Shingeki no Kyojin episode 17: doing things without Eren

More posting! More anime posts that have been sitting almost finished for a week. I try to watch all the episodes the second they came out and write them up piece by piece. Then POOF they will almost all be ready at once for your enjoyment. Hopefully this will tide you over this weekend when I am off....finally not working.

Onward to probably pointless deaths weee!

Up 5 seconds later is Shingeki no Kyojin episode 17. Spoilers for MORE people who aren't Eren. I know it is a shocking. A spoiler thread for you all. I think we can all agree the anime seems a bit...more obvious than the manga yes? Or is it just because we know what is coming?

How many people will be left at this end of this trip?

Episode Summary: After there is a lovely recap of Eren covering the wall and all the cadets joining the Scouting Legion...it is mission time! This first mission is going to be a practice run to reestablish roads to get to Eren's house near the edge of Wall Maria. A mouthful yes? Well it is more complicated than that now the newest section of the wall has been blocked off. That means they must go a roundabout way and establish new roads. Everyone sets off with Erwin leading the way. They first have to pass through an abandon city. Sasha almost craps her pants at the sight of the first Titan but the back-up team is told to handle it while all the Scouts make it into...dangerous territory. From then everyone is then told to break off into formation. Almost enough to make my brain explain maps and what not are shown to explain what is going on. Basically everyone fans off, with different roles. Some have to protect the supplies, others have two horses with them, and they are all grouped close enough together to see the next group. The key to this formation is to avoid fighting Titans, to get the group away from them. If an abnormal appears the ones who see it fire a different color flare and attempt to fight it while protecting most of the group. In flat lands this works well but Sasha quickly finds out that Titans can hide behind buildings and what not. She is saved by her squad mates as the Titan was running like a spider. Armin is with the new recruit captain and another soldier. They encounter an abnormal too and are forced to fight. Well Armin is mainly forced to run while the other two fight and kill said Titan. Those two celebrate as Armin looks on in horror. In the distance a Titan is full on running towards them. The other two soldiers finally look up and see what is going on. As the Titan approaches is appears it is female and intelligent. When the two soldiers got to attack her neck she goes to great lengths to protect her vulnerable parts and smashes the men into bits on the ground. Armin takes off on his horse but the Female Titan continues to chase him, causing the horse to crash (and probably die :( ). Armin waits to be eaten, thinking how this is insane when the Female Titan takes off Armin's hood to look at him. Then...she takes off running again.

This is a super well thought out plan.

Armin looks on in horror as he realizes this Female Titan is like Eren, some human is inside of her and is looking for someone. Jean and Reiner eventually show up with an extra horse, separately though. Reiner is first and Jean comes up later, basically saying one side of the formation has been destroyed. It is shown that one soldier is being eaten by a Titan while the rest of this squad is dead. He concludes that the Female Titan lead all the other abnormal this way before his head is bitten off. Without being told all three men figure this out too. Armin also figures out that the female Titan is looking for Eren. Reiner is quick to point out the Female Titan came from the direction Eren was in. Jean is like no according to my map Eren is here. Armin is like no I was told Eren was here. Armin then figures a lot out but only vocalizes that Eren is at the safest point, the rear center. As the men follow the Female Titan Jean says they need to stop her and throw her off her game to give the others a chance to escape. After the men compliment and insult each other like typical dudes the plan is underway. They plan on at least taking out the legs as they are not Levi or Mikasa. It is hard to do with the lack of trees but they attempt this anyway. They also bank on the Female Titan not killing them right away as they are wearing their hoods. The plan pretty much fails from the start, Armin and his horse bleeding on the ground and Jean spinning around the Female Titan, waiting to be squished. Armin suddenly starts screaming that Jean needs to get revenge against the Titan that killed his friend! The Female Titan stops and that gives Jean enough time to get away. Reiner for some reason then decided to play hero and attack the Female Titan alone. This leads to him being caught and crushed in the Female Titan's hand. Or or...Reiner somehow escapes by cutting off her fingers. Reiner picks up Armin and they regroup with Jean. They decide the danger is over and they have played their part in helping the group escape. Only...Armin realizes that the Female Titan is now heading directly towards where Eren is. THE END!

