Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) - Manga discussion

[Old Rick]

The initial drawings of Krista/Historia and the
council, probably foreshadows a conflict between
the two or members of the later. The drawing of
Rico is almost inevitable unless the mangaka
introduces a new character. She is realy the
only experienced junior to Levi above the 114s
that hasn't been killed off. Probably she will be
working as Levi's principal subordinate, or
potential successor. The drawing of MP Hirtch
again signals the eventual return of Annie.

The basement if it contains a chrysalis of Frieda
would pose a question of Krista/Historia's right
to be queen.

Having looked again at blowups of these dark
drawings it appears both Renier and Bertolt were
blasted out of their shells and are alas not dead
yet. These two unlike normal titans in a mental
fog can regain human consciousness and a
clarity of mind yet knowingly chose what they did.
They seem to have been weak people enthralled
by their titan powers.

Overall I find chapter 82 reminescent of 2 and 5
with with the fights inside a city, but like a bookend
with Mikasa and Eren finally striking down their
inital oponents, who caused this mess.

[servidor]

Raw scans for chapter 83 are out.

I was wondering that the shapeshifter don't seem to have unlimited manpower.

[Jan-Poo]

Spoiler for chapter 83:

Well well it appears it was like most of us predicted, Armin is still alive and can be saved if given the serum to become a titan!

But there's a twist, Erwin is alive too and Levi must choose whom to give the serum to, he chooses Erwin but Eren quite apparently disagrees and Mikasa is going in Yandere Mode.

Are they going to defy their captain and rationality for the selfish desire of saving their own friend? Or will the situation resolve more peacefully?

Meanwhile shocking revelations from Zeke, he is indeed very much alike Grisha as people have suggested some time ago, possibly his brother or relative. And he believes Eren is one of them (albeit brainwashed), and his father an enemy of both. According to him they didn't just want him for his power, they wanted him specifically to "save" him.


Well this was a very nice chapter, even though it's postponing the revelation of the basement just like I feared...


PS: Also Sasha is seriously wounded but stable, she's not going to die.

[Kanon]

Still hoping Erwin will get the serum.

And damn, I'm starting to think Reiner is the plot armored titan. That's like the third time he's escaped death.

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Spoiler for chapter 83:

Well well it appears it was like most of us predicted, Armin is still alive and can be saved if given the serum to become a titan!

But there's a twist, Erwin is alive too and Levi must choose whom to give the serum to, he chooses Erwin but Eren quite apparently disagrees and Mikasa is going in Yandere Mode.

Are they going to defy their captain and rationality for the selfish desire of saving their own friend? Or will the situation resolve more peacefully?

Meanwhile shocking revelations from Zeke, he is indeed very much alike Grisha as people have suggested some time ago, possibly his brother or relative. And he believes Eren is one of them (albeit brainwashed), and his father an enemy of both. According to him they didn't just want him for his power, they wanted him specifically to "save" him.


Well this was a very nice chapter, even though it's postponing the revelation of the basement just like I feared...


PS: Also Sasha is seriously wounded but stable, she's not going to die.

Spoiler:

ah but is saving Erwin REALLY the most rational decision? Afterall he did admit to Levi that he actually more driven by his own curiosity of truth of the world than saving humanity. When faced with the decision to make a self-sacrificial play for the good of everyone else, he blinked. in a way i would think that he was more guilt-ed into sacrificing himself against the beast titan, because he couldn't forget all the others that died under his command. Heck one might even wonder what he will do after he does get to the basement

And then there's armin. He's essentially the rising star of the Squad's strategic genius's. Armin alone was the only one capable of finding a way of defeating the colossal titan. What's more, when he realized that he would have to sacrifice himself to pull that plan off, he did not hesitate for a moment to put the plan into action. In a sense, Armin could very well be the next leader after Erwin.

So i might ask, is Levi making a rational decision to pick Erwin... or is he doing it more out of his personal feelings for him and his old loyalty. Personally i feel like Armin might be the better choice.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

Spoiler:

ah but is saving Erwin REALLY the most rational decision? Afterall he did admit to Levi that he actually more driven by his own curiosity of truth of the world than saving humanity. When faced with the decision to make a self-sacrificial play for the good of everyone else, he blinked. in a way i would think that he was more guilt-ed into sacrificing himself against the beast titan, because he couldn't forget all the others that died under his command. Heck one might even wonder what he will do after he does get to the basement

And then there's armin. He's essentially the rising star of the Squad's strategic genius's. Armin alone was the only one capable of finding a way of defeating the colossal titan. What's more, when he realized that he would have to sacrifice himself to pull that plan off, he did not hesitate for a moment to put the plan into action. In a sense, Armin could very well be the next leader after Erwin.

