Attack On Titan: The SECRET of the Founding Titan — Wisecrack Edition

this video is brought to you by wicks whatup wisecrack jared again and today we're talking about the anime that isn't sure humidity has much time that's right we're taking a trip back inside the walls and we're visiting attack on Titan before we get started though a quick shout out to us and our first video an attack on Titan we piece together all the German sounding names like Noah Brody and the vague political allusions to say that attack on Titan was a show about a concept in political theory called the friend enemy distinction check that video out but the TLDR is functionally that this guy named Carl Schmidt said that friends and enemies were a foundational division in politics without which some pretty bad stuff would happen but we mused what if the show is a critique of Carl Schmitt who by the way is not a nice man and got caught up with some bad stuff in the 30s also we didn't read the manga and tada that critique happened as attack on Titan is progressed it became clear that the Starks division between enemy and friends ie Titan and human is a pretty intense fabrication used to advance a specific agenda seasons 2 & 3 explore what happens when that distinction begins to crumble oh no you already got the wood thing can we just patch up society and go home well not quite that's because as the show explores even when the truth is on your side society has some great defense mechanisms to uphold the status quo so strap on your ODM gear and join us as we go deep on attack on titan seasons two and three and as always spoilers ahead first up want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Wix Wix is the easiest way to create beautiful professional websites for whatever your needs may be I'm actually trying to get into the professional voice-over game so I created a website with Wix to present all my voice samples so check it out I was creating website for myself and I wanted a portfolio and CV and I'm a total noob then I literally started typing and there was already a template for voiceover artists I picked a style I liked and within minutes I was dragging and dropping my audio files and bam now I have something I'm confident to send out to potential clients establishing yourself as a professional in a new space can be daunting but I was really surprised by how inviting and easy it was to create a website that makes it look like I know what I'm doing so if you're looking to up your game before 2019 go to Wix calm slash wisecrack or click the link in the description just making your free website today and now back to the show let's start with a quick recap attack on Titan is about the last vestiges of humanity hiding out behind giant walls to avoid naked man-eating Titans as you might imagine with giant monsters on the outskirts of your walls a pretty rational us-versus-them structure society this is a pretty high-risk lifestyle and sure enough Titans break through the outermost wall from there things go from dire to downright dystopic and it's up to the scouts mankind's outrider strike force to get under control but like the city's walls the stark division between human and Titan doesn't last very long at the end of season one the scouts realized that one of their own Aaron and shape-shift between human and Titan also he might be able to use his Titan power to seal that pesky hole in the outer wall George in Costa Allegra Cole Kazuki unknown ordered a cabin on a soggy note a to stop in season two a bunch of Titans emerge and trap the scouts in a castle or fellow scout yamir turns into a Titan surprise to rescue them apparently everyone is a Titan as Berthold and Reinert are in fact the colossal and armored Titan respectively they kidnap Eren but the scouts are able to rescue him and start laying out their plan to fix the wall Eren learns he can control nearby Titans and we learn that this lady Christa is actually named historia which is very important then a season three happens Erwin the commander of the Scout stages a coup d'etat by turning the people against the nobles Scouts Eren and historia are kidnapped by historias father the true king rod rice they escaped but not before rod rice becomes the grossest Titan to date he attacks the city but Aaron and his story achillion cementing historia as a warrior queen the people can get behind finally United that people can get back to retaking the outer wall whoo okay now we're all caught up but what do we make of all that well as we mentioned attack on Titan has always been about the distinction helping a friend an enemy and regular speak it's the idea that the easiest way to get society to work together is if they're against someone else well season one showed a whole society built around this principle seasons two and three explore how people empower knowingly manufacture this false divide as such attack on Titan is a show about the flow of information each episode includes an interstitial labeled information available for public disclosure which implies a trove of information not available to the public some of that classified information includes the Titan inside the wall brother Nick a priest of the wall might know something about it but he gets got by the interior police before he can say too much and when a young urban talks about some of his father's theories on history in public well let's just say that no one has to worry about waking daddy anymore another critical secret is the fact that some of these psycho killer Titans are in fact just shape-shifting people Aaron is the first example we meet but at the end of season one we see Annie shape-shift and in season two yamir Reiner and bertolt all transform we even see a town where most of the population has changed into Titans home gracious again stop judging the show tiger no come on I'm assuming of course this is a critical secret and one the nobles will do anything to keep under wraps that's just the tip of the conspiratorial iceberg behind the already repressive government there's an even more autocratic system that exists in the shadows