Man, I remember when I watched this episode I was screaming my head off, and was 100% convinced that Eren was a fakeout protag-kun and Armin will use his death as his reason to go on as the new protag-kun, since it's also him narrating the series. And I couldn't even watch the next episode because I had to go to work. I was going so crazy over it that I caved and read the manga on my way to work AND I STILL DIDN'T MAKE IT TO THE REVEAL THAT HE'S ALIVE BEFORE GETTING TO WORK. I spent my entire 10 hour work day mentally going bananas.
Damn... 😂😂😂. I was at school watching this episode. Eren getting eaten and everything. Didn't know much about tropes until a few months later because of some research (had a teacher that was surprised I even used the word). But I just thought "main character can't die. He's gonna come back somehow." Wasn't disappointed in being right either.
I watched the anime for the first time last year and had managed to avoid spoilers to the point where I 100% convinced Eren was dead. I was so confused and devastated.
@@LovelyEvelynne That‘s great! You got the OG manga experience. Y‘know, where we had to spend weeks thinking that. You only get this sort experience once, kind of like Saw‘s ending. Once you know, you know… ^^;
Something I've noted is that this episode's ending also demonstrates how damaging Eren's determination to accomplish his goals can be. Because he's the one who puts himself and his squad at risk trying to avenge Thomas blindly, without thinking. Everyone else in the squad dies except Armin, who almost does but Eren saves him. You can say that it needed to happen for Eren to discover his titan powers, but still, I do think about the danger of his determination in the context of further moments in Attack on Titan.
I used to admire it because he took risks by sacrificing his men to kill the Titans, but now it’s definitely blindly throwing himself at a wall, and scrapping by via determination just to satisfy himself.
@@joshshrum2764 satisfy himself? why would eren be satisfied by "blindly throwing himself at a wall"? none of the things he accomplishes post his titan discovery is a worthless tantrum of a child to satisfy himself. it's a genuine win and new height for humanity. and what men did he sacrifice? he was never a captain nor commander. people choosing to die for him (or Erwin making them do so) was not his command to give. (you can argue Levi's squad, but they asked him to trust them. and he was devastated after their deaths so ...)
his attempt to avenge thomas didn't really show us anything about his determination nor goals imo. it just showed his inability to control his emotions.
@@joshshrum2764satisfy himself? Lmao what a bad terrible take. He's doing it to save his friends and family. Literally even now is making them KILL him just so the world will see them as heros and let the island live for saving the world. He literally sees the future and pretty much knows who's gonna survive the battle in Marley and then trying to kill him.
Something that I've noticed is that almost all of the former Eldian Restorationists have gathered at Trost which is a pretty big coincidence considering how they could have scattered all over Paradis in the years since they were titanized. Unless they've been roaming together this entire time, perhaps due to some subconscious familiarity from their past lives. And Dina isn't with them despite being titanized at the same time because her subconscious drive is to seek out Grisha.
Good point. Considering the size of the Island this certainly sounds like convenience, but we can always consider a wall-jumping from a certain Female Titan to attract them, no? Not that she did it simultaneously, it's just that, she always sneaked out even in training, so she may have attracted other Titans (It's worth noting that there are even others that we don't know, like the one Mikasa and the other soldiers shot down and a peculiar Titan with female characteristics).
I don’t think it was retroactive continuity to design the restorationist after the Titans. I believe they were always one. Dina was made into a pure Titan with a giant smile, somewhat unusual if you look at the rest of the pure Titans. Most have looks of anger, confusion or gloom. Dina was happy in the end looking at Grisha as she was turned so this points to Dina as a human being created first. Also Dina was turned to a pure Titan after the main group and they were also given a carrot (fleeing human) to chase. It makes sense she shows up separately from the group plus her trajectory would of course lead her directly to the sense of Grisha’s energy. It seems pretty clear that possibly 90% of this storyline was completely planned out which becomes rather clear when re-analyzing the show multiple times. It’s why it’s one of the best masterpieces of anime and overall storytelling ever!
@@kaje2394 Dina as the Smiling Titan was definitely planned from the start. But I think it's perfectly plausible that the other Titans were a case of retroactive continuity. Even the best writers can't account for every single little detail like that from the start
One thing I absolutely love about Attack on Titan is how, with a few exceptions, it doesn't shy away from characters exposing their inexperience and making mistakes, often ones that get them killed. We're supposed to remember that these characters are KIDS and they've been thrown into a do-or-die situation fresh out of training. Thomas doesn't have a fast enough reaction time to save himself. Mina leaves here anchor in too long, allowing it to be grabbed by a titan, Eren is reckless and gets tunnel vision and gets caught off guard by a smaller titan, Armin freezes up and shuts down, etc. Yes, characters have heroic moments and get out of really hairy situations, but AoT also continuously shows characters NOT getting out of bad situations. It's things like that which further help to immerse yourself in the world and realize how hopeless it often is. This is only continued throughout the series during the Ripper arc or the Yeagarist Arc. Young inexperienced characters make simple mistakes or hesitate for even half a second and they die for it. The world of AoT is brutal and you're constantly reminded of that.
I believe pretty much every characters flaws show. Even Levi himself makes a fatal mistake with Zeke. Instead of using a different method to hold him in place, he used a live thunderspear, which was a bit too ambitious, resulting in how he is now.
@@noreally2120 Levi let his hatred of Zeke because of Erwin control him and made a mistake that very nearly cost him his life like you said. It just helps the story feel so real yknow? In a Life that is constant war, even the slightest mistake can be the difference between life and death
@@noreally2120 oh yeah I didn’t think you were disagreeing I was just building off your point. Kinda like you and I together were making a continuous point. I’m super excited for the ending as well!
@@coleparke3763 I know, I was just making sure I was clear. After thinking about it, I was trying to find the flaw shining in each character. Got thoughts on Erwin? I might have to rewatch.
