Attack on Titan is one of the most popular tales of our time. It’s been printed in manga, published online, and watched and loved by millions across the globe, not to mention the coffee shops, merch, and theme park?!
But why?
Among a lot of other lessons. I’d like to share the central one I learned from this incredible story. That lesson is 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲.
Isayama creates a large cast from the get-go, and in so doing, he makes a lot of characters that we, as the audience get to know and care for. Because of this big cast of characters, he has more room to establish and inflict consequences on that cast based on their actions.
Think about what makes a fight scene truly gripping. The choreography? Maybe. The close calls? Sure. But what really makes it exciting is uncertainty. If you don’t know whether the hero will win or lose the fight they’re in, the stakes are exponentially raised. However, if you know your heroes will never get hurt or truly risk death in conflicts within the story, you’ll never really care beyond “that was cool”. So where does Isayama go right in making all of his conflicts so nail-biting and action-packed? 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬.
More specifically, showing his audience that no one is safe. You’ve heard people say that character deaths need to have meaning to them or they’re not satisfying, right? Well, I think that’s not necessarily true.
Characters in Attack on Titan die for all sorts of reasons. And not all of them are instrumental in moving the plot forward. However, each death shows the story’s audience that we can lose anyone at any time for any reason. It doesn’t matter how long we’ve known them, how minor or major they are, they can die at any time in this plot. Why? Because Attack on Titan is set in war! When people fight with the intention of killing one another, not everyone we love is going to make it out every time. So, not only is “meaningless” character death realistic, but it has a purpose in raising the stakes of the story. Not to mention that meaningless deaths set quite the grim tone (something else Isayama is incredibly good at).
So, what’s the overarching lesson here? Let your characters fall. Let them lose. Let some of them die even! High-stakes are what keep us turning the page, clicking on the next chapter, and watching the next episode. By establishing uncertainty in conflict and realistic consequences to the actions of your characters, you set a precedent of uncertainty amongst your audience that will have them hooked. After all, if they never lost, it would be a pretty boring story, wouldn’t it?
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