#69 – “A Sound Argument”
Hmm.
Shingeki no Kyojin is starting to lose me in its plot development after its four-year time skip. Important characters need to have relationships with other important characters, but what author Hajime Isayama did to Queen Historia this episode effectively wrote her out of the main narrative. When we last saw her in the previous anime season, she rose to the status of Queen but her more arduous task was punching Levi in the gut for treating her friends in the Scouts so poorly in her last mission as a mere citizen.
In flashbacks, where she had already planned on taking over a Titan Power as a royal, she became pregnant with a faceless young man who used to throw rocks at her when she was a bastard orphan her older sister Frieda used to visit. Unless Shingeki no Kyojin treats this as a clever ruse to hide the identity of her actual lover, that lame story just ended her character development. If a main character forms a relationship with a nameless side character, that transforms her into a side character too. I’ll reserve judgement until Historia births that baby, but her character took a bad turn. The only sliver I have is how Eren was so passionate about not letting Historia have such a short life after becoming a Titan Power.
The other thing that’s bothering me about how the Paradis Eldians treat Eren is that he can see the future as the Attacking Titan. Has he kept that knowledge to himself? Because if they knew that, they should be more deferential to his judgement. Hange especially should have a better relationship with Eren because of all the time they spent together testing the limits of his power. He’s no longer the boy uselessly biting his bloody thumb. The time skip in Shingeki no Kyojin is not treating these characters consistently with what we knew before. Seeing the cracks right now might be good foundation, but the longer it drags on seeing these broken relationships without seeing the reasons for the change, the longer that annoying feeling lasts, which draws the viewer out of the current story. The careful storytelling of the past seasons of Shingeki no Kyojin is missing so far. Foreshadowing, exposition, and the signature evocative scenes using sound effects and music are severely lacking halfway through this current season.
Heh.
Hange is still odd and not socially skilled. Eren is in jail. Hange accuses Eren of wanting to sacrifice Historia. Let’s find out more about that, shall we? Flashback to two years ago with the Marleyan Volunteers. Ha. Only looking, no touching of Eren! Let’s fire up those Eren-Levi yaoi doujins! Ah. The Volunteers and Paradis completed building their first port. That means there are no more, or a manageable number of, free range Titans between the city and sea. Hizuru, the Oriental nation pays their first official visit. Oh, that Kiyomi Azumabito was there when Willy staged his suicidal stage production. She knew to get out of there before everything went down.
Is this ret-con? I don’t remember ever seeing a sword tattoo on Mikasa before. “A secret meant for today.” Yeah, that’s ret-con. So now Mikasa is a queen, or heir to the shogunate. We can forget about Historia now, right? King Fritz was friendly with the shogun a hundred years ago and they visited on Paradis Island, before Fritz closed everything up. Azumabito is literally “Eastern Japanese Person (東人),” especially from Edo. Lay it on thicker, Shingeki no Kyojin.
This is good stuff. The Paradis Eldians don’t know what nations or other ethnicities are. How could they? Aw. Historia is still the same girl to her friends. Sounds like a death flag here when Historia says she wants to rely on Mikasa. Kiyomi is on Team Zeke. The Hizuru people recognized aerial gear! Did they have aerial gear a hundred years ago? Kiyomi sees an opportunity for steel and energy industries. She’s not a good negotiator. Yelena called the Azumabitos “money-grubbers.” Lay it on thicker, Shingeki no Kyojin.
Zeke’s plan involves “the rumbling,” but we still have no explanation of what it is. Seems like a rumor about the Wall Titans at this point. Well, they need to test it like the atomic bomb to scare the rest of the world. Zeke plans to pass the Beast Titan to someone with royal blood. That’s Historia, for all they know, and make her a baby factory. Historia agrees, but Eren says no. This is the beginning of the rift.
Hange didn’t know that Eren ate the Warhammer. Eren can break out of jail at any moment. Eren knows Hange well enough that she plays up her oddness when she’s hiding breakthrough technology or secret information. Har. Eren no ecchi! Eh? Historia’s pregnant? And who’s that guy? How will she eat a Beast Titan when she’s about to give birth?
Great. Let’s use drunk military officers for exposition on Historia. Lots of sitting around talking in this part of the season. That guy is just… some guy. Sigh. She didn’t look happy to get together with him. Was she lonely? Some other reason? This old guy gets it. Who cares about the love story? Why did she become pregnant now when she agreed to Zeke’s plan and his number is up? This guy blames Yelena for giving Historia the idea about not getting a Titan Power when she’s pregnant. The old military guys are great at being paranoid. Dude! These idiots are yelling about top secret stuff in front of a Marleyan Volunteer. This is dumb writing. And there’s Nicolo too. There’s a subplot building here, but it’s clumsy building.
Yay! The old gang is all together. Laying railroad tracks. Aw. This is a flashback. Armin chases Sasha around for drinking too much water and Mikasa is strong like bull. Ha! Levi is still short while Conny got taller. Hange came to visit Eren and tell him they can’t trust the Hizuru. Paradis needs to be the Big Bad to keep the nations stable under their threat. Parts of Hange’s alternative plan became what we saw Eren do in Marley. But things changed, which is why Armin was so angry. Eren showed the world Paradis wanted war instead of peace when he attacked Willy’s declaration of war. Eren saw it as buying time.
Interesting. Jean says Mikasa, and Levi, can’t inherit a Titan Power because they “don’t know what the Ackermanns are yet.” This is something to build on. This is like the apostles fighting over who Jesus likes the best. They’re all trying to convince each other who gets to die sooner by taking Eren’s Titan Powers. Sasha thinks she’s smarter than Conny! Eren’s such a loyal friend. He wants all his friends to have long lives instead of taking his Titan death sentence. That’s why he’s the leader. A nice moment from two years ago, but then… THINGS CHANGED.
No, Conny. Eren laughed when Sasha died because he heard her last words were “meat.” That’s so Sasha! I’m worried about all this Marleyan wine the military is drinking. Is Titan Serum in there too?
Ugh. Next time, Gabi learns to stop being such a little bitch. Yeah, right.
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