Board Thread:Manga/@comment-27321453-20190108204033/@comment-1327106-20190109034659

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found this chapter's fight scene to be "meh." There was no build up. It was just one and done, and Levi so clearly beat the pants off him when the battle in Shiganshina had taken the lives of a hundred soldiers and Levi won by taking him by surprise.

Granted, the battlefield was different this time and favored Levi on purpose, but it felt too easy and I'm honestly disappointed that Zeke found it a surprise that Levi would kill his own Titan-ized soldiers to get to him. Levi's in a branch of the military that sacrificed dozens of soldiers and their commander just to get to Zeke the last time around. He shouldn't underestimate them or their willingness to see the job through.

I'm also disappointed that the wine reveal was confirmed for the rest of the military so quickly. It just removes all the tension of not knowing who is or isn't affected. And now that we know so many drank of the officers-only wine I feel like Isayama isn't going to turn them all into Titans, otherwise all of the military leadership outside of the Survey Corps is just going to drop out of the story. It would be a crisis of epic proportions if they did, but I can't see Isayama removing that many named characters at once.

I'm also disappointed in the beating up Keith scene. I know why Floch orders it, but that's a jerk move to enforce which side the new recruits are aligned with (and that they aren't allowed to go back because they've hurt the other side). It's more that I don't like the direction Floch's character is going rather than I think it's poor writing. Floch was more interesting when he was simply a zealously pragmatic character. I don't need him power tripping on top of that.

Aside from that, I do like Levi's part two of dealing with Zeke. Stabbing him in the stomach with a Thunder Spear rigged to his neck and constantly injuring him so he can't transform is brutal, but very practical and very Levi.

I also like Zeke's consideration for what Levi and the rest of Paradis is expecting versus what Zeke and his greater understanding of the outside world expects to happen. It's a nice setup for later when things presumably hit the fan.