Attack on Titan Manga: Chapter 127 Review

[Warning: Contains spoilers] 

Never has an AoT chapter made me so happy I’d be willing to forgive all my enemies IRL, but this one is so good I’m on the verge of granting clemency to one and all (insert mad happy smiling face here).

Seriously speaking, it’s been so long since we’ve had a chapter where Jean is a central character. Here he has plenty of dialogue, plenty of action, everything a Jean stan could ever hope for. 

In Chapter 126 Jean’s remembering Marco was seen as a death flag, and while I’ve been struggling for years trying to prepare my heart for his death—I’m still theorizing most of the characters die in the end—at least we’ve been gifted one more month of Jean being alive.

Oh and how very awesome, how truly hot he is in this chapter. There’s so much awesomeness I’m finding it difficult to know where to begin.

In the beginning page we see him fantasizing about a blissful, peaceful family life with a dark-haired wife everybody is assuming to be Mikasa. And why shouldn’t he? He’s had a huge crush on her as an adolescent and apparently he’s carried that flame in his heart this whole time. Even if it weren’t Mikasa, we all know Jean’s type: a person with long dark hair 🙂 Does it matter who she is? Do rabid eremika fans have the right to demand Jean’s head on a platter because he so obviously cares about both Eren and Mikasa? No and no.

Jean clearly and concisely enumerates the reasons why stopping Eren will end in Paradis’ demise. They tried to think of a viable solution and came up empty-handed. Yet Hange takes the moral high ground and says genocide is unacceptable no matter what. Stop Eren first, scramble for a solution later. If this isn’t the perfect ‘damned if we do, damned if we don’t’ situation then I don’t know what is. I’m really looking forward to how Isayama decides to solve this dilemma. 

My heart goes out to Hange. They get so much hate for being a weak and indecisive commander, but I can’t bring myself to criticize them. A scientist not cut out for a leadership role, and yet how many times did Hange’s wisdom save Eren and the Survey Corps? Hange haters like to ignore the fact that without Hange and her smarts the story would have ended a long time ago. In this chapter Hange confesses they also considered accepting Eren’s solution and just hiding away, but decided to come face-to-face with reality: that freedom at the cost of genocide was selfish and narrow-minded, and that none of her colleagues who died fighting for freedom would agree to such a solution. That panel where Erwin and Míche are shown up close made me tear up. How Hange must love and miss them!

Mikasa has somewhat redeemed herself in this chapter, by agreeing to help Hange stop Eren commit genocide, on the condition that Eren doesn’t get killed. But I’m suspicious of her motives; I feel that she only wants to use the others so that they can reach Eren and she can finally confess her love for him, that thing she failed to do (and regretted afterwards) while they were in Marley. She couldn’t care less whether Eren destroyed the world or not. Annie hit the nail on the head when she astutely points out that Mikasa is incapable of truly caring for anyone other than Eren. The very thought of having to put Eren down to stop him she absolutely cannot live with. But then, as Annie concedes, first they’ll have to try. Afterwards, if and when dialogue doesn’t work, well, I guess it’s a free for all, that huge descent into total chaos. Ah, Isayama! How you make the month-long wait so utterly difficult! Just wanted to note that compared to the younger yet now more cool-headed, mature and grown-up Annie, the hot-headed Mikasa is like an uncontrollable child.

Mikasa and Armin still insist that talking to Eren will change the latter’s mind. Will it? At this point in time dialogue seems futile. But these two will never give up on Eren, they love him too much to even consider the possibility of having to kill him. Mikasa’s sudden outburst…thank goodness Annie decided not to bite! They manage to agree to a détente just for the time being, putting into play the possibility of an Annie vs Mikasa showdown in the end, if dialogue fails and Annie will take it upon herself to try to kill Eren. Mikasa makes it clear: killing Eren meant killing her. We never got to see what happened when these two hotties faced off for hand-to-hand combat during their trainee days (Shadis supposedly stepped in before they could go further), but I’m betting we’ll get a real fight-to-the-death in the end.

That tiny panel where Levi sits up and tells everyone they’re rackety is the one bit of humor we have in this chapter. He’s adorable, poor baby. It’s okay, Levi-heichou, just lie down and concentrate on healing and staying alive. You’ll have your chance with Zeke in the near future. 

There’s another flashback of Marco and Jean finally decides to cooperate with Hange. Marco truly meant a lot to Jean, and we can see that in his beating up Reiner in anger, after the latter confesses the details of Marco’s death. Reiner didn’t even fight back, and later, when Jean says he’s unforgiven, he accepts it without question. 

