DonkeyTejas vs SNK

Where I analyze the SNK things. And by analyze, I mean spout what I feel like spouting on a day-by-day basis. Right now, I'm going through the SNK manga. I take screencaps from the manga and go through some thoughts. It's all a bit spastic, but I promise that I'll occasionally observe something unique! In the meantime, enjoy my immature giggling at things.

[donkeytejas]

and with that, dear followers--I'm off to bed!

[donkeytejas]

Notice how Eren's Mom doesn't have to explain anything more. Just, "he gets into trouble, watch out for him." And Mikasa, perfectly serious, nods and says a simple, "Uh-huh!"

This tells us a few things. First? This probably isn't the first time Eren's gotten into an argument with his Mom and then run off--and he probably found himself in trouble, then. That would explain why Carla has this immediate reaction (lol). Second? I think it's safe to say that Carla's asked Mikasa to look after Eren before. The exchange was so brief, but it conveyed a lot. Carla understands Eren--and she understands Mikasa well enough to know that, if anybody can protect Eren, it's her. And Mikasa will devote herself entirely to this cause. I don't know if Carla prompted this or whether it was already something Mikasa was doing--but this is what Mikasa dedicates the rest of her life to doing: protecting Eren.

[donkeytejas]

MIKASA IS HAVING FEELS

AOA;ELWFJSD;WAEJIWA

NOW I'M HAVING FEELS

[donkeytejas]

Oops I meant to include this in the other post. Oh well. Too late, now.

So, a partial answer to my earlier question: morality. Eren's got a very strong sense of right and wrong (though the lines he draws between the two seem rather sketchy, to me). He's got a strong code he follows; what you should do, what you shouldn't do. And, (as we see with a bit of backstory later on) he is harsh about the penalties for crossing those lines. If you do something wrong, you're trash--you don't deserve to live. That's the way Eren sees it.

And, it's interesting. Where did he get these ideas? His Mom certainly doesn't share them. And I doubt it comes from the townsfolk. So... it must be his Father? That's interesting, as the only side of Grisha we see is the calm, almost-stoic individual up to this point (i know later on we see a frenzied, panicked side, but that's irrelevant right now). Is there another side to Eren's father that we aren't seeing? Interesting to think about, although, as usual, I don't want to dwell on Grisha for too long.

So, back to Eren. Giving up your freedom, your independence, your self-determinism... To Eren, these are probably some of the most important human rights (yeah, I know, this is biased on my part, but humor me). And if you don't have them? If you've been stripped of them or if you've allowed them to be taken from you? Without resisting? You're less than human. Perhaps that's how Eren sees it.

[donkeytejas]

Ummm... So it's 3am and the words probably won't come out right. But I'm gonna give it a shot anyway so

Ok. So, let's take a look at what's going on, here. Eren's Mom calls the entire Scouting Legion fools. She's calling Eren a fool, too. Though, I think it's safe to say that she's trying to dissuade him from joining, and hoping that he doesn't really want to join--that would mean he isn't a fool, and this is what Eren's Mom is hoping for, so she's not trying to call him a fool (even though it's what she actually does).

Eren's still sweating here a bit. You can tell he's upset. He's such an angry child (lol). 

Ooh, but let's take a look at this. Eren's Mom didn't say the entire military was comprised of fools. Just the ones who decide to go outside--where they'll probably become Titan food (translation:the ones who choose certain death). So, we know that she isn't calling Hanneth a fool (jfc, how do you even pronounce that name somebody tell me). This is interesting.

Eren's pissed, of course. His mom just called him a fool, after all! And, what's more--and what really upsets him--is that she called his dream a fool's dream. She called the men and women Eren respects--the soldiers already serving in the Scouting Legion--fools. Eren's pinned all his hopes onto their shoulders; to have his mother dismissing that, well, it's got to hurt.

Carla doesn't believe that Eren could possibly want to throw his life away like that. After all, he's safe, here, within the walls, he has a family, he has friends. Why would he throw that all away? It's a fair question. Why is Eren so obsessed with the Scouting Legion, even at such a young age? Why does he think the Titans are a threat? They've been kept outside for a century, right? So what's up with that? 

As always, Grisha could be an explanation. But that's boring. So I think I'll wait and see if the manga offers any more clues.

