#saltstorm

Like Keith Shadis could at least brag about how many titans were slaughtered on his missions but Erwin Smith designs missions around AVOIDING THEM which suggests they have a goal outside of, you know, killing titans.

Like gathering supplies or hunting for meat or something. 

I don’t feel too much like getting into the deep deets here but WHY ISN’T THIS STUFF EVER TALKED ABOUT? No wonder the taxpayers hate the Survey Corps when they never do anything at all except die. Why would anyone join them? What’s their slogan???

I mean, Eren changed things up so what we see isn’t the usual reality. What IS THE USUAL REALITY?

I mean if the Survey Corps are bringing back wild game or herbs or root vegetables or hell salt that’s cool because a lot of foodstuffs would be very finite within the walls, especially after 100 years, especially if they’re not making use of even basic ag shit like three-field-and-fallow and/or crop rotation.

So like the SC as humanity’s last line of defense doesn’t even work for me. Defense against what, exactly? They go out but they actively now avoid titans. There’s another goal. They’re doing something out there. And they risk their lives not only in training but in their job field every single day. So it seems really bullshit to me that the creator tries to make them seem like this heroic but put-upon force of soldiers. Like...how the fuck are they actually heroic? Why would anyone join? To save humanity? HOW? “oh you get to kill titans” okay but COOL erwin commands by AVOIDING titans to SAVE LIVES lmao like this doesn’t make any sense. What goal do they have beyond this. They’re not studying the titans--or haven’t always done that. And I just. Like. When Maria fell, sure, maybe some people joined because idk in the hopes that the SC would send an army out to regain shit?? they did. a zillion people died. it was a mess. none of it makes any sense. plus three years of training??? So it’s not like this would be an immediate attack with new recruits. I just--

Anyway LOGICALLY I understand the Maria --> Rose & refugees thing. Several million people flood into a smaller (?) are of land than the one they were inhabiting and the unused land doesn’t matter because it’s not like they can grow food for these people to eat because they have to eat RIGHT NOW--not in 9 months. I’m not sure what month the wall comes down but unless it’s April or May they probably can’t just start planting. Even if they could, where will they get the extra stuff to plant right away? What will they feed people for the 6 months it’ll take for those plants to grow? How will they irrigate? I mean lots of issues to think of here.

Which...like...it would make sense then for the Survey Corps’ goals to shift a bit here. Now they need to reclaim things. Items. Seeds. Food. Grain. Things left behind in Maria and the border towns. (Whatever happened to the other three towns on the outside like Shiganshina anyway...??? Are they still there or what??) The SC would probably be at least a little successful with those kinds of missions. But not enough to feed millions of people, lbr. Even if the Garrison sends people to help out, it’s not like they could instantly feed that many extra mouths. So yeah, there will be issues. But in the years afterward you’d think they’d be expanding farmland in both Rose and (if possible) in Sina. If they lose Rose Sina’s in big trouble because you KNOW Sina relies on agriculture from the outer walls. 

Anyway. I feel like most people don’t even think about the government in this world because it is a monarchy and they had memories wiped or w/e. I was under the impression that they might use some fear tactics too, to keep people’s mouths shut, and when people like Erwin’s schoolteacher dad go missing and mysteriously ~die~ it’s kinda like yeah maybe we should not talk about this stuff. Even if their memories aren’t wiped you’d be afraid to talk because it might be you next. Or your family. 

At the same time we have Marlowe boldly protesting the bullshit in the MP and they’re loyal to the king supposedly and yet nobody dumped him in prison or killed him before he got into the military. Granted, he wasn’t spewing conspiracy theories but still. You’d think they wouldn’t want people talking about how the king’s men are thieving assholes, right? Because it’d be almost like talking shit about the king? since the mp represent the king?

Anyway I can’t make sense of everything because I’m not sure how the memories thing works. Even then if they erase memories why does Erwin remember. There’s a good chance I guess that the people of the area he was from like...thought it was fear mongering that Erwin’s dad did. That Erwin’s dad was trying to get people worked up, trying to start a riot, and that the government discreetly disposed of him. They wouldn’t probably be against that because nobody wants a confusing revolution to deal with. Like what would the point of him fearmongering be? “Titans were once human” is a cute theory and all but like, all it would serve to do getting spread around was frighten people. ‘We could be next’ or whatever.

