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Mio Bison
Dec 14, 2005

violence is who I am, loser
I was just thinking earlier about how odd it was that young Bernholdt would be good enough with the 3D gear to (presumably) escape using it after kicking down the wall at the very start of the manga... when I remembered that Eren first talked to Bertholdt and Ryner because they were both unusually good at the first 3D maneuvers course. This manga :3:

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devtesla
Jan 2, 2012


Grimey Drawer

mind the walrus posted:

I do hope you're right Mr. Nikolai Satan sir. But still, between the giants in the walls; Sasquatch Titan; Eren's father; Annie; the new smaller Titans that may or may not be local residents; and now the Child Soldier Titans it makes me wonder how the gently caress all of it could be tied together in any cohesive way.

I don't think it is going to be tied together! Anything that could connect everything at this point would be really unsatisfying, IMHO. I'd rather the story stay big, mysterious, and frightening rather than tied up in a neat little bow, and I think that's what Hajime is going for. As long as the character motivations are believable, and reading it expresses something interesting, the story is on the right track.

STANKBALLS TASTYLEGS
Oct 12, 2012

That was probably the best way to resolve the fight. Instead of Eren getting some new bullshit ability, he just learned to use better skills in the Titan form. That was really the best way to handle it.

Jackard
Oct 28, 2007

We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It
From the anime thread

Runefaust posted:

I've been hankering for a good series to delve into for a long time, and although I'm normally a fan of mecha anime (last series I really got into was Gurren Lagann and Gundam00, and Fate/Zero oddly enough), this already has my undivided attention. I normally don't give anime more than 2 episodes to get me hooked after some other bad experiences, which has worked out pretty well for me, and after one episode this definitely has that special something to it - probably somewhere between the awesome 3D gear or whatever it's called and the sheer terror as helpless victims get bitten in half by gigantic humanoid titans.
Little does he know.... :v:

.Clash
Apr 10, 2009
After Eren getting his rear end kicked by Annie so many times that was goooood. Was stupid of them not to realise he was calling to Bertholdt.

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"

Schwarzwald posted:

I didn't think Eren had a chance.
I love how what's given Eren an advantage is his human capability to learn and train.


God drat, man.

So, Elemennop is Isayama Hajime, right?

Soulcleaver
Sep 25, 2007

Murderer

Fiend Computer posted:

That was probably the best way to resolve the fight. Instead of Eren getting some new bullshit ability, he just learned to use better skills in the Titan form. That was really the best way to handle it.
In earlier chapters soldiers were training with wrestling and even in-story they admitted that it was just for exercise because the skills were pretty worthless against titans. And, welp. Chekhov's Gun.

The Lord of Hats
Aug 22, 2010

Hello, yes! Is being very good day for posting, no?
This chapter really made me love Eren's titan design even more; it just makes everything he does look so goddamn brutal.

Gyges
Aug 4, 2004

NOW NO ONE
RECOGNIZE HULK
I hope when the anime finally gets to Eren's transformation they chose some music that's appropriately :black101:

Sled
May 20, 2004

Musashi not only wields a sword but also a pair of pistols.

Mio Bison posted:

I was just thinking earlier about how odd it was that young Bernholdt would be good enough with the 3D gear to (presumably) escape using it after kicking down the wall at the very start of the manga... when I remembered that Eren first talked to Bertholdt and Ryner because they were both unusually good at the first 3D maneuvers course. This manga :3:

Woah, nice catch. I do love all of the hints dropped throughout the story like this.

FourOhFour
Oct 17, 2012

Sledeau posted:

Woah, nice catch. I do love all of the hints dropped throughout the story like this.

It's kind of crazy, because now I'm starting to pay closer attention to things and try to guess if/when it'll pop up again. There's really no writing off anything as being world-building fluff if it happens on a page we read now.

Schwarzwald
Jul 27, 2004

Don't Blink

Gyges posted:

I hope when the anime finally gets to Eren's transformation they chose some music that's appropriately :black101:

I was thinking a metal remix of Beethoven's fifth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-A7DhOQ1p0

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty

Elemennop posted:

i really hope Eren starts doing some wrestling and brazilian jiu-jitsu on Rayner, goes for a double leg, passes gaurd, gets a mounted triangle and once he realizes titans don't need to breathe switches to an arm bar where he rips it off

I meant to say this earlier, but yeah it's really ridiculous just how spot-on this post is considering it's from last month. Good one!

eladank
Feb 22, 2013

Soulcleaver posted:

In earlier chapters soldiers were training with wrestling and even in-story they admitted that it was just for exercise because the skills were pretty worthless against titans. And, welp. Chekhov's Gun.

this is extra nice because it was already used to identify Annie as the female titan.

.Clash
Apr 10, 2009
Episode 2 featuring: Off screen violence, half an episode of padding, slower pacing and chronological order of events maybe?
Sure weve got 24 episodes but getting right into the action with timely flash backs is something I really like about the manga.

Thoren
May 28, 2008
No wonder Eren couldn't do poo poo against Annie.

Maybe Annie had to learn to fight because she didn't have any crazy gimmicks.