[donkeytejas]

Carla is LITERALLY JUST EREN WITH A FREAKING BRAID OMIGOD

[donkeytejas]

Let's talk about Eren's Mom for a bit, here. We'll get to Eren's Dad in a later post.

Eren's Mom is genuinely concerned for her son. If he joins the Scouting Legion, he's going to die. There's no question. The chances of him surviving are extremely small. And he's a child, now. Of course he doesn't understand that his death will mean nothing for humanity if he just dies and does nothing. Not to mention, he has people who care for him, who rely on him. People who will be hurt if he dies. People like Armin and Mikasa will suffer so much--and they'd do it in the worst way possible, by internalizing it, because that's the kind of people they are. But when they internalize fear, it hurts them. I can't really get into it here, since I haven't gotten that far into the manga yet, but if you're familiar with the series, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Besides, Eren's Mom is no dummy. She knows how Mikasa follows Eren around, how she protects him and adores him. If Eren joins the Scouting Legion, Mikasa will surely follow, if only to protect him. Then two of her children will be dead, because of course Mikasa is a part of their family. And Armin? She knows about Armin. He'd join, probably because his two best (only?) friends did so, and there's nothing worse than being left behind and feeling like a coward and feeling completely useless. If Eren joins, the other two would join, too--and they might as well be Titan fodder with that decision.

That's why she tells--no, begs--her husband to talk some sense into this kid! Talk some goddamned sense into him, for god's sake--he can't do this!

But look at Dr Jaeger's response. Carla's desperately trying to dissuade her son from throwing his life away--and from throwing away the lives of two other children--and from hurting everyone he loves. Help me, she's saying.

He says, "Carla... when somebody's on a quest, there's no such thing as talking them down."

What? In essence, let me tell you what this educated doctor has just said. Eren's dreams of joining the Survey Corps? Of saving humanity? Even though the Titans haven't disturbed humans in 100 years? Yeah. Those dreams are more important than the lives of Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. They're more important than any pain their deaths will cause. Hell, the dreams of this child are more important than this child's life.

Here's a simplified version of looking at this dialogue:

"Hubby, tell him no."

"Well, there's no changing his mind."

Have you tried, Grisha? No. You don't know that Erens dead-set on this. You don't know that he can't be dissuaded. And what's even more, I'd wager that if Grisha told Eren a simple "No," Eren, who respects his father, might have listened. If both his parents had opposed his dream, he might have at least considered their wishes. But Grisha doesn't allow for that. He says, "Yes, this child is on a quest." Reminds me of Pokemon--sending a freakin' ten year old on a goddamned journey across the world. Don't forget to change your underwear!~

Yeah. No. Not a big fan of Grisha, here. Granted, Dr Jaeger knows more about the Titans than this first chapter lets on. 

That's what this next panel foreshadows; the infamous "I'll show you what's in the basement" passage.

Truthfully, it's at this moment that you realize there's something going on. Unless this is a red herring (which I doubt, as I don't see Isayama being quite that sophisticated--sorry!), Dr Jaeger's basement holds some secret that would help Eren in his 'quest'. This raises several questions, of course. Like, why did Grisha keep something so important locked away inside his basement? Why did he keep it secret? Especially if it could have helped save humanity. Why did Carla not know about it? Or did she? If it was really something that could have helped the Scouting Legion, it's suspicious that Grisha didn't let the Scouting Legion know. That he would entrust that secret to his young son, of all people. 

But, as I stated earlier, this post isn't about Grisha. It's about Carla.

I have to wonder. This page makes it seem like Grisha doesn't respect Carla's opinions very much. His son's opinions--a child's opinions--have more worth than Carla's. And notice how Mikasa is completely ignored throughout this entire exchange. Grisha's a smart man. I have to think that he knows Mikasa would protect Eren at all costs. So why did he offer the key only to Eren? Why didn't he look at both of them, and say, "When I get back, I'll show you two what's in the basement." Again, this raises several questions about Grisha's motives, but I really wanted to raise this point because I take issue with Grisha right here. 

Who's in the right? Carla. There's no doubt that her motives are much purer in intent than Grisha's. I'm not sure how much of that was intentional on Isayama's part. But, regarding Eren's and Grisha's interactions (from my limited knowledge, obviously), it seems that this was an unintentional side effect of trying to emphasize a plot point: the basement. And the fact that it was unintentional rubs me the wrong way, as does a lot of Isayama's storytelling, but that's a separate issue.

