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ghostmartyr · 6 years

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SnK 100 Thoughts

“He has the power to wipe out the entire human race, and if we believe there's even a 1% chance that he is our enemy, we have to take it as an absolute certainty. And we have to destroy him.”

Look, if you design a character who agrees with Batman in Batman v Superman, you just sorta have to accept that bad things are going to happen to him.

Though, since we are talking about it...

Now, I’m not making any giant leaps here.

All I’m saying is that technically all Eldians have the name of their mother in common.

Which means Eren’s going to die, Reiner’s Batman, and Wonder Woman is still waiting for her musical cue. Also, War Hammer is Doomsday.

#spoilers

Obviously I missed out on calling Falco Robin, which is even more tragic due to where his life story looks to be taking him, but then we have to get down to assigning a Joker, and I guess Gabi’s a pretty easy Batgirl, but I have a chance here to keep one of these posts short, and I can’t do that if fanfiction is being written in the margin.

Also, I think someone would yell at me if I suggested Zeke for Wonder Woman (heislookingbackatabattlefieldheisdepartingsotheblockingisthereevenifthemoralcenterisn’t) so let’s just stop.

Okay, so the brief summary of this chapter is ding-dong, the witch is dead, only there’s some disagreement over whether it was a good witch or a bad witch. A similar disagreement is ongoing regarding the perpetrator.

Truthfully, the one thing that can be said is that the good or bad witch’s slippers are unlikely to be taken by the good or bad witch who slayed him. They won’t fit, and the good or bad witch murderer already has the most powerful magic in the land.

The briefer summary is that Willy Tybur continues to be terrible, only in such a way that it’s confused for nobility, and I am so very tired of Marley.

He’s willing to die for his belief that his people are irredeemable monsters that should be eradicated--but he’d still rather they not be, because life gives him the warm fuzzies, and maybe the people whose abuse his family’s been profiting off deserve warm fuzzies too.

The idea of a nobleman looking at the life of luxury he has at the cost of his own people, and choosing to make steps to change the world for the better, is not a bad one. Doing that despite a wholehearted belief in their inherent evil is actually very interesting. It’s one more bit of cognitive dissonance that allows Willy to feel guilt over what has been done to his people, even though he thinks the world would be better off without them, and doesn’t mind killing large numbers of them.

At his core, all he is is a man who wants to live in the world he’s been born into, and he’s willing to sacrifice that life for a better world.

Here’s the problem.

His version of a better world is blaming Paradis for everything so that everyone can run off holding hands to murder them all.

He’s willing to die to make that vision a reality.

He’s never met anyone on Paradis. He’s never tried to talk to anyone from Paradis. He’s used diplomacy with nations in the rest of the outside world to ease the horrific damage Marley being Marley has caused itself, but not once with Paradis.

When it comes to the island, murder is always the only solution.

Willy Tybur is the one Eldian with a position in the world that can make a real difference. He can get ambassadors to change their minds. Despite never taking advantage of it, he does have control over Marley. Under his direction, Marley might have avoided the mass series of war crimes that the rest of the world hates them for.

(not that we have any idea why that is)

He doesn’t go that route.

He determines that the best path to world peace is uniting the world to kill his ancestors’ scapegoat.

Martyrdom is not a thing you do because you’re too lazy to put effort into actual change.

It’s easy to look at what Eldians are capable of from birth and call them monsters. It’s easy to say that, obviously, they never should have existed. Even if you have that same blood, and want to be alive, it’s very, very easy to reach that conclusion.

What’s difficult is carving your place into a world that is predisposed to hate you. It takes time, and concentrated effort. It takes giving a damn about treating people decently.

Willy has the means to forge a peaceful, humane coexistence between Eldians and the rest of the world. Or at least the means to make that attempt.

He chooses to forge his peace in the blood of other Eldians. The fact that he’s willing to die for that outcome doesn’t magically turn it into a noble gesture. He’s strong enough to make a decision that will cost countless lives in a war based on nothing but fear and prejudice. And that would be after knowingly sacrificing people he thinks of as less worthy to a terrorist attack.

Ding-dong.

Speaking of, Eren’s response to Willy’s declaration isn’t exactly on the moral highground you’d appreciate from your protagonist, so that’s nice. His lunge is as horizontal as possible, but it would take authorial intervention to keep him from killing civilians when he goes after Willy.