Also pretty interesting as a native german speaker is that the show often borrows words from German. Not only mentioning names (Armin, Erwin, Ackermann, Jäger) but also districts like „Trost“. The word „Trost“ describes something that cheers you up when you‘re beaten down. And considering the struggle to reach this and getting lifted up by the first real victory against the titans (with the gate being sealed) it fits, again, perfectly, showing what kind of genius Isajama really is.
Well Eldians are very clearly inspired by Germans, so. Even the ancient Eldians are depicted as Germanic people fighting Rome and the whole titan thing borrows heavily from Germanic mythology.
@@zjschullingwell think about it. The "eldians" wiped out mad ppl in the past and ppl hold it against them (ww1 n ww2) and that the eldians have the chance to turn into monsters. Saying that there's only one country in recent history that for some reason on three separate occasions just started slaughtering their neighbors and groups of ppl for next to no reason. Then it asks should u hold this against them or judge them for themselves. They even got arm bands. Such good story telling.
@@finnicpatriot6399not really It's literally viking mythology. Ymir is literally a Norse goddess that dealt with giants. And giants being from Norse mythology also and the 9 also represent units 9 children in Norse mythology. The German part is about judging Germans for the ancestors and being able to turn into monsters cause in recent history the Germans on three separate occasions just started gathering ppl up and slaughtering them and neighboring lands for next to no reason besides power money and land.
I can only imagine the discussion going around about Armin and/or Mikasa being the main character replacements for Eren after his apparent death for the manga crowd who would have no sliver of an idea of what was next.
it ended. there is nothing left, also the MCs have always been Eren, Armin, and Mikasa. I dont think they were ever replaced, only that one of the MCs became an antagonist instead of a protagonist. An antagonist is still considered to be a MC, some stories follow the antagonists where they are the only MC, not every story has a protagonist as it's Main. I feel all 3 carried their weight as MCs, and even then i could consider Levi's squad as MCs entirely, even the marley spies of Levi's squad.
@@FerociousMit You completely misunderstood the point of the comment, which was that in the original run of this part of the manga, manga readers had no clue what was about to happen
Another thing that is maybe harder to remember, as for many, it is quite some times since they've seen this episode for their first time, but the show made me feel like Armin was built up to be the next protagonist and it was only a matter of time until Eren's "foolishness" will become his undoing, it truly made me feel "prepared" to see Eren die, as was Ned Stark in GoT.
Before this episode, I thought main characters can't die unless at the end. After this episode. I always think a main character in a dark brutal world will die at any point and be replaced by the real main character
I reckon a way to avoid the plot hole would have Eren make the nape strike, but misses and seess the giant skeleton below him. Everyone thinks he killed it but he knows he never actually made contact with the body
This episode is what turned me into an AoT fan. The way the shonen tropes are upended and how that makes us really feel the horrors and the chaos of war. And then that Game of Thrones-esque ending? Perfection. This is the content I want to watch.
Vanishing could just be another power the Colossal has, separate from the steam. Bertolt has good reason to maintain his form during his “fight” with Armin.
i don't like to believe that there's a plot hole like this in aot, so maybe your theory is correct. the colossal titan, unlike normal pure titans, can willingly control the combustion of its flesh and blasts of steam. so it may as well be able to instantly evaporate its body after the nape is cut, or the shifter deactivates it. bert probably used the mass of steam as a cover to use ODM gear and fly out of the sight of the cadets that were near him. normally when pure titans are killed, their carcass remains. but since this is the colossal titan we're talking about, it probably was able to just burn all its flesh and bones instantaneously. bert may have developed the ability to evaporate his whole titan body from his days as a warrior in marley, since he did train to use the colossal titan a bunch. also since the nuke-like explosion when the shifter transforms is really what gives it the shock factor. in 2 of those times when bert transformed in paradis, he did so just to break the gates of wall maria (in trost and zhiganshina), and vanished. so yeah maybe he developed the ability of vanishing before he came to paradis with reiner and the others as a preparation to break its walls... thanks for reading
I don't think it's separate. While Armin does not that the Colossal's bones don't evaporate, this is likely because Bertholdt wasn't intending to disappear in Shiganshina, just to keep Eren and Armin away from his nape. If Bertholdt wants to disappear, he probably just has to burn away all of his muscles, and THEN his bones will disappear. Now, you may ask why Eren is not burned from the steam as Armin was, but this is most likely because titan shifters are all immune to heat produced from titans, they have to be inside them after all. Another question I hear people ask often is "why did Bertholdt not explode in season 1?" This can be explained simply by the fact that shifters have control over how they shift, such as when Eren only partially shifted to block the cannon, or when Reiner made an armored shell to protect Falco. Though Armin later states that he couldn't transform in the prison cell without leveling half the city, this can be explained by how it's stated that Bertholdt is essentially a natural at titan shifting, so he likely has much greater control than Armin.
Vanishing is almost definitely a part of the Colossal's power. Bertholdt, as he's sitting on the walls while Eren and Reiner fight below, consciously and intentionally snaps the part of his ribcage to support himself in order to fall onto the pair. I always assumed he doesn't evaporate his bones because then, well, he'd just be a lump of meat. But he can probably do it just as easily.
15:50 Eren might have been wrong in thinking that their training would be enough to stop the threat, but he was perfectly right in saying that if they chose to run, everyone would be doomed. The main problem with losing wall Rose was the loss of farmland, so even if there was no hope of winning, fighting was still the best option, because running would have just meant a slow death from starving for all. By fighting you can still hope for a miracle, and that miracle arrived.
actually, bertholt just disappearing was kinda shown in the manga. Bertholt desolved his body completely in a matter of seconds, which caused the massive steam explosion. He then escaped with the ODM gear while eren was still mid air, trying to figure out wtf just happened
@@theabsolutemadlad2240 just like the other guy said there still would’ve been at least some bones left, also we we saw Bert pov, he got out while the steam was going on so still there should’ve been some bones parts left behind from Eren view.
