@lunaarlert / lunaarlert.tumblr.com
[ID: The John Mulaney meme. The first panel shows John Mulaney yelling “No!” at “romance is more meaningful than friendship”. The second panel shows John Mulaney yelling “Yeah!” at “romance and friendship can be equally meaningful”. End ID]
so ive been recently hit with nostalgia for snk, and i never had the chance to read we were kings before it was deleted years ago. is there any place its been reuploaded?
hey anon. that’s so funny bc when I fell back into snk one of the first things I did was hunt down that fic 😭😭 I’m gonna reblog this ask with the link attached
Armin and Eren used to have the same dream. Through Armin’s book, they were able to learn about a much bigger world that extended beyond the walls. They dreamed about venturing in these outside lands, exploring new landscapes and seeing the ocean. But both of them have found that the world that they used to dream of was nothing like the real one, both of them had to cope with the reality. However, they responded in a very different way. Eren, driven by a sense of hopelessness and revenge has decided to choose to see only the cruelty, the ugliness of this world, to give up and destroy everything. Incapable of seeing the good and the beauty that resides in it, he has become himself the most cruel being that the world has ever seen. Armin, instead, yet being fully aware of the darkness that resides inside in this world, but also conscious that there’s not nothing like “a good person”, that he himself has already taken a lot of lives, which makes him a monster, has nevertheless chosen to believe that there’s still hope. He has not given up on this world, he has still chosen to see the beauty that there’s in it. Despite their seemingly desperate situation, Armin, unlike Eren, has not chosen to believe in a predetermined future, and that their only way to survive is to destroy the same world they dreamed about: there’s still something they don’t know about yet out there.
thinking many thoughts
*Manga spoilers ahead*
This will be a long post, bear with me.
Woke up to see Chapter 131 is out and I felt sick and disturbed after reading it. We are entering the end game and the tension is real…
The irony…
At this point, we got a clearer view on Eren’s ‘rumbling’ motive. It is no longer ‘saving the Eldians’, but his own selfishness, his own obsession.
He knew what he is into. He knew that his decision on mass-killing is wrong. He’s trying so bad to justify his view “This is the right thing to do” “There are no other way”. He’s trying to ease his own feeling of guilt. This is human emotion, Eren just had it the more ‘extreme way’.
But this panel, somehow it just showed that he had the power to change the future, which he rejects. He forces himself to believe that the future cannot be changed, while in reality, he was the one who choose ‘that’ future to happen.
He saw Ramzi (the boy from the market) got bullied in the alley and chose not to save him because he felt guilty for things he hasn’t even done yet. This shows that he is not trying to change the future, he is not trying to do a ‘greater good’. He felt he is/will be a monster, so why bother acting like a good person? It’s sad to see that he hated himself for it. He is capable of feeling emotions, yet too blinded by his obsession.
Next panel - The Rumbling Scene
These made me sick, to point I felt like throwing up.
I really felt like I was on that setting, running away from the sea of titans. Seeing all those Eldians and non-Eldians running away was suffocating. Who’s Eren trying to save?
Then Eren’s confession. It felt like someone is pouring gasoline on fire.
HE WAS DISAPPOINTED..
He was disappointed that there are humans outside the walls, which is a very absurd way of thinking coming from someone who was fed on a knowledge that ‘humanity has gone extinct outside the walls’. At this point, he is irredeemable. Personally I think he felt conflicted on the inside, doing what’s right vs what he wants.
Child Eren looking towards the wall just gave a whole new meaning. For me, somehow the walls symbolizes Eren himself. He is caged by his own obsession on freedom. He was trapped in his own mind. A child sees the world in black and white. As you grow up, you got to see that there is a ‘gray area’, there are things to compromise, that the world is full of possibilities. However, Eren sees the world like how a child sees them.
I first thought that Eren was only blinded purely by hate. But this chapter shows that it is not solely on hate that keeps Eren moving, it is his ‘dream’ and jealously. Kenny’s last word “Everyone had to be drunk on something to keep moving on” hits me, again.
