Fangirl Station

I’m doing a rewatch now (along with Teaboo / Teaboo2 reaction, he does such a nice commentary, attentive to the details and overall intelligent, highly recommend), so, rewatching the series right from the start, i noticed some details i failed to see the first time. I’m dumb when it comes to details, so if you aren’t, probably there’ll be nothing new for you. 

For one, i failed to notice Asura’s eyes glow after the Kyubi demon was defeated (Banmon, part 2). Maybe i decided that it was just to highlight that the statue somehow “awakened”, i don’t remember. But now, as we have seen his arms glowing after Hyakki killed Nue, it all comes together.

The same glowing purple.

So, Kyubi demon had his eyes, and should Asura not have stolen those, Hyakki would have seen his mom’s suicide… But nope, this is exactly because of his mother’s suicide that he couldn’t get his eyes!

When it comes to Nui’s suicide attempt, there’s interesting detail, too. We see her from Hyakki’s perspective, and what we see is her heart glowing green just like the Goddess of Mercy figurine on the ground in front of her:

Her heart is literally connected with the Goddess. Makes it all the more obvious. Once she stabbed herself right in the heart (well, probably she missed physically, but not symbolically), we can see, still through Hyakki’s vision, the same green silhoutte rising between Daigo people and him, Kagemitsu as the main enemy right in the center of the nimbus, and the next moment dissipating:

It wasn’t an overlap since the statue can be seen laying on the ground and we’ll see it’s light fading away later, in Biwa’s hands. So I take this one as a depiction of his mother’s protection being taken from Hyakki right in this moment, the same moment she betrayed him, betrayed her own prayers to the Goddess: “I cannot save you! No matter how immoral… No matter how much you’ve suffered… Still, all our people can do is ask for your forgiveness. We must continue to devour you as demons in order for us to live.” This is when she chose her duty as a lady of Daigo over her maternal feelings. And she stabbed herself right in the center of these feelings - her heart glowing green! Wow.

That’s when Asura, who failed to take Hyakki’s head (or life), being locked by the Goddess’s protection (meaning by the prayers of the mother), was set free, and the first thing he did was stealing Hyakki’s eyes (that were conveniently delayed somewhere in between, since he already killed the Kyubi by then; what a slow delivery must i say, but ok, he rarely gets his body parts the next moment after he kills a demon). So, should mother have waited just a bit more with her action, he could have recieved his eyes right then!

It also draws a parallel with Hyakki taking his brother’s eye just a moment earlier. No matter how justified he is, he still gets his little karmic consequences here and there. And now, in episode 22, Taho got Hyakki’s eyes basically RIGHT FROM THE BANMON BATTLE STAGE. Wow just how tightly all of this is tied together.

It’s also interesting how the Asura statue has 3 faces, and now we have our trio ready to fight as an incarnation of Asura. Fuck.

Regarding his hands, i used to think that the demons had them separately just like his legs, but i failed to realise at first that the Nue demon was basically 2 demons in one (thanks starsinseafoam for pointing it out). That’s why it came alive again after Hyakki killed it first time. Nue, a creature combined from parts of different animals, was also a combination of demons. So, Asura stole both his hands, too.

I don’t usually post rants and stuff but todays episode just, uuurg! I loved it, it was a great episode but I just hate it when they make Hyakkimaru out to be the bad guy. They’re once again trying to get us to feel sorry for the people living in Daigo’s land by showing epidemics and war and death. yeah, hate to break it to you Daigo but your land isn’t the only place that’s suffering, like the entire country is at war but you don’t see anyone else go whining to demons. Not until he freed them and other villages started following in his footsteps and began making deals and sacrificing innocent lives.

It’s like everyone seems to be forgetting that the only reason this bit of land is thriving is because of a deal with literal Demons. They’re thriving off an unwilling. innocent sacrifice and don’t even acknowledge it because Daigo didn’t even have the balls to admit what he did and lied to them about sealing away the demons and feeding his own ego.

Also, every time Tahomaru calls Hyakki a demon I just want to scream. like can you not see the hypocrisy in what your saying dude!! You’re calling the person trying to stop the demons a demon himself while your people continue to prosper…with the help of demons? What?

People like to talk about minority vs majority but tend to forget that since Daigo freed the demons they’ve been allowed to run amok all over the country, killing people, taking over villages, manipulating people etc etc. If we want to talk about minority vs majority then why let this one piece of land prosper while the entire rest of the county has to suffer even more for it. What about the thousands of people not living in Diagos land who are now plagued and hunted by the Demons that he set free.

