Thursday, 26 September 2013

Anime Thoughts: The Imperiled

Attack on Titan [ep. 22 - The Defeated: 57th Expedition Beyond the Walls, Part 5]
This episode reminded of that quote/motif from the last book in the Black Company series – “soldiers live – and wonder why.” Eren certainly seems to feel that way now, what with seeing everyone who was with him get curb-stomped because of him. And then he has to watch Petra’s dad talk to Levi oblivious to the fact she’s dead (and they hammer it in for the viewer by showing the families of all four reacting as if they’re going to come back). To be fair, Eren is special, what with being the only one who can turn into a Titan – well, and who’s on humanity’s side – but I’m pretty sure that sort of logic doesn’t make someone feel any less guilty about others having to die on their account.

And it definitely looks like most of the others are having the same kind of thoughts. All that work, all that sacrifice, and in the end they went back after a day – a single friggin’ day – with nothing but casualties to show for it. And get to listen to the people who were singing their praises not half a day ago, and have no idea what happened, turn around and talk shit about how ‘useless’ they are when they’re fighting an enemy that outclasses them so much it’s a miracle they found a way to fight them at all. And that just sucks. It’s not like they want to come back without accomplishing anything, but seriously, there’s only so much they can do.

And it’s not like Erwin and Levi like leaving people behind. Look what happens when you try to retrieve them – you get two more dead and need to abandon all the bodies you did have for your trouble.

The Eccentric Family [ep. 10 – The Behind-the-Scenes Dealings of Ebisugawa Soun]
Huh, so it was a conspiracy the entire time. And, of course, Soun’s the culprit. I guess it’s true what they say about how it’s almost always the most likely suspect (or maybe that’s just from that one episode of The Simpsons, I dunno). I’m not terribly surprised, because he was always the one who stood to benefit the most from his brother being out of the picture, but for a while there it really did look, at least to me, like it was just ‘shit happens’ and he was only taking advantage of what’s, for him, a godsend. Mostly because the themes of family and coping with loss were more obvious, so it seemed, again, to me, like the story wasn’t actually going for the ‘conspiracy’ angle. In hindsight I’m not actually sure why the former would make the latter less likely, but it seems to be the reasoning I was using. But hey, it’s not like it’s a nonsensical reveal, because it was ever a mystery who the culprit would be if it was actually a murder. Now it’s just time to wait for Yaijiro to overcome his inability to shape-shift and save his family. Because you don’t have the bad guys ignore someone on the assumption they’re not a threat and not have that be the thing that ruins their perfect plan. Well, you could, but this is a show where it’d be appropriate dramatically and thematically. Or Kaisei could be the one to save them, since she’s not exactly on board with her family’s plan. Maybe it’ll be both.

Also, I forgot the whole ‘Soichiro’ can’t maintain human form around Benten’ thing – that definitely would’ve been a factor in staying away from Akadama while she was with him.

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