Board Thread:Manga/@comment-27321453-20190108204033/@comment-27125793-20190109014717

I'm pretty disappointed by the Zeke vs Levi fight; no tension and a generic, repeated outcome. I know Levi's strong, but winning against over a dozen unusually fast and agile titans who jumped him at the same time and then Zeke afterward, without getting a SINGLE scratch, goes beyond pushing it. That's Deus Ex Machina right there. I mean, I know Zeke's power is such that it's pretty much a one-hit kill, so getting struck even once means certain death, it can also indicate a lack of flexibility and imagination on Isayama's part, and his unwillingness to kill off a major character. It was really anticlimactic and predictable.

I am glad that we pretty much got confirmation that Zeke'd been planning to help Paradis all along, and that turning the soldiers and the MPs into titans was a Plan B, just like Hange said. Everything he said, he said while Levi was off fighting the Titans, so he had no reason to lie while talking to himself. And I can't help but think it's good he did make that contingency. I won't disagree that the Yeagerist methods are extremist (though that might be deliberate), but I also agree very much that they and Zeke are right about the military's (Survey Corps included) delusions, their reliance on ineffective old traditional ways, their snail pace in coming up with plans and taking action, and their arrogance in actually being able to stave off the attack by the entire world.

The Survey Corps, the people we've seen as heroes thus far, have become like the very government they toppled. Perhaps not quite as bad, but they acquired a good deal of the flaws and shortcomings that lead to the government's corruption and eventual end. Hange has noted the parallels between Sannes and herself a few chapters ago.

One of the main flaws, I think, was their unwillingness to consider making a pact with Zeke and the Volunteers. I can understand not wanting to trust him, but they were planning to betray him and the Anti-Marleyans all along. This is a proof of both their ignorance and their arrogance, alienating or getting rid of several of their very few allies in their fight against the ''entire world. ''Hell, the fact they themselves acknowledged that they were but "babes in the woods" when it came to the outside world, and then still thought and acted against the advice of those who did know, just makes it worse.

I get that Zeke killed either killed or transformed a good deal of people on Paradis, but he was in an extremely difficult position. The Survey Corps, after what they did in Stohess, using the justification of 'it had to be done', are the last ones who have the right to cast judgment and dispersions on him.

As much as some might disagree with me, everything that's happening inside the Walls right now, the military and the Survey Corps brought it on themselves. It's not entirely their fault, hindsight being 20/20 and all, but they have become relatively unreliable.

I fully get why the Yeagerists decided to take actions, keeping in mind that some factors still haven't been revealed.