Alright This Is Quite Late, But I Think The Question Was Referring More To The Nature Of The Freedom

@leapingtitan titan this was 100% inspired by all of your Zeke memes lmfao, you’re honestly a blessing Nick.

Ozen “The Immovable” ✩ Marulk’s Daily Life

Akşam üstleri, gün batımları neden hem güzel hem kederlidir usta?”

Murathan Mungan...

SnK Interviews: Isayama Hajime’s Q&A from Febri Vol. 42 (July 2017 Issue)

Translations by @suniuz & @fuku-shuu - Please give credit/link back if used!

- What is your most essential drawing tool? 9mm 2B pencil lead. As it’s both thick yet soft, it’s easy to erase cleanly, so I enjoy using it the most. I don’t really understand the differences between all the manufacturers, so as long as the lead is this exact type, I’m fine with whichever.

- What do you do when you’re not working? I play video games. My nephews have been visiting me recently, so I have them bring their controllers and play Splatoon with them.

- Who is your favorite character in Shingeki no Kyojin? Reiner. As time progresses, my favorite character keeps shifting. My favorite is Reiner at the moment - I want to draw more and more of Reiner.

- Favorite music as of late? Kiyoshi Ryuuji. Even though my all-time favorite is Shinsei Kamattechan, who sang the SnK S2 ED, my favorites as of late are Creepy Nuts and Kiyoshi Ryuuji. For Kiyoshi, every single one of his songs has been a hit - even those he produced for others - which is an incredible success rate. I feel like he’s like Hyadain-san (T/N: Famous Japanese composer and lyricist), only he can also sing and dance.

- Favorite manga as of late? Boku-tachi ga Yarimashita (T/N: We Did It). The author, Kaneshiro Muneyuki (T/N: The artist for the title is Araki Hikaru), is my contemporary at Bessatsu Shonen. It’s just such an incredible piece of work. Initially I already had good feelings toward him because we started out together, and when I reached the middle of the story I suddenly went, “Eh? This manga is a masterpiece…?” I even got goosebumps. He created an unbelievable story, so I’m thrilled as his contemporary.

- Favorite video game as of late? Wii U’s Splatoon. Even though the game has been on sale for two years already, I’m still playing it consistently. It has been a long while since I started, but I still feel like I’m terrible at the game. Nonetheless, through my personal efforts, I experienced what it means to “achieve” different degrees of success for the first time. I can’t get enough of it!

- When did you start drawing manga? 2nd year of high school (T/N: That’s equivalent to junior year). But if you count just single illustrations, I already started when I was in daycare. But I remember that it wasn’t until 2nd year of high school when I actually organized drafts and began to create manga.

- How much do you sleep on average? About 8 hours. When I first started serialization, I had a little less sleep. But lately if I don’t get enough sleep I can’t do anything else.

- Recent interests? Watching foreign drama series. I’m currently anticipating the 7th season of Game of Thrones, which will start in July. Other than that, I’m hesitating on whether or not I should watch House of Cards (T/N: YES YOU SHOULD). When I watch something exciting, the amount of energy I use up is similar to if I read all of One Piece in just a week. Hence, I’m actually becoming a little scared about doing this (T/N: Committing to another show) [Laughs].

- If you lived within the Walls? I would be a farmer. Because I want to avoid all responsibilities [Laughs], so I want to live on the border and just plant crops. Though I can imagine that this kind of lifestyle has its own hardships, I would never be a soldier.

- What’s the best thing about being a mangaka? Everything. If I didn’t become a mangaka, I feel like I would’ve descended into poor health - to the extent where I couldn’t even go to the convenience store. I am totally serious [Laughs].

- Favorite movie as of late? It Follows. It was probably my first time watching such a scary film. Of course, the storyline is exciting, but on top of that, the actual elements of horror were fantastic. Because this movie describes something that happens at your own household, I felt jumpy and scared in my apartment for two weeks after I watched it.

- If you weren’t drawing manga? I would become an average member of society. But if possible, I would probably become a craftsman. Before when I worked at an internet cafe, no matter how dirty the cubicles became, I always bet my entire life on making it spotless again. It was almost like Nietzsche’s “Sublimation” psychology [Laughs]. Thinking back, I guess that could just be part of an artisan’s personality, too.

- What do you do when you experience writer’s block? I dive into other creative works. Basically other films, drama series, and manga - and I search for elements I enjoy. But because this world is filled with so many incredible works that I’ll never fully experience - even if I spend my entire life trying - as long as I commit to the ones I enjoy the most, my life can progress with inspiration. Sometimes, I almost feel like there is no actual need for me to draw manga [Laughs].

- The best thing about your hometown (Oita prefecture)? Delicious plum wine. When I think of what’s most appealing about my hometown, plum wine immediately comes to mind. My family back home are plum farmers, so even though I sound like I’m self-promoting my relatives’ business, please do give our Yumehibiki plum wine a taste! [Laughs]

- Your first impression of Tokyo? Surprisingly warm/familiar. At the railroad crossing of Egota, my head somehow got knocked by the crossing gate there, and I thought, “So Tokyo isn’t just all about tall buildings…” My memory contains moments of calm like this [Laughs].

We’re working on the highlights/new information from the main interview between Isayama and editor Kawakubo as well - stay tuned!

I don’t care what others says, I love this two girls OwO

Ever Since I Was Born: Eren and his Id

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.

