SnK 64 Thoughts

Get out of the fucking basement already.

This series is not about the trials of humanity, it’s all about underground places and prolonged exposure to the irritation they inspire.

Which is a trial.

Consumed by people who are vaguely human.

Such meta. Very didactic. Wow.

I think this time, when I say I don’t have much to say about a chapter, I really don’t (future me would like to remind you that you are a liar) . However, that’s by no means a bad thing for a portion of this.

The battle between the Survey Corps and Kenny’s squad is a great action scene, and I hadn’t realized just how much I was missing proper action from this series. I am abominably tired of how prolonged Rod’s exposition is, so it’s great to have something a little more fun going on.

So not a whole lot to talk about, but such a fun ride. My sole problem with it is that I really, really want Eren and Historia to get to the action part of their plot, and any time spent on something besides them is time spent on something besides them. And in case Isayama hasn’t made it very clear, Rod’s scenes involve a lot of talking. They need all the extra time they can get to move this whole process along.

The only thing of note in the action scene, besides it being very well done, is that the kiddies of the Survey Corps are finally killing humans.

Jean’s gotten the most focus on dealing with this, so naturally, he gets the fun kill of slicing into someone’s neck. It reminds me a lot of how Mikasa’s sword cut into Bertolt’s when his identity was revealed.

What that means, I have no idea, but with how little we’ve seen the blades used against humans, a repeat performance stands out.

Sasha is remarkably calm, from what’s shown here. I think that has to do with her background as a hunter. Of the Survey Kids, she and Connie are as close as we come to having characters that are morally centered, but Sasha has had killing as part of her life from a very young age.

That isn’t to say that killing an animal is the same as killing a human being, but for Sasha, hunting has always been about survival. It was when she had less to kill that things went bad.

It’s simplifying it a bit to put it that way, but the point is that Sasha is in the unique position of being a character whose well-being has been threatened by her life without it turning her into someone who her comrades recognize as strange.

Mikasa, Eren, Armin, Historia, Ymir, Annie, Reiner, Bertolt… All of them have had profoundly twisted lives that made them desperate at one point or another.

For some of them, it isn’t obvious. Reiner and Bertolt appear fine as soldiers, but then the Warriors come out and it quickly becomes apparent that they are not remotely fine.

Annie’s always been a bit different, as has Ymir.

Eren’s been the suicidal bastard from the start, while Mikasa’s freakishly talented. Armin doesn’t look different on the outside, but he takes to morally grey positions like a duck to water.

Historia is a damn mess.

Connie, Sasha, and Jean all had relatively standard lives, and they’re by far the ones who have the most trouble joining the Survey Corps. They’re also the ones that are showing the most doubts about the morality of their actions.

Connie and Sasha have both been staying pretty quiet since the darker turn. Jean’s concern makes noise because he isn’t the type to keep his mouth shut, and his hesitance nearly causes a problem.

With the other two, I don’t think they have enough confidence in their knowledge of the big picture to make a fuss over the larger moral lines they’re crossing. They’ll worry, but if they’re given instructions that are meant to lead to a good end result, they’ll follow.

Sasha is terrified of Titans after Trost. During Trost, she’s arguably the most emotionally compromised character we see. But on a human scale, she knows a bit of what it’s like to need to kill to survive.

Maybe it wouldn’t be such a strong point, but when Mikasa first recognizes the cruelty of the world, a prevailing theme, one of the things she considers is the hunting her father does. Sasha’s always been a participant in that darkness of the world, and she’s accepted it as a part of life without it damaging her.

It isn’t really on the same scale in any direction, but out of the “innocent” characters, Sasha has the most familiarity with the need to adapt to cruel situations. Before the military, she doesn’t make the change to fit into her village’s new world, but the lesson is still taught, and waits for her to understand it better.

Connie doesn’t show much of a reaction to killing, and I think that supports my idea of he and Sasha being more willing to follow the leader than Jean, but I love his kill scene.

Isayama’s been laying it on pretty thick that the humans are the new monsters to fight, but I love that when Connie makes his kill, he’s positioned the same way he would be against a Titan.

This is how they were taught.

Jean’s strike lands through the throat of his opponent, the easiest spot to cut through for immediate death.

Sasha shoots someone through the heart with her bow.

Connie lands his hit at the back of the head. It’s not quite the nape, but hey, the first time he tries to kill a Titan he misses the sweet spot, too.

Connie’s been trained to kill Titans, not humans. And he still fights the way he would against Titans, because that’s the way he’s been trained.

Meanwhile, Levi and Mikasa just rip through everyone, hitting whatever spot’s most convenient at the time.

Fun times.

Then Hange is down for the count.