So i might ask, is Levi making a rational decision to pick Erwin... or is he doing it more out of his personal feelings for him and his old loyalty. Personally i feel like Armin might be the better choice.

Spoiler for chapter 83:

It's a very hard choice, both Armin and Erwin have elaborated outstanding plans that led their team to the victory, with the only difference that Erwin is a lot more prone to sacrifice his men for that mean than Armin is.

For instance Armin came up with the plan to defeat the colossal titan by sacrificing himself, while Erwin came up with a plan to defeat the monkey titan by sacrificing his whole squad (himself included, albeit he survived by chance). However Erwin was in a very awful position and his squad would have been annihilated anyway.

It's difficult to say who could benefit them the most, Armin is more intelligent but Erwin might find drastic solutions where Armin would hesitate. moreover Erwin has more experience, leadership and in his plans he factors the political situation they are in, while Armin is mainly a tactician.

At any rate Levi is also probably being influenced by his feelings in his choice.

[ImperialKnight]

Like I said it's annoying when the author keeps pulling deus ex out of nowhere

Spoiler:

Reiner yet again surviving despite getting his head blown off AND then getting blown out of his titan. I wouldn't be surprised if during the confusion in regards to the Serum if Bertholdt escapes as well and then we're back to square one....

[grey_1960]

Chapter 83
That was good chapter. I will say this Reiner has the best luck ever. I also think the author is saving him to play with the readers. Its almost like a game to him. Put Reiner in the toughest predicament possible and find a real way to save him. Has for Reiner, he is also one tough individual.

For the Enemy in general they can no longer depend on their titans like they used to. The technology to fight titans from the beginning to the present of this manga has revolutionized fast. Could you imagine a whole army of the explosive spears that they developed. Attacking the human race just got a lot tougher. The enemy no longer has free rain over the humans like they did in the past. The future engagements will not be the same.

Finally I wonder if Zeke suspects the other side will kill bertolt or eat him for his power? If he does not know the scout regiment knows how to claim the power then they can use the colossal titan has a surprise attack. If there is a next battle Zeke and the rest will have to step up there game. I don't think he is aware that the scout regiment knows how to extract the power. If he did he would have made sure Bertolt would have died so the enemy didn't get the power. Has for the Colassal Titan power and any other unique titan powers, I don't think they can replicate or its very hard to do the process because Zeke was actually trying to save bertolt and he left him for the enemy to have when he retreated. He will know after Renier tells him after the battle.

Choices
Finally the decision to save Armin or Erwin is a tough choice. Armin has strong potentials to rival Erwin in tactics and has commander of the future scout regiment. With his mind alone has been able to take down the Colossal titan, turn the tide of this important battles here and else where. He is good and his untapped potentials for the future is scary. He could be possibly humans kinds hope.

But if it weren't for Erwin the human race would already be dead. The guy started a revolution against the puppet king, Reise family, and stopped the human race from committing suicide by ignorants. He had the balls to stand up against everything he was taught to believe in. His commitment to the truth is admirable.

Personally I believe both of these guys dying is a huge blow to mankind in general. But if I had to choose I would save Erwin. Both of Armin's child hood friends are being selfish and are to emotional to think. Has for Levi I don't believe his lie either he is masking his own feelings with an excuse. But I do agree with Levi's excuse that Erwin is mankind best hope at this point. Has for the ending I hope they can save both.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by ImperialKnight

Like I said it's annoying when the author keeps pulling deus ex out of nowhere

Spoiler:

Reiner yet again surviving despite getting his head blown off AND then getting blown out of his titan. I wouldn't be surprised if during the confusion in regards to the Serum if Bertholdt escapes as well and then we're back to square one....

The only reason I'm actually thinking there's good chances that Berthold will die for good this time, is the fact that if he doesn't then there's really no hope for Armin.

Unless it turns out that inside Grisha's basement there's some kind of miraculous elixir...

