Of course – a spy! That’s why some of the soldiers wouldn’t know everything, or be told conflicting information. And if they think there’s a spy who also has the ability to transform in their ranks, of course they’d bring along something tailored to capture an intelligent Titan. Damnit me, you suspect humans are behind the Titans, how were you not able to think of any of this? OK, yeah, bottom line, none of this stuff about everyone being told Eren was in a different place or the expedition ‘conveniently’ having something for capturing the Female Titan is as suspicious as I was making it out to be. Because I apparently never considered that the people behind the Titans would do something like infiltrate the Survey Corps. I was thinking that the brass knew about the Female Titan already, and was maybe even connected to whoever’s behind the Titans – like this was all part of a plan to make everyone think they were gaining ground when they actually weren’t. Or something, it doesn’t make much sense even to me, especially now. Not sure if the series was actually that good at not making it obvious or if I was just so focused on one possibility I overlooked another, though.
There was also an interesting
contrast between deception and trust in these last few episodes. Smith and Levi
were asking everyone to take their word that everything was under control,
because of the need to fool the person controlling the Female Titan. But
they’re in a situation where there’s too much potential for things to go wrong
if everyone isn’t on the same page, like how Eren almost transformed because he
couldn’t see any other solution, but in hindsight that could’ve seriously
jeopardized the actual plan. Only telling everyone the full plan is a bad idea
because it means they’ll alert the spy. The need to balance the two is just
another one of those ways the show makes it clear that, beneath all the giant-slaying and swinging from wires, these people are in an extremely
precarious situation.
Stella Women’s Academy [ep. 8 – Should a Commander be Cold of Heart?]
Well, I was completely off the
mark on this one. I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprise they won; OK, there’s
no shouldn’t about it – I’m not; the show’s about them, after all. And yeah,
they didn’t win, but until Yura
‘fesses up, they think they did.
But still, when you see that
there’s other teams made up of people like active members of the Marine Corps, or
others who seem like they’d have way more years of experience, not to mention
relevant training, you’d think they’d be better than a team of high schoolers.
I knew Rin’s team was supposed to be insanely good, but not that they were
god-damn ninjas. Seriously, what kind
of training do those girls do?
I suppose Rin does have that
sneaky side, though. I don’t mean covertly taking out Sono – that’s
under-handed, but mostly just bad sportsmanship. I mean her ‘I see what you did
there – and I won’t tell anyone’ stealth attack on Yura. I don’t know about
you, but I’d wager a guilty conscience trumps the temporary humiliation of
being called out right away most of the time.
I was also assuming that the
tournament would be a multi-part thing because it lasts long enough, and has so
many participants, that each succeeding episode could have had Stella going up
against a different team and having to use different strategies each time.
Obviously, Rin’s team would be reserved for the final showdown. Except, that’s
not what it was actually about. And probably would’ve been kind of repetitive,
now that I think about it. Rather, it was the dramatic payoff for the
foreshadowing from episode 5, about how Yura can get so wrapped up in the
moment that she loses sight of the larger picture. In this case she got so
wrapped up in getting even with Rin and proving her wrong that she ended up
proving her right. Losing may not
have proven her wrong, but cheating to win definitely validated her beliefs.
She’s also kind of a cliché,
being the antagonist who’s become so focused on winning it’s become its own
purpose. It’s an understandable mindset coming from a culture that places so
much value on success and excellence, and sure, winning’s part of anything
competitive and very much a goal, but when you think about it, by itself it has
no meaning. You won – so what? By itself, all it does is make you feel good
about yourself temporarily. It has no meaning in the long run unless your goal
is just validating how much better you are than everyone else by continually
winning.
And I gotta say, boy is she
misguided with the whole ‘airsoft is just like real war – all that matters is
winning.’ Because, correct me if I’m wrong, but no functional human being has
ever fought a war simply to win.
Rather, in a war you’re fighting for something
– control over a territory, freedom of various sorts, for or against an
ideology, what have you – that the other side opposes strongly enough that you
need to take it through force. Sure, you want to win, but that’s only because
winning is how you achieve your goal. It’s just a means to an end, not the end
itself. Obviously, this is a simplification, but I think the bigger point
speaks for itself.
It looks more and more like Sono
really does have the right of it. Airsoft isn’t about winning, it’s a way of
learning things about yourself and even gaining an appreciation for the gravity
of real violence. At least, that’s what it means to her, and by giving a
meaning to why she plays, she actually understands competitiveness way more
than Rin, as much as the latter seems to think otherwise. So do the other
girls, for that matter, when they let slip that they aren’t having fun and that’s
hurting the experience. This may just be a fun little show about girls playing
airsoft on the surface, but with things like this it does feel like its trying
to make a point about competition and what you can learn from it. And that guns
and violence should be taken seriously, even when you’re just playing a game
for fun.
The Eccentric Family [ep. 8 – The Day of Dad’s Departure]
Well, unless Kaisei was told to
start coming on to Yajiro so he’d fall for her, it doesn’t look like Soichiro’s
death was arranged or set up by anyone, based on what we saw this episode.
Rather, it looks like it’s exactly what he saw it as going to it, and what the
general tanuki philosophy towards hot-potting can be summed up as – shit
happens – and those who stand to benefit from him being out of the picture
didn’t arrange it, they’re just moving to take advantage of it. It puts this
series in a new light – it’s not a mystery about why someone was murdered but
rather his family coming to terms with their loss and learning to understand
those who were responsible for it, or are trying to profit from it. Granted the
next episode looks like it’ll be about Kaisei, who’s the reason Yajiro and his
father went drinking in the first place, that will probably shine a new light
on things and may through that reveal that there is a conspiracy, but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen.
Which I’ve gotta say, I like. It’s not like ‘a family coping with loss’ has never
been done before, but there aren’t too many anime like that, at least not to my
knowledge, so it’s nice to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment