Hey there! I really value your opinions and I am wondering if you think because it looks like Falco will have to inherit the armored titan to have an opportunity to have a good future, that that means the story is headed towards a final confrontation that will ultimately be positive for life to continue? Or do you think it will be a complete tragedy? I’m trying to look for hints in the story, but with this one it’s difficult 😆

Hello! Thank you!!

I really don’t think the ending will be nihilistic. The ending panel Isayama showed recently is hopeful–a parent telling their child they are free. While it is possible this is Grisha ironically telling Eren this, it’s kind of a strange choice for an ending panel if that’s so, so I really think we’re headed for a bittersweet ending. I don’t think the majority of the cast will survive–currently my bets for survival are Mikasa, Gabi, Jean, and Historia. I think others have a chance though, including Falco, whose chances I like better than, say, Connie’s or Hange’s. But I do think the Eldians will be free.

I actually don’t know about Falco inheriting the titan–it’s a little strange writing-wise if so. It’s kind of reverse serumbowl where instead of scrabbling to save one person you love via titanization, they’re fighting to save someone (actually a lot of people, like a massive part of Paradis) from titanization. Can they stop Zeke before he screams and turns everyone into a titan? I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s out of the question. The fact that it’s revealed before they transform does hint writing-wise that it might not happen, and Gabi’s already realizing her mistake and the potential consequences for Falco, so does the narrative really need to rub it in by following through with that kind of consequence? It might to fully reinforce to her how awful Marlay is treating the Eldians, but. I kind of think what Gabi’s recently seen with Mr. Braus and Kaya and Mikasa might be enough on its own.

Not to mention Falco and Gabi are pretty clearly a representation of Eren and all the SC members, and I think it seems pretty clear Eren isn’t going to be saved, though I do think he’ll have a moment of recognition and redemption (depending on how you define redemption). So why repeat that story in a nihilistic cycle idea if the ending says “you’re free?” Not to mention I think they need to break the titan curse somehow, probably via these pathways things… so I actually still have hope for Falco!

Do you find that Mikasa is meant to be a parallel to Falco like Eren is to Gabi?

I do! I think Falco constantly chasing Gabi to his own detriment is definitely a parallel to Mikasa. I also think Falco parallels Armin (intelligence over brawn), Jean (morality), and Historia as well (wanting to die for a loved one).

How do you expect them to save Falco? I mean, what can they do now that he already drank the fluid? Zeke said that a small amount would be enough to create a path between him and the person who ingested it. the only end I see for this is Reiner sacrificing himself to bring Falco back, but still it will be sad. Falco will have a short life and when he dies Gabi will be alone. They are going through all this together and well… she will lose the last person capable of understanding her

Killing Zeke before he turns them all into titans, honestly. I think the manga is approaching its end (maybe a few more volumes?), so I am not sure it will be very long.

I really don’t think that will happen. It could, of course. One never knows. But I don’t think so because it seems to be a repeat of what’s going on with Armin, which would contribute to the cycle that never ends nihilistic ending idea, which I just… I don’t buy it. I really don’t. It’s possible, of course, and there are many ways it could work, but it also does not seem to work with statements like this:

“The shouldering of the crimes and hatred of the past is the responsibility of us adults.”

The entire series is really focused on the ways adults force children to act for them. Grisha forced Zeke to be a spy. He forced Eren to be a titan. The military in Paradis runs on child soldiers. Historia suffered for who her parents were. Ymir suffered for being forced to become a figurehead when she was just a starving child. Marlay brainwashes kids like Annie, Reiner, Bertolt, and now Gabi and Falco.

But Gabi and Falco have a chance. It’s notable that Armin and Mikasa are the ones who save her, when she’s basically female Eren. I still genuinely expect the majority of the cast to die, but the kids–Gabi and Falco–to live. I could be wrong and what you suggest could happen, but I also think the titanization needs to end by the end of the story.

The translation released. It’s confirmed, the vine was poisoned with Zeke’s fluid, and Falco ended up drinking a little of it(which, according to Zeke, is enough). Now, what will become of our boy?

I think Gabi is going to have to save him. Or work with our SC cast to do so since she’s just a kid. Falco’s been all about trying to save Gabi from becoming a titan; now the roles have been reversed and Gabi is going to have to try to save Falco from becoming a (mindless) titan.

