Board Thread:Manga/@comment-4929778-20160609120304/@comment-27702860-20160613064646

Is he John Snow? [Stop that!--Ed.]

Not to tangent but I avoided Game of Thrones since I had not read the books. Me Evil お姉さん got the books for me. Reading the first, I noticed "Ned Stark"--played by a favorite characer actor Richard Sharpe [Sean Bean--Ed.]--had a number of chapters from his point of view. "Well," I declared, "at least Sean Bean does not die in this one!"

お姉さん stared back at me. . . silently.

Sure enough that is not what happened. There were other episodes where fans screamed "NOOOOOOO!!!!" Anyways, one thing I liked was it satified Joe Bob Brigg's highest value for entertainment: "Anyone can die at anytime!"

Thus Attack on Titan. Lot of people die. Eren's family dies. Armin's dad. . . dies. We get to meet a lot of Young Eager Space-Cadet Types--and a lot of them die. "NOOOO! MARCO!!!!"

We all know how Ishiyama changed his mind about slaughtering Potato Girl.

Now, some have complained that a few characters have benefited from "Plot Armor." Valid. When Eren first "died" I figured, "Man, this series is Hard-Core![Tm.--Ed.]" I was a bit disappointed with the way he came back, but I understand it given the overall plot/story.

It made up for it by killing a whole lot of Cool Characters many like in the SC. "No! Even Petra?!! Even That Guy Who Sniffs?!!"

So Ishiyama made a decision. It worked in that The Plan makes sense, it did not require a lot of sleight of hand, and EVERYONE IS UPSET. That is the point.

A student recommended the series to me for the "moral ambiguity." "What? A bunch of Giants attacking on some moon in the solar system? Why don't they go to Mars or something?!"

"Moral ambiguity, 馬鹿様!"

So I watched, then read, and I am pleased. I am not "pleased" that Armin is dead, but I get the point of it. It is a story of war. There are not a lot of "good guys." Even Eren is realizing he vowed to "kill them all" which includes Poor Slobs who were made into Titans and act without any choice.

Now just do not kill Potato Girl. . . because then I will get pissed.

--J. "Half?" D.