Attack on Titan - Episode 4 Discussion / Poll

[Anime Online]

Originally Posted by Hitenma

The system is weird. The best trainees end up never putting their skills in use.
Why don't they give such privilege to the soldiers who have served for an amount of time and/or have distinguished themselves with great achievements?

There are probably two reasons why such a job-posting system is implemented:

(a) It is a reward dangled to motivate everyone train harder so they can make it within the top 10. The anime mentioned there are over 180 in the graduating class. So what if you lose the top 10 to Military Police postings? You got 170 others who are motivated to give it their all during training.

(b) The system is to gather the elites to be the final line of defense.

In any case, I'm not a fan of the final scene in which Eren rushed up the wall to confront the roasted-looking Titan. It's drama for the sake of drama. His immediate attention should be the breach in the wall. The breach is where the main Titan force will come through. Its much easier to stop the Titans by killing them as they try to come through one at a time. But nooo, Eren had to be the hot blooded shounen hero and give useless orders. Mikasa, where are you? We need someone with brains leading the defense of humanity!

[larethian]

I managed to find time to watch 1 anime over the weekend, and I chose this

Firstly, All That Commotion == Sasha's Fart! LMAOROFL!

Secondly, Armin and Sasha getting into the top 10 was a surprise to me.

Thirdly, for the Colossal Titan, I don't think he's a teleporter but more of a transformer like someone mentioned. Though it's still a mystery why he chose this time, rather than breaching Wall Rose 5 years ago. Perhaps, it's an ability with some limitations?

Originally Posted by Ashlotte

You can introduce characters a lot better then having still images of them going "This is what blah blah blah does". Also the training happens whether they show it or not so the MC's proficiency improves regardless. I didn't insinuate he didn't need training simply you didn't need to waste two episodes on it.

I know it must be utterly riveting showing people just sitting around in harnesses like last episode or fighting with little wooden knives these past few episodes simply felt like they were going through the motions without any effort into making these training segments enjoyable.

Either put your heart into it and devote several episodes to really fleshing out the training showing all aspects of how one learns how to fight with their weapons of choice or don't bother at all.

Well, for me, I pretty much enjoyed the last 2 episodes. In fact, it was episode 3 that kept me in.

Moreover, I do not see this as a 'training arc' that you are labeling it as, but an introductory arc as a means of introducing the other characters (besides the main trio), which just happened to have the characters training as soldiers as its setting. After episode 4, I'm inclined to believe that the main characters covered, especially the top 10, will live quite long, except maybe Berthold, Marco, Christa, since they didn't get much coverage (potato girl probably will live quite a while for the occasional comedic effect plus the trainer did talk about her skills ). But then again, the 3 of them might get more coverage later.

Anyhow, I thought that this is a good place to introduce the characters briefly, because we get to see their attitudes and beliefs before facing a Titan and their interactions as trainees, which might changed afterwards. It was also rather gratifying to see a few people like Connie and Sasha deciding to join the Recon troops after the 'speech' given by Eren (nice to see he still holds his protagonist aura despite being outclassed by the heroine, Mikasa, in ability - a good thing IMO). Though I would like to see more of those so called 'information' gained explained later. And originally, Jean was supposed to join the Military police. I supposed from the preview that the Titans are invading Trost, he will be fighting them as well. Ironic, since this is graduation day, and he probably will not see a Titan in his life if not for the fact the Titans chose to attack on this very day. It will be interesting to see whether the top 10 still stick to their original 'chosen' path after this very day, that is, if they survive. As for fleshing out the characters, it might be done later, or the show might choose to employ flashbacks later at appropriate times. But I think a brief introduction to the characters (not as much as the fighting techniques and stuff) is in order before their first battle, or it may be too disjointed and jarring.

Originally Posted by LeoXiao

I can't help but think that the Titans are somehow fundamentally connected to humanity itself - the flashback/dream that Eren had regarding his father and the experimentation, the fact that the Titans look like humans, and that they seem to be concerned with killing humans alone and leaving everything else in peace - all this has me thinking that something more sinister is going on than simply "monsters are attacking us let's fight them".

I'm kind of thinking along the same line. This show just reminds me of Claymore in so many ways. Titans = human experiments as War Weapons with the experiments gone awry.

