Tenroku

Ironically, after writing a very long critique of the ending, I believe I have found a way to redeem it. Isayama’s comments on the manga ‘Himeanole’, as well as the analyses put forward by @twilight-paradise88 and @cosmicjoke​, led me down a very interesting path of interpretation that makes the ending - thematically, at least - justified.

In the 2017 Bessatsu Shonen interview, Isayama says this about ‘Himeanole’:

Ultimately, I don’t think the series [SNK] passes judgment on what is “right” or “wrong.” For example, when I read Furuya Minoru’s “Himeanole,” I knew society would consider the serial killer in the story unforgivable under social norms. But when I took into account his life and background I still wondered, “If this was his nature, then who is to blame…?” I even thought, “Is it merely coincidence that I wasn’t born as a murderer?”

Does this sound familiar?

Eren, like the protagonist of that manga, is presented as being a certain way since birth. From the Attack Titan’s power to see the future, we know that Eren bringing about the Rumbling was an inevitability.

The kernel of this idea is preserved in the ending. Although Eren’s motivations become more complex, the core of his being still compels him towards that act of destruction. He cannot understand it, because it is not a logical demand. It is simply the nature of who he is.

Hi!

Going to place the subsequent questions with the answers. So

羽根の生えた巨人は……いなかったか？Titan(s) with wings...Were there none?

The tricky part is the effect of the past tense of the いる iru "to be (animate things)" verb. I'm frankly a little stumped too on the best way to translate this so I'm going to work through it and see if I can get the ideas across. I can think of 3 possibilities at least:

- Sometimes the negative is added to make a question sound more polite. So, "was there" but to be more polite so "wasn't there?", and that I think is close to the official version? Meaning he is inquiring if there was such a thing (but they don't know).

- The second version is that having it in the present tense makes it flat out that there's no such thing, but putting it in the past tense does give the impression that there is such a thing at some point. For example if you asked me if there is a pen on the table and I replied ないか？ nai ka? I imply that I don't have an expectation of a pen on the table (There's none?) but if I replied なかったか？ nakatta ka? in the past tense I imply that I expect that there should be a pen on the table but you mean you can't find it now? (It's not there?). So that sounds like the other version you have there.

- Third thought is that it is a statement turned into a wistful or thinking out loud question, so something like "There were no titans with wings?"

I would say it definitely is some sort of foreshadowing going on here and I was thinking about this when I saw this chapter, but it is one with multiple meanings and I think that the expectation is you would think that it is wistful thought or a rhetorical question until this breaking news and you come back and look at this statement in a new light.

Secondly, in the mangastream translation of chapter 95, when the Marleyans are reviewing each titan's abilities, it was mentionned that Annie's hardening had been given to her. Is this idea of the hardening ability being given to her present in the original japanese dialogue? 2/4

「女型の巨人」こいつは何でもできる　汎用性が強みだ高い機動力と　持続力に加え硬質化を交えた　レオンハートの　打撃技は凄まじい　破壊力だ範囲は狭いが　「無垢の巨人」を　呼び寄せる　ことができる

(The) "Female Titan"This one can do anything, versatility is its strong pointIn addition, high mobility and staying powerMixed with hardening, Leonhart's strikes have tremendous destructive powerThe range is small (lit. narrow) but able to summon "pure titans"

I think the key word there is 交える majieru, the main relevant meaning here would be to mix or blend together, or to combine. Again, I think again it's one of those subjective things as to how you would read the sentence, whether with the new information now to mean:

(Because) hardening had been added into the her titan, Leonhart's blows pack a punch

Or otherwise before as:

(When) Leonhart does the hardening her blows pack a punch

Again I think it's one of those suddenly it's all crystal clear now that you know what you're looking for things, likewise, the ability to call titans is just stated as it is without any elaboration.

