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Eiba
Jul 26, 2007


Dr_Amazing posted:

Attack OF the Titans makes way more sense.
Also what the Japanese title actually means. Personally I like Advance of the Titans. Seems more ruthless and unstoppable, while being less deliberate than "attack". Like the Titans are a force of nature or something.

But I guess it's going to be known as Attack on Titan. I guess that's not too bad. I mean, if you expect an attack and get... that guard in the first episode/chapter facing his first titan and deciding to take the kids and run out of sheer terror... an expectation of an attack subverted into pure despair, rather than a brave strike against the foe you were waiting for, you get a titan's foot stomping on a human face forever... I guess that's pretty cool too.

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GodFish
Oct 10, 2012

We're your first, last, and only line of defense. We live in secret. We exist in shadow.

And we dress in black.
Clearly the story takes place on Saturn's moon Titan.

Vincent Valentine
Feb 28, 2006

Murdertime

GodFish posted:

Clearly the story takes place on Saturn's moon Titan.

For awhile there was a big theory that Titan was the name of the planet and Titans were the planet's self-defense system and attacking the titans meant attacking the planet itself.

It was bonkers but it was born out of the weird name.

onepixeljumpman
Jun 23, 2010

In a world where one bear has a shotgun: Fuck.

GodFish posted:

Clearly the story takes place on Saturn's moon Titan.

Coming into this having only heard the title, this is exactly what I thought. I thought this was going to be in space and there were going to be laser.

Anyway, new kid here. I watched the first episode of the new anime and then, because I have no willpower to wait for new episodes, caught up with the manga in two sittings. It's really rare to read a manga and get genuine intrigue that isn't something like, "That's that most stupid thing I've ever heard, why would you ever do that," but I'm sitting reading this while the questions pile up around me and I have to know more. It's also nice that it appeals to my desire for shonen fighting violence when it's not being disturbing. This is a good one. I hope the anime continues to do it the justice it needs.

Simstim
Mar 16, 2005

You just gave me a great idea buddy.

Vincent Valentine posted:

For awhile there was a big theory that Titan was the name of the planet and Titans were the planet's self-defense system and attacking the titans meant attacking the planet itself.

It was bonkers but it was born out of the weird name.

Also the plot to Blue Gender

devtesla
Jan 2, 2012


Grimey Drawer
Am I completely alone in liking the english title a lot? This isn't a show about titans attacking, but attacking titans, and I like that the show is named after the hope side of hope/despair filp flop it's got going on. It's a little vague about if titan is a place or a thing, but once you see any panel of the manga or clip from the show with the titans in it things are cleared up (unless you read way too much into it like some nerds tend to do). Also, that kind of wrongness generally serves to make it more memorable.

Another benefit of naming the show after attacking titans: with just seeing the titans and knowing the name of the show you already know that those titans are going down, which gives you a reason to read even when it looks like that's never going to happen.

Schwarzwald
Jul 27, 2004

Don't Blink

The Devil Tesla posted:

This isn't a show about titans attacking, but attacking titans,

No. It really, really isn't.

Cao Ni Ma
May 25, 2010



Schwarzwald posted:

No. It really, really isn't.

The only real attack on titans that have occurred so far have been on the human ones and its taken them a huge amount of time to get to this point.

For all intended purposes this could have been called Attack on, Titan! and it would have been a better fit :v:.

Schwarzwald
Jul 27, 2004

Don't Blink

Cao Ni Ma posted:

For all intended purposes this could have been called Attack on, Titan! and it would have been a better fit :v:.

This is a very inspiring story if you root for the titans.

AnonSpore
Jan 19, 2012

"I didn't see the part where he develops as a character so I guess he never developed as a character"
Hairy Titan is the real main character.

Futaba Anzu
May 6, 2011

GROSS BOY

Titans sure are fascinating creatures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2pKLhhrs_M

McDragon
Sep 11, 2007

Well, last July I read up to the bit with Sasquatch talking, and that was a big old cliffhanger. Left it for a while to build up a bit of a buffer. Watched the first episode of the adaptation today, decided it was a good time to catch up with the manga. Welp, here's another cliffhanger for me. Of the more direct "oh dear Eren got half his face punched off" as opposed to the "oh dear the Titans are more complex than they seemed" sort.

But the revelation of the Armoured and Colossal Titans was really unexpected. "Hey, we're the main problem Titans, come to Titan city with us Eren". Is there a character we've been introduced to who is really hairy? Because Sasquatch certainly seems to be good at disappearing suddenly. Guess I'll spend most of the watching of the adaptation suspecting beardy men of wrongdoing.

onepixeljumpman
Jun 23, 2010

In a world where one bear has a shotgun: Fuck.
I dunno about Sasquatch Titan being a secret human. He was surprised by the 3DMG and that humans knew about the weak point on the neck. Then again, that he wouldn't know at least about humans knowing the weak point doesn't make sense even if he isn't a secret human because I assume they must know that humans fight against titans and that there are titan casualties. Regardless, the 3DMG would be common knowledge for all humans, so if he was a spy or whatever, he'd have to know about it. That he just sort of vanished after the castle incident means he's probably a human controlled titan but hasn't been in main human society for long if at all.

