#aot 87

[scalepsychosis]

I was so ready for Levi to beat the shit out of that clown

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

Translating Tragedy in SNK

“The world is a comedy to those who think; a tragedy to those that feel.” -Horace Walpole.

How do we cope with the simple fact that one day we will all inevitably die?

In a peaceful society, the default coping mechanism is simply to not think about it. Even when we do, the full implications of what exactly death means fail to register. But this attitude also means that when we do experience a loss, the pain we feel is heart-wrenching. By running from the truth, we are completely unprepared to face it when it inevitably finds us and reminds us of the fragility of our own lives. But even so, most people are able to recover, banish the spectre from their minds once more, and carry on with their lives until they have to face the Reaper themselves.

But what if you live in a wartorn society? What if you don’t have to experience death only a few times in your life, but on a monthly basis? Or weekly? Or daily? It’s no longer possible to forget.

Most of SNK’s heroes, and indeed many of its villains, keep feeling that same agony every time they witness another death. Their coping mechanisms tend to be either honouring the lives of the fallen by fighting in their name...

...Or fiercely protecting the lives of the people remaining to them.

 As such, their lives are tragedy. The latter is rarely 100% successful and the former can quickly become an interminable cycle.

But for those who aren’t strong enough to endure that pain, and especially for those who are required to inflict it, there is another way to cope. The comedian’s way.

One way to cope with total awareness of the reality of death is to make it your own. Inflicting what you fear to receive can make you feel as though you are in control of it. Dispelling the fear of pain, torment and death by laughing at it. 

Severing your ties of empathy to your victims by imagining them as The Other, stripping them of their humanity and therefore any relation to you, and placing yourself in the moral high ground. 

Horror and humour are really two sides of the same coin - they are both ways for the mind to translate a drastic change. It’s for this reason you can laugh at someone falling over or pity them, why you can cry over Marco or spend half (lol) the time making jokes about him. The comedic route is harmless on a small scale and can be a valuable emotional crutch, but when it translates into politics and large-scale damage, that’s how monsters are created.

And these monsters will inflict the very tragedy they fear on others, and...

...Make monsters out of them, too.

Gross is the most explicit depiction of this kind of Laughing Reaper we’ve seen so far, but we’ve encountered them before. Sannes, Zackly and Kenny are prime examples, and there’s a lot of this to Zeke as well. I think the base nature of mindless titans can be considered to be this too. 

And even those characters largely on the tragic side of the spectrum experience this comedic alternative from time to time. Annie experiences a cruel ecstasy when she gets caught up in the joy of the fight. 

Levi enjoyed tormenting Annie while she was pinned down. 

Sannes’ comments to Levi and Hange while they were torturing him weren’t totally without merit, either.

 And Eren...

...Well, Eren is...

...Yeah. Thankfully he’s grown out of this now. 

But are their efforts worth it? Is Gross successful at overcoming the fear of death like he boasts?

Does this look like the face of a man who has come to terms with death to you?

What turns man into monster? It’s not just cerebro-spinal fluid as Gross claims. It’s fear. Fear of death; that, and our desperate, panicked struggle against it. But what price do we pay by refusing to laugh at tragedy? Can we really cope with that kind of agony? 

Isayama’s answer to this question is a third way. It’s incredibly difficult, but if you can truly understand what Levi understood on that rooftop in Shiganshina - that death is not a demon to be feared, but just a neutral and unavoidable aspect of life - then you don’t have to injure. You don’t have to suffer. It’s enough to simply live.

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

A Villainous Parallel, Pt II

So in the first meta I wrote for this blog, 'Reiner, Annie, Bertholdt: A Villainous Parallel’, I talked about how Eren, Mikasa and Armin are gradually becoming more like the Warrior Trio they oppose. Chapter 84 finalised Armin’s evolution into Bertholdt, by consuming him and inheriting his power. Chapter 87 seems to be the next part of the transition as Eren is developing even further in their direction of his own dark parallel.

As suggested by aotopmha, enochmandus and momtaku, the boundaries between Eren and Grisha are becoming confused.  I won’t go into super-analysis mode over this since it’s already been tackled here and here, but basically Grisha’s memories are beginning to take a hold on Eren’s identity and are leaving him disoriented. 

Essentially what Eren is going through now is the beginnings of a split personality.

It’s perfectly fitting that Armin, the neo-Bertholdt, is the one trying to snap Eren, the neo-Reiner, out of his identity crisis. Eren is marching down Reiner’s path - he already began to reflect Reiner physically with the ability to harden his Titan body, and now he reflects him psychologically too.

Since the Warriorfication has been picking up momentum in recent chapters, Mikasa should be under the spotlight again pretty soon. I’m a big fan of falcon94ssy’s theory that the legendary Ackerpower may be a diluted form of the 9th Titan; if this is revealed to be true, then Mikasa will reflect Annie physically, and we might be able to expect a growing solitude to match her counterpart psychologically as well.

As our heroes’ paths and hearts darken, we will learn what exactly separates a warrior from a soldier.

[therealscenecreator]

SNK 87

Okay honestly, I loved this last chapter so much The ending was perfect PS: glad that fucker died ^ - ^

[lenok993]

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[darth-eagle]

Sudden Realisation No. 2 Smiling Titan/Dina only reach out towards Eren, cause she might sense Grisha Jaeger! ;_______; OH MY GOD, EREN! YOU KILLED YOUR STEPMOTHER!

[darth-eagle]

OMG! O______O Realisation No. 1 that Eren managed to "activate" his Coordinates Power in Chapter 50, not because Mikasa Ackerman was with him BUT he touches a Fritz (now known as Reiss)! ;______;

[animegamer04-blog]

Attack on Titan’ Chapter 87 Release Date, Spoilers: Korean Scans Teased Whole Chapter, Eren and Armin Featured

UPDATED VERSION http://www.hofmag.com/attack-on-titan-chapter-87-release-date-spoilers-korean-scans-teased-whole-chapter-eren-and-armin-featured/198387