Finally, there's what Annie says about her titan in the latest chapter. What would be the most accurate translation of what Annie says when she talks about her titan being able to mimic the abilities of other titans by eating parts of them? The official eng tl goes with "It's particularly easy for the female titan to do that. It's why they made me choke down all kinds of things", 3/4

the official french tl goes with "Yes, it happens more easily with the Female titan than the others. That's why they made me gobble all kinds of things". The Liberio Linguists translation even said something about how the Female Titan didn't have anything special. The LL translation is pretty bad but could that idea still be present in the japanese text? It could explain why it would be easier for the Female Titan to assimilate powers. I'd be grateful if you could help, as always! 4/4

Gabi:確か「女型の巨人」は　他の巨人の一部を　取り入れることで他の巨人の　能力が発現するん　でしたよね？If I remember correctly the "Female Titan", by taking in/assimilating a part of other TitansManifested other titans' abilities(, right)?

Annie:まぁ…女型は特に　発現しやすいから　色々飲まされたけどWell... because it's particularly easy for the female type to express/manifest, (I) was made to swallow various (things)

What it does sound like is that all of the titans are able to manifest other titan abilities, which I think we've known, but that it is much easier for the Female Titan to do so. The verb use for "swallow" here 飲む nomu is typically literally "drink" but also used in the taking of medicine even if the medicine is solid, so it has the idea of gulping something down, which explains why no one can seem to agree on that translation XD

Perhaps that is the Female Titan's special ability, but I don’t think there is anything here to confirm it or say how it came about. Either way, there are the attributes from the previous reference you provided that explain what the Female Titan's (Annie's?) abilities are.

I'm sorry I don't think I really gave you the answers you were looking for, but I hope that helps :S

Oh

Have to say I wasn't aware of this issue and that I did read it as the second option.

But I can see the problem. Because the verb type is ambiguous, it can be in a passive or potential voice, leading to two possibilities:

エレンに何の　解決策も… 希望や未来を　示せなかった

By Eren, any sort of solution... hope or future, was not shown

To Eren, any sort of solution... hope or future, (I) was not able to show

The next line is an uncomplete sentence ending with a particle indicating an expectation of a verb

私の無力さを My helplessness/incompetence/ineffectiveness (...)

and I think? it is possible, even with a sentence in between, to link the initial verb with the last phrase, meaning it comes across as

I acknowledge (..yadda yadda..) my incompetence

And in that case, like you say, it really doesn't make sense in the scheme of things to be laying the responsibility onto Eren for not coming with a solution in light of such a statement.

It also felt like a direct accounting of the scene where Hange talks to Eren in the cell (ch 107), which I have to say also influenced my thoughts on what was being said.

Hope that helps! :S

(Usual disclaimers apply :)

(Relevant quote under cut)

SNK has always gone out of its way to present the perspective of the common person, exactly this kind of ‘nameless stranger’ - to emphasise that these are people with lives as rich and emotions as real as the characters we focus on.

In a series where so many people die en masse on a regular basis, it’s easy to become detached from that tragedy, to see it as an abstract statistic. This is where the trope of ‘redshirts’ come from: the mooks who have the sole purpose of dying so our protagonists don’t have to, because a bloodless victory would be unrealistic. SNK takes care to explore and subvert that trope.

Isayama’s mastery at portraying emotion through facial expression makes you feel even for these ‘nameless strangers’.

Imagine that you’re new to Attack On Titan, and you’re still on the first 50 chapters. You see this panel out of context.

This is a tragedy, right? A titan snapping up the brave soldiers fighting their menace. You would certainly never guess it to be a fist-pump moment. Yet that’s what I found myself doing. (Yes, I support Eren and Hange’s Group simultaneously. Blame this series’ brilliance at extending my sympathies.)

I think a bigger chunk of the fandom seems to forget that the whole reason there was a festival in the first place is because ZEKE JAEGER INTRODUCED THE IDEA.  Calvi and the others had no intention of going after Paradis until Zeke insisted in it.  So Eren didn’t  just“speed it up”. You have to go back a little before that to see that Zeke, and later Eren, were the actual architects of it. 

