#chapter writeup

[popopretty]

BSD Chapter 70

Chapter Name is “Prison Break - the second half”.

Now that I hope everyone has calmed down about Dazai’s new unlocked skill set, this is my monthly wordy chapter writeup. I really enjoyed this month’s chapter and I hope you will too.

Please keep in mind that neither English nor Japanese is my native language so I might, and I do make mistakes here and there. Please let me know if you have any doubts or questions regarding the writeup ^^

SPOILERS AHEAD (AND IT IS SUPER LONG!)

- Ango’s troop saw the shadow of Atsushi’s group entering the one of the open safe and closing the door. They approached the closed safe and broke themselves in. However, Atsushi group is nowhere to be found. Ango used his ability but couldn’t sense any traces of someone using abilities.

- Meanwhile, Atsushi group was able to escape outside. The trick was simple. They let Ango see someone enter the safe and close the door but it was just Yasha Shirayuki. The three of them actually hid in the safe next to it, the one that is wide open. And then Kyouka just cancelled off Yashashirayuki and they managed to escape while everyone was focusing on the empty safe. It was a simple psychological trick. Atsushi praised Oguri to come up with such great idea and Oguri remembered how Yozomizu taught him about that in the past. He wonder if Yozomizu has always been there, with his locked room mystery.

- The group planned to get into the sewerage underground pathway to find a car and run away later. But was caught up by Ango who shot Atsushi and Kyouka with anethestic. Atsushi begged Ango to believe in him, that the ADA is not guilty and that if it’s Ango he would understand. Ango said that the only thing that only him could understand is thing that he could see by his ability. He showed Atsushi the money they have used to escape in the previous chapter, and revealed that his ability is “to see the remaining memories left in objects”. Through that he was able to see their escape route. Kyouka then remembers that Ranpo once mentioned that there is a “memory reader” inside the government and figured out that must be Ango. Ango pointed the gun at Atsushi saying that for a member of government’s secret association like him, to “believe in” the enemies is a joke he can’t even laugh at.

- To Atsushi’s surprise, Ango didnt shoot him but instead push them into the underground pathway. He told the other soldiers that the group has run away using an unidentified ability. He then looked down and smiled to Atsushi saying that by doing so Fyodor will think they are really going against each other.

- Later, Ango took everyone from the scene by his car. Atsushi asked if he actually believed what Atsu said, to which Ango answered that he had known it from the start. He revealed that he was the one who sent Dazai’s message to the screen to save Fitz earlier. He has been the “middleman” for Dazai from the start. In order to prevent prisoners from escaping from Mersault, they have implanted a sensor into the prisoners’ bodies to record their heart rates and stuff. Taking advantages of that, Dazai has manipulated his heart rate to have it recorded as numbers that Ango can access by government authorities and decode them. About controlling one’s heart rate, Ango said it is something only Dazai can pull off.

- Oguri didn’t believe Ango and doubted the reasons why Ango had to do all of those tricks. Ango said it is because he does not know if there is Fyodor’s spy somewhere. He also explained that he does not belong to No.7 Association, and that was a lie made up by Fyodor to prevent Oguri and Ango to meet up and talk.

- Ango took everyone to Lucy’s room because it is safe to talk there. Atsushi asked why Montgomery knew Ango. Then Ango said she came to the Police office and made a fuss there with a pile of hand-written documents claiming that Atsushi was not guilty. Lucy was super embarrassed while Atsushi thinks it is really earnest of her.

- Oguri asked Ango if Ango was the head of No.7 Association, that captured Oguri and made him erase criminal conducts for them. Ango denied that. Oguri then asked if Ango ever used the power of that association, to which he said yes. He did use it just once, 4 years ago, when he erased all of Dazai’s past sins so that Dazai could continue to live out of the mafia. Oguri then asked the reason why he decided to dirty his hands like that, to which Ango said it is to atone for his sins to a friend who is no longer in this world.

