Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) - Manga discussion

[The Small One]

Originally Posted by fguerrads

They are controlled by Zeke.

Zeke doesn't have the power to control other titans. I can't understand how anybody could even think this, as there are absolutely no hints.
He has as much control over other titans as Annie had, when she was crying for help, or as Erwin had, when he was leading the large group of mindless titans.

Originally Posted by Moe Connection

I think Zeke's power is the ability to turn other people into mindless titans.

Possible. But for all we know, he could have just transformed the people of Connies village by injecting them the serum.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by The Small One

Of course they showed intelligence!
They formed a perfect formation and didn't move from their position. Every normal titan would have moved around, going after every human they see. However they held their position, which proves their intelligence.

Zeke just ordered them to stay put. In fact, the very fact these titans did not move (aside from quadruped) while their commander was in danger proves their lack of intelligence. They only attacked Levi after Zeke ordered them to do so. Before that, they just stood there like idiots looking at quadruped and Zeke fleeing.

Re-read chapter 35. There were a few titans waiting to eat Mike. Zeke told them to hold, one of them didn't listen, but the other two did not move until he gave them the go ahead. He clearly has some form of control over other titans.

[The Small One]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Re-read chapter 35. There were a few titans waiting to eat Mike. Zeke told them to hold, one of them didn't listen, but the other two did not move until he gave them the go ahead. He clearly has some form of control over other titans.

I reread it before. It could be clearly seen, that they didn't care about what Zeke was telling them. After he killed the one, the others kept back, but it looked more like they were afraid of Zeke, not because they actually followed his „order“.
I have to admit, that it definately looked, like they understood what he said. But that's still far from having control.

[GDB]

There's a difference between controlling like Coordinator and controlling like the Leader of the Pack. Eren has the former's power, while Zeke seems to follow the latter. It doesn't mean the rest of his "pack" is intelligent, though.

[Fwarlord]

So now the theme of the story has shifted from fighting for the survival of humanity to warring with a hostile world power. Too bad the only person with negotiating skill is Erwin and he was left to death in exchange for Armin's life. Now how can wall people deal with Mare, I wonder? Considering they are in about 1920s when Grisha was a child, meaning about 30-40 years in the past, they should be in 1950s-1960s now.

[The Small One]

Originally Posted by Fwarlord

So now the theme of the story has shifted from fighting for the survival of humanity to warring with a hostile world power. Too bad the only person with negotiating skill is Erwin and he was left to death in exchange for Armin's life. Now how can wall people deal with Mare, I wonder? Considering they are in about 1920s when Grisha was a child, meaning about 30-40 years in the past, they should be in 1950s-1960s now.

You forget, that Grisha was turned into a titan roaming the outside walls for an unknown amount of years.
He was probably in his 20ies, when his child Zeke was born. The current Zeke looks around 40 or 50 years old. So the flashback was probably at least 70 years ago, which would make the current time more around the 1990s.
However, just because their technology was at the level of the 1920s in the past, it doesn't mean they advanced in the same speed real life technology did. They could be ahead or still behind.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by The Small One

I reread it before. It could be clearly seen, that they didn't care about what Zeke was telling them. After he killed the one, the others kept back, but it looked more like they were afraid of Zeke, not because they actually followed his „order“.
I have to admit, that it definately looked, like they understood what he said. But that's still far from having control.

Mindless titans never display fear normally, the mere fact that they fear Zeke demonstrates that he has control over them even if his control is based on making them fear him.

Besides even if the titan resumed eating Mike it did stop for a moment. The other titans stood still all of that time while Zeke talked to Mike. And let's even admit that all that Zeke can do is making titans stood still, that's all that the titans during the attack on Shigashina did.

[Justice Knight]

its been years since i followed this series and just read the last 5 chapter. What the hell happened lol? Now the story becomes some 9 titan thing and a god which is the origin titan. And why do they have a serum to become a titan?

[ImperialKnight]

Originally Posted by Justice Knight

its been years since i followed this series and just read the last 5 chapter. What the hell happened lol? Now the story becomes some 9 titan thing and a god which is the origin titan. And why do they have a serum to become a titan?

You become a mindless titan.

Apparently there are only 9 Titan Shifters from what I'm assuming.

To become a Titan shifter you have to eat another Titan Shifter and take their powers.

And as we see Grisha and co. are punished by being turned into mindless Titans and forced to wander that island for the rest of their lives.

[Xero8420]

Come to think of it, I got an impression that if Dina was a "special" titan shifter, then Zeke could be naturally born as a titan shifter.

I also suspect that Grisha may have received the titan power from Dina and pleaded her husband to sacrifice her in order to regain conscience. I fear that grieving part hurt Grisha the most, and it could be the same sorrow he expressed when he had his son to consume him just like he was forced to sacrifice his first wife.

Being Grisha is suffering...

[scififan]

So, Grisha married twice, and the first chapter is about his first wife ate his second wife.

The direction of story is feeling as Dune. The residents inside the wall is facing the inevitable invasion. The empire knows the titan king is without power now. Maybe they can paraphrase the passage for their island's underground fuel.

Originally Posted by joking

the spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe. A desolate, dry planet with vast deserts. Hidden away within the rocks of these deserts are a people known as the Fremen, who have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah who would lead them to true freedom. The planet is Arrakis, also known as Dune.

[Jmariofan7]

Originally Posted by Kanon

The only hint these titans were shifters were the explosions, but that could have just been Zeke turning regular people into titans right then.

Except that nothing even hinted at that, we don't see Erwin or anyone for that matter comment on some of their soldiers being missing and the Titans resembling said soldiers, plus how was Zeke able to align them in a circle before transforming and getting them all to transform at the EXACT same time?

