SNK Theories & Analyses

Sneak Peek: Kyoji Asano Attack on Titan Cut Collection

Part I: Cover, Main Visuals, Eren, & Mikasa

Part II: Armin & the 104th

Part III: Survey Corps Veterans

Part IV: Other Characters & Misc. Illustrations

This 144-page artbook is absolutely incredible! Though many of the season one illustrations/sketches within were already featured in the 5-volume Original Illustration Artbooks as well as the 2-volume WIT Studio Illustration Collections, they’re collected here alongside season 2 key animation to showcase the incredible, painstaking detailing behind all our favorite characters!

Part III features the vets, including the members of Levi’s former squad. For some reason they wanted to show us everyone’s death scenes again O_o Mike does have another pair of pages in his section, but I chose to highlight the ones above so you can see just how much goes into presenting his expression of horror.

ピーク

I’ve read Crunchyroll translation and…..you know how much Isayama loves Norse mythology! Let’s see

In Norse mythology, Vili and Vé are the brothers of the god Odin (from Old Norse Óðinn), sons of Bestla, daughter of Bölþorn; and Borr, son of Búri:

From Wikipedia

Old Norse Vili means “will”. Old Norse Vé refers to a type of Germanic shrine; a vé.

The bodyguards of the Tybur family are actually Ackermans? Just like the royal Fritz family’s guardians?

What if—

The Marleyan scientists, or the Tyburs had figured the formula of creating the titan science byproducts for their own use? 

(side-eyeing the Marley Titan Chemistry Research Centre.) 

Shingeki no Kyojin favorite Quotes (7/?)

“Who do you think actually wants to kill people…?!”

reiner, get out bertholdt, got you annie, fall

each time RBA is defeated by the SC, an execution catchphrase is uttered right before the finishing blow.

“reiner, get out” has got to be my favourite. 

it perfectly encapsulates the catharsis of blasting the armoured titan right out of his nape. 

After a century of watching quietly while their people are slaughtered and persecuted, the Tyber family is back and ready for action. Why? According to Zeke they are going to help build support for a military attack to retrieve the Founding Titan.  

The reality is that ulterior motives are everywhere. Zeke has a “zekret” and I suspect he isn’t alone. The reason Billy gives for his public appearance is much more benign. 

“I’ve come here to see the Heros statue.”

There’s been much speculation that Heros was an Ackerman, and I believe rightly so. The parallels are there and no other human is capable of taking down a titan alone.

Part of the intel that Zeke brought back to Marley is that Ackermans exist. He tells Magath that there are at least two member of “the line once thought to exist only in legends told by the royal family.” 

Which Royal Family?

When Zeke says “royal family”, I suspect he’s referring to the Tybers and not the Fritz/Reiss. If so, it means the Tyber family is uniquely interested in the Ackerman clan.

We know the Ackerman family was historically close to the crown. In chapter 65 Grandpa Ackerman told Kenny, “Our clan was the royal government’s sword and shield. We had a key role in insuring humanity’s survival”. In chapter 69, Uri apologizes for the Ackerman family persecution. Nowhere does it specifically say that the Fritz/Reiss family was the one the Ackerman clan supported. This chapter makes me wonder if perhaps the Ackermans were originally tied to the Tybers.

SnK News: Eight SnK Seiyuu Ranked in Goo’s “Most Handsome Seiyuu” List

Nearly 3,000 Japanese fans voted for the “Most Handsome Seiyuu” rankings on Goo, with SnK seiyuu claiming 8 out of the final 49 positions!

2) Kamiya Hiroshi (Levi Ackerman)

3) Kaji Yuuki (Eren Yeager)

5) Ono Daisuke (Erwin Smith)

8) Sugita Tomokazu (Marlowe Freudenberg)

10) Tsuda Kenjiro (Flagon Turret & Hannes - temporarily replacing Fujiwara Keiji)

17) Shimono Hiro (Connie Springer)

20) Hosoya Yoshimasa (Reiner Braun)

25) Yusa Kouji (Farlan Church)

We’re finally moving forward!

Aside from the fact that I can’t stand Eren’s stubble-beard, I actually don’t mind his appearance in Marley after reading the chapter.

It’s a strange decision on the Survey Corps’ part considering how important Eren is, but it does have a thematic purpose in contrasting three different perspectives - Eren’s, Reiner’s and Willy’s. It’s also in line with the thematic idea of taking risks to achieve something.

Willy sort of just accepts the role and the memories passed down to him. He’s complacent because “things have always been like this”. The Tyburs are essentially the Reiss for this arc, with their reasoning to keeping the status quo being “it’s the Marleyan’s fault that they abused the power they got”, instead of putting a stop to the whole thing.

