Attack on Titan: Shingeki no Kyojin

[DarthEnderX]

They weren't really Aberrants. They were normal guys who responded to the female titan's scream. My understanding is that they all respond that way.

Well, they called them aberrants, like, twice. So I'm just taking their word for it.

And as for the reason not to kill those things, they said before that the key to fighting titans is to NOT fight them. The soldiers were bait, just like in the mission where they tried attracting all the titans to the corner of the wall so Eren could move the boulder - they don't want unnecessary casualties. Killing titans, as far as they knew, didn't help their cause, but increases the chance of people dying while doing so.

I just, I don't agree, I guess. Seems like free titan kills to me. As long as they continued to ignore them, there was no reason not to be putting them down. Everyone you kill now is still going to be one less to fuck up some other plan in the future.

[Buffalobiian]

Well, they called them aberrants, like, twice. So I'm just taking their word for it.

So all the titans outside that were previously normal just became aberrants? They based that comment on the fact that they didn't act like how the humans expected normal titans would. The key here is that they never knew normal titans had a hard-wired KILL-THE-BOSS command.

I just, I don't agree, I guess. Seems like free titan kills to me. As long as they continued to ignore them, there was no reason not to be putting them down. Everyone you kill now is still going to be one less to fuck up some other plan in the future.

Are you talking about where Erwin told the troops to back off from the Titans who were attacking the female titan? Or how he told the recruits/soldiers to stay at the forest's edge?

If it was the latter, the titans weren't ignoring the soldiers. That's why the soldiers worked as bait.

[DarthEnderX]

So all the titans outside that were previously normal just became aberrants?

I don't remember them ever showing that all the titans outside had left. Just that a bunch of titans suddenly ran past them.

I don't think it was clear whether it was the same titans, or a new group showing up.

Are you talking about where Erwin told the troops to back off from the Titans who were attacking the female titan?

This, as I assumed this is what Kraco was talking about as well.

You have this big group of titans, completely ignoring the humans while eating the female titan. There's no reason not to use that opportunity to kill all of them, and maybe prevent the female from escaping at the same time.

[Kraco]

they don't want unnecessary casualties. Killing titans, as far as they knew, didn't help their cause, but increases the chance of people dying while doing so.

Allow me to laugh: Hahahahahaa! Which part of this arc exactly gave you an honest feeling of avoiding unnecessary casualties? I'm with Eren all the way through: This was an exceedingly cruel mission where a single objective was attempted to be reached, no matter how high the casualties. The border troops doing nothing but comfortably sitting on their hands was the one and only instance of anything trying to keep the death list shorter. And the operation itself paid the price, rather ironically, because that meant there was a full horde of giants right next to the forest to suddenly run in.

Keeping the titans at the edge of the forest enhanced their visibility of the titans while leaving no trees for them to use for offence. If they wanted to kill them they would have had to bring them into the forest some more. Reducing visibility meant a higher possibility for a titan to have walked past them undetected, sabotaging the plan.

Yeah, that sounds just fine theoretically, but the episode itself doesn't support your claim. We saw clearly enough the edge they were "holding" wasn't always the very last trees. And even if it was, if they had had any interest in the enemy, they could have maneuvered easily back and forth and taken down titans left and right, like the one climbing between two trunks.

There's simply no forgiving the last decision to drop fighting the titans. Not only did it allow the titan controller escape (if he/she was able to escape so easily from the very midst of the titans' attention, the level of danger wasn't much), but it also meant all those people had died for nothing but a couple of scraps of information, nothing more. Erwin is not just a man who can abandon everything, he's a man who can abandon everything and spit on the graves of those he abandoned. And somebody should tell him that.

[Y]

Comparison shots of the show vs the bluray releases.

http://i.imgur.com/WS0zPKU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ixHrDQI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/1jYKMrE.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/NSLLKEG.jpg

A lot of the idiotface is gone in these shots, some unfinished shots are done, and Mikasa is no longer wearing lip gloss in training.

[shinta|hikari]

Lip gloss is gone. Perfect.

[Buffalobiian]

Hmm, damn. I've come to like a little bit of lip gloss.

[DarthEnderX]

Me too! Bring it back!

Seriously though, it's cool their making the BRs look better.

Is that a common thing in anime these days? Or is it new?

[Buffalobiian]

Me too! Bring it back!

Seriously though, it's cool their making the BRs look better.

Is that a common thing in anime these days? Or is it new?

I think it's relatively new. My impression is that current industry state meant that more companies are running into such problems more frequently. Some have gotten away with it in the past, so this approach now seems more "acceptable". If you don't make the airing deadline, there's always the BD.

I'm not sure how much of this is intentionally done to drive sales (censoring used to be a thing), or how effective it is in doing so.

[shinta|hikari]

Censoring works as a sales booster because even gag anime parody that trend.