Yeah, that’ll end well.

Back with the Reiss family and their plus one, strange things are happening. You’re meant to read that in tune with the Toy Story song, by the way.

Historia’s facial expressions are giving me fits. She’s either completely blank or innocently surprised with her father; goes from unease and possible concern straight to dark temper with Eren; and then… yeah, something is slightly more not right than usual with this kid.

I’m used to closeups of Historia’s eyes. Before last chapter, she never got thought bubbles, so her eyes have been commonly used to represent a thought process we don’t have access to.

But I am seriously having trouble working out what’s going through her head. It feels like we’re getting Krista Lenz with her father, Historia with Eren, and then at the end of this chapter, she’s a step closer to being Historia with her father.

Completely blank or innocently surprised doesn’t cover how she reacts to Rod after he brings up Frieda’s actions. She starts sweating and looking panicked.

If anything, it’s a mild mirror of how she responds when Levi confronts her about becoming queen.

Oh, wait, I need to break here, because I just realized there’s no way in hell I’m ending with Kenny.

Kenny’s dream involves turning into a Titan and eating Eren.

Rod has likely been aware of this.

Kenny’s team believes in Kenny’s dream, and work for Rod as a consequence.

Rod Reiss.

Continuing to be a bigger bastard than his illegitimate child ever will be.

Yeesh.

You can argue that there’s no way he knew about Kenny’s intentions, but Kenny’s been playing his motives close enough to the vest that coming out and saying, “Wait, you mean there isn’t a reason for me to eat the teenager?” doesn’t seem like something he would say unless Rod already had some degree of awareness about it.

Kenny is basically questioning his ability to be the true king. To the person he calls king. If you think your plan is going up in smoke, the first step in figuring out how much of a problem there is isn’t to expose your full idea to the person who appears to have no interest in going along with it.

This feels like Rod not giving a damn about Kenny’s plans, not Rod never knowing about them.

Rod is a jerk.

A very talkative jerk.

The discussion about the super-special-awesome Titan is… not something I can really make myself care about yet.

“It protected humanity from other Titans by creating those gigantic barriers.”

Partially because I’m not sure how much of it is him lying through his teeth.

It could be a translation thing, or just his particular word choice, but the walls are made of Titans. I am absolutely willing to believe that this super -special-awesome Titan played a part in constructing them.

But Rod’s comparing the cave’s creation to the walls. Unless the cavern is also made of Titans, the two don’t have a relation. The walls work through a variation of Shifters’ hardening ability. The cavern is…

Okay, so the cavern is, in all likelihood, made of magic, so saying anything about it is asking to be proven wrong, but it still feels like a case of apples and oranges.

His pitch is pretty much, “This Titan was the most awesome of all Titans, the world is dying, we need the most awesome of Titans to come save us, so here Historia, eat this boy who I say has a sinful fate for no real reason.”

If he’s not hiding something big, he is incredibly stupid. Frieda couldn’t utilize the full extent of the Titan’s abilities–you just said that last chapter. What makes you think Historia can? It may be making the best of a bad situation, but Rod is rushing, and he’s a Reiss by blood (since Frieda ate his brother), who is showing no desire to be a super-special-awesome Titan.

How is it that someone can talk so much while saying so little.

Back to Historia.

Who continues to confuse.

You’re killing me, Smalls.

The first image is from right before she starts glaring at Eren this chapter. The second is also from this chapter, right after she’s probably figured out that in between all the nice words about humanity and getting her sister’s memories, her father expects her to eat someone. The third is from last chapter, right after she wonders whether or not Eren remembered something as well.

I don’t fully grasp how she goes from image one to glaring at Eren. The expression looks like pity, not anger, and it remains true that the only time she comes close to having emotion in her face, it’s in response to Eren.

And her eyes keep getting closeups right as she realizes something uncomfortable, which is fine, but it keeps happening, and nothing about her actions is proactive enough to give any indication that she’s working something out.

For the last few chapters, Historia’s been really dull, expression-wise. But her eyes are still getting the attention they get when she has something besides emptiness going on.

So what’s going on?

It’s like she clicks in and out of being involved in things beyond just being a vessel.

I need some thought bubbles with some damn substance to them, because I’m starting to get the eerie feeling that maybe she’s playing her father, and that’s why Eren’s getting emotion out of her.

If she is playing her father, she must be sort of pissed at him, leaving Eren as her only outlet for Historia.

But she’s been so empty since Ymir left that it’s hard to picture what could have possibly made her interested in settling in for a long con.

…Unless she really, really hates her father.

I’m not sure. I haven’t felt like the past chapters have been written with her as anything but a victim in mind, but there are enough oddities to make me wonder.

Monthly series, man.