u/ram_samudrala

I just got back from watching The Last Attack in theatres. I had watched it before in episodic format but this was great to see it on the big screen with great sound, really they should do more of this. (They did say something about monthly Crunchyroll nights.). This kind of epic anime is so well suited to the medium, IMAX would be even better.

In terms of story, rewatching only reiterated my views about the entire story being a collective outcome rather than singularly due to Eren or anyone in particular. A few things, repeatedly there's talk of systemic failure: the guy who is in charge of Ft. Salta says the adults failed their children by fighting amongst themselves and that they created this monster; Historia at the end says they all created the conditions for the world together. There's other stuff too. The way the Paths works disabuses of considering events in isolation of one another. Ymir must've known all along this is how her freedom would come via Mikasa after 2000 years of suffering. So my view is that if it not were Eren, there would be someone else to do the same outcome.

Eren keeps giving shifting reasons for doing what he did. He starts with doing it to make his friends into heroes, and then for Paradis, and then when Armin is like you're going to kill 80% of humanity for us? And he says he's not mentally okay and THEN he says because he's a slave to freedom, and he's an idiot who had too much power. And then he asks Armin for confirmation and Armin refuses to say Eren did this alone and they'll meet in hell** together. In between he talks about how many times he tried to change things but didn't work out (Ramzi incident).

And Ymir went along with Eren's plan actively and wanted her own revenge too. The rumbling stopped at 80% because Ymir was satisfied. Per Armin, Eren's only goal was to keep moving forward. The past titans who came to help Eren and Ymir to stop the scouts were due to Ymir per Armin. Armin says something Ymir wants the rumbling to happen too. Which begs the question, how come the past titans of a select few inhabitants like Bertholdt, Ksaver, Grisha, etc. were "allowed" to work against Ymir and Eren. Freedom?

As far as alternate timelines, they are there. In this regard, everything hinges on Mikasa's choice, that if Mikasa had run away with Eren while in Marley, they would've avoided the rumbling. THAT also wasn't apparently a palatable option for the main story but it does occur in the Paths. Same with Eren exploring the world with Armin, though that's with awareness whereas the time being spent far away from everything was though it was a dream. Previously I thought Mikasa's choice was just about her choice to kill Eren, but there was an earlier choice that was key, the movie makes that clear. That's how we get the alternate future where they spend the years together before Eren dies. And there he says he couldn't genocide the world but he couldn't allow Historia to take on the attack titan also or something like that!

**There's new scenes at the end where >!Paradis is seemingly in the modern world with cell phones and traffic lights and such, and someone who looks like Eren is there with Armin and Mikasa who just finished watching the AoT movie and they bicker amongst themselves. This is a very meta commentary about the Internet and everyone's theorisation and such.!<

I bought a pack of AoT stickers and gave them away, it appeared to be well received.

I just got back from watching The Last Attack in theatres. I had watched it before in episodic format but this was great to see it on the big screen with great sound, really they should do more of this. (They did say something about monthly Crunchyroll nights.). This kind of epic anime is so well suited to the medium, IMAX would be even better.

In terms of story, rewatching only reiterated my views about the entire story being a collective outcome rather than singularly due to Eren or anyone in particular. A few things, repeatedly there's talk of systemic failure: the guy who is in charge of Ft. Salta says the adults failed their children by fighting amongst themselves and that they created this monster; Historia at the end says they all created the conditions for the world together. There's other stuff too. The way the Paths works disabuses of considering events in isolation of one another. Ymir must've known all along this is how her freedom would come via Mikasa after 2000 years of suffering. So my view is that if it not were Eren, there would be someone else to do the same outcome.

Eren keeps giving shifting reasons for doing what he did. He starts with doing it to make his friends into heroes, and then for Paradis, and then when Armin is like you're going to kill 80% of humanity for us? And he says he's not mentally okay and THEN he says because he's a slave to freedom, and he's an idiot who had too much power. And then he asks Armin for confirmation and Armin refuses to say Eren did this alone and they'll meet in hell** together. In between he talks about how many times he tried to change things but didn't work out (Ramzi incident).