Keep reading

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.

T.S. Eliot, from Four Quartets; Burnt Norton. (via xshayarsha)

I think this is all quite valid, but I'm quite sure Isayama intended to portray Eren as something "inhuman."

There's the scene in Marley were he speculates that he was born like this.

There's the scene in 121 where he also claims to have been like this since birth.

There's the constant narrative of this being set in stone(Eren's birth is even juxtaposed with "it doesn't matter where" and his child self with "maybe all of this was set in stone from the start"), and even when Eren reflects on why he wanted to do this in 139 there's a shot of him just being born.

There's also the fact that Yams has explicitly addressed the theme of the "innate perpetrator" in two of his interviews as essential to the ending. One in 2017 where he says this:

Ultimately, I don’t think the series 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?” We justify what we absolutely cannot accomplish as “a flaw due to lack of effort,” and there is bitterness within that. On the other hand, for a perpetrator, having the mindset of “It’s not because I lack effort that I became like this” is a form of solace. We cannot deny that under such circumstances, the victims’ feelings are very important. But considering the root of the issue, rather than evaluating “what is right”…to be influenced by various other works and their philosophies, and to truthfully illustrate my exact feelings during those moments - I think that’s what Shingeki no Kyojin’s ending will resemble.

And the other with Arakawa where he draws a connection between his self expression through destruction/"turning things upside down" with the ending and the work of Minoru Furuya(the artist from whom he got the "innate aggressor" theme).

Do you think Eren was forced to do the rumbling because he felt he had no choice? A lot of people are saying that Eren felt compelled to do the rumbling because it was the only way to save paradis. And that sounds wrong to me. He started the war and people don't care about that. A lot of people are mad when we criticise the rumbling or Eren's actions or if we even dare to imply that he did it for selfish purposes. They say that there was no chance for diplomacy at all. What do you think of this?

Hi!

I think that Eren did the rumbling because this was the conclusion that he wanted: to put an end to the Titan curse. I believe that there would have been other ways to save Paradis if that was what Eren wanted, however, those conclusions would not have led to the eradication of the Titans.

The weird complicated part and what I think Isayama was going for, is the kind of time travel that I believe he enacted [wiki]:

The Novikov self-consistency principle, named after Igor Dmitrievich Novikov, states that any actions taken by a time traveler or by an object that travels back in time were part of history all along, and therefore it is impossible for the time traveler to "change" history in any way. The time traveler's actions may be the cause of events in their own past though, which leads to the potential for circular causation, sometimes called a predestination paradox,[81] ontological paradox,[82] or bootstrap paradox.[82][83]

and the so-called time loop is a causal loop [wiki]:

A causal loop is a theoretical proposition in which, by means of either retrocausality or time travel, a sequence of events (actions, information, objects, people)[1][2] is among the causes of another event, which is in turn among the causes of the first-mentioned event.[3][4] Such causally looped events then exist in spacetime, but their origin cannot be determined.

Which means events became fixed and he didn't have a choice because of the decision that he at some point had made. But we are given a glimpse that even if he didn't have a choice, it was still as what he wanted, as per his thoughts in chapter 130.

I'm sorry it is very confusing XS

Was it for selfish purposes? I think that it was a mixture of both, selfish in the sense that he wanted to achieve his own personal aim, but he did still want to achieve freedom for Paradis, by destroying all of their enemies. As with the whole story, it's complicated and not so easy to paint a singular "good/bad" stripe on anything, let alone Eren, which I also believe is the whole point. Plus the fact that I'd said that he believed that he had made the wrong decision in relying on his comrades during the first mission to capture the Female Titan which I believe also led to him choosing to go it alone, which does seem to vaguely imply that there might have been a chance for a different solution if he had brought his friends on board.

I'm going to bring back my thoughts at the ending, because I don't feel like there's been any change in my thinking since then.

I’m going to admit that the reason the ending worked for me is precisely because Eren was shown to have only 2 braincells and failed to use them. He claimed that he loved his friends, but failed to bring them into his decision making and decided to go gungho and do it all by himself. He claimed that they were free to act but his decision in fact took away that freedom from them and forced them down the path he set out for them. He did it this way because he was bull-headed Eren always charging ahead leaving his friends behind. The power of friendship didn’t fix anything either. I feel a sense that there might actually have been a better way, if he wasn’t the way he is. It is a tragedy.

So I do believe that rather than that there was no chance for diplomacy, that diplomacy wasn't given a chance at all, at least not until Eren had achieved his main aim, leaving his friends to clean up the mess.

Thank you for your ask! :)

Do you believe the full rumbling goes against the theme of “getting kids out of the forest?”

No, because Armin & Co. represent that side of the argument.

Mr Braus says two things: 1) He laments the continuation of the cycle of violence, and 2) He argues that the most important thing is to keep children out of it. Eren acts in reaction to 1), and the 104th act in reaction to 2).

Rather than just having the main character straightforwardly represent the moral message of the series, it’s more interesting to explore the unresolvable contradictions within that moral message - that’s what would have been the case if Eren and the 104th had truly been opposed. Eren would have fought to end the cycle at the cost of children’s lives, and the 104th would have fought to preserve children’s lives even if meant that the cycle will continue.

Of course, Eren’s capability of truly ending the cycle is often brought into question - but this only adds further nuance to the series.