I really still don’t see Falco becoming a titan, honestly. I think Mr. Braus’s words this chapter were the moral of the story: the adults will shoulder the responsibility for the younger kids. I think they will be okay.

snk question regarding the fate of gabi and falco, what do you think will happen with them? with out knowing it they’re currently surrounded by people that held sasha pretty dear to their hearts, kaya already knows a bit about them but ignores that she is the one that killed sasha, to make things a bit worse the marleyan that could “help them get home” also liked sasha a lot and may still be suffering her lost (thing is that this can only get intersting if both parties learn gabi killed sasha)

Oooooh! Yeah, there are a lot of possibilities, aren’t there?

I want Gabi to realize that she killed Sasha firstly, and I think she might have when Kaya said Sasha’s name, because I’m sure people were saying Sasha’s name on the ship. They definitely were.

I can see them encountering either Historia (I’m desperate to get more on her, I love her and need her to return to the plot) or Zeke and Levi. Gabi clearly realizes they can’t trust Zeke (and I don’t think they can) but it seems logical there might be a confrontation there, though whether it’s now or we have to wait for it I don’t know. Gabi’s clearly struggling to accept her world blowing apart, but she needs to if she wants to live.

I still hope Gabi and Falco will survive the hell that we all know is coming, but it’s definitely true that the fate of the story and the world rests on them. If they can’t break the cycle, that’s it. But I do think they might be able to. Eren is the one currently digging his heels in deeper and breaking with his knowledge of the world, and he’s cursed with a titan lifespan besides, so I don’t think we need that in Gabi too. Gabi was literally saved from the risk of having to inherent the titan (for now). She and Falco still, while not having clean hands, do not have the curse in their bones condemning them to die. But to live they’re going to have to break away from this sick cycle the world has entrapped them in.

I think I remember you saying that you expect Eremika feelings to atleast be acknowledged as mutual by the end of the series. Since Eren and Jean’s dynamic is practically identical to Erwin and Nile’s I could definitely see it playing out exactly like that. I’d love a little conversation like the one they had in the carriage about Marie except with Eren and J, where Eren just like Erwin tells J that he had feelings for Mikasa himself. I think E-M-J might end up exactly like E-M-N

I do, yeah. Eremika strongly parallels the other canonically romantic relationships set up by the narrative–Yumikuri and Galco–so I would expect Eremika to get the acknowledgement at the very least that Yumikuri got, and Galco to actually be the one that ends up canon and alive by the end.

That’s a very interesting comparison to Erwin and Nile’s dynamic. I can definitely see that parallel. If Jean and Mikasa do end up together in an epilogue (like I don’t expect a declaration of love, but an epilogue is entirely possible) I really hope we get to see some of their dynamic this arc (if indeed it is the last one, or the penultimate one). I can see something like you suggest happening.

I think an overarching theme in SnK is that each generation does a little better at embracing the beauty in the world (instead of letting cruelty reign) than the last. So I really still doubt a nihilistic ending because of that. I don’t believe Erwin ever told Marie his feelings, but I think Eren will tell Mikasa his feelings like Ymir did tell Historia her feelings (even if it was too late at that time), and Falco will tell Gabi his feelings (or vice versa) but they will have the chance to actually act on them in ways the other canonically romantic couples simply did not thanks to the world’s cruelty. I think Falco and Gabi, and their relationship, are about finding a balance of beauty and cruelty in the world. While cruelty kinda has a tendency to win out and cut the beauty short in the past, I think they will be able to live in a better world, and Jean and Mikasa (since they are both strong Falco parallels as well lol) will be able to live in that world as well, whether or not they end up together. (But the fact that Jean’s crush is established means, narratively, something should come of it at some point even if it is never returned, so yeah.)

I need a crossover where Gabi Braun and Nora from Noragami to meet

Falco and Yukine can protect their beautiful murder crushes from misogynistic fandoms.

Mikasa’s Arc is Fantastic

While I get that Mikasa’s arc is very different than most female characters’ arcs, I honestly feel sad when people reduce her arc to not having developed (she’s developed as much as Armin has; they’re both still clinging to their flaws but are starting to see that they’ll have to overcome them–Armin’s flaw is not fear of battle, for the record: it’s self-hatred and a lack of confidence in his decisions, which sacrificing himself for everyone didn’t exactly fix).

But onto Mikasa’s arc. I have a bit of a pet peeve about this notion that Mikasa loves Eren out of an “Ackerbond” (which Isayama has said doesn’t exist) rather than out of a complex character trait that is both a flaw and strength. Way to diminish a female character’s choices and character arc, fandom.

