#aotopmha talks

[aotopmha]

Today is one of those "what is this timeline" days, including it being funny, but in actuality really horrifying.

The two US presidental candidates are old men who can't even list the world's countries properly. You know, potential leaders of one of the biggest, most powerful countries on Earth.

The Russian dictator functions based on a wierd fanfic of history.

The American audience and sockpuppets lapping up the dictator's vomit is shocked the dictator is a dictator.

What is this timeline.

[momtaku]

So apparently everyone hates the series now and anyone who dared to enjoy or defend the ending is a brainless idiot. Don't get me wrong, I understand the criticism and I'm disappointed with a few things myself, but right now I'm finding it almost impossible to find even an ounce of positivity anywhere :(. Have you been having that same problem? Surely it wasn't THAT terrible.

I have mostly been answering asks and not browsing tumblr

From what I’ve seen many of the people I follow have had at least some positive things to say about the ending. No one is blind to the flaws but  @aotopmha, @hamliet and @aspoonofsugar , @tsuki-no-ura and @lostcauses-noregrets have all weighed in with some degree of positivity. I’ve talked to @safflora and she has some great thoughts that I’m really hoping she'll find time to write. I’m also holding @linkspooky to the promise that she’ll publish their reaction as well. 

I also find it perfectly understandable that other people who I greatly respect and admire like ghostmartyr and oldsummerdream have noped out of the series permanently. I nod along whole heartedly to their logic and reasoning. I can see where a slight shift in perspective would take this series from passable to inexcusable.

The only other place I’ve discussed the ending is on the podcast discord. Reaction there had been mixed. The criticism we all seem to agree on is that Eren getting anything close to a hero treatment was awful. Sympathy and understanding from his friends would be fine, but after destroying 80% of the world to end the titan curse and justifying with an “I don’t know why I did it”, it should’ve been revolting to everyone on some level. Yes they disagree.  Yes they are trying to fix his mistake. But a more vocal reminder of the horrors of his decision were needed.

I’m sorry you’re struggling to find a balance of voices here. I hope you’re able to find some like minds to discuss this with <3

Thanks for the ask!

[aspoonofsugar]

Alternative Reality Asks

Hello anons and hello @reene7890,

All your asks/comments can be answered in a single post.

In short, what Mikasa saw is probably an alternative reality either Eren or Ymir shared it with her through paths.

This is why both Eren and Mikasa saw it:

That said, in the end I do not think it really matters.

These are just my two cents on the whole time-travel aspect of snk.

Of course I might be wrong and next chapter might have a huge plot-twist that shocks us all and changes the whole plot. Still, as for now, this is how I feel.

So far the time-travel aspect of the series has not been relevant plot-wise (at least not in the way it is in time-travel centered stories) and has mostly been thematically enriching and used to give us a deeper understanding of the characters. In a sense, it made the characters more complex.

When it comes to worldbuilding, it is one of the many aspects of the power of paths. All Eldians are linked through time and space thanks to them, after all.

The paths have many powers which manifest in different ways. For example, last chapter dead people managed to briefly come back to help the Alliance.

This chapter, the paths have made possible for Mikasa to see a part of an alternative present/future. Similarly, in the very first chapter Eren saw that same specific possible future.

We might have a more detailed explanation next chapter, but as @aotopmha said here, I do not really think it will be something overly complicated. I think it will mostly be something simple that will not really change the overall plot, but will enrich it thematically. For example, the theory in the post kinda works for me. Ymir/Eren trying to break a loop by experiencing different realities to succeed in the end does not really change the story we have just seen, especially if Eren did not really have memories of it.

It does not change Eren’s massacre being wrong, especially because we have seen the psychologial state he was in when he made it. We saw it was not for a great scheme, but that it was him dissociating. It would not change that in the end the people who saved the world were Armin and Mikasa and that they did so through their choices that were different from Eren’s. It would not change that probably in almost every time-line Eren would not be able to overcome his self-hate and his flaw.