Instead of trying to find a solution on their own, they’re using Hyakkimaru as a scapegoat, an easy way out. ‘Oh why find a better, permanent solution when we can just murder this innocent boy who’s life we’ve already made a living hell?’ As Nui said, the deals already broken now, so killing Hyakkimaru probably isn’t going to do much good. I doubt the Demons are going to be so forgiving for breaking the deal.

This deal was doomed from the start. This is literal Demons we’re talking about here, since when do they play fair. They’re living on borrowed time, time that doesn’t even belong to them. I went back and watched episode one and the priest at the hall of hell told Daigo that what he’s doing is evil and nothing good will come of it and that he’ll pay the consequences and he is. Some divine intervention obviously wanted Hyakkimaru to survive, we’ve seen that symbolised throughout the series and I feel like the gods are using Hyakkimaru as punishment for Daigo abandoning his faith in them and turning to the demons.

Also I feel like people are going to be upset for what Hyakki did to Hyogo and Mutsu in the episode but like what’s he supposed to do? Just stand there and do nothing why these people keep jumping him and attempting to kill him? They gang up on him 3 to 1 then whine about it when they keep losing, like come on. They keep going in for the kill, why can’t Hyakki do the same?

I need to talk about this one. It seemed like such a pure episode the first time I watched it, but now that I’ve watched it again, I’m seeing it in ways I didn’t see the first time around.

My findings:

1. Jukai fears that he has ruined Hyakkimaru’s soul by raising him and teaching him to kill.

2. Hyakkimaru is sometimes like a living doll from a horror movie but also is so precious I could cry.

And I know we’re all tempted to coo and think it’s cute and it is but also it’s really… a lot more complicated. Like first of all it’s cute and there’s a good chance Hyakkimaru is right but also a mature person wouldn’t put that responsibility on a child like Dororo? And also, there’s the fact that she kinda already did leave him, when he started acting like a jerk back at Mothman Village… Hyakkimaru likely thinks he just lost her, but the truth is she willingly wandered off/left him because she was mad at how he was acting…

It’s doubly sad to realize that Hyakkimaru probably doesn’t realize all this because it’s very likely that his own intelligence is still stunted to a childlike level because of his sensory deprivation. Mentally and emotionally Hyakkimaru is probably closer to Dororo than anyone else. Hell, its extremely likely that Dororo is even more intelligent and mature than Hyakkimaru is. Hyakkimaru is very much guided by instinct. It’s not that he doesn’t think about things, but he always feels first…

That kind of knee-jerk instinct kept him alive, but it only works for yourself. Now that he has Dororo to protect, he’s gonna need to figure out a new strategy, because Dororo won’t let Hyakkimaru protect her at the expense of others…

In the original manga, this was an arc that continued the original Hyakkimaru’s pessimism because it was one of the many times where people he saved from the demons gave him hate. The demon sword arc? The sister, despite the fact that she almost killed her whole village while insisting to keep her brother alive, made him leave the village. The moth demon arc? The villagers, after receiving assistance from Hyakkimaru, accused him of being a demon and thus he had to leave. There were several other instances too, and since this is a 24 episode anime working with a manga spanning three volumes + MAPPA’s preference to keep in plot relevant areas, they probably wanted to keep that resentment for this episode

The problem is that this Hyakkimaru isn’t the original Hyakkimaru. He has the prosthetics and the fighting skills - but no psychic powers, additional tools like holy water, or social skills. He was closed off from the world and with each body part he regained, his horizons were slowly opened. He grew to care for Mio - and while I personally view it as a sweet friendship, the loss of his first love had him realize emotional pain for the first time. His friendship with Dororo began as not seeing the kid as a threat, but Hyakkimaru came to care in his own way - whether it’s holding her face in his hands or starting to talk more because it almost cost him the loss of another life. The development at that point pretty much abides the rules of “show, don’t tell”

I didn’t like how the arc ended in the original manga, and that was mainly because the villagers were so disgustingly ungrateful - but on the other hand, it was a good arc in its own way. The fact that the lord didn’t get brainwashed by the demon moth lady but willingly married her, going as far as to have a child with her, and seemed to genuinely love her (in the weirdest way). There’s also how the villagers were probably some of the more “fleshed out” background characters. I wonder if the reason why they didn’t write those essential parts of the story was because it was similar to episode 7 with the spider demon-human love story