AnonSpore
Jan 19, 2012

"I didn't see the part where he develops as a character so I guess he never developed as a character"
Or he could just be a sentient titan who has always been a titan, no human in his neck.

Eiba
Jul 26, 2007


Schwarzwald posted:

No. It really, really isn't.
It's about the dream of attacking Titans.

And it's also about dreams being ground into a fine powder under the weight of cruel reality.

AnonSpore posted:

Or he could just be a sentient titan who has always been a titan, no human in his neck.
I get the impression that even mindless titans have humans in their neck. The people of Connie's village were transformed into mindless titans after all.

FourOhFour
Oct 17, 2012

Eiba posted:

I get the impression that even mindless titans have humans in their neck. The people of Connie's village were transformed into mindless titans after all.

This is kind of the train of thought I've been on since we learned that Eren could titan it up, and where he was inside the thing. It's entirely possible that the mindless titan's instincts are just overpowering the minds of their hosts/neck parasites.

Darth Walrus
Feb 13, 2012

FourOhFour posted:

This is kind of the train of thought I've been on since we learned that Eren could titan it up, and where he was inside the thing. It's entirely possible that the mindless titan's instincts are just overpowering the minds of their hosts/neck parasites.

And, as I've suggested before, Big Hairy has been letting his titan body do the thinking for so long that he's developed his own, alien form of sentience.

gimme the GOD DAMN candy
Jul 1, 2007
The thing is, they have captured titans before. The back of the neck is the only weak point, so why wouldn't they dissect the titans while focusing on that part? That scouting legion researcher is far from stupid, so I can't believe she never tried a dissection.

Perhaps if someone spends long enough in titan form their human body is absorbed into the titan. Considering how Eren gets fused with his titan body it wouldn't be surprising. Assuming this is true, then Eren isn't exceptional because he can turn into a titan, but rather because he can change back.

Demicol
Nov 8, 2009

Serious Frolicking posted:

The thing is, they have captured titans before. The back of the neck is the only weak point, so why wouldn't they dissect the titans while focusing on that part? That scouting legion researcher is far from stupid, so I can't believe she never tried a dissection.

I think its because the church & etc are against even having a titan captive, if they would try to dissect one they would probably be removed from any kind of power and/or opportunity to ever touch titans again. I mean isn't the church against even fighting against the titans to keep humanity alive? Then there's the titans inside the walls too which the church seemed to have kept secret from everybody.

turn off the TV
Aug 4, 2010

moderately annoying

Serious Frolicking posted:

The thing is, they have captured titans before. The back of the neck is the only weak point, so why wouldn't they dissect the titans while focusing on that part? That scouting legion researcher is far from stupid, so I can't believe she never tried a dissection.

They pretty much dissolve when hit in the neck like that, don't they?

devtesla
Jan 2, 2012


Grimey Drawer

Eiba posted:

It's about the dream of attacking Titans.

And it's also about dreams being ground into a fine powder under the weight of cruel reality.

This, basically. That there is a sliver of hope offered in attacking the titans is what makes this shonen instead of unreadable negativity.

Eiba
Jul 26, 2007


Serious Frolicking posted:

The thing is, they have captured titans before. The back of the neck is the only weak point, so why wouldn't they dissect the titans while focusing on that part? That scouting legion researcher is far from stupid, so I can't believe she never tried a dissection.

Perhaps if someone spends long enough in titan form their human body is absorbed into the titan. Considering how Eren gets fused with his titan body it wouldn't be surprising. Assuming this is true, then Eren isn't exceptional because he can turn into a titan, but rather because he can change back.

Couldn't disect them because they evaporate as soon as they die. You'd have to carefully vivisect them, which I can believe they haven't gotten around to yet.

And even if they did... mindless titans might not have very well preserved humans left in them. Just bits that used to be human or something.

Elias_Maluco
Aug 23, 2007
I need to sleep

Eiba posted:

Couldn't disect them because they evaporate as soon as they die. You'd have to carefully vivisect them, which I can believe they haven't gotten around to yet.

And even if they did... mindless titans might not have very well preserved humans left in them. Just bits that used to be human or something.

The titans regenerate quite fast, which would make vivisecting than alive a real nightmare.

Schubalts
Nov 26, 2007

People say bigger is better.