At the same time, for Mikasa what she experienced is and will always remain a dream. In the end it is not what she chose. It is a reality that could have happened if she had chosen differently. Still, it did not happen in the story.

We all as individuals, even without time-travel or different realities, can potentially imagine different possible future selves. And these future selves might have been born if we had taken different choices in key moments of our lives. If I had studied medicine... I would be a doctor right now. I am not, but this does not mean it was impossible to begin with.

For Mikasa, it is the same. She sees a reality that we know it is an alternative reality because we saw Eren seeing it too. Still, Mikasa is experiencing it as a dream. She might never know that was an actual alternative reality she in a sense has experienced and lived. She probably knows this unconsciously, but rationally, it might be left ambiguous.

In the meta I refer to it as a dream precisely because of this and also because it is the realization of Mikasa’s childhood dream. And even in the chapter it is something linked to Mikasa’s personal wish:

She does not see a random alternative reality, but a reality linked to a wish (go back to her home with Eren) and to a regret (what would have happened if she had chosen differently?).

We as people can only imagine different futures, while Mikasa who is in a world where alternative realities exist is given the chance to briefly experience one. And she experiences a reality specifically important for her because it is the reality where she got what she wanted. And she still realizes that even in that case she can’t save Eren.

Let me clarify what I mean when I say that I think time-travel and different realities are used in the series to enrich characters and themes and not really to create structural plot-twist. I’ll try doing so using this chapter.

Mikasa seeing the alternative reality does not let her change the past and does not let her change the future. So, time-travel has no repercussion in the overal events of the story.

What is more, it was really not necessary for Mikasa to see an alternative reality for her to arrive to the choice of killing Eren. In terms of writing Mikasa could have easily come at the same conclusion in a different way. In fact, I think different people had different headcanons about this moment.

Even the first panel:

In the end, it is revealed to simply be an image from a different reality, not even from the reality we are reading the story of. If the loop-theory is correct, it might simply be the conclusive panel of a story that happened before ours. It does not really change what we are reading.

The same goes for the other instances where time travel was used.

Eren convincing his father to kill the Reiss Family is important for his, Zeke and Grisha’s characters. It changes their dynamic making it more complicated. It is also important for Zeke’s arc and character. Still, it does not change what we already know aka... The Reiss Family is killed by Grisha. We discover an ulterior layer to Grisha’s motivation. We also discover Eren’s role in it and how much he has spiralled. Still, the event itself does not change.

Similarly, Eren seeing the Rumbling is important for his psychology I think because we can see him struggling with this idea and partially being consumed by it. Still, in the end it is still Eren’s choice to start it. Other options were still possible and this chapter’s alternative reality proves exactly this.

And it is in this that the time travel aspect of snk works imo. It is enriching thematically. It is enriching thematically because it is used to explore the theme of freedom aka the main theme.

It shows how Eren seeing the future does not make him freer, but a slave of a specific vision he saw.

It shows the fine line between destiny and choices, like in this chapter.

It shows that different realities are born by different choices, even if some factors are meant to remain. It also shows how every reality has within itself different burdens.

Finally, to answer to the anons who asked abt the reality where Eren and Mikasa ran away and its contradictions... I think it is important to remember it is just one among different realities. It is the specific reality Mikasa saw because it is important for her to see it.

Still, other versions were possible too.

As I have written in the meta, a reality where the conflict between Marley and Paradis had developed differently would have probably needed Armin making different choices because thematically he is the character mostly linked to the outside world.

So yeah, there is a reality where Mikasa and Eren choose to leave Armin behind. In the actual story, Eren left both Mikasa and Armin behind, despite clearly loving them, so I do not think it is that surprising that in another reality Mikasa chooses to stay with Eren and to avoid war.

It is implied that in this reality Mikasa conveyed her love to Eren and that Eren opened up to her about the Rumbling. Once she knew about it, Mikasa must have convinced him to give up on this plan and to simply live in peace. Eren was clearly very close to a breakdown when she talked with Mikasa in Marley. He had decided to spare Historia a life as a breeding stock by destroying the world.