I believe that in this case the colossal titan wanted to burn 100% of his body, while in the battle in season 3 he still wanted to stay in his titan form, weakened or not. It's really amazing that when a series is this good, people try to find a way to explain something that might actually be a plot hole, whereas in other "mid" series we label things "plot hole" and move on. Amazing video as always
That effect is probably just rose tinted lenses of wanting the stuff we love to be perfect so lets explain away that unsightly plothole and pretend the author is smarter/more clever than they actually are.
@@co7769 If this was actually what happened it would open a massive gaping plot hole that would break the entire in world logic: Why don't titan shifters burn when they are inside their titan, in DIRECT contact with the scorching flesh? This is why I think Eren not burning like Armin did would not be a plot hole. Titan shifters have always been semi-immune to the heat titans produce, thus the story follows its own logic. Now whether them being immune to titan heat makes sense is up for debate, but honestly, titan shifting has always been magic. I don't think it's that much of a stretch to think a supernatural ability would come with something that insures it's not useless.
I always always have told people since this show came out: "Please get at least 5 episodes in before you make a complete judgement call on this show, it's not an ordinary anime, trust me." gets em every time.
Man I love these so much,never apologize for them being a little longer. They're fantastic. I remember watching this episode and being floored they'd just killed the main character. But man was I hooked by then. It's also funny you mentioned Historia being helpful getting shown cause I can't think of a character I ended up hating more by the time her arc came around.
Many thanks, glad you're enjoying them! 👍 Though yeah - seeing Eren be straight up devoured after all his "I'll be a hero talk" was a proper slap to the face that seriously got me hooked in seeing the story through as well. Especially considering how the anime sphere looked back then - it was something waaaay out of left field, but it clearly paid off. 😄 As for Historia, yeah, I've seen very mixed opinions on her, so that's not entirely surprising. I'll get to it in future parts, but I can totally see how her martyrdom could get a little annoying at times (though the same can be said for Eren tbh, his decisions pre-paths-Eren are also sometimes less than perfectly thought out 😂).
@@KorotoBy the way, I think ur wrong on why eren is doing the rumbling (love ur videos btw man). Think about it. He literally can see the future. He knew the world would attack the island and kill everyone there eventually. He also knew that the ppl in charge wouldnt act quick enough to prevent this. He knew that he would have to cause the rumbling and attack the world to force the eldians (his friends and the child soldiers, no longer children tho) to stop him and save the world. Then the world would be thankful and not kill the survivors on the island. He also knew he would have to damage the island to truly sell the fact that this wasn't the plan from the get go and his friends wouldn't see through his plan. He needs them to do exactly what their doing with no doubts. Hence why eren didn't want Zeke to scream and turn everyone that drank the wine into titans and literally put his hand out to single to stop when Zeke went to. Eren wants to save all the eldians, not just the ones on the island. Mainly Reiner and Annie and the rest. Everything he has done is to make sure his sacrifice leads to them living long and happy lives FREE from war fighting and death. He's not doing it to kill everyone or to make sure he's free. He knows he's gonna die no matter what, weather now or in a few years and is gonna do what he has to do save the ones he loves and cares about (also those of his race who have been basically enslaved). He's seen it and in seeing it he can see that all his friends work together to kill him and succeed. So he knows they survive. He wants to show the world that even when the ppl from the island could have sat back and had the world to themselves that they choose to stop him when no one else could. He could have done the rumbling test to scare the world but that would have led to historia being turned or her kid and having to feed ppl to titans still over and over to ensure their peace which isn't freedom and isn't what he wants. He wants all of their suffering to end. Also he knows Armin will die in a few years also no matter what (same with Annie and Reiner) unless he does this exact plan and gets rid of titans all together. Everything falls into place by doing this. He even makes sure Zeke dies by doing this cause Zeke isn't like Reiner and them, zeke enjoyed killing and enjoyed destroying and would wipe out all eldians if he could cause he's so fucked in the head. Also pay back for all the scouts he killed. Annie and them were brainwashed basically but Zeke was dif. I def don't think eren is just blood thirsty trying to wipe the world out.
The Leg that Erin loses here in S1, is the same one "lost" in S4 before the Marley Attack... despite the knowledge he can regen nearly ANY limb, he goes for that same leg that taught him he could. On Anime v. Manga. In these cases; where the use of Animation enchances the feelings and the physics of the world - you are absolutely correct, but at the same time you can see that scenes like this wouldn't be possible without a manga that has story boarded some of these core "key frame" shots out. the Animators certainly made it golden, but not without having the context and direction of the source material and even if it differents slightly on things like Camera movement and the ideal of how exactly things go, the beats for the story hit the same. Which shows a mutual respect between Anime Studio and Manga Studio/Author. For instance; to use an older reference; DragonBall and Dragonball Z shows a lot of the impressive work in a fight on the panels, and the animation certainly takes it up a notch in terms of weight and quality sure - but at the cost of time both in terms of production and consumption as a fight in Animation (or an ODM flight/jump/scene) in Manga doesn't need a lot but hits all the same notes in a much tighter constraint that the Anime gets to pull out and push and move with. Both are valid and excellent
On his lost leg, imagine the alternative story where he doesn't get swallowed after losing it and people notice its steaming and regening. (Which would certainly make him an easy target for the Marleyans to abduct before he knew he could shift). And i think his Anime vs Manga is just the tip of the iceberg for acknowledging that all forms of media have distinct advantages and disadvantages for telling a story. The metric he noted is descriptive limits, or how easy/difficult certain scenes are to protray to the reader/viewer. (Racing is hard in books, but easy in liveaction tv/movies for instance) Any video format gets to use motion and audio, a comic/manga takes way less frames vs animation/anime, and books are only limited by the authors deacriptive skill and the readers imagination. (I find books a much better medium for horro simce they can't cheat with jumpscares or music that basically just pushes all the anxiety buttons in your brain, that not true scary, it just pushing buttons.) I think an easy metric to showcase differences is to compare the number of minutes in different formats. A song gets 3-5 min typically, an anime typically gets 20min×24eps = 480min per season, a normal movie get 3hrs = 180min. (I consider this the narative space available to tell the story, books usually aren't affected by this limit as its how many pages you can physically bind together before splitting the book into volumes) Technically a painted greek vase gets however many pictures they can paint along its circumference, imagine a manga telling a story in just 12 panels, you simply can't get many details in. Anyway my point is that they are all different but thats a good thing and doesn't make any form objectively the best, just situationally better or worse. (We maybe books are objectively the best/most versatile)
I remember watching this back in the day. not having heard or read the manga. once Episode 5 ended and Episode 6. I swore the show was going to get ballsy and reveal the main character of the story was never Eren but Armin or Mikasa. and it seemed like that until Episode 7 or 8 when Eren's Attack Titan is first encountered.