[ReddyRedWolf]

Stuff I like this episode.

1. Mikasa trolling Sasha again.

2. Sasha force fed with bread by Mikasa.

3. Sasha stealing meat.

[Randrak42]

Originally Posted by Anime Online

In any case, I'm not a fan of the final scene in which Eren rushed up the wall to confront the roasted-looking Titan. It's drama for the sake of drama. His immediate attention should be the breach in the wall. The breach is where the main Titan force will come through. Its much easier to stop the Titans by killing them as they try to come through one at a time. But nooo, Eren had to be the hot blooded shounen hero and give useless orders. Mikasa, where are you? We need someone with brains leading the defense of humanity!

Eren IS doing the right thing actually. The gate is breached and titans will likely start flooding in but there are other soldiers down there that can handle it. On the other hand Eren and the ones with him are the only ones close to the Colossal Titan who not only has proven to be the GREATEST Threat to humanity since 100 years ago (since it is so huge it can take down gates with a simply kick) but it also seems to appear and disappear out of nowhere right before and after breaching the gate. Eren is looking to eliminate the Colossal Titan ASAP and before he vanishes like last time because as far as we know, if he goes down then the Titans lose their means of taking down a gate (aside from the armored titan)...meaning they stop their advancement.

So yea, it's not a stupid and mindless shounen hotblooded MC rush...Eren's using his brain and thinking ahead.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by Randrak42

So yea, it's not a stupid and mindless shounen hotblooded MC rush...Eren's using his brain and thinking ahead.

I don't know about "thinking ahead", but I agree that his reaction was correct. In real life, soldiers are drilled to charge in the direction of an ambush (well, at least that's the way I was trained). One might point out that this is suicidal, but the simple point is that, if you were careless enough to fall into an ambush, your chances of survival are near zero to begin with. Might as well take whatever chance you have left to fight back.

And that's basically what Eren did. Either way, the defenders were screwed. Rather than stand around and be a sitting duck, fight back swiftly instead.

[Jetzero Infinity]

This week's ep was pretty good. Couple of the comedy scenes in the first half felt awkward to me but I guess it was mostly because I spent the first half of the ep waiting for the post graduation stuff so we could get to Colossal Titan showing up from out of the blue to screw over Eren. Glad to see they didn't disappoint on making it dramatic and over the top.

Fun times all around.

[Flolan]

I forgot to mention... this must have been the very first time i heard the word fart in anime.
What was the japanese word for it again? I'll add it to my vocabulary though im unsure if i'll ever have a chance to use it.

[vansonbee]

The episode was enjoyable, my expectation is high in this series and YES, Annie appears formally in episode 4! Her nose is sticking out more so than manga, but I find it cute and appealing, just like Nishino XD

Sasha makes this show has some innocent cute moe moments and whatever comical features are bonus for me! Seeing her up her game, when the things are serious and WHAT, penetrating that guys leg to save him! BADASS!

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

(´・ω・｀) The art quality...

Images

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I almost thought they had another time skip because they looked different, but in the other scenes, it doesn't seem there was one.
There wasn't, right?

There was no time skip, its just them kids being kids and admiring the returning recon team.

[Guido]

I should really hate myself for the hunch I got prior to the conclusion of this episode.

What got the rest of the team's morale boosting up was warming to Eren's iron-clad resolve to fight the Titans in order to leave the walls and not much about his speech.
The mood was going fresh with all the comrades looking forward to a speck of light in such a bleak world of survival. I mean nothing could go wrong, and at that moment I thought it's in moment like those when fatality strikes when least expects it.

What happens? My thoughts became true.

The Colossus just appeared out of nothing like a bullet shot from a thunder, and that froze me stone cold. I mean I did not have any chance to gasp for air just like the rest of Eren and the company.
Seriously, what are this Titans? Can they really move that fast?

I feel there's something fishy, because the conditions how the Colossus arrived out of the blue did not seem natural at all.
Can it really move at lightning speeds? It looked to me that the Colossus was launched and landed at that spot. No, I don't think it's work of magic. The effect of its arrival seemed more like that of a meteorite crashing, or a ballistic missile detonate with a flash bang.

