I Will Help Ya

Reflection on Attack on Titan: how the narrative failed its premise

I apologize for dwelling so much on something I no longer like with Attack on Titan, it’s just such a fascinating trainwreck, even though I hopped off the train just in time I have to look back at it periodically and be horrified yet morbidly reflective. I do find it disturbing people are denying the imperialist subtext here because it barely qualifies as subtext anymore at this point, so I do think noting it is valuable as long as fandom continues to be denial.

I just keep wondering at myself why I was drawn to AOT in the first place and HOW I didn’t see this coming- I think reflecting on that is valuable so I’ll see the warning signs earlier with other media.

It also helps me consider what makes a good narrative and what elements can appear compelling only to be squandered.

Because honestly, there WAS so much potential there, and though it’s a struggle, I CAN remember what excited me about it. There was a good horror concept here. It really did make me feel what the terror would be, to have this unknowable, ravenous threat that could so easily wipe out everything, to have to trap yourself to avoid it. The huge walls, the striking visuals, the displays of human weakness and terror, the visceral aspect of it all- it was compelling stuff. And also importantly, it kind of rode that line where it was very easy to laugh at as well- the memes involving the titans were a TON of fun in the heyday of AOT, the bizarre way the various ones were drawn were so funny, the peak melodrama of the situation was so absurd it almost made fun of itself, especially with all the exaggerated expressions- the fandom had a lot of fun with it.

And the concept COULD have gone somewhere that was compelling, rather than boring fascist nonsense. While the components of fascist narrative were present from the beginning- a grotesque invading threat the military, the protags, as heroes, must fight- there was potential in the premise for all that to be subverted, for it to ultimately go somewhere not fascist. The Titans turning out to be fellow humans, even your former loved ones, could have been more than a footnote. 

The titans actually being people only ended up mattering in the sense of “this shows us the REAL threat is this other race that trapped us here and in fact we must use the titans to defeat them”. It didn’t ultimately change the characters or their ideals, it just made them change enemies (to a much, much more boring threat and narrative). But it COULD have been a game changer that shook the characters to their core. A very natural place for this revelation to lead would have been “it turns out there is no clear enemy. We’ve been fighting ourselves this whole time. We thought we were killing something monstrous, but it wasn’t, it was the people we love. We were used. Now what do we do?”  It could have been a story of the characters struggling to answer that question. How can they seek freedom now? 

And if you really want a “dismantle the corrupt government” plotline, it would be a much simpler and stronger narrative if it was simply about the government pushing for Titan extermination despite the revelation, because they prioritized their own safety above all else and also wanted to erase past mistakes.

What if the Titans had simply been the result of horrific human experimentation done in the past and the government just wanted to cover it up? That’s it. no other countries, no emphasis on royal bloodlines or magic amnesia or any other convoluted bullshit. The reason people responded to Attack on Titan was NOT because they love convoluted royal drama or covoluted wars between opposing countries, that was not even a factor in the beginning…it was because it touched on this very simple, visceral thrill, so the story needed to keep being simple and visceral.

 The final struggle of the narrative, the key to freedom, could have been the characters having the re-evaluate their worldviews and the character having to struggle to find an alternate method to deal with the titans while society goes against them for doing so. 

The survey corps is disbanded. Eren, who could only deal with his grief by focusing on obliterating a clear enemy, now doesn’t have that and is forced to actually grow as a character. He has to actually confront his guilt and the fact his desire to construct an inhuman opponent he could fight was all so he didn’t have to deal with survivors guilt, because he wanted something that was black and white with no messy emotions attached. but it turns out nothing ever is that simple.

Or hey, maybe there’s something more compelling and less predictable you could do to subvert the fascist elements. I’m only doing this off the top of my head, there are probably a million ways the story could go in a more interesting direction than the shitstorm we got if someone actually focused and creative puts their mind to it.

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THISSSS!!! ANYONE PLEASE TAG/DM ME TOO if anyone willing to take this on

HOW GAME OF THRONES SHOULD HAVE ENDED

I will give anything to the person who can turn this gem of an ending into a written fanfic !

THIS is the Game of Thrones ending we deserve, this guy is an absolute genius. For anyone wondering, Think Story’s ending has:

- a proper Long Night battle ⚔️

- great character arcs 🗣

- logical plot 💡

- meaningful twists ⚙️

- exploration of the lore/weirwood trees/white walker symbols etc 🔍

- a satisfying fucking ending for the fans of Dany/Jon and all the other major characters without it being Disney or predictable 📚

This video has cleansed my palette and washed away all of my anxiety. No joke. I will knight the person who turns this brilliant ending into a fanfiction that I can read and reread until the end of time.

MAKE IT HAPPEN GUYS I BEG YOU! ❄️🔥

PS: Please tag me/DM me if anyone is willing to take this on 🙏🏽

I like itt

To be continued… (1/3)

Make sense

Astronaut readjusts to life back on Earth

> Don’t give him a baby for a while.