Best part of the entire series tbh. Hard reality check. This is exactly why you should be nowhere near solid surfaces while in full swing with ODM gear. Dragging your feet on the ground etc means you f-ed up badly. Eren had complete tunnel vision.
Honestly I always thought that since titans could appear rapidly, they could disappear rapidly. Also, it was likely an animation choice, since the manga panels wouldn't flow the same way
23:53 I'm pretty sure those pictures of the outside world aren't future memories they're the actual pictures that were in the book that armin described in ep 1 that eren was just visualizing. eren hasn't seen any future memories atp.
Yeah i don’t think anyone aside from the attack Titan holder get future memories everyone else gets the past memories of the user they inherited the shifter power from.
5:22 I would argue that it’s not a plot hole. Bertholt got out of the Colossal’s body to flee whereas he had no such intentions with Armin. He can’t consume his bones for steam but his body disintegrates abnormally quickly when he’s extricated. The counter to this is that Armin’s Colossal hangs around for a minute so he could have his monologue after nuking a port. To that I say, we know he can control the blast from his transformation, maybe he can control how long his body lasts once he leaves? Or maybe Armin’s legs were still connected so it didn’t start to disappear yet?
In the manga panel , when Eren notices the Titan disappear, his eyes are closed for a while , and in the next page, a few panels later , there is a scene with a lot of smoke right above the ground , where the new hole was created. Everyone was panicking about how to get people away .
In the manga we didn't know how much time has passed between panels. So maybe the time while the steam clears off give enough time for the colossals bones to disappear.
It showed in the manga , when Reiner was recalling , Bertholdt melted and crumbled his entire body in an instant and moved along the wall . There was a lot of steam and Everyone's vision was obscured , and they were panicking so they couldn't notice whatever tiny remnants there were . The anime wasn't clever about the animation. If there was a large amount of smoke at the bottom and the characters overlooked it but viewers saw it , it would've made much more sense and it wouldn't be a plot hole .
You could argue that the colossal thing was just narrative bias. Eren wouldn't have noticed some bones one the ground. He would be too shocked to even notice.
@@co7769 Yeah I don't really agree with that comment anymore. A better explanation is just that Bertolt always had the ability and in season 1 knew that no one would expect an intelligent person with 3D gear to be controlling the colossal. The Trost attack was also the only time he was at risk of being recognised so hiding evidence was important. If he had the ability to instantly steam his titan then that's the only time in the show he would've used jt. In season 3 he didn't feel at risk by Armin but he knew if he did leave the Colossal then he wouldn't get a chance to turn again so if any of Scouts caught him, he would be dead. He was also probably thinking about the fact that he hasn't seen Levi or Mikasa in a while. If he instantly steamed the titan then either one of them could be waiting to kill him. He's effectively invincible before he turns, but after he turns he's a sitting duck. There's also the fact that in Season 2 he did use a form of bone steaming to break his ribs to fall off the wall as well as create the explosion on impact. He probably steamed everything except the outer layer so it would pop like a balloon on impact. Finally as a child he just didn't have 3D maneuver gear so he needed a way to climb down after he transformed
I love your analysis so much and the length of them is perfect! Just finished my rewatch of AOT and your videos make me discover even more small details I missed
To be honest, I don't think the Colossal Titan disappearing essentialy has to be a plot hole. There are multiple reasons for me seeing it that way. Just before Eren tries to make the hit to kill the Colossal, there are multiple seconds where everything is just full of steam where you can't see anything. In these seconds, anything there could have happened. Maybe he can uncontrollably burn his entire Body down with a special ability and get rid of it. Or there is another secret ability involved, that just isn't explained, like so many other things in aot. And I can't recall a scene after that where this ability would have been needed, so they didn't have to explain it. Either way, I don't think they showed this scene with all the steam by accident, otherwise they could have just shown him disappear in front of Eren's eyes. Also, the ability from Berthold to create the colossal without a big explosion is something very interesting as well. To me it seems, that Berthold really mastered the control of the Titan. There are really too many "unexplained" points for this just to be a plot hole and I personally think there is more to it.
The colossal Titan being extremely hot means it’s body burns away a lot faster, combined with how we know Berthold can expel steam and it makes his Titan shrink doing so, not unreasonable to think that it was small enough Eren wouldn’t see it if he looked down after he failed to kill it.
@@ZakanaHachihaCBC Bertholdt has also shown that he has control over the bone structure of his Titan, when he snaps the ribcage holding the Colossal up on the wall to drop down onto Eren and Reiner, as well as all other shifters having the ability to manifest only a single part of their Titans. It wouldn't just be a good assumption that Bertholdt could make his Titan disappear nigh instantaneously. It'd be downright logical.
No it's a plot hole. Just depends which one assuming the faster the Colossal Titan burns the hotter he burns A: The Colossal Titan disappearing without giving off more steam B: Eren not burning when Vacuum blew more steam at him than he did at Armin
@@krag3405 You can just see it as a separate ability since there's no other scene were this could be useful to Bertholdt. On the wall he needed to back up Reiner and hold onto Ymir and in the Shiganshina battle he needed to capture Eren and did not see Eren coming up to his nape that second time.
