Carla loved her son unconditionally but she was always a strong disciplinarian. Her willingness to adopt Mikasa and love her as her own also wins points. But for me Carla is “Best Parent in the Series” because of her behavior just prior to her death.
Over and over she begs Eren and Mikasa to flee to safety. Repeatedly they refuse. When Hannes appears and finally complies, she bravely smiles and thanks him.
The last words Mikasa and Eren hear from Carla are ones of strength. She reaches towards them shouts, “Eren, Mikasa, Survive!!”. It’s a final parting gift to them. She didn’t want them to have regrets.
But Carla was still human and at this moment, terrified and alone. When the children are out of earshot, she breaks down. She covers her mouth as she says her last desperate whispered plea–words she doesn’t want to say slip out anyway.
I’m sympathetic to most of Grisha post-island, but that really just makes what he does worse. He realizes how badly he lets down his first son. He dooms Zeke with a burden that no one should have been expected to bear at that age, and it comes back on Grisha and his wife. He figures that out. He has to listen to his friend ask how the hell he was raising his son that his son would take Marley’s side over theirs.
Grisha fails Zeke. Whatever is going on with the guy, there would have to be more twists than a slinky for that to be anything but true, and it’s a failure Grisha duly acknowledges.
Eren, he loves. Properly. He also loves Mikasa. They are at the front of his mind when he begs Frieda to use her power to fix the world. He’s grown up, and become a man who knows how to be a father.
But I think Wall Maria falling, the royal family’s refusal to help, and the news of his second wife dying just… breaks him all the way back to the angry revolutionary he used to be.
I don’t even know how to look at the Reiss massacre with anything but wide eyes and an open mouth, because yo, look at all those dead children. Grisha annihilates the Reiss family. Frieda’s younger than Eren is now when she dies. It’s a bloody mess, and when it’s over, he has to work his way through the masses of panicked people stampeding the streets–a panic the Founding Titan could have stopped, maybe, and if he hadn’t been so caught up in his new, peaceful life he could have gone after it earlier and there would be none of this chaos–and he finds his son.
His son, who tells him his second wife is gone.
I don’t know if Grisha knew that he was going to give Eren his Titan before Wall Maria fell. But I think if there was any thought of sparing his son that fate, it dies when the assault on Paradis began. Heck, maybe he even sees it as a good thing. His reckless son won’t die to a titan with these powers.
Grisha loses to his past. This son can do it. He’s been raised and loved well, and he has a heart that belongs to the Survey Corps, heroes of Eldia, and he has already shown a willingness to kill if he thinks it’s right. This son has the ability. He can do it right this time, and they’ll win.
Or something like that. Eldia matters more than anything, including his son. I think Grisha is so driven by his mission in the last hours of his life that he forgets every lesson, and Eren pays for it. The greater good is paramount–only that belief fuses with Grisha’s own personal fervor to do it all right this time.
It’s confusing and horrifying, but really tragically human. He’s confronted with enemies he can’t handle, and an incomplete plan turns into the only one, regardless of whether or not it actually is, and then he just… goes all in.
That last day is one of Grisha’s worst. I’m not sure if anything is ever going to come out to leave the situation more logic, but so much pain is involved, you can sort of see the domino that sets off the trainwreck falling in slow motion.
I know it is always a bit of gamble to talk about characters when you still are missing some details about their life. However, there are a few things about Reiner and Bertholdt that I have been thinking about for a while now.
I want to start with Reiner. It is established in vol 11, that Reiner at times showcases behavior, and lines of thought that are contradictory. Why would a person who`s mission was to destroy the wall, suddenly start talking about the residents of the wall in a caring manner? Reiner himself does not even recognize this at first.
Okay but can we all give a huge round of applause for Sashas parents for not succumbing to revenge and taking their anger out on Gabi. Here we have them face to face with the person who killed their daughter and have every right to feel bitterness and hatred towards her.
And what do they do?
They take responsibility for how screwed up their world is by admitting that the faults and tragedies that continue to repeat themselves time and time again, is because Adults have continuously sent children to hell without taking any responsibility for themselves. Something we’ve seen plenty of with characters like, Annie, Eren, Reiner, so much tragedy and pain experienced by children when they shouldn’t have to go through that in the first place.
Here, in a world where we see plenty of hatred, violence and rage. They choose kindness. They choose mercy. A shining example that there is still good in humanity, even when things get bad.
Both have a very black and white vision. This is why Mr Braus’s prospective is so important:
Because it acknowledges both points of view. Sasha was a person who managed to overcome her fear in order to help people. She was also a soldier who took part in an operation which involved attacking civilians. It is meaningful that her father acknowledges this. Sasha was no devil nor angel, but a person who ended up caught up in a cycle of violence.
It is this specific prospective the characters must all come to accept and I liked how it was exemplified through three different points of view on the same character.
If someone would ask me to describe Eren`s views about freedom, I would show them this panel from the beginning of the manga. I think that it represents the few elements that construct Eren`s views about what it is to be free.
As a few quick side notes, I want to thank @aspoonofsugar who`s comments about how EMA´s desires and wishes differ, made me think deeper about Eren`s views about the world.
I have read the manga up to vol 22, so I am crafting this post with the information I have in hand at the moment.