[Augury]

Fixing the light sources really jumps out in the BD versions. I didn't notice it at all when watching, but with the still shots side by side the mistakes are a lot more obvious.

[DarthEnderX]

[HorribleSubs] Shingeki no Kyojin - 21: 1080p | 720p | 480p












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*ahem*

SO FUCKING AWESOME!!!


Titan power + Special abilities + obvious veteran combat training = quite frustrating opponent.

Eren is right though, he shouldn't have trusted them twice. He trusted his team the first time, and they failed, the titan got away. The 2nd time, he should have transformed and fought with them.

On the plus side, he's clearly much more lucid this time than he was in previous transformations.


She obviously took him alive, so I'm guessing the titans also want whatever is in Eren's basement.

[Buffalobiian]

I can't stop cheering for Annie. She's killing lots of people, both directly and indirectly (I'm assuming the wall breaches were the doing of her party), but I don't want her to die. The reason may be that I don't see her as a complete monster. She leaves the lives of the people she knows (and cares to some degree about), and her human character wasn't a bitch either. All this leads me to think that she does everything for an unselfish reason. Ever the less, I want to hear her side of the story.

Oh, and she's hot.

I also don't think I'll end up getting a Mikasa nendoroid, but I find this face hilarious. The 3D gear's kinda nice, so who knows..

[DarthEnderX]

The reason may be that I don't see her as a complete monster. She leaves the lives of the people she knows (and cares to some degree about), and her human character wasn't a bitch either.

Given that her human character is likely a complete act, and as a titan she's a TOTAL bitch, I'm comfortable assuming she's really a bitch.

All this leads me to think that she does everything for an unselfish reason.

Yeah, but I'm sure it's some titan-centric reason.

I've no doubt there's going to be some Shyamalanian twist eventually, but until then, I'm just going to act as though the titans are dicks, and anyone helping them are also dicks.

[David75]

She's way too smart to categorize her I guess.
She has an objective we do not know about and she does what's needed for that.
Her reasons for not killing one or another can have multiple reasons, friendship might be one of those, but I would not use that too much.
She's incredibly gifted in fighting, Titan control, strategy, reflexes, planning. She knows to take huge risks and evades dire situations.
You really can't exactly pinpoint why she makes some choices.

Buff, I guess you like her for all those reasons, and that's why that show got a second boost in interrest. That character is the best to date. No one comes close in any department yet. Levi might be good too, but we've got no sound proof yet, and his party died, so he'd need to be several orders of magnitude more awesome than what we've seen so far to catch up.

Also, a good hero show isn't good because of the hero, but thanks to the villain(s). And for the moment that character is nicely depicted in that role.

[MFauli]

super awesome episode, loved every bit.

the titan vs titan-fight, sooo good. only complain: why did eren stop moving right before annie finished him off? he just stood there, watching what was coming (and what was it that had him so shocked?!). kinda annoying.

i had hoped that at least one of eren´s squad members would (severely wounded) survive the encounter with the female titan, just so there´s someone who can properly report to Levi what really happened. As is, it could be interpreted as Eren losing his mind and going all friendly fire and stuff. though i assume levi is smart enough to figure out what actually happened.

while great to look at, i just dont like mikasa´s super human abilities. it´s simply too much.

one objective complaint for last: so now everyone has enough gas fuel to use their 3d gear for long travels? lol okay

edit: @Buff: Im waiting for a "hotter" Mikasa figurine :P One with more of dat cleavage. :>

[Inazuma]

You see, and that's why SNK ranks so high.
You fall asleep watching railgun, you lose track of HxH, you stay for SxS comedy and boobs but you stay fidel to SnK because shit is going to hit the fan and Mikasa is going to get sexyangry.

[Buffalobiian]

I'd love to see sexy angry, because so far Mikasa gives me the impression that she goes lunatic-angry when something happens to Eren. It transitions from the above pic to something like this:




Erwin Smith... now he's a sexy angry. :3

the titan vs titan-fight, sooo good. only complain: why did eren stop moving right before annie finished him off? he just stood there, watching what was coming (and what was it that had him so shocked?!). kinda annoying.

I think he was tired. He trashed around a lot when he tried to hit Annie. She was tired too because she transformed twice and had to heal from the previous attacks. Her own attack must have pushed her really close to her limits.

I just realised why she looks so good as well (besides boobs): she retains her small mouth. Everyone else has crazy-mouth.

[David75]

Now that you mention the small mouth, it really is a distinctive element. And thinking about it, lots of other parts are a lot less deformed compared to other titans we've seen so far.
Should we assume that the more human the transformation, the better that person is at controlling their powers?
Or we could also factor the fact that since it is a female titan and that female has lots of control on transformation, maybe choosing something more elegant was instinctive/obvious/easy so why not?

[shinta|hikari]

I'm thinking that Eren recognized that turning roundhouse kick as something that Annie does, and that made him pause.