- Ango then confirmed Oguri’s word that No.7 Association is criminal. Almost nothing is known about them, from scale to members, to its chain of order. There are rumors that they are the people from inside the police and cabinet but noone knows the actual truth. One thing for sure, if those people want to they can easily threaten the government. Ango spoke of his fear that Fyodor and this association will join forces, and that there might be Fyodor spy inside the government itself. That’s why Ango cannot trust anyone and he asks Oguri to share with him the info that he has. (Oguri was reluctant at this part but as he saw Kyouka asking him for it too, he was scared off and decided to tell everything xDD)

- Oguri then talked about the structure of Tenningosui. There are 5 members. Apart from Fyodor and Gogol, there are 2 other powerful ability users and another “organizer” who brings them all together, which means there is one more person above Fyodor.

- Oguri does not know the final goal of Tenningosui, but he did get to hear the step just before that, which is “Erase the nation”, not “overturn”. And they will achieve it through “the page”. There is only one page, which they have used to set up the ADA. But there is still the other side of the page. Once one side of the page is already written, it will take effect right away. That means they can use its power one more time, by writing on the remaining side of that page.

- Atsushi asked why they havent written it right away. Oguri explained that there is a rule of consistency and cause-effect that they have to follow. The detailed plan will be too much within the limit of one page so they only write down the most important event and have to actually carry out all the other smaller steps by themselves. In details, their plan has 4 steps. 1st step is “Canibalism”, so that they can give ADA the award and get close to the government. The next step is to write on the front side of the page to set up the ADA. 3rd step is the present, where they will perform terrorist attacks. And the last step will be to write on the other side of the page to erase the nation. The time when the page will be written will be on the next full moon, 10 days from present time.

- Ango and Oguri then left. Ango mentioned that he is gonna give the information to Dazai (through whatever means Idk).Lucy tried to comfort Atsushi and Kyouka but turned out they are super happy after hearing the information. Because they know that there will be one more side of the page to write on, and the enemy will not be writing it in the next 10 days. So as long as they can find Tenningosui, destroy them and get the page, they can write on the page and overturn the situation.

- Chapter ends with Atsushi looking very hopeful about saving the ADA. I guess the situation is still very tough but at least now they knew a way to get out of it, no matter how hard it might be.

That is the end of this month’s chapter. My brain is still trying to process the amount of information. And thank you for reading until this part. It has been one hell of a long post, but really there is so much information that I cannot leave out ;; See you next month (probably).

[snkception]

With the last couple of chapters having been battle-focused, there’s not really much to say except to wonder what next. And, while I admit I’ve enjoyed seeing the SC kick ass, I’m also not big on what feels like senseless bloodshed–but the good part is, I really don’t think we’re meant to be. The latest chapter isn’t framed in terms of ‘oooh, watch this awesome fight,’ but rather ‘oh, look at how much damage this does to people.’ There’s a reason Falco is the focus character, and all he wants is for this to stop. 

(It feels like I was tired of this battle before it even began, and I’m pretty sure it’s because the key players in it were, as well.)

That said, here are a few of my favourite things:

Yeah, I know I’m not at all original in latching onto this, but it’s a really weird an interesting statement to make. For one, it pours fuel on the theories about how Zeke and Eren are working together; for another, it raises the question of why Zeke would feel like blurting it out in the middle of the battle, and why his own allies don’t turn on him for that. 

What interests me as much, if not more, is Zeke’s bizarre statement to Levi:

Why can’t Levi afford to wait, and why is he, at the exact moment when Zeke is making that statement, holding a watch and apparently waiting??

Occam’s razor says this is evidence of the fact that Levi’s attack on Zeke was all part of the Jaeger brothers’ plan. That said, nothing is clear atm, so… we’ll see.

And then, of course:

I spent the entirety of the previous chapter going “where the blond boy??” so I was super gratified to see Armin appear. As befits all SC members in this chapter, he seems less enthused about the battle than grimly resigned. “You in the fishing boat, can’t you see this fleet in front of you?” a Marley captain hails him. And Armin takes off his hood with this face that communicates, “and do you know how many fleets I’ve destroyed before? 37. that’s how many. destroying fleets is what I do. sorry, I guess. you’ll be number 38. damn it all to hell.”

