Attack on Titan Season One: Recap, Review, & RIP!

Ditto! Curse you, Rowling, for setting up an intriguing AU!

Romaniablack

I'd watch that Neville spin-off, lol

SpaceMonkey

Hahaha, no worries! I appreciate the long comment! This season warrants it FOR SURE! Ahh, I don’t mean to do Erwin dirty – his staring at the battle between Annie and Eren and not batting an eyelash when a titan hand is thrown his direction?! One of the most badass moments of the season – I really do find Erwin fascinating…I just need to see more of him. I want to see in his head, which probably won’t happen in this show – but who knows! He DEFINITELY is a commanding presence, and I would not mess with him at all. He’s the best leader for the Survey Corps at this point, no question. I need more Erwin and more Erwin/Levi dynamics FOR SURE. LASER JESUS! That’s great. Yeah, Eren is conflicting for me – I find his character engaging because he teeters between being understandable in his hesitation (he’s a literal teenager who’s being used by the military solely for his ability) and we’ve established that Eren’s technically just an “average” soldier skill-wise, so the fact that the Survey Corps and others give him all this responsibility makes it interesting to see what his character does with that. It’s like if Neville from Harry Potter was the “chosen one.” Fun stuff. On the other hand, for the audience it can be frustrating because Eren’s very human decisions often cause collateral damage and go against what we know he has to do (episode 24 sticks out, as does 21). HA! My “hidden theories” aren’t really anything special, but I want to see what happens this season before I say anything else about Eren. I need Eren/Titan People interactions first. :D And Yes, Mikasa…I feel for her…Eren does like her in his own way…but it’s not on the same level as she likes him. I’m curious to see what the show does with that! And Reiner – I want to love Reiner so badly! I really thought Reiner was going to be a key player in this season! In Episodes 3 and 4 we build him up to be a major support for Eren, and then he sort of disappears from the plot until Episode 17. I think he’s a loyal, dependable character and I’m hoping Season Two does more with him, because I could see me liking his character a lot! I just need more of him. And I am already seeing the recurring “Everyone crushes on Krista” joke and that’s great. I want Reiner to get to that “S” tier level – maybe he will this season! It will be interesting to see the manga after I’m done with this series and what was different! And I’m glad I’m not the only one that confused Marco and Bertholdt at first! I really expected Bertoldt to be dead already, so that’s interesting. I view Petra as Marco 2.0…or Marlo as that, but Bertoldt has the potential to be like Marco, I guess. 😊 Mannnn, Pyxis and Jean as a pair would be soooo intriguing! Although, Jean would probably get tired of having to go to wine-tastings with him. :D “Breast Titan” – thank goodness they went with Female Titan, there. But thank you so much for the kind words! I’m glad you liked this! I am SO SO SO ready to dive into Season 2! The hype is real!

