Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2013-06-16 03:30 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2013-06-16 03:30 pm
[ SECRET POST #2357 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2357 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 112 secrets from Secret Submission Post #336.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
no subject
Why? A couple of reasons: one being that while there are indeed a couple of cringe-worthy anime cliches (bland as white rice protagonist, life-long soul devoted childhood friend/crush, HAR HAR THIS CHARACTER LIKES FOOD A LOT THAT'S FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S A GIRL, oh hey we're under attack let's all give long-winded speeches about our feelings, etc.) it for the most part avoids them, and more or less believe most of these characters could really have ended up the way they did based on their past experiences and environment, as opposed to being archetypes plucked from a hat of "personalities that are trendy among otaku/fujoshi these days". For all that there's as much crying in this as any other anime (which is to say, way, way too much) at least these characters have a reason to cry. Also, rather than have the characters be teenagers for some shoe-horned in plot reason that translates to "that's what the audience wants" in the real world, they're older teenagers/young adults because they're raw recruits in the military, who are often 17-19 even in today's society (and might have been as young as 15 in the late Middle Ages/Renaissance).
Secondly, for all that their strategies are kindergarten levels of face-palm-inducing rank idiocy to begin with, they actually learn from their mistakes and correct them (just don't ask why, when something is successful, they don't use it again in the next fight or on a mass scale - see: blinding the titans with firearms).
Finally, I love how it slaps the usual shounen tropes in the face in terms of gender roles. The main character is your main character, he's not in-born special, rather his parents made him that way and he has a big dream and tries really hard (he's your Naruto) which is all
fucking horrible and I was elated when the show cock-teased me with his deathfun and good, but the mysterious dark-haired uber-powered Asiany awesome fighting genius (your Sasuke) is a girl, and the weak in battle but good in support character who does the thinking (your Sakura, at least early on) is a dude. There are fewer women soldiers, but those who do show up - and there are many - aren't crappier than the guys or largely nurses/healers/medics/team support or conspicuously assigned as one to a team (see: your three-man teams of ninja featuring, at least as far as I watched and read Naruto, which was for five goddamned years, either one or no women - never three, and never even two, ever, despite how improbable that arrangement would be if it were arranged naturally).Can I just repeat how awesome it is that the girl is not the healer/supporter/distance fighter/mage/Navi? Not that there's anything wrong with those roles (okay the Navi can get fucking annoying, especially in video games, but IRL ostensibly they'd be giving you information you actually need rather than HEY LISTEN, HEY LET ME POINT OUT THIS TOTALLY OBVIOUS THING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, JAAACCCKKKK I WENT IN TO YOUR ROOM AND IT WAS EEEMPPPTTTYYY DO YOU LOVE ME JAAAACKKK?!) but it's depressing to be shunted into them nearly every single time. The fighting style appears to rely entirely on agility and acrobatics, so it's not like you can HURRR THAT'S JUST UNREALISTIC WOMEN SUCK BRAH. If anything, lighter weights would put less strain on the wires and require far less gas to propel, so if anything (smaller) women have a distinct advantage over their (larger) male counterparts. Besides, they're literally starving from overpopulation, so you can't make some bullshit evo psych WIMMENS HAVE TO STAY HOME FOR TEH BABBIES WHILE MEN PROTECT THE BABBIES argument against them either.
So yes, as someone who often complains about the roles female characters play in media, I am going to watch the hell out of this legally to put my money where my mouth is. Also, buy some merch (so long as I can find some that isn't panty shots of Mikasa or something).
no subject
Even though I eventually dropped the series, I was right there with you that I LOVED how they messed around with the gender expectations. All the girls there had their own fighting styles with their own strengths and weaknesses, just like guys! Like they're all individuals or something!
And like you said, it makes SENSE for Eren to be the super-devoted I-can-do-it typical shounen hero, because by god does he have the proper fucking motivation for it. It's been a while since I've seen a main character be outright motivated by sheer bloodythirsty revenge in a shounen.
I also really enjoyed how it showed the political and social problems of their society - like sending the best warriors to guard the king instead of on the front lines - but showed that this was just a natural result of such a society and not because of the Evil Politics That The Author Hates. They're all humans just fucking up, because that's how humans are, and no one is particularly to blame.
