Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan (Manga Discussion)

The Military Police (oldbies, not the newbies)just sit around on their asses drinking and smoking and whatever. Though, who knows..., maybe they're so talented that they don't need to train themselves to keep their skills honed. This story's 'verse makes it difficult to believe that a Master of Drunken 3D Maneuvers can go toe to toe with Titans, even though the Titans do looked like they've been drinking and doing drugs.

/has severe allergy to corrupt government official types

I haven't been able to keep track of the characters for a while now. So the series hasn't been able to make me care about the people that are eaten for the most part. Heck I spend quite a bit of time questioning some of the characters genders. Everyone looks pretty similar to me.

edited 11th Dec '12 7:16:08 PM by EHK

Don't worry, most of the cast are gender neutral. That is, if you consider giants as part of the cast.

I remember people by their actions, so... I can't remember a lot of people either. But I don't have to, since they are all going to die. All I need to do is: reads backstory. Oh how sad. s/he dies.

this is especially true for Rivaille's team, I basically know them as: killed loads of titans, trust rivaille, dies for a cause which did not materialize

My inner cynic is (weakly) insisting that I should laugh at the trust thing they had going on, but I can't cause for reasons I am still trying to figure out (by rereading for the third time), I became (really) fond of them.

Maybe it's a combination of "positive" factors which just dulled my inner cynic. As mentioned, it's -so- rare to see a series with so many kickass ladies barely showing any skin.

My inner science nerd also likes the fact that the mangaka consulted a scientist buddy in the development of the 3D gear. It's, of course, still science fiction, but I still can't help but appreciate the research. And despite that the Titans came about via magic, probably, I really like that the mangaka "shoehorned" Square-Cube Law.

Then, there's the Red Shirt and Mauve Shirt characters who try so effing hard to be brave-badass, despite overwhelming fear. In FMA, for example, I love the characters like Marco and Yoki and Falman. So "ready to pee in their pants" scared, but they stood their ground.

Then, there's the horror - the Titans themselves. I actually find them refreshing in a horrifying sort of way, because most of the time, I find that Nothing Is Scarier than the monsters themselves in horror media. As someone mentioned in YMMV, it's like narm was weaponized.

I think that the elite soldiers being at the heart of the city just tells you about where the government's priorities lie. Until the Colossal Titan showed up, the walls were impenetrable. Titans were not a pressing, immediate threat. Far more dangerous were the small, overcrowded enclave of humans inside the walls, so they prioritised accordingly.

Who is Marco?

Yeah, i remember in one of the early chapters, Mikasa and Eren's savior originally planned to take on a titan before fleeing with them instead... I've already forgotten his name, and come to think of it, have no idea what is his status. Is he still alive?

Their priorities are... kinda understandable in the early stages, but you'd think they'd change once wall maria is breached.

Eh, it takes a while to change that sort of thing, and there was quite a long gap (i.e., several years) between that breach and the second one. They may have thought it was just a freak incident. Furthermore, the fall of Maria made their situation even more desperate, so they needed more elite troops to keep the population in line.

As opposed to, sending out a large percentage of the population for "reclaimation" purposes?

And actually sending them out to be killed because there is insufficient supply of food/land/water/whatever?

Which is, of course, another reason to keep your best troops inside the city. They're not so expendable.

One think I do like about this manga, and it has been touched on before, is that it's gritty and grimdark without going ALL RAPE ALL THE TIME. That is an incredibly rare and precious thing.

Marco is the doctor-scientist in charge of making philosopher stones.

I think top 3d maneuver grads should go to the wall/stationary troops. I do think that the scouts are the most bad ass of the bunch, deservingly so but the mortality is just too high for now. Even I think it is a waste of bad ass characters. At least the wall troops get to have daily encounters with titans in controllable numbers, and fighting defending by those (tall) walls would put 3d maneuvering to good use, and keep their titan-killing skills honed.

It's a waste to put the best 3ders on policing people. I even remember reading that permission has to be asked to use 3d gear in the inner areas.

Also, just going to point out that I admire how Eren's mom met her end. Most badass characters doomed to die by canon meet their end with dignity, badass to the end. Which is really OK. Heck, my fav FMA chara is Kimblee.

But such bad ass characters are more fantasy than realistic human beings. Eren's mom showed how bad ass she was, screaming at them to leave her, to save themselves, especially the kids. And when they left, she showed how human she was - muffling her own cries to be not left behind.

It was painful to witness. I was expecting mindless gorn entertainment, not -this-.

Another painful example - the soldiers escorting eren to fix the wall which even though I thought were needlessly sacrificed for horror-drama purposes (WTF are you lot not using your gears to jet away?!), I still really feel bad for.

I think the combination of - bravery barely overcoming fear, coupled with very painful, utterly undignified manner of death and unwilling yet undeniably heroic sacrifices - wore out my inner critic.

Edit: Oh, fuck it. Am going to whine-ramble-probablynotmakesense for a bit, cause though I really like this series and admire the mangaka's style a lot, I liked those soldiers too much to be not happy that they sacrificed for even effective horror-dramatic purposes.

Rivialle's group was like a minute away ?!? And yet though they were on the other side of the wall, they scaled it in just enough time to save the main trio plus one, but in not enough time to save the other soldiers.

Inner critic - that's cause they were probably busy thinning out the herd on the other side of the wall. Then when the hole was blocked, that's when they scaled the wall and played Big Damn Heroes.

You're suppose to be nitpicking this series, not defending it.