Annie’s asking in a small voice if she could be forgiven, that was kind of cute. So much hate goes out to Annie for her exterminating Squad Levi and many others. And yet I find myself wanting to make excuses her because she’s so cool what she did were wartime acts. They were spies sent by Marley to search and destroy, and against their better judgement they did exactly that. But then again, there’s a difference between killing and gleeful killing. At times Annie seemed to enjoy the act of murder, and this is where a lot of anti-Annie hatred comes from. Perhaps her being gleeful was the only way she could keep her sanity? There I go again, looking for excuses. In the end, does she deserve forgiveness? Do our enemies deserve forgiveness? Who deserves to be forgiven, and who does not? In a state of war where the rules of engagement (if there are any to begin with) are so easily broken and twisted, how much is too much? Taking up those themes will require a whole other post. Another time!

Yelena being outed as a Marleyan Zeke superfangirl wasn’t too surprising. She outdid herself in this chapter, summarizing all the bad things everyone around the campfire had done, unwittingly helping them realize the fact they all did terrible things in each others’ eyes, and yet this tit-for-tat, this cycle of violence will never end unless they decide to do something about it.

Next they’re seen arguing around a campfire. Those scenes of Jean having a back and forth with Magat are pure gold. The general of Marley versus the future general of Paradis. Jean clearly isn’t afraid to speak his mind, and both he and Magat make perfectly valid points from their respective points of view. 

And then we have this:

This has got to be my favorite panel in the entire chapter: Jean angrily pointing out that if Marley hadn’t destroyed the walls and Eren hadn’t had to witness his mother eaten right in front of him then he wouldn’t be destroying the world in the first place. There were so many wonderful scenes to choose from but this one clearly takes the cake. I’ve kept banging on to whoever cares to listen that among the 104th it is Jean more than anyone who understands Eren the most, understands his strengths, his weaknesses, his joys and sadness, his pain and pleasure, his dreams…This chapter fully validates my feelings. Jean just GETS Eren. I’m biased, of course, because I ship erejean/jeanere. They’re so hot I like imagining them in bed together, despite being fully aware that in Isayama’s universe Jean and Eren are but comrades who’ve grown to respect each other, which means there won’t ever be erejean in canon. But a fujoshi can fantasize. Anyhow, putting shit shipping aside, Jean once again sticks up for Eren, telling the other group THE TRUTH from Paradis’ side of the story.

One reason I was incredibly touched by this scene was because I felt Jean was speaking up for Mikasa and Armin, expressing their feelings for them so that they wouldn’t have to. It was Mikasa who was there on that fateful day. A year ago she’d seen her biological father and mother murdered in front of her, and now she was seeing her adopted mother eaten in front of her. Both times she could only watch helplessly. What incredible trauma that must have caused. In order for her not to lose her mind she must have hidden those horrifying scenes in the deepest corner of her mind, never to be retrieved by her again because they were simply too painful. If she had to say what Jean had said, she’d probably just ended up screaming and screaming, unable to form her mouth into words.

But Jean says for her what she couldn’t, tells the bloody truth about what has driven Eren to go berserk. I love how the panel shows the four of them: Jean, Armin, Mikasa, Connie. Jean is being the leader here, speaking for this group of soldiers saddled with the burden of saving the world at their own demise. 

Before the two alphas (Magat and Jean) can continue slitting each other’s throats, maybe literally this time, the rational-minded Hange steps in and speaks another truth: they had more pressing matters to attend to than argue over history. Hange deftly de-escalates the situation. This makes me want to write more and more about Jean and Hange and their mentor-mentee rapport: the current SC commander and the future one. It’s a heartwarming relationship. So much to go on here.

Hange again works her magical timing and offers everyone stew and there they are, sitting round the campfire like a bunch of comrades. I love how Hange is shown in the middle, with Magat to her left and Jean to her right. It clearly shows the chain of command on both sides, with Hange as the mediator trying desperately to bridge the warring factions.

Yelena is pissed by Jean’s remark that her mission turned out into an abject failure, so hits back and causes discord by prompting Reiner and Annie to tell Jean the truth about Marco’s death. Jean, however, doesn’t react immediately. He asks, and this simply breaks my heart, what Marco’s last words were. His last words: “We haven’t talked this out yet.”

This panel, really, it’s everything. Marco pleaded for his life, asking them for a chance at dialogue. He was ignored and then eaten by a pure titan. If these last words of Marco weren’t important I don’t think Isayama would have put all characters in one panel with these words right in the middle. This puts front and center the importance of diplomacy. It might not work, but it should always be the first resort. Talk first, act later, and not the other way around. The world refused to talk to Paradis, and so Eren took matters into his own hands and decided to act because no one would listen. That’s why their world is in this mess right now. 