The question with them that remains is what exactly they are going to reveal at the festival. Willy’s words could be interpreted as wanting to fix things because they only stood by and watched, but considering they are the ones that are keeping this whole system up, this is questionable. The Tybur family’s existance illustrates the thematic idea of “taking responsibility”, which has also been there for a while - Eren mused that with great power comes great responsibility back in the training flashback, and this is also one of the reasons Kruger trusted the Titan power to Grisha. He essentially told Grisha to take responsibility and acknowledge what he has done wrong.

The Tyburs are the anti-thesis for that because they’ve kept the system up. Willy is essentially saying *the Marleyans gotta take responsibility for it themselves, not my problem”, even though his family is the one who could end this whole thing. At this point, somebody has to properly take responsibility, be it Marley or Eldia, perhaps both of them, because both sides have done horrible things. 

Willy’s perspective is a contrast to Eren, who talked about the difference between having a choice and not having a choice and from all the three perspectives was the most free to choose to fight. He could’ve just become a regular person working on the fields to get by, but he chose to fight the Titans. He chose to go and find out the truth. He chose to move forward. Ironically that is how Eren adopts Reiner’s advice in the training days - keep fighting; you will grow stronger and the world will change for the better.

Reiner himself has a completely different reaction to everything going on, however, because of the brainwashing he’s gone through.

Reiner moves forward not seeing the bigger picture and through that contributes to making things worse. He says he’s not friends with the devils of Eldia as he talks about the plans to destroy Wall Rose, while during his time in the training corps, he actually does befriend many of the cadets there. It’s painfully contradictory and once he is confronted with it directly when Marco dies because of his actions, he breaks. I adore this character writing for it’s nuance and I think this chapter has done the best job at showing the contradictions of Reiner’s character, instead of just telling you it’s a thing.

Then we see him try to kill himself, like the lone old man from his village did when they were undercover, but he can’t because he still has somebody to live for. Oh hey, can’t wait for the kids to be killed because this is Attack On Titan.

There’s the idea of perfection and imperfection being thrown around here. The hero Helos was perfect, but hollow inside. While the people in Paradis move forward making many mistakes and we’re told by Eren’s mother Carla that Eren is fine as he is - he just needs to do his best. It’s okay to not be perfect all the time, it’s simply important to keep fighting to overcome those flaws. 

In case you didn’t figure it out yet, the story is also pretty anti-imperialist. Magath calls Marley’s path of conquest self-destructive and wishes for the Marleyans to learn the truth about war, while the Tybur family withholds it all. While Eren muses that he probably wouldn’t have been so eager to go to enlist in the military if he knew the truth about how terrible war is.

While having that almost-suicide in there, the chapter in general actually has the most lightheartedness and hope we’ve had in a while and I welcome it. Bertholdt’s sleeping poses and Eren’s words cheering up Falco made me smile. Reiner chooses to go on living for those he still has. We finally see the hope in the darkness, even if it is just bits of it. 

I also really like seeing Annie being a bad liar. Eren called her that, but we’ve never really seen her actually be very bad at it.

He always used the word “Omae” when referring to someone, ever since he was a kid. He never used the word “Kimi”, up until now.

This can’t be translated to English, but it has some significance. In ch87, Eren used “Watashi”, instead of his usual “Ore”, when saying “I”. That was due to the impact that Grisha’s memories had on him, as Grisha used “Watashi” after he arrived to Paradis Island.

This is different though. In this chapter, Eren used his usual “Ore” for “I”, but used “Kimi” for “You”. To be clear, Kruger used “Ore/Omae”, and Grisha used that as well when he was younger. So, Eren didn’t use “Kimi” because of some memories, or paths. He used it by himself, with his own will.

And I think the answer to why he changed it is very simple. “Kimi” is a bit more polite than “Omae”. Isayama pays a lot of attention to what pronounce a character uses. For example, Eren always uses “Ore/Omae” for “I/You”, Armin uses “Boku/Kimi”, while Mikasa uses “Watashi/Anata”.

This wouldn’t be the first time Eren changed the way he says “i” or “You” because he wanted to sound a bit more polite. He changed it in ch6 as well, when he was talking to Mikasa’s kidnappers:

Back than, he used “Boku” for “I”, instead of his usual “Ore”.

So Eren using “Ore/Kimi” for “I/You” is a small hint that Eren was himself, but that he was acting when talking to Falco. It doesn’t mean that everything he said to him was a lie, and I think most of the things he said were true. But he made up his backstory, and he made sure that he sounds a bit more polite than usual.