When Eren was little, he had no desires or dreams and was not too interested about the surrounding world. Then Armin showed him the book that made Eren realized that he was trapped in small corner of a much bigger, exciting world. Thus he came to the realization he was not free. The first step to start one`s journey towards being free, is the realization that one is imprisoned, or is lacking in freedom.
Eren has developed a notion, that they all are free from the day they are born into this world. However, more importantly than that, I think Eren´s views about freedom is intertwined with the idea of an life, where no one restricts and oppresses you. Freedom and free life is one where there is no powerful being that chains you`r actions.
This idea of a life without an restricting, strong adversary is then linked into the idea of power. Because the Titans and other people have more power, they can restrict and oppress the weaker ones. So to be free, to oppose and defeat those who have stolen you`r freedom, you need to be strong, you need to have power.
Also during vol 4, Eren talks about that since everyone is born free in the world, it is a crime to reject such a right, even how strong you are.
Now, going back to that panel, I think these elements are present in it. Let`s start about rejecting the born right of being free.
I think within Eren´s views, those who are happy and comfy just living inside the walls, and do not try to venture to the outside world, have rejected their freedom. They are like birds happily living in a cage, even thou they know that they are in a cage, and even though they know that there is world outside.
The Survey Corps are a total opposite of this. They know that they are not free inside the walls, and they have devoted their lives to venture outside. They endorse their birth given right to freedom. With this in mind, I think it is very fitting that when Eren sees the SC Emblem on Levi´s back, he views them as the wings of freedom. The SC represents the endorsement of you`r birth given right to be free. Of course, birds are also a common symbol of freedom.
Next is power and the lack of oppressor. In that scene Levi, the one who is called humanity`s strongest, has taken down a Titan, the one enemy that was viewed as the source humanity`s oppression. In this instance, power translates to freedom. I think this view is also illustrated quite well when Eren spends time with the Levi squad, and is disappointed by the fact that Levi follows orders.
I think that Eren thought that with enough power you can be free, that you do not have listen to orders or what other people tell you to do. With enough power you can defeat those who try to control you.
I think this mindset of power = freedom, and freedom is the absence of opposition is quite understandable, since Eren has lived most of his life in a world, where the strong rule the weak. The nasty, stronger inhabitants of Paradis can restrict the life of others, and the Titans do this as well.
With possibly views like this, I was not surprised by Eren´s words to Armin and Mikasa at the end of vol 22.
Because for Eren, the enemy waiting at the other side of the sea, Marley, is just another powerful oppressor, just another “Titan”. Maybe in Eren´s view as long as there is an powerful force that threatens to restrict their position in the world, they cannot be free. One needs get rid of them and in order to do that, one needs power.
So to sum up, the panel with Levi summarizes Eren´s views about freedom, which I think are these:
– Freedom is a birth given right, and the SC endorses this by venturing outside. Levi, as a member of the SC, represents this.
– Freedom is the absence of oppressor. In order to be free, the oppressing elements need to be eliminated, and Levi has done just that.
– In order to get rid of oppression, you need to have enough power to do it. With might, you can free and Levi, “humanity`s strongest”, could be viewed as the freest of them all.
This last one is modified a bit later by the idea that you cannot accomplish everything on you`r own, and other people are need in order to attain you`r goals.
Of course once again this is just one possible interpretation.
It is the best moment of the day for reflection and is often used as a metaphor for the passage of time and the exhaustion of creativity. Like many symbolic moments, Twilight has a dual aspect: It can be likened to old age and the imminence of death and oblivion, or it can represent very intense emotions and sentiments, such as nostalgia.
Symbols and Allegories in Art – Matilde Battisini
The sun is sinking in the horizon and twilight approaches, as Kruger finises explaining to Grisha about the various things he knows. As the above quotation mentions, landscapes and moments of the day can be loaded with symbolism, and twilight is one of them.
I think he’s shortsighted and temperamental, and his strength of conviction has latched on to both of those traits and started popping wheelies on them. He is Jean’s foil. Jean reacts to his first brush with real trauma and stakes by stepping up. Floch reacts by lashing out.
Erwin’s a devil. Eren and Mikasa are selfish and irresponsible. Everyone else is a bystander too weak to act. Marley needs to be eliminated. Civilians associated with Marley are just as bad as the people who murdered his friends.
Floch is unchecked aggression in response to trauma. He’s the sole survivor of a suicide charge, and he rationalizes that decision as the way you win wars. Mass destruction is how you effect mass change. Indiscriminate death might be an abomination, but it is primarily a tactic, and ignoring that is ignoring one of their few available weapons.
What he experiences is not a fluke of circumstance; it’s the way things need to be done.
Overly radical thinking is not something Paradis has much experience with. Excluding the secret police murders, which are secret things. The Survey Corps is a very straightforward branch of the military. Their job is to go out in the world, learn more about it, and eliminate titans.
For a very long time, it’s hard to do that too enthusiastically. If you’re overzealous, you or your friends die. Simple. You will not live long enough to cause problems if you approach your assignments with a dangerous mentality. If you survive, you’ll be molded into a different kind of fighter by default.
Stressed, Depressed, and Story Obsessed 