… Or maybe it doesn’t communicate that at all. But that’s more or less what I’m seeing. Rarely has there been a battle with less glory in the fight.

And on that note, I may as well include the one moment that truly stayed with me from ch102:

This is something all of us were thinking, and so I’m glad it’s been openly acknowledged in the manga. The SC is definitely smart enough to know what the consequences of this current battle are going to be, and yet they came prepared for it, worked out a whole strategy that they’re now seamlessly putting into action. So what I want to know is, what’s the next step? What’s their endgame here? These panels convinced me that there’s got to be one. I’m curious to know what it is.

[snkception]

Well, ch104 sure... happened. People actioned various actions very actively! Also, war is bad, news at 11.

... Nah, I liked the chapter well enough -- it’s just that these action ones don’t leave me with much to say ^^ I wonder about the plan, I wonder about what’s going to happen, I’d like more emotions that aren’t coming from Gabi or Falco. 

Well, I suppose I did get Armin.

In the chapter, Armin obviously recalls Bertholt’s first appearance in Shiganshina, what he must’ve seen and felt as he rained destruction on the place... but it’s hard also not to think back to their confrontation in Shiganshina the second time, when Armin tried to manipulate Bertholt and miscalculated, because Bertholt was beyond anything Armin was trying to make him feel; Bertholt just wanted all of this to end. 

And it feels like now Armin understands Bertholt as he was then, too. Because, let’s face it: no pleas, manipulations or attempts at negotiation on the part of the Marlyeans would’ve been able to sway Armin today. If Falco had appeared before him, tearfully asking him to reconsider the attack, or railing against him for the injustice, Armin would say that he was very sorry, but there was nothing they could do now. The plan had been made. All these people had to die.

Speaking of: if we needed any more confirmation that this op was in fact the result of SC planning, and not Eren striking out on his own and forcing their hand, we have it now. I still don’t understand the bigger picture behind the plan, but everything I’d have wanted to say about ch104′s politics has already been covered by @ghostmartyr, so that’s neat.

In other news:

Holy hell, Eren using Galliard to crack the Warhammer crystal. That was brutal

Speaking of, I wonder what Eren saw when he consumed the Warhammer titan. His eyes lit up for a bit. Did he see her memories, her life? Some Tybur history something? Willy? Nothing?

Reiner wants to die in peace, does it mean his titan will soon be inherited by Gabi or Falco?

Gabi is doing the predictable Eren 2.0 thing, which is... eh, not the most interesting thing she could be doing, even though I understand why the narrative went there

I find myself surprisingly invested in Paradis crew being able to get away. Like I understand both sides of the war have done shitty things etc etc, but I’m still more invested in the Paradisians, and I don’t want the Marleyans wrecking their plans

(Especially if they’re Armin’s plans, because let’s face it, the day I’m not biased towards Armin is... not this day)

If the SC isn’t getting a clear-cut victory here in terms of killing all Marleyan shifters, leaving no military person alive, etc, then does it mean we’re in for a protracted conflict?.. How much more of this war can we have? But then again I guess this comes back to all the political questions

Anyway I’ll be glad if there’s a break from all the action that lets us see the fallout of everything. Hopefully more Paradis POV???

Okay, and most importantly: where is Zeke??

[snkception]

Well, well, well, there were definitely things to enjoy about this month’s chapter.

(Not that, y’know, there weren’t things to enjoy in the last two, which I haven’t commented on in any fashion. I have no idea where time goes. I blink, and it’s next chapter time already. Uncanny.)

Anyway, Eren! This very calm, in-control dude is a far cry from the temperamental teenager he’d once been. And, man, Eren got cold in the intervening years. Like, how chillingly amazing was this part:

“Sit down, Reiner.” 

