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aotopmha · 3 years

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Attack on Titan in 2020

I've sort of dropped doing detailed chapter posts on the series because that type of writing wasn't very fun for me anymore and I have taken a liking to a bullet point kind of approach where I list the elements that stood out for me in the chapter or make a separate post for some specific topic I'd like to talk about in it.

I've started like 10 different posts to attempt to talk about AoT this year and I always end up with incoherent rambling because of all of the elements I'd love to to talk about.

This year's chapters were 125-135 and this year's episodes episodes 1-4 of season 4.

The anime episodes in particular have given me a lot of food for thought, so I'm just saying fuck it.

I think the biggest misstep of the story for me will forever be the fact that it decided to use fairly specific historical imagery.

The Eldians are clearly supposed to have allegorical equivalency with Jewish people, but the Jewish people were never the oppressors. There weren't any Jewish empires. That's conspiracy theory bullshit.

But on the other hand, the series clearly takes great effort to not stereotype any of the groups it's portraying and gives complex reasons for what both sides do. It's one of the few Japanese series that I've seen not stereotype Middle Eastern-coded people (Ramzi and Halil) or black people (Onyakapon). Everyone are people, it says. It even champions diversity:

(Chapter 118)

It is also very much true that a bunch of fascist states use long-term history as an excuse for their actions:

(Chapter 127)

Nation did X 2000 years ago therefore our conquest of them is justified.

This makes discussion about the series' themes like a minefield.

The people who are very critical about its imagery are right, but the people defending the series aren't wrong, either because it condemns all of those nasty ideas of conquest and hurting innocent people.

You can't have a more clear-cut condemnation of genocide:

(Chapter 127)

If you combine all of these details instead of zoning in on them one by one, to me what the story is saying is that *even if* all of that conspiracy bullshit is true, innocent people don't deserve to be slaughtered no matter the reason because they are still people who have their own feelings, thoughts and wishes.

The story clearly gets the baseline, but fumbles the details. I decided to look up some more discussion surrounding this these past few days and I just wish there was more good faith discussion about it. A lot of it feels like a moral superiority contest.

I think it's these kind of flawed stories that actually deserve detailed scruitiny over stories that are rotten to the core because they are *almost there*. Talking about them is a good topic starter in what to do and not to do in a story like this.

Speaking of rotten to the core, I think the absolute highlight of the chapters this year is Eren and some of the chapters this year finally gave me a pretty clear picture of what is going on with him.

Context from 123 certainly helps, though:

(Chapter 131)

This is about Eren's perspective. He can't accept the destruction of Paradis.

It's not that this solution was inevitable looking in from the outside (which is one of the interpretations I see around for Eren's actions), it's that *Eren* can't see any other way out of this except the most extreme because of all of the horrible things he has seen from the outside world. It is very similar to the way suicidal people can only focus on the negative.

You can tell them everything is going to be okay, but those words won't reach them because their mind won't let them and loops them back to those negative thoughts.

Eren can't see the ice cream or silly clowns. But he can see how the other Eldians in the league of Eldians are willing to push Paradis under the bus. He can see how Grisha's sister was killed. He can see how racist and cruel Marley is towards the Eldians in Liberio (and how the people have racist leanings towards other nations, too).

He can only see those bad things. But he also understands how everyone outside of the walls are human just as the people inside of the walls are.

So he is torn to pieces by guilt.

He doesn't want to do this, but he can't see any other solution.

This is why I also think he can't rob his friends of their agency. He is fighting for them to have a good future:

(Chapter 133)

(Chapter 131)

What really stood out to me on a revisit is that Eren considers himself much worse than Reiner.

I've seen criticism on how the story pushes the narrative of both sides being the same and this detail is really important to me because this is the story acknowledging that what Eren is doing is worse and gives all of the following exchanges about this the context of it being a similarity in principle.

Both sides have killed for what they think is right and have to deal with how they have killed people. This is such an important detail in the Uprising arc, too, where Erwin firmly acknowledged that overthrowing the government might not actually be the right choice by him. It was simply what he saw as right. On a narrative level this avoids absolute truths and preference of one character perspective over the other and once again makes it about individual perspectives.

The theme of individual perspectives is so ingrained in this story at this point in my eyes that it's another cornerstone in understanding what is going on with Eren to me.

I think it's great.

I also really appreciate Annie and what was done with her in this chunk of chapters.

(Chapter 127)

There has been this narrative going around that proposes that the story is in Eren's corner too much. But these chapters are nothing but questioning Eren and Annie is one of the main voices in this. It's the Marleyan girls, really and I think this is a very necessary part of making the narrative work. Once again, it separates the narrative and character perspective.

