(1) Hi, i just have a question regarding your last answer and the topic of grey morality. No doubt Isayama make wonderful effort to show both eldian warriors and eldian into the walls sides. However, i feel like he never makes the readers empathize with the non eldians nobles inside the walls and the non eldians Mar sides (i mean i love Magath with all my hearth but seems like he is the only non eldian from Mar who is not a total piece of shit).
(2) Perhaps I have it wrong, this is why I ask that you so feel free to correct me, but since Isayama wants to create a non manichean story, it feels a bit strange that we the readers never got to see the point of view of the non eldians. I will be disappointed if the story has a conclusion like: “all the eldians together vs the world”. I hope we can have more insight of the non eldians pov.
Ahh, no, you’re not wrong! I mean, I also noticed that, for all the people in the story who are given a voice to explain themselves with–and they are many and varied, many of them nominal antagonists like Rod Reiss, RBA, and, yes, Magath–there are also people whom Isayama doesn’t bother to flesh out. Except to my mind, it’s less that they are not Eldians, and more that they are… well.
The people whose stories and thoughts we get to hear are generally not motivated by greed. Everybody has something else that’s driving them: a belief in some higher cause, or fear for their lives, or loyalty to friends… something. Even Kenny Ackerman, who momentarily looked like he just wanted the Coordinate so as to become the powerful one and rule over others, turned out to want it as a means to a different end–namely, he hoped to achieve the same peace he witnessed in Uri. Ditto Magath: sure, he’s conspiring with Willy Tybur and technically jumping to the top of Marley’s military over the corpses of his superiors, but it’s not power-hunger that gets him there, it’s the desire to fix his country. Same with Erwin’s coup, etc.
And even when we don’t get a detailed glimpse into someone’s personality, sometimes we still get explanations for their motives that render them, if not sympathetic, then at least understandable. Like, we’re told that the Paradisians never rebelled against their government because they figured there was no point; any war within the walls would result in everyone’s deaths. And so the people of Paradis accepted it when 20% of the population were sent out to die on the useless Wall Maria retaking expedition. Likewise, the mainland Eldians clearly don’t rebel because for them it’s been all ‘fall in step with Marley’s ideology or die.’ And some genuinely believe in Marley’s progaganda–probably because they need to believe in it for their suffering to make any sort of sense. And while we get practically no glimpses of any Marleyans who aren’t part of the military, we’ve got the example of Reiner’s dad, who was terrified for his life when Reiner approached him. Because, apparently, Marley doesn’t spare its own people who get too friendly with them Eldians, and so ordinary Marleyans also live in fear of retribution from the government. So, like, you’ve got this theme of inaction motivated by fear–and the story doesn’t excuse it, but it doesn’t really condemn the people involved for it either. It’s shown as a human thing, a thing that humans do to survive.
And then we have all these people who do come across as genuinely Terrible People without anything excusing or explaining them, right. They are the bandits who wanted to sell Mikasa into slavery, and the Marleyan soldier who fed Grisha’s little sister to dogs. They are the Paradisian nobles, and the Marleyan top brass. And we are told, shown, whatever, that they are in it for their own malice, greed and power-hunger. And I find it telling that, in a story that otherwise takes pains not to judge anyone, Isayama does judge them for this, given they’re written off as Terrible People, without any further complexity.
Then again, maybe it’s part of his commentary on human nature, right. You have good people, and you have people who mean well but are stuck in shitty circumstances, and you have people who’ve given up on trying to be good, and you have people who never knew what ‘good’ was in the first place. And then you have people who are actively, deliberately profiting off the misfortunes of others, and they’re doing it for their own pleasure. And once these people have any kind of power, they’ll hold on to it and exploit it. To me, it’s these people that Isayama depicts as the worst of humanity, and it doesn’t matter if they’re Eldian or Marleyan or what have you.
Soooo all of this was to say that I don’t think the conflict is likely to get turned into sympathetic Eldians vs sucky everyone else! As usual, the central conflict seems to be Human Nature Locked in Combat with Itself. ( That said, the Eldians and how the world reacts to them are at the core of the story, so chances they’ll keep getting the most screentime ^^)