HighSchool AU・Part 2 - [Part 1] - [Part 3]

 It’s implied that Daigo’s deal freed the demon from the shrine in which they were sealed away. Which means it’s not just Hyakkimaru, who is paying the price, but all the people, who had been harmed by the now freed demons. And, while people in Daigo’s land had been enjoining prosperity, demons had been destroying lives elsewhere fir 16 years now. How many people did the cursed sword Nihiru killed? How many families lost their breadwinners because of it? Not to mentioned it prevented the guy it possessed from returning to his sister. What about Bandai? Or doesn’t she count because some more people also profited from her murders. We’ve only seen about half of the demons. 

There are also other possible effects of unleashing those powerful demons. For example the demos can perhaps enable or create other lesser monster, or cause good or neutral spirits to turn evil. And coming to think of it how do the demons create good fortune for Daigo’s land? What if they just steal it from somewhere else (like the forces of evil they are). What if they just steal the rain that would naturally fall somewhere else, and that other place get’s zilch? What if they repel disasters from Daigo’s domain, and some other places got floods or earthquakes or locust or whatever. Sure this whole paragraph is just speculations, but not at all unlikely given the nature of the forces we are dealing with here.

Moreover it doesn’t seem like Daigo is doing anything to improve the situation of his people. On the contrary, he was shown making shortsighted decision, confident in the demonic power that protect his land. If the disaster struck Daigo’s land now, people would probably suffer more than necessary, because they are simply badly prepared to deal with it.   

But that is simply not true. First it’s not like Hyakkimaru is the only person suffering from the curse in this equation. Not even People in Daigo’s land are free from the negative effects. See: 1) The Mother becomes depressed after her baby is cruelly taken away from her, 2) for that reason Tahomaru feels neglected and unloved, because his mother, kind and gentle as she is, is also always sad and frequently secludes herself; 3) the midwife gets eaten by a monster after she Mosesed away the baby, 4) meanwhile her assistant goes for the rest of her life singing creepy lullaby to bloodied rock wrapped as a baby. None of the aforementioned things would happen if not for the deal with demons. 

And there’s many, many more people who suffer from the released demons outside the Daigo’s Land.

While the general prosperity of Daigo’s land had grown, and many people had been saved because of that, the positive influence may be overvalued as because of the survivor bias. 

Besides it seems that after the years of good fortune the land is still as vulnerable as it was 16 ago, which if true, means that for all those years the resources had been mismanaged. It means that the rivers, that there were prone to flooding still hadn’t been regulated and the retention basins hadn’t been built. I understand that the big scale engineering jobs like that  would be very difficult when the population is starved, resources are short and there’s war and struggle in the are. But, there’s no excuse when the land only known peace, the population had been thriving and the resources had been plentiful. That also means the economy runs on good luck and good weather and the production hadn’t been made more robust to deal with potential shocks. And the seeds hadn’t been adequately stored and preserved for potential lean years. 

All this means that the land hadn’t been actually improved, just made dependent on the demonic power. And the absolutely worsted case all the disasters that had been averted will hit the land after the deal is either broken or simply runs out - how likely it is that the demons will protect the land for the eternity for the price of single baby (and given they are demons the price of renewing the pact will, probably be even worse), alternative the demons may stop protect the land once the person, who struck the deal is dead. As it is, the demons, while providing the assistance hold the land and all the inhabitant hostage to their power.  

I’ve been seeing many posts on my dash with people hoping Levi will grow and change. They see his violent nature as something that needs to be fixed. They see his vow to Erwin as a character flaw. 

I want to provide a counter to these ideas.

Levi has changed. He’s made adjustments as the story has progressed. But Levi came into this story as a grown man, fully formed, with a lifetime of experience. He’s not someone poised to make an astonishing metamorphosis. The Levi of chapter 115 is the same as the Levi of chapter one. What’s changed is our understanding of him. The pages of the manga have been revealing his character rather than developing it.

I feel like the problem here isn’t Levi’s growth and development but rather that the development he’s gotten hasn’t been what many have anticipated. The bulk of his character arc has been centered on Erwin, and that’s frustrating for some.*

But what’s weirder for me is seeing posts blaming Levi for what’s happened, claiming that his injuries are at least partially his fault because of his violence against Zeke and his insistence on keeping his vow. 

