#horsemeta

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

What do you think of the recent chapters of the snk manga? I love your meta and miss reading it… Hope you're doing well! <3

Hi! Sorry I’ve gone off the grid, my Tokyo Ghoul blog got real popular so it’s been taking up most of my time. And thank you! I’m doing good B)

I really like GrizzledVeteran!Reiner, his relationship with the Warrior Youth, and getting to see the Fall of Shiganshina from his perspective. His speech at his family dinner was one of the most powerful and moving scenes in SNK to date, making the guilt lying on his mind and the murky greyness of this moral universe subtly but surely apparent to the reader. Annie screentime is always appreciated and we’ve also been given the gift of the wonderfully creepy yet somehow endearing Pieck. 

But what has blown me away with gale force winds over these past couple of chapters is the extreme intensification of parallels between Eren and Reiner. I’ve talked about their similarities here and here, but recent chapters have cranked it up a notch.

Reiner starts out as a kid with very little talent but a whole lot of spirit.

He places little value on his own life if it means changing the world.

Both search long for a missing father to find disappointment down the end of the road.

He eventually realises that he has become a “hero that will save the world” not due to his destiny, but due to the secret meddling of others.

And he becomes disillusioned, the spirit that drove him forward quelled to existential uncertainty and despair.

His commitment to his ideology came into conflict with his commitment to his friends…

And his commitment to his friends ultimately won out.

And to make these parallels all the more explicit, we have these two pages.

The same three-panel formula, in reversed positions no less (Reiner on the right, Eren on the left): they look up at the sky in the first panel, it makes them realise something in a reaction shot in the second, and the third depicts the wall opposite them that stands between them, even when their sky, and themselves, are the same. We also have Bertholdt’s parallel Armin running up to meet Eren to round off the connection.

Throughout SNK, we’ve had three major images that have received symbolic focus. Each image corresponds to the make-up of the world. The Earth is represented through the Walls, symbolic of security but also isolation and confinement. The Sea was for a long time a symbol of hope and freedom, but upon finding it, Eren discovers it’s just another kind of Wall - another fragile protective barrier keeping them penned in. So we come to Chapter 91, and a new symbolic focus comes into play - the Sky.

People are separated by Walls and Seas, but the Sky unites them all. Walls are manmade, just as prejudices are, and can be knocked down; Seas are natural, like the biological differences between Eldians and Marleyans, but they are still traversable. It is the Sky that must remind us that the differences that divide us are petty. Eren and Reiner, two people more alike than brothers, are made into enemies by the Walls and the Seas when the Sky tells them they are one and the same. Thus the Sky is the series’ true symbol of hope and freedom.

Given this imagery and the focus we’ve had on him in these recent chapters, I believe Reiner, along with Eren, will be key to uniting the Marley and Eldian peoples if they can embrace the Sky and leave the Walls and the Sea behind.

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

Good Luck, Hange

Since I doubt it’ll be long before the Paradis forces gatecrash this war, I think it’s time to look at how our new Commander will approach their new battle. I’ve talked before about how I think Armin will try to walk a darker path to live up to Erwin’s example, but Hange has received just as much foreshadowing in that direction.

(Interestingly, the way Sannes describes the role of the torturer is identical to how the Titan Shifter power works - you can never kill all the ‘monsters’, because another will just take its place; and more often than not, it’s the one who killed the previous one.)

Sannes was not the first person Hange tortured. Their experiments on the Titans caused enormous pain to something that still had a human consciousness inside of it. The Uprising Arc, as with all the characters and the series itself, serves to strip away the layers of ignorance and reveal what the characters have been doing all along unbeknown to themselves. Despite, that Hange is, at heart, a compassionate person. They are reduced to tears when torturing a hulking, human-eating monster - yet strangely, they don’t show a flicker of regret at torturing Sannes. Quite the opposite; they feel like he’s received his just deserts.

Because there is a darker side to Hange; one that they believed they had overcome. The burning desire for justice and revenge.

I didn’t notice the parallels between Eren and Hange at first, but they’re starting to become a lot clearer to me. Hange is most renowned for being one of the main brains of the Corps, whereas Eren is...not, but while they bond with Armin on that front, there is a reason why attention was given to their one-on-one conversations with Eren like the one in Chapter 20 above.

The ‘dream’ is Eren’s curiosity, whereas killing the Titans is his rage. And while Eren started off with a dream, was overcome by hatred, and then began dreaming again, Hange makes the reverse journey. They begun with hatred, soothed their rage with a dream...and are now slowly giving into hatred again.

