Look, Man- I Ain't Sitting Through A New Series Just To Have Proper Context For All The Cute Fanart/fics

Look, man- I ain't sitting through a new series just to have proper context for all the cute fanart/fics I've consumed of my new emotional support old man. Just let me play out the scenes of him and my 141762nd OC being cute together in my head.

Nothing worse than being obsessed with an ocs ship you haven't even properly written down yet

All of this, 1000%, but especially:

"Just because Erwin is ridden with guilt doesn't mean the cure is death."

"Allowing Erwin to rest is problematic because it can be used for anyone dying."

FUCKING THANK YOU!! The fact that anyone thinks "well, Erwin's depressed and tired of having to make hard calls" is a good justification for letting him die and not the most horrifying thing in a story about people getting turned into canibalistic giants boggles the mind.

(CW: talk of suicide under the break)

Midnight Sun really says "if you're depressed, you should just kill yourself. If you have PTSD, you should kill yourself. Survior's guilt? Kill yourself right fucking now. Nothing will ever get better, it's all downhill from here, happiness is an illusion; the best outcome you can hope for is the sweet release of death. Just throw your dreams in the trash with the rest of your miserable life." Isayama wrote Levi (in this one god awful chapter) as someone who won't even consider the possibilty of Erwin recovering and getting over this depressive slump (y'know, like how Mikasa and Eren did?). You show a moment of weakness and your life is forfeit to this man.

And you can't argue "well, he did it out of compassion because poor Erwin was sooo broken down due to having to be the 'Devil of humanity'." Bull. Shit. Levi obviously never viewed Erwin like that before Floch said it. Are you telling me that Levi-fucking-Ackerman is so mentally weak that his opinion of someone he's known for six years is swayed that hard by an obviously traumatized teenager lashing out, whose name he probably doesn't even know? ...well, seeing as how he uncritically takes the dying words of his megalomanical, serial killer uncle to heart, maybe he is that mentally weak. But still!

If being the commander of the Survey Corps and becoming the "devil of humanity" is suuuuuch a horrible fate that death is preferable... why does Levi then foist that fate onto Hange? Because Levi isn't the one taking up that mantle after Erwin dies. Armin sure as fuck isn't out there making the hard choices (he's not doing anything). It's poor Hange who has to try and fill Erwin's impossibly big shoes, Hange who becomes grim and depressed having to weild humanity's spear against insurmountable odds. What, is that okay because Levi doesn't care about Hange as much as he cares about Erwin (even though Levi interacts with Hange more in canon than he does with Erwin)?

Also, I just think it's funny that Levi paints Erwin with Kenny's "slave" brush because he's still holding onto his childhood dream of finding something outside the Walls because that proves that he has nothing else to live for, while at the same time, he holds Armin up as an example of having long-terms dreams because of *looks at notes* "his childhood dream of finding something outside the Walls". ...huh. Like, seriously; does Levi (like so many fans) assume that once Erwin gets to that basement and finds whatever's in it, that he's just going to retire from the Survey Corps and spend the rest of his life beating off against a wall? And even if he did, so what? Does the poor man not deserve a break after having served in the military for at least 15 years (I'm not pulling that number out of my ass- that is, canonically, the minimal time Erwin has been a Scout)? Erwin Smith has done more for the betterment of Pardis than 99% of the people living there: if he wants Shignshina to be his final mission (and we all know he wouldn't- we know damn well he'd want to see the other people and other countries with his own eyes just like how he had to be the first person to see what was in the basement) then let him retire! Or is the point Isayama is trying to make "the lives of people who can offer nothing to society, either by choice (retirement) or circumstance (mental illness), are inherently worth less"?

TL;DR- if you aren't just blindly happy about Armin surviving (as if Armin has ever been in any danger at any point in the story from beginning to end), Midnight Sun reeeeaaally feels like a giant "Fuck You" to people dealing with depression and trauma. Erwin dying is not the issue- the way he died is the issue.

Do you think it was hypocritical of Levi to tell Eren "Don't let your feelings get in the way" and then five minutes later get sentimental and choose Armin because of, as he later admitted, his own reasons?

Anon, I doubt this was the answer you were expecting, but I don't think Levi would have chosen Armin at all unless it was because Isayama wanted Armin to have a big moment of being passed a mantle...

But answering your question, I don't think it was hypocritical, because despite wanting to chase after Zeke, he stopped to save Armin. Eren brings up Levi hesitating, but the fact that Levi even stopped for Armin and didn't focus on Zeke speaks more to responsibility than emotion to me.

