Not bad, not bad at all! OK, no, things are bad, very bad, but being safely in the viewer’s seat, I was impressed. It’s not like it hasn’t already been made clear the Titans are a serious threat – how else do you interpret a seemingly-mindless horde of giants that eat people and shrug off cannon fire? But then Eren realized the Colossal Titan was sentient, and now things have taken a more unsettling turn. It’s bad enough to find out they can not only withstand cannonballs but will actually regenerate their head if it gets blown off, let alone that they only have one weak spot, but between the training exercises and how Eren kills one in the opening, the latter was already obvious. Then you realize they can make further progress whenever they want, with the resultant implication that humanity is still alive because they’re letting it, and it’s easy to feel the ‘Oh God! We. Are. Screwed!’ right alongside the trainees. Sure, most of them are just scared they’ll be fighting Titans for the first time, but the things the viewer realizes make it easy to empathize. Yeah, if I wasn’t puking or breaking down crying myself in that situation, I’d probably be feeling how much I wanted to. It’s more than enough to make the despair and hopelessness they feel palpable, especially when they’re about to become an afternoon snack. Seriously, that part where Thomas gets swallowed whole – just ugh! Getting bitten in half or something is one thing, because at least you’ll pass out fairly quickly, or if it’s your head you’re already dead, but to be swallowed whole, meaning you’re conscious the entire way down and get to feel yourself getting dissolved by stomach acid – definitely not the way to go!
And to make it even worse,
the more we learn about the Titans, the more it looks like there’s nothing
natural about them. Mostly one sex? No visible genitals or known means of
reproduction? Seemingly incapable of communication or reasoning? Utter
disinterest in anything besides humans? Not known to eat anything besides
people but have survived for over a century despite no access to them, so they
clearly don’t eat them because they have the munchies? These things are
weapons, ones that exist solely to destroy humans. Their appearance only makes
it more effective, since they look so similar to humans while being eerily not,
especially the perma-grin from the lack of lips, are too big to challenge on
even terms, and kill by eating – a very disconcerting form of death for a
species that’s vulnerable to others in isolation but otherwise used to seeing
itself as top of the food chain. Suffice to say, whoever’s behind this is hella
sadistic.
We also got a bit of a surprise at the end. I don’t really
expect Eren to just die like that, but I certainly didn’t expect him to start
taking Titan Digestion 101 either. Plus, he’s just lost an arm and a leg; even
if he does survive, how’s that gonna be dealt with? Or has he been a decoy
protagonist this whole time, and it’s actually Mikasa or Armin who’s the main
character? I haven’t read the manga, so I don’t know (though that likely won’t
stay the case unless things really go
off the rails), but it would certainly be interesting. At the very least it
looks like we’ll get some character development for Mikasa. It’s mildly amusing
that she’s apparently such a badass without even trying, but otherwise she’s
been pretty bland up to now. That we saw she isn’t just looking out for Eren
because it’s his mother’s dying wish but because she actually cares about him,
gave her a little bit of appreciated depth. Hopefully there’ll be more and I
won’t have to feel hesitant about using that term.
But if Eren survives, will he get prosthetics or something?
Because that would definitely make him more Guts-like. Just sayin’.
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