We got places to go, hurry it up!

That episode...went a lot faster than I thought it was going to go. X___X I sorta skimmed through some of the manga when I was reading it the first time. So far everything has been super accurate so maybe they encountered the Female Titan faster than I remembered. But yeah....this episode was actually fast paced even if it was going real time as well. If that makes sense. Excluding the always present recap.

Titans already? That is fast!

A month has already passed since the new recruits have joined the Scouting Legion. A far cry from the entire battle for the wall taking like 4839483 episodes. Time to train and get battle plans in your head. Of course these recruits know first hand all the training and planning in the world won't matter once they leave the gates. Especially now that the way back to Eren's place is even further way. Not the furthest it could be mind you but pretty damn far away. All the effort from previous Scouting missions were for nothing. Woe is them. Especially Erwin.

Are things starting to click Armin?

Speaking of Erwin...this mission seemed sort of odd yes? A practice mission to see how they could reestablish roadways. In theory I do get it. But...Titans are always going to be there. Always. They walk around and move. They can only do so much to establish footholds. So why waste a mission practicing? Just....do it. I mean I guess they had to get used to formations and what not and doing that kind of practicing inside the walls would be dangerous. But after Erwin's last line to Eren....clearly he is after something. Something else with this mission.

Can she just catch one tiny break?

Poor Sasha. She doesn't get much screen time but she is the character who is supposed to provide the comic relief for us. Considering the nature of this show...there is no relief. So basically bad things happen to her and we are to watch her facial expressions. Like hmmm that is certain how I would feel. So Sasha...focus. That might be hard to do when your job is to run away from Titans and rely on others to protect you but this is all about plans. Plans plans plans.

Armin's part of the plan is to say good job and watch over the horsies....

Plans all over the place! I thought my little brain was going to explode. Again a lot of this information is the same as it was in the manga. Just in the manga you have time to scroll through and read everything until it makes sense to you. Like those tiny clips between scenes that talk about different aspects of life/soldier equipment. In the manga you have lots of time to read those things. But I got the gist of it. Although at first I thought every little mark on the map was a UNIT not a PERSON. Still it all makes sense, how thought out this all is. Not woohoo lets go outside the second wall and hope for the best. No no a lot of time and probably deaths have gone into thinking up this formation.

What is up with all these people having such bad haircuts?

I guess what I think is pretty....amazing about this plan is that it involves the least amount of Titan killing. I guess in my head I huddled everyone close together and 12 people fight one Titan as it pops up. But that could lead to deaths and no where to run if things (if...haha when!) go bad. So spreading out and using flares. Good plan. I would still be nervous though...not being around so many people. In the end it makes sense, to save the most about of people. Just if you are one of the people sacrificed it would really, really suck.

Those would be the two people who saved Armin. Or what is left of them....

So after Sasha is almost killed AGAIN it goes back to Armin. Armin was a big part of this episode. We only saw Eren for like 30 seconds woohoo!!! Armin is steppin up. He was in a group with two veteran soldiers. Which was really bad for them. Might as well made them some red shirts and planned their funeral before hand. Had Armin been in the group with Reiner and Jean from the start everyone would have lived. Okay maybe lived longer. But after the two veteran soldiers save Armin from one Titan (whom by the way ran like a disgusting snake creature lizard thing) another one appears out of nowhere.

Um......that is a whole lot of running.....

When I first was reading the manga the SHOCKER moment did sorta come as a surprise to me. Well the two shocker moments. But to be fair to me and other people who didn't get who(se) it was until later....the manga is drawn special. Like very little details are added to people's faces. Marco was really drawn different and so was Erwin with his eyebrows. But some of the other characters really looked a like or the Titans themselves didn't give any clues. So if people have already figured it out...good for you. XD Just don't spoil it for the others who don't see these things even though it is being made more obvious for the anime only watchers.

