Attack on Titan - Episode 5 Discussion / Poll

[Jetzero Infinity]

OUR HERO IS DEAD!

I gotta hand it to the anime staff they pulled off that scene perfectly and made it look every bit as desperate and dramatic as I'd hoped for. Looks like next week is Mikasa's backstory. Hope they pull that off well too since that was one of my favorite parts of the manga.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Randrak42

And the rules DO NOT say that we CANNOT make comparisons.

But they do say they must be behind spoiler tags

2. ALL Comparisons of current animated content to the source material, or questions answered about current anime content based on source material information, MUST be in properly-labelled spoiler tags

Which is something that hasn't been done much.

[FlareKnight]

Well if swords, guts, and spirit aren't going to beat these Titans there is only one option...ritualistic suicide . I mean seriously these people are completely screwed. You put years of training in and they are all slaughtered instantly. With the minimal population and the limitations on who can even handle the system...it's not good. The only hope is that Mikasa is secretly god and can just obliterate these things on sight.

As always Eren, very impressive how you act like you don't need Mikasa and then get your ass kicked. His pride is going to get him killed quicker than anything else. If he wants to kill these things maybe he should actually rely on the most skilled person he knows.

This definitely isn't good. And I really do wonder what these things are. Did aliens drop biological weapons on the planet for kicks? These don't seem to be actual lifeforms. Seems more like weapons specifically tuned to massacre humanity. Kind of like zombies really. Only want to kill people and don't really need to eat, but do it anyways. Though definitely more strange with the whole teleporting red titan.

They really are doomed though.

[Iron Maw]

Originally Posted by frodonk

also, once again, its been shown that there had been no change in the evacuation plan of the outer towns for 5 years. ugh, the argument that they have been complacent and that they felt safe inside the wall, or that the inner area people don't care about them isn't enough to explain their lack of preparation.

Actually the soldiers mentioned being prepared for the Armored Titan this time around, and to their credit the evacuation went a lot better and faster. No civilian causalities at all so far. The real problem this time is driving the Titans out Trost which is going unsuccessful of course.

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

As always Eren, very impressive how you act like you don't need Mikasa and then get your ass kicked. His pride is going to get him killed quicker than anything else. If he wants to kill these things maybe he should actually rely on the most skilled person he knows..

So they both die?

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

So they both die?

Well if they are going to die anyways ...

[Bookworm365]

Geart episode.
There were some original scenes here and there, but it worked.

I find it strange that people love blaiming Eren that his rage killed his squad.
Excuse me but what was their mission?
I'm pretty sure it was to back up the front line TO HOLD BACK THE TITANS WHILE THE CITISNS EVACUATE.
Eren's action was at least following the mission. Killing a deviant jumping titan must be a important tast too.
What the last scene shows you is NOT how Eren failed, but how there is a huge power gap between titans and human beings. Even for trained soldiers unlike Hannes, titans are hard to tiake on.

[Seitsuki]

I think the biggest problem is that people are underestimating Titans as 'slow'. Consider for a moment a normal sized man and a man 60m tall; if you observed them both 'walking' normally from a distance they'd appear to be moving at the same speed but the 60m guy is covering a crapton more *actual* ground. It's the same principle; those Titans may seem like they're slow lumbering things and they would be if they were human sized, but at their size they're /actually /freaking /fast. I think it was said somewhere that a fly would see us as amazingly slow existences as they zip around, but we can swat them in an instant. We're the same to　Titans. That's pretty much the game right there.

[LeoXiao]

Originally Posted by SagaraSouske

I don't know if people don't read the posts or just skim past them. I will format it in an fashion that is easier to read:

1. Arrow cannot penetrate neck skin.
Arrows have far more penetration power then swinging a blade. If a blade can cut it, arrows can penetrate it. Long bow arrows are used to penetrate plate armor in the 14th and 15th century.

2. Not enough damage from arrows.
Lots of arrows hitting giant neck will do more damage then cuts. Explosive arrows will blow the entire area into pieces.

3. Giant's neck is hard to hit because it is moving.
It's far easier to hit a big area on a big dumb target that is moving at a constant speed in a predicable fashion. If an archer can hit a bird flying, he or she can hit a large patch of skin on the giant's neck that is moving far slower.

4. Neck will regenerate as well.
Well with arrows, especially explosive ones, you do far more damage, far faster then getting close and cut with swords, even if you are spinning to slice pieces off, and also with zero risk of you being picked off before you even get the cut in, just like Eren's squad.

The only reason why the author isn't having the humans using archers is because either he didn't think it through himself or force plot into a certain direction, in which case he should have given better reasoning why bows don't work against giants. What we know so far from these first episodes does not give sufficient cause to favor melee combat over range combat, especially at the horrible exchange rate for a kill.

Wow, this analysis really fits your username.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by LeoXiao

Wow, this analysis really fits your username.

Yeah, and I have to say the humans in this series could probably use Sagara . The guns, the mech, and the tactical analysis .

[Aesthetic Shampoo]

Originally Posted by Bookworm365

Geart episode.
There were some original scenes here and there, but it worked.

I find it strange that people love blaiming Eren that his rage killed his squad.
Excuse me but what was their mission?
I'm pretty sure it was to back up the front line TO HOLD BACK THE TITANS WHILE THE CITISNS EVACUATE.
Eren's action was at least following the mission. Killing a deviant jumping titan must be a important tast too.
What the last scene shows you is NOT how Eren failed, but how there is a huge power gap between titans and human beings. Even for trained soldiers unlike Hannes, titans are hard to tiake on.