Hange’s dilemma is this: they are eager to find humanity behind monsters, but they are unwilling to accept monstrosity behind humans. Their fury at Sannes comes from what he did to Nick, who they had become attached to; but twenty chapters earlier, it was Hange threatening Nick’s life, for hiding a secret of vital importance to humanity.

Perhaps it will take seeing the Eldian Warrior Candidates of Chapter 91 for Hange to overcome the last of her prejudices...but before that can happen, I’m sure Hange will be a merciless commander towards Marley in the war the come. Having lost both Moblit and Erwin at Shiganshina, they will fight to the last to defend the people who remain to them - and to crush those who threaten to take them away.

A person with such convictions in wartime is a good thing. But when it comes to the chances of an egalitarian peace, it becomes a little more worrying. Perhaps it will take Eren, of all people, to calm their rage before it burns Marley to the ground.

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

Do you have any theories on where the story will go from here, or how the characters plan on dealing with the Marley threat?

Well, before they can even think of fighting Marley they need to build some seaworthy boats that can make the journey to the mainland, so if Isayama wants them to leave immediately, there’d have to be another two month timeskip unless they decide to risk it with river barges. 

After that hurdle comes the problem of building an army sufficient to face Marley; the Survey Corps currently has nine members, and with Floch consistently undermining their propaganda, it doesn’t look like there are going to be any new recruits any time soon. They could supplement their forces with units from the Garrison and Military Police (Rico + Hitch plz), but they can’t take too many as they still need to maintain law and order within the Walls. Additionally, Reiner and Zeke remain on the island (presumably), and although they can’t break through the outer Walls without a Colossus, they could still cause major trouble like Zeke did back in the Clash Arc.

So, despite seeing the ocean last chapter, I think it will still be some time before they’re able to set out and bring the fight to Marley. If they want a chance, they’ll need a strategy that relies on two things:

1) The Eldians

A massive disadvantage of numbers can only be compensated through a campaign that relies on stealth. Unfortunately, the Paradisians know next to nothing about the structure and key persons of the Marley government. However, they do know that large numbers of their own race are currently being horribly oppressed by Marley; and the Levi Squad already have experience when it comes to starting an uprising. Very few of them have military training, but sheer numbers will be an important factor, so a sneaky operation to fan their spirits could tear Marley open from the inside and swell the battle ranks of Paradis. 

And if they could gain control of whatever facility produces Titan Serum, well, they could have an army of Titans to wield against Marley - if they are able to throw their morality to the wayside for the sake of victory, as Erwin once did. Perhaps this will be the choice Armin will try to make to live up to his predecessor, and will be what drives him apart from Eren as that ominous interview with Isayama foreshadowed. The Survey Corps would be leading Titans into a city to devour the humans within, and the circle would be complete.

2) The Co-Ordinate

But even so, Eren will need to master his Co-Ordinate ability before anyone’s going to go charging into the lion’s den. And now he knows how to do it, but he won’t. At least, not with Historia. But as it happens, we have another descendant of royal blood running around Paradis right now who just so happens to be their enemy. Since you’ve already done a bit of patricide, Eren, how does fratricide sound?

From a thematic perspective, this is also solid. Armin has already risen from the ashes of both his parallels and is now ‘complete’, whereas Eren has a greater party to deal with. He’s already consumed his father, and if he ends up eating Zeke and at least killing Reiner, he’s ¾ of the way there. It may be a fair bet to say that Instructor Keith will return to action for this segment to meet his unfortunate end saving Eren’s life, which would render Eren 100% fully-formed and ready to use the Co-Ordinate to fight the enemy into submission.

But a real happy ending would not come from the Eldians wiping the Marleyans from the face of the planet. It may take conflict to make them reconsider their views - SNK is a big advocate of pain being the force of change - but a true victory could only come from a reconciliation of the races, and the breaking of the cycle for good. If they fail that, then all is lost.

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

All Things With Form Will One Day...

“That which has form will disappear, and only that with none will continue.”

Such are Grisha’s cryptic words on the title page of the chapter. What he means by this is not immediately obvious, but looking back on Chapter 51 I found that this is not the first time we had seen it:

The translation is slightly different, but the text in the bottom right corner is clearly the beginning of the sentence completed in Chapter 88. The narration matches Eren’s thoughts as he remembers the old Squad Levi and clearly worries for the fate of the new. Before the release of the latest chapter, then, we would have assumed that quote to end with “perish” or “disappear”. SNK can become so dark sometimes that it seems almost nihilistic, and it never shies from delivering the audience a constant reminder of the mortality of everyone and everything. 