The only way this doesn’t seem like a very bad idea is if Eren agrees with Willy’s decision.

...I want more of a warmup before looking at that too closely.

Elsewhere, Titans in pits.

Or not.

Zeke’s still the only one walking around free. Galliard and Pieck are out of whatever fight’s coming next.

None of that appears to be expected on the Marley side. It looks like they wanted their Warriors gathered when everyone went horribly wrong. Possibly to keep the level of wrongness to a minimum. How thoughtful.

It seems pretty fair to guess that Galliard and Pieck are the work of Eren’s friends, but Zeke and his fancy glasses that hide his eyeballs are a little harder to pin down. We get one shot of him, walking alone.

I’m willing to leave that for another month though, so to the other pit!

Falco being the Eren to Eren’s Reiner is painful. Here he had this thoughtful adult encouraging him all the way into committing treason. He was just being a good person, and Eren takes advantage of that.

And right after all of that hits, he gets to watch Mr. Braun self-destructing, and hears about dead friends and mothers.

Falco’s a good kid. Assuming that Reiner gets him out of this alive, he isn’t only going to take death and betrayals from this. He understands the toll of being a Warrior, and understands enough to hate that people are okay with Gabi selling her life to the role.

Eren looks right at him and says that the people inside the walls are the same as the people outside. I don’t know how well the doubt will stick, but if nothing else, I think there’s a good chance that Reiner won’t be able to keep up the lies about Paradis demons--to Falco, anyway.

Falco’s in this spot because he cares about people no one else sees. I don’t know how much of his path can be changed, given the decisions made this chapter, but I hope that the idea that everyone involved in this war is a person sticks with him.

Even though that will be infinitely more painful than just being a participant fighting off demons.

Oki doki, so.

Eren.

Eren has gone on a very educational journey of learning that people are people. Willy even helps him along by directly quoting something Eren says way back in Trost.

“Because... I was born into this world.”

They’ve all been born into this world, and they all want to live in it, freely.

Time to go attack that island!

Eren spends most of his time in the pit prying everything that went through Reiner’s head out of him. Not for the sake of condemning it. Just to hear the honest words of a man like him, who caused incredible pain in the name of saving the world.

Their whole talk is about their similar intentions and circumstances, and being understood. And finding forgiveness on a road that doesn’t deserve any.

“This whole time... it was painful for you, wasn’t it?”

“I think now... I understand that [...]

I was right. I’m... the same as you.”

Yeah, Eren brings down the house.

The final page is his hands extended in Titan form the same way Willy’s are when he makes his declaration.

Reciprocity. Yay.

There are a few concerning things here.

The murder’s pretty low on the list.

These would be the panels that earn Eren the kind of looks Reiner is the recipient of when he’s going through his identity trouble.

Eren, last seen back home speaking as his father and Eren Kruger, has supernaturally granted identity troubles, and not recalling death threats to the point of asking Reiner to ignore that they happened is... weird. Whether or not it means anything, who knows, but Eren’s general stability seems to be mimicking the style of someone who has recently done pot up to his magic handshake. There’s so much personal history involved that it makes sense that Eren’s the one mostly behind the wheel, but... yeah, I’ll stick with weird.

Adding to that is what he says during the magic handshake.

(the magic comes from friendship)

“I just keep moving forward. Until my enemies are destroyed.”

Once upon a time, Kruger explains to Grisha what the Attack Titan is all about.

“No matter the age, this Titan has always moved ahead, seeking freedom. It has fought on for freedom.”

Eren has altered the deal. Pray he doesn’t alter it any further.

No, but I’m not big on speculation. I like waiting to see what the next month brings instead. But I keep waiting for more on the individual Titans having sentience, and it’s hard not to wonder a little if Mr. Attack and Eren are experiencing some unnatural bleed-through.

I don’t know, some things just feel very odd.

Anyway, outside the tempting cracklands of detours, there’s a really uncomfortable prospect presented in this chapter that I would prefer being wrong about, but at the same time, hey, Eren’s causing destruction and murdering people, so clearly happy funtimes are over.