So good! And this is some brutal bargaining. How much is it Eren bluffing? Maybe all of it! But looking at him from the outside, we can’t be sure, and of course we’re seeing what Reiner sees. Except Reiner is also seeing his worst nightmares come walking into his life, having acquired extra bite and flavour. 

His face! His many faces! All of his faces are, very justifiably, this face:

Poor Falco is increasingly getting the feeling that this is Way Above His Paygrade, but sadly there’s no parkouring out of this awkward situation. Soon he’ll be making exquisite faces of his own. It’s an educational night for everybody, including us.

At last, we get proper facts about what happened 100 years ago. Facts that match what we already know, and plug some gaps where we weren’t sure (ie, what was the whole deal with the great titan war). And, man. That was a nice callback:

I’ve always wondered what Uri meant when he said this:

So this was it. This is what Uri and Frieda’s stares into the distance meant. In their mind’s eye, they saw the king whose spirit they carried turning on his own empire, and they knew one day Marley would come knocking down the walls keeping them safe.

Presumably, when RBA destroyed Wall Maria, Frieda thought the day of reckoning had come. She wasn’t going to do anything but accept the destruction of her world.

Not so Grisha Yaeger. Not so Eren Yaeger, either, though he’s walked a much different path. And here was another fantastic, punchy frame:

“Someone has come to rise against King Fritz’s peaceful world.”

What a way to sum up the first 70-odd chapters of this story! We’ve watched our heroes bravely fight their way forward, plot and scheme and despair, uncover the great conspiracy that their country was, win against the overwhelming power of the oppressive government… and this is how history might remember it: a rebellion which did away with the peace.

The best thing is, it’s true from a certain point of view. The kings of the walls, powered by the founding titan, indeed posed no threat to the outside world. While our intrepid heroes–

Obviously, Willy Tybur is twisting the truth. Eren and co are fighting because they know Marley is coming for them, and Marley is coming for them. They’re reacting to the cycle of war, not casting the first stone; the only thing Willy could really fault them with is the refusal to lay down and die to make Marley’s life more comfortable. Willy is still lying, but he’s doing it beautifully, so kudos to him.

Meanwhile, Eren will be in your Marley, fighting… for his own freedom, and for the freedom of the Eldians he represents.

[snkception]

There was some excellent stuff in this chapter, I’ve got to say. I wish it had come earlier, because there was a time I was far more eager to get answers about RBA, but it’s still great to have this at last.

Of course, much of this chapter was the Reiner show. And having seen the child that Reiner used to be, it was creepily fascinating to see the birth of the Reiner we initially met. It was here, in this moment:

Here’s where he takes up his mantra of “we need to get this done to get home.” Here is the moment where he starts reeling the other two in–the dynamic that will define their relationship in the future. And it starts not from glorious conviction, not from any position of strength, but it’s Reiner poised on a precipice, seeing exactly how deep the abyss is and, despite being thoroughly broken already, refusing to crumble into it.

So he reconstructs himself into something new, something that will weather this. That will excel at this.

For a while, the joke went around the fandom that Reiner was unkillable. He got stabbed through the neck, exploded, whatever–and he always managed to live. Little did we know that, all this time, the joke had been on us: Reiner was already dead.

Instead, he decided to become Marcel, to replace that hole in their midst and to make up his own guilt for losing his friend and leader. His behaviour was so on point for Marcel that Galliard picked up on it from second-hand memories:

Someone should probably have told Reiner that his coping mechanisms weren’t healthy, but nothing about Marley’s warrior program was healthy, and the only two people available to talk sense into Reiner were kids no less fucked up than he.

It was good times for everybody.

Soon, also, for the entire Walldian population, and… idk, I admit there was something powerful about coming full circle to looking over the Colossal Titan’s shoulder as he loomed over the wall.

This time, we know exactly how he came to be there, what he wanted and what he represented. And these three kids on the verge of committing genocide? They’d long been trained to see the people inside the walls as expendable, because they’d been trained to see people, especially their fellow Eldians, as expendable. They encountered it every day in Marley. There, they learned: for them to live, someone else would have to perish. And they wanted to live.

