@Secret Asshole sorry for being late to the discussion but I wanted to talk about Gabi and why you seem to seethe about her very existence. I personally don't get why you think Gabi was supposed to be shilled by Isayama as a mary-sue where everyone was meant to like her. I always saw her as a secondary villain/ Eren Parallel / devious little shit from the start. you can't tell me Isayama meant to portray her as likeable when one of the very first things she does is commit a war crime when she pretended to be an unarmed civilian in a war zone, and then commit another war crime by suddenly surprise attacking the troops trying to capture her with fucking explosives. From then on she's consistently doing more and more atrocities, all while vowing to kill Eren Yeager and eventually doing so. I think your misunderstanding her character since at first she was grouped up with Falco and their other friends as they were developed as much more sympathetic and well, much less like a bloodthirsty Nazi child soldier.
Despite your well-evidenced disdain for Gabi, in my opinion she's delightfully entertaining as this insane 8-year old blood knight looking forward to kill any walldian that gets in her way. I love that every time when people try to underestimate her (in or out of story) she's gonna grab a whatever is lying around and try to gut you with it. If you had to criticize her for anything is that she's hogging much of the spotlight and character development. Even with all that character growth, she never was seen as anything but a villian, even if most people just treated her as a child that needed to be sternly talked down to.
I've got disdain because she isn't a character. She's a device that Isayama uses. She fits the entire definition of a Mary Sue. I mean, its just that simple. She's great at everything without any justification for it. She's a one note character with no growth or development. Other characters go out of their way to protect her or bend to her whims for no reason at all. Mikasa protects her...for no reason. Sasha's family just accepts her murdering their daughter and a bunch of other people because 'lol, that's war am i rite?'. Despite having no growth, not advancing the story, several chapters are uselessly pushed for her. Nobody cares. The only growth she has is 'Maybe all these people aren't devils' and then that's thrown away as casually as its said.
One second, she can't ride a horse. The next second, she's riding one perfectly with a rifle that ways as much as her. She can perfectly locate Eren in chaos. She can get a literal perfect headshot from a crouching sniping position. In the most perfect place possible. None of these actions are: earned, established or make any kind of sense. These are not the actions of a developed character. These are the actions of something the author wants to happen, but doesn't actually know how to do so. I mean, its a literal fucking joke. It was so bad I was laughing when this happened. I laughed even harder when this turned out to be fucking real.
'She's a female Eren!' No, Eren at that age was a fuck-up that got tons of people killed. He barely knew what the fuck he was doing. Gabi however, inexplicably survives, but get everything she does accomplished. She knows exactly what to do and never falters or fucks up. Characters bend their own emotions and goals to hers when she's around like she is a magic black hole. Even now Eren fucks up.
She's a terrible fucking 'character' all around and acts as Isayama's 'Deus Ex Machina' when he needs something to happen.
'Shit, I need to manufacture some drama at the end of a chapter...uhhhh....Gabi blows Eren's head off!'
'Fuck, I haven't killed a main character in a long time. Shit, well uh, Gabi shoots Sasha. I never liked her anyway.'
'I mean, everyone here should want her head on a pike but, she'll be protected by everybody because I need my ace in the pocket.'
Everything that Gabi did could have been done by faceless soldiers or by a character who earned it. Its not. She's Isayama's device that he keeps around because he doesn't know how to write a proper antagonist. The only difference between Gabi and random Marlyean Warrior Candidate #24730 is that she's a child. That's it. She has no personality or will of her own. Whenever Isayama needs something done that's shitty, he has Gabi do it, because its easy to direct ire towards a named character, 'Oh its all her fault'. Instead of panning out and realizing Isayama can't fucking write properly.
Gabi isn't actually a villian. She's a nothing. She exists because Isayama needs a device. He doesn't write a proper antagonist because his dick is so hard for both sides being bad he can't do it. So he resorts to a device for his antagonist needs that you can brush off as 'oh its just a kid, she doesn't know any better'. She's not underestimated. The characters around her act fucking re.tarded because if they didn't, Gabi would be dead. They were ready to kill Eren a lot as a kid, and its a joke that they're just willing to let this kid exist who is so accomplished at killing so many of them. Isayma just needs her alive because he doesn't have a proper antagonist anymore and he needs a device when something bad should happen.
You're right that I despise Gabi. But you're wrong in I think that she's a character. She's not. Its a literary tool that represent Isayama's garbage storytelling.
Pretty much this and I think the memory exploration is really just Eren trying to convince Zeke to agree to his ideals given how Eren wants to save Paradise while Zeke wants to end it which is where there plans differ.
Despite AOT’s faults one thing that Iseyama gets right is consistent characterization at least in my opinion anyway
If you mean by 'consistent characterization' that characters basically stay identical and don't change, then yes, I agree. Except for Zeke. Which is the character he's had the most success with. And in my opinion pretty much the only good character in the series. But he actually doesn't really change even. Isayama just keeps you in the dark to his motives. Then he loses this which sheds the best antagonist for the series. Which is replaced by uh...nothing.
You can't even view Eren as a protagonist anymore because we have no fucking clue what his intentions even are, what he thinks, or who he truly is anymore. Zeke isn't really an antagonist either, because we no longer have a protagonist in the story. Basically, he's 'consistent' at characterization because they don't change or their motives remain hidden.
I don't think his line about "being born into this world" is confusing at all, either. Like that was pretty much the simplest part of the chapter.
You're right, I was expecting too much that Eren would give a shit his head was blown off, or explain his motivation to someone, ANYONE. I just don't see Eren's interactions with anyone having much of a point because as boxed into a corner he gets, his answer is just going to be the same. He has a super sekret goal and nothing is going to deter him from that until he does it. I fully expect Zeke could keep him there for eternity and he'd still act like an edgy little shit.
We've had characters begging Eren to tell him what the fuck he's doing for....how many chapters now? I've lost count. I mean Zeke hadn't had his chance yet, but I honestly don't see the point of chapters like these anymore where people try to convince Eren to change or do what they want. Over and over and over again its the same. fucking. thing. Eren not budging and people trying. With nearly the same identical lines too! It doesn't even MATTER who the conversation is with.
It like Jon Snow repeating 'I don't want it' and 'Muh Queen' in Game of Thrones. We fucking get it. Move on from this shit.