Eren smiles when Willy says he wants his audience to fight with him against Paradis. It is not full of happiness, exactly, but it is not the look you would expect from hearing that kind of statement. Some mix of acceptance and sadness, maybe?

There are a lot of people on Paradis who, if asked, would know the exact best moment to kill Willy that would encourage his message most efficiently.

Eren waits until Willy is done with his speech to kill him.

Willy’s just asked everyone he knows for helps against the island devils, and... Eren gives them one. Whatever destruction does or doesn’t follow, Willy’s message is heard in its entirety, and he’s killed by the enemy he asks for unity in facing.

If you want to limit his support, this is, by far, the worst way to do it.

So even though I can’t imagine why anyone would reach this conclusion, I have to wonder if Paradis agreed with Willy. If they agreed that a unified world could only come about through a common enemy and a martyr.

Thematically, I have all kinds of disagreements with that, but Eren couldn’t have fulfilled Willy’s plan any better if he’d been in the room listening to its design. At the end of a grand speech, a monster rushes out and kills the only one in the world brave enough to call all people to arms against this great threat.

It’s beautiful, and... very on the nose.

You could not pick a better time to attack.

...For Willy’s purposes.

Even if this wipes out a bunch of Marley military personnel, care has been taken to keep all of the Titans out of the way. The main force is secure and breathing. This is not an attack that will devastate; it will invigorate.

And I can’t shake the thought that someone on the Paradis side thought that that was the only hope the rest of the world’s Eldians had. And having said that... it’s hard not to wonder if that someone is Eren.

Staged martyrdom only works this smoothly if both sides have the script.

Or maybe Carla just raised Eren to believe that it’s rude to interrupt people.

I really don’t know how to feel about most of what happens here. This is another chapter that I’d like to think would be benefited by future ones.

Right now there’s just this ominous dread that makes it difficult to appreciate that I don’t have to read Willy talk anymore.

Nothing next month can’t fix, I’m sure.

#Shingeki no Kyojin #SnK 100 #shingeki no spoilers #SnK spoilers #spoilers #tl;dr #chapter post

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perfectackeracy · 7 years

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Ok so we need to talk about the ending

Isayama’s Shonen Bessatsu interview, July 2017

Considering Isayama released an interview about the ending, which is still as vague as ever, I ought to comment a bit further about the ending. Especially since I’ve gotten dense anons or stressed anons telling me “Isayama wants to pander to EMA!!! Erwin and Bert’s deaths are pointless!!” because he changed his mind. And let me tell you this: he didn’t.

This is Isayama in 2013:

This is Isayama in this interview:

So far, the plans are still the same. He doesn’t prioritize a black/white world and the perspective has been switched so both sides could have a fair share. There’s no “innocent walldian vs. evil corrupted Marlean there.”

As for his plans on deceiving the reader, he declared his original ending was a bit too simplistic for a story and that he felt responsible for the reader. That ties with the earliest interviews and April’s interview as well. When Isayama declares he can no longer deceive the audience, he meant giving each character a proper closure instead of simply killing them off, which is another reason why he’s spending time on the current arc.

But does that mean the ending is going to be good?

Well, if no side is in the right, that calls for a complete reformulation of the question: good ending for who? The SL? Marley? The Eldians from Rebellio? Zackly?

After the damage caused on both sides, is there any way to get a good ending for them? Is the ultimate outcome the destruction of the people of Ymir Fritz? Would be ironic if the autoproclaimed savior of Eldia actually moved their destruction forward. At that point, it’s most likely to happen. Eren isn’t the kind of protagonist to move backwards, even if that means dragging everybody’s lives through hell.

Feel free to check my #snk_ending tag for more details...

Listing the other points in this interview...

Isayama wants a proper conclusion

Isayama watched the reactions since the beginning of Marley’s arc (back when we all thought he was going downhill when91 was released)

Attack on Titan was never meant to be a horror story starring humans and monsters

Isayama bases personalities on a character’s expression

Pieck was supposed to be a middle-aged man (suggesting warriors had a wider range in ages)

Gabi was modelled after female!Eren

Isayama uses narrative techniques from The Mist

Isayama adds recent influences in his own narrative methods

His most recent inspiration fit comes from Guardians of the Galaxy

Isayama draws inspiration from a movie called In This Corner of the World

Isayama plans to use implicit messages such as “Is discrimination/war bad” to make the readership sympathizing with suffering characters *cough*Reiner*cough*

Isayama flipped the script by making Paradis mysterious in the eye of the Marleans

Isayama doesn’t want to pass his story as a moralizing one and uses Himeanole as an example. He knows the actions of a murderer are inexcusable, but that doesn’t mean no one should understand his motives.