They learned to purchase their continued existence with killing–Marley’s enemies as they were ordered, and each other if they had to.

Marcel sentences Reiner when he makes sure Reiner gets the titan instead of Galliard. Annie calls for Reiner’s death when she wants him to tell their commanders their failure is his alone. Reiner does it back to her when he refuses, and more or less threatens that it’ll be all their deaths if she doesn’t follow his plan. 

And Reiner, Bertholt and Annie then turn the same attitude to the people inside the walls, because that’s how life works for them. And I think that it won’t be until they make friends in the 104th trainee squad that they’ll feel true guilt for the carnage they’ve inflicted. You can see what their thought process is as they’re kicking in the wall: as they’re bringing on the deaths of thousands of people, the utmost fear in their minds is failure. Failure, and their own deaths in the attempt. And the worst part of it is, knowing the environment they’re coming from? This isn’t even surprising.

I suppose this was the point of the endless Marley interludes.

Seeing them all here, so close to each other, in the same shot–yeah, that’s a nice touch.

Later this night, Grisha will come to this very shelter, grab Eren and forcibly transfer the Founding Titan to him. Everybody’s being set on this path that none of them have ever truly wanted, all because of a conflict that’s much older and larger than they, and it would be ridiculous if it wasn’t so sad.

[snkception]

I continue not having a lot of feelings about the saga of “Marley: It’s a Lot Like the Walled World, But Through a Mirror Darkly,” mostly because the parallels are hammered in so very heavily. That said, one particular throwback was in fact entertaining, because:

“… and also how one nation’s tragedy is another nation’s reason to throw a goddamn parade.”

The idea that this is how those kids were sent off to the mission that started this whole manga–that this is what preceded the dramatic kick to the wall, Shiganshina’s fall, Eren’s mom’s death–idk, it really adds insult to injury, somehow.

On a different note, this is what Zeke apparently looked like at the time of this happening:

A lot younger, and same for Pieck. First of all, who would’ve thought that behind this angelic, intellectual facade lies a ruthless, stone-throwing, titans-turning SOB*? Secondly, titanism really is a bitch for ageing.

(As regards Zeke: I say this somewhat affectionately. For all that I hated Zeke back in those days when he was a nameless Beast/Mr Key, his life’s story has worn me down enough to have some interest in his trajectory. Of the cast currently on screen, he’s probably the one that interests me the most, which I frankly never thought would happen. But he’s clearly got Thoughts behind this affable mask of his, and Ideas of his own, and I’m curious what they are, given everything that he is and has been raised to be.)

Anyway, on a more factual note, this chapter finally provided our missing titan.

I mean, we already knew Marley had this one stashed somewhere, but now we can account for them all:

The Founding Titan

The Attack Titan

The Colossal Titan

The Armour Titan

The Female Titan

The Cargo Titan

The Beast Titan

The Jaws Titan

The War Hammer Titan

Glad to have that cleared up.

Then we’ve got another hint of an answer:

This explains why Galliard has memories dating back to Marcel, but Ymir didn’t necessarily remember much about him. The Fritzes’/Reisses’ tradition of passing the titan down would presumably reinforce their ability to accurately transmit information as well. (Then again, their titan seems to have memory abilities, so maybe they’re a special case altogether.)

In other news:

I bloody well hope so, Reiner! It’s high time we left exposition land and returned to the actual main plot ^^

[snkception]

The latest chapter wasn’t, like, mindblowing, but it’s certainly provided a lot of information to chew on! And I’m still digesting some of it ^^

Like:

This at last answers the questions that Utgard raised. This is what happened to the Ragako village: Zeke came in and injected everyone with his spinal fluid (which he just... has on hand... as you do), gave a good bellow, and then we have titans rampaging within the walls.

This also kind of solves the riddle that’s been bothering me for some time, namely Reiner’s certainty that Ymir should know certain titan-related mysteries:

Ymir should’ve known this, probably, because Ymir had eaten Marcel and inherited some of his memories. Reiner expects that she’s inherited enough that she should be aware of the provenance of the titans and Zeke’s powers in general.