ELIA MARTELL! YOU PUBLICLY DISGRACED HER! YOU CHEATED ON HER! YOU DIVORCED HER IN SECRET!

Her..

The Beautiful Messages of GoT Season 8

If you lived in chains, you’ll die in chains.

Missandei dying while Cersei quipped about ‘Breaker of Chains’ was frankly more disgusting than all the character assasinations that happened this season.

If you had an abusive relationship, you’re bound to return to them in the end - cause abuse or not, true love is true love.

Jaime returning to Cersei makes me physically sick.

If you were unloved and unwanted in the beginning - and you find family and home, you’ll be thrown to the wolves again, and be forever alone.

Jon “We never should have left Winterfell” Snow, Jon who wanted a child named Robb, Jon who sacrificed everything for this dumb fucks over and over, is exiled to solitude to the place where he was slaughtered.

Seriosuly “You were wrong to love her, You were wrong to leave her” just wanted to go home. He wanted a family.

You’re bound to become like your parents.

Dany being kind, and inspirational, built practically like a messiah turns into a moustache twirling, borderline abusive, cartoon character evil, in the span of literally two episodes.

If you’re grieving, it justifies murdering thousands.

Greyworm slaughtering surrendered warriors cause he was grieving Missandei is atrocious. He loved her and what happened to her was so wrong. But Cersei is dead, and GW killed innocents. They made him a war criminal.

Kissing someone while killing them is the only way it could be done; especially if the person doing the killing is a trauma survivor of being stabbed in the heart.

You really dont need any explanation for this.

You’ll always be betrayed.

Yep. That’s the sad reality. It doesnt matter if you are Ned Stark or Daenerys Targaryen or Varys or Jon Snow. You’re pretty much always fucked.

You’re doomed to repeat your mistakes.

Every character in this season.

People will always think the worst of you.

It doesnt matter that Dany literally put everything on the line for her people. It doesnt matter what she’s sacrificed. It doesnt matter what she’s done. She’ll always be the evil tyrant.

It doesn’t matter if you are a great leader, and genuinely kind and gentle who can only see the best in everyone - if you aren’t playing games with people, you’re a dumb fuck.

The show dumbed Jon Snow down significantly. Toward the end, he was nothing more than a 'Yes’ man bending over backward to accommodate every other character.

But until the end, the fool genuinely believed that people could be saved, and that mercy was the way.

He then kills his girlfriend, in the same way he was killed. Cause that makes all the sense in the world.

What an idiot.

It doesnt matter what material and emotional progresses you make. You’ll always return to your default characteristics as you can’t fight nature.

Jaime.

You can only be strong and independent if you walk away from things that matter more to you than anything else in the world.

There’s no reason for Arya who literally just wanted to come home, to go West of Westeros when Bran was just, right there to tell her what was West of Westeros.

You are bound to become like your abusers.

Sansa getting Winterfell is her right. But having her behave like mini Cersei was messed up. Sansa straight up hated Dany before she even met her.

If they’d gotten to know each other better, they might have even gotten along. And even if they had not, we’d have had a more drawn out storyline as to why she hates Dany.

Sansa who always saw the best in people, is not going to disregard the good things Dany has done. She is way too smart for that.

You can lie and twist and scheme and manipulate, and still raise to the top, while doing absolutely nothing to deserve it, trampling all over much more worthy people. And that’s okay. As you can play. And others couldn’t.

Fuck you Bran. And you Tyrion. I love you, I miss you, and this isn’t you.

You can take advantage of people, and after taking everything you can from them, it’s only rational to tell them to fuck the hell off.

This is for all those fuckers who took advantage of Dany’s army, and all those useless shits who weren’t there in either the Winterfell Battle or the Battle of King’s Landing and thought they could exile Jon Snow to a life of eternal solitude.

Now that I’ve gotten all of that out, the most ridiculous thing this season is everyone seems to be using this to claw and tear into each other. I’m not spared from this either. I fly off the handle every time someone insults one of my favorites.

But all the same, Name one character up there that was being true to everything they’d endured. Name one thing up there that isnt an embarrassment to story telling.

The people who screwed them over were the writers. Back a few seasons ago, we used to love these people, we used to adore them, we used to be inspired by them.

These are not the same characters.

Fuck D&D. Fuck bad writing which asks us to be dumbed down to accept this as a rational outcome.

Stop throwing answers at us for questions that haven’t even been built up. Foreshadowing is NOT character development as a wise man once said.

Peace.

really nice fanart :)

When the night falls on you And you don’t know what to do Nothing you confess Could make me love you less ______________________________

I couldn’t decide if I ship Price*field or Grahamfield so I thought, why not both?? And I noticed what lack of content there is in the Grahamfield tag so I decided to draw them as my first LIS fanart c: