From hating Titans to "hating people" - the ending of "Attack on Titan"

(Original article published in Functional Words·Intangible )

Text｜Sir. Spring Breeze Burning

The first episode of the final season will be broadcast in December 2020

The second part of the final season will be broadcast in January 2022

The previous chapter of the final season will be broadcast in March 2023

The final chapter of the final season will be broadcast in November 2023.

This is the last four airtimes of the anime "Attack on Titan". Just by looking at the time and title, it is not difficult to understand why the audience criticized the original author Hajime Isayama and his team for being a "wave clock". Whether it was because of wanting to earn more advertising fees or because of hard thinking, this time it was finally the last broadcast, and many people were reluctant to give up. From 2013 to 2023, in the past ten years, we have witnessed how this "hot-blooded" and "shounen" anime, which was originally considered just a young hero fighting monsters, has gradually become a masterpiece in the hearts of many viewers, like a work of art. At this point, all the information has been released, and Hajime Isayama's debut novel has been completed.

The story is over, but Isayama Hajime raised philosophical questions such as what is love, what is hate, what is freedom, what is worthy of your protection, what is the value of reproduction, and which one is happier staying in the pig pen or climbing out of the wall? ... None of them will be answered directly. This may be the valuable thing about this work. It raises questions and various possibilities and makes people think. It is much more valuable to teach than to forcefully implant values.

For example, when this film explores the topic of "freedom", people exploring outside the wall and people living outside the wall will become the control group. Instead of comparing freedom with non-freedom and telling the audience what freedom is, it will present two types of freedom. Possible free form. The Survey Corps is galloping outside and has a broad field of vision. It seems natural that they are regarded as "free". But on the other hand, are the people inside the wall not free? When a mother knows that her child died in battle, when other mothers see it, will the child who eats, drinks and has fun inside the wall feel freer, or the child who involuntarily dies in battle? Is Captain Levi of the Survey Corps, who is covered in scars, freer, or Uncle Hannis, a member of the Garrison Corps who is drunk all day long? According to the theory of British philosopher Isaiah Berlin, the former is the exercise of positive freedom, that is, the freedom to do whatever one wants, while the latter is the exercise of negative freedom, that is, the freedom to do nothing but what one wants. . Berlin pointed out that compared with negative freedom, positive freedom is more easily distorted and abused, thus creating a certain deception. Some kind of "conceptual magic" is used to package "sacrifice" as "freedom". A common saying is "for the sake of freedom". For safety or for the future, part of freedom must be surrendered." In the name of freedom, imprisonment is actually implemented, so the forced sacrifice eventually evolves into another kind of slavery (whether to others or to oneself). Although the protagonist Elian has a strong will and decisive action, and actively pursues freedom, no matter how hard an individual tries, it is difficult to escape from the framework of history and reality or compete with it, so in the end he has to admit that he is a "free slave" .

Eren is a "free slave" and can be said to be a willing slave. This value has always been consistent, so it is not difficult to understand that he would choose to cause the earth to cry and lead to self-destruction. He not only hoped that Historia could break out of the historical cycle and not have to continue to eat people and be eaten in order to inherit power, but also hoped to delay external attacks on his hometown, so he chose to launch the earthquake to wipe out 80% of the humans outside the island, forcibly The level of civilization outside the island has been lowered to be consistent with the level of civilization on the island, so that Parady Island will be protected from attacks in the short term. At the same time, his long-term wish to "drive the giants out" will be realized; when the time comes, his teammates who love and tolerate will surely They will not sit back and watch the massacre. In the face of a catastrophe, they will temporarily put down their hatred in order to survive and unite with forces outside the island to deal with him, a bigger monster. In this case, as long as their teammates kill themselves, they can become the savior. The savior of "the remaining 20% ​​of humanity"; once Eren dies, the power of the Titan will disappear, and the knot in the hearts of mankind will be untied - although this is blinded by the protagonist and wishful thinking, this move is in line with the character's personality. .