It says that the Paradis side caring is about character perspective, not what the narrative sides with and Annie is even sympathetic to Mikasa in that instance.

She gets it. Unexpectedly, I think Annie might play a bigger role in taking down Eren than expected. Her character arc about deciding to no longer go with the flow because she doesn't want any more tragedy to happen is basically calling for it.

(Chapter 128)

Another element I've seen brought up is the fact that nobody seems to address the Bert-sized elephant in the room, but some of our characters are certainly thinking about him.

This is such a thematically strong element and really interesting because Connie joined the military to make his mom proud and be a good soldier. This is the motivation behind his claim when he says they are going to save the world. But what does becoming a good soldier mean, exactly?

Well, apparently possibly gunning down people you care about.

This moment is so good because it's another moment where the idea of glory in war is taken down a peg.

The moment with Connie declaring they're going to save the world is so often criticised, but it is actually turned on its head in 128. There is no heroics in this. This is actually Connie's big "killing a person" moment because it strips away the final bit of comfort in killing in war, the excuse of killing for good moral reasons.

It is also a wonderful complex evolution of the series' themes. Trost was about fighting monsters. In the Female Titan and Clash of Titan arcs some of those monsters turned out to be human. In the Uprising, Return to Shiganshina and Marley arcs all of those monsters turned out to be human and here in the War of Paradis arc, everyone is human and the only separating system is what everyone views as right.

I really hope the anime will let this chapter breathe a little bit more.

Moving on, I guess it is time to address the rumbling.

I love it as a horror spectacle.

(Chapter 130)

And I really I think it needs to be non-CG when animated. CG is fine in spectacle battles, but not in horror settings because it is too clean.

The rumbling needs to be disgusting and dirty.

Chapter 132 gave me one of the few moments in which I truly cared about Levi. I think him telling Hange to dedicate her heart was a very good moment to cap off their relationship. He sent another SL commander to fulfill their duty.

The speech about hatred in chapter 134 also stood out to me. I think it definitely should be fitted in there somewhere in this, but I also see a bunch of criticism for it.

I want to point out that this is the side of present Marley talking here. It's the military dictatorship.

It's the Nazis. I think the Nazis should feel regret for exploiting innocent people and admit they're wrong.

I also like how the horrors here are undoing the brainwashing and showing the truth to the citizens.

I guess you could read it as heavy-handed, but it is also something that needs to be addressed and in principle, it's not wrong.

I'm also going to put a mention of Historia here. I've talked about how this is my biggest and most glaring problem with the series because of how thematically unfitting it feels, but I've also talked about it in many posts. I wanted to focus more on other stuff in this post.

So now, we make it back to chapter 135.

I think having stewed on it for a month now, I like the element of mindscrewing our cast with the Titans of the people they love is the strongest element of it. It's making them face their personal traumas and we also get some great character moments and payoffs from it.

Mikasa ended off the year in a very good note in my eyes.

Even this deep in the story, this chapter left me in a situation where I have no idea how things might turn out.

I might have rough ideas, but not anything specific and that's fun.

Well, this is it on my retrospective.

2021 is confirmed to be AoT's final year of publication as volume 34 is set to be the story's final volume.

Those who hate the story can finally be free of it and those who care for it, can look back on it with fondness and sadness and many other emotions and evaluate.

It's been 7 years for me. What a wild ride.

So, I'm asking everyone, what are some of your observations on AoT in 2020?

Is there anything you'd like to add or do you have any observations or counterarguments for anything I've said?

I'd be curious to see what everyone else thought of AoT in 2020!

#Attack on Titan #Shingeki no Kyojin #Eren #Eren Jaeger #Eren Yeager #Annie #Annie Leonhardt #Connie #Connie Springer #Hange #Hange Zoe #Historia #Historia Reiss #Mikasa #Mikasa Ackerman

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reverse-vampire · 7 years

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Some thoughts and my reaction to Persona 5′s ending.

Business as usual; don’t look any further for those avoiding spoilers and want to savor the moment for yourself.

1. (The boss battles of ) Shadow Shido isn’t so bad...at least in Normal. I’ll probably need to battle him in Hard/Merciless to gauge how tiring his boss battle will be. With that said, I was satisfied beating Shido to the pulp after what he did to Goro and the PTs. The battle would have been more cathartic and a better emotional payoff if Goro was still alive and gets an opportunity to defeat his father...

