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Precambrian posted:I've seen this conversation happen a dozen times and it's always just a bunch of people saying "the comic says this" and "no, the comic does not say that" (with a healthy dose of "Hey, I heard the comic does [deeply offensive thing]") so can we just get someone who's read the comic to give a serious effortpost about what's going on? If you strip away the supernatural/sci-fi biomecha elements AoT is at its core a war story that looks to explore the reasons why people fight wars, with emphasis on looking through various different perspectives, and a great deal of attention paid to building a logically-consistent fictional world with its own history. The work doesn't really allegorize any specific real world conflict, but does borrow from historical imagery to ground itself - architecture, clothing, technology, art - and while its depiction might strike folks as insensitive given the relative historical proximity and cultural weight of the source, it's in a similar spirit that the much-touted ghettos and armbands were introduced. In then context of the story you've got a fascist dictatorship that's made it part of its national mythos to consider a certain ethnicity subhuman (with a good dose of sensationalized historical grievances to justify themselves), but prevailing societal values aren't as far gone as to simply call for overt extermination so, as many real-world nations have done historically, they instead go on to institutionalize a class/apartheid system to oppress and exploit this group. With armbands, because they don't have an easy trait like Tangentially while still on the subject of historical references, the general that the author used as inspiration for one of his characters, Akiyama Yoshifuru, is a lionized figure in Japanese media noted for having refused a promotion to Field Marshal to instead retire and become a small-town school teacher. It's this aspect of his life that appears to be what drew Isayama to use Akiyama as a reference point, rather than some glorification of Japan's imperialistic past. On the topic of having the oppressed minority being actual supernatural monsters, it should be noted that the Eldians' only superpower is to make for exceptionally useful slaves. The ability to turn them into undying nightmares is always in the hands of oppressors, through forced injections, chemical weapons, and the power of the royal dynasty. Normal folk wield no special powers, and those few that get to summon biomecha are likewise controlled tools of oppression, being historically the chosen heirs of noble families and later trained soldiers of an imperialistic nation. But if the work is neither fascist nor anti-semitic (at the very least not intentionally, ymmv there), what's its actual message? Well, as part of exploring perspectives the author deliberately avoids passing diegetic value judgments on the characters themselves see note**, but as a whole the work can be taken as critiquing the cycles of violence, depicting how history is an inexcusable succession of the powerful exploiting the powerless and, as the story reaches its conclusion, that continuing on this path and holding onto hatred can only lead to ever greater tragedies. A poster above compared the protagonist to Magneto and it's not too far off - the world's hatred and violence turns a victim into an extremist, backed into a corner by social and historical circumstances within his understanding but beyond his control. ** During an interview Isayama cited as one inspiration a work that made him contemplate on the nature of a serial killer, whose actions while unforgivable were difficult to judge in the context of his life and background. Paraphrasing: "Who was to blame for things turning out like that? Is it just coincidence I wasn't born a murderer myself? The victims' feelings are important to take into consideration for something like this, but I'm looking to illustrate root causes rather than evaluating who is right and wrong."
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Mar 14, 2021 01:39
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pentyne posted:Attack on Titan is probably gonna age well in the sense that many countries on Earth are currently trying to mimic the ethnic control policies shown in the series with the expectation that they will never face consequences for it. AoT is very much a "me sowing, me reaping" story, yes.
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Mar 14, 2021 02:22
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Megillah Gorilla posted:Did they ever explain why the not-Jews could turn into titans? Same haplogroup as the girl who stumbled upon the source of (and subconsciously coded) the power.
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Mar 14, 2021 03:09
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Eren, the guy who gets led by the nose by the plot, who everyone calls a suicidal blockhead, who got his team killed on their first sortie, who only gets a single ODM kill in the entire series (and promptly tangles his lines and falls on his rear end)... is the best at everything?
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Mar 14, 2021 05:47
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In the sense that they couldn't prevent Judgment Day.
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Mar 15, 2021 00:25
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Jedit posted:TSCC was actually a good show. It does have some big flaws, such as Cameron appearing to be a perfectly normal girl up to the moment she's revealed as a Terminator but never acting that way again even in the same circumstances, but it also did the most interesting things with the concept and actually injected stakes for the characters. Vick's Chip in S1 is probably the best episode; we get to see a Terminator in true long term infiltration mode, including the disquieting concept of it using a human wife as cover. John's season-long rebellious phase drama sucks rear end, too. And the showrunners had no loving idea what they were doing with the overall plot and themes of the show. And then it abruptly ends. But it did do some fun stuff, so it's a decently entertaining watch.
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Mar 15, 2021 17:40
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If your Sherlock Holmes shows any of the following - Cares about Watson - Respects Women - Has Emotional Responses Then you have to pay off the ACD estate because the stories that show those character traits aren't in the public domain yet.
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Mar 18, 2021 20:54
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