Guess I’m going to answer ending-related asks under the cut. Brace yourselves.

Well, in this month’s Q&A, the editor once again showed his support for eruri by making Levi as “the one who lost Erwin” and while this is the editor’s opinion, Levi doesn’t look like a man who moved one from Erwin. Kenny didn’t move on from Uri if that’s any hint.

@furripunk

By “Levi giving up on humanity” I meant him prioritizing his feelings over Erwin and not bringing him back in their hell of a world. The feelings are purely subjective and the decision made the assembly upset: while Erwin would’ve been turned into a monster with 13 years to live and fight till his dying breath, he still would’ve put his wits and strength to the benefit of a large group of people for a whole decade. The SL doomed itself by letting Erwin die.

Hard to say. The hatred of a race capable to turn into man-eating giants and rule the world subsidized for millennia. You have one group trying to redeem themselves by fighting for their hosts and the others retreating from the civilization forever. They have to find a situation where they can live as regular humans and living alongside the flow, without being universally hatred.

My best advice is working to undo the curse of Ymir and stay forgotten for a while till the world points another universally hated enemy. The other is to dissolve them as a nation and put their power to the profit of other nations... which is what Marley tried to do.

Honestly I don’t think there’s any viable solution, unless Eldians die or the curse of Ymir is lifted.

I think that’s it.

#snk ending #snk meta #snk 95 #snk spoilers #hajime isayama #interview #isayama #snk #attack on titan #ackerate answers #anon #furripunk #meta

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digitalnarrative-s3433130 · 6 years

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Week 1 Narrative Analysis

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a roguelike video game created by Edmund McMillen in collaboration with independent video game company Nicalis, who developed and published the game.

Rebirth is a remake of 2011’s The Binding of Isaac, originally released as a flash application and later rebuilt from the ground up for Isaac: Rebirth to allow more advanced gameplay, features, and cross platform compatibility.

Story Elements

The game loosely mirrors the biblical tale of the Binding Of Isaac from the book of Genesis, from which the game’s name is also derived. As in the biblical tale, the story centres around a young boy named Isaac, and a parent who hears the voice of god and must sacrifice their child as they are commanded.

Where Isaac, differ is incorporation of elements of McMillen’s own childhood and experiences growing up with religion, and a modern seemingly suburban setting. The game’s introduction shows Isaac watching tv, playing video games, and shows a home setting with creature comforts like contemporary furniture and decorative posters on the walls of his room.

Isaac and his mother live a simple happy life, where he plays with his toys each day, and Mother enjoys religious broadcasts in their living room.

One day Isaac’s mother hears the voice of god, taunting her with increasingly sinister warnings about evil corrupting Isaac. When finally pushed to a breaking point, she snaps and storms into Isaac’s room wielding a knife.

In a last ditch attempt to escape, Isaac finds a trapdoor that leads to the sprawling Basement, a series of cavities and crawlspaces beneath his home.

While Mother (and implicitly “God”)’s actions as an antagonistic force set the story in motion, Isaac is met with many more enemies upon his arrival in the basement.

The creatures encountered share a resemblance to Isaac himself. Contorted monsters made of eyes and hands, disembodied heads, and other ghoulish and warped forms of Isaac inhabit the Basement.

Confronted with imminent danger Isaac can fight back only by running and crying, with his tears dealing damage to enemies through the Basement. Along the way, Isaac comes across artefacts that increase the efficacy of his tears, and bolster his speed and strength.

As Isaac descends deeper, enemies begin to slip further away from reality, with larger enemies made of blood, flesh, insects, bodily fluids, and even demons and biblical figures, all confront and pursue Isaac.

Similarly the setting around Isaac changes and distorts as he ventures further, starting as a simple crawlspace, the Basement gives way to catacombs, tombs, caves, and eventually viscera lined cavities, an otherworldly cathedral, and a literal demon riddled Hell.