Like, this is a minor point, but I like knowing the answers to these things!

It’s a good question whether or not Ymir did remember, btw. It’s doubtful that an Eldian from the street would know much about Marleyan titan shifters--young Grisha and his family certainly didn’t seem to--but Ymir was capable of identifying the BT on sight, and she also had fairly clear notions of the coordinate, in that she recognized it when she saw it and appreciated its importance. All this information may well have come to her by way of Marcel. Presumably, though, she didn’t spend her entire time in the 104th knowing RBA were traitors?

... Clearly, what I need to do is reread this manga in light of all this new information. In my copious free time, as it were ^^

In other clarifications this chapter provided, the Fritz and the Reiss family are indeed one and the same. Yees! I had been assuming it all along, so I’m pleased.

That still leaves the question of who the hell was the Fritz king sitting on the throne. A random decoy? Drunk Uncle Bob, a black sheep Fritz? Does he even know what happened, or did he just wake up on the throne one day and figured he’d roll with it?

...

Moving on.

We finally got a glimpse of what the hell the Walldians have been up to in the past three years!! Eren and Armin working together as titan bros, going “hulk smash”! Presumably, the Walldians have spent this time getting ready for the inevitable fight with Marley, gathering intel and accessing the enemy’s military capability.

Will there be naval battles? Has Hange spent the past three years designing a flotilla? Will Eren stand on the bow of a ship, gazing forlornly into the distance? We shall find out sooner or later on “Keeping up with the Titans.”

Meanwhile, I love Zeke’s bitter description of the SC:

I’m very entertained by the idea of the Walldians initially going “wtf are those titan shifters???” and the Marleyan spies staring back like “wtf are those flying freaks???”

Anyway, going by what Zeke said, Marley hasn’t doesn’t yet have a defense strategy against 3DMG gear, which is a good thing and also tells a lot about their state of technical alertness. The idea has been that titans would carry the day, and on that note, we’ve met another one.

The Cargo Titan looks a lot more pleasant in her human form.

And Falco and Colt are not only brothers, but related to Grice!! I’m so glad that for once my whole “all these people look the same to me” reaction actually had justification behind it, lol. They’re supposed to look alike! They’re related! Joy.

There’s two things left to comment on, and one of them is, of course, this:

I mean, I feel a lot of us suspected this already, but this confirms that the Ackermans were specifically engineered to be supersoldiers, the loyal bodyguards to the king. That the Ackermans are the only superhumans in existence is... interesting. That the king felt that, in addition to his super awesome Coordinate powers, he also needed the Ackermans--that is interesting also.

And, again, speaking of answered questions, it explains a bit of Annie and Mikasa’s interaction way back when:

This exchange demonstrated Annie’s awareness of Mikasa’s superhuman skills, and at the time I’d wondered why this was. Well, here we are: the Ackermans are an obscure legend among the Marleyan shifters, and no shifter had really measured their power against an Ackerman in a long, long time.

Imagine what it was like for RBA to enlist in the 104th and encounter Mikasa, heh.

Anyway, the last thing that bears discussing in this chapter, to me, is Reiner and his everything. I mean, I guess Gaillard also merits a word or two, but he’s just not that interesting to me rn, though it’s neat to know he was Marcel’s brother. Reiner, however... Reiner is all but falling apart at the seams at this point. It’s kind of amazing he’s lasted this long, given the emotional state he was already in four years ago.

It’s telling, btw, how much older Reiner looks compared to Gaillard, even though in Reiner’s memories Gaillard is about the same age as RBA. That titan shifter ageing is nothing to scoff at, clearly!

Which, once again, makes me wonder what Eren and Armin will look like now.

The panels with Reiner going off on Falco struck me as him going, “dude, shut the fuck up if you value your life. If this conversation was overheard, we could both be killed. And don’t talk like this in the future, either, because anyone hearing you would report it and both you and your brother would be toast.” 