Mo_Steel
Mar 7, 2008

Let's Clock Into The Sunset Together

Fun Shoe

Schwarzwald posted:

I was thinking a metal remix of Beethoven's fifth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-A7DhOQ1p0

I'm thinking something with choir:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTcmKRFoPK8

We don't actually get to see the transformation until after we find out Eren is the titan after seeing him get eaten and his arm and leg bitten off in the manga, looking forward to the anime reactions to losing our protagonist so early on. :3:

Jackard
Oct 28, 2007

We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Mo_Steel posted:

We don't actually get to see the transformation until after we find out Eren is the titan after seeing him get eaten and his arm and leg bitten off in the manga, looking forward to the anime reactions to losing our protagonist so early on. :3:
Oh man this is gonna be great :allears:

of bees
Dec 28, 2009

Mo_Steel posted:

I'm thinking something with choir:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTcmKRFoPK8

We don't actually get to see the transformation until after we find out Eren is the titan after seeing him get eaten and his arm and leg bitten off in the manga, looking forward to the anime reactions to losing our protagonist so early on. :3:

Eren has all the markings of a decoy protagonist, so for at least an episode (maybe two) I bet it's gonna look like one of Mikasa and Armin is the real protagonist. Reading the anime thread is going to be so much fun.

MadHat
Mar 31, 2011

of bees posted:

Eren has all the markings of a decoy protagonist, so for at least an episode (maybe two) I bet it's gonna look like one of Mikasa and Armin is the real protagonist. Reading the anime thread is going to be so much fun.

So glad the OP does not even hint at it.

Eiba
Jul 26, 2007


I legitimately thought that this manga was cruel and nihilistic enough that this 2 dimensional shounen protagonist full of burning passion and ~dreams~ could have been killed off, with Mikasa and Armin being the real main characters. I was so impressed that they'd do that that I was kind of disappointed when it turned out he was alive. It all ended up awesome though, so no complaints.

of bees posted:

Eren has all the markings of a decoy protagonist, so for at least an episode (maybe two) I bet it's gonna look like one of Mikasa and Armin is the real protagonist. Reading the anime thread is going to be so much fun.
The reactions are going to be fun, all the "just you wait :smug:" from the folks who've read the manga is going to be insufferable for me though... I'm going to have to make a point of just not posting, or I'll almost certainly make an rear end of myself bitching about oblique spoilers.

McDragon
Sep 11, 2007

Ahaha, that last page. :allears:

I like that Eren doesn't come out with some ridiculous new powers at times like this. He just learns to fight better.

Jackard
Oct 28, 2007

We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

McDragon posted:

Ahaha, that last page. :allears:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9VWofx5XG8

Mo_Steel
Mar 7, 2008

Let's Clock Into The Sunset Together

Fun Shoe

.Clash posted:

Episode 2 featuring: Off screen violence, half an episode of padding, slower pacing and chronological order of events maybe?
Sure weve got 24 episodes but getting right into the action with timely flash backs is something I really like about the manga.

I think it's probably not a bad call from an anime pacing standpoint: if next episode we went right into their graduation and then the reunion of the colossal titan and Eren right away might be too rapid of a development for the format. This way they can lay out the tactics and societal structure and how 3d maneuver gear works, develop the characters that are going to be key going forward, and then have mostly uninterrupted fight scenes. Flashbacks in anime don't work as well during the action unless they are kept short and emotionally invested.

This way makes the upcoming twists and turns much less sudden. :unsmigghh:

Sindai
Jan 24, 2007
i want to achieve immortality through not dying
Wow I had completely forgotten that was where the armored titan first turned up.

Mecca-Benghazi
Mar 31, 2012


I kind of like establishing the other graduates right now, actually. At the very least it'll make it easier to put names to faces. I'm sure we'll be flashing back to certain points (like the fight with Annie and "Ymir's people" if they get that far) in the future anyway.

Not Keyser Soze
Mar 7, 2007

Endless Celestial Sex
I will fully admit to developing a habit of skimming over page-long shouting matches about who has the strongest convictions so seeing that in an animated, and thus hopefully abridged, format will be quite nice.

Despite several good chapters I'm of the opinion that Eren needs to hurry up and Jon Snow if only so that he (and by extension, we) can learn what the gently caress the Outsiders are yammering on about.

TTBF
Sep 14, 2005



From the anime thread

chami posted:

I don't remember the whole "send most of the refugees back out to wall Maria as titan fodder" part in the manga. poo poo got way darker than I expected. :stare:

That definitely did happen, although it was only a page or two flashback. It was stated that it was basically a method of population control because there was no way to feed or house all the refugees.

PowFu
Dec 31, 2010

Mo_Steel posted:

I think it's probably not a bad call from an anime pacing standpoint: if next episode we went right into their graduation and then the reunion of the colossal titan and Eren right away might be too rapid of a development for the format. This way they can lay out the tactics and societal structure and how 3d maneuver gear works, develop the characters that are going to be key going forward, and then have mostly uninterrupted fight scenes. Flashbacks in anime don't work as well during the action unless they are kept short and emotionally invested.

