So I just reviewed AoT Chapter 139 (last chapter) and the summaries of the last manga arc leading up to Ch139. If we are to assume the author intended to create a right-wing subtext into the manga and try to find themes in there, here are some creative readings I can think of. Not everything will fit, as I might be misinterpreting and also some elements will be purely fictional creations to keep the manga itself entertaining/interesting.
== probably spoilers below ==
- Eldians being exploited by Marley: Asia being colonized by European powers in 19th century. (Maybe specifically the U.S.; also could be read as the ABCD Trade Bloc against Japan – America Britain Netherlands (and I would take out China from the original bloc, as it doesn’t fit the narrative, and add France maybe)
- Other nations outside of Marley that are competing with/at war with Marley: other European powers that didn’t get to colonize Asia but that are competing/at war with the above ones. So could be like Russian Empire, Germany, Italy, etc. Anime dialogues show that Marley was at war with most countries in the past, won them decisively, and was now in a lot of cease-fires and on some military clashes with some nations. So this could be the U.S./Britain winning WW1 and being not in active clash with Germany in the 30’s.
- Eldians’ Titan power: Asia’s natural resources or maybe the “inner power of the spirit/mind” like something unique to the “Orient” that the West cannot understand
- Marley using Eldian Titans to wage war with other countries: Britain, US, Netherlands using Asia’s natural resources to wage war with other European powers
- Eldians living in Paradis: Japan
- the story of how Eldians committed an ancient sin and were expelled to Paradis: beats me, maybe it’s a “Eldians in Marley have been brainwashed by Marley about this fake ancient sin! There is no ancient sin! Just like Japan did nothing wrong in WW2!” argument
- Eldians in Paradis forgetting their Titan power: maybe pre-Meiji/modernization Japan or a Japan that doesn’t realize its true inner potential as a world power
- Eren Jaeger intending to destroy Marley to save Japan/free all Eldians: WW2 Japan’s military command going on a crusade against the West+U.S. to free Asia from Western colonialism
- The Power of the Rumbling: maybe a right wing fantasy about how WW2 Japan was actually powerful enough to win WW2
- Mikasa killing Eren: maybe a right wing revisionism claiming that it was actually the people of Japan rebuking the military and deciding to not win WW2 that ended the war, and not Japan actually losing the war?
- Eren’s founding Titan power brainwashing people/making people block some memories: during WW2 the people of Japan were just being brainwashed by the military command – it’s not their fault
- The “While Eren’s methods were brutal, it was still for a greater good” subtext: “Imperial Japan’s military command did bad things but it was for a greater good: to free Asia”
- In Ch129, Eldians who fought against Eren coming back to the island: maybe some right wing fantasy about how Asians misunderstand WW2 Japan and hate it but some of them are coming to their senses and starting to recognize the intent for greater good. (Well, there is an actual debate in academic circles that “Japan’s imperial occupation actually set the industrial foundation for each country’s post-war development”. That debate does exist within South Korea – although it’s highly political and lopsided towards the “that’s nonsense” side)
This scene in Ch129 catches my eye because the characters are emphatically saying “to appeal for peace… we must tell them (the Japanese people who think Japan was at fault during WW2) the truth of that story, which unfolded before our very eyes” - Why did Japan appear as a country in the story, as something completley unrelated to Eldians?: So that people can’t criticize AoT as glorifying WW2 Japan since “Japan is a separate country inside the story! see?”
- That weird Eldian mass euthanasia mini-arc that apparently fizzles out: hmm so the Euthanasia Plan was that to end the cycle of violence, Zeke wanted to use the power of the Founding Titan to force every Eldian in the world to stop reproducing – this would mean that over a slow span of 80+ years, Eldians would each die out of natural death and at the end Eldians would cease to exist on earth. That would mean no more Titans, and world peace. But Eren only pretended to agree with the plan.. and last minute (Chatper 122?) betrays the plan, moving ahead with the world destruction. So when I think of this in the context of the aging crisis in Japan – people are getting older, people are not having babies, and population is expected to shrink – maybe right wingers are setting up a Left Straw Man so that they can criticize/mock the aging crisis from a right wing perspective. “You lefties who think Japan did wrong in WW2, are you trying to atone for the sins by not having babies? Bullshit! Make babies and Make Japan Great Again!”
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