Board 8 > SaveEstelle & LeonhartFour in New Houses: (Almost) Parenthood Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

pyresword posted...

So I started watching Attack on Titan finally. (the first season, that is.)

I don't have much to say so far, but I feel like this is going to be one of those shows where it's well-made but the writing philosophy doesn't mesh with me at all.

How far into the season are you?

I just finished I think episode 7?

I do know that (spoilers for somewhere in season 1 later on) humans can become titans through some method and that this happens to one or two particular characters at some point (probably more than this, but there are 2 I know for sure). Also that there are specific titans that are special for some reason. Not that either of those things would have been hard to guess ahead of time anyways I suppose, but avoiding all spoilers for this series was inevitable.

Dragon Ball Z Episode 198 complete!

I was wondering when Goku would go Super Saiyan. This last fight seems promising.

I'm really not a fan of early AoT, I'm not sure it's the most popular opinion but I feel like it's a real slog up until the tail end of Season 1. Seasons 2 and especially 3 are excellent though.

4 "we'll see" since Part 2 is just starting now (or well, not yet for me because dub lol)

I didn't care for season 2 but largely because it took a detour from the stuff I actually thought was interesting

but either way just power through to season 3 because just about everyone agrees it's great

This Is Us Season 1 Episode 14 complete!

Wow, it's like all three siblings are trying to out-self-sabotage each other.

S3P1 is generally agreed to be the weakest one for Titan, I think?

I know the second half of Season 3 is considered to be the best, but I haven't heard that much hate for the first half.

s3 is the beginning of the answers arc. it's phenomenal.

(edit) and yeah, much of the early stuff is pretty unbearable

Man, back in 2013 almost everyone loved S1 of Titan. It was one of the biggest anime ever. Wonder what changed.

hey i've maintained this line the whole time at least

I never really bought into AoT until S2 and S3, but yeah I was under the impression my S1 opinion was an anomaly (and I think it still is in that I think I'm harder on it than most, I didn't really get the hype/praise for S1 at the time)

The first half of season 1 might still be my favourite part of AoT. I wonder how different it'll feel if I go back to it at the end of it all with all the answers in hand.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Man, back in 2013 almost everyone loved S1 of Titan. It was one of the biggest anime ever. Wonder what changed.

Season 1 is good! It's a bit slow, but at times, I think that's actually to the show's benefit. At the same time, I can get why it wouldn't necessarily hook someone right away because it takes its sweet time building its world.

Season 2 is the not good season.

The first I think 5 episodes of S1 was praised beyond everything. Even back when it ran, it was generally believed that it slowed a bit down from there.

At the time S1 was huge yes. I feel like general consensus on it has cooled a bit, but I think this is a case where that says more about how big it was at the time than anything. I still have the sense that it's pretty well regarded in general.

It's regard has also stood the test of time much better than the similarly huge Sword Art Online from that period.

Oh man SAO sucked (at least the first 25 episodes; never watched beyond that). Total waste of that premise.

Man, Ori 2 is already giving me more stuff than I have space for, and I'm only at the beginning of the second major area! Now I've got to learn to prioritize my mapped skills. I like that they're not breaking you in slowly with this one.

I love SAO but I'm a sucker for video game like settings. I don't think the first season's reputation is really any worse today than it used to be. Like even back in the day the flaws of the first arc were apparent. The second arc was always divisive and turned people away.

Sword Art Online never had universal acclaim, it had very mixed opinions from right away.

I watched the first one and thought I had enough but also got through the second one as it aired on Toonami. I don't hate it, but there are some terrible moments and waste of premise is pretty accurate.

I wouldn't say SAO is a show that gets better. It keeps having good and bad arcs all the way to the end.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Man, back in 2013 almost everyone loved S1 of Titan. It was one of the biggest anime ever. Wonder what changed.

well i'm glad i waited til s3 was finished before i started watching!

to me AOT has always had this huge conflict between how cool its world is and how unbearable its main characters are.

Yeah part of the problem is that Eren is tough to root for sometimes. I like Mikasa and Armin though.

Mikasa and Armin rule. Eren has his great moments too. He's been the highlight of the show since the 'final' season started.

feel like eren even being alive is a pretty significant spoiler - was thrilled when i thought he was dead

SeabassDebeste posted...

feel like eren even being alive is a pretty significant spoiler - was thrilled when i thought he was dead

Attack on Titan Season 1 spoilers
At the time I knew the name Levi and that Levi was super popular but not much else about him. Main characters tend to top popularity charts so I really thought Eren was gone and new character Levi would be introduced to replace him. Things didn't quite go that way.

If only

Mac Arrowny posted...