Rushing in recklessly to kill one titan without any regard for your surroundings or your squad isn't exactly the right thing to do in that situation.

[Enjou]

Originally Posted by EssTEss

Rushing in recklessly to kill one titan without any regard for your surroundings or your squad isn't exactly the right thing to do in that situation.

In that case his squad members are just as responsible for their own deaths - they recklessly followed Eren with as little regard for their surroundings to at least the same degree as he had. If one soldier in a unit does something stupid then the other soldiers aren't excused for following his example.

Of course, considering that nobody involved had actually fought a titan the result was pretty much inevitable anyways - the supposedly more experienced front line troops (most of whom probably never fought a titan either, seeing as they were wall guards) were wiped out. What could recently graduated cadets be expected to achieve? Even if they had waited for the titans to come to them most of them would have been killed anyways.

[jeroz]

I must have missed it, but he still haven't address where you would position the archers considering that they would have to go behind the enemy line for at least 50m to even think of being any use at all

Also he's forgetting that by aiming high, the arrow would lose all the momentum energy when is coming down, which means there's no damage at all. The way the nape is positioned you can't shoot upward for the initial energy, you would have to wait for it to fall down. For a titan that's 15m tall it would be quite difficult to sneak a small team across to their back

[yankky5]

Originally Posted by EssTEss

Rushing in recklessly to kill one titan without any regard for your surroundings or your squad isn't exactly the right thing to do in that situation.

Yeah thats true. Also I seem to notice in the last episode training montage that eren and the others werent given any stress tests for example like a training instructor waking you up 5 in the morning, a team exercises which is to lift a log in 10 different positions for 4-6 hours straight on day 1 of training, rush exercises like packing 20 pieces of clothing in your bag (folded properly) in 3 minutes or else a penalty, also in this time you usually get 2 meals a day and so and so forth.... and in which these excercises change in intesity in an irregular basis and for people to train a cadet nearly 4 years already equal to fresh grad mlitary officer is quite a waste

[Hmm....]

Actually, It doesn't matter if the end result would be the same. I don't think it's fair to blame Eren for his squad anihilation either. He was just doing his job however bad or good he is. I found his action understandable, realistic and fit his personality well. His squads live is also their own responsibility, they may do better or they may do worse without him. We will never know. However, we can't deny the fact that Eren is THE REASON. When someone ask "why squad #34 was wiped out", we can only answer "because they rushed after Eren into middle of titans".



If Eren didn't do that, they might at least survive their first 8 minutes of death .
Eren and co. only last 3 minutes without putting a scratch to any titan. That was pretty bad .

[Iron Maw]

Originally Posted by yankky5

Yeah thats true. Also I seem to notice in the last episode training montage that eren and the others werent given any stress tests for example like a training instructor waking you up 5 in the morning, a team exercises which is to lift a log in 10 different positions for 4-6 hours straight on day 1 of training, rush exercises like packing 20 pieces of clothing in your bag (folded properly) in 3 minutes or else a penalty, so and so forth.... and in which these excercises change in intesity in an irregular basis and for people to train a cadet nearly 4 years already equal to fresh grad mlitary officer is quite a waste

Eh, you can't really say this when most of the training was skipped. Besides Eren in this episode also pointed out that the training so harsh that some people actually died during it.

The fact of matter is none of the rookie squads were ever suppose to fight the Titans by themselves, but rather join the veteran soldiers in the Vanguard and provide back up and get experience. Had things gone that way it wouldn't have end up as badly.

[backbone]

Forget bow and arrow. What about muskets? Judging from the OP, mankind possess technology to create them, which IMO, i think having much greater firepower and accuracy than bows and arrows

[Randrak42]

Originally Posted by backbone

Forget bow and arrow. What about muskets? Judging from the OP, mankind possess technology to create them, which IMO, i think having much greater firepower and accuracy than bows and arrows

They do have rifles, notice in the hand-to-hand training session that some of them had wooden planks shaped like rifles...they wouldn't be using them if there weren't fire-arms.

[articuzwolf]

Originally Posted by SagaraSouske

I don't know if people don't read the posts or just skim past them. I will format it in an fashion that is easier to read:

1. Arrow cannot penetrate neck skin.
Arrows have far more penetration power then swinging a blade. If a blade can cut it, arrows can penetrate it. Long bow arrows are used to penetrate plate armor in the 14th and 15th century.

2. Not enough damage from arrows.
Lots of arrows hitting giant neck will do more damage then cuts. Explosive arrows will blow the entire area into pieces.

I'll just go for the first two, and why don't you/we wait before we discuss the other three later when we get more explanations about titan

good idea Iron Maw, moved it here : http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...9&postcount=87

[Iron Maw]

You know guys, this kinda of more in-depth discussion is what the World & Technology thread is for.

Just saying.

[yankky5]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Eh, you can't really say this when most of the training was skipped. Besides Eren in this episode also pointed out that the training so harsh that some people actually died during it.

I think the only harsh part of the training was with 3dmg, I mean of course you'll die if you fall 40-20 feet off the ground(note if its a true flop) anyway I do think most of that training would be to get used to balance one self with the 3dmg (just like in muvluv cadets are trained at 15yrs or younger to get used to handling a giant Exoskeleton). And everything else like anti-personnel combat training and metal breakdown and strengthening was given 2nd priority