Shingeki no Kyojin episode 13.5: The episode of nothing

Saturday....I spent 13 hours shopping. X_____X How does this happen? It is like I have a real job now, Monday through Friday (and sometimes Saturdays) and I want to cram as much possible into days that I do have off. Case in point today has to be chore and blogging day. Apparently yesterday was drive all over town and spend way too much money day. X______X My feet are so tired. Plus the friend and husband joined me for part two of shopping and they got into the spirit of spending money. So much shopping. I close my eyes and see price tags and shopping bags. Oh and pants. Stupid pants. Pants are the bane of every girl's existence yes?

Good thing this episode doesn't spend at least 6 minutes recapping the last episode OH WAIT!

But enough about my boring day out shopping. Lets talk about something else. Oh the boring episode of Shingeki Kyojin that was ONLY a recap? Sounds like fun, sign me up. Not. Spoilers for...well nothing actually. Episode 13.5 indeed.

If this magical formula ends up being time travel....I might forgive all these recaps. But I doubt it.

Episode Summary: This episode starts off with Eren Titan carrying the rock to the giant hole in the wall. Mikasa and Armin cheer him on and Eren Titan thinks about how he has to do this. Suddenly he wakes up and is 9 years old, with tears in his eyes and Mikasa asking what he was dreaming about. He couldn't remember and they go about their day. Until Colossal Titan breaks down the wall and other Titans break into the city. People run away while Mikasa and Eren try to save their mother. Hannes appears and only can save the kids as mom is trapped. Eren watches as mom is eating by a Titan. Eren talks about how he will kill all the Titans on the rescue boat. Years later Eren and all the cadets finally graduate from their military program. They are given three options, fields to pick from. But before they can decide anything the Colossal Titan appears again and knocks down another wall. People panic and are put into their groups to fight off the Titans. Eren's group is quickly killed and Eren can only save Armin before being swallowed himself. Eren finds himself in the stomach of a Titan with other half eaten soldiers. He says it cannot end like this and there is a brief scene of Eren's dad doing something to Eren. Suddenly Eren turns into Titan Eren and kills the Titan near Armin and later saves Mikasa from being killed. While people fear what Eren has become Commander Pixie says that Eren is a medical weapon the military has prepared and to believe in him. Countless people risk and lose their lives as Eren has problems transforming again. Armin manages to reach Eren with the talk of the outside world and how they all wanted to see it. Eren Titan is then able to carry the rock to the hole in the gate and suddenly Eren wakes up again, 9 and looking up at Mikasa with tears in his eyes. THE END!

I have seen this particular scene....14 time now I think.

See how unnecessary all of that was?!?!?! As everyone knows Armin spend a portion at the beginning of every episode summarizing what has happened thus far in the story. In case we haven't been watching faithfully each and every episode. Like we all have the memory of gold fish. In the last episode, episode 13 3 entire minutes were spent summarizing. 3 minutes. Out of a 22 minute episode. 3 minutes doesn't sound like a lot but when compared to actually how long the episode really is....it is way too much. Oh and the recaps happen all the time ANYWAY!!! We get it. 100 years of safety in the walls, 5 years ago Colossal came and destroyed wall one. Now Colossal has come back and attempted to breach wall 2. Oh and Eren is a Titan. WE GET IT!

Behold how did I get here?

Well not really. But why Eren is a Titan has not been explained yet. At this point we can speculate what is going on. I don't think this is very spoilery, even if I have read all the manga chapters. But it appears there are three classes of Titans. The regular derpy looking ones. The ones who just eat and eat whenever they happen upon a human. Then there are the ones who are abnormal, that seem to be slightly smarter. Since Titans are beyond stupid (so it appears) that might not be saying much. But still their appearances are slightly different than the normal derpy ones.

Maybe this used to be Peter Parker?

Then there are the Titans like look like Eren. Titans look like huge humans with no sexual organs and generally creepy. But Eren Titan, Colossal Titan, and Armored Titan look.....different. Like you could pick them out of a crowd during Titan Convention Day. Unique features. Eyes that can actual focus. Moving with a purpose. Like there is some intelligence going on in there.

HMMMMMM who is in there?

So we can assume that inside the Colossal Titan and Armored Titan....humans. But does that mean all Titans are humans? Or have humans in them? Is that why the neck is so important? I don't know. I mean I STILL don't know. But in the scope of this show when a Titan is killed it falls to the ground and smoke comes out and it slowly rots into bones. Even if the human inside was cut up/killed it would still be there right? So it might be more likely that these Titans, the special ones, are humans and someone has figured out how to temporarily make them into Titans. This recap did focus on the fact that the Colossal Titan appeared out of nowhere and perhaps that viewers need to focus on that.

When I said give me your hand...

But other than that...I am not sure what else this recap episode did besides...well recap. What they should have focused on, if they wanted to give anime only viewers a clue or two, was not touched on at all. I mean in the manga it is sorta a surprise. The material IS given to you to say OHHHH I see now after the fact but at the time all these little things don't add up when you are reading. In the anime they seem to focus on these small details more. But not in the recap. The recap was like nope, do not care. Even Eren's dad injecting him with the medicine was cut down even more! It was a short scene to begin with. Instead we have to see the entire dead mom scene. None of the training. And most of the stuff that just happened a few weeks ago.

HMMMMM this looks familiar.

I am not sure if there is anything else to say about this episode. It did sum up all the major details well but it was completely unnecessary. Not too much focus on the tiny details that will add up and too much time on....well Eren's rage. We get it. Eren hates Titans. But we already had 13 episodes that told us that. We didn't need to this recap episode at all. Onward to episode 14 where it will recap episode 13.5 for 5 minutes yes?!