And the secret twist of where those special titans came from and why they're so smart. That was a really clever second-act twist that I didn't see coming, and it really changes the entire tone of the story. Instead of just a zombie apocalypse-equse story, you have deeper intrigue.
(just don't ask why, when something is successful, they don't use it again in the next fight or on a mass scale - see: blinding the titans with firearms)
Yeeeeaaahh, this was one of the things that started to bug me. Okay, cannon fire doesn't really work because they can just regenerate. But if you blow their head off, then they can't eat your soldiers, then can they? So why not shoot off all their heads and then have people slice their necks while they're helpless?
In the end though, I stopped watching because of just how BLEAK it was. Like The Walking Dead, there's only so much grimness and phyrric victories that I can stomach before despair-induced-apathy sets in.
no subject
Buuuuuuttt, I like bleak. The Road is one of my favourite books, and the high body count just makes it feel like they're fighting a real war against a superior opponent, to me. This is their Stalingrad, the last line of defense, and and they may not have a plan, but by god, you will charge those machine guns with a fistful of bullets, and when someone dies, pick up his rifle!
no subject
You're saying they should use small arms and/or physically strike the hands with their little blades before going in for the take down?
This seems less than ideal - small arms won't injure the hands to any serious degree, and they're a harder to hit target than the neck if you're talking blades, as well as leaving you right next to their central weapon if you fuck up. I guess the comparison would be trying to hit a boxers hands instead of his face, except he's twenty times your size and you're buggering about with a ridiculous spiderman contraption.
If you're suggesting the cannons just don't have the accuracy. You could down them, but numbers are never on your side, and it's have to be meticulously timed to have your flyers jump in and out immediately afterwards.
no subject
Dude, they cut their limbs off all the time. Moreover, in order to kill them they have to sever the base of their spinal column, which is has much thicker bone and is much, much harder to cut. It's not like punching a boxers' hand, it's like hacking the tip of another fencer's sword (i.e. their utmost unprotected extremity) which is, if you've ever fenced, they easiest thing to do in the world.
What they're doing now without first targeting the titan's only effective weapons is trying to touch the back of a fencer's neck, only that fencer has reach of their entire body twice over. That's next to impossible, and even with the wires, the titans don't seem to dumb they can't think of just grabbing the wires - they kill people this way all the time.
Really, though, fighting them in hand-to-hand combat in the first place pretty much wins the whole city a Darwin Award already, especially without pits, nets, roadblocks, spikes, wires, traps of any kind IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT THEY ARE FACING A LARGELY UNINTELLIGENT ENEMY, thrown explosive charges (people figured out how to make very basic grenades as soon as they did rifles - it's an easier concept, really, and they don't seem to be lacking black powder) OR ANY ATTEMPT WHATSOEVER TO INCAPACITATE THEM BEFORE CHARGING UP AND FEEDING THEMSELVES INTO THEIR MOUTHS EVEN THOUGH EVERY TIME THEY TRY SOMETHING MORE INTELLIGENT IT USUALLY WORKS.
(Oh and as another poster pointed out, they use the cannons to blow their heads off all the time. Oooooh, but they regenerate! Yes, but they've already shown that they can have troops on the ground hiding short distances away from the titans so long as the titans are sufficiently distracted. Head pop. Neck hack. Done. You could even wait for a hit if the first one misses, the titans will literally hump large structures if people are above them for hours. ...But it's been established that these people are dumb as bricks, possibly from inbreeding, so that's waaaaay too much to put together.)
no subject
(Anonymous) 2013-06-17 05:17 pm (UTC)(link)no bawdy catcalls or male fixation on getting into their comrades' pantsu, just a mutual respect and trust in their ability and expertise
also something i like about the handling of eren is that even though he has naruto syndrome, down to kind of not being the best in his class but clawing his way up through shounen determination, comapared to everyone else he still gets in over his head and he still has to rely on them and his berserk button doesn't seem like it's going to be the traditional shounen "IWIN" whenever they all get beaten into a pinch
which makes me hate him a little less
no subject