“Hello, my name is Hajime Isayama and this is my manga. It’s about a world dominated by monstrous humanoid cannibals, and the last vestiges of mankind (Germanic Europeans) must fight to maintain their borders and slaughter those horrible creatures that have subhuman intelligence and weird-looking faces and no dicks whenever they intrude.“
“The plot takes a shocking turn when the inhumans begin to act intelligently and it’s revealed that some of the heroic military officers the story follows are actually inhumans having infiltrated our society to destroy us from within.
The heroic military officers must purge the inhumans while also dealing with ungrateful citizens who think their taxes should go somewhere other than the military.”
“And then the ultimate reveal…The Germanic heroes are actually a race imbued with superhuman power from the source of life itself, and they once ruled over other humans as literal titans. But then the other humans rebelled and started committing reverse racism on them- making them into second class citizens that wear identifying armbands and live in ghettos and internment camps instead of the other way around! The German race was forced into borders that are paltry compared to the great empire they once ruled, and the current generation has no memory of the greatness of their ancestors- the people of Ymir the Nordic frost giant! By the way, have I mentioned that the commanding officer of the good guys is named Erwin Rommel Smith?”
Wow, Attack on Titan is literally an unironic version of the fictional Dream of the Swastika in Iron Dreams by Norman Spinrad. That book was about how if you dress nazi ideology and aesthetics in fantasy, people eat it up.
And here it is, in real life - literal Nazi Ideology being celebrated as just fantasy. Something that was old hat and being satirised in the early 1970s.
How on earth did this get popular.
I don’t watch the show and am not hugely familiar with its fandom, so take this with several large grains of salt, but if I had to guess, not everybody thinks super critically about these kinds of things. It really has been heavily repackaged, and even though it’s REALLY easy to see the nastiness when you give it a good hard look, not everybody is going to give it that look. The casual observer doesn’t see repackaged Nazi ideaology, they see a visually-unique alternative take on an alien invasion plot (which have also always carried some bad implications when they’re handled poorly anyway). Fandoms also have a tendency to act in a “Thermian Argument” type way, accepting a fictional world at face value without questioning the implications. (Also, the theme song is pretty legit rockin’. Although this obviously brings a nasty context to the theme song’s use of German.)
I wholeheartedly agree with this. I watched the first season and when that ended I picked up the manga and was well into the plot before I started hearing the first grumblings from social media that AOT was Nazi propaganda. As you stated, I didnt think too critically about it I just saw it as a pretty unique show so I brushed the grumblings off cause I didnt “see” it. Then I got to a part in the manga where they were forced into the ghettos and had to wear the armbands and I immediately went “whoa there might be something to this after all” and once I started really looking into I that’s when I distanced myself. But yeah I definitely agree no ones looking that deeply into the show which is why a lot of people who are superfans or have staked their lives on ships are having such a hard time with it. They cant reconcile that a show/manga that they love that’s been seemingly innocuous in their view is actually pretty horrible and how dare “tumblr culture” ruin their fun.
I think a big thing here is that the reveal allows the pieces to fall into place. Before that, it’s much easier to miss the parallels. And it took a good while for the manga to reach the reveal, allowing for it to embed itself into pop culture in the meantime.
Yeah, see, I was huge into AOT until about summer 2016, or whenever it was that they finally made into the basement. Right up until then I would’ve told you that I thought the Nazism comparisons were a bit of a stretch, since the plot was still pretty typical fantasy/sci-fi/dystopia/etc.
Like, there was enough reasonable doubt, you know? It was the kind of thing where you could interpret it that way, but there wasn’t a lot of strong and overt textual evidence to support that position. Even pointing to the author’s beliefs didn’t really feel like a convincing argument because up until about chapter 66, AOT still had more of a “Game of Thrones meets The Walking Dead” vibe.
The manga takes such a sharp tonal turn after the basement reveal that it doesn’t even feel like the same story as the first 66 chapters. It goes from being a fantasy/post-apocalyptic story to being heavy handed propaganda. It stops being focused on the fantastical elements and becomes primarily about war and conquest and political conflict, including factional fighting—yeah, the Titans and Titan shifters are still a major aspect, but now they feel more like window dressing rather than being the central driving story element. Like, from what I remember from my catch up last winter, it felt more like reading historical fiction set during WWII, or reading a fictionalized account of a small country’s war with its neighbors and with itself. Titans felt like more of an afterthought.