@@krag3405 The steam production started early and Bertholdt must have really activated it when he pushed Eren away. Also, he didn't look directly down lol
Very Good Analysis video, definitely enjoyed it a lot Just want to point out that, I disagree with the point of Colossal vanishing as plot hole since the show treated it just like any other ability Titans have ( I think this works in the same way as how Titans appear, except Just the reverse of it) The reason why this ability was never showed again cause that wasn't ever needed. I mean ofc there wasn't ever again a occasion where the colossal just had to run away without trace lol
I was about to say the same thing, and the bones not vanishing while the colossal is steaming in s3 is probably just because Bert wasn't ending the transformation, but just keeping people away.
@@Niwicky Yeah using everything he's got just to end his transformation would be extremely stupid especially considering how much stamina does a Colossal transformation drains
When abilities are shown in the series, it is, at least, explained properly. It's not like Reiner's ability to transfer consciousness (It's used only 2 times by him and It was for the sake of the plot, but it was explained). By the way, Berthold would probably be dead by falling over 50 meters after his titan vanished (please don't say he used the ODM gear without Eren noticing it)
@@felorpy in retrospect i assumed the steam smokescreen (steamscreen?) was dense enough and Eren was focusing and where he expected the nape to reappear, that bernholdt was able to sneak away somewhere. (Although its hard to image where considering even with the chaos everyone would be staring at the hole in the gate and along the walls) My best guess is he made the steam cloud them launched himself along the was hiding behind the steam and ODMed at the last second around the wall out of sight and then up the wall where he can pretend he got blown off and recovered like basically everyone else. (He certainly couldn't have used ODM gear from where he exited the titan without being immediately spotted by someone, likely Eren)
As for the second scene with Eren using the ODM gear, I find it funny that him tumbling causes him to break tile roof. Maybe it's really bad tile roof but still
I think that type of roofing tiles aren’t very securely attached traditionally. I’m more surprised by the fact that more roofs don’t break just from all the people running on them
@@Rapidashisaunicorn I didn't realize that they were less sturdy when attached traditionally. There's a lot of tile roofs where I live, and they're pretty darn secure.
I remember thinking when I first watched this episode that because the narration had always been done by Armin that the show was then going to shift to him being the main character after Eren's death
It’s not a plot hole. Armin said later on in season 3 that the colossal used the vanishing act at the end of episode 7 of season 2. Even if we didn’t see it again, only seeing it once does not constitute a plot hole. The show simply presents the steam attack and vanishing as two separate abilities.
It didn't vanish in season 2 though, its skeleton fell from the wall after its muscles deteriorated far enough. In this case, it literally warps away in a split second.
@@Koroto yeah he cant burn bone like he does muscle, and even if he leaves his titan form, the body is left to turn to steam, which would have undoubtedly be found by someone.
An actual plot hole i havent seen explained yet is how Eren was able to transform inside the titan's stomach while missing an arm and a leg. It's made clear later that shifters cant transform if their bodies are damaged like that, it's a pretty essential weakness for the shifters so I'm not sure how he was able to transform while missing his limbs.
true, but I feel like most of the time that's because they're expending energy to regenerate their limbs - we don't see his limbs steaming here so maybe that's why he can transform?
I can still remember how shocking this episode was the first time around when it seemed like Eren had been fadeout protagonist. That just like the upbeat training episodes, he had only been included to set a false expectation for what kind of story this was going to be.
For the first season my theory was that the Titans were created by us, as in, US, modern humans as a weapon of war, and they got out of hand, and so we built the walls but left our modern world and knowledge behind to simply survive causing a brain drain like when the Roman Empire fell and set humanity back 1000 years. The title of the first episode suggested to me that the show takes place 2000 years in the future, and the year being 845 was the ACTUAL amount of time Humanity had spent behind the walls.
If this was a western show, that would be a much more likely plot line. I always viewed the walls as a metaphor for Japan's isolationist history and had a half-baked idea that the story would turn into an examination of Japan's relationship with the rest of the world after opening up (to include things like their imperial aspirations, war crimes in WW2, and the near total erosion of their traditional culture).
Yeaph, the Colossal Titan disappearing out of nowhere is a hole in the script, but it's the coolest of them, lol. If I were to guess, I'd say Isayama had an idea to make him appear and disappear in lightning, maybe as a little reference to Norse Mythology (Like, we have a Titan that's a Hammer, don't we?). (Spoiling the Manga, I think, is even weirder when Reiner expository says, "Hey Jean, don't fight with Eren, he's 2nd best in Melee." Okay, Annie missed the exam, right ? Or Isayama still hadn't decided that she would be Eren's mentor in that area, since Mikasa is the 1st best and the ranking dies there... oh well) I'm sad that they took the cards that say which arc we're in, even if the fandom names the later ones (Clash of Titans, Uprising, Marley, War for Paradis, Rumbling), but I still miss it a lot. With Mikasa, it's curious even in retrospect, lol, but my favorite part is how much Eren followed the line of that soldier in the first episode who dies doing nothing, leaving only his arm for his mother and that's a great juxtaposition too . Speaking of which, I'm still curious to this day why Isayama specifically put her on Armin's side (60 episodes later), even though I think it's consistent with her most relevant characteristic in the entire series as a quitter, obviously... (I'm kidding, but, I still find his decision to "just want to be on his side" a regression to his childhood stage that was, of course, less passionate and more intolerant of his decisions, be they beneficial, 'tatakae my comrades', or no, 'TATAKAE MY COLOSSALS')
There are much bigger plot holes, hell even in this episode Santa titan ate a shifter and didn’t transform. Their whole MO is to eat titan shifters so they can be human again!