But with the latest chapter, and the conclusion to that sentence, Isayama paints clearly his intent. Yes, everyone dies and everything ends. He has no intention of coddling us by pretending that painful truth isn’t a reality. But he’s not a nihilist. There is light in the abyss. Although all people and things and anything with physical shape will one day disappear, the nonphysical realm of ideas and dreams will pass on from generation to generation to never be exhausted. Though we may die, our ideas will live on. Our impact will remain.

Grisha’s revelation seems to be juxtaposed between his explanation of the ocean, but that’s not quite right. The text referring to the ocean as a massive body of salt water is outside the text boxes containing his memoirs; it is instead referring back to Armin’s explanation. Grisha’s explanation is within the text box. His description is his revelation. Because in SNK, the ocean has always been a symbol of hope. The dream of the ocean called out to Eren in his darkest moments, and, with a little help from his friends, always managed to pick him up again. So when Grisha says he’ll describe the ocean, he is really describing the nature of hope in this cruel world - belief in the immortality of ideas if not people. 

The ocean is an excellent physical representation of this. Isayama despises the confined, small places like the land within the Walls as destined for destruction if they refuse to look outwards - as the Warriors prove. He rejects a life based on secure and comfortable living over the dangerous quest for freedom since the former is mortal - containing only formed things in people and places - whereas the latter is immortal, espousing the formless ideas. The ocean, as a constantly shifting, formless and massively free body of land represents the beauty of freedom and the transcendence of the formless over the formed. The ocean too will continue for billions of years as people come and go.

There is a wonderful irony in Grisha beginning to have this revelation of hope at the sight of a Titan slinging human bodies into the air, the exact same sight that plunged Eren into deep despair. Grisha does not enjoy the slaughter - he becomes wise enough to realise the senseless brutality of violence regardless of the side committing it - but the sight, framed by the backdrop of the ocean, is regardless one of the Attack Titan doing what it does best; fighting for freedom. An ideal which instils hope regardless of whether it is committed by monsters or men.

Even if the series ends with horrible casualties among our heroes, Isayama has already illustrated that their ideals will carry on, and so even the most tragic of endings can only be bittersweet.

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

A Heroic Parallel, Part 3: Eren & Keith

Welcome to the final instalment of the Heroic Parallel miniseries! Strap in your seat-belts - this one’s gonna be a wild ride!

Now if I’m done talking like a TV presenter, I best explain the premise for the unfamiliar: here I examine how the main trio are paralleled in the Veterans of the Survey Corps, as well as how they are becoming more like them in the so-called (by me and no-one else) ‘Soldierfication’ process. Previous instalments discussed Armin & Erwin and Mikasa & Levi, so for Eren that would presumably leave Hange. But there really aren’t many points of comparison between the two apart from Hange’s remark that they too once hated the Titans. I was confused about this for a long while...and then Chapter 71 came along. 

There was another surviving veteran that fit Eren’s bill perfectly, and shone a bright light on what Eren could have been if he had never been injected with the Titan serum.

Keith Shadis was a man who strongly believed himself to be ‘special’. He looked down on anyone without the same drive as him;

He insisted on aggressive tactics against the Titans out of his hatred;

And he, at the end of the day, simply wasn’t special - a lesson he could only learn through the deaths of his comrades;

And his leadership of the Survey Corps can only be described as disastrous.

This is both the man Eren Jaeger used to be, and the man Eren Jaeger could have been. Eren’s passion and determination, the very features that seemed to be his most positive at the start of the manga, are shown from an entirely different angle; revealing how his passion was also his arrogance, his determination was also his narrow-mindedness. It highlights the importance of Eren’s development, as if he had never received the serum and if he survived Trost, he would surely become the same failure Keith did.

Where Soldierfication is concerned, my great hope here is that because Eren has already realised his own failings and has greatly improved as a person, he won’t go down Keith’s route; and that the reveal of his parallel was simply the conclusion to an arc that has already taken place to make the previous subtleties more explicit. Or else, Eren will take up Keith’s mantle in guiding the true Chosen One to success by aiding Armin. Because the alternative would be Eren screwing up so badly that he chooses to fade into obscurity and help other people become the hero he never could be, which frankly my heart cannot handle.

Warriorfication and Soldierfication are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Just as the difference between warriors and soldiers are blurry, so can the trio find that both paths lead down the same route. And given the current state of both the Warriors and the Veterans, we can tell the Shiganshina Trio have an even harder road to walk down before they reach the end; whatever that may be.

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

A Heroic Parallel, Part 2: Mikasa & Levi

(I had to open with this panel, didn’t I? It’s just too awesome.)

