Tag: snk

Did you like the introduction and expansion of Marley in AoT?

I very much like it as far as it goes in terms of writing; it’s definitely among my favorite arcs! But I also think it was a pacing disaster and there’s a reason the fandom went basically dead for a few months. I think those chapters are very strong and Gabi, Falco, and Reiner all got excellently fleshed out, but in a monthly manga, it felt just–very long and drawn out, and it’s just a long time to spend away from your main cast.

Maybe I should rephrase my Annie question better. It has come off as awkward to me that Annie sort of just became what amounts to dead in the narrative, and then for her to reintroduced so late into the game sort of rubs me the wrong way. It’s entirely my subjective opinion and perhaps it’s my bias for hoping for more for her, but I always felt it could’ve been handled better. Thoughts, I’m by no means a good writer?

Oh no worries! I understand what you mean (and I hope for more for her too, she’s such a good character). But I actually think it could really work well for the narrative, in that her coming back for the final arc fits with a kind of chiastic structure of story, which SnK doesn’t entirely have but does have some elements of. In other words, in a lot of stories (Tokyo Ghoul, various books int he Bible, Harry Potter, Star Wars) elements that are introduced at the beginning vanish until the end, forming a neat chiasm in terms of story structure. I’ve done a few posts on chiastic structure before (like this one on Tokyo Ghoul), so you can search on my blog for it, but in short having Annie play a major role at the beginning and a major role in the ending would be textbook good writing in my opinion! Having her play a major role and then come back and not really play a role at all, or just linger as a crystal, would not be good writing imo.  

Do you think it’s lazy writing if Isayama just brings Annie back into the story after being gone for years in the narrative? Her character has been “dead” for such a long time that it would feel somewhat hamfisted to just drop her back into the story after missing and being absent for so long.

Nope. It’d be lazy writing never to address her again. Characters go in and out of narratives all the time, but they should return, so I’m not sure what you mean by hamfisted. If you leave a running plot line for a long time, and you leave said plotline alive, readers expect said plotline to return. There’s been build up for her to come back in recent chapters as well. 

Hi! It seems like a large portion of the fandom seem convinced that Nicolo and Sasha were actually dating due to Kaya’s remark. Do you have any thoughts on that? I always enjoy reading your analyses! :)

*shrugs* there’s no way to know! Nicolo’s feelings absolutely seem to be romantic, but we have no idea about Sasha and won’t because she’s dead. They might very well have been. 

Tbh, I think it’s a bit cheap writing-wise to shoehorn the romance element to add motivation for Nicolo’s actions last chapter, when what he said about her teaching him he could do good in the world with his cooking honestly would have sufficed given that someone in his position being mentally unstable would hardly be unusual, and that statement made me cry on its own. This is just my opinion though and is not a judgement on it, people are welcome to disagree! It just reminded me of Kaya trying to kill Gabi–didn’t seem quite necessary for the drama and themes of the scene, but w/e. Many people seem to like it, so that’s great! 

I’m wondering what do you think about the whole “Eren went to Marley for Historia and her baby” theory? Honestly if its confirmed that the attack on Marley is becoz of her then I’m dropping this manga. If that’s the case then I might as well go read a romance manga. I don’t mind whatever pair being canon by the end of the manga but not right now at this point in the manga. This is not shipping hate or whatever so, I don’t mind if you disagree with me :)

I have answered this multiple times! Search for it on my blog (try clicking one of the tags on this post), but in short, I agree with you and think the chances are like nonexistent. It isn’t what happened.

This is a more personal question from me, but is Reiner canonically gay? When I saw Ymir say that and Reiner accepting it was uplifting for me to see an openly gay character, but he also likes Historia, and then there’s that thing about him having split personalities. I was just wondering if they ever address that later in the manga. Bertolt was into Annie too so their thing was more brotherly.

It’s super unclear, lol. He could be bisexual. But he’s definitely not straight. 

Basically, from what my friend in Japan says, what Reiner says to Ymir is really unambiguous about him being gay, and Isayama has drawn art of him as well that very much suggests he views the character as gay (it’s explicit). Reiner’s birthday is also commonly known as “yaoi day” among fandoms in Japan, so, well, yeah. I doubt the character is intended to be straight. 

It’s also interesting that this is Reiner clearly in Marlayan Reiner mode, when he tells Ymir he does not like women. When he claims to be interested in Christa, he seems to more or less be in his persona of ideal soldier then, and so it is possible he projects his ideal self as being straight, which is sad but not entirely unexpected given the toxic masculinity that often comes with the heroism ideals of Reiner’s ideal self. His ideal self is attracted to a mirage, because of course, Christa does not exist, and he still sees her as Christa as shown in how when he gives Ymir’s letter to the SC, he says it’s for Christa, not Historia. 

Does/did he actually like Historia? I think so, because can you say that the role he was playing really wasn’t in any way him? I’m not sure it’s so clear-cut. In his persona, Reiner might be trying to simplify things into black and white, yes or no, when nothing in the world is and that includes his sexuality. He might be bi with a preference for men, but I do think he’s absolutely not straight according to canon. 

As for him and Bertolt, well, we don’t really know about Reiner’s feelings for him–which, tbh, I do think are very ambiguous, and given his statements about his sexuality, it’s not wrong to interpret it as romantic affection on Reiner’s part, but of course it’s not canonical either. And his feelings may not have been reciprocated, though Bertolt clearly did care a ton about him, but that doesn’t mean Reiner’s feelings for Bertolt were totally straight. We just don’t know. But we do know/can say that Reiner isn’t straight.