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Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) manga thread of TOTAL SPOILER PANDEMONIUM

Qurupeke

Member
My theory about the titans. They appeared about 100 years before so that means they aren't connected to any current character like Eren's father. The "invasion" that happened now was really interesting. It probably means that somehow humans turn on titans, but not on the same manner as Eren or the others. They turn on mindless titans. The monkey titan has probably a connection to that. I don't think that it's a human. It knows how to speak but not because it's human. His little dialogue with the one who was sniffing made me think that...and that he is a real ape.

If there isn't any magic bullshit on the story and it's pure science, I think that the ape titan was an ape. Like the apes they use for experiments. Something like what happened on "the planet of the apes". Scientists could working on a vaccine for invulnerability but the side effects were the titan size and the zombie brain. The ape somehow got it too and it turned sinister. I'm not sure if it will be the big bad guy, but it's bad.There are probably more humans outside that somehow control titans. The real big bad guy has probably the greatest control over the titans. And it surely is connected with Reiner, Bert and the others as these had greater powers. Eren's dad somehow got the vaccine and I'm sure that he gave Eren a special ability too, that we'll see later. So, what do you think about it?
 

Branduil

Member
The Lost writers totally screwed themselves when they
killed off John Locke. The dumb Jacob vs. Smoky thing could never compete with Jack vs. Locke.
 

Wynnebeck

Banned
So just read up to Chapter 45 and not since reading Berserk have I encountered such a depressing manga with a palpable feeling of despair with each new revelation. Definitely the best new manga I've read in a long time with great characterization and decent art. The titans themselves are creepy as hell.
 

Varodor

Banned
77561l.jpg

Shingeki no Kyojin: Before the fall (Novel)

Novels set years before the beginning of the manga.

1) Anheru works at a workshop creating protective gear/weapons for the scouting legion (the story is set before the 3D maneuver gear was invented). Anheru is a first class weapons craftsman, and therefore has direct access and also is involved in the ongoings within the scouting legion. In the story, people still didn't know about the weak points of the titans; the story is about Anheru beginning to work on the ultimate weapon/gear to fight the titans. So essentially we learn about how the 3D maneuver gear came about.

2) A baby is found crying in a mass of Titan vomit, amidst the dead titan flames. The child is called "child of titan" and is essentially hated by the people inside the walls. He also seems to grow unnaturally fast. Named Kyukuro, he parts himself from his past/upbringing and gambles on the fate of humanity by enlisting in the scouting legion.

3) Kyukuro has survived from the outside wall: in order to defeat the titans, he gets his hands on the 3D manuever gear. Although the gear is still imperfect and causes a troublesome incident for Kyukuro, he fights the titans. Whether it is because it is his fate to fight them, or it is because of his past, he fights against them.

(Mangahelpers)
 

Ambitious

Member
After my recent re-read of the manga, I read the Shingeki Wiki and also the Wikipedia page for a bit of background information I may have missed, and this sentence from Wikipedia surprised me:

One hundred years prior to the beginning of the story, giant humanoid creatures called titans have forced humanity to devolve to a medieval level of technology and to retreat into a system of concentric walls known as Wall Maria(outermost), Wall Rose(middle), and Wall Sina(inner). Inside these walls, humanity lives in peace for one hundred years, until a sudden attack by a gigantic sixty meter titan and a smaller titan covered in armor plates causes the outermost wall to be lost, beginning the story.

So technology was more advanced before the first attack? How advanced? Is there an official source for this statement?
 

duckroll

Member
Seems like an assumption of the Wiki to me. The manga has never really stated what the world was like prior to the Titans. Record keeping and knowledge of the world beyond the wall seems to controlled by the ruling class and the church. Obviously they have secrets they want to keep, and don't want the common people knowing about it.
 

Shergal

Member
The stylized depictions of what happened when Titans appeared 100 years ago seem to indicate that their technology was as primitive as it is in the present or more.
 

Branduil

Member
Upcoming anime episode titles:

Ep6 - The World the Girl Saw
Ep7 - A Small Blade
Ep8 - The Heart can be Heard Beating
Ep9 - The Left Arm's Whereabouts
Ep10 - The Response

Looks like the adaptation is still moving exactly as I expected. Lol.

So based on this, episodes 7 and 8 should cover the rest of volume 2. They might include the Levy prologue from volume 3 in those two episodes as well.

Episodes 9 and 10 should cover all the way up to Eren plugging up the wall and Levy's appearance unless they really expand things.
 

duckroll

Member
So based on this, episodes 7 and 8 should cover the rest of volume 2. They might include the Levy prologue from volume 3 in those two episodes as well.

