Attack On Titan // Manga Analysis
contains spoilers.
this post is focused mostly on the Marley Arc and Sasha’s death. read at your own risk.
Ah, I said I would do this, here I am.
I believe pretty much all of the Attack On Titan fandom is pissed right now. Whether you are a manga reader or not, I’m sure you’ve come across with the most recent spoilers.
Yes, Sasha Blouse is dead.
We shall start with some background on her, using the anime. She was rather irrelevant during season one, I think we all agree. She was simply the ‘potato girl’, or the girl who spoke in a ridiculously polite way, but, during season two, she gained some focus for her character. Truth is she was meant to die in chapter 40, more or less, when she fought that one titan with the arrows. (Titan that was confirmed (i think) to be Connie’s father.)
She was unharmed. She didn’t have her gear on, but she did save a small child from a titan and fought it with something she was good at, shooting arrows. But though, I think she isn’t given enough credit for this. She had this whole episode for herself and still, she was still ‘potato girl’.
Throughout the whole anime, Sasha is seen as a goofball who has an incredibly high appetite. Sure, she is a rather positive character, so is Connie, but both of them have their own demons as well.
Believe it or not, Sasha was rather important during the Uprising Arc. She was one of the chosen to be part of the new Squad Levi, as long as the other 104th soldiers and she had an important role in protecting Eren and Historia.
After she takes care of Levi’s wounds, she stays on guard all night as the squad is eating and drinking.
She then takes part in the rescuing of Eren and Historia, as they know their whereabouts and, shall we not forget, she saves Connie’s life.
And, later on, it’s Connie’s time to attend to her safety, in the Return to Shingashina Arc. Being hit by the debris upon fighting the Armored Titan, Connie takes her unconscious body to a roof and everyone begins thinking about the Titan Serum. Though, she’s not injured to that point and the debate is then between Armin and Erwin, Levi ending up deciding to give it to Armin.
Even more, as they return to Trost and she finally recovers, she is exhonerated with a damn medal. Sasha is a worthy soldier.
And finally, we get to the shitty Marley Arc. Personally, it has been my least favorite arc so far. Now, having read chapter 105, I feel like I’ve wasted all the time I’ve put into reading this manga. I used to love every bit of it, even with the death and all the angst, I still looked forward to the next chapter. Now, I don’t. Now I’ll think “Ah.. Another chapter. I’ll read it later.” and just go on with it.
Alright, let’s get this Arc straight, shall we.
We had a heck ton of chapters that made us though “Where the fuck is the Survey Corps” since only hobo looking Eren and mentally fucked up Reiner were on the show. Sure, we got to know some stuff about the Marley dudes, but they’re not that interesting.
It seems to me that Eren left to Marley on his own accord, that he probably even disobeyed his superiors orders (That’d be Commander Hange and Captain Levi) and even wrote them a letter.
Both Hange and Levi show their discontent with Eren’s development and behavior. Eren, who used to be Humanity’s Hope is now nothing but a suicidal soldier, who uses himself as bait and causes his comrades to die.
He was, for a long time, talking to Falco, bonding with him so that he could get to Reiner. I’m not sure how I feel about Falco though, because he seems to be a good person and he felt deceived by Eren, because he thought Eren was a good person and he was surely though that the people of Paradis were monsters.
Falco felt used by Eren and realizes he was lied to. The kid probably has trust issues, who knows.
Despite knowing that his name is Eren Jaeger, he still goes for Kruger. He’s upset, he understood Eren is a bad guy, I guess.
But anyway, Eren masters up to fuck Reiner in the head even more and bam- he goes batshit crazy and turns into a titan. Nothing we haven’t seen before, right?
Well he goes and kills the Thor look alike and ye, look it’s a new titan!!!
You are one creepy fucker, Tybur woman.
