuck how

Armin can’t help but smile. Such a typical Eren response.

Armin: :-)

Eren: why the fuck would you use a nose

Armin: I thought you were shocked about my skating?

Eren: no we gotta talk about this nsoe bullshit first

Eren: *nose

Jean grabs a gallon of milk from the fridge and starts to chug when his mother comes out of nowhere and whacks him over the head with a rolled up newspaper.

“Ow! Hey!”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“...Nourishing myself.”

She sighs and sets the newspaper down, learning against the counter. “You know school was delayed?”

“Really? Fuck, I could’ve slept in.”

“Jean!” his mother gasps, “Language!”

“Shi- sorry mom,” he says sheepishly, grinning at her.

After glowering at him for a minute, she offers to make him breakfast. He says yes and sits at the counter, idly chatting with her as she cracks the eggs on the side of the pan. “Scrambled?” she asks, heading for the fridge. He nods and she pulls out a few slabs of American cheese and milk, setting them beside the stove top. “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” he says, “I can breathe still, so. I assume the new medications is doing what it should be.”

She nods again, this time to herself, before saying, “I’m glad. I was so worried when the doctor decided to switch you over. That is your main medication, after all.” She pauses, glancing over her shoulder at him, “Tell me right away if you start to have any trouble breathing.”

“Mom, you know I will.”

“I know, but I worry,” she says, adding some milk and the slices of cheese to the eggs and stirring. “The last time you switched was hard for all of us.”

“I know it was.”

She plates the eggs and set them in front of him. “Milk?”

“Yeah?”

She pours a glass and slides it over to him, then begins working on cleaning up the kitchen.

At 1:00 PM, Jean begins to impatiently twist in his seat, glancing at his phone. He couldn’t stand paying attention in class anymore. Opening ceremonies were starting and his boyfriend was literally in it. How could he miss his boyfriend on international TV? He guesses that America will be pretty far back in line, starting with a U and all, and the performances should add some time as well. But still, he would’ve liked to watch the whole thing live.

Time slowly ticks by as he fidgets in his seat, ignoring whatever his teacher had to say. When the final bell rings, he’s the first one out of his seat and rushing through the door. He quickly piles away his things in his locker and goes over the few homework items he actually has to worry about and slams them in his backpack. And with that, he’s headed for the backdoor of the school, towards student parking.

By the time Jean flipped on the TV and found the channel, Serbia was headed around the Olympic stadium. After a few minutes he realizes he was lucky with his timing, because they announce the USA. The crowd of red, white, and blue begins their walk, and he wonders if he’ll even see Marco or any of his friends considering the amount of athletes the USA has.

But then he sees them - right there, in their own portion of the group, phones out, smiling and laughing with each other. He leans forward on the couch, fingers gripping the edges tightly. He felt some kind of rush as he watched Marco flash a smile directly at the camera, and then they were gone. His phone buzzes beside him.

Snapchat from Marco.

He swipes his phone open, feeling weirdly light. Could he now breathe again? Or was this something else?

First, a selfie from Marco backstage. Jean decides he doesn’t care and screenshots it. Then, a video from inside the arena. It shows the crowd and how large it really is, and Jean can’t help but wonder what it would feel like to walk through with his best friends and teammates, knowing that you’re the best of the best.

He decides the feeling must be some kind of sadness because he knows he’ll never do something like that.

Jean wakes up early the following day to catch Eren and Mikasa’s short program in the morning. He thinks they did pretty well, but he guesses he doesn’t know enough about skating to really judge. By the end, they’re placed in second, so he decided he must know something.

During their event, he receives multiple snaps from Marco. Marco and the rest of the skaters are shown a few times, sitting in the crowd, along with Eren and Mikasa’s parents.

The afternoon brings the ladies short, leaving Sasha in first and Mina in third.

The rest of Saturday passes agonizingly slow, with nothing but homework to be done. Jean can’t bring himself to look at it, but he knows he should get it done before tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon is the men’s short, and he absolutely cannot miss that.