Attack on Titan - Episode 43 Discussion / Poll

[Hunter]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Attack on Titan, Episode 43.

Thread Guidelines

• Raw requests and offers are not permitted anywhere on this forum.
• Spoilers or hints about future events must not be posted in this thread.
  If you need to reference something that would spoil a future event, reply directly with a private message, or seek out a more appropriate thread.
• Discuss your expectations of the episode if it has not aired yet.
• Be polite to your fellow forum members.
• Please try to keep the discussion on-topic.
• Character bashing is not on-topic and will not be tolerated.
• Do not post multiple times in a row. Please edit your existing post if you wish to add additional thoughts.

Episode Thread Spoiler Policy

• Any comment that discloses events, characters, plot or other information before it is revealed in the anime is expressly forbidden whether or not it is behind spoiler tags.
  Spoiler tags should still be used where appropriate.
  Please consult the AnimeSuki Spoiler Policy for more information.
• Adding a Spoiler tag:
  

  Just highlight your spoiler and click the button found on the "Quick Reply" and "Reply to Thread" forms. Make sure that you include a useful title!

• Please use the Report button if you see any inappropriate spoilers:
  

  Click the button found to the left of the post, just under the poster's avatar. Using the Report button is anonymous and helps the Moderators locate and deal with problems quickly.

• Posting inappropriate spoilers may result in a ban.
  Note: Reporting a post does not mean the poster will be banned instantly.
  The Moderators will use bans if warnings are repeatedly ignored.

[wingdarkness]

Man that episode was a sensory overload... I don't even know where to start, but as amped as I was to seeing the sicka$$ Reiss backstory (Good Ghaaaad, Eren's literal "back"-story), I felt for the first time the show crossed over from something sort of tangible to something closer to "magical"?

Still up in the air with my feelings about this, but the Titan stuff always seemed to me somewhere in the zone of "scientific"... With memory erasing, Ackermann "warrior powers" and passing down super-seeds from the Titan family tree, I don't know where I stand on all off this now...
lol help?

[Nivek von Beldo]

Well this chapter explained a lot of things and show the backstories(literal in princess eren case) and woah...there come the good

[Kanon]

Lots of reveals this week, but they might bring more questions than answers. Grisha is still a mystery. Reiss himself had no idea who he was. How did he gain the power of the titans? Why did he entrust it to Eren instead of using it himself? That's quite a heavy burden he placed on him.

Anyway, those wondering why the Royal Family had to hide have their answer now. They held enormous power (not just memory manipulation, remember that Eren managed to control mindless titans once), so they had to take precautions to protect themselves from people who would seek to steal that power.

Ackermanns are confirmed to be some sort of super soldiers. That explains why Mikasa and Levi are so damn OP compared to normal humans. Not sure how Mikasa is related to them exactly (I guess her father was from the branch family the old man talked about?), but it's obvious Levi is Kenny's nephew.

Originally Posted by wingdarkness

Man that episode was a sensory overload... I don't even know where to start, but as amped as I was to seeing the sicka$$ Reiss backstory (Good Ghaaaad, Eren's literal "back"-story), I felt for the first time the show crossed over from something sort of tangible to something closer to "magical"?

Still up in the air with my feelings about this, but the Titan stuff always seemed to me somewhere in the zone of "scientific"... With memory erasing, Ackermann "warrior powers" and passing down super-seeds from the Titan family tree, I don't know where I stand on all off this now...
lol help?

How about it's half science, half magic?

[Wandering Soul]

Biggest surprise for me was that they actually adapted the toture machine.

[serenade_beta]

Lol, so now we have memory controlling?
Well, whatever for the lulz.

[Faux Mecha]

Originally Posted by Kanon

How about it's half science, half magic?

*cough* Code Geass *cough*

[Haak]

Okay so now it's all coming together. Still don't have any clue as to what any of this means in the grander scheme of things (humanity inside walls, and outside full of titans) and that's probably why I feel like this arc has been a little off, but it's making sense "internally".

