Attack on Titan - Episode 53 Discussion / Poll
 

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The final charge begins.

Armin, you useless shit. I hope he'll redeem himself before this is over.

Daisuke Ono fucking nailed it.

He really did.

I'm surprised this has become one of the least discussed show of the season on this forum. Not much point in making individual episode threads anymore.

Yeah, his speech definitely roused my spirits. Though, considering his "charge" speech against Reiner and Bert, we really shouldn't be surprised.

I'd like to think that's because this entire season so far is just 1 long episode that hasn't ended yet :heh:

In his defense, nothing anyone's done's been useful against Bertholt.

The main problem was his attitude. He was entrusted with a responsibility and dumped it all on Jean. And Jean at least tried to do something, even if it failed.

To be fair, I wouldn't call that "dumping" but "delegating". To me, it is just the same as Erwin asking Armin for a plan regarding Reiner and Berdholdt lurking around: if the person in charge believes they aren't qualified for the situation at hand, it is much better to delegate that role to somebody else, even if it is on minute notice.
If Armin didn't make that decision and was lost in thought for any longer, it could cost the life of Eren and everyone else.

Armin is good when it comes to thinking outside the box and long term strategy, but Jean is better when it comes to urgent assessment and short term tactics. Both are aware of their respective strong points and weaknesses, hence why Jean took the lead, but warned Armin the latter is still needed in the grand scheme of things.

By the way, due to leaks, Funimation (and most likely other simucast companies) is forced to delay the release of the simulcast, to prevent any possible incident prior broadcast in Japan.
As such, subbed episodes are to be released on Wednesday instead of Sunday. This measure is immediately in application, so Episode 54 will be subbed on Wed 29th May, instead of Sunday 26th.

Regarding the delay, I read the article on ANN and that seems to be quite the radical decision to me. Apparently, two simulcast sites leaked the episodes early (didn't mention who they were). It would make sense not to give the episodes early to these guys, but doing it for the whole world seems extreme.

The delay is surprisingly long too. You just know fansubs will be available before that.

And I must be really out of the loop because I wasn't aware of those leaks at all.

Yeah, I can see people just switching to fansubs in that event if the companies involved are going to be this heavy handed about it.

EDIT: Well speak of the devil...

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...-anime/.147112

The French simulcaster had previously (I think?) confirmed it would simulcast the episode on Sunday as planned, which made me think it was only Funimation that was getting "punished", but after reading this it looks like the Japanese simply changed their minds. After some negotiations, I'm sure.

Perfect Game
 

Ever felt walking into a narrow maze and blindly following the trail with no room to collect your thoughts in order to make sense of your surroundings? And, that's when you failed to notice the encroaching darkness has already consumed and left you helpless but to wait for the impending outcome.

When I first came across the manga I felt sullen, bitter, and powerless reading page after page at how the new recruits were begging for their very existence as they rode with Erwin to their very deaths.

It was such a powerful imagery, and now that I got the chance to watch it adapted into the anime medium my heart sank into the bowels of my gut; almost felt like crying.
Over and over the Beast Titan kept relentlessly pitching his game until getting what was left of Erwin's regiment, literally, stuck on the wall without a possible way out for the Scouts to survive.

This is when another powerful scene later came into the play and was Erwin privately confiding to Levi the futility of never reaching the basement, in spite of the mountain of corpses he built in order to get them this far.
From my interpretation, this crucial exchange made Levi to come to terms that Erwin was always a flawed person just like him and the rest of humanity.
It is precisely why they have to make the most of their deaths and their dread in order to pin down the trail that would eventually lead them to decisive victory, and that's why it was imperative for Erwin to step into the battlefield to lead those frightened recruits right into their deaths as there was no one else left capable of such task.

Deftinitely, the episode closing down with that shot of Erwin getting mauled by the boulders paints a fatalistic cliffhanger for what's to become of the Scouts the next episode, but with only death a certainty nothing else in life is either guaranteed or secured. Henceforth, now that Erwin and the Scouts accomplished their mission with their deaths, then I can only hope that this will suffice for Levi to accomplish his at the other end.
If all comes falling down according to Erwin's last strategy, then sooner or later the Beast Titan might pay a terrible price for his hubris.