Romaniablack

I've watched this yesterday while half- (or maybe 3/4-)drunk after a BBQ party. I'm sure i forgot half of it already, but i still wanted to point out a few things that stuck out to me. Of course everything i say will be strictly S1 ! I know i'll probably ramble and this will be VERY VERY long. So, apologies in advance. You're still doing my man Erwin dirty, haha. I guess what makes me consider him way higher up the tiers is that he beat Levi in the OVA. He is so stoic, but you can tell that he is incredibly capable. I guess you could say having him stand around and talk, or sit around and talk, or ride on a horse and talk isn't exactly flashy or incredibly entertaining in the way someone more flamboyant and eccentric like Hange or Pyxis is, but i just find his presence to be so "commanding", badum-ts. The fact that he was willing to die as long as his plans were carried out was beyond impressive to me. Like, if you needed to cook an Erwin-soup to defeat the Titans, Erwin would jump into the pot himself. The only knock against him i find very appropriate is that it makes him a bit one-dimensional. I guess what i like most is how much of a different leader he is, compared to what we usually get. He doesn't need to demonstrate his ability or rank constantly. He has "the plan" on his side. Thinking of the scene where he is confronted by that one guy who wants to shoot him, you would expect people to be incompetent and emotional, but no, Erwin just makes sense, killing him would be pointless and would only take away from what is important. Talking someone like that down is somehow more impressive to me than charging and overwhelming him, because we have "kinda-protagonist-strength" on our side, which would be infinitely more boring to me. Having Levi at his side constantly doesn't hurt either, i guess :D Speaking of which: I don't particularly like Eren. People love making fun of him for how much of a psycho he can be and how he is so hell-bent on "Killing Titans !!!11" that hardly anything else matters. We get a glimpse of his loyalty to his friends and all that, but i found it hard to take him seriously in most scenes he was in, when it comes to battle, especially given that he has attained "Laser Jesus" level with being more powerful than anyone else in the squad, because of his ability to transform into a Titan and him pretty much literally being reborn. That's some thick plot armor established... Kinda takes away the risk of being defeated. Good thing everybody else can still become a casualty, so collateral damage still keeps it engaging enough . With his loyalty in mind i find it interesting that you see seperation happening ? I mean, i already touched on him being "different" and "unique", but argueably so are most Shonen protagonists with how much most go down the "chosen one"-route, which is part of why i'm not particularly drawn to the genre. My point is, if he was not able to transform into a Titan, i think giving him much screentime would become annoying fast. But maybe that is just me. You keeping back those theories is killing me, haha. Also, i feel bad for Mikasa. This is the most one-sided "will they, won't they ?" i've ever seen :D Another one i disagree with is Reiner. He's the one invigorating Eren's spirit to keep training when he struggles to balance during Training and i guess that is his whole purpose in that story line, because everybody notes how dependable he is and all that. Otherwise he is basically just "strong beef-cake", which i guess helps his status of everyone liking him. I assume every time they need something heavy lifted they run straight to him. I'm not sure if that is a common trope, but he really struck me as the country-bumpkin farmhand-type, good natured, instantly likeable, strong as a bull. I guess that is why i never noticed how little he does in S1. Though i have to say, he is involved in the first Annie-fight in a spectacular fashion, argueably the most badass escape in AoT. Also he started the whole "everybody crushes on Krista"-thing, which imo is a really funny recurring little joke. But Reiner was first, so he has dibs in the shipping departement as far as i am concerned, haha. Too bad he didn't have much to do during the last episodes, but i guess you have no need for brute strength on a human level, when the enemy is a Titan and Reiner doesn't strike me as someone, who is very good at fancy acrobatic maneuvers. Though i was convinced that he would get his revenge in some way after Annie beat him during Training, i guess to establish Annie's superior fighting abilities... But oh well, i guess Eren was in the same boat and he kinda did for the both of them. Still, Reiner is S tier on my list, even if he isn't as flashy either :P I am anime-only, so i have to assume all the Reiner x Bertholdt ships have to be manga-readers. I imagine Bertholdt had more to do in the manga or something. I agree that he kinda just is Reiner's sidekick and that is it. I wonder how much there was cut and if it would make me like him more. I have to say though, to me he looks VERY similar to Marco, to the point of me being convinced that he would die at one point ( i thought during the last episodes of S1 when i watched it back then ) and Reiner would go berserk after it in the most badass way possible. Kinda bummed that didn't happen with how much i like Reiner, lol. I guess Marco 2.0 lives to see another day :D I don't have much to say about this, but it really came as no surprise how much you like Jean. He wouldn't be as high on my list, but he is a really well written character for sure. Can't help the feeling he would have been great in the garrison under Pyxis, so that is my proposition for alternate reality AoT fanfic, i guess. Oh yeah, and i just remembered, about the whole "The Female Titan" thing. The show has made a point that there are no recognizable features to distinguish Titans in that way. For all we know, the "normal" Titans might not have a sex or maybe we just can't tell, or maybe there is a Queen Titan laying eggs somewhere and that's why we don't see female ones around, idk. The fact that Annie was more clearly defined in that way, could just signify that "human" Titans are special and i guess i'll take "Female Titan" over "Breasts Titan" any day of the week :D I guess all else i want to say is that "Titan week" was really fun. Thanks a lot, looking forward to S2. It... is a ride :)

SpaceMonkey

Oh, thank you for the kind words!! I definitely want to do this for Seasons 2 and 3 in lieu of the livestream! :D And aaahh, YES! Hmmm.... I would definitely take Armin out to dinner, because I think he'd have some interesting conversations and wouldn't be anal about things like I think Levi would be, haha! Jean would be fun to have during dinner as well, as would Pyxis if you were doing wine tastings, haha! :D

Romaniablack

I'm more excited for the reaction to season 2 Ed. Both are fire though.

daragh faro

this was AWESOME, Cant wait for your reaction to the season 2 op!

Thank you so much for this I really enjoyed it and I love the fact you will be continuing it for the rest of the seasons. As always I really appreciate the effort you put into my favorite show ! Bonus question : if you could take any character from AoT out to dinner, who would it be? :D

daragh faro

Thank you for the kind words -- this first season was SO good, so the fact that so many like the seasons afterwards has me hyped beyond belief! If season 2 is anything like the first episode that will be on here later this afternoon...I'm REALLY going to like Season 2! I can't wait!

Romaniablack

Still watching it in the early morning with my coffee but thanks for this recap, review, and AOT in 9 minutes! As a massive fan of the show, I always look forward to hearing your thoughts on each episode and your focus on the all of characters. S2 is my personal favorite of the series, so it’ll be a great next few weeks. 🔥

Pada Lee