[The Small One]

I wonder if they even need the whole injection to save one of those two.
What would happen if they gave just half of the serum to each of them?
Okay, currently they only have one shifter to eat, so even if it could work, one of the both would stay a mindless titan, but I'm more interessted, if there is a minimum dose of the serum necessary to work.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by The Small One

I wonder if they even need the whole injection to save one of those two.
What would happen if they gave just half of the serum to each of them?
Okay, currently they only have one shifter to eat, so even if it could work, one of the both would stay a mindless titan, but I'm more interessted, if there is a minimum dose of the serum necessary to work.

Good point. Rod Reiss became a titan simply by licking the serum that spilled on the floor, he must have managed to ingest less than 1/5 of it but that was enough.

The real issue is that there's only one human titan to eat, and we don't know how much of the spinal cord liquid they must ingest.

[BladeMancer]

The outcome is here.

Spoiler for Spoils:

Armin is alive and he ate the colossal titan
Armin is now the colossal titan guys...what the fuck.

[foxbox360]

Ewin dead isn't he important?

[DragonXX]

Originally Posted by Semblance_of_Power

I honestly think this manga has been severely damaged by it's own popularity.

Not that it was perfect early on but at least it seemed like a serious story with artistic integrity and real stakes.

At this point I can just picture the author's conversation with his publisher/editor/whatever:

Spoiler for Spoilers:

Don't you dare kill any important characters, even if in a meaningful way, we don't want to upset the many fans that just want the most predictable story possible where nobody important ever dies. It doesn't matter of illogical it is or how many asspulls it may require, nobody important dies.

Oh and make sure to start dragging your feet on the plot as much as humanly possible, so we can make even more piles of money.

What a shame.

Spoiler for spoiler:

The dragging your feet part is a problem.
Also you need a balance of killing people and not, because if you just kill tons of people, it still because predictable and the thing which Armin is that if they did kill Armin without a doubt someone else would of said it was predictable.
Good example of a death that was good and not predictable would be Aces death from One Piece.
The problem which this series is that no matter if Armin dies or live someone would of call it predictable I feel bad for arthor, also I knew from the beginning that Armin would live because the arthor said in an interveiw, that he wanted there to be a conflict between Eren and Armin do to different believe and ways of doing things but if Armin die here that future conflict wouldn't come.

That why I said dragging your feet part is a problem because there was no need for the cliffhanger at the end of chapter 83 where we already have an interview saying what the arthor wanted which Armin and Eren.

[ImperialKnight]

Well think of Games of Thrones.

It's all about shock and awe and it's great at first but eventually it loses it's "magic touch" because if you rely on it too much it just becomes predictable and boring. Mainly losing it's shock value.

And it's dragging feet when it's continuous cliffhangers I mean come on

In any case

Spoiler:

Bert is dead finally. Can't say he didn't deserve such a death after what he did but maybe we can start moving along with the plot and find out what's really going on?

[Peanutbutter]

What a chapter. At least it wasn't dragged endlessly.

[Stark700]

Hmm chapter 84...

Spoiler:

Ah losing Erwin is a huge blow to humanity, it will be near impossible to replace him as a tactical leader with the possibility of Armin.

RIP Bertolt. While I never really liked him much, he got a good amount of characterization and I think in the end, he just hang out with the wrong crowd.

[henshinagogobaby]

Spoiler for 84:

So am I the only one who's sad that Bertholdt was eaten alive? I mean I know the latter kicked down the wall and invited all the titans in but it seems to me that he was forced to do it by someone with a higher power than him, like the Beast Titan, and between Bertholdt and Reiner, at least Bertholdt admitted that his actions were bad and was begging for someone, anyone, to pull them out of their predicament. When turning into a Colossal Titan won't save you from your "bosses", who knows how powerful those assholes are? Even his last words were of his best friend Reiner and his unrequited crush Annie. And the last thing he saw were his "friends" looking on at horror as Armin devoured him alive. This manga makes me feel so conflicted, I love it.

[The Small One]

Oh man, another chapter wasted on "who gets the serum". We could already be in the basement getting our explanations, but no...

At least we got a few panels on how Hange surved the blast before.

[GDB]

They took the predictable route, but at least it was the smart route. Now that that nonsense is over, let's move on to better things.