Board Thread:Manga/@comment-27321453-20190208231006/@comment-35822279-20190209014900

I thought that this was a pretty solid chapter that put all the pieces into focus and cemented AOT's endgame.

Positives:

- Zeke's backstory made for a pretty good read as it was propelled by solid dialogue and the strong characterization of Grisha and Xavier.

- Xavier was a pretty cool one off character with a suitably tragic back story and a interesting dynamic with Zeke.

- More Eldian history is always good in my book and it also clearly expressed what Zeke's endgame is and what Eren's plan most likely is (body composition change via the Founder = no titans)

Mixed:

- Zeke's plan and motives are perfectly logical with what I know about Zeke but I still feel that this amount of mystery boxes wasn't worth it considering it's a fairly common trope in media to have characters that have similar viewpoints so Isayama ain't winning no originality points here.

- Zeke blowing himself up was legitimately surprising and a great storytelling beat but the cliffhanger leaves potential that both Zeke and Levi make it out (Zeke's survival is 100% Levi is about 85% for me) and it would undermine the impactfulness of the scene and is kinda unrealistic. The only kind of character that could survive this would be one with unlimited regeneration (Ex. Deadpool) while Zeke's brain or spine would have to survive the intial explosion and sharpnel from the equivalent of a direct hit from a RPG with no titan to protect him. This scene would still be fine if Levi dies though but it looks like he's fine (I think his right hand got blown off but nothing else for certain) and as many pointed out in other threads it feels like it's Levi's time to ride off into the sunset so having him escape again would be kinda lame.