Sorry, I needed to salt a little. Back to the main point. Mikasa is not fighting against a random worldbuilding element. She’s fighting against choices inflicted on her by an early childhood trauma, and her arc is deliberately set up to parallel Armin’s and Eren’s. All of the main three’s arcs are about expanding their ideals to include a complex world, not just Mikasa’s. Mikasa’s arc is literally about learning that there is more to her world than just Eren. It’s not about realizing her love for Eren is wrong (though again, I expect Eren to die 100% and Mikasa 100% to survive so I’m not expecting a happy ending for Eremika) but realizing that there is more to her world that is beautiful than just Eren. It’s about seeing cruelty and beauty coexisting, gray instead of just black and white.

Mikasa’s love for Eren is just this: beautiful and yet a flaw. She reached this realization, and then regressed. Because it’s almost as if regression in an arc is also a motif in SnK (cough Historia cough).

In some ways Mikasa’s role is literally a deconstruction of the stereotype that a female deuteragonist love interest will be able to save the main male character (please can this misogynistic trope disguised as female empowerment die). That’s pretty damn feminist imo. In fact, Isayama shows that he understands that romantic love in general cannot save you, though it can help you save yourself, even more with how Ymir cannot save Historia yet her influence can inspire Historia (and I expect it to again thanks to Porco’s memories).

Like Ymir couldn’t save Historia by encouraging her to live her life for herself but sacrificing her own life for Historia, and like Mikasa can’t save Eren by being his sword, Falco can’t save Gabi by being stronger than she is, because even if nothing had happened and they had stayed in Marlay, Gabi’s personality is such that she will do what she wants to do, and Falco is constantly chasing her and trying to rescue her from herself like Mikasa is trying to rescue Eren from himself. Gabi is the only one who can save Gabi from herself. The story can’t make that clearer.

Historia is the only one who can save Historia, and Eren is the only one who can save Eren. Mikasa is starting to realize that, but it’s slow.

Someday I will write a full fledged meta on how Yumikuri and Eremika parallel each other and both reinforce this theme, and Galco as well (since it’s the only one of these three I expect to have a happy ending) but for now have my rant since I’m grumpy after seeing complaints about Mikasa everywhere after each episode and seeing no one saying the same thing about Ymir or about Falco when they have such deliberately parallel flaws.

**To clarify since I got a message about it, this meta is not about a specific post at all! Just the general way the fandom seems to read Mikasa. Most meta writers give her a great analysis and I didn’t mean to imply otherwise**

I was in a discord chat the other day and we were talking about redemption arcs, good ones in particular in anime/manga. And I kept wanting to talk about Reiner but has he even had a redemption arc? Does he have a redemption arc in the Marley Arc? He acknowledges what he’s done and pins every last bit of blame on himself, not putting any on Annie or Bertholdt and even saying it had nothing to do with his upbringing. Even though it clearly did! But is that redemption? Is redemption even needed?

Ahhh the complexities of having a gray narrative with basically everyone having done horrible things.

Sooooo. Yes, I think Reiner needs a redemption arc, though we can debate whether or not he is actually to blame for much of what he did because he was brainwashed as a child soldier. Still, he chose to kill people with the goal of genocide after knowing they were people, not monsters. It is understandable, but it isn’t excusable, not even in war.

I also think Reiner’s arc took a redemptive turn in Marlay. He’s accepted what he did was wrong and blames himself clearly, but he also needs to have compassion on himself if that makes sense, which means assigning blame to the system that forced him into this position. So far he’s subtly pushing against it–he knows it’s wrong, but isn’t able to stand up against it (and I can’t blame him). He tells Falco to save Gabi from this existence, but there are no other options.

Now there are. Gabi and Falco are in Marlay. Honestly I think it’s entirely possible Reiner’s arc will become saving them–not just from Paradis but from Marlay, and saving them from the fate that befell him.

Gabi and Falco: Cruel World, Beautiful World

aspoonofsugar:

Gabi and Falco’s arcs are pretty well crafted so far and strictly intertwined and this meta will try to underline how and where exactly they are going.

First of all it’s important to underline how both of them are often portried while they are running. Even in this battle which closed the arc they are constantly running and the adults around them aren’t able to stop them:

This in itself brings to mind this panel:

Falco and Gabi, just like Eren, are always running forward and the people around them, who are desperately trying to protect them, are never able to catch up and this is simply because both Gabi and Falco need to push forward and to face the world themselves if they truly want to grow up.

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