Like, this came across to me as a warning, delivered in a rather brutal fashion. For what it’s worth, I’m sure Reiner is right on one point: the Marleyan brass doesn’t even see Eldians as people, and it sure as hell won’t tolerate betrayal. We’ve seen what happens to those who step out of line. Reiner seems to be trying to save this kid by scaring the fuck out of him... which, like. How many people has Reiner seen die for smaller infractions? How capable is he of coming up with a better approach to warnings? How much does the warrior program fuck people up all around? A lot, I feel. The answer is “a lot.”

(And this is not even touching on the fact that Reiner seems to want to save the kid only to then throw him into the path of saving Gabi. Facepalm emoji.)

Anyway, we’re gearing up to going to Paradis, and I’m suddenly wondering whether we might not end up on the Marleyan side of the fight, narrative POV-wise, at least for the beginning stages of the war. We might see the SC and the rest of the walled world from the outside, the way Marley sees them--as an advancing force with yet-unclear military capability and willingness to inflict harm. Which might be a rather interesting experiment...

[snkception]

So chapter 90 was a mixed bag of offerings--a clear transition chapter which nonetheless managed to do some interesting things. Some really rather fascinating things, even.

Pixis dropping truth bombs about where you end up if you start out by concealing facts from the populace was A+. Not, like, because there are even clear-cut sides to this argument--I can also acknowledge that creating a mass panic is Not A Good Thing. But Pixis rolling in Pixis-style and having no chill about justice was great.

I confess than when Historia announced this:

... My first thought was, hoo boy, that’s not gonna go as well as you think. But the population seemed to deal with it surprisingly okay, actually--at least, we weren’t shown any significant societal upheaval in the year that followed. I wonder, though.

Like, surely things have changed? The enemy has changed, right. These people have lived under the titans’ siege for 100 years; that’s been the cornerstone of their understanding of the world at large. It’s them, in the walls, the last remnants of humanity, alone against the titans. And then the SC’s latest discoveries turn it all on its head, in addition to the titan enemy as they know it running out of steam. The titans seem to have pretty much eliminated themselves via Hange’s guillotine, and new titans are known to be made on a case-by-case basis and dropped off at a particular point. From being an insurmountable, monstrous horde, the titans went to being a controllable problem.

What a time to be alive.

So, like, Floch has talked about the SC and its recruitment, but at this point, why does the SC even need to recruit? What would they be recruiting for? This new world is one where titans are functionally no longer a problem and going outside the walls has stopped being a suicide mission. This new world doesn’t need the SC, or at least not as it existed before.

What this world needs, if they plan to eventually fight Marley, is a way to confront Marley’s military might and their warrior shifters. This is less “desperate struggle to chip away at the titans one by one and maybe learn something about the world in the process” and more a thing that the country’s whole survival depends on--and therefore a thing that concerns all branches of the military equally. The distinction between the military branches has ceased to be significant from the practical point of view, although of course they have very different internal cultures, so I imagine this will keep them separate. And, anyway, this war won’t be won without deploying the Coordinate, and that’s Eren in his full existential crisis glory.

I say, the Hairstyle of Significant Time Passage suits Eren rather well :D

Anyway, so a chapter ago Eren realized a thing: he alone is not in fact sufficient for activating the Coordinate. He needs Historia, a true royal descendant, to help him channel the full powers. Precedent shows that it was only by being in physical contact with a titanified royal that Eren managed to use the Coordinate... therefore, chances are that holding hands with titanified Historia would yield similar results. Like, it’s not guaranteed, but there’s a chance of it working, and, should he point this out, someone will definitely suggest trying it.

And I find it interesting that, in the same chapter where Eren gets accused of valuing a friend over the rest of humanity, this comes up:

Idk, I’m seeing some parallels here. Pretty sure that Floch singing the song of the red-shirted people right here and now wasn’t a narrative accident.