Mikasa makes him give up this plan, but Eren can’t still accept the alternative plan, which is about keeping the power of the Rumbling and pass it down from a generation to another forcing Historia and her children to become Titans. This is why they run away in this reality.

Eren says so himself:

He could not choose.

In our story Eren sacrificed the world and humanity for Paradis and Historia (and we see mixed results because Paradis was turning in a dictatorship, many people still died and Historia was still miserable).

In Mikasa’s alternative reality Mikasa and Eren sacrificed Paradis for Histora and humanity.

That said, this does not mean there are not other realities where Mikasa, Eren, Armin and others characters made different choices.

Finally about Mikasa choosing to say “See you later” instead “Goodbye” or something different, I think it is better to ask someone who knows Japanese because the expression translated as see you later might have a different nuance in Japanese. Anyway, I think the context makes pretty clear Mikasa is saying farwell to Eren.

I hope this was clear enough :)

Thank you for the asks!

[mercyandmagic]

list ten songs you've been listening to and tag ten people!

thanks for tagging me @greenyleezard !!

here's my songs:

Now I’m In It - HAIM

Frail State of Mind - The 1975

The Changing of Seasons - Tony Anderson

Talk Nice - No Rome

Death Stranding - Chvrches

Lonely – Nathan Wagner 

Strawberries and Cigarettes - Troy Sivan

Never - Muna

I Like America and America Likes Me - the 1975

Down - Mat Kearney

So anyways, I'll tag @hamliet @patronsaintofdemons @tinfoilchan @momtaku @aotopmha and anyone else who wants this!

[julystorms]

hello! i just wanted to let u know that i enjoy your blog and everytime i read ur meta/headcanons i learn something new and insightful. i was wondering if u could recommend some blogs that post anime content + some info about what each blog posts? (after coming off from a semihiatus, im looking to follow some new blogs)

Thank you anon!! I don’t follow a whooole bunch of people and I don’t follow anyone that is anime-only bloggos for snk or otherwise, but let’s see... I follow these people for--

Attack on Titan:

@hushpiper (meta/analysis/discussion)@attack-on-social-skills (meta/analysis/discussion)@stohessdistrict (analysis stuff but also loooovely edits/gifs! and sometimes other anime posts)@swolleneyes (beautiful art)@miawrly (more lovely art)@ermioney (and more lovely art!)@aotopmha (meta/analysis/discussion)@etoincognito (meta/analysis/discussion)@ghostmartyr (meta/analysis)@lenniikins (misc, sometimes art but mostly images/reblogs)@goodguyjean (meta and discussion posts; they love Jean so if you love Jean this blog is for you)@hamburger--time (misc reblogs, memes, fun stuff)@lolakasa (pretty artwork!)@hilow (misc stuff, sometimes artwork)@lindowyn (discussion!! meta!)@teetanjaeger (discussion and meta)@momtaku (meta/analysis/discussion)@bossard (fanfiction!!!! good fanfic!! GREAT FANFIC!!!!! but also fun conversationalist)@trash-god (i’m love her art and we talk 24/7 about everything so)@drinkyourfuckingmilk (not tons of snk anymore but art mostly)

Others:

@kippielovesyou (we have a lot of fandoms in common but you might see misc anime fandom stuff here)@hikawamaria & @hairjel (these two i followed for snk but they post a lot of other stuff)@final-mazin-blade (if you like mecha this is the guy)@hitaki-tempo (nice art esp for psycho pass!)@homun-clueless (FMA/B)

I hope these are a good starting place. There are lots of people in the fandom I don’t kick around with regularly but whom you might enjoy talking to; it really depends on what your interests are? I mean, anime in general is great but I tend to follow mostly snk-centric blogs that post random other animes depending on mood.

[aotopmha]

So, apparently my blog turned *9 YEARS OLD* today.

I've been talking about media on this blog for almost a decade now.

Usually I go on a whole talk about my inspirations and how I got started talking about media more actively via just wanting to chat about Attack On Titan in @momtaku's inbox and how before Attack On Titan I was just kind of your average forum-goer, sort of commenting here and there and how AoT really made me care about writing about media along with thinking about it, but right now I'm just thinking about how this blog is almost 10 years old.