There is a well-known thought experiment in ethics circles called the "Trolley Problem." This experiment assumes that a stalled trolley is heading straight toward five people tied to the trolley track, and there happens to be a joystick next to you that can cause the trolley to turn onto another track, where only one person is tied to the track. If you do nothing, five people will die. If you make a move, one person will die, and this person was killed by you. Now Hajime Isayama has slightly changed the tram problem. Eren's companions, comrades and other tribesmen are tied to the tram track. There is a joystick next to Eren, which can make the tram turn to another track, where 80% of the people outside the island are tied. , there may be people Eren knows and strangers, innocents and enemies, no need to ask, Eren has always advocated "Paradis First", an activist is given the ability and power to control the joystick , it is not surprising that he chose to redirect the "tram" to the other side. It is politically incorrect to sacrifice the majority for the sake of a few companions. People feel that they are more likely to become one of the sacrificed majority. No wonder there will be scolding wars among the audience. Some people will say that those who empathize with Eren Everyone is militarist.

Yes, once a war begins, it will inevitably bring about a humanitarian disaster, and those who suffer must be civilians, especially those living under a regime that treats its own people as a steel wall and pushes them to the front to block bullets. The earth's roar has no eyes, and it will not screen out soldiers, civilians, good guys, bad guys, adults, and minors before stepping on it. However, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan during World War II, and the dead included Japanese anti-war people. No one was interested in and could not use this to defend the war provoked by Japan. Even if they spoke against Japan, no one would blame Mr. Yamamoto Isoroku. If you pick it out and criticize it, no one is interested in breaking it down into 1,800 categories for the Japanese to criticize again. Two atomic bombs ended World War II, and survivors around the world are enjoying the new post-war order based on the massive casualties of Japanese civilians. Will Japan become the plaintiff and send the United States to the International Military Tribunal? Obviously not.

No matter what, Allen the Butcher has died under a just trial, and everyone is happy as he deserves. Compared with reality, it is still more depressing. Isn't pop culture just for fun? The purpose of entertainment has been achieved. Judging from Eren's fate, Hajime Isayama was anti-war, but at the end of the film another cold water was poured on him. The Parade Island in the Easter egg has been prosperous for several years, with modern high-rise buildings everywhere, and a helicopter crashed into the high-rise building, and then Attacked by various attacks from outside the island, the city was reduced to ruins. Only then did the audience understand that Isayama not only wanted to use Eren's death to dissolve the meaning of freedom and war, but also the meaning of peace - Even if the power of giants disappears from the world, even if many ordinary people die fighting for freedom, it will not be able to shake the fate of mankind in the slightest. An unknown number of years later, a boy led a dog on an adventure in the forest, encountered a tree hole (suggesting the same tree hole as the ancestor Ymir) and walked in. At this point, Isayama created the world that has brought mankind together for thousands of years. The meaning of struggling for change or even survival has been eliminated, and pessimism has reached the extreme, as if to imply that the world is an endless hell. The brain executes orders and sacrifices without brains. There is no way to escape the fate of hating A and worshiping B at the same time. The cycle repeats and never disappears. Just as Zeke said to Armin, what humans are facing is "I don’t know what the meaning is." A life at the mercy of the reproductive instinct." Isn't it possible that the young man leading the dog into the tree hole at the end of the film is the baby who was rescued from the cliff to the audience's relief, or his descendant?

This ending is wonderful. I don't think it's a bad ending, I just think it's more "annoying". When the war is tired, they clamor for peace, promising to learn lessons and never repeat the same mistakes; when the peace is boring, they are scarred and always want to find some excitement, so the desire to conquer arises again. Of course, there may be other possibilities beyond the either-or conditions of literary creation and philosophical assumptions. For example, is it possible that nations with stronger economies and technologies are further away from hell than other parts of the world because they are conceptually more advanced, more open, and closer to civilization than other nations? Will the land farther away from hell be more humane to its people and better protect private property and individual rights? Is it possible to choose not to make the first move every time there is a conflict with a barbarian tribe? Contribute more to modern world civilization (not only technology but also literature, art and thought)?

Others are hell. As most ordinary individuals, it is often difficult to shake the world (although superpowers are usually in the hands of individuals who are more mediocre than us), and we often feel powerless for this, but there may still be a choice, which is to feel good like Armin. Running with your companions, reading at home on a rainy day, watching squirrels eating tree fruits, going to the market with everyone... Experience every ordinary and ordinary daily life with your heart, and escape the shackles of "meaning" given by yourself or imposed by others. Dostoevsky wrote in "The Brothers Karamazov": "Love concrete people, not abstract people; love life, not the meaning of life." - This may not be such a great exit. , but at least it is a small respite to temporarily settle our fatigue.

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