Accidentally marathoned my way through Episode 6 of Shingeki no Kyojin last night. I did not expect that. Then I REALLY did not expect what followed. Then I was all like "You can't do that... it completely goes against the Plot Forumla!"
Well done, show. Well done.
Yeah, that was pretty awesome.
Now for an unrelated note: does it bug anyone else how much anime breaks the rule of "show, don't tell"? Let's take SnK/AoT for an example. Remember that prologue action sequence? Two dozen elite scouts go up against a single Titan, at night when they're supposed to be slow and sluggish. It barely even seems to take notice of the scouts or horses. The last moment we see of the battle, one of the scouts is perfectly set up and moving in for the kill.
Then next we see them, they took 80% casualties? Utterly failed to kill it? What, did they all throw themselves under the titan's feet? We never see what the fuck happened, but it just makes them look utterly incompetent.
Another example, further in the series and thus spoilered:
The Garrison has one job: hang out on the Wall out of reach and lure the titans over. We've seen that the titans will try to go after people even if they're on the very top of the wall, let along hanging on the side. Should be perfectly easy, no lives lost unless someone's gear fails and they plummet to their doom. No fighting involved. Yet they took over 200 casualties? How the hell do you screw that up so badly?
These two examples, along with a dozen other cases of horrific tactical thinking, makes it seem like humans are being wiped out due to their own stupidity rather than any real threat the titans represent. Maybe the manga is different.
