“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Thank you :) The praise is probably undeserved though. Eren is the only character I try to really dig deeper into. The series as a whole has way better analysts.
Which snk meta writers would you recommend? And what are your favourite snk metas not written by you? Yours are still amazing, but I've probably read them all a thousand times so I was curious about others.
Honestly I never read as much of other people's meta as I should, and in retrospect that was a mistake. I mostly just wanted to avoid heated discourse, and while seeing a bad take can cause me to see red, it's extremely useful to build on the good ideas of others.
I haven't read their recent stuff but I remember really liking the metas of @metasnkpotato, they clearly know their philosophy. More recently I've found @twilight-paradise88, who I think is probably closer to a 'correct' analysis of the series than any other.
I found a few interesting parallels and repeated motifs with Eren.
In both cases Armin asks why Eren would want to do such a thing, and he responds in very different ways, yet the reason is still grounded in the same fact. Eren's birth into this world.
It should be noted that when Armin asks this the first time, Eren is confused and even angry at the fact that Armin would ask such a question. He takes this as a given but he can't articulate any clear reason, and in anger he proclaims it's because he was born into this world. This time, Eren no longer feels justified or entitled, but sad and grave, and he can't even confidently say it's because he was born into this world(though the implication is clear in the flashbacks), yet he can't deny the strength of that desire, he had to do it no matter the cost.
Another callback has to do with the hope beyond the hell.
Previously Eren believed undoubtedly that hope lay beyond this hell, but after his disillusionment with the world beyond the walls, he now questions whether his struggles will lead to actual fruition or yet another hellish disappointment after so much sacrifice and strife. Eren has come to the conclusion that he'll never know unless he actually gets there. It's interesting how previously the ends were unquestionably good and so was the fight to attain them, yet when Eren says this it's in an arc that has been criticising the "keep moving forward" mentality and he's not even fully confident in the value of this end, what remains constant though-through the ambiguity, confusion and corpses-is the core drive within Eren.
This is all really cool and incredibly insightful. The coolest detail to me was probably Eren tying up his hair at the beginning as if he's trying to "keep it all together" at first, but the journey culminates in Eren's distressed and frustrated scream as his bun is undone. It gives a sense of him being overwhelmed and and a revelation of powerlessness.
Just wanted to ramble about some cool details found in the new opening “The Rumbling”. The opening begins by showing Eren, Mikasa and Armin. The trio is showcased in separate shots, reflecting on their separation during the recent events that have transpired in the story. As this first sequence draws to a close we see Eren taking a step, which then quickly transitions into a footstep of an Colossus Titan. I like this moment because the motion makes it seem like Eren is crushing that city. It is a cool and terrifying visual imagery but also foreshadows things that will happen in the future, since Eren will literally trample on the lives of others, as he activates the Rumbling.
Overall as the name of the song indicates, much of the song is focused on the Rumbling advancing on the main land.
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Did you get the Paths idea from Madoka?!
Eren…he kept moving forward to the very end. Through the opposition of the whole world, through his head being cut off twice and through the nuclear force of a Colossus Titan blast, Eren still managed to stand up and keep moving. His forwards momentum was near indomitable.
His fight for the freedom of the people he loved came at a phenomenal cost: countless innocent lives and, ultimately, the death or titanisation of many of the people he was trying to protect. But we weren’t mad for loving Eren, even in his latter days of mass murder. There was something pure in Eren. He had an ideal and he devoted himself to it entirely.
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In my end is my beginning.
T.S. Eliot, from Four Quartets; East Coker. (via xshayarsha)
I think he sacrificed both in some way. He was able to experience the sight of freedom at the expense of most of humanity, a grave act of injustice, but in the end he also gave up his liberty and his life to rid the world of Titans and open an avenue for peace with the remaining civilisation, an act of justice in keeping with his desire to be judged referenced in chapter 99.
Since publishing my meta on the idea of the ‘id’ in SNK, I’ve noticed some more examples of it manifesting throughout the series.
What Eren attributes to Ackerman mind control is really just the nature of Mikasa’s id. She acts without seeming to realise she does so, with vacant eyes in the first panel and confusion in the last. This is just like Eren’s experience in defending Ramzi: not being mentally present in the moment, his id takes over his body like an alien and controlling force.
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"The ancient dome of heaven sheer was pricked with distant light; A star came shining white and clear, Alone above the night."
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