This series examines how Eren, Mikasa and Armin are paralleled in the Veterans of the Survey Corps, as well as how they are becoming more like their peers in a process I like to call ‘Soldierfication’. The previous instalment discussed the connections between Armin and Erwin; this time, we’ll be looking at the Ackermans.

When Levi was first introduced, his most obvious connection with Mikasa was their shared badassery. But as we learned more about Levi and his motivations, it became clear that, like Mikasa, despite his cold exterior, he wants above all else to protect the lives of the people he cares about - the difference between them was that he had learnt to put his duty above his own desires. Their parallels most shined during the Uprising Arc with the bombshell of their shared lineage, and with it, the associated parallels in their backstories and relationships.

Soldierfication for Mikasa thus far has shown her becoming a more disciplined soldier with growing respect for authority. When she disobeyed Levi and attempted to kill the Female Titan in the forest, she was almost killed as a result. She only survived because Levi saved her and he was incapacitated as a result. Her guilt over this caused her sense of responsibility to grow as well as her trust in her comrades.

This trust grew to the point where she even entrusted Levi with Eren, her constant priority #1, by rescuing Historia instead.

So what about Chapter 84? Doesn’t her kerfuffle with Levi undermine her growing discipline?

In actuality, the startling thing about her “battle” with Levi was not that she turned on him, but how incredibly restrained she was while doing so. Levi was totally exhausted and utterly at her mercy; the Mikasa of Chapter 22 would have ripped the serum out of his hands and, if necessary, slit his throat.

But she doesn’t force it out of his hands. Despite holding all the power in the situation, she pauses and listens to what her Captain has to say.

Nor do I believe for a second Mikasa was completely constrained by Hange’s grip. If she’d kept on struggling, with her strength she would have definitely broken free, but upon listening to her superior’s words, she ultimately allows Levi to make the choice - and is rewarded for her development with Armin’s life. It was a gauntlet to test how far she has come, a struggle between her innate impulses and her developing discipline - which her inner Soldier won. 

That doesn’t make Mikasa’s future full of sunshine, though. While it might not signify his death, Levi’s separation from Erwin may foreshadow Mikasa’s separation from the recipient of her own ‘Ackerbond’, Eren. And given Levi’s record, she’ll have to harden her heart against more loss still.

Next instalment here.

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

A Heroic Parallel, Part 1: Armin & Erwin

I’ve talked to death on the parallels between Eren, Mikasa, and Armin and Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt, as well as how the former trio are growing to become like the latter, but while the Warriors reflect the, well, warrior sides of each of the main trio’s personalities, these are not their only parallels. Their alternate ‘soldier’ personas are also reflected; in the veterans of the Survey Corps.

Now this was originally all part of one massively long megapost, but for the sake of digestibility I’ve divided it into separate segments for each of the trio to be released daily. Today’s topic: Armin Arlert and Erwin Smith.

Armin and Erwin are both supremely intelligent strategists who are driven above all else by curiosity; Erwin desperately wanted to find out the truth that lay in the basement, and Armin longs to see the ocean and the world beyond the Walls. Yet despite these inner yearnings, both chose to sacrifice their own personal dreams for the greater good - almost simultaneously, to deliberately emphasise the parallels between the two. 

But as Erwin acts as parallel, only the original may survive the ordeal. Armin rising from the ashes of the funeral pyres of his two parallels, Erwin and Bertholdt, sends him on the road to character individuation. Their deaths gave him life, and with it, he now possesses the traits they possessed; Bertholdt’s titanic body and Erwin’s necessary ruthlessness. Not only a Warriorfication, but a Soldierfication.

We’ve been hinted towards a darker development in the gentle heart of Armin for a while. Chapter 55 demonstrated his capability at plotting underhanded schemes:

And Chapter 59 saw Armin directly take his first human life. He even questions his own humanity.

Levi is right to affirm that Armin’s actions were for the good of his comrades; but he is also right to affirm that his hands have been soiled, and there is no turning back. Erwin’s burden was to become a demon for the sake of humanity; now that is Armin’s burden, both literally and metaphorically.

Despite being unconscious at the time, Armin’s conscience is heavy with the deaths of Bertholdt and Erwin. In order to cope with what he has done, his ideological belief that he reached through Erwin, that “one cannot gain anything without sacrifice”, will have to strengthen into concrete actions.

Next installment here.

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

So essentially, Annie, Reiner and Bertholdt are fighting for freedom from an existence trapped behind walls in a land ruled by brutal monsters.

Ring any bells?