The moment Eren bends over Historia’s hand, he gets a flashback to Grisha’s confrontation with Frieda (and we finally know what was said there, woohoo). I mean, maybe he learned something else from that encounter that we haven’t seen on screen--and if so, I’m mightily curious about what it is. But, in the absence of that, the untimely confirmation that physical contact between them unlocks something Coordinate-related is the reason why Eren is making this face:

It’s a great face. (Also, these are beautifully drawn hands, but I digress.)

And in the year that passes after, Eren says nothing to anyone about this. Or at least nothing that we know of. And that’s... there’s a lot that can be said about it. For one: this story is literally never kind to Eren, is it? He’s always been ready to lay down his own life for the cause, but it’s not been that easy. First, he’s had to let people die for him, and to learn to live with that. Now, it’s taken one step further: Eren is pushed towards actively sacrificing the people he loves. He faced the choice of Armin vs Erwin, the (ostensible) hope for humanity. Next up, Historia vs the (potential) salvation of the walled world. These are not choices with which Eren can possibly deal well.

(So many ways in which he’s not Grisha, who’s never had a real problem sacrificing his loved ones for the sake of humanity at large.)

And here’s another thing. Almost since the start of the manga, we--and Eren--have had this clear narrative: humanity must fight titans in order to win;  once they’ve fought their way to freedom and defeated their enemies, they will walk outside under the free skies and breathe fresh air and finally reach the ocean. It’s been drummed into us that the ocean is the end goal. That the ocean is synonymous with freedom, and that it lies at the end of the path. This is what the audience was told to believe, because Eren believed it also.

And in this chapter, he finally gets to the ocean. Only it’s not the end of anything. He’s exhausted himself trying to get to this point, and he got there only to find that the ocean is just a very large and very salty body of water. The freedom that it promised remains far out of Eren’s--and humanity’s--grasp.

Freedom is what Eren has fought for from the very beginning. Freedom is what Eren’s been all about, possibly since the day he was born, definitely since the day we met him. And he’s gone from shouting about freedom at the top of his voice to pointing feebly toward the sea, going, is it there? is freedom finally there? and his whole bearing suggests that, at this point, he doesn’t even know what freedom is anymore, whose freedom he’s fighting for, or whether it even really exists.

The conflict between humanity and titans was never easy, and it often looked hopeless, but Eren had a clear enemy to fight. There were humans, and there were monsters, and humanity had to triumph over the monsters. Over the course of the story, things got more and more complicated, and Eren’s conscience more burdened with every new discovery about the world and his own place in it. And now, his enemy is the rest of humanity, and his weapons are his friends, and he’s already come so far and fought so hard, and he carries the memory of people who’ve fought and lost and spun this cycle of violence endlessly on.

Even walking outside the walls and tasting the salt of the ocean on his tongue, Eren still isn’t free, and it looks like he’s just standing there and wondering whether this is what freedom is, for humanity--this constant struggle to defeat enemy after enemy. Can humans really only be free once every single one of their foes is dead? What kind of freedom is that? Is he supposed to sacrifice the people he loves for this? Is there ever an end?

The ocean was supposed to be the end.

This is some... existential-level mindfuck, right there.

And, like. It takes us back to what this story has really been about all along.

War--ordinary war between humans--has been the central conflict of the story from the start, and this is only clear in retrospect. The titans were a symptom, not the disease; the Colossal and Armored Titans were simply enemy combatants; and even inside the walls much focus has been on the military. All this time, our heroes were fighting in a war the true shape of which is only becoming clear to them now.

Except, at this point, nobody remembers how this war began. It’s only known that it’s relentless, and whenever one side gains the advantage, it’s only a matter of time until the other will strike back. And so it goes, ad infinitum.

... Why yes, as a reference to real life and humanity’s long and bloody history, this is not even a bit subtle. And I’m curious how this story is planning to resolve the philosophical conundrums it raises, if it plans to resolve them. Because, quite honestly, if human nature is the bad guy in your story? Man, good on you, but you’ve got a real doozy on your hands.