That's a pretty long time.

And after all of this time, I still love just thinking about media and I still truly love writing about media, too.

I've long wanted to try my hand at content creation and just as I evolved from just commenting on forums, try to evolve into making videos or the like, but I've never quite found a format I like.

I'm not sure I'd like doing those video essays that are so popular these days, though I love watching them.

And I'm not sure about the classic review format.

I love the spirit of the most good-willed and well-executed ones, so I'd probably want to do something similar to them in spirit.

I have some very specific ideas floating in my head, but perhaps the basics are indeed the best place to start?

I'll see.

At the very least I currently have just about 1300 followers and I'd like to thank everyone who has followed me and likes my stuff.

Here's to ten years and more!

[aotopmha]

AI as it is right now fucking sucks, but I think a lot of people who champion for regulation/bans don't explicitly say and explain why it is so bad beyond the basics.

Naturally, art is for expressing perspectives and communication with the audience, an emotional and intellectual reaction.

This gets lost when said media is directly created something based on media that already exists and thus perspectives of authors that already exist.

Nothing new can come out of a system that is solely based on stuff that already exists.

So far, so good.

The argument is that *everything* is based on something that already exists and always has been.

But this is actually not true.

The human mind can come up with new stuff based on old stuff, but an AI can only copy what it is given in its system.

A human mind can reach a different conclusion based on the same information, so any new piece of media that it doesn't look to directly copy, to plagarise will be different and new in major and minor ways even if the foundations might be the same.

This is the critical element I think a lot of people don't mention. AI can only copy what it is given. The human mind can copy and still have something different and new come out of it.

A new consistent art style. A new system of thinking. Lyrics that express ideas in new ways.

Yes, this stuff is often with a foundation, like the limited number of types of stories that can be told, certain chord progressions, certain aspects of an art style.

Inspiration is not copying because something new and different still crops up from it; a different person with a different extent of experience and a different life journey is making it.

AI art can have no delibrate artistic choices because all it can do is copy what it is fed.

There can be no new art styles that aren't strange, inconsistent mush of already existing art styles.

There can be no new styles of writing that aren't a direct mash-up of the style of writers that already exist.

Tolkien absolutely has a very different writing style from George R. R. Martin just because they are writers that are active, who are from different nations and different time periods.

Any story using Shakespeare speak will never truly be able to copy it because, guess what, it is from an author that revolutionised language. Shakespeare literally came up with new words.

So the only way to emulate Shakespeare is to come up with entirely new words emulating his style of writing.

"Everything has existed before" only works in very broad strokes.

It's a perspective that is really easy to use by people who don't want to put in any of the actual effort or time that it takes to make art.

They don't want to open Word and just write or get a free art program on their phone and practice, but they want the praise and they want the attention they see artists get.

It's the strongest, most slavish dedication to laziness you can get.

[aotopmha]

I turned 32 today.

This year, I've been pretty happy just eating some good food and listening to music I love.

It's nice.

[aotopmha]

Today was the first time I saw manga in a local store.

I might be able to start supporting the series I love – my only option used to be ordering from abroad, but delivery is extremely shaky here and the times attempts were made to order stuff from abroad, the goods always ended up lost, whatever the order might have been, so it would simply be a waste of money.

But having manga more broadly available locally makes it possible for me to actually get it.

I saw The Promised Neverland, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, Komi Can't Communicate and One Punch Man being sold.

The unfortunate fact was that I didn't see a single first volume.

But I also realised that:

1) I'm pretty happy with just keeping up with most of the Shounen stuff on the manga app. Most Shounen mangaka are wierdos/creeps and even if it's a Shounen I've deeply loved for a long time (like One Piece), I'm content with consuming them once and free online.

2) Most of my favourite series are my faves in anime form.

I'm actually not that much of a manga person.

I prefer the 2003 version of FMA to the manga by a long shot.

I mostly prefer the AoT anime to the AoT manga.