And Ymir went along with Eren's plan actively and wanted her own revenge too. The rumbling stopped at 80% because Ymir was satisfied. Per Armin, Eren's only goal was to keep moving forward. The past titans who came to help Eren and Ymir to stop the scouts were due to Ymir per Armin. Armin says something Ymir wants the rumbling to happen too. Which begs the question, how come the past titans of a select few inhabitants like Bertholdt, Ksaver, Grisha, etc. were "allowed" to work against Ymir and Eren. Freedom?

As far as alternate timelines, they are there. In this regard, everything hinges on Mikasa's choice, that if Mikasa had run away with Eren while in Marley, they would've avoided the rumbling. THAT also wasn't apparently a palatable option for the main story but it does occur in the Paths. Same with Eren exploring the world with Armin, though that's with awareness whereas the time being spent far away from everything was though it was a dream. Previously I thought Mikasa's choice was just about her choice to kill Eren, but there was an earlier choice that was key, the movie makes that clear. That's how we get the alternate future where they spend the years together before Eren dies. And there he says he couldn't genocide the world but he couldn't allow Historia to take on the attack titan also or something like that!

**There's new scenes at the end where >!Paradis is seemingly in the modern world with cell phones and traffic lights and such, and someone who looks like Eren is there with Armin and Mikasa who just finished watching the AoT movie and they bicker amongst themselves. This is a very meta commentary about the Internet and everyone's theorisation and such.!<

I bought a pack of AoT stickers and gave them away, it appeared to be well received.

I just got back from watching The Last Attack in theatres. I had watched it before in episodic format but this was great to see it on the big screen with great sound, really they should do more of this. (They did say something about monthly Crunchyroll nights.). This kind of epic anime is so well suited to the medium, IMAX would be even better.

In terms of story, rewatching only reiterated my views about the entire story being a collective outcome rather than singularly due to Eren or anyone in particular. A few things, repeatedly there's talk of systemic failure: the guy who is in charge of Ft. Salta says the adults failed their children by fighting amongst themselves and that they created this monster; Historia at the end says they all created the conditions for the world together. There's other stuff too. The way the Paths works disabuses of considering events in isolation of one another. Ymir must've known all along this is how her freedom would come via Mikasa after 2000 years of suffering. So my view is that if it not were Eren, there would be someone else to do the same outcome.

Eren keeps giving shifting reasons for doing what he did. He starts with doing it to make his friends into heroes, and then for Paradis, and then when Armin is like you're going to kill 80% of humanity for us? And he says he's not mentally okay and THEN he says because he's a slave to freedom, and he's an idiot who had too much power. And then he asks Armin for confirmation and Armin refuses to say Eren did this alone and they'll meet in hell** together. In between he talks about how many times he tried to change things but didn't work out (Ramzi incident).

And Ymir went along with Eren's plan actively and wanted her own revenge too. The rumbling stopped at 80% because Ymir was satisfied. Per Armin, Eren's only goal was to keep moving forward. The past titans who came to help Eren and Ymir were due to Ymir per Armin. Armin says something Ymir wants the rumbling to happen too. Which begs the question, how come the past titans of a select few inhabitants like Bertholdt, Ksaver, Grisha, etc. were "allowed" to work against Ymir and Eren. Freedom?

As far as alternate timelines, they are there. In this regard, everything hinges on Mikasa's choice, that if Mikasa had run away with Eren while in Marley, they would've avoided the rumbling. THAT also wasn't apparently a palatable option for the main story but it does occur in the Paths. Same with Eren exploring the world with Armin, though that's with awareness whereas the time being spent far away from everything was though it was a dream. Previously I thought Mikasa's choice was just about her choice to kill Eren, but there was an earlier choice that was key, the movie makes that clear. That's how we get the alternate future where they spend the years together before Eren dies. And there he says he couldn't genocide the world but he couldn't allow Historia to take on the attack titan also or something like that!

