This entire thread is about to be Attack on Titan spoilers, so... you've been warned.

A thread about how the politics in AoT work.

Eren is our protagonist for like 80% of the manga. But as of the back 20%, he is slowly becoming the villain. That's because Eren is radicalized, partially as a reaction to Zeke's eugenics plan, and partially because of his own convictions about who is to blame.

Eren is infected with fascism over time through being confronted with hopelessness. Unlike Armin, who seeks a peaceful life of discovery, or Hange who just wants to give her fellow humans a good life free from violence, Eren wants a "final solution".

And yes, I mean that.

Zeke and Eren are two sides of the same coin: They believe genocide will solve the cycle of violence. Both of them buy into the lie that the conflict is somehow genetic. Eren even misses the easy solution of just having the Founding Titan remove the ability of transformation.

When this happens, our POV characters shift from Eren and occasionally Gabi or Armin (or even Levi) to being primarily Hange, Armin, and a reformed, deprogrammed Gabi. They happen to be the non-fascist characters.

Hange, presented with what Eren is doing -- planning to wipe out everyone who isn't from Paradis (and even given an option to support him by her own troops, has this reaction:)

Hange is the audience surrogate. Genocide is not okay. It is not an option. She knows as well as we do that it will only perpetuate the cycle of violence. They have to stop Eren.

Eren, like Zeke, has become even worse than Marleyan OR Eldian regimes. And if we look back at chapter 111, it specifically outlines that it is regimes, not the common people, who are perpetuating violence. There is nothing "genetic" about it. You have to become adults.

Sasha dies not because Eldians are evil or Marleyans are good (or vice versa), not because of ancient evil or whatever. She dies because she engages in the world of violence and violence devours people. Her own father and mother are wiser than that. They don't kill Gabi.

They understand something: That taking revenge wouldn't solve a damned thing. Gabi is just a cog in the giant machine destroying people, and if they kill her, it's means they're just acting as another part of that machine. Kaya DOES try to harm Gabi, but Kaya is also a child.

What's more, the Blouse family's forgiveness makes it so Gabi can deprogram herself AND save Kaya's life later. Which in turn ends the hatred in Kaya. It shows how restraint and love play a deep role in breaking the chain.

That said, it's not specifically anti-violence as a defense. Gabi still has to be "violent" to save Kaya. But it's different. Her actions are protective now, in service to helping protect and preserve life, instead of based on revenge and ignorance.

Sasha dies not because Eldians are evil or Marleyans are good (or vice versa), not because of ancient evil or whatever. She dies because she engages in the world of violence and violence devours people. Her own father and mother are wiser than that. They don't kill Gabi.

They understand something: That taking revenge wouldn't solve a damned thing. Gabi is just a cog in the giant machine destroying people, and if they kill her, it's means they're just acting as another part of that machine. Kaya DOES try to harm Gabi, but Kaya is also a child.

What's more, the Blouse family's forgiveness makes it so Gabi can deprogram herself AND save Kaya's life later. Which in turn ends the hatred in Kaya. It shows how restraint and love play a deep role in breaking the chain.

That said, it's not specifically anti-violence as a defense. Gabi still has to be "violent" to save Kaya. But it's different. Her actions are protective now, in service to helping protect and preserve life, instead of based on revenge and ignorance.

This part about Onyankopon's skin colour is actually very interesting. It's a bit of a middling response -- I'm going to assume Isayama suffers from defaultism -- but also, Onyankopon isn't stereotyped at all.

Anime regularly has a bit of a problem showing black characters as overly aggressive, and he's not. He's a pretty thoughtful and friendly person, clever and often wise. And he's decidedly NOT okay with the fascist things Yelena is secretly doing. He genuinely wants to help.

It's perhaps not the most progressive thing to highlight a character's skin colour and call it out, but that a manga did it at all in a relatively positive way AND portrayed the character well shows some thoughtfulness on the part of the author.

Given all the complexities of the work, the way he handles topics of race, creed, and politics, I have a hard time buying Isayama as a fascist or even an imperialist. Maybe he's made bad comments or has a few bad views, but I need some much more solid proof to write him off.

As it stands, his biggest and most popular work stands as being antifascist and anti-violence. So I'll let that speak for him at this time. Maybe he'll undo all that in the next... uh... is it 5 chapters left? Something like that. But I kind of doubt it.

Shoutout to @Aunt_Fritzi who made me think about my initial reactionary worries towards the Liberio reveal.