Despite ONE's own unique style, I think I also much prefer the Mob Psycho 100 anime.

My personal favorite anime is still probably Twelve Kingdoms and the source material for that series is a novel.

Almost everything Gen Urobuchi has written is an anime.

Unfortunately, I've yet to see any actual anime Blu-Rays/DVDs locally and most of my favourite stories are actually older ones, so that'd be an even tougher search.

That said, I'd eventually probably pick up that One Punch Man volume I saw.

And I've at least heard good things about Komi and a portion of The Promised Neverland. I like their art.

If I saw them, I think I'd want to pick up Berserk, Vinland Saga, Attack on Titan, Noragami, Tokyo Ghoul, Ancient Magus' Bride and To Your Eternity, off the top of my head.

AoT has me hesitating the most because I think Isayama is the most likely to turn out to be a complete asshole, but his most problematic statements are about 10 years old now and there hasn't been much of a pattern building, either as far as I know.

All I know is that he wants to build a sauna with the money he made. Which is cool by me.

All of that said, this actually prompted me to check on the bigger bookshops in my area and they indeed have a much larger (and cheaper) selection of manga now. I might actually try ordering from there as opposed to any abroad places.

Exciting stuff! I'd have no issue supporting some of the artists/authors who are women in particular.

[aotopmha]

Second-hand embarassment is the worst.

When you realise you did something strange or awkward seconds, minutes, an hour after you did it.

When you remember a specific moment ten years ago that made you sink deep within the earth, making you want to never return to the land of the living.

And it's not even that you did something genuinely awful.

It can be awkward communication, strange wording, a wierd bit of movement or an out of place bit of behaviour.

But I also think it's actually super interesting material to think about for writing because I feel like lots of stories don't use this aspect of humanity.

I think the reason why this is avoided is fairly obvious: people like comfy escapism. We consume media to escape these awkward aspects of humanity.

And I feel that, but for a long time I've also felt there is room for both depending on the story.

I always speak out negatively against escapism because I feel like so much media has become escapism that feels like pretty empty product, all written with the same cadence.

I love art that is about difficult topics and ideas, written by flawed people in an attempt to perhaps connect to others or start a conversation or just explore ideas they're interested in and see where that leads them.

And because I like the latter style of storytelling the most, I'm always siding with the 'human' part of this conversation.

But the truth is that variety is the spice of life.

There is room for everything.

It's just not lesser or greater. It's simply a different kind of story.

And there can even generally be 'escapist', 'safe' stories that still have stuff to say. It's not a hard line.

This is all rumination on my various writing attempts: as still a beginner, I've noticed it ends up somewhere in the middle for me.

A story with fantastical elements that evolves into exploring 'real issues'.

Sometimes the cores of characters specifically end up being a specific issue I have struggled with at some point in time, but not always. Sometimes it's also about topics or ideas I think that are interesting to think about.

And from there, it evolves.

It's a pretty common/known sentiment people write what they know, but I think the layers built on top of that personal core are interesting.

I can't write about topics I don't 'feel' about and what you 'feel' about isn't always hyper-personal.

But as far as my attempts at writing go, what you 'feel' about has always been the most effective aspect to build the rest of the story around.

I can't 'logic it'. I can logic around the emotional core, but I can't build the core itself via just brute forcing some ideas I have written down.

Writing has been super fun, though and it's all across years and months and weeks of putting down notes and then deleting them and then putting down even more notes.

And as a result I now have a prototype of a story in my head I can't get rid of and keep trying to write down, but end up being dissatisfied with.

It's so cool.

[aotopmha]

Once in a while, I am reminded just how much I hate bad faith, out of context readings of a story.

Yes, art is flawed.

Yes, the people creating art are flawed.

We should talk about that, but I think reading art without any nuance or context attached is also pretty boring.

There are some horrible pieces of media I've consumed, but the most enjoyable part of consuming those pieces of media for me has been talking about them with nuance, which doesn't even mean we should be talking about them positively.

Why is this awful? Where does this perspective come from? In what way could it be made good?