Levi has always been a violent character.  It feels like people are complaining about his violent nature now in an effort to excuse Zeke and Eren for what’s happened. Making everyone partially at fault is more palatable than simply owning that a character has done terrible things.

Let me give my opinion here: Levi’s injuries are 100% Zeke and Eren’s fault. No one else is at blame. 

Levi’s vow to Erwin isn’t why he is injured. It’s the exact opposite. It’s because he didn’t kill Zeke that he’s in this situation. If Levi had been blindly insistent on keeping his vow, Zeke would be dead long ago. Instead Levi has done his job and played by the rules. He’s continued to put the needs of humanity ahead of his own by keeping alive the person he most wants dead. 

In recent chapters, Levi’s self control and restraint have been on display far more than his violent nature. In any discussion of Levi, those qualities should be recognized as well. He’s always been a balanced character. He’s always been a well developed character. He’s always been more than violence and a vow.

Actually, look, infant Hyakkimaru is undoubtedly the cutest thing ever. 

We finally got some solid info on “Mystery Man”, aka Mister Xaver. I think this chapter all but confirms that he was aligned in some way with Eren Kruger, The Owl.

When Kruger first revealed himself to Grisha in chapter 87, he mentions that he had the help of a doctor - someone who had the “knowhow to study titan biology.”

In Chapter 114, Xaver explicitly states that he has a history of posing as a Marleyan, which may have inspired him to develop more foolproof ways for Eldians to pose as Marleyans - possibly by cheating blood tests. He also says that he devoted himself to titan research.

It seems very likely that Xaver is the doctor who helped Kruger infiltrate the Marleyan military, and remain undetected for so long.

Now…. onto Zeke. I don’t think anything about the way Xaver met Zeke was unintentional or coincidence.

At first it seems like it might be coincidence, or genuine interest in Zeke… but this interaction feels very staged to me. Like it was very important that Zeke think this man had an interest in him that was unconnected to who he is, and what he can do (which makes sense, given how poorly Zeke responded to the immense pressure put on him by his parents - and the lack of enthusiasm he showed for being a Warrior).

I think it’s very possible that Kruger also staged Zeke “overhearing” about the restorationists being nearly caught, and that Kruger was potentially the one to tip off the Marleyan authorities to begin with, to set this whole thing in motion. Again, this is all so that Zeke thinks he is making his own decisions and thinking for himself.

We must remember, Kruger had a very inflexible time limit during which he needed to get Grisha to Paradis, to pass off his titan. For the restorationists to be conveniently discovered just before his term is up is too big a coincidence to ignore, imo.

And then we  have Xaver… giving Zeke the idea to turn in his parents (while also making Zeke kind of think the idea is his own - to protect his grandparents), pulling straight from Mindgames 101 with shit like “Your parents never loved you”

And then later, the part that really made me suspicious was what he told Zeke as his parents were being carted away:

…seems a lot like gaslighting to me.

I think it’s also very telling that Kruger (The Owl) was not only mentioned twice in Chapter 114, but also possibly shown.

We get a better angle of the guy with his arms folded behind Zeke in chapter 86 - and he seems to look a whole lot like Kruger.

Now I think these reminders of Kruger are VERY important. This is a common technique used by authors to very subtly remind their audience of a long-gone character who is about to have relevance in the plot again.  I think this could be indicative that we will be getting more information on Eren Kruger very soon.

In conclusion: I think that Kruger and Xaver were in cooperation with each other, and that Xaver was intentionally inserted into Zeke’s life to control him and be the mentor figure that Grisha was obviously failing to be. He may have grown to genuinely love Zeke like a son, but I don’t think his motivations were so pure when they first met. 

I also don’t think Kruger shared Zeke’s goal of euthanizing the Eldians, or preventing them from reproducing. This seems like something Zeke came up with on his own, and that probably resonated with Xaver on a personal level, separate from Kruger’s goals. 

Sidenote: There is a lot of talk about Xaver being the third member of an “OG Trio” with Kruger and Kiyomi. I do NOT think this is the case, but rather that Xaver was an accomplice to Kruger… with his own goals and interests that simply happened to align with Kruger’s. (And I don’t mean to say that I think Kiyomi is not involved. heh.)

The theory gets a lot hairier here, so I will try to tackle more in a different post (or several), hopefully in the next couple days. 

