Let's discuss Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan has returned for a second season in April and I'm pumped! Season 1 got me so pumped, I actually read the Manga! It is the only Manga I read and if you thought it’s intense now, buckle up! Chapter 91 is the newest chapter (that I’ve read as of writing this) to have been released and every chapter does the following: drop you into a scene, introduce you to a new concept or element, pose a hundred new questions and answers one question you had. It's like Lost! (As a matter of fact, it's closer to Lost than you might think!) I'm going to name a big problem I have with the series, though. I don't know whether to blame the creator, Hajime Isayama or whoever's translating the Manga, but the dialogue is not that great. It doesn't flow well, and it's very clunky, so when they make jokes or ask questions or spew exposition, it takes a few times over to get what they mean to say. Now, I don't know many people who watch Attack on Titan, and I don't know anyone who's reading the Manga, and the AOT Wiki is incomplete, so I don't have anyone or anything to help me sort out all this confusion. So I'm just going to spitball what I have gathered so far and we'll see where that goes. "Up to chapter 91", Spoiler Alert: you've been warned!
A) Ok, so we know that the inhabitants of the walls are the "people of Ymir", who are specific Eldians. The Titans outside the walls are Eldians who the Marlians injected with the Titan serum. Lastly, Eren's dad, Grisha, was tasked with capturing the first king and/or the Progenitor Titan to free his people. Ymir is the original Titan who split herself into nine disciples, basically. B) there are nine original titans and the rest are zombie-like. Anyone who inherits an original Titan is doomed to die after 13 years. Each of the nine Titans have a special trait/ability. They are: 1) The Colossal Titan - Bertholt --> Armin. The Colossal Titan is massively tall, towering just over the walls. It does not have skin; rather, it's just the muscular structure over bones. He can let of steam, causing his body to shrink but it sends a storm of scalding hot steam across his enemies. Does that mean the titans within the walls are slightly smaller Colossal titans? Bertholt was an Eldian working for Marley to capture Eren's Attack Titan and the Progenitor Titan. 2) the Armored Titan - Reiner. The Armored Titan is a titan with his bones on the outside of his body, giving him an armor. Reiner was in the same boat as Bertholt, but he didn't die. Rather, it seems as though his time limit is up and a new Eldian is about to inherit his power. 3) The Dancing Titan - Ymir. Ymir is presumed to have died, but nothing is confirmed so far. Ymir was a regular mindless Titan who coincidentally ate one of Bertholt and Reiner's pals, inheriting the Dancing Titan. We don't know much about the Dancing Titan's powers/ abilities, but I would imagine it's the most nimble and agile. It's a pretty small-sized Titan, so it'd make sense if it traded off size for speed and maneuverability. Unfortunately, we don't know what's up with Ymir; where she is, if she's alive...etc. But, she has pledged loyalty to Krista/Queen Historia. 4) The Female Titan - Annie. Now, this ones an odd name, because Annie's not the only female titan. She wasn't even the first female Titan we saw in the series! The one that ate Eren's mom (Eren's stepmom) was female! Therefore, I'm going to call her the "Crystalline Titan". 4) The Crystalline Titan - Annie. Also an Eldian fighting for Marley with Bertholt and Reiner, Annie is able to harden certain parts of her body making concentrated areas of her body indestructible. Currently, she has made a cocoon for herself by crystalizing herself, rendering her and the Titan incapacitated. 5) The Attack Titan - Eren Krueger --> Grisha --> Eren. The Attack Titan has a battle cry that attracts titans (I think). In addition, it's not clear if it's because of Eren or the Titan, but Eren's Attack Titan has a "rage mode" to it where it will stop at nothing to complete a desired task. It's heirs have always been strong pursuers of freedom. 6) The Beast Titan - Zeke. Eren's older half-brother is a huge ape-like titan with super long arms and has been able to retain all his consciousness while inside and the ability to speak. It also seems like he's always in his titan form unless forced out of it, rather than needing to transform into a temporary state, but that's just my hunch. Because Zeke has royal blood In him, he has the power of the coordinate, meaning he can herd and order around the mindless titans. He's almost up on his 13-year time limit. 7) The Progenitor Titan - The first king --> Freida Reiss --> Grisha --> Eren. The Progenitor/Founding Titan has the power of the coordinate, meaning he can control the mindless titans. Also, when inherited by someone of royal blood, the Progenitor Titan can erase the memories of the "people of Ymir" Eldians. 8) The Jaw Titan - Galliard. This one is so new, he only got, like, four panels in chapter 91. Galliard is an Eldian fighting for the Marlians on a completely different battlefront. As of now, it's the only titan we know of that isn't on the Island of Paradis. All we know about it is that its jaw looks like a clunky robot's jaw, but it could be the same bone material as the Armored Titan's. 9) I'm iffy about this one. I don't think that the "Mule/Cart Titan" is one of the original nine. I always thought Zeke used his coordinate power to order around a deformed abnormal titan. I mean, his only power is that it's a good little titan, reversing the role of "beast" and "master". Anyways, his name is apparently "Pieck". --- C) It'd be cool if we had nine proper titans, but as it stands, Eren absorbed two of them. That kind of implies that it's possible for someone to absorb all nine original titans.
By the way, if someone can inherit two or more titans, then why can't multiple people inherit the same titan? Like, what if two people eat Eren or someone is injected with Eren's spinal fluid but Eren doesn't die? Wouldn't that make multiple Attack Titans? D) Eren has as about 4 years left to live which makes me want to predict that whoever inherits his titan might be our narrator. E) Ok, so where do the Ackermans fit into all this? Kenny, Levi, and Mikasa. It seems they are all immune to the Progenitor's mind-altering powers, but they would've came with the first king to Paradis. It seemed that Kenny was an advisor to the king, but why do the Ackermans have such an affinity for killing titans? Also, how do the Ackermans hold the genetics to being the coolest characters? --- F) Remember in Lost, there was that one filler episode with the diamonds and the spiders? It had no relation to rest of the series, but I remembered it, thinking it'd be of some significance, because why else would they put an episode like that in? It didn't have any relation to the rest of the show, and I don't know why it was there. Well, AOT has a similar thing with the story of the miner.
In the bumpers of the middle of the last episode, usually reserved for showing size charts or mechanisms of the 3D maneuver gear, there is an odd tale of a miner who tried to dig a hole under the wall. He finally told his one friend about his plan, noting that the walls are super deep into the ground, and the next day, he was never seen again and the hole was completely filled. That's the gist of it. I think the point was to tell us that the walls are just as deep as they are high, and the military police is always listening and serious about keeping people inside the walls. It's just so odd and out of place that I can't help thinking it has more significance than it does. But if the walls are made of colossal titans, and the walls go super far underground, then are the wall titans standing on the heads of other wall titans?
Alright, so those are my thoughts as of now for the series. I know I'm a bunch of episodes behind on season 2 and as of writing this I think two more chapters of the manga have been released, but for whatever reason I forgot to upload this a while ago.
In the meantime, I am leaving for Israel tomorrow on Birthright! So expect the next post to be more serious and spiritual and...Jewish...