And, of course, the rest of Marley had to come, right? We get a better look at Pieck’s cart titan and Zeke’s beast titan as well. Let’s not forget what Levi promised Erwin before he died. He would take down the beast titan.
But, surprise surprise. Zeke is betraying Marley. Or.. You can’t be that surprised, c’mon, he betrayed his own parents.
Here’s how it starts:
Eren seems a bit unamused to me, I don’t know, woops.
On another note, both Levi and Jean talk about ‘time’. That’s another confirmation note to the fact Zeke is actually on Paradis’ side (apparently) and Levi killing him, for now, is an act.
Pieck knows that Zeke just betrayed him, so.. my question is. Why didn’t she do anything about it? She probably just realised that Levi did not kill him, that he acted as if he did. So why did she just carry on battling and didn’t do anything? Hm.. Fishy.
But moving on.
Let’s talk about another character. Gabi Braun. She’s just 12 and also an Eldian and Warrior Candidate. Her goal is to kill Eren Jaeger, who trampled over her home.
So here’s the thing about Gabi. First of all, she’s a brat. Second of all, she has a superiority complex. Third of all, she doesn’t listen to anyone. We all know Falco is more inteligent than Gabi and less impulsive than her.
Don’t talk back, you brat.
But here’s what pisses me off. She made it clear. Eren Jaeger is her target. Sure, she holds a grudge against all Survey Corps members, but mostly, Eren.
So why, why did she have to kill TWO soldiers before she got Eren?
She killed Lobov and, right after, she didn’t even aim. She grabbed the gun and shot. She had no idea if she’d get anyone or not. But she did, she killed Sasha with one shot.
What was the damn logic? She shot randomly. Did she even know if she’d get someone? As much as she knew, she could’ve shot against a wall. Her aim wasn’t defined, she didn’t know what she was doing.
But no. Poor innocent Sasha had to take the damn bullet. No one was expecting that, Jean and Connie are dumbfounded as Sasha falls backwards.
Some people are supporting Gabi in here, saying she’s protecting her home, but let’s get something straight. If Sasha hadn’t hesitated back then, Gabi would be dead. Sasha spared Gabi’s life and how did Gabi thank her? She didn’t. She killed her. She killed the one who granted her the miracle of life when she could’ve taken it away.
And of course, the Survey Corps flip. Sasha is obviously dear to everyone, we can tell that everyone sees Sasha as a close friend, or even a relative. While Jean and Connie, the closest people to Sasha, try to take care of her, the others are quick to pin Gabi and Falco down and hit them. They’re seriously pissed that a brat got in their ship and shot one of them.
We all know Jean is an emotional guy. But, seeing try to stay collected, giving orders as he sees Sasha slowly slip away from life.. Damn mate.
Also, Connie asks her to hold on until they go home. I still wonder why.
Also, y’all know what pisses me off? When I’m sad/upset and people still make fun of me. And this happened here. Everyone’s sad about Sasha’s death, some people are probably sad over Eren’s state and how the Survey Corps are treating him and Sasha’s last word is ‘meat’ ?
Seriously now, m e a t ?
At this point, I can’t help but believe Isayama is toying around with us. Sure, Sasha became known at the ‘potato girl’ and someone with high appetite, but is that what her whole character is about? Apparently.
And know what hurts the most?
This probably happened about five minutes before she was shot. Both Jean and Sasha are reflecting on their mission, on what they have to do and how they have to kill. And of course, Connie plays the positive guy. Sure he ain’t smiling, but he’s glad he’s alive. He’s glad his best friends are alive. Jean and Sasha are pretty much everything that Connie has. Sure, he might be a bit close to the others, but Jean and Sasha are definetly the closest people to him. He’s lost his family, he’s lost comrades and now.. Well, he lost Sasha.
We can see the closure between Sasha and Connie and I’m not saying this because I’m a Springles shipper, but I think that there was something more than friendship, but of course romance would never, in a million years, be relevant to Attack On Titan. (cue; Hannah and Franz died rather quickly)
Sasha was smiling after Connie said she was special and soon they were happily talking about dinner. They just wanted to hang out and relax now.