This way makes the upcoming twists and turns much less sudden. :unsmigghh:

Of course this means that Eren won't be eaten as early on in the story as he was in the manga. It's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but some part of me would have liked to see anime-only reactions towards the protagonist dying in episode 5 or so.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005

Eiba posted:

The reactions are going to be fun, all the "just you wait :smug:" from the folks who've read the manga is going to be insufferable for me though... I'm going to have to make a point of just not posting, or I'll almost certainly make an rear end of myself bitching about oblique spoilers.

Report people who do that so I can hit them. That is a punishable offense.

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.
Not sure how we're supposed to do this yet, so the following is anime talk with manga spoilers.

I'm kind of worried that such a long focus on the armored titan will let people fit all the pieces together a lot easier, since he really looked like Reiner in the anime. On the other hand, I'd completely forgotten it existed before we got very far into training at all, so maybe everyone else will. It also might be because I know who he is that it seems so obvious.

Gyges
Aug 4, 2004

NOW NO ONE
RECOGNIZE HULK
You know, the really crazy thing is that each human-titan reveal is a surprise. Obviously Eren's is the most surprising since we had no idea it was possible, but each subsequent reveal both makes perfect sense yet still manages to blindside you. Yes, you could tell that Annie, Reiner and Berthold were all titan infiltrators if you really looked. But something about the way everything is presented manages to obfuscate clear hints. Hell the fact that Annie and Reiner sort of look like their titan form is itself counter intuitively the best mask since none of the other human-titans look much alike in their transformations.

Or it's just because the manga is monthly and I've developed a short attention span.

Thoren
May 28, 2008
As a manga reader I'm not really used to art clues revealing important plot points. It's almost always revealed in text.

SerSpook
Feb 13, 2012




Gyges posted:

You know, the really crazy thing is that each human-titan reveal is a surprise. Obviously Eren's is the most surprising since we had no idea it was possible, but each subsequent reveal both makes perfect sense yet still manages to blindside you. Yes, you could tell that Annie, Reiner and Berthold were all titan infiltrators if you really looked. But something about the way everything is presented manages to obfuscate clear hints. Hell the fact that Annie and Reiner sort of look like their titan form is itself counter intuitively the best mask since none of the other human-titans look much alike in their transformations.

Or it's just because the manga is monthly and I've developed a short attention span.

I felt Annie was pretty obvious but I read through all of it for the first time very recently, so I had all the puzzle pieces fresh and in the forefront of my mind.

mind the walrus
Sep 22, 2006

I knew there was something up with the female Titan right away, but I didn't place it to Annie, mostly because I really liked her character and didn't want to believe she'd be capable of such awful things :3:

Gyges
Aug 4, 2004

NOW NO ONE
RECOGNIZE HULK
I think Annie only became clear once she got into a fist fight with Eren and used here distinctive moves.

Nilbop
Jun 5, 2004

Looks like someone forgot his hardhat...
I'm still not sold with the idea of Reiner and Bertholdt being sent in with the most important jobs in the Titan nation at the tender age of, what, 12? It's just nudging the manga away from the survival-mystery-horror niche and more into the mainstream. Which I'm not saying it wouldn't have had to do to keep going, but it just doesn't gel for me right now.

Eiba
Jul 26, 2007


Nilbop posted:

I'm still not sold with the idea of Reiner and Bertholdt being sent in with the most important jobs in the Titan nation at the tender age of, what, 12? It's just nudging the manga away from the survival-mystery-horror niche and more into the mainstream. Which I'm not saying it wouldn't have had to do to keep going, but it just doesn't gel for me right now.
It does seem really weird. The only way I could imagine it is if the technology to turn people into controlled titans was only 12 years old at the time, and the process had to be started at birth.

Which would make sense actually, as all the controlled titans we've seen have been more or less the same age.

mind the walrus
Sep 22, 2006

Even so it seems odd that they'd send those two to do such a monumental jobs at the age of 12. They were either very cocky and didn't have any idea about the possibility of an Eren-Titan, or felt rushed to do the job for some reason (possibly because they knew of an Eren-Titan possibility and wanted to take out Eren's father). Either way I'm betting Eren's father played a big role in motivating the Titans to act when they did.

With that said I'm still wondering what the point of inserting Annie into the City Guard is if so far all we've seen her do is blow her cover via seemingly pointless operations in the forests outside of the city. Seems really risky for someone whose entire operation is ostensibly to be in the "inner circle" of humans as a Titan back-up.

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Dan7el
Dec 7, 2008

Eiba posted:

It does seem really weird. The only way I could imagine it is if the technology to turn people into controlled titans was only 12 years old at the time, and the process had to be started at birth.

Which would make sense actually, as all the controlled titans we've seen have been more or less the same age.
I watched the first episode of the anime and then read most of the manga. I skipped a few chapters, but I'm more-or-less "caught up" as far as the current state of affairs in the manga. The overall underlying mystery regarding the human-titan hybrids is definitely going to keep me reading. Seems to me that the primary goal of the "titans in the know" is to get Eren to "go with them" somewhere for some reason. I almost wish he'd just go, so we could follow along and finally find out what the big deal is.

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