Episodes 9 and 10 should cover all the way up to Eren plugging up the wall and Levy's appearance unless they really expand things.

Nah, you should check my amazing prediction post again: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=53874063&postcount=171

Based on the Newtype synopsis and the episode titles, it's still pretty much spot on.
 

Permanently A

Junior Member
77561l.jpg

Shingeki no Kyojin: Before the fall (Novel)

Novels set years before the beginning of the manga.

1) Anheru works at a workshop creating protective gear/weapons for the scouting legion (the story is set before the 3D maneuver gear was invented). Anheru is a first class weapons craftsman, and therefore has direct access and also is involved in the ongoings within the scouting legion. In the story, people still didn't know about the weak points of the titans; the story is about Anheru beginning to work on the ultimate weapon/gear to fight the titans. So essentially we learn about how the 3D maneuver gear came about.

2) A baby is found crying in a mass of Titan vomit, amidst the dead titan flames. The child is called "child of titan" and is essentially hated by the people inside the walls. He also seems to grow unnaturally fast. Named Kyukuro, he parts himself from his past/upbringing and gambles on the fate of humanity by enlisting in the scouting legion.

3) Kyukuro has survived from the outside wall: in order to defeat the titans, he gets his hands on the 3D manuever gear. Although the gear is still imperfect and causes a troublesome incident for Kyukuro, he fights the titans. Whether it is because it is his fate to fight them, or it is because of his past, he fights against them.

(Mangahelpers)

I liked Annie's old haircut better
 

duckroll

Member
You think it will take them four episodes to cover five chapters? That's certainly possible if they add a lot of original material, I suppose, but it would definitely be a lot of original content.

They don't really need to add a lot of original material. The show has been steadily hovering between covering 1.5 chapters to 2 chapters per episode. Usually when more things are "happening" though, the show somehow slows down dramatically. Look at episode 5 for example. That was basically a whole episode for one chapter and it was filled with action. The only original content in the episode was the Pixis scene and some extra exchanges between the characters.

Anyway, it's confirmed by Newtype that episode 9 is the "Are you a human or are you a Titan?" episode, and episode 10 is about the aftermath of Eren protecting Armin and Mikasa by transforming the top half of his Titan body. So it's totally in line with the pace I was expecting. The first cours will definitely end with the sealing of the hole in ep12.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
I laugh a lot at the stupid everyone is titan plot twist, but to be honest I'm kinda excited to see titan vs titan on the anime since they won't be CGI!!! orz
 

Shergal

Member
C'mon, it's not like everyone was revealed to be a secret titan, and reading back, it actually works pretty damn well.

The rush of twists from 31-42 is just too much, I think. Not to say it jumped the shark, but I think it could have been handled better.
 

hteng

Banned
this was a fun read, it's certainly better than your typical shounen manga. It does drag on forever with the whole self pity scenes though, i just skip through them and right onto the action and reveals.

And does anyone hate the style the story is told? with flashbacks and stuff, i hate it when they cut the action and force you to go through all the meaningless/cringeworthy dialogs and then to what actually happened. It feels like the author's trying to meet the weekly page requirements.

I don't think there'll be any good reveal after the armor titan and colossul titan reveal though. Calling the final boss will be some deus ex machina within the church/wall/military police and it's all a conspiracy to keep humans from evolving, going outside.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
And does anyone hate the style the story is told? with flashbacks and stuff, i hate it when they cut the action and force you to go through all the meaningless/cringeworthy dialogs and then to what actually happened. It feels like the author's trying to meet the weekly page requirements.

No, the author just has some bad habits. The point of the flashbacks is so the reader will be like "oooooh that's what they planned ALL ALONG mind blown" but it just comes off as amateurish. Had the story been told chronologically, there would be far less tension in the story overall.
 
I can't believe that's Bertholdt's face on all that merchandise

I think the guy being a worried spaz in his human form doesn't help much. Even after reverting to human and carrying Eren, the guy doesn't have the expression of the ridiculously intimidating colossal titan.
 

Ghizz

Member
Just read chapter 45, can't wait to read the next.

Does anyone know how frequently the chapters are released? Once every two weeks?
 

Suen

Member
I bet nothing will be revealed about the Titans and their background in next chapter. Anyone made a good guess on who the gorilla titan might be?
 

Ken

Member
I bet nothing will be revealed about the Titans and their background in next chapter. Anyone made a good guess on who the gorilla titan might be?