So creepy looking.

That Female Titan is so scary looking. It is like she is missing more of her outer skin than the other Titans. Gross. Also Female. Female. In case people are keeping track almost all the Titans so far have been male. Why is that? Why have there been mostly men Titans? And out of the Titans we have seen so far there have been three classes. Eren Class, Abnormal Class, and Derpy Class. So with so few female Titans the first major one we have seen is an Eren Class? Interesting. Also hommie can run.

I would think that just looking at Titans you could classify them but maybe that is just done for viewers.

First things first. This Female Titan will kill you. The Armored Titan and Colossal Titan did not kill any humans directly. I mean I am sure some of the wall bits smashed into people and Armored Titan ran people over. But for the most part they were hit and runners. Female Titan was on a mission. A mission...to find Eren. I am not sure why Armin and the others thought that this was her plan. Actually maybe I should be complimenting Armin. I would be having a seizure on the ground if I watched my elders be swung around and killed so easily. But not Armin. Armin...well just froze up and watched them died and then stood there and watched the Female Titan check him out and leave.

Is this a good thing for Eren or bad? Makes him more likeable or more people will fear him?

Yes folks. The Female Titan appeared out of nowhere, killed the two men who weren't covered, and looked to see who Armin was. I guess...Armin had reason to think it was Eren who the Female Titan was looking for. More clues more clues. Why wouldn't the Female Titan not killed Armin? HMMM. Armin doesn't have much time to think about all of this as Reiner and Jean run in to the rescue. Good thing some are responsible for extra horses. Poor horsies. :(

HMMMMM so Erwin lied to almost everyone.

Once the three boys meet up the pieces of the puzzle start to add up in Armin's head. Like Erwin he isn't going to vocalize them all at once. But in between all the trash talking important facts are explained. Or mentioned. One is Erwin does not trust anyone. Anyone. Everyone was told of a different location that Eren would be in. Which means Erwin does think the Titan Killer is in this group of people. Or the Titan Killer has means to communicate with soldiers in this group. Two is the Female Titan is like Eren, a human inside of her and her mission is to find Eren. But she doesn't want him dead. Which sorta throws out the theory she wants to smash him into the ground so no one finds out the Intelligent Titan's secrets. HMMMM trying to enlist Eren as a new ally?

Well this won't end well right?

In any event the boys have decided that they will put all these thoughts and theories aside for the moment and focus on maybe saving their comrades. I like how this is all about maybies. At least they are being realistic. The Female Titan has great intelligence and speed so this plan was probably doomed from the start, especially being where they are. The tallest thing to use their 3D maneuver gear on is the target itself. That just...doesn't spell good news for anyone right? Looking back I don't think them stalling was going to work anyway, if the Female Titan was bent on finding Eren. She was just going to keep looking until she found him right? Unless they were that close to the wall since Armin was attacked 5 minutes after leaving...

So many lies!!!!

But yes. I am surprised all of the boys lived. No red shirts for these guys. Marco must be protecting them all with his death. One major (sorta) character death I guess is going to be enough for a while. I didn't think Jean was in danger, he has gotten out of worse things I think. Armin is made of Eren armor. But Reiner. Yeah. I think that was a cope out. Clearly that was his head being squished in. Not her fingers being cut off. RARW. Lies. ALL LIES! But yes everyone lived because Armin started screaming about Eren accidentally being killed which made the Female Titan stop and think about things.

So if Female Titan thought she killed Eren then what? Why bother pausing?

In the end nothing really mattered. The boys stopped the Female Titan for 5 seconds. But since she has the magical ability to draw Titans to her (so there was a third accomplice the day of the Walls going down) everyone is pretty much doomed. Granted she is running in the right direction NOW but eventually she was going to make it to Eren so does it matter if it is now or 5 minutes later? RUN EREN RUN!