But no. Sasha had to be murdered.
Jean is stressing out. Sasha is dying in front of his eyes. He’s probably thinking that he couldn’t protect her, but deep down he blames Eren for this.
The other soldiers have beaten Gabi more than Falco, of course, Falco isn’t even bleeding, but they threaten to kill both.
Gabi’s speaking shit and how they’d let the commander know and Jean just tells her she can tell Zeke in person.
On another note, Pieck is talking about Yellena, and how she knew Zeke was betraying them with Yellena’s help. Once again, why didn’t she do anything or report Zeke’s intentions to the other warriors?
Zeke wasn’t expecting that. He probably wouldn’t expect Gabi to murder two soldiers either. He thinks that these kids ruined his plan. I’m still not sure what the plan is, but well, the Corps seem to know.
Well, seems like Gabi ruined things for ya, Beardie. But calling those kids miscalculations is almost the same as called them failed abortions. Yikes.
I’m still very confused about this page, about the conversation between Levi and Zeke. Of course Levi would want to kill the one who killed Mike, got other soldiers to die and was heavily involved in Erwin’s death, not to mention he promised Erwin he would take down the beast titan. And, no matter how much he has to team up with Zeke now, Levi keeps his word.
And well, this was it. I don’t have anything else to complain about. I hope y’all enjoyed this if you reached this line. Maybe if I read chapter 106, i’ll add more to this,
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If a minor purposefully lies about their age to sign up for an 18+ website, that is the fault of the minor – not the adults who own/are members of that site.
If a minor purposefully lies about their age in order to follow 18+ blogs, that is the fault of the minor – not the adults who operate those blogs.
If an adult properly tags all of their 18+/nsfw posts and only posts them in appropriate spaces (which their own personal blog absolutely counts as) and a minor purposefully chooses to seek those posts out, that is the fault of the minor – not the adult making those posts.
If an adult writes fanfic that is marked as Explicit (meaning for adults only) and properly tags the fic and a minor purposefully chooses to ignore those warnings and reads it anyway, that is the fault of the minor – not the adult writer.
The internet is not a kid’s only space. Adults have every right to be here and have our own spaces where we post adult content and discuss adult things and while adults have the responsibility to properly tag adult posts, properly mark adult blogs, not engage with minors about adult topics and not post adult content in inappropriate spaces that is where their responsibility ends and yours—yes, even if you’re under 18—begins.
If you are old enough to have be allowed internet access to sites like tumblr or AO3, you should also be old enough to exercise a little responsibility for your own online experience and know what is/is not appropriate online behavior and what is/is not appropriate for someone of your age to be viewing. You should be old enough to understand what boundaries are and how to respect them. You should realize that if a website or piece of content is marked as being 18+ then it is not for you and that if you choose to ignore this and access that content anyway, that is a decision that you made and that you alone are responsible for. You should also be old enough to realize that you don’t have the right to purposefully—through no one’s actions but your own—lie about your age, ignore warnings on content, and then lash out the adults who created that content and were responsible in how/where they posted it as though they held a gun to your head and forced you to click on it. If you’re not able to be responsible, be mature, and be respectful about how you behave online then you’re not at a point in life where you’re ready to have unsupervised internet access.
If you cannot accept this, if you cannot handle the fact that adult content exists online, if you cannot respect the boundaries put in place around adult content, if you cannot be trusted to not inappropriately access adult content that you have no business accessing, if you think you have the right to harass adults for posting adult content in an appropriate and responsible way, and if this post which is literally nothing but basic common sense angers you, then you are not mature enough to be allowed internet access to sites like these and you should not be allowed online without your parents/guardians/whoever is responsible for you either supervising your online activity or placing blocks on your computer so that you can only access websites meant for children.
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