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A shinigami, huh?

Motherfucker

Interesting read, even if I had no opinion on AoT since I haven’t watched much of it nor engaged in the discourse at all. Not necessarily because I’m averse to le grimdark (I like Berserk so…) but because the whiplashes of trying to shock you by showing established characters getting eviscerated in gruesome detail got old past the first Titan attack.

I will say I like you pointing out how something so obvious as authorial intent is almost always overlooked by defenders of a given piece of fiction.

For my next trick I will explain why Fullmetal Alchemist; Brotherhood is apologia for the crimes of Imperial Japan

As someone who loves that anime and has rewatched it on a couple occasions, I hate the way the Ishvalan genocide is handled with a passion.

I actually like the art style, so I was happy to see the same studio apply it for Vinland Saga.

No offense to any fans of the show but damn if I’m not glad AoT never roped me in.

Golden Kamuy

While it’s true all of Western Europe is guilty, there’s a reason why people point to Britain first and foremost. Its empire was pretty much the codifier of what people think of when the word “superpower” is used. There wasn’t such an uncontested concentration of power in a single polity that could be projected globally until the UK came out on top from the Napoleonic Wars then went on to subjugate Asia and Africa by the mid-late 19th Century, essentially becoming master of the world market and trade networks (at least until the onset of WWI). Not even the Spanish and Portuguese Empires held such a monopoly. Even after the start of Britain’s terminal decline into becoming America’s lapdog in the cold war, it still influenced world politics in ways that still affect us today (relevantly, it was originally Israel’s patron power before the US supplanted them sometime in the 70s/80s).

Me looking at virtually any problem stemming from the 19th and 20th Centuries:

This was about settler-colonial states in particular. Not to say I wouldn’t love to see the Bourgeois Russian state go through another 7-11-1917.

It’s also just got a whole plotline about racism, but it feels slightly off? Like minorities are okay if they save your life.

Just gonna use this as an opportunity to rant about the PEAK LIB moment where one of those oppressed minorities talks about working for the same genocidal, imperialist military that destroyed his ancestral land because he wants to enact “change from within”. All while he talks down to another member of this group for resorting to extreme measures.

That’s right. Those partisans should have just called for “MORE 👏 JEWISH 👏 EINSATZGRUPPEN 👏 TROOPERS” instead.