Regardless, I think we can all conclude that Carla? She's a pretty good Mom. I like her.

[donkeytejas]

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Hello, all.

I've been busy as of late. Did you notice?

But I'm back, and here's the deal: I forget about this. A lot. And unless I'm reminded in a timely fashion, there's no way I'll get around to it. It's summer, so I can't say I'm really busy, but I've got things to do, and this is rarely on my mind.

That said, I'm glad there are more of you! I hope you enjoy. And yes, I'm about to start reading in a few minutes.

[donkeytejas]

Can you stop with the ackerman theories? PLEASE? This is getting out of hand.

[donkeytejas]

So, I think I've gone on about how much Eren wants to believe in humanity, in the Scouting Legion. But here I go again.

So, Eren has already seen his beloved Scouting Legion fail. But he's still clinging to the hope that they can change things. That they will change things. Now, though, his reasoning has changed, slightly. No longer does he cling to the idea that the Scouting Legion are doing good. We see that Eren's learned from today's incident, that he's grown. He's modified his view from 'The Scouting Legion does things, they succeed, they're heroes' to 'The Scouting Legion tries. They don't let their fallen comrades' deaths have been in vain.' He still idolizes the Scouting Legion, I'm sure, but rather than finding no fault in them, he's been forced to recognize that they aren't perfect. They make mistakes, and failure's a normal part of their lives.

But Eren understands that, now. People die in the Scouting Legion. They die, and oftentimes, we can't do a thing about it--we can't even bring their bodies back home. Eren understands this. But he also knows that they were trying to do more--they, like him, longed for more than their minimal existence within the walls, the mentality that 'everything's fine as long as we stay inside, away from the Titans.' They died trying to gather more information on the Titans; they died trying to eradicate the Titans, and the oppression humanity experiences as a result of the Titans' existence. And Eren is an honorable guy. These people died pursuing a dream that has not yet been fulfilled. We must finish the job. That's our duty. 

And Eren's father stares at Eren with a strangely intense gaze. Eren's determined, he isn't backing down--he looks straight into his father's eyes.

And then Eren's dad chooses this time to leave.

[donkeytejas]

Eren's got a child's curiosity. Either that, or it's tied to Armin's book or his parents. But  yeah. I mean, what child wouldn't be curious about what lies outside the walls? He's been forbidden to know about this stuff--and what kid ins't intrigued by the forbidden?

It's forbidden to have books about the outside world, right? My memory's a bit dusty, but assuming that's true, then the government is deliberately trying to keep people unaware of the outside world. They could justify it by saying it's for the people's own good. After all, by limiting their information, people won't feel inclined to go searching for the oceans or the deserts or anything like that. If you keep people ignorant, you can control them--in this case, you can control their desires to go outside the walls, where they will most certainly be eaten by Titans.

On the other hand, there's a much darker side to this. If the government is regulating their knowledge of the outside world, there is, of course, the possibility that that the government does this deliberately in order to exploit them (I know there's that theory that the government's behind the Titans, but I'm not sure I buy that, yet. So that's not what I'm going to talk about). The government, if you think about it, has kept people within the walls for a century. That takes a lot of force, a lot of thought-policing, a lot of brainwashing--you name it. People have been brainwashed to fear Titans, to think they're living peacefully, that there's no reason to go outside, because what's out there except Titans? The fear of Titans, however, ins't too strong, as demonstrated by the stationary guard; if the government had made people fear TItans in order to keep them within the walls, the stationary guard troops wouldn't be so lax while on duty. They'd be terrified of Titans getting in. But that's just not the case, so we can infer that the main deterrent aren't Titans.

So what could be keeping the people inside? This is why the books are forbidden. What keeps them inside is that they think the outside world is worse than the world inside the walls. Who, in their right mind, would leave a world for a world where they'd die? Nobody. The outside world is just Titans, to them. Just Titans. They don't know what oceans are. They don't know what deserts are. Plateaus? Mountains? Hills, valleys, rivers, streams, volcanoes, prairies, meadows? The only rivers they know are the rivers that happen to flow through the walls; the only mountains they know are mountains that exist within the walls--certainly not very tall or wide ones. The only hills they know would be hills that happen to exist within the walls; the only meadows they know are those that are kept within the walls, maintained and probably created by humans, not nature. And in Shiganshina, as I expect is the case with most cities within the walls save for the inner ones, don't have hills or meadows--it has roads and dilapidated houses and children running through streets unwatched. At the beginning, we see Eren wake up underneath a tree; they've been gathering firewood. Presumably, they're in a forest of some kind. But how likely is it for a forest to exist within the walls, really? Not very. The wood they'd have would be limited. It would be a forested area maintained by humans to ensure that there's enough wood for the community to survive. That's not real nature.