So in conclusion, the reason AOT got so popular is because it doesn’t look like Nazi propaganda for the first 60-ish chapters, or rather, you can’t really convincingly argue that it’s 100% definitely Nazi propaganda. It doesn’t look ugly until the lore about the Titans and the Eldians comes out.
wow i sure wonder 🤔🤔 what the new layouts supposed to look like 🤔🤔🤔🤔 its a mystery
Don’t forget y’all that there’s a much better way for us to let Tumblr know what we think about specific changes, rather than @ ing staff or wip, and it’s sending in a support ticket and choosing feedback!
Tumblr reverted some of the asinine app decisions they made after a concerted feedback effort! So make sure to use this form! It’s what it’s for, but it’s not well advertised!
Part of me will always mourn that we didn’t get to see Chat Noir fighting Monarch, his father, in the finale battle. That’s always gonna be nagging in the back of my mind.
At the same time, it was a little predictable, and what the writers chose to do instead makes a lot of sense when you think about it, and is maybe more satisfying for Adrien’s arc regarding his relationship to his father than if he’d had to fight Monarch knowing it’s Gabriel. (Not talking about the whole “he still doesn’t know his father was Monarch” bit, I’m strictly talking about the fights here - that one’s another topic entirely)
I say “predictable”, because of what happened in “Representation”. Adrien got here his moment to fight his father, as a seemingly akuma victim, and this on his own without Ladybug.
With this set-up we have here: Adrien confronting and fighting his father as in Gabriel Agreste, and Marinette confronting and fighting her nemesis as in Monarch. That’s always what we envisioned as the finale fight against Monarch would be: Adrien vs his abusive father and Ladybug vs her enemy. It just didn’t happen in the same fight, so both could separately have their moment and their thing to say.
I think in the end it’s significantly more important that Adrien got to fight Gabriel Agreste as Psycauchemardeur focusing solely on him as his father, than have him fight Gabriel Agreste knowing it’s Monarch. Because everything that happened in Representation, everything Adrien told his father as Chat Noir and everything Adrien was angry about regarding his father’s behaviour with him, that all comes down to how Gabriel has acted as a father to him independently of him being a city terrorist.
If Adrien had had the realisation that his father’s actions were terrible through the discovery that he was, on top of an abuser, a supervillain, then the whole “terrorising innocents” would have overshadowed in Adrien’s anger all that Gabriel did to him personally as an abuser & shitty parental figure.
What I mean is that Adrien realising his father is shitty independently of knowing he’s a terrorist and confronting him about it in a fight is part of his arc and is more impactful than Adrien confronting his father for his supervillain acts. He didn’t realise Gabriel was a terrible person because he was a supervillain, but because he understood he was an abusive father and that’s amazing
And that’s why he got his moment in Representation while Marinette had hers in the finale - Gabriel is a shitty person both as a father and by being a magical terrorist. Adrien confronted him about the “shitty father” bit, and Marinette about the “magical terrorist bit”, and both these things make sense with their respective character arcs & respective relationships to Gabriel
this website’s moderation sucks ass and it has a terrible bot problem and there are an enormous amount of bugs but thankfully we have a staff team hard at work not addressing any of these but instead making shitty ui changes that nobody wants
Being an adult and seeing other people with their kids really makes you understand why and how so many cases that you’d think are obvious examples of child abuse go unnoticed and unreported. It’s not that they’re not protesting loud enough when they’re in distress, but because they also do that when there’s no life or death situation at hand. You wouldn’t notice a child being kidnapped when you’ve learned that they’ll also fight their parents kicking and screaming when they simply do not want to go into the car. Not because being in the car hurts or because being in daycare is a traumatic experience, or because sitting in the car would be in any way a worse state of being than standing on the street next to the vehicle.
Just fuck this specific transition in particular.
Actually, in my experience of child abuse, it’s the suspiciously quiet and well-behaved child you ought to look out for.
My siblings and I were model children in public because we knew full well that if we weren’t we could end up missing skin on our buttocks. If one of us started getting upset over anything, the others would look at him with mingled fear and anticipation: we knew he was cruising for a bruising, and horrifying as hearing a sibling wail in pain is, there’s also the thrill of knowing it’s not you—you’re GOOD.
