Board Thread:Manga/@comment-27321453-20180808084355/@comment-35822279-20180808192357

This was probably the best chapter of the last few for me as it introduced a pretty interesting conflict for the next arc and had some rock solid character interactions.

Pros:

- Connie's rage filled tirade on Zeke/Eren was the highlight of the chapter for me as I feel this has been a long time coming and it's great to see him finally receive a big dose of character development as he has been a character that Isayama kinda forgot about for like 50 chapters. I'm definetely intrigued to see how his character is going to progress from here on out (ex. Is he going to attack Zeke out of spite or is he going to keep it cool in the battles to come).

- The opening scene was great as it revealed many fascinating details about Historia's pregnancy that complicate the narrative in fascinating ways (who's the person beneath the hood? and is Historia firmly on team Eren?) and the scene ended on an interesting and sinister note with Nicolo bringing that bottle of wine as it's probably spiked with Zeke's spinal fluid (or poison) based on the way Nicolo is framed in shadow and his ominous line of dialogue to the servant (did he bring it on the order of Zeke, Eren, or another individual?).

- Magath and Pieck saw through Zeke's deception showing that Paradis is going to regret not being able to eliminate them beforehand as they are clearly intelligent and dangerous foes unlike Marley's previous commanders. Magath and Pieck's reasoning for Zeke being alive and having defected to Paradis was also incredibly clever (the airship needing training to pilot, Marley tech in the upgraded 3DMG) and Magath especially continues to impress me as a character because of details like this.

- Reiner and the warriors planning a sneak attack through the north is great (great job by Isayama on foreshadowing this in the late 90's) and coupled with the oncoming Zeke/Eren conflict this next arc is going to be amazingly chaotic with sky high stakes which is way better than everyone sitting around waiting for the other to make a move like the Cold War.

Cons:

- Gabi's scenes were kinda terrible in this chapter as her "no Falco muh racial oppresion!" scene was unintenionally hilarious for me and trying to bash out that girls brains with a rock was seriously uncool and I guess that girl is Sasha's little sis to boot (that's who I think she is anyways as they look pretty similar) so it's probably going to be used as a cheap way to mellow Gabi out by making her feel bad for killing Sasha (if it is Sasha's adopted sister or someone else the result will most likely be the same). On a side note though to be fair to Gabi on her previous murders, Sasha was an enemy soldier in a warzone and while her killing the guard was cruel most of the cast would have done the same thing in the same scenario but even contemplating killing this girl made Gabi look sociopathic which is not a smart way for Isayama to endear people to the character.

- The flashback was awkwardly paced and didn't really add much to the overall chapter as it confirmed stuff that I had already figured out prior (Eren truly cares, friendship is magic etc).

Mixed:

- I don't know how to feel about the situation with Historia's baby daddy as we kinda got a non-answer in the child probably being sired by the farmer and if he is the father it's a dead storyline as we know jackshit about this guy or his personality so it's hard to care for him going forward outside of him being a plot device and I feel like he'll just get killed in the Warriors sneak attack anyways to make Historia feel bad (if it's not a misdirection) but if the farmer is a red herring than it's unnecessarily obtrusive and melodramatic to boot. So hopefully Isayama resolves this sooner rather than later unlike how he handled the WHT's current possession as that was just straight up disappointing when he dragged it out for 3 chapters and then revealed that Eren had possession (the simplest and least interesting answer).