I'm pretty sure it's explained somewhere in the manga that that's one of the Colossal's abilities. We see it release steam several times and at different speeds each one so we can assume that it can control it (heck, it's actually a fact given that Berthold actually sped it up to burn Armin quicker in s3) so releasing it all at once is plausible. We haven't seen it more times bc there wasn't any other occasion where they needed to quickly escape without a trace, as another dude here commented. It's the same as the explosion when it transforms, it doesn't always nuke the fucking place bc sometimes it's not needed. Each titan has its abilities
@@davidmccall8780 It‘s an abnormal titan that swallows instead of chewing. That‘s not a plot hole just plot convenience to make such a cool moment he could have done all this aswell without such a titan but it wouldn‘t be that cool tbh
Or maybe the steam ability and the ability to make his body disappear completely are two seperate abilities. Same thing with the ability to decide how big your colossal titan transformation explosion is. (Armin has poor control over it compared to Bertholdt since he can only produce huge explosions upon transforming) Also, it's not like Isayama forgot about this either since Armin brings up Bertholdt's ability to make his titan body vanish into thin air again along with his newly introduced ability to maintain the steam in the same episode of Season 2. The reason why it's never been used again is because there hasn't been a situation where it would be useful.
I’m not sure if this was pointed out by the three holes on the ground did the colossal knelled down so (can’t spell name) would go through the hole and the skeleton collapsing and using anime time, the skeleton might turn into dust that fast 6:57
Somehow your channel hyper focuses on two of my all time favorite shows, AOT and TWD; keep it up man, the quality of this content makes me feel that these sorts of vids will explode someday
12:48 this video just made me realize - they had rail tracks for cannons already yet couldnt make the manufacturing leap to using that for human transportation? They had to get that idea from the Marley-ans
when i first started snk i havent watched anime for a while so i felt really nostalgic about the typical shounen trope-y scenes, thought "oh i kinda know where this is going" and then was absolutely bamboozled and continued to be up until the very end xdd if i could wipe my brain and watch it all over again or go back to 2013 and live through all the waiting and theories, and memes i totally would.
Damn, I think the thing about most titans having masculine features because the rebels who were arrested and turned into titans were overwhelmingly men was cool. I always wondered why that was
I get why you say it’s a plot whole, but they never had another reason to vanish like this when any colossal titan user was transforming. Bert only needed it here to not get caught. If it was one of his powers he really didn’t have a reason to bring it up. Similarly he never directly tells the scouts his Titian power can blow up stuff, and he never nuke in his first two attacks but then did in his third. Could be lazy writing of an explanation more than a plot whole
Honestly, they could have kept the Colossal's ability to not leave some remains behind if they had simply fleshed that part out. Make it so that when the shifter leaves its titan it burns up its entire body in one go; from its muscle to its bones. Simply alter the scene so that as Eren is pulling himself to strike through the steam he feels his anchor point vanish and it causes his swing to veer off course and make it look like he missed, only to reveal it was because the body disappeared. Later on they could have it so that after Bertholdt falls off the wall onto Reiner and Eren, they show him evacuate mid fall which results in the explosion that knocks everyone back and gives them cover to secure Eren. This then recontextualises that first fight. Then lastly, as for why he doesn't do it against Eren and Armin is simple. He didn't know Eren was still a threat and he had already won against Armin, he had no need to waste his colossal in its entirety when he likely couldn't make a second one, and by the time Eren moves in for the strike he has no time to react.
The disappearence of the Colossal Titan is probably because at the time Isayama wanted experienced Shifter to be able to re-absorb the titan's flesh, or to just simply make it disappear. That to say that I don't think it would be just the Colossal that had the ability. Reyner too fled with the refugees but no one talked about a weirdly armored titan lying around dead. I think that at the time Isayama didn't think about how busted this ability would be.
I remember watching Eren’s death and being impressed they had the balls to off the MC. Simultaneously I was also pissed because I figured the series would turn in Mikasa becoming a Mary Sue type character to finish Eren’s only wish. Oh boy was I wrong and how I love all the twists this show gives you!
Thank you for making note of that plot hole. Been questioning why we never see the carcass of the colossal titan or why we never see this with anyone else. Did they show Armin getting out of the colossal after he nuked Marley?
While the anime has the advantage in those types of scenes i wouldnt underestimate how effective good use of paneling and a page turn can do for those type of moments. Maybe not in aots case speciffically i havent read it either but its certainly possible to do these scenes really well in manga too
Really nice Analysis, cant wait for the next one! One thing, I really recommend you to read the manga for S 1-3, especially the Uprising arc in Season 3 is a lot better in the manga in my opinion and manages to even put more "Oumph" in some scenes without the music and voice acting of the anime.
@@thomasffrench3639 Its very difficult to say since it depends on what you like about the series. The uprising arc in the manga doesn't have much action and therefore people say that its less exciting. The anime shortenes or cuts a lot of very important character scenes, extending the action and adding new fights, which makes it feel more "shonen" in the end, if you get what i mean. But this feeling also comes with every season made by wit studio, so i am happy that we get a more faithful feeling adaption by mappa
@@thomasffrench3639 Take that statement with a grain of salt. No author would like the deep characterisations and character moments thrown out the window. With this, alot of things influence statements, like the capability of the studio to adapt how many eps and what they assume to be more important to adapt (smth that was at times, less faithful with Tetsurou Araki, director of S1 and Wit era as a whole), the order of publishing company to make the anime catch upto the manga to increase profits and whatnot.
@@May-ov3ny Apparently Isayama did ask for some very specific changes on S3, like increasing the distance between Erwin and the Armored titan on the wall, and changing the uprising arc. Of course, we do not know his honest opinions but it shouldn't really matter since everybody can make up their own mind about which version is the better one
@@LeviKanal It is valid that as there are two versions of the story, it is much more interesting and in good faith for people to like their own versions. For me, personally, it is clear as day which is superior. And yes, isayama did have regrets over his depiction of the uprising arc and wanted to rectify some but that sure wasn't what we got in anime.
