I teach a novel in my literature class, Tim O Brien s
The Things They Carried, that is widely regarded as one of the finest pieces of writing about warfare and the life of a soldier ever written, at least in the English language. The novel is a collection of metafictional short stories that blur the line between the author s actual lived experiences as a soldier in Vietnam and the fictions he has invented to try and communicate the painful truths of what it is like to be a young man sent to fight in a war. The first story, also titled “The Things They Carried”, focuses on the soldiers of Alpha Company, and particularly how all of them are shaken by the sudden and random death of their squadmate, Ted Lavender, who is shot in the head while taking a piss outside the small village of Than Ke. One of the soldiers, Kiowa, summarizes the shock that comes from seeing your friend s life extinguished in an instant, along with the eerie, pointless banality that distinguishes so many wart
Are these the sort of sights you saw? As I write this, it has only been a few hours since the trailer dropped for 2021 s
Godzilla Vs. Kong, which turned out to be a wonderfully potent moment of kaiju synchronicity, as it put me in the perfect headspace to enjoy “Assault”. We re nearly halfway done with this run of Attack on Titan The Final Season – given how much ground I m told the anime has left to cover the jury is still out on whether a “Part 2” or feature film will be needed to wrap up the series – and “Assault” serves as a perfect escalation of the climactic action that began when Eren brought the bloody fury of Paradis to Marley s doorstep. The younger sister of Willy (who I erroneously identified as Fine, though the internet tells me she might not have been given a name) is encased in a protective crystal, which even the Attack Titan cannot shatter with brute force alone. While The Beast, Cart, and Jaw Titans all coordinate their offensive on Eren, the r
But yeah, we re delving into the supposed Final Season of
Attack on Titan, a series that s been running more or less since I first started watching seasonal anime. So it feels almost nostalgic to be back with all the characters we ve come to know and love over the last 8 years. Like, uh.actually wait who are these bozos?
Attack on Titan: Now with Even MORE children committing war crimes!!
Though, the biggest war crime might be the one committed against Reiner s wallet there. (no it s not)
Oh hey, right, that s Reiner in the back. I didn t recognize him with the new beard and the faint glimmer of life in his eyes.
There s no doubt that Eldians are the spawn of the devil. And there s no doubt that we re devils ourselves.
The opening scene of “The War Hammer Titan” flashes us back to Willy Tybur and Magath hatching a plot to sacrifice Willy along with countless other Marleyans to the attack from Eren Yeager that they know is coming. This naturally calls to mind the many conspiracies that have surrounded events like the sinking of the Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, and even the World Trade Center attacks of September 11th, 2001; all of these are tragedies that people have singled out as deliberate ploys by the U.S. and other powerful governments to instigate the fervor of battle in civilian populations and justify entering into costly and deadly wars. These are only the most famous, of course; pretty much any major military conflict of the past century has any number of secret plots to go along with it, all of which attest to varying degrees the secret doctrines that push and pull the average ci