He is jealous that these people outside the walls (Eldians & Non-Eldians) gets to taste ‘freedom’, that they are the most free. Jealousy is a common trait for a child, but as we grew older we start to become rational. However, Eren is stuck on this phase, not wanting to grow up. I think this is why child Eren is the one who narrates his ‘mind’ out loud.
Next Panel - Armin
It was nice to see Armin and Annie’s interaction. I wasn’t able to enjoy it 100% with the stress I got from the previous pages. Armin and Annie are adoooorableeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! But I felt like it will be tragic, both of them being a titan-shifter with the 13 years Ymir curse……
Okay back to the topic.
Armin knew that he has done tons of irredeemable things, that he is not a ‘good person’, that he has became a monster a long time ago. But he is not using it as a reason to do more ‘bad choices’.
Yes he is disappointed that the outside world was different from what he believed in. It was different from the book that he read. But he grew up. He acknowledges that things doesn’t always end up the way he wants it to be. He’s disappointed but he believes that there are still other things that they don’t know yet. There is still a bright future ahead of them, despite the conflicts they’re having now.
Here we see the contrast between Armin and Eren’s perspective. Eren got stuck in his black and white world. Whereas Armin believes that there are other possibilities, that there are something more, a lot of things they haven’t explored. This as I explained before, shows that Armin grew up, but not Eren.
I think it’s clear that Attack on Titan won’t have a ‘happy ending’. I don’t see Eren coming out alive from this war. Armin who narrates the story from the beginning of the story, might be the one who survives from this battles. It will be a bumpy road ahead and it’s gonna be a tragic ending for sure.
Despite the stress this chapter has given me, I want to say that Isayama did an awesome job.
Note. Its interesting because Armin’s perspective is more likely to be the ‘lead character’ point-of-view, whereas Eren is the ‘second-lead’ or the ‘lead-antagonist’ point-of-view. Yet in this manga, we see it the other way around.
WAIT I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING… THE NEXT CHAPTER IS WILL BE OUT ON OCTOBER? SO I HAVE TO WAIT FOR ANOTHER 2 MONTHSSS??? UGH THE WAITTTTT
Pretty sure the wait will be worth it! We’re entering the end game everybody! Brace your seat! Isayama’s gonna rockkk our world!
"Is that the freedom you wanted? The freedom to hurt...?"
I'll never stop thinking abt this ever
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old art for attack on titan's zine
yall ever worked in retail
I see that you have played deltarune. who is your favourite character?
My favorite character is... Ralsei. Aside from that I really enjoy all the characters in deltarune and can't wait for chapter 2.
Eremin nation when will we rise again
what's your opinions on armin in the new arc? it saddens me that he has not been given much opportunities to contribute to the story.
Agreed, anon. I feel like he actually *needs* a final mini-arc himself before the story closes or his character will be deeply insufficiently followed through. I still have hope, because it would be an insane oversight on Isa’s part, but as time runs out, I’m getting a little worried.
I don’t even care to list all the reasons why. There are just too many. So many things need to get tied and closure-ed up for him. Not just FOR him, but because he’s an integrated part of many of the plot points and foreshadowing a etc. Like. Ok, if he’s not going to do anything more of particular significance for the rest of the story, then his character did not warrant all the focus and screen time that he got. He’s a main character being treated like a supporting character right now. BUT, that is fine, IF he’s meant to have the spotlight later once there’s room for him. I understand that not everyone can have it at once - snk has always had a shifting focus. But the clock is ticking, that’s what gets me.
But I’m not going to get angry ahead of time. I still have faith in Isayama. I do. I’m just in my worries about it because I care so much.
Remember when atla made a point to show that the average fire nation citizen Isn't Evil and the poor in particular were actually harmed by their government which they had no power over? I like that. More people should know that's how the real world works I think
Avatar had more nuanced takes on war and like, how countries work in general than most people who are allowed to vote
Remember when atla explicitly stated that fire nation citizens are fed propaganda from birth and that's not their fault AND SIMULTANEOUSLY It's Still Bad but it's possible to learn and grow and fight back against fascism. That was cool