Inner critic - Fine, the architects and city planners are stupid. No moats, buildings have too big windows. They should be making ziggurats and planting those huge ass trees all over the place. Scouts are bad ass all right, but they should be luring titans in small batches to the wall, not fighting them in titan territory. Considering how handy towers are and trees for 3d maneuvering, they should have those lining the main roads or even in just the middle of each town. Oh hell, just have most people living in tree houses and towers.

edited 12th Dec '12 8:38:30 AM by probablyinsane

Chances are, that town was already there when the walls were built. I do like the idea of living in hugeass trees though, considering that most of the titans can't climb (oh wait, they DO learn to climb. But at least, it is easier to deal with them from high ground)

I can tell I like this series, cause when I first saw the huge ass trees, I did not immediately snark about the characters deserving to be Titan food for not being more environmentally-conscious.

I tried to like Walking Dead, I really did, but after that episode wherein they didn't even fucking barricaded / blockade the department store's "glass" sliding doors while zombies where already pounding on them - I just couldn't take the show seriously anymore.

Slight change of subject - 3D gear, it took me a while, but I think I got it - they don't work like jet packs - as in gas propels wearer forward. Rather, the gas is just used to shoot out grappling hooks and to REWIND the cable. It's the rewinding that provides the motion.

The town probably was already there. And again, you see how the people act like the Titans are somebody else's problem until they're staring at them in the face.

I remember reading the author's notes on the 3D gear, and I recall that it is indeed the gas that propels them forward. I'd find the relevant pages, but I'm too lazy.

The author notes about 3D Gear are at the end of chapter 3. It doesn't say that the gas propels user forward. What it says is that the gas is aimed at a fan to make it spin. And it looks like the fan is facing out the right side of the wearer.

There was also a bit somewhere about gas winding up the rope. I'll definitely note where it is during my fourth reread.

3D gear works more like Spiderman webshooters than jetpacks.

Watching the trailer, it looks more like the gas is used for acceleration and the wires are used for steering. There's a part where Eren hooks to a tower to his left, yet his movement is forward, and that's not possible if it's simply the wires pulling.

Gas winding up the rope, yes, I recall something like that too. It doesn't necessarily conflict with what I mentioned above, anyway.

EDIT: Heck, the gas propelling and the wires pulling don't conflict with each other either.

edited 14th Dec '12 8:11:14 AM by fillerdude

Correction to my previous post - the fans are enclosed. I think the fans are there primarily to just turn an axle which rewinds cable/cables. Gas emission/exhaust goes out behind. Right now, I'm assuming it can go out of two holes/vents, not just one.

Yeah, a hybrid jetpack-webshooter/grappling hook system seems like the safest bet. Lol, the 3D gear system does look like it's more physics-compliant than Batman's grappling hook gun.

The bit about gas rewinding cables is in chapter 3 or 4, instructor with blackboard lecturing them on how to kill titans.

Edit: I am going to blame the characters saying again and again that 3D gear is useless on flat land for why I thought that the gas-rewinding-cable portion does most of the heavy-lifting.

If most of the wearer's weight is propelled by gas pressure, 3D gear shouldn't be (so) useless on flat land. Could at least make 'em run faster or jump higher.

Maybe it's 50-50.

edited 14th Dec '12 8:42:11 AM by probablyinsane

On flat land most of the available anchor points for the cables would be at or below the level they launch from, so they would tug the harness downwards as well as forward. Not ideal for obvious reasons.

It looks like wearer can't use (just) gas emission to overcome gravity. It only works like a jet pack if the weight of the wearer is already... uh... supported by the cables.

Welp. I'm falling in love with the mangaka.

1). Kondansha asked him for Mikasa in bikini, and he did NOT give them what they wanted.

http://nenena.dreamwidth.org/364662.html

2). You may have noticed "bitch" being used when referring to the female titan. Apparently, the insults were gender neutral in the original Japanese.

http://papermoon2.tumblr.com/tagged/shingeki+no+kyoujin/page/2

3). Must also share awesome post of awesome - http://nenena.dreamwidth.org/362097.html

Ahhhh!!!!! I like this series and mangaka so much that I want to make fan site. It's been ages since I wanted to make a fan site.

edited 19th Dec '12 9:39:23 AM by probablyinsane

He gave them what he thought they wanted though... XD

Anime character designs for Eren, Mikasa and Armin.

http://www.shingeki.tv/settei.php

Been reviewing the trailer, most of the action takes place in cities, but there's a bit which looks like ?Rivaille? whirling about in a forest.

Speaking of which, I do not have a clue as to how Rivaille keeps his cables from tangling up when he does that maneuver.

Because he's the best there is.

Maybe he releases one cable before spinning around... must review manga!

Meanwhile, Rivaille x Eren seems popular in J-fandom. (Where's my Hanji x Rivaille? Haven't seen much Ervin x Rivaille either... why?!)

Also, the couple of Mikasa x Rivaille I've seen has her like at least half a head shorter than Corporal Shorty. (No no no!)

I've just realized that the back cover of the manga volumes show the top ten graduates in order of their rankings. Was wondering why Eren isn't standing between back profiles that look like Mikasa and Armin.

Also means that Armin isn't in the line-up. Cannot decide whether this decreases or increase Armin's survival rate.

Edit: Heh, the scouts got 8 of the top ten grads. Take That!, military police!

edited 22nd Dec '12 10:48:31 AM by probablyinsane