Yes the world hated them. No arguments there. But I get very weary of the “diplomacy is never going to work when the world hates you and wants you dead” argument. I have voiced my disagreement  with it numerous times and have written dozens of posts with ideas of how a path to diplomacy was possible.

One of many excellent point of irony in this series is that Eren, after fighting so hard to see the outside world, now means to obliterate everything outside Paradis. 

As he describes himself in Serumbowl, he came to prioritise the destruction of the obstacles to his dream over the dream itself. There was nothing inherent about the outside world that appealed to him like it did for Armin - it was more about the fact that he was denied the freedom to see it.

Regarding the recent chapter 128 of the manga:

A twitter user of the name "@hanpetosf" made an account just to snitch on the editor. If you guys don't know, the user @/shuuko is part of group of translators. They are the reason we get leaks. Unfortunately someone send the editor the leaks and the editor threatened to take legal action. This user decided to expose this person AND her group.

They also lied about asking for money. This group are VOLUNTEERS and they take their time and RISK their lives to send us these leaks. Despite everything else, they always ENCOURAGE us fans to buy the original source, since they try to translate as accurate as possible but only the original source can actually deliver what it meant.

This is very serious. The user @/shuuko has gone private and there is a huge chance we might never get leaks after this. They have been blasted publicly and risk legal action taken against them.

Following on from this post, Floch once again gives off Nazi vibes.

Though the Nazis ended up developing a lot of technology in order to win the war, their ‘Blood and Soil’ propaganda was based around a repudiation of technological urban life and a return to a rural Germanic lifestyle. They saw majority urban living as disrupting the German ‘Volk’ spirit, thereby creating social ills such as the disruption of traditional hierarchies. Maintaining order in the old system was deemed more important than scientific progress.

Floch’s sinister gaze as he emphasises that technology is subordinate to ‘pluck[ing] away the seeds of unease’ and Kiyomi ‘understand[ing] her place’ is rather reminiscent of this.

The more in-series take-away from this, however, is that Floch is also acting a lot like the Royal Government were - suppressing technology in order to maintain order.

What is morality but a pretty picture?

Yelena fabricated her past to make herself look special in the annals of history. Through this conscious deceit she makes explicit what the other members of the alliance have been doing on an unconscious level. The morality of nearly everyone in this series has been based on gaining approval from others.

In other words, to look good. In other words, aesthetics.

The fury on Jean’s face when he learns how Marco died, the zoom-in on his enraged eyes, reminds me of his one-time rival.

In this moment of anger, Jean comes to resemble the very person he’s trying to fight against. His subsequent rejection of peaceful discussion and descent into violence is also very familiar.

Floch and Eren are under the impression that one can eliminate hatred merely by shooting it or crushing it under heel.

This attitude reeks of hubris. Through his violent action, Floch is stoking the flames of hatred rather than quenching it.

Yet, it’s a comforting idea. It would be nice if life’s constant conflict could finally come to a definitive end. It’s what Reiner wished for in his desire for sleep and suicide. It’s why Eren longs to be ‘finally’ free.

And so for Jean, who never even wanted to fight titans in the first place, who only ever wanted a comfortable life in the Interior, such an idea comes as a soothing balm. Floch tempts him with it, like the devil.

Connie’s most famous character trait is being an idiot.

Not just academically, but also intuitively. He is too good-natured for his own good - his easy faith in his friends leads to naivety. And so, because he never sees it coming, he is the character most severely wounded by this series’ waves upon waves of betrayal.

It’s different for Armin, who can usually tell when things are off in advance - even for Mikasa, who’s privy to the conversations of the higher-ups and knew about the plans to capture Annie, Reiner and Bertholdt. But Connie, who’s left in the dark, is always taken off guard.