it turns out that the king we thought was in charge is just a figurehead instead the city is ruled by the rice family currently rod and his heir Astoria who have the royal blood necessary to control the powers of the founding Titan salutes canola Lisa okay no choice kimono tonight torsion what's got in the hot tea Serena powers like changing the memory of the citizens and even creating the walls I know some journal kaboom also no children not you gonna down all of that is happening behind the scenes determining the fate of the people who have no idea it even exists the nobles go to great lengths to keep the secret government secret this includes orchestrating a series of attacks with the dual goals of kidnapping Aaron and historia for the sake of broad Rice's plan and framing the scouts for acting against humanity's interests they don't go in on Jude I know you have no meat on me then chores are here why frame the scouts because between seeing several different people turn into Titans they realized that the founding myth of their society that Titans are unthinking people eaters is in fact alive hmm who knows you can go no Hoss no no nor does anyone bother to mention the role Titans played in constructing the walls that define the world for most of humanity oh you've got a mom would it take almost every choice the show makes is premise on the withholding or discovery of information a double identity dad a guy well nigh about da tales Shinji that idea is so central to the show it's embedded into the narrative structure attack on Titan is a mystery box show where the primary driving force the narrative is moving from one secret to the next rather than moving along a narrative arcs it's a difficult balance but so far the show is pulled it off by putting the audience in the scouts shoes just as Aaron and Co have to decide who to trust and what to believe so do we as we watch the more we learn the more we understand but the more questions we have and same with the scouts but this doesn't mean people are kept totally in the dark rather the information people do get is designed to lead them to conclusions that support the system as is to that end there is a newspaper that provides information to the population unfortunately the only report with the interior police tell them they should - oh can you do this process of giving people enough information that they don't bother to question the structure providing it or the world they live in is described by scholar who mean Dabashi as epistemic and osmosis where older models of government assume the lower classes were unthinking illiterate idiots who wouldn't even know what to do with the truth Dabashi argues that power can be solidified by providing bad information to the thinking and literate people of the world Dabashi explains that this is information to consume not question furthermore it's not meant to generate a coherent body of knowledge but is instead sing serving meant to induce action for a specific event an attack on Titan we see this in the form of state propaganda and city newspapers that give people enough information that they feel like they're making decisions when instead they're being manipulated now while in the real world this kind of epistemic andaaz Moses generates new knowledge on demand for whatever benefits those in power want on a given day and has a pretty singular purpose an attack on Titan to maintain the myth of the Titan as outsider monster that story enables those in power to justify almost any action in the name of defending the people from the monsters outside the walls actions like rationing food limiting people's movement you know Mew none and even attempting to execute her win' who's a goddamn hero but why lie about the Titans in the first place well it varies from character to character but there are two main reasons power and belief as for power the city with a three wall designed to protect against Titan attacks also happens to be based on a strict class structure that enables the nobles cushy lifestyle they work to perpetuate a stratified City suffering from resource shortages and the occasional make a giant incident because it's that status quo that keeps them in mansions and fancy robes when urban orchestrates a false alarm about a Titan attack the nobles don't hesitate to bar refugees from the inner wall Jimmy knows you know so you see job in a small book we see that their interest in the system has nothing to do with protecting the people it's all about protecting themselves without the myths that control society someone might get to thinking that having a bunch of disconnected rich dudes in charge might be a bad idea the other more complicated reason is belief this idea is most clearly manifested in the character of Rod Reise Reise sincerely believes that the only way to protect the people is to use the power of the founding you know Covino ii scripted a decent olga georgian is a little sick I you know zonda kureta sora sora co so casino hey vidhata suit steve even if that means wiping people's minds and having his daughter eat her friend to become a Titan herself with all those fancy powers Cousteau that power is so crucial to maintaining the status quo that rice thinks there's no price too high to pay for it even his own daughter thus when she rescues Aaron he takes the serum himself to try and inherit the power but it goes awry and he almost kills everyone what makes this dynamic extra complicated is rod didn't always believe this as a younger man he and his brother Yuri wanted to destroy all the Titans but when you regained the founding Titans power he changed his mind and concluded that only the city could protect them no matter the motivation the problem with this hyper zealous way of thinking is that it turns all political questions into ethical questions the war was changed for rod rice whether he's trying to destroy all the Titans are maintaining the myth of the Titan the stakes are the existence of humanity the earth Chantal moof explains that when politics become a referendum on ethics the politics part ceases to exist in favor of a