I think in the end though there’s still a severe lack of consistency here. If the MP is corrupt as all getout to the point that kids like Marlowe and Hitch knew it was bad before they even signed up (and Hitch is surprised that it’s even more corrupt than she realized)--like...??? I mean to be fair it’s very possible that both characters have seen firsthand some gross corruption of the MP in their home districts but still these men represent the best of the military and they represent the king himself and like essentially Marlowe babbling often and always about how corrupt everyone is should have landed him in Really Big Trouble by the time he gets into the MP. It’s not like he’s confiding to Hitch after he befriended her; he’s just spouting off in front of his entire class. “I’m not like you fucks who joined to be shitty like everyone else around here.” I mean COME ON HERE HOW IS THIS BEING ALLOWED TO HAPPEN? Like if I were Hitch I’d be like DUDE SHUT UP BEFORE SOMEONE FINDS A REASON TO OFF YOU. 

I mean stories about people being silenced by the government don’t seem to be super 100% top secret. Yeah most people probably view them as rumors w/ no foundation but still. Speaking even indirectly against the king seems like a pretty obvious thing you Definitely Shouldn’t Be Doing Under Any Circumstances. Especially in a world where like. There are no other nations and nowhere to flee to and no way to escape that doesn’t involve death by titans.

ANYWAY imo Erwin was the only one who noticed anything was off about the government to the extent that we see. The Survey Corps ends up getting involved almost indirectly, mostly by accessing information they kinda shouldn’t have had in the first place, starting with Krista Lenz’s real identity, because that opened up the fact that there was a Real Royal Family and so the Current Royal Family was nothing but a front, which opens up more bullshit kiiinda like pulling a pebble out of a dike. 

All of this information just /clicks/ for Erwin because he already knew some shit was up. Some big shit. This wouldn’t have pinged someone like Marlowe’s radar so hard; I mean he knows shit’s fucked up but he mostly just thinks corruption is rampant in the MP. The second he realizes it’s much bigger than that his goals shift to accommodate his new worldview: it’s not just the MP that’s corrupt but everyone in power, really.

And like again we have a lack of both consistency AND information here like. Yeah yeah we see the MP being corrupt in the anime thanks to the extra scene, but that’s just black market bullshit. What we don’t see are things that make Darius Zackly so pissed off; like why does he hate the aristocracy SO DAMN MUCH? This is something that could have possibly been shown through other characters and yet wasn’t. They’re probably corrupt way beyond what we see of the MP. 

And like there are clear connections to both the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution in this series but are they intentional or no? Am I reading too much into things? We don’t see the aristocracy doing anything at all. We see an advisor of the king/a member of the aristocracy trying to lie and bend Fake King Fritz but ???? that’s not representative of all of them? And then tons of people are put in some weird prisons after they’re busted???

And like now the military rules the government???? AND EVERYONE IS OKAY WITH THAT????

Cough I mean excuse me, Historia is in charge. But literally nobody can be so stupid they don’t know that the military is the puppetmaster here. And yeah I do understand (and like!) the political ramifications that are hinted at re: keeping Zackly around like they can’t afford to boot him or kill him or anything right now. But just. The worldbuilding is such a mess that too much came out of left field when it didn’t have to.

And if I’m being really honest here I think Isayama didn’t write the earlier parts of the story with this political plotline in mind and so it kinda just sideswiped us all, even him. I personally feel that the anime’s extra scene with Marlowe was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Isayama reshaping the anime to better reflect the future plot of the manga.

I’ve heard people blathering about rumors re: the anime diverging from the manga and I think what is meant by this is that the anime is going to dump plots that were dumped in the manga (Mikasa’s tattoo, for instance) in favor of adding things that will help foreshadow later manga events so that the viewer doesn’t feel blindsided.

This could include some backstory to help explain things (like a character coming from the aristocracy who knows it’s corrupt and can even mention it in passing), but it might also just mean that some new stuff will come about to better direct the plot in general.

I mean my problem with “the aristocracy is evil” is pretty much that...like it’s never shown. And we never see people mad at the aristocracy. Marlowe’s mad at the MP for being corrupt, not the aristocracy! If we see some abuse of power that’d help it come across more naturally.

(Merchants are wealthy but I’m not talking about wealth I’m talking about inherited titles here.)

Anyway. The worldbuilding just doesn’t make sense. At all. Not even a little.This unfortunately also causes the plot to deflate. Like the plot isn’t all bad! It could be really great! It’s just...so much is TOLD and not shown--esp not early enough that we can see stuff coming--that everything comes outta left field.

Like...the fact that all these shitty things (titans were humans! king is fake! grisha isn’t from within the walls! eren is a shifter! the mp is corrupt! the aristocracy is evil! etc!) are CONNECTED should be the surprise, not each individual shitty thing on its own.