But for the first time in my life, I think I've gone too far.
They have already dissected Titan's before, or at least cut them open before learning of the weakpoint. It's how they know that Titans have no internal organs other than a stomach.

of bees
Dec 28, 2009
It's also possible that's why Annie went and intervened when she did. If they were going to dissect the titans, finding out about the humans within the titans was a big risk.

Tae
Oct 24, 2010

Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!
So maybe I missed it, but is there a reason why blowing off the head cleanly from the front has absolutely no effect compared to doing the same from back of the neck?

RatHat
Dec 31, 2007

A tiny behatted rat👒🐀!
Because it's not the head that kills them? They've shown that they can kill Titans with cannons but most of the time they miss the vital point and the titans just get back up.

Dr_Amazing
Apr 15, 2006

It's a long story
Yeah Eren get's his face hosed up basically all the time. The first time it actually kind of seemed like he was sort of stuck in a subconscious dream world until the titan brain rebuilt itself.

I'm still not convinced that there's a full on human inside each titan. I'm leaning more towards, titans being man made with the intention to be pilotable. The neck could be more like a control center that runs on auto, if it's not getting a signal from something else.

It's not really made clear how often live titans are captured. It's clearly rare but they don't seem to be treating it as a never before seen opportunity. I am willing to bet they've only ever captured the smallest titans, and that no one ever made a live capture on one big enough to fit a person the way Eren does.

Mio Bison
Dec 14, 2005

violence is who I am, loser
Reread chapter 38 if it's not glaringly obvious to you that some or all small titans are made directly from people and Ryner and Bertholdt are determined to prevent that fact from getting out for whatever reason.

Dredging up some of the earlier/cross-thread discussion about whether an anime-only ending would be better, I hope the anime sticks to the source material and cuts off at the end of chapter 42 :3:

Dr_Amazing
Apr 15, 2006

It's a long story
Well sure it's obvious that at least some titans are made of people. I'm just not sure that there's a little guy inside still driving it the way the sentient ones do.

Thoren
May 28, 2008
Doesn't every titan presumably have a "pilot?"

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005

Thoren posted:

Doesn't every titan presumably have a "pilot?"

Doesn't seem to be the case. They've dissected normal Titans alive and found nothing particularly indicative of a pilot, as far as we're aware.

Of course, it's possible a Titan could "grow" a pilot, but who knows?

Jackard
Oct 28, 2007

We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Dr_Amazing posted:

I'm still not convinced that there's a full on human inside each titan. I'm leaning more towards, titans being man made with the intention to be pilotable. The neck could be more like a control center that runs on auto, if it's not getting a signal from something else.
The old theory was that they were created with the intent of being operated by humans but the simple urge for pilot-less titans to 'put people inside them' spiraled out of control

obviously more is going on but that is the gist of it

Darth Walrus
Feb 13, 2012

Zorak posted:

Doesn't seem to be the case. They've dissected normal Titans alive and found nothing particularly indicative of a pilot, as far as we're aware.

Of course, it's possible a Titan could "grow" a pilot, but who knows?

Though, again, we did see Eren getting absorbed into his Titan 'suit' when he failed to get it under control, which resulted in him behaving more like a 'normal' mindless Titan. That they all had a more extreme version of that happen to them would certainly explain their permanent, blissed-out grins.

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty

Zorak posted:

Doesn't seem to be the case. They've dissected normal Titans alive and found nothing particularly indicative of a pilot, as far as we're aware.

Of course, it's possible a Titan could "grow" a pilot, but who knows?

I'm still a fan of the theory that Titans start out relatively huge and shrink over time as the pilot gets more and more absorbed into the Titan body.

milktwice
Feb 15, 2012

Captain Invictus posted:

I'm still a fan of the theory that Titans start out relatively huge and shrink over time as the pilot gets more and more absorbed into the Titan body.

But how do giant titans fit into this? Gigantism?

gimme the GOD DAMN candy
Jul 1, 2007
Another big problem with the idea that every titan has a pilot is the existence of roughly human-sized titans. Not even an infant would fit in their necks. They are relatively uncommon, while the size range of most titans is within about 50% of Eren's. I could buy smaller titans having small children as pilots, considering that Eren has to struggle against titan instincts. The mentality of the pilot doesn't matter if all titans have very strong natural instincts, so children are fair game. But again, not even infants will fit inside of the smallest titans. I sort of doubt there are fetus pilots, as that would be incredibly bizarre and pointless to the story.

Violen
Jul 25, 2009

ohoho~
Fetuses in manga theories is asking for trouble, trust me on this.

Thoren
May 28, 2008
Well, I don't think it has been shown that the humans in that one village that recently got "converted" had pilots in them. Maybe some people just become titans entirely?

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Excelsiortothemax
Sep 9, 2006
It's possible. There are the lone Titans that have brief moments of clarity and are able to vocalize. So that would stem to reason either the Titan is the converted person, or the absorbed human theory.

Gotta wait and see.

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