Attack on Titan
Blog Entry: Attack on Titan
Blog Entry: Attack on Titan
My ramble about how I got into Attack on Titan. I went from not liking it, to thinking it was good, but not great, to being so amused by the fandom that I had to join in.
I started watching Attack on Titan because I heard so much about it. I expected action and fast paced fight scenes. It was basically a humans vs. bio-mechas kind of scenario from what I could tell. Then when I actually watched it, I considered stopping. Characters I didn't know enough to care about died, tragedy happened to characters I didn't know enough to care about, thus I was indifferent to said tragedies, and we got a lot of training and background stories for characters that I didn't care about even after I got to know them more.
I watched season one bit by bit when there was nothing better to entertain myself with, not expecting to ever get into it like the internet had. While I do like the main character, Eren, he felt too familiar. He's the energetic, vengeful boy who's willing to give his all and fight to the last breath. While such characters are cool, they're not exactly a novelty. Mikasa was alright, though she didn't stand out that much either and Armin kind of blended into the background. As for the others, I hardly even noticed there were other characters.
I think the main reason why I was semi-bored by season one was because I had no one to root for. Semi-bored because the world and plot were just interesting enough to keep me watching, but to really care about a series, I need to care about its characters. This usually translates to shipping an OTP 10% of the time and watching out for the next cool/awesome/funny/badass thing x is going to do next the other 90% of the time.
While I do like Eren and Mikasa together, they don't inspire the same strong level of shippyness that would make me watch the series for the ship alone. Eren is cool, but he's not quite unique enough to make me watch the series just for him. I will say it again, I don't dislike these characters, I like them, Eren is cool, Mikasa's badass, Armin is adorable, but they're not enough to keep my attention. Then came Levi... and I completely ignored him. The first season ended and there came season two.
I thought season two was significantly better than one. The first season had a lot of back-story that didn't feel all that exciting and a lot of training scenes that were necessary, but made everything feel slow. Finally, when the mission outside of the walls came, that's when everything got interesting for me. I liked watching the mission progress, the characters figure out what was happening and the fights. There were good fight scenes in season one also, but there were a lot of characters on screen and not enough of them that I cared about, so I liked the action, but didn't care so much for the outcome. I didn't even know anyone's names other than Eren, Mikasa and Armin until season two.
Ok, so this doesn't look so great so far. Certainly not good enough to devote my time to making fanfics, fanarts and pixels about this anime, (mostly Levi). Is there something that's not just good, but great? Well yes, lots of things, but that's a matter of opinion. For me, the thing that stands out the most is the ODM gear. I'm not so much into Eren's big battles because those tend to be titan vs. titan, which is basically a fist fight scaled up. As much as I enjoy hand to hand combat, there's nothing unique about it. The battles of the little humans versus the giants, now that's awesome. I really like the animation and how everything moved in those scenes.
That's still not enough to make me put this much time into making fanworks though. So what happened? The fandom happened. When I started to like Attack on Titan during season two, I went looking for fanworks and that make me like it more. This isn't unusual for me. Series that are not carried by an OTP or a bishonen, can be carried by the fandom. There's Levi, he's kind of a bishonen, but I didn't pay attention to him before the fandom directed my attention to him. I mean, he's tiny, the little neat freak is easy to miss.
I still think the characters are good, not great, but still very good in their own right. That includes Levi, to be honest, but the fandom has enhanced him to be awesome status in my eyes, enough to make me contribute to said fandom myself. So thank you, to all of you who make Levi and Attack on Titan fanworks, you unleashed the army of plot bunnies that are making me write a Levi x Reader fanfic novel. You are the ones that gave me the inspiration and energy to draw pictures and pixels and many more artworks to come. I am now part of the force that made me this way, recruiting more unsuspecting fans to join the Survey Corps.
I started watching Attack on Titan because I heard so much about it. I expected action and fast paced fight scenes. It was basically a humans vs. bio-mechas kind of scenario from what I could tell. Then when I actually watched it, I considered stopping. Characters I didn't know enough to care about died, tragedy happened to characters I didn't know enough to care about, thus I was indifferent to said tragedies, and we got a lot of training and background stories for characters that I didn't care about even after I got to know them more.
I watched season one bit by bit when there was nothing better to entertain myself with, not expecting to ever get into it like the internet had. While I do like the main character, Eren, he felt too familiar. He's the energetic, vengeful boy who's willing to give his all and fight to the last breath. While such characters are cool, they're not exactly a novelty. Mikasa was alright, though she didn't stand out that much either and Armin kind of blended into the background. As for the others, I hardly even noticed there were other characters.
I think the main reason why I was semi-bored by season one was because I had no one to root for. Semi-bored because the world and plot were just interesting enough to keep me watching, but to really care about a series, I need to care about its characters. This usually translates to shipping an OTP 10% of the time and watching out for the next cool/awesome/funny/badass thing x is going to do next the other 90% of the time.
While I do like Eren and Mikasa together, they don't inspire the same strong level of shippyness that would make me watch the series for the ship alone. Eren is cool, but he's not quite unique enough to make me watch the series just for him. I will say it again, I don't dislike these characters, I like them, Eren is cool, Mikasa's badass, Armin is adorable, but they're not enough to keep my attention. Then came Levi... and I completely ignored him. The first season ended and there came season two.
I thought season two was significantly better than one. The first season had a lot of back-story that didn't feel all that exciting and a lot of training scenes that were necessary, but made everything feel slow. Finally, when the mission outside of the walls came, that's when everything got interesting for me. I liked watching the mission progress, the characters figure out what was happening and the fights. There were good fight scenes in season one also, but there were a lot of characters on screen and not enough of them that I cared about, so I liked the action, but didn't care so much for the outcome. I didn't even know anyone's names other than Eren, Mikasa and Armin until season two.
Ok, so this doesn't look so great so far. Certainly not good enough to devote my time to making fanfics, fanarts and pixels about this anime, (mostly Levi). Is there something that's not just good, but great? Well yes, lots of things, but that's a matter of opinion. For me, the thing that stands out the most is the ODM gear. I'm not so much into Eren's big battles because those tend to be titan vs. titan, which is basically a fist fight scaled up. As much as I enjoy hand to hand combat, there's nothing unique about it. The battles of the little humans versus the giants, now that's awesome. I really like the animation and how everything moved in those scenes.
That's still not enough to make me put this much time into making fanworks though. So what happened? The fandom happened. When I started to like Attack on Titan during season two, I went looking for fanworks and that make me like it more. This isn't unusual for me. Series that are not carried by an OTP or a bishonen, can be carried by the fandom. There's Levi, he's kind of a bishonen, but I didn't pay attention to him before the fandom directed my attention to him. I mean, he's tiny, the little neat freak is easy to miss.
I still think the characters are good, not great, but still very good in their own right. That includes Levi, to be honest, but the fandom has enhanced him to be awesome status in my eyes, enough to make me contribute to said fandom myself. So thank you, to all of you who make Levi and Attack on Titan fanworks, you unleashed the army of plot bunnies that are making me write a Levi x Reader fanfic novel. You are the ones that gave me the inspiration and energy to draw pictures and pixels and many more artworks to come. I am now part of the force that made me this way, recruiting more unsuspecting fans to join the Survey Corps.