If the colossal titan can control the output/rate of steam i assume if would do so through controlling the temperature of its body. If thats the case it couldve just burned so hot and fast that the bones disintegrated or turned to ash and blew away with the smoke. After all when eren had his partial colossal titan the bones started cracking and breaking down as soon as he left the titan.
the only thing I can think of for the plothole is Eren having his hand in it (as the founding titan) because of the nature of the determenistic timeline. if he is the founder now, and the founder has the power to create all these titans out of seemingly thin air, we can probably also make them disappear immediatly, without the dragged out process of their flesh and bones slowly evaporating. maybe he did not want to let his young self have that piece of information yet
the appearance of the colossal is also a plot hole. the first 2 times he just transforms/appears and then disappears when he needs too. however after those 2 transformations the story is changed into where he CANNOT transform without setting off a nuclear explosion. i think it was a conscious decision make by the creators in order to nerf the colossal's usefulness. the colossal never just transforms regular after those 2 times. (I guess another time is when he like half transforms on the wall after revealing he was a titan.)
26:46 I tend to not be able to feel emotion in a single panel or a few panels of a Manga. Some people can, often I can't. One of the reasons I prefer Anime. the music and sounds, among other things, can affect me way easier. However, there are some panels that as just so breathe taking, even when some of them don't give me a certain feel, I still can be taken away by the art, which often Anime doesn't capture.
About Bert disappearing, I agree. However, even if the carcass was still there I doubt it would've changed the story much. Maybe we could've heard Eren's sword hit the Colossal, seeing the carcass on the ground thinking it was dead, only to realize later that it wasn't defeated.
i remember when season 1 was coming out i already did think that the titans were people, but not anywhere close to how they actually came about. after we saw the big blob of titan barf i was convinced that titans were created when a titan ate a human and that all the humans in that big barf blob were very shortly going to become titans themselves. the justification in my brain was that a lot of titans look malformed which would make sense if they were horribly mutilated while being eaten shortly before turning into a titan.
When me and my friends first saw Eren’s death we were freaking out over who would be the main character from then on and how long it would take them to die.
As far as your anime vs manga point, this is the start of a broader realization that all forms of story telling have distinct advantages and disadvantages but none are objectively superior to the others. For instance video formats (shows, movies, youtube, ect) can take full advantage of motion and timed audio cues. Paper media can't use these but is self paced and time unlimited. Non visual media (books, songs, ect) can paint any scene withing the limits of the authors command of their language, and the readers imagination so every reader imagines the scenes differently, this makes books the most effect true horror medium (can't jump scare and can't play music designed to push fear buttins in the brain, you have to actually write something scary. This is why hungergames book 3 terrified me more than any show, i have an overactive imagination) In contrast visual media can just show you a grotesque picture worth a thousand words, but the artist has to be able to draw or photograph it. (The difference between animation and live action really stands out here, both can do what the other struggles for) And finally you can get into the concept of narative space, which is basically how much time or how many words can you use to tell a story. A radio song gets 3-5 mins, anime gets 20min episodes (usually in a batch of 12 or 24), a movie gets around 3hrs, a book gets as many pages at you can bind together, but 500 is a good sized book. Anyway, i hope i did a decent job conveying my point that every form of media has distinct advantages and disadvantages compared to the others that affect how they can tell a story, and what experience they can craft. (I'm not a manga reader but one advantage they have is needing a lot less frames than an anime, which means its less labor intensive to draw a given scene to the same quality)
The disappearing is one of Bertholdt's abilities, I don't understand why some people in the comments keep saying it isn't. It's an ability that obviously comes from the Colossal's steam ability.
It is true that bertholdt and Armin never do the vanishing thing again, but it is never said that it cannot be done. Bertholdt was attacking Armin in shiganshina not trying to escape so it makes sense that when you're trying to generate steam I'm order to defend yourself or attack when you're the colossal your bones don't desintegrate, the intentions are not the same when you're trying to escape. It is definitely a plot hole because it is never explained or revisited but not necessarily a contradiction.
I completely agree with you on the animation bringing ot to life and doing the story justice. I have read every chapter and watched every episode. CHARACTER DEATH SPOILER If you're not caught up on the anime. I was just talking to a friend of mine about Hanges epic end and how it wasn't as heart wrenchingly beautiful and painful as it was in the anime. It's still impactful and of course you can use your imagination, but the anime brings it to life perfectly.
I love that there is someone out there that recognizes the utter brilliance of attack on Titan and how it transcends media and storytelling from what we a normally used to. I thought breaking bad was the gold standard, but with AoT wrapped up I can say I think AoT is the best written show of all time Thank you for making this series and giving AoT’s subtle brilliance an audience
26:26 I will say that the music, sound effects, voice acting, and animation are insanely important. I started reading the manga after season 1, and events were still shocking, but not as impactful. I remember the reveal of the armored and colossal titans to be shocking, but the anime got me so hyped and energized when I finally watched it even though the shock factor of the reveal was gone.
21:05 This was a a good catch. However, the entire village of Ragako was turned into titans and surely many of them were female and none of the titans from this village appeared female. But when Freida's titan was revealed her titan had a female form. And then Ymir's founding titan was also feminine. However, they are both holders of the founder which is special to begin with. It kind of makes you wonder what exactly is the female titan's specialty is, it just seems that this titan appears female and possibly can only have female inheritors or maybe this is just the Paradis Eldian's assumption because it's the only titan they seen which appears feminine. It's probably just a generalist like the attack titan.
Her speciality is relatively high stamina and the ability to call mindless titans to her location. The Attack Titan for example runs out of steam in an hour or so. The Female Titan ran and was in form for hours during the Female Titan arc. And of course she called for mindless titans there, as well she gathered them during the first assault.