This is why I also don't get blind praise.

Either side is so painfully unconstructive.

And truth is, sometimes people just want to vent about stuff they love, used to like or stuff they clearly just deeply hate, that's pretty understandable.

Sometimes people just want to do some sarcastic quipping.

(Hey, this post itself is venting.)

But I sure am glad people love telling me how very smart they are.

But that's also fortunately why the block button exists.

Sometimes I feel like I'm for some reason obligated to listen to the criticism around everything I like because taking in criticism is 'healthy', but then I also remember I don't have to listen to every single asshole on the internet.

Criticism is healthy to take in, but it's also nice to do it in a way that's actually fun for me.

[aotopmha]

Happy holidays, everyone!

[aotopmha]

Hey, it's just one thing after another isn't it.

Just when there was a little peace, another shitty problem pops up.

And it sucks so much because it's so layered and personal, too.

And on my part, it could in big part, be solved by, say it with me, more money.

This sucks.

[aotopmha]

My blog turned 8 years old today!

My activity on Tumblr started as an anon on @momtaku 's blog somewhere during the Uprising arc of Attack on Titan.

I was inspired to start a blog because I've always loved talking about/criticising media, I really started to enjoy the insight of a number of the content creators for the series and along with this interest, the series itself showed up at the right time and right place for me, being about themes I care about and having flaws that I found interesting, too.

At that time AoT didn't have the issues I ended up having with it (despite of which I still have a soft spot for it), but it ended up being a very important, even a somewhat formative series for me although I technically wasn't at a formative age anymore because it served as a proxy for me to develop my voice as someone who likes criticism.

Despite my issues with the story, I think there were moments and points where it was very moving and powerful and none of the issues that showed up later removed that for me.

If it wasn't for AoT, I would've never sought out certain perspectives, never met certain people or sought out certain pieces of media.

I only recently, about 7-8 years after finding AoT found a story that I simply *care* about this much, even if I think some other series do what AoT does better.

Above all AoT made me care deeply to the point I wrote 1000s and 1000s of words about it across 8+ years.

And so here I am 8 years later.

The same yet older and wiser and different. I'd argue much more patient and much more open-minded. Maybe a better writer.

And probably not even 10% of that growth was because of AoT, but I certainly feel it at least played a part and that is very rare for a piece of media for me.

Very few pieces of media I've consumed in life have prepetuated change in me personally, but I will eternally remember them and I think even if my relationship with them may change or maybe some outside influence might change my perspective of them (it's entirely possible Hajime Isayama might end up being a complete asshole for whatever reason instead of just making a few jokes that cross some lines or having a 9-10 year old tweet or blog post saying dumb shit that contradicts his own series), the good in them will stay with me forever.

But the most important detail of all in this is that I mostly had fun. My current issues with fandom don't extend to specific series, but rather the general internet space.

The nature of a lot of recent discussion in fandom just isn't that interesting for me.

Tribalistic competition between communities of series, equating depiction to approval, removing feelings from media disscussion, fear of depicting loss or failure, criticising characters for acting human at all – all of these discussion trends remove why I like media in the first place and make it all pretty uninteresting to me.

People are complicated and not always right and the conflict arising from being a person is what keeps me coming back to media.

That's the art I look for because that's what makes me care and draws me in.

Hey, if you like that kind of discussion, more power to you! But I just don't find it engaging or substantial.

I consume media mainly to think about various topics I find interesting, to think about life and feelings.

Sometimes a simple series with simple ideas is nice to chill to once in a while, but I often lose interest in those kinds of series because they remain simple and thus become repetitive in a very specific way.

And during these 8 years, this perspective is also something that I slowly refined. My basic beliefs as a human being haven't changed for a long time, but the nuances and specifics have. These years simply helped me define them better – what I believe in and what I look for.

And here's to many more years of analysis and thank you to everyone who likes my stuff!

[aotopmha]

It's election week/day here.

I did my duty and am now hoping for the best results, looking at the trends we're on.

[aotopmha]

As a translator, online translation discourse makes me die a little inside 95% of the time