[Jmariofan7]

Originally Posted by GDB

Only part of the chapter I liked. The rest just felt like the author couldn't come up with any reasonable backstory to the Titans so just created another continent and "the devil did it" to brush it aside.

Two things.

First off, you're acting like there was no forshadowing before hand, did you completely miss the whole "all the people in the walls are sinners" from the first king's insanity, and Bertohlt calling the survey Corps the "children of the DEVIL" when Armin tricked him about Annie?

Secondly, we don't know the whole story behind Ymir Fritz's "deal with the devil" story, this is what I can't stand about a majority of viewers, they always jump to conclusions before they see where it goes.

[Xero8420]

So the titan who killed Carla was turned out to be Dina. Oh dear... She didn't lived to see her dear's second son.

At least, Grisha, Dina and Carla are together in death.

[OH&S]

Originally Posted by OH&S

One other twisted thought I had was what if the titan that ate Eren's mum at the beginning was Dina Fritz. That would be tragic, wouldn't it?

Called it.

[Speed Blitz]

I find it ridiculous that Eren is spending prison time like Mikasa. He was mainly just begging for Armin's life and didn't put up a real physical struggle, and if he's serving prison time for that, then with that logic, they could have also put him in prison for shouting at Levi's squad mates to help their other comrades who were being killed by the Female Titan as they were being chased by her. Mikasa, on the other hand, does deserve her prison time for going too far physically, even assaulting Levi, tackling him to the rooftop ground and pointing her sword at him, literally threatening him. She then pointed it at Flocke the moment he tried to approach them.

I'm hoping Eren at least gets to get out of prison before Mikasa. Then Mikasa can spend prison time alone.

[The Small One]

I don't completely get the thing about Owl.
First of all: I thought he would be in a position much higher up. He basically is just a normal soldier, not really a good position to cover his doings. And then there is still the question, how he could hide his Eldian descendance all this time. You would assume they have tests or anything like this.
Second: What exactly are his goals? If he wanted the restoration movement to succeed, why didn't he intervent earlier? Especially in this chapter? Why let all those people be turned into titans, if he planned to destroy the ship anyways? Besides from earlier chapters we know, that Grisha was roaming as a mindless titan as well, so he is also going to be transformed. What kind of plan is this? Currently this character doesn't make sense.

[Butagami]

Originally Posted by The Small One

I don't completely get the thing about Owl.
First of all: I thought he would be in a position much higher up. He basically is just a normal soldier, not really a good position to cover his doings. And then there is still the question, how he could hide his Eldian descendance all this time. You would assume they have tests or anything like this.
Second: What exactly are his goals? If he wanted the restoration movement to succeed, why didn't he intervent earlier? Especially in this chapter? Why let all those people be turned into titans, if he planned to destroy the ship anyways? Besides from earlier chapters we know, that Grisha was roaming as a mindless titan as well, so he is also going to be transformed. What kind of plan is this? Currently this character doesn't make sense.

Well, Owl being just a lowly soldier does give him more time to lead the ERM. Or who knows, his rank might be higher than it appears.
As for testing soldiers to see if they're secretly Eldians: Maybe the test is just injecting them with a small dose of titan serum. That only works on Eldians. However, if Owl was already a shifter before enlisting, the serum would probably do nothing, making people think he's not an Eldian.
As for his goals, I'm not sure either. You're right in that he could have acted sooner. Then again he might not plan on killing every soldier there, so maybe he waited until there were no witnesses before transforming? Or maybe he knows of a way to turn people back.

btw, was it ever stated that Grisha wandered around for years as a titan? I know it makes more sense with the ages of eren and Zeke, but still, I can't think of how and why Owl would turn Grisha into a titan, let him just wander aimlessly for years, only to somehow track him and let himself be eaten by him.

[The Small One]

IMHO it was said that Grisha was wandering around as mindless titan before. But maybe I'm remebering wrong.

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by The Small One

IMHO it was said that Grisha was wandering around as mindless titan before. But maybe I'm remebering wrong.

No it was not. Before this flashback the earliest thing we knew of Grisha was that he was found by the Survey corps commander outside of the walls and he was very confused. We don't know how he got there, though most would assume that he was a wandering titan who regained his humanity just outside the walls after he ate a shifter. It also fits a bit better timeline wise, as Zeke needed time to grow up.

First of all: I thought he would be in a position much higher up. He basically is just a normal soldier, not really a good position to cover his doings. And then there is still the question, how he could hide his Eldian descendance all this time. You would assume they have tests or anything like this.

Well there isn't much he has to cover up. All he's been doing is passing on information. As for his heritage, from what we've seen there is no physical outward difference between the two people's so really it just comes down to public records... Who knows, maybe Owl found a guy who was gonna join the security force, killed him and took his name; Without photo ID, they would never know he wasn't who he claimed to be.

Second: What exactly are his goals? If he wanted the restoration movement to succeed, why didn't he intervent earlier? Especially in this chapter? Why let all those people be turned into titans, if he planned to destroy the ship anyways?

Well intervening earlier would have just exposed him... but when they were turning people into titans i don't see why he didn't just jump in. If he's gonna go as far as destroy the ship then it seems like he no longer plans to maintain his cover so he might aswell have transformed, killed all the guards and saved the people instead of letting them be transformed; and that goes double for Dina who was of royal blood. The people could have taken the ship and gone into hiding while Owl, Dina and Grisha could have stayed on the island to do whatever Owl is probably planning to do now, like going after the king's power or something.

Originally Posted by GDB

Only part of the chapter I liked. The rest just felt like the author couldn't come up with any reasonable backstory to the Titans so just created another continent and "the devil did it" to brush it aside.

In a story about Humans turning into giant humanoid monsters, what would be considered "reasonable"