battle between us and them the process is simple an attack on titan the status quo is set up as the only way to protect humanity from the Titans that means anyone opposed to the system represents an existential threat that's oh hey hey okay sorry less and thus they're evil and when it comes to evil there's no reasoning with it the only option is to fight for instance when the city turns on the scouts it's because these former heroes put society in danger by questioning dogma so the scouts need to be destroyed the ultimate existential threat and ethical enemy according to the fat cats and meet RIS district is the Titans of course we know that's not entirely true after the scouts discover Connie's village to be empty they realized that many of the people there turned into Titans including Connie's mother but that doesn't matter in the face of an ethics when some people or Titans are determined to be an existential threat the idea of understanding them goes out the window instead it's time to grab the swords and slice some vital areas the Titans exist as threats to justify the status quo and things to destroy as a gesture towards safety that dynamic is maintained by the control of information of course but that monopoly starts to come apart on the personal level characters are constantly forced to choose between promises they made to friends or themselves and the broader lie fueled social obligations some characters have no issue rejecting the morals provided by society in the name of their own beliefs for instance historia is unconditionally loyal to a mere even though she's a Titan at the same time Eren is driven almost entirely by the hatred of titans chose uep noticed and others are torn between these obligations constantly like the titans serving in the scouts Berthold Reiner and Amir Burt field and Reiner love their fellow soldiers but are also bound to their duty as warriors they're willing to capture Eren but at the same time they do end up letting him go then they end up with the Beast Titan setting a trap for Aaron in the scouts so human will dose you'll use him tools in them Cocco them up today uh Scott on Kunda see they are pulled in two directions at once constantly switching between the two of course nothing an attack on titan is simple so the show is saying more than sometimes the rules of society conflict with personal commitment instead attack on titan makes it clear that as the social structure loses legitimacy whether through its failure to protect the people or its myths crumbling social bonds grow as the scouts discover the truth their connections solidify to the point of trumping their societal obligation that's why they go to rescue Aaron and historia even as society turns against them perhaps no other moment illustrates this point better than Aaron and historias confrontation in the cave rod rice has Aaron chained up and offers his story of the Titans serum if she takes it she will transform eat her friend Aaron and become the founding Titan that rod rice believes the city needs Aaron wants her to do it he thinks if she eats him she'll be able to not only protect the people but kill the Titans Aaron spouts the city's myths at historia to convince her Lionel mates and Sabine but she's not buying it she doesn't believe any of the social myths anymore not just because she knows the truth of the system she knew nothing but she also sees the moral truth any social arrangement that puts her in opposition to her best friend Amir is inherently wrong to her you meet nanny got so she rejects Rob's plan smashes the vial and Fries Aaron Aaron is arguing for the status quo while historia believes in the possibility of a better different world these are the real stakes of personal obligation versus the ethics provided by society personal ethics want to protect the values of the people while social ethics are designed to sustain the status quo attack on Titan the seasons two and three point to the dire fact that history can be used as a tool to tell the story that ends in the status quo that's why it's so important that the founding Titans powers include the ability to wipe the memory of the population by creating a history that fits their needs the people in charge are able to maintain persistent control of the population and give them ethical priorities that match the goals of the system an attack on Titan society is sustained by myths the powers that be will do anything to protect those stories and justify the status quo against the possibility of any other social model career aagama mauritania jindo a demonic career on Doheny Otsuki no yeti cheetah moo shu jimin Ticino ken de gobierno narada Sana'a Haga Doretta roto virus that includes killing titans even if they aren't monsters after all but rather people and during a terrible fate anything is justified if it means keeping society as it is intact so what do you think wisecrack is attack on titan a lesson on how power works or is there something we missed share your thoughts with the world or create your own professional website by clicking here to create your own free website with wigs also we got some great videos coming out before the end of the year including ones on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia the Justice League and one on j.r.r tolkien that we were working on for a while so stay tuned for that and until next time peace

Channel: Wisecrack

Views: 462,290

Rating: 4.9023085 out of 5

Keywords: attack on titan, attack on titan anime, Attack on Titan (Manga series), anime, Historia Reiss, Historia, Eren, Eren Yeager, Mikasa, Armin, Levi, titans, titan, attak on titan, philosophy, Film Analysis, secrets, uncovered, revealed, thugnotes, Wisecrack Edition, Wisecrack, analysis, top anime, film studies (field of study)

Id: Vv9cGjFi4zo

Length: 19min 8sec (1148 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 08 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/cormano64]

At 17:14 -

"Eren is arguing for the status quo while Historia believes in the possibility of a better, different world."

Well, well, well... how the turntables.