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Attack on Titan (TV) (all seasons).

Ep. 1:
As for the constant plot convenience (Gee whiz, who would've thought that on the same day the Retcon Group failed to find new land to colonize would also be the day that some literal bolt from the blue spoiler[brought forth a 50+ meter giant that was smart enough to kick the wall down?]

Not too mention the spoiler[death of his mother via Titan] will most defiantly not influence his future decision making. ;D) yeah...

Keichitsu0305 wrote:

As for the constant plot convenience...

Yea, if I recall correctly the beginning of the manga was like that. They couldn't have telegraphed it more--spoiler["the walls will come down and the Titans will attack someday! Oh, and it just happens to be today!"]--if they hit us with a sledgehammer.

Hmm. I can see where you're coming from, but I think you are misunderstanding things in a few cases. For one thing, I got the impression that Mikasa had known for a while that Eren wanted to join the Recon Corps. Eren was clearly keeping this a secret from his parents deliberately, and he at some point told Mikasa to keep it a secret as well, given he his reaction when she revealed it. So I don't think this secret was revealed when he talked to Hannes, it was revealed when Mikasa told his parents. And the fact that this happened the same day the spoiler[Recon Corps returned horrible savaged and the leader had a breakdown is most likely not a coincidence at all.] Probably, this event bothered Mikasa enough to reveal the secret to Erin's parents. Not convenience or coincidence, simple cause and effect.

The third friend is a guy by the way. And while him being bullied for that particular reason may not happen every day, it's clear from the reactions the bullies had to both Erin and Mikasa that they've had scrapes with them before. Probably from them bullying the Armin (the third friend.) Is it coincidental that it involved Armin talking about the walls? Maybe, but it seems like Erin at least is pretty outspoken about his views (aside from trying to keep it secret from his parents), and his comment to Armin about "We just want to go outside. Why does everyone hate us?" makes it seem like being bullied for their views actually isn't that uncommon an incident.

And you say not a single thing happened that was part of an "ordinary day", but that's not true. Mikasa and Erin gathered firewood. They saved Armin from some bullies, which as I said before seems like a fairly common thing based on the way the bullies behaved. They talked to a guard that they knew and had talked to before. Yah, there was a bit of clunky exposition at times, most notably Arming's explanation of the King's Laws had a very "as you know" feel to it, but it wasn't nearly as bad as you are acting like, in my view. Certainly not unnatural from beginning to end.

All this falls into the "how the hell did he ever keep this is a secret for any amount of time" problem, only moreso. If he's outspoken about his views, and gets bullied for his views, and random people he talks to on the street can figure out his views, how the hell did none of this ever reach his parents? This is all part of "lacking a history". Absolutely nothing happened before this day.

The firewood was also unnatural. Remember the prophetic dream? Heck, his mother implied that Mikasa doesn't usually help him gather firewood. Which actually means that her presence there was unusual, and therefore having her see the ravaged team with him was also unusual, which means her decision to reveal his secret-for-day to his parents was spawned by a collision of two unusual circumstances. How convenient when exposition and character development can occur side by side! And it certainly seemed like they had been bullied before, but the actual contents of the bullying were treated as novel: something that needed to be explained. There's no history, only exposition.

How often do parents take time to talk to young punks? I suppose if Erin complained about Armin or himself being bullied for his views, maybe, but Erin wouldn't do that.

We don't know the reason for his dream, so it's a bit early to act like it's contrived. And are you seriously trying to argue that something as simple as Mikasa helping him gather firewood is "unnatural"? And Mikasa being with Erin is as well? The two of them live in the same house for crying out loud, they are obviously very close, of course they are going to be together a lot.

Eh, I just don't think we're going to see eye to eye on this.

I think we can agree to disagree. I really don't think it's that important, I just felt it was worth mentioning in a "first impressions" sense. In the long run no one will care as the story will have moved past it.

If I have one major complaint, and hope it goes away, it's that every reaction is treated as an overreaction with a lot of loud bickering and no subtlety.