Étiquette : saME

momtaku:

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Victory over oppression should bring relief and change; instead it often focuses on punishment of the enemy. The oppressed become the oppressors and the cycle starts anew. Oh, and some people simply should not become parents. All that, and Erwin Smith is still dead…

Welcome to Attack on Titan Chapter 86

Information dump chapters are difficult to write about. In 46 pages we learned more than we have in all preceding 85 chapters. And the next chapter will likely be a continuation. There’s a lot to talk about, so let me start with one long standing mystery I’m happy to see resolved – we now know for a certainty that titans can’t swim.

The walled world is on Paradis Island. It’s inhabited strictly by Eldians. Some reside safely within the walls, millions live literally inside the walls (the wall titans), and countless others are forced to wander as mindless titans, driven to feast on their compatriots.

Paradis was founded by the 145th King Fritz, the most powerful of the titans. He was sick of the in-fighting among the other eight of his kind. Who can blame him? It had been going on for almost 2000 years.

He could’ve used his immense power to force a peace but instead he decided he was done with it. He up and left and took his friends and family with him.

The constant infighting of the Eight Titans weakened the all powerful Eldians, providing a chance for the oppressed Marleyans to start an uprising of their own. The 80 Year Titan War resulted and the Marlayans emerged victorious with seven of the nine titan powers as their spoil.

For the last 100 years or so, the Marlayans have lived in relative peace, building boats and blimps and planes and scheming how best to attack the Eldians to steal their natural resources.

(Three days ago if someone had sent me this as a theory, I would’ve scoffed. But here we are. Oh, and Erwin Smith is still dead.)

This brings us to the present day and the situation our walled residents find themselves in. In order to overthrow “Utopia”, the Marleyans instituted an Eldian Child Titan Warrior Program. The resulting child warriors would invade the walled world and overthrow King Fritz. Zeke was probably one of the first children selected. Annie, Bert and Reiner among the last. Given the age difference, the program was in place for decades. It took a long time to find suitable candidates, and I shudder to think of the process. I already had strong feelings for Annie, Bert and Reiner. Those feelings grew exponentially with each page of this chapter.

I have a lot of feelings for the child warriors. I have a lot of thoughts about Grisha and Zeke.  And I have a lot of questions about Ymir. I don’t feel ready to talk about any of those things yet. Instead, I have a full inbox and I’ll be focusing on those.