**There's new scenes at the end >!where Paradis is seemingly in the modern world with cell phones and traffic lights and such, and someone who looks like Eren is there with Armin and Mikasa who just finished watching the AoT movie and they bicker amongst themselves. This is a very meta commentary about the Internet and everyone's theorisation and such.!<

I bought a pack of AoT stickers and gave them away, it appeared to be well received.

I am going to see the Attack on Titan: The Last Attack in theatres. It'd be great to see SG on the big screen. I wonder if they would ever do a showing of the Load Region movie or maybe a new movie or maybe the last few episodes of the anime + egotistic poriomania. One can hope...

One thing I've noticed after recognition is that strong "I thoughts" and/or psychological suffering now requires active participation. Not pain or emotion necessarily, but identification.

There is raw appearing, and then there is the recursive construction: "This is happening to me" or "I am doing this." That second layer appears to generate most of the psychological suffering: narrative identity, ownership, resistance, anticipation, existential fear, etc. The latter layer is how most people appear to be most of the time. Myself also according to memories.

What's interesting is that "going there" now takes effort. To fully enter egoic suffering requires concentration/imagination, whereas before it was automatic and totalising. The default is more like simple awareness/presence, not self-awareness in the psychological sense.

So when difficult thoughts appear, it is recognised as appearing (within awareness if you wish but that is also appearing) rather than absolute reality.

The suffering isn't fake. The thoughts/emotions feel "real". But identification with them no longer feels compulsory.

In someone going through severe anxiety/depression, I see the opposite dynamic very clearly: thoughts and emotions become experientially total. "I feel unsafe" becomes "reality is unsafe." "I feel disconnected from myself" becomes "there is no self and no one can love me." There’s no perceived distance between thought and reality.

It’s not that people are "imagining instead of directly experiencing", because imagination itself is another appearing. It's more that conceptual overlays are mistaken for the totality of reality itself.

And paradoxically, after recognition, re-entering psychological suffering now requires imaginative participation rather than happening automatically. Just having "I" thoughts requires effort. I wonder we feel or assume that's the optimal way to be when upon recognition it is clear that that's what requires efforting (this is appearing, a story).

I'm on the Greed Island arc now, but I have read to the end on various sites. But in terms of what I've watched so far, >!the story of Binoit and how he may have become a serial killer is SO sad. He is a poor kid who finds a wallet and wants to return it simply to be a decent human being, while the well-to-do folks just beat him for their own carelessness and ego. When he's getting beating by Gon and Killua, he has flashbacks to this and is ready to die saying he never wanted this life.!< It's very sad.

>!The Kurta clan being massacred for their eyes is also very sad but it's mostly abstract since I've not seen it depicted yet. !<

>!Killua being raised as an assassin against his wishes and going through all the torture, but I guess it made him who he is.!<

>!Ging Freecs leaving his son and family to pursue self-centred goals.!<

>!All the killing is a bit sad but I guess it's just a means to an end here but still some of the deaths are gruesome and people delight in killing and some don't spare a thought for innocent people.!<

What did I miss? What do you think are among the saddest parts of the story?

The show is interesting in how it treats death and killing. It doesn't seem fully consistent but then what is? The main theme seems to be that these are all people who chose to participate in some sort of a jungle and it's kill or be killed, or more precisely if you get in the way of someone's desires, you will be taken out. This makes sense when it applies to Hunters, Mafia, bodyguards, etc. but not to innocent people/bystanders. Yet it seems that some characters treat all of these as the same.

Many of these characters who are so easy to kill the ones in their way are okay with their friends and close ones, like members of the Phantom Troupe or Killua/Gon and their friends. This is a typical trope we see in other fiction and maybe the real world also (like mafia members seem to be very loving of their families, both biological and chosen).

>!So when Gon and Killua are captured by Pakunoda and have the opportunity to escape when they injure her but then apparently say they don't want to because Chrollo would die (and cause Kurapika to kill Chrollo) but isn't that their point? They want to get rid of the Troupe? And why would the boys escaping and going to Kurapika cause Chrollo to die? Pakunoda could've still met Kurapika after? !<