When Mikasa is about to attack Floch, instead of using that moment to retaliate, or kick her off, Levi reacts to save Floch.

Having feelings is one thing. Letting them get in the way is another. They were soldiers. They swore to serve humanity. Levi had years of experience dealing with this, and he knew Eren was just a teenager who cared about his friends.

It's an unpopular opinion, I know, but the whole thing of either Erwin or Armin doesn't do much for me because it advances nothing about Erwin or Armin's character. We already knew Armin was intelligent. Erwin could have died in the suicide charge anyway.

Both Hange and Levi saying Armin wasn't the right choice only further makes me question why the scene even happened. It would have been the same if Armin got the injection and then they found out Erwin was alive too late. Or Erwin just died in the charge.

Armin being chosen didn't say anything new about him, didn't add to his character, didn't add to Erwin's character. It was an emotional episode, but that's about it for me.

Also why Armin survived against all odds makes me dislike that scene even more. I doubt even an Ackerman would survive what he experienced.

And Levi not choosing Erwin has never made sense to me, except that Isayama wanted Armin to take Erwin's place. I've heard all the reasons for Armin over Erwin, and none of them are points I think work, especially when by the time Armin gets the title of commander, it's sort of meaningless.

But getting to the point of Levi letting Erwin die is just against Levi's established character about doing everything for humanity. Levi was adamant that Erwin stay behind because humanity needed him. Just because Erwin was ridden with guilt doesn't mean the cure is death. Levi, no doubt, was exhausted himself. But he would never allow someone to let him die without fulfilling his goal of serving humanity.

Allowing Erwin to rest is problematic because it can be used for anyone dying. They're all exhausted, guilty, and traumatized. This was the first time we saw Erwin be vulnerable. Humans bounce back from a lot. Mikasa bounced back in season 1 when she thought Eren died.

Mikasa. I think it's one of the more powerful themes of the anime. The tenacity of humanity, to always push through despite all the pain and loss.

It would be more powerful for Erwin to have survived, discover his father was right, and then lead Paradis on the nearly impossible mission of defending itself against the world. That would surely make up for all the lives lost in his eyes.

And then someone could have told him that he wasn't a monster, and he wasn't selfish I'm so mad he died thinking so negatively about himself you could have at least let him have hope and believe in himself and then kill him off.

man this piece of media i like that's bad and sucks would be so cool and awesome if it wasnt bad and didnt suck. unfortunately,

I've finished the sequel/afterstory for my Binary Star Hero fic- y'know, the one all the fanart I've done was for?- but now I'm delaying posting it because I have this idiotic notion in my head that my fanfics should have cover art for no reason other than the fact that I've been doing it for years. Don't know why I do it, it doesn't accomplish anything, but that awful voice in my head says "this literary work isn't complete without a visual representation of its themes".

Y'all got that dog in you? Well, I got that perfectionist in me and I wish I could take it behind the shed with a shotgun.

Maybe I'll just do the cover later...?

I am also a fan~♥︎

im a fucking sucker for the “character gets so badly injured that they can’t think clearly and start calling for help in a distressingly vulnerable way.” characters who start using nicknames for their friends they haven’t used since they were kids. characters who start begging for their brother they haven’t seen in years to be there. characters who would usually use their parents’ names or call them mother/father/etc crying out mama when they go down. u understand.

helpful sites for writers

i have a little collection of websites i tend to use for coming up with ideas, naming people or places, keeping clear visuals or logistics, writing basics about places i've never been to, and so on. i tend to do a lot of research, but sometimes you just need quick references, right? so i thought i'd share some of them!

Behind the Name; good for name meanings but also just random name ideas, regardless of meanings.

Fantasy Name Generator; this link goes to the town name generator, which i use most, but there are lots of silly/fun/good inspo generators on there!

Age Calculator; for remembering how old characters are in Y month in Z year. i use this constantly.

Height Comparison; i love this for the height visuals; does character A come up to character B's shoulder? are they a head taller? what does that look like, height-wise? the chart feature is great!

Child Development Guide; what can a (neurotypical, average) 5-year-old do at that age? this is a super handy quickguide for that, with the obviously huge caveat that children develop at different paces and this is not comprehensive or accurate for every child ever. i like it as a starting point, though!

Weather Spark; good for average temperatures and weather checking!

Green's Dictionary of Slang; good for looking up "would x say this?" or "what does this phrase mean in this context?" i love the timeline because it shows when the phrase was historically in use. this is english only, though; i dig a little harder for resources like this in other languages.