But what do they know of nature? They live inside the walls. The general population knows of no oceans, or seas, or mountains--nothing that could motivate them to leave. To them, there's nothing of value outside the walls.

That's what separates Eren, Mikasa, and Armin from the average citizens. They know. They know that there are things of beauty out there, things they've never seen. Things they can't see, as long as they're inside the walls. Things that have, effectively, been taken from them.

Eren wants to know. He wants to know about these things. He wants to know about the rest of the world. There's more out there besides the Titans, and he's determined to find out.

Also, on another note, Eren just called his parents ignorants.

[donkeytejas]

Hey, all. So, uhm, I'm back! Life has been crushing me. It's been pretty bad, actually. BUT my friend reminded me while I was sitting at my computer, so I actually remembered!

Ch 001 coming up in just a few minutes! We'll try very, very hard to get to the end, won't we? Let's see how well we do! Haha.

[jumbostickyrice]

[donkeytejas]

SO MUCH AMUSEMENT.

[whipperschnapper]

i really honestly don’t believe that marco is dead. it doesn’t make sense to me because if you look at it really closely

marco is the only one that died in this picture. He was in the top ten and nobody else even got injured in the battle of Trost (Eren doesn’t count)

Why would you put someone in to the show and have them be all kind and sweet and helping another characters and put them in the main group of characters (not just the main characters but the 7th best fighter in the group) and completely kill him off?

If Isayama really didn’t plan on Marco surviving in the first place, he could have easily put someone else in the top ten. Like Armin or Ymir. Other main characters

I mean, yes, it was necessary to have something happen for Jean’s character development so that he would join the Survey Corps, but don’t you think that Eren would feel exactly the same way if Armin died? Armin wasn’t in the top ten but he still had a backstory.

Mikasa has all that shit about watching her parents get killed in front of her and being kidnapped to become a sex slave

Reiner and Bertl and Annie have the whole warrior deal and getting back to their home town.

Eren watched his mother get eaten and is looking for his father to find out more about the titans and the titan shifters

Jean wants to get into the military police (at first) for a better glorified life than what he grew up in.

Connie wants to impress the people of his village and make his family proud.

Sasha (and this may be wrong) wants to get a better life where she isn’t scavenging for food constantly

Christa/historia wants to prove that she is better than her name, that she is worth something

There is nothing said about Marco other than that he wants to devote his body to the king

no back story

no monologue

so here is my question: what if marco is a shifter, but wanted to use his titan as a weapon against other titan rather than something to kill the humans like Bertl, Reiner, and Annie?

If you really look at it, there is a lot of significance in names in SNK.

Jeager is german for hunter

Reiner used his Braun to break the gate

Annie had to become a Leonhardted girl to try to kidnap eren. (I know that doesn’t sound very significant but i feel like it is almost subliminally put into her name)

Marco means messenger of the god of war or warlike

notice how they are all found in the names of titan shifters?

Now, i am not in denial that Marco is dead. I am neutral on whether he comes back as evil or at all. I just thought it strange that a main character (and a character that wasn’t completely uncoordinated and useless) without a backstory was killed off in the 18th chapter and first season

[donkeytejas]

yeah, sorry, no

[donkeytejas]

nevermind shit my battery's low (and the charger's not here)

sorry guys! tomorrow perhaps, but not today

[donkeytejas]

Hello, friends. I'm late, aren't I? Well, I've got a lot of shit going on, but better late than never! Here we go. Words are already starting to fail me, but I'd like to make it at least another three pages. Maybe five. Maybe the end of ch 001

so yes. here we go

[donkeytejas]

You really like Eren and Mikasa's relationship, isn't? (Lol, you didn't finish the first chapter!)

I do enjoy the dynamics between them, yes. There's a lot of stuff going on that's very fascinating. I don't necessarily ship them, however!

I KNOW! I TRIED REALLY HARD, BUT THEN I WAS STARTING TO FALL ASLEEP AT THE COMPUTER, SO I STOPPED. I swear to god, this chapter is the bane of my existence