That titan doesn't know about 3DMGs so it kind of rules out all the known human cast at the moment?

Unless they pull a "titans forget their human memories" thing.
 

Suen

Member
That titan doesn't know about 3DMGs so it kind of rules out all the known human cast at the moment?

Unless they pull a "titans forget their human memories" thing.
True I didn't think of that, can't be a human unless they suffer from some amnesia. Wouldn't be surprised if it's some evolution from a titan eating/mixing with some animal (which would be strange though as I recall them saying that titans didn't care for animals) or if there's some experimental bullshit going on behind the stage. Pretty excited to know but it will probably take forever till we learn more about that titan
 

Loona

Member
Cross posting from the Manga thread:

So uh, Shingeki no Kyojin popularity poll



01. Levi (3952)
02. Eren (2244)
03. Mikasa (2232)
04. Sasha (818)
05. Christa (664)
06. Annie (452)
07. Hanji (388)
08. Reiner (348)
09. Jean (310)
10. Armin (290)

01. Colossal Titan (64)
02. Armored Titan (44)
03. Hairy Titan (12)
04. Female Titan
05. Titan in the Wall

Such blasphemy, Annie gets all the best scenes, both in human and titan form, how come she's under flippin' Christa and the hairy titan?

Her whole titan sequence was the high point of the manga for me (can't wait to see that animated) - even with all the atrocities she was pulling off, there was something just very appealing about how ingenious and stylish she ended up being about it all.

I'm kinda hoping she ends up being the Picollo/Vegeta of the story (fearsome antagonist that beocmes an ally later on), since this is supposed to be shounen after all - the whole crystal encasement should buy enough time for everyone to get a more complete understanding of the titans' motivations and maybe find common goals, making an alliance plausible - might involve Reiner siding with humans, clashing with Bertholdt (who may die in the process) and recruiting Annie later.

Then again, how the hell is she expected to remain alive while encased in the crystal? Even if sunlight were to replace oxygen as sustenance for a while, I doubt the crystal's being kept out in the open to soak up some rays...

On the subject of female characters, I wonder if I'm alone in thinking Hanji is the best one?

Nope, although for me she's tied with Annie, they both excel at very different things.

Hanji's enthusiasm in her scientific curiosity is actually handled in an appealing way (or maybe I'm just too tired of that being trampled by the "SCIENCE!!!" pseudo-memes), yet balanced by the depiction of her life before she found that calling and her ability to still be fiercely intimidating, like in the scene with the priest guy.


Potato girl has nothing on these two.


Random thoughts while I'm at it:

- IIRC, didn't Ymir take a knife with her before going titan? I don't recall if she used it for self-harm but I wonder if she really needed that.
In any case, it's weird that unlike Annie, her titan self doesn't look particularly female.

The other really odd thing is the incident with her eating Reiner's mate, and the fact that goes guys looked human then. Maybe there are at least 3 major titan factions - some who look human by default but can change (Reiner, Annie, etc...), some who might be perpetually titanized (hairy guy), and maybe Ymir's default shape is supposed to be as a titan, but having the option to turn away from that she did?

There's still the "regular" titans, but those seem to be failed experiments to try and add to each faction (that would explain Conny village incident - ape guy's initiative, I guess -, and Reiner/Annie's interest in Eren - trying to discover a successful way to titanize a regular human).
As for Ymir, that titan that spoke to that Ilse scout could be a hint that the "regular" titan may fear her or her clan, so maybe the incursion on the human settlement might be a way for titan factions to sic humans on their titan rivals as distractions, to some extent...


- Am I the only one that thinks of Street Fighter 3's Urien when looking at the armoured titan?...


- christa/Historia keeps getting depicted as a someone others look to as divine providence every once in a while, when they don't downright fall in love with her, and now she's states to have plot importance - considering the sotry's general tendency, do you think she'll die before or after getting a chance to clarify anything about the walls?
Can't help but wonder how messed up the circumstanes for that will be - it just feels like an inevitability in the making, the only questions being when and how...


- Reiner blurting out that revelation could have been a result of a sleepness night trying to keep titans away and it was already daylight when he spilled the beans - guess by then he was just too exausted to care and wanted to get things done with little regard to subtlety?


You are missing the point. The best mecha show this season is the one without mechas! I'm so hyped.


Shingeki no Kyojin in Super Robot Wars - it probably wouldn't be the weirdest pick in the series history. The concept or repairs would feel a bit weird here though...
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
So, watching the anime I now notice all the hints about Annie's gang being Titans.

Truly masterful foreshadowing, Oda ain't got shit on dis.
 
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