I have talked about Hange and Eren’s unbalanced relationship in this post and this one, and I still feel the same way.

Putting all of that together:

❝ In chapter 107, we got to see how Hange deals with Eren.

Hange fails miserably in getting through to Eren, ending up feeling even more insecure about their role as Commander and worsening their relationship with him.

At first glance, this panel is pretty emotional, as it brings back memories of “happier” times, but…in retrospect, it shows how, even back then, Eren could only listen, and Hange wasn’t able to realize when to stop, couldn’t understand Eren’s discomfort. They stayed up all night, Hange “talked on and on…”.

Hange’s never been able to read Eren, they never paid attention.

There are 4 panels between these two scenes (above and under) where Hange rambles on. 4 whole panels before Hange realizes something’s wrong with Eren. Levi has to explain it to them. Then, another 2 panels before they apologize.

But chapter 107’s prison scene parallels also another one, from chapter 89.

Hange still couldn’t understand when to lay off, couldn’t understand that they were pushing Eren ー who was suffering from severe PTSD memories ー too much. Levi understood this immediately and intervened.

But in chapter 107, Levi’s not there to stop Hange, so things escalate, not even quickly, because Eren doesn’t really react for 21 panels straight, until he’s accused, for the second time, of being the cause of Historia’s predicament. ❞

Hange, I feel, has always seen Eren as something fascinating and mysterious because of his titan powers. Just like some people saw Eren as a weapon, others as a savior, or a friend, a comrade, a brother, a soldier, Hange perceived Eren as an awe (and fear) inspiring entity on their side (he is helping them and he’s following orders) that can be experimented on, a tool that can bring them closer to understanding the mystery of the titans. Hange is dismissive, or totally blind, to Eren’s distress, to his emotions, and to his physical conditions. 

This has always been the case.

Everyone is scared and anxious, Eren in particular, he’s the one that’s gonna end up dead if the situation escalates. Hange doesn’t notice. This behavior goes on for at least 3 pages.

And when Eren finally frees himself, Hange doesn’t care, or doesn’t realize, how Eren was feeling.

I highlighted the word “something” earlier, because I believe Hange isn’t interested in Eren as a person, his wellbeing as a human isn’t at the forefront of their mind when interacting with Eren. They don’t understand Eren, never had, never really tried. In chapter 107 Hange tried for the first time to understand Eren’s personal intentions, but failed. It was because Eren wasn’t interested anymore in explaining himself. Still, this was the first time Hange tried, so it speaks volume of how their relationship has worked until that point. And they pushed and pulled all the wrong buttons with Eren ー or anyone, really. I myself felt annoyed by Hange’s initial loud and empty prodding.

Eren never really minded Hange’s behaviour before because he wrote it off as “weird”, just like everyone’s behavior in the Survey Corps (the fandom itself sees it as odd and funny and quirky). Furthermore, he felt useful when he allowed experimentation on himself, it felt natural to him that, since he was a titan, he should let the military use him as a weapon, as a test subject. He never complained. It was his coping mechanism against the revulsion and confusion he felt by being one of the monsters that caused humanity’s downfall. He was pushing himself to his limits in order to give his people an edge, an advantage to freedom.

When, during the timeskip, his people didn’t seem to be fighting for real freedom (accepting to make Historia breed like cattle, or leaving themselves wide open for another Marleyan invasion don’t feel like freedom to Eren), he put a stop to that. He wouldn’t be the military’s punching bag, their dog, anymore. Yes, he chose to enter the military himself, but it’s also true that he hasn’t been treated like a soldier by most of them. Yes, he was okay with how he was treated for the longest time, but he didn’t know any better and it wasn’t wrong in his opinion.

On the blimp, Hange said Eren got himself captured over and over again and they risked their lives for him. I feel this was a very unfair way to put it. The military used Eren over and over again and he got captured as a consequence. The military and humanity inside the walls, without Eren, would have been done for. They saved Eren for themselves, for their own goals, for their plans, not for Eren’s wellbeing. Eren understood this, finally, and used that against them, forcing them to come to help him. 

“I want to put an end to that recurring nightmare, right now. There are those who would get in my way. But I’m fine playing the role of the lunatic who kills people like that. I have to be ready to rearrange some faces. Because I choose the hell of humans killing each other over the hell of being eaten. At least that way all of humanity doesn’t have to be damned.” - Levi Ackerman. Uprising Arc, Episode 56 “Actors”.