Once again I’m both amazed and impressed at how Isayama seems to have thought this manga through and through, from beginning to end. Marco’s death was detailed in Chapter 18, published a decade ago. Here we see Jean deciding to join the Survey Corps after seeing his best friend’s head bitten in half by a titan. And now we go full circle with Chapters 126 and 127, with Marco’s last words again pushing Jean in the right direction. I’ve never warmed to Isayama’s drawing style, but his storytelling is best of the best.

Reiner apologizes to Jean for getting Marco killed. Jean does what any best friend would do: punch the culprit in the face. But he doesn’t react immediately; it was when Reiner–wracked by guilt and shame–went on talking about what he did after Marco died that Jean snapped. We see the titan shifter not even raising his arms to defend himself. He thinks he deserves every blow. I always imagined a scene where Reiner, after telling Jean what he did to Marco, hands Jean a revolver and says, “Go ahead, shoot me. I no longer wish to live.” Jean takes the revolver and aims it at the titan shifter’s head. But after a moment he throws away the gun, punching Reiner instead and saying to him afterwards, “You can atone for what you did by living the life Marco would have wanted for himself, that is, serving the monarchy. Serve and protect Queen Historia. If you fail then I’ll shoot you for real.”  

Gabi is down on her knees begging and pleading for Jean’s help in stopping Eren. He doesn’t give her an immediate answer, but instead goes into the woods to try to put his mind in order. The tears threatening to fall, the way he holds his head in anguish, the emotions flickering across his face…ah! Jean at his most vulnerable. Thank you, Isayama, for giving us another gander at the depth of Jean’s feelings, the conflicting thoughts battling in his mind, the struggle between the easy road and the hard one. All too human, all too real, all too relatable. And people ask me in disbelief why Jean is my favorite character in AoT. Duh!

We see a moment where Magat reaches out to comfort Gabi, but something stops him. He’s always had a soft spot for the girl. I found this scene rather touching. Maybe she reminds him of a daughter he has left at home in Marley? 

Gabi’s been growing by leaps and bounds. The way she threw herself to protect her beloved big brother/cousin Reiner from Jean’s blows was endearing albeit foolish: Reiner’s the shifter with healing abilities and she’s a non-titan girl. And then we see her and Falco on their knees begging the 104th for their help. Gabi’s character development has been great so far. 

The next morning we see Jean having a moment with Gabi, telling her he’ll help, apologizing to her for kicking her. That large, warm hand on her shoulder as he wakes her…if Jean isn’t the most father material among the 104th then I don’t know who is! That scene just warms the cockles of my heart. If by now Jean isn’t among your favorite characters yet then I suppose you and I will never be friends.

Ah, what a wonderful, glorious chapter! The tension, the forced camaraderie, the disharmony, the compromises made, the emotions bubbling on the surface and finally exploding. To all my enemies IRL: I forgive you for, at least until the next chapter arrives.

Thank you, Isayama, thank you for giving Jean another month to live. I know you’ll probably kill him later, but at least you gave us more good memories to remember him by. Chapter 127 is one I’ll read over and over again. I love Jean so much all I ever want is for him to be happy—no matter who with, no matter how. Yeah, I know it’s too much to ask so I really shouldn’t bother. All I can do, in Rod Reiss’ words, is to pray. Hell, I don’t even believe in an omniscient, omnipotent god. See what you make me do, Isayama! 

The thing is that Isayama has this story-telling style of lifting up a character so that he can smash them to smithereens the next. He did it with Míche, original Squad Levi, Bertholdt, Hannes, then with Kenny Ackermann, Sasha and so on. They were all given a chance to shine, have their moment in the spotlight, their five minutes of fame, their last hurrah, right before they get killed, often in a brutal manner. Is that what Isayama has done for Jean in this chapter? Letting the whole world see for certain what an unquestionably great guy, an awesome dude, a wonderful person he is, so that he (Isayama) can fully and completely break our hearts by killing him next chance he gets? 

*Sigh* I can’t stand the anxiety!

We got our Annie back, so next chapter I hope we get Historia. I miss her so much and it’s just been way too long. Where are you, oh Queen? Please come out from wherever you’re hiding and help Jean already. I’m just hoping against hope that she and Eren have planned something better than we could’ve ever hoped for. I can’t wait, fingers crossed and all!

Thank you so much for reading! Please consider sharing a thought or two in the comment section below. Your comments give me life and are a real source of encouragement. xoxo, hana

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