(no subject)

[hushpiper]

It occurred to me that I should probably formally state something about how I’m approaching basically all the things I’m thinking and meta I’m writing about SNK lately:

I’m assuming that everybody here is a rational actor, and that everything we see happening is the result of a logical, reasonable choice on somebody’s part.

This is inevitably gonna steer me wrong at some points, because people act stupidly or imperfectly or out of emotional impulse all the time in this manga, and mind control is a real and fascinating possibility that we can’t rule out. It’s just that I think this has to be our default assumption. Otherwise the sheer volume of things we don’t know overwhelms our ability to make sense of anything. So I’m giving preference to rational explanations for people’s actions–especially Eren’s actions–wherever such explanations are available. And so far, there’s always been one available.