Board Thread:Manga/@comment-5774380-20200908210434/@comment-1327106-20200909051023

Ugh... I have thoughts.

The chapter had some good little moments (loved Reiner and Annie making up, including Annie telling him how she struggled not to kill him), but once past the individual character moments, it didn't feel like Isayama had much of a plan this chapter.

For instance, Pieck asks Kiyomi to look after Gabi and Falco, and Reiner independantly asks Annie to look after Gabi and Falco. (Pieck's even with Reiner when he does it, and she doesn't say "Dude, I already asked Kiyomi.") It's like Isayama had a outline note saying "someone needs to look after Gabi and Falco" and ended up having two different people making the same request twice in the same chapter. It's not anything critical, but once you notice, it looks unorganized.

Similarly we have the flying boat research base in the mountains when it's apparent that these things need water. Maybe there's a nice big lake out there, but nobody says anything, not even Eren who would have reason to want to know more about the location (especially if he's concerned about these flying boats!).

And there's the timing of Floch's attack. He waits an entire day to shoot the plane at the least convenient moment, but he's dragging himself like he just got out of the water. (Why is he wet? If he passed out along the way he should be dead, and if he didn't, why didn't he get out of the water and hide on land?)

Literally the only reason Floch shoots the plane at that moment is so Hange has to make a big sacrifice. It's not like he could have been listening to them from outside. He's already so far away when he shoots that being outside and around a wall probably would have prevented him from hearing any normal speaking voices. And you can tell that his being there is shaky to begin with because even the characters comment on how he must have gotten there.

Again, I like some of the small moments, like Annie noticing that Mikasa is not wearing her scarf anymore, or the looks between Annie and Armin as they go their separate ways. Even Hange's death, divorced from the fact it was only necessary because Floch managed to hold on to a WW2-era ship going 40-50 mph (65-80km/h) for hours on end, was still a good moment. I just don't feel like this was a narratively fulfilling chapter.

It's like Isayama realized that it would be really boring if they just arrived at Odiha and refueled (and true, it would have been a quiet chapter), but his idea of livening it up wasn't well executed.

There are a couple things that I don't consider plot problems, so much as things I would have liked had they gone differently.

First, I really wanted Hange and Levi to make a final stand together, seeing as they're the two remaining members of the old guard and have a long history together. Levi is in doubious condition for facing Eren (no matter his only needing two fingers comment), but he might do all right against mindless Titans if he's actually in something resembling fighting shape. I know a lot of people wouldn't like to see Levi making any kind of final stand, but I think if he stayed it would have been a nice moment of solidarity.

That said, he still needs to avenge Erwin so if Zeke is still out there somewhere, I hope Levi kills him.

Second, I'm not surprised Armin was named the new Survey Corps Commander, but I am disappointed. I'm not surprised because of Armin's prominence in the story and the reason Hange chose him (because at the end of the day, Hange's the one making the decision). I am disappointed because Armin has never succeeded as a leader.

He's really good at strategy, we see that in the plans he's come up with time and again. He's absolutely someone you would want in an advisory position, but he also lets his doubts get the better of him. A strong opinion from a trusted comrade could get 850 Armin to immediately reconsider his last suggestion without going through why it is or isn't a better idea. We haven't seen enough of 854 Armin to know whether this is still true, but we haven't seen enough to say it isn't either. He hasn't taken on a leadership role ever since the timeskip.

It may well be that Armin rises to the occasion to make tough calls in what chapters we have left, but so far we've only seen him willing to sacrifice himself rather than other people. Being the Survey Corp Commander has historically meant making a lot of regrettable decisions, because that's part and parcel of being a military leader when your enemy is thousands of times more powerful than you.

That said, who else would Hange have named? Levi is likely not interested. Erwin chose Hange over him and Hange did not consider him either. Being close to Levi, they quite likely understood his lack of interest and/or aptitude. Being a leader requires some level of people skills which Levi is not particularly good at. Especially as commander, he would have to deal with people beyond those in his military branch.

If Isayama had integrated Jean more post-timeskip I would have loved seeing him promoted (Connie even suggests that during one of the timeskip flashbacks that Jean shouldn't become a Titan because he'd be needed as a future leader), but the only current arc material where it feels like things got personal with him are when Floch's involved, and Floch's dead now. Jean just hasn't had the narrative attention for a battlefield promotion, which really left Armin as the only choice.

One final note though. Back in the Return to Shiganshina arc, when Eren and Mikasa were fighting Levi for the Titan serum to save Armin, Eren said that Armin will be the one to save them all. He hadn't seen the future yet, so this was just Eren being optimistic, but from a writing perspective, I can see that Isayama has been wanting this to happen for a long time. I just don't think he set it up well enough that Armin was obviously the right choice.