He’s tired of the mission constantly being put before their bonds, whether it be Marley’s mission, Eren’s, Zeke’s, or the Survey Corps’. For Connie, it always ends in isolation. He’s been betrayed by Annie, Reiner, Bertholdt, Eren, and the Marley Volunteers. He’s lost his entire family, comrades in the Corps, and his closest and most trusted friend.

So he can’t stomach it when the mission is once again put in front of the people he cares about, especially when that mission stands virtually no chance of succeeding. The Rumbling has been activated, the end of the world seems inevitable. And yet Armin won’t let him save his mother, despite the fact Armin’s only alive because his friends valued him over the mission. Connie can’t bear the hypocrisy of it all.

It felt to me like Isayama had a checklist of events that he needed to happen in this chapter and he was checking them all off the list at break neck speed. That meant things that normally would take time to resolve happened quickly so the story could move to the next item. There was no time for subtlety or nuance. 

My general criticism of 126 plays into my feelings about Levi’s statement. We all know Levi cares about humanity. I’m sure he cares about the world being burnt down. But in this chapter the bullet points next to Levi’s name were “1. He’s alive because  of Ackermagic” and “2. He still hates Zeke”, so that’s what we got.

I haven’t been this disappointed with a chapter since 90, which is strange because I wanted all of these things to happen. I wanted to see Levi.  I wanted Connie to come to his senses. I wanted these characters to unite. I just wanted it to happen with the usual level of weight and emotion. 

While there were some truly great individual moments, for the most part the chapter felt cartoonish to me. All of the characters were outlines of who they usually are. And because the chapter lacked depth, the lighthearted moments felt out of place and tone deaf. The world is burning - you know what would be great?? PIE!! 

Ugh. I know you weren’t asking for my entire chapter thoughts but my disappointment is fresh and visceral so you are getting it. 

Annie is to Armin what Eren is to Reiner. Since Annie is the person he’s most “wronged”, she is the mirror he can gaze upon that will reflect either understanding or damnation.  He was the linch pin in her discovery as the female titan. He was the main actor in the plan to trap her. He used her memory twice to undermine Bertholt. In Liberio, he did to her nation what she did to his. Now his nation is doing something far, far worse.

Armin knew early on that he’d need to abandon his humanity in order to make change. Annie has been the face of that journey. While she was in the crystal, Armin could approach with hope that she’d reflect understanding of the monstrous things he’s done. Now that she’s awake, the reality may be different. 

My favorite thing about Attack on Titan is that amidst the intense action there are a wealth of complex relationships that fight for center stage. While Annie and Armin’s relationship has never been my focus,  it’s an important one to Armin’s character development. Maybe, currently, the most important. 

I don’t see any of these characters expressing romantic feelings. I think this has nothing to do with romance and everything to do with Armin’s struggle to reconcile what he’s done. But for people who ship it, I can see why this is exciting for them.

I find Eren to be sympathetic, tragic and understandable. My feelings for him are best summed up as “oh no baby what is you doin” and less about grabbing a pitchfork and torch while chanting “kill the beast”. I do not hate him. His journey breaks my heart. 

Heartbreaking as it is, it makes for compelling storytelling. Destruction and annihilation is far more engaging than the slow and careful political maneuverings that would be required for a peaceful ending. The Uprising arc wasn’t well received. Uprising 2.0 would be an even bigger disappointment.  A violent, tragic and terrible ending is what many of us signed up for. 

So my issue is not with anyone who is excited at this turn of events. My issue is not with anyone really. We are all here to be entertained and have fun. But my inbox has made me aware that there exist those in the fandom who go beyond cheering the exciting storytelling and into the realm of believing that Eren is an absolute and unequivocal hero and should be praised as such.  These are the voices I find puzzling. These are the ones who I sincerely hope do not pursue a career in politics. Or teaching. Or any place of influence. 

That’s not the message Isayama is trying to send.