2. Akira being sent back to juvie to save his friends? Noooooo! ;;;;_;;;; A hero we need but we don’t deserve.

3. The PTs’ one last job to get to the bottom of Mementos and find out the truth about the strange things going on with the public. Truth be told, it was heartbreaking to see society as a whole being resigned and all with whatever’s going on around them.

4. The puzzles at the depths of Mementos? Seems fine, but a complete waste of time after a while. Took up about a few hours in order for me to face the Holy Grail and seeing despair prevails with the PTs.

5. Going back to the Velvet Room and seeing the whole revelation of the fake Igor, the (re)birth of Lavenza, the truth about Morgana’s birth and prep-talking the other PTs to get out of their epiphanic prisons and refuse to bow down to Yaldaboath? So much feels, but not much compared to the below points.

6. ‘Life will Change’ playing throughout the entire sprint up to the temple? Awesome. Though the miniboss battles can get a bit tiring after a while. It’s still a good way to grind plenty of exp. and they can be quite challenging if you’re not careful.

7. Everything seems hopeless back in Tokyo with people disappearing into black fog here and there and panicking about their situation until Yuuki finally steps up and tells everyone to believe in the Phantom Thieves. That has got to be his shining moment in the game, and I was afraid that someone else (Floral Pants Guy, I’m looking at you) is gonna steal his most triumphant moment. I’m so proud of him by doing that and impressing Sojiro in the process. (Note: I maxed Yuuki’s Confidant, but I didn’t manage to finish all the Mementos missions so I was worried that I screwed up somewhere when I saw FPG appearing in several shots before Yuuki took matters into his own hands.)

8. The scene where all the people in Tokyo cheering for the Phantom Thieves was really cheesy and I was cringing all the way but I’ll let it slide because of what happens after that. (Hello there, Satanael. Time to shoot good ol’ Yaldy in the face? Good, because that’s what he’s gonna do literally.)

9. All the maxed confidants cheered for me too and that brought a tear to my eye. Now, to max all the PT confidants and those I have not completed, like Iwai, Shinya, Ohya and Sojiro. With NG+, I think I might be able to max all Confidants before Christmas Eve.

10. MORGANA DON’T GOOOOOOO!!! (Like Ryuji and Sojiro, he returns. Sadly, the same can’t be said for Pancake Boy unless Atlus do something about him in P5 Crimson/Platinum or smth. I dunno, Atlus. You didn’t do Goro any justice by writing him off the plot after Shido confesses. With that said, I’m disappointed to how Atlus treated him. Goro deserves justice and there, I said it. :((((((()

11. Akira being released from juvie was so satisfying and I like the interaction he has with Sae in prison just before release. It feels so good seeing Sae so happy and being sure of what’s in store in future.

12. It almost got overboard with Akira having trouble telling everyone and his romantic partner (Hifumi in my case) about going back to juvie and going back to his hometown. If it happens the third time, then I’ll probably laugh my ass off for Atlus pulling this off as if Akira’s fated to do it and has a thing for making people around me disappointed.

13. Seeing everyone (the Rank 10 Confidants) doing something by reaching out to their various groups of interest (petitioning on the streets for Yuuki’s case. Oh, Yuuki) to overturn Akira’s possible detainment in juvie gave me even more feels. Atlus did a great job integrating the SLs/Confidants into the plot in P5; good emotional payoff that makes interacting with them all the more worthwhile.

14. The ending with all the PTs (still no Goro...let me go cry in a corner) driving off to Akira’s home. So much feels and the credit rolls. For once, P5′s ED song was a letdown compared to P3 and P4′s ED songs; it didn’t want to make me listen to it on repeat and hopefully, Atlus will use a different ED song for a possible rerelease. Akira climbing up the roof of the van and enjoying his hard-earned freedom? That’s what I call a proper end to the plot. Not a totally satisfying end, but still enjoyable nonetheless.

tl;dr the ending gave me all sorts of mixed emotions with plenty of emotional payoff, for the most part. Now, if July/August could hurry up and let Atlus announce potential rereleases and start milking their cash cow to their fullest potential. Even after months of knowing the ending, I’m still upset about how they treated Goro (despite knowing all the terrible deeds he did) and that was one of the biggest plot threads I was disappointed in the way it ended. It’s a great game despite all the faults it has and it deserves to be GOTY 2017 (or at least, JRPGOTY 2017) after taking 8 years to develop.

#rev says #persona 5 #p5 #persona 5 spoilers #p5 spoilers #my two cents about how I feel about P5 and its ending as a whole #I still love the game despite its flaws in writing and confidant execution #I feel like continuing with NG+ but I'm returning to work soon #I'll go back to it again when I have some free time

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