Board Thread:Manga/@comment-27321453-20181109001854/@comment-35822279-20181112072123

Gabi is a character that I think is made with a great idea in mind which is to be someone who inverts Eren/Reiner as individuals who can't escape the cycles of violence that they are stuck in and only serve to perpetuate those same cycles. The problem I have with Gabi is that while the intent of the character is admirable the execution is shoddy due to the overuse of narrative shortcuts that abandon basic logic in favour of what makes Gabi self flagellate the most (Ex. Did the family need to be the Braus family? I think a family Gabi had no connection with would serve the themes better as it would feel more natural rather than this ludicrous scenario) and a story that follows the most basic structure possible with no deviation or twists which makes it feel like Isayama is cribbing all his material from failed Oscar bait movies (ones that deal with racism specifically) of yesteryear with nothing else to add to the conversation in terms of thematic material that hasn't already been covered better in dozens of other movies or in this very same manga. Also honestly not a single person in this thread has convinced me that the Kaya scene or Mr. Braus speech were any good as the Kaya scene is still let down by a total lack of realism as every scene shared between her and Gabi is marked by extreme hostility with Gabi spewing out words that in our world would be the equivalent to anti-semitism or the N word and threatening to kill Kaya twice (Falco saved her ass the first time by knocking away the rock but she threatened to spear Kaya in broad daylight with a pitchfork) but I am supposed to believe that they are best friends like did I miss something (the timeline of events in this arc is seriously messed up right now as it felt like weeks could have passed between 109 and 111). Mr. Braus' speech is less egregious of a moment than Kaya's meltdown (just to clarify I didn't want to see Gabi get shanked as she is a child) but I still wanted to see Braus show emotion as the dialogue for me read as being stoic and emotionless as he pivoted immediately to a thematic speech rather than reacting like his child had just died and unfortunately in the end it felt like an inferior version of a similar scene in Spielberg's masterpiece Saving Private Ryan as that scene suceeded where this scene failed due to the complexity and raw emotion on display while this one forgot the emotion and went straight to Mr. Braus being a spokeperson for Isayama rather than a real character faced with a harsh choice. The thing is that themes like forgiveness and breaking cycles of hate are good themes to preach but they need to be handled better than this arc has handled them and hopefully Isayama tightens it up as this is basically the climax of the story and all the good intentions in the world can not overcome poor execution.