The driving force behind Isaac’s journey is survival. Moving forward to escape Mother, and becoming more powerful to destroy all in his path are central to Isaac’s advenute.

As the game progresses it becomes increasingly implied that what at first seems like an exaggerated or embellished representation of the Basement may in fact be the hallucination of a wounded or dying Isaac.

At the conclusion of the story, it is unclear whether the world beneath Isaac’s home is real, or imagined, whether the monsters coming for him are a real danger, or a representation of his fears, or even whether Isaac survives, perishes, or was ever alive at all.

Narrative Elements

The Binding of Isaac opens with a narration, introducing Isaac, his mother, and their simple life to the player. The narrator exists outside the narrative, and does not appear again for the remainder of the game. How much the narrator knows or whether they are reliable is unclear, though the player is left little choice other than to accept what they are told.

The narrative is ordered in a straightforward and linear way upon a player’s first run through the game, however with each subsequent victory the narrative becomes longer, more complex, and branching.

While the first run essentially is a direct line in order from from point A to point B, in subsequent runs the narrative branches beyond the original ending and expands to include different outcomes, allowing the player to explore the story in a varied and different order based on their actions.

The pace of the narrative is variable, and is dictated primarily by the player’s decisions and skill. If a player chooses to more thoroughly explore an area for example, no punishment or limit is imposed for the extra time taken, however exploring additional areas that aren’t required can result in injury to Isaac or discoveries of additional routes and rewards, altering the speed of progression through the game.

In terms of focalisation, the player views Isaac’s journey from a third person view, following his adventure from above while controlling his actions. This remains largely constant throughout the narrative, excluding cutscenes in the game’s introduction and ending.

There are 20 distinct endings throughout the game, all based on the player’s actions and progression through the game. Some involve Isaac’s triumph, others involve new antagonists revealing themselves, and later endings show more abstracted and contradictory images of Isaac’s death, ascendence, and fall to darkness.

Traditional Narrative

Isaac follows some of the characteristics of a traditional three act narrative, however the game largely differs from the conventional “Hero’s Journey” model posed by Joseph Campbell.

The game does feature a protagonist in Isaac, and antagonist in Mother and the other enemies of the Basement.

Where Isaac differs from both its biblical inspiration and the “Hero’s Journey” more broadly, is in its absence of a ‘return’ phase. Instead, whether Isaac succeeds, fails, or ultimately dies, Isaac’s world is left irreparably changed by his journey and equilibrium is not restored, but rather further disrupted.

Digital Narrative

Isaac is uniquely a digital narrative, with an extensively modular and variable structure.

Individual game modes, character modifications, and alternate paths through the game can all be remixed or modified to change how the narrative is experienced at different points in time.

While technically selecting the same character and starting point, an identically configured run at the outset could be gradually changed to result in two significantly different experiences down to even how Isaac is controlled and the mechanics of the game.

The narrative is also variable, as a single ending out outcome is defined only by actions taken by the player. Whether Isaac lives or dies, whether he becomes another character entirely, whether the game can even allow the player to progress are all not fixed. Isaac also includes capacity for player made programmable additions and changes at a code level, through modification support. Custom made mods not created by the development team, but instead generated by players can be added to the game and change its structure and content in virtually infinite ways.

Audience & User Interaction

The audience or player engages in the narrative by directly controlling Isaac’s actions in real time.

Either through keypresses via a QWERTY keyboard, or button inputs on a gaming controller, Isaac can be made to:

Run (W,A,S,D keys, or left Joystick)

Shoot tears (Up, Down, Left, Right arrows, or right Joystick)

Drop bombs (E key, or left shoulder button)

Collect items (run into items to collect on contact with Isaac’s hit box)

Activate weapons and tools (Space bar, or left trigger)

These interactions are used to evade obstacles, projectiles, and enemies while returning fire and solving puzzles.

References

1. Microsoft Store, Binding Of Isaac Rebirth, Microsoft, viewed 20 August 2018, < https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/the-binding-of-isaac-rebirth/bqd45pqr4f4j >

2. Nikalis, November 2014, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Box Art, Digital Illustration, 292 × 136 pixels, http://store.steampowered.com/app/250900/

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