Board Thread:Manga/@comment-34196931-20200108165627/@comment-35822279-20200108184513

I enjoyed this chapter more than I thought I was going to as while I still think the pace is oddly languid through these past three chapters considering the literal apocalypse is occuring, this chapter had good character beats & solid dialogue which propelled it to being a rock solid chapter.

Pros:

- It was nice to see Annie again and getting her full story was pretty great adding extra levels of character & tragedy to both her & Mr. Leonhart. I was also pretty moved by the last panel of Mr. Leonhart charging the Marley guards as it just goes to show how much he's changed & genuinely cares for his daughter. I also find it pretty interesting that most Warriors come from shattered families which feels true to the real world.

- I also enjoyed Armin's outburst as even though it was blunt in expressing what was obvious subtext or stated before, I did enjoy the raw emotion of it especially in how beaten down & exasperated he feels about the whole situation. Definitely getting the feeling that Armin & Eren are going to have a colossal fight and I am interested in seeing it brought to life as a fan of stuff like Pacific Rim & Revenge Of The Sith's final fight.

- Connie reflecting back on why he joined the military was a pretty strong beat & contrasting that against his current deceitful & immoral actions was the kind of smart economic writing I enjoy. I think it also makes a good point about what happens to idealistic people who join the military as Connie has been so perpetually shit that he's been broken in about every way. I'm really digging the character work for Connie recently and I am interested in seeing how it will end.

Cons:

- "Insert beating dead horse meme here". I don't enjoy that Levi is in perfectly good health & probably going to be reinserted into the final battle as holding an obvious secret like this is a lazy way to keep people invested (a trick frequently employed by JJ Abrams to really poor effect) & dramatically lowers the integrity of the narrative. I've grown to accept that the series will probably never be the high stakes bloodbath I want but I wish the series would stop with the fakeout deaths: either submit to shonen tropes of invincibility & high flying action or start killing primaries, you can't have it both ways.