Yeah, it’s like drowning: People don’t know what it looks like, so they assume that the ones that aren’t screaming are fine.
I am so incredibly done with how some of the other people in my apartment building use the laundry room is2g
Almost every time i go there, so many of the machines are full but not in use. Hell, many such times by the time I’m done with my laundry they’re still in there.
Today after i finished drying my clothes i noticed there was a PANTY LINER. STUCK TO THE GODDAMN INSIDE. I DRIED MY SHIRTS IN THERE. I HAVE NO IDEA IF IT’S BEEN USED AND THEN DRIED. WHICH ALSO MEANS I MIGHT HAVE???? WASHED MY CLOTHES IN THAT SAME WASHER???? I feel so gross rn
Seein’ too many Twitter refugees asking if they’ll get in trouble for saying “kill yourself” to people and while no, you’re not gonna get nuked from orbit, that is maybe something you just shouldn’t be doing in general perhaps?? Maybe telling people to kill themselves is bad actually?? Some of y'all are wild, why is the first thing you can think to ask on a new platform if you can send one of the worst kinds of harassment to people?? Grow tf up and learn how to use the block button. It’ll do wonders for your mood, trust me.
“kill yourself” isn’t a bannable offense but it is a dick move and not nearly as funny or witty as you think it is.
One time I told a girl “actually, suicide baiting ISNT funny, what the fuck?” And then all her friends suicide baited me because “Erm, we were talking about doing it to TERFS! You TRANSPHOBE!”
Then when someone informed her I was a trans woman she said, “Oh. Well she was annoying so its fine.”
ZERO thought for those around you. Dont be like that.
Actually, it IS a banable offense.
“Suicide baiting” is absolutely against Tumblr’s TOS.
You can AND SHOULD report people who tell you to kys.
And don’t try to be fucking cutesy about it either, none of this “Sayori Challenge” fucking bullshit
Artistic representation of how the lemon was invented in the first place
“citrus are whores” is not something i expected to see on the hellsite today
I’m not wrong though they are EASILY the sluttiest fruits. You don’t see Rosales pulling this shit. I mean yeah apples will breed weird new apples but nothing fucks around like citrus.
Good news! We finally found the post that’s going to cause me to snap like Miss Piggy when someone says something sexist in front of her
Fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you
Happy Friday the 13th this is my gift
IF I HAD TO SCROLL THROUGH ALL OF THIS NONSENSE THEN SO. DO. YOU
>:3
Oh for fucks sake, this was a nightmare. Now you all must go through it too
Oh for fucks sake, this
was a nightmare. Now you all
must go through it too
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
Fighting to continue the era where online communities are free
I understand that some of you are waiting for me to update some fanfics. However, I’ve been embroiled in what could only be described as a fight for the internet to stay open. For those who aren’t aware, there are various bad bills surrounding the internet that are either in committee or on their way to the Senate Floor. They all share one thing in common: overly broad provisions that could lead to mass censorship of various things online and a complete chilling of free expression, especially if you’re part of the LGBTQ+ community or other marginalized groups. I’ve already spoken about these bills on this blog and the fact there are talks of a possible package being made is continuing this discussion. Thankfully, I’m not alone in this fight. EFF, Fight for The Future, and the ACLU are all fighting against the bills and starting Thursday, will bring out a mass protest. That said, the protest can only get big if you guys come in. That’s why I’m making this post.
These are blog posts made by two of the organizations I mentioned. They both hold petitions for you to sign in order to oppose these bills, but the latter site made by Fight For The Future allows you to actually call your lawmakers so you could tell them to oppose these bills. They give you scripts and everything. The deadline given by the organizations is July 28th, which is when the Senate is supposed to go into recess. If we can prevent any of these bills from going through before that, we can consider it a mission accomplished. If you need more info on some of these bills, let me provide you with some Linktrees.
I know it feels like I’m asking a lot from you guys, but I hope you can do what you can and spread this around. We’re facing a massive wave of bad news and we’ve seen a glimpse of what could happen thanks to the DDOS of AO3, but we cannot let ourselves be toppled over by them. We have to push back and ensure a better future for ourselves, the people around us, and the children who deserve to gain a free voice in the future.