Seriously, the appearance of the Titan too sudden at the end of the episode turned to ghastly for me, that right now I'm speechless to discuss anything else in this episode.
Once I calm down I will be offering more thoughts for this thread at a later time.

[herbert]

Originally Posted by Hitenma

The system is weird. The best trainees end up never putting their skills in use.
Why don't they give such privilege to the soldiers who have served for an amount of time and/or have distinguished themselves with great achievements?

Best trainees are given the right to choose. They are not forced to leave front line, just most trainees choose to save their own skin. The system would be really weird if the best trainees are forced to fight titans.

[desrtsku]

Originally Posted by larethian

Secondly, Armin and Sasha getting into the top 10 was a surprise to me.

But Armin didn't ... that was Christa-chan.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by desrtsku

But Armin didn't ... that was Christa-chan.

LOL. Poor Armin. Too bad that titans are equal-opportunity snackers. Being androgynous affords no special privileges.

[Hitenma]

Originally Posted by herbert

Best trainees are given the right to choose. They are not forced to leave front line, just most trainees choose to save their own skin. The system would be really weird if the best trainees are forced to fight titans.

Forced to fight?
When you sign up to be a soldier, you are supposed to fight.
If you are ordered to fight, you don't have the right to refuse.
Moreover, the training is heavily focused on fighting titans.
After the rigorous training, asking "Do you want to fight titans or not?" is weird


Okay, let's assume that such reward motivates people to train harder.
Then new question: Can you quit after finding out the you are not in Top 10?

[Quadratic]

Originally Posted by monir

The best freakin' show of this new season!

I don't have much to say about this episode that others haven't said, but I completely agree with this.

Though...there needs to be more Love Live cross-over images, in my opinion (Go giant Kotori! )

[desrtsku]

Originally Posted by Hitenma

Forced to fight?
When you sign up to be a soldier, you are supposed to fight.
If you are ordered to fight, you don't have the right to refuse.
Moreover, the training is heavily focused on fighting titans.
After the rigorous training, asking "Do you want to fight titans or not?" is weird

It's sad but that's just how it works in their world. Many of those trainees already gave up on the idea of beating any titan even before they joined the training corps. In fact, pretty much everyone except those who purposely want to join the scouting legion think that way : "I must learn how to fight titans in order to avoid getting into a fight with them".
Then why join the army in the first place instead of living in peace as a mere civilian, if all you want is avoiding the titans? Because, it's been proven numerous times that being a civilian is just as dangerous as joining the scouting legion (especially if you live in the outer parts of the walls). Those who get in the top 10 have the privilege to join the military police and live in the inner parts of the walls ... far from titanic battles and everything else that involves the dangerous outer parts.

[larethian]

Originally Posted by desrtsku

But Armin didn't ... that was Christa-chan.

Ah, I see, I thought I remembered Armin standing in the front role during graduation, I must have remembered wrongly

Originally Posted by Hitenma

Forced to fight?
When you sign up to be a soldier, you are supposed to fight.
If you are ordered to fight, you don't have the right to refuse.
Moreover, the training is heavily focused on fighting titans.
After the rigorous training, asking "Do you want to fight titans or not?" is weird


Okay, let's assume that such reward motivates people to train harder.
Then new question: Can you quit after finding out the you are not in Top 10?

IIRC, it was mentioned only the top 10 are given the choice to get into the Military Police, so I guess the rest still have a choice to stay as Garrison troops. In the past before that breach, it would still have been a low-risk choice as compared to the Recon troops.

[erdii]

this series is awesome. ı read the manga yet ı was shocked when collosal titan appeared. animation is done very well at least for me next week we have action scenes. ı wonder how these scenes will turn out

[NoemiChan]

Highlights

> Sasha is one hell of an addict...she's scary.... She might steal and eat up somebody's sausage...

> WTF that Titan appeared out of no where?!!!

[Raviel]

@Genji

Knowing Sasha, she's probably done that already

[BoyTitan]

Finally its like a roller coaster getting to the top before the drop its not that long been you have been waiting for whats next forever now its just one big giant and fast drop from here and then just when you get used to the rides comes the twist and turns.