I may have what could be a little strech of an explanation for the plot hole, hear me out. So, we all know that the collosal titan´s muscle will be consumed for it to make the steam or even staying tranformed, that´s why he is weak in a battle of retribution. And that is what both Armin and Hange figured out by themselves, their own "theory" that turned out to be true... or at least it will seem that way. But maybe, the thing is that the collosal titan can actually dissapear compleatly but (knowing that he couldn´t possibly transform another time soon) by doing so he would just be no more. The same way he can make dissapear his muscle slowly he can´t do so with his bones but rather make them go out in it´s totallity. Basically the skeleton is either a 0 or a 100 so that way he can mantain his overall shape and not crumble, for as you would imagine, create and mantain such form so he can walk is something that will need most of it´s bone structure. So normally is not that he couldn´t consume bone but is something not worth it for it´s price. For example: He didn´t have any 3D manuever gear in the first episode, so he wouldn´t made dissapear his titan because by doing so he will just fall, not that he would think with his intel at the time that they could possibly see him, so he just went down normally, as we can later see on the recollection of this moment in season 4. But he did have the gear in Trost so he figured out that it will be for the best for them not seeing him to first have the gear so he can get away fast using the wall and second steam even his bone out to use said steam and to not let his own corpse there so they could start figure out things. The least they see the better.
I think erens titan is related to his energy as well, like if he transform multiple times it does get smaller. May have some reason to do with the size decreprences
I think the size discrepancies are the result of errors on WIT's part. Early AoT animation had some major issues like the excessive use of still frames.
I am recently rewatching the show and there's something that's really bothering me. Why would they send out the 10 best recruits of probably all time as they like to portray into one of the most dangerous areas. They bring Mikasa with them to defend the wall, but why wouldn't they want the other 9 there as well? Just my hot take.
personally i had assumed titans were the people eaten by titans after the lesson and especially after seeing what happened to eren and knowing the titans dont digest people
So the colossal Titan being able to vanish at a moments notice is not a plot hole. It's very well established as a consistent ability. However, it must be used intentionally. The bones being excluded from the steam production is an entirely separate caveat to an entirely separate ability. The vanishing ability and the steam production ability are independent of eachother. I totally understand why someone may think that the colossal uses the steam ability to dissolve his body and vanish, but there is enough evidence in the series to explain it all without any plot holes. Just a polite correction for the purpose of making sure such an influential content creator doesn't accidentally spread misinformation due to a tiny oversight. We're all human lol
it might be possible that bertholdt is able to choose to consume his bones or not like when armin was being cooked he had to worry about civilians or scout regiment researchers(hange team) coming to a conclusion there was a impostor among them so him dissapearing was like proof to them that they're therories like god made titans is true however he chose not to consume his bones during when he tryna capture eren in season 2 since they already had pretty much had solid evidence on him and reiner so it was pointless to try and hide it so he chose to use his skeleton corpse to try and capture eren the easy way which lead to his downfall when armin was using his not so cautious view to they're advantage to eventually beat him in season 3
Have you noticed that the leg he loses in this episode, in his first mission, is the same one he "loses" in his "last" mossion before starting the rumbling? 👀
32:44 Yeah, that was my initial reaction to that moment. I actually stopped watching the show for a few days after that because my thinking was, "Do I really want to get further invested in a show that's going to kill off the main character this early in?" Glad I continued on.
As for the Colossal Titan appearing larger in season 3 as opposed to season 1... I don't think that that's a plot hole on its own. We've never been told that the Colossal Titan is always just one size. I mean, we didn't even know the Colossal Titan could nuke things. I mean, in season 2 we even see Berthold utilize his form to only create half a Colossal Titan. It is very much possible Berthold in season 3 went for an even bigger size than the one he used to open the wall. I always hear the "they just do it for perspective" thing but personally, I think that's nonsense.
Not really - in both cases we see him next to the same 50 meter walls and he's clearly just a bit taller than them, implying that in both cases he's the same 60ish meters. So unless Eren decided to shrink himself, it is for the sake of perspective.
I think it should be mentioned the details with the eyes…..at some point they are green and others teal. I get the feeling it’s meant to show the influences of Ymir and Eren.
If you mean Eren's, then trust me, I've looked over them more than any normal person should, but I don't think so. I mention it in some earlier videos as well, but I think most of the closeups of eyes early on are just a result of color grading more than anything else. His eyes sometimes shift from gray to blue to green back to blueish all in the same sequence, so I think that's just one of those super practical things that shouldn't be read into too much. Later in the series, however, I think they were far more purposeful with eyes though, so I think there's a lot more to glean from them! 👀
It is weird how little is implied to be known about the outside world. Part of the opening exposition is that the titans appeared 100 years prior. That's like. One, maybe two generations. That's the length of time that would be like, Realistically my grandfather may have seen the outside world personally. So it's kind of weird how little is known about the outside.
I'm assuming you've watched the series? It's explained in season 3 at the end of the great titan war, the Eldian king at the time retreated to Paradis and used the founding titan's power to erect the walls and tamper with everyone's memories at the time. The royal family also make an active effort to suppress any technological advances and hunt down other races like the Ackermans and Azumabitos who couldn't be memory wiped. Also they don't have modern medicine, so the average life span is probably much shorter compared to our world.
@ForeverTraitor Oh - No, I do know the in world explanation of why no one remembers. I guess it's more just fascinating how little everyone questions it is all I was saying
a thing that has bugged me for a while is that part in 5:07, when Eren is facing the colosal titan it's like the 3rd or 2nd time he transforms, and it was established when Hange was experimenting with Eren's abilities that after a few transformations, instead of a 15 meter titan, he gets like a 5 or a 7 meter or something like that, he gets smaller i don't know if someone already brought this up but it's what i think might have happened
That’s a point that actually would of been interesting to see in the plot, maybe eren uses a skinny and shorter attack titan to slip into places the armoured couldn’t. Though, in the scene mentioned you see the attack titan go from taller than the houses to as small as a door. He gradually gets smaller when interacting with the colossal because of perspective.