[Ghostfriendly]

Originally Posted by wingdarkness

Man that episode was a sensory overload... I don't even know where to start, but as amped as I was to seeing the sicka$$ Reiss backstory (Good Ghaaaad, Eren's literal "back"-story), I felt for the first time the show crossed over from something sort of tangible to something closer to "magical"?

Still up in the air with my feelings about this, but the Titan stuff always seemed to me somewhere in the zone of "scientific"... With memory erasing, Ackermann "warrior powers" and passing down super-seeds from the Titan family tree, I don't know where I stand on all off this now...
lol help?

Not sure it was ever very scientific, that the Titans could generate enough energy from solar power, or that the manoeuvre gear could have such a small 'black box' power source.

[wingdarkness]

Originally Posted by Ghostfriendly

Not sure it was ever very scientific, that the Titans could generate enough energy from solar power, or that the manoeuvre gear could have such a small 'black box' power source.

How about it's half science, half magic?

I'm saying ostensibly...

The atmosphere and feel of the show has always lent itself to practical reasons behind this from the way Titans are taught about in classroom from the start (Irwin's dad's arc seemed within that expression)...To the extensive clues and hints we get about society during the commercial breaks and in-show...

This was the first time I can remember watching an episode and my feelings afterwards was that of "magic"... Its basically like certain bloodlines have "powers" now...This show has never felt like this until today imo...

So i guess what I'm saying is that regardless of it being solar power, electricity or "magic" that helps them transform from human-to-Titan, my point is that the show never expressed these things in a overt-fantasy manner...

But in one info-dump of an episode (and we've had 2BIG TIME info-dump eps in a row which I've enjoyed but really felt almost like a different show), now apparently religious magic or something some such is the answer...

Not sure how to feel about this...

[Anh_Minh]

And yet it's been here all along. Starting with the way no one remembers how the walls were put up, only a century before.

[wingdarkness]

^Yeah, definitely...all this stuff has been going on for God Knows how long, but my issue is about the way it was presented...The anime imo has never played up the fantasy/magical element like it did in this episode and that stunned me as much as the actual info-dump...

[Guido]

Many truths were disclosed and taking forms in this episode, that I do not know where to begin.

I guess with such a tender and caring sibling, then, Historia's childhood wasn't dull and lonely as I initially thought. But, having to erase her little sisters' memories after done with each visit, surely, felt heartbreaking and agonizing to Frieda Reiss being so close yet so far away from her little sister.

Now, we have a mystery explained to us on the Reiss family:
- They are the true royal family within the Walls possessing powers of intelligent Titans, and those powers are beyond a league of their own, since it allows them to erase other peoples' memories.

Grisha Jaeger exposed:
- He had powers of an intelligent Titan or Titan shifter and sought the Reiss family in order to steal their power from them. After achieving that goal and killing all its members, sans Rod, he passed on his power to his son Eren the night after the tragedy at Wall Maria five years ago by turning the boy into a mindless Titan with that serum and let himself be eaten.

The coordinate that Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie were frantically searching for that were willing to crush the Walls to get their hands on it:
- Must or could be the same powers that Grisha stole from the Reiss family by devouring Frieda's Titan and passed onto Eren. And, from the gravity that Pyxis confirmed to Erwin, after the pigs let out all they knew on the subject, it allows for full memory erasure of humanity within the walls.

On the Ackermans and other bloodlines:
- It turns out that a tiny fragment of humanity within the Walls are immune to the effects of said power.

- The dethroned nobles come from those bloodlines unaffected by the Coordinate as well as the Oriental clan and the Ackerman, since the latter two turned their backs on the Reiss and were persecuted to keep them on the leash.

The Ackermans themselves are proving mysterious the most since not only are immune to the effects of such power but possessed the ability to awaken their potential at its fullest when experiencing certain situations that trigger such awakening: Mikasa's child account is full testimony on that, as well as both Levi and Kenny had such moments; at this point Kenny had known since the past that Levi's an Ackerman.

Ok, Now question time:
- With such power at their disposal, why couldn't the Reiss family use it to eliminate the titans and free humanity within the Walls?

- Is there any history before the construction of the Walls? Is there a remote chance or probability that the world outside the Walls is not infested with Titans?