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「信頼」 (Shinrai)
“Trust”
Now four weeks in and with nary a Titan in sight (flashbacks don’t count) I imagine a few are getting a little angsty at SnK’s current focus. The colossus sized terror colouring the beginning has been replaced by selfish and cowardly humanity, the true enemy is annoyingly kept out of sight, and those exhilarating high flying aerial manoeuvres? Replaced with the less demanding—but no less entertaining—Hange punch. It’s not really the SnK we all know and love, but there’s no denying the show is making the best of the material it must get through to reach the good stuff.
Arguably one of the benefits of SnK these past two seasons is its emphasis on speed. Whether out of prescience or understanding of the issues affecting its multi-year break (which ironically almost looked to be repeating with OPM’s second season) the show is doing its damn best to get through one of its weakest arcs. Scenes which otherwise would’ve taken entire episodes are trimmed down into bite sized affairs, the politicking is kept to a minimum, and torture (among other potpourri) tastefully remains mostly off-screen. It’s a fairly substantial change compared to how SnK operated before, although to be fair much of this may be due to the shift in writing and this arc’s focus: we have so far seen little of Eren and his ubiquitous fits of righteous yelling, combat has been kept on the down low, and the Titans—which I’m pretty sure we’re all here for—are nowhere to be found. SnK is not really the show most expect it to be at the moment, but if these changes carry over into the next arc (which will be back to the Titans I guarantee) the show is primed to benefit substantially from it.
Getting to the next arc too is not likely to take that long. If the past few weeks can be termed the buildup to political revolution, this episode effectively heralds the start of action in SnK’s walled world. Reeves Company’s heir revealing the truth of manipulation to the general populace is one obvious sign of course—and not something a tight lipped government wants given its significantly contagious nature—but we also have the journalism front set to drive the chaos further once the lid is thrown off (yes, these two gentlemen will be a recurring feature this arc). As to what begins the fun, well, pretty clear what that is going to be. Erwin may be set for elimination, but he’s taken a few measures to prevent it, or at worst limit any culling to himself. Pixis as shown before is already on board with the coup, and as Erwin’s words should hint towards for any keen eared viewer, the actual plan is further ahead than few could imagine. When the horn sounds the king and staff won’t have any idea what hit them and only themselves to blame.
The only question is whether Levi and scout friends can successfully extract Eren and Historia before the fireworks begin in earnest.
Preview
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Personally quite enjoy the “people politics” side of things, since bringing in humans makes it much more sinister than just mindless beasts. Everyone in the scouts are kick ass as usual and I can’t help but whoop when the underdogs get to (criminally) show-off their battle prowess that none of the other soldiers seem to realize or appreciate.
Also, not having Eren yelling really helps I think
This season is very Game of Thrones-ish. Very intriguing for the most part.
Considering how this arc sets up for the big reveal later on it definitely has its place, but I can understand why some wouldn’t like the politics—there’s lots of political thrillers or fantasies already for that sort of thing (ex. GoT as Bamboo Blade Cat mentions).
Also Eren not yelling always helps matters XD
https://randomc.net/image/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin%20-%2041%20-%2001.jpg
Blaming the Scout Corps for the damage the Female Titan did in the city. It’s a common superhero theme, claiming “too much” collateral damage, and that the heroes, the heroes, not the villains, should pay. But I put this one at the government’s feet of “cover it all up”.
I disagree. Many things within the world of attack on titan can be blamed on the government or the titan warriors but what happened in Stohess was the Scouts and the Scouts alone.
It wasn’t a case of a villain arrives and we fight it. They cornered Annie and almost forced her to transform. As seen, Erwin and all of them knew the risk and while it was a victory for humanity. All those deaths are on the hands of the scouts involved.
Santino I think is correct on this. The Scouts chose to confront Annie where they did, thereby accepting the consequences should the plan get out of hand (which it did). It was a calculated decision with any collateral damage deemed acceptable for the desired outcome.
On the contrary I’m enjoying this more than when titans are involved
For me as well, I much prefer this to just fighting off scary titans. Earlier seasons I thoroughly enjoyed, of course, but more in a popcorn munching ohhh that’s some good action! way. Of course, it was always decent in other aspects as well, but I like that we’re getting more into the mystery of the world as I believe the setting has a lot of potential. Despite seeing some complaints, I (as non-manga reader) think that the fast pacing is great and keeps things constantly moving, just the way the show has always been.
If you think the setting is good right now just wait a bit. If they end the next arc where everyone expects them to the ride gets a whole lot wilder 😛
The political arc is enjoying and the set up is being build as fastest as they can. I believe who is not liking will like after, because is some kind of essential to the series and to the arc.
I think so too, a lot of the mechanisms of government and the heavy focus on Eren and Historia start making good sense once the secrets start coming out and the truth is revealed. Not like this arc will lack for fighting either given Kenny basically exists for the purpose haha.
While elements of the arc do feel a tad rushed, I definitely enjoy learning about the secrets within the walls. The supposedly upcoming coup seems like a logical direction for the plot to take in light of the corruption earlier seasons hinted at.
And while I don’t dislike Eren, I do think he’s one of the more uninteresting characters of the series so the shift in focus off him definitely helps! I just wanna know what Historia’s been up to the past few episodes.
Eren’s problem is he’s arguably too one dimensional. He wants to kill Titans to avenge his family and spends damn near every moment (barring the occasional flashback) engaged in the activity. Top that off with his lack of sustained success and he loses luster compared to the likes of Mikasa and Levi. It’s why relegating Eren to sideshow right now probably feels refreshing, we have a bunch of characters doing stuff and more or less succeeding with it in an interesting fashion.