I wouldn't say SAO is a show that gets better. It keeps having good and bad arcs all the way to the end.

Yeah, SAO goes up and down basically every season.

Season 1 it starts great before having a truly epic collapse mid-episode in... Ep 12, I think? And then the following arc just continues the decline. Season 2 is probably the best overall but still has its own ups and downs but also contains the best arc and a legitimately great one at the end in Mother's Rosario. Season 3 is a lot more volatile and swings back and forth between some okay points but also arguably the lowest lows.

But I'm basically pot-committed and it's, outside some of the grossest parts, a guilty pleasure so =/

I know nothing about Sword Art Online other than I probably don't need to see it...!

That's probably the right call! I don't think you'd particularly enjoy it anyway.

Dragon Ball Z Episode 199 complete!

Goku vs. Pikkon was a cool fight. And now we've had another major timeskip, and it's time for Gohan's slice of life school days anime! Wait, how does Gohan have the Flying Nimbus? I feel like I haven't seen this thing since the original Dragon Ball!

Can't even fly as fast as them

I love Videl in this arc

I've figured out the secret.

I've been mentally approaching Attack on Titan like a grimdark fantasy (not my preferred genre), when in reality it's (spoilers) a mecha anime in disguise.

This Is Us Season 1 Episode 15 complete!

Good job, Kevin.

Currently on Day 3 of TWEWY2. The rules of the Game are different from the rules in the original, and I'm sure there are more differences I'm not even aware of yet. The gameplay's a little different, but they still manage to make it feel familiar.

This "Remind" mechanic or whatever it is can go away though.

i enjoyed gohan's slice of life stuff but it is not seen overall as a strong part of the series

Dragon Ball Z Episode 200 complete!

Wow, this entire episode threw me for a loop, including the new OP and ED!

Dragon Ball Z Episode 201 complete!

Now we've turned into Power Rangers with a bit of after school special thrown in for good measure!

Also Goku will be quite surprised when he comes back and learns he had another son!

This Is Us Season 1 Episode 16 complete!

Good strong episode for Randall and William.

This Is Us Season 1 Episode 17 complete!

I've had this feeling for a while that Kate blamed herself for her dad's death, so I got that one right.

Leonhart4 posted...

Also Goku will be quite surprised when he comes back and learns he had another son!

he was surprised he had a fiance so it checks out

pjbasis posted...

he was surprised he had a fiance so it checks out

this is true I had forgotten about this plot point

It was also kind of jarring to see Bulma had taken up smoking

I'm nearing the end of Wheel of Time book 8 (probably 80%ish done). I haven't said a lot because there hasn't been a lot to say. It hasn't been bad, but it does feel like the pacing has slowed, even by the standards of the series. Perhaps the most pleasant surprise is this is the best Egwene book in quite some time.

Also I'm kind of disappointed that they ended book 7 with that cliffhanger with Mat and book 8 hasn't even gone to him yet and it's barely even been discussed.

Book 8's the second worst book, so I'm glad you don't think it's bad! You should be able to make it through the series at this rate. Book 8's ending has some good stuff too IMO.

And yeah there are a few books where certain characters are basically gone. Book 5 for Perrin, book 8 for Mat, book 10 for Rand. It's a bit odd, but oh well. 8 and 10 definitely suffer from the lack, since it's not like they have a lot of other interesting stuff going on.

Dragon Ball Z Episode 202 complete!

Wow Gohan how are you so bad at this

This Is Us Season 1 complete!

Kind of a bittersweet season finale, but it's a good setup for the next season.

This Is Us Season 2 Episode 1 complete!

I don't know what happened at the end there, but I think we're about to hit the big moment the show's been building up to so far.

Attack on Titan season 1 beated.

I wasn't a big fan of the start of this season, but it did get a lot better as it went on. The Survey Corps is awesome and I really hope these guys actually stick around. Mainly Erwin, but the organization as a whole is also just pretty cool in action.

That said, I still don't think the series has addressed the biggest thing holding it back, which is how much it loves to play coy with what's actually happening and why. It's obvious that they're building towards some complicated story with a bunch of different factions, motivations, and goals at play, but they still insist on framing it as just "humanity vs monsters" while keeping the real story behind some thin veil of mystery. It's supposed to maintain tension, but it just ends up weakening the story overall. I'll probably enjoy this a ton once this changes--which I'm sure it will eventually--but I can't say I'm too appreciative of how they're setting the stage.

Overall still a pretty good show though. I realize this sounds mostly negative but if I actually didn't like it I'd just say it sucked (or not say anything at all) and move on. I tend to complain a lot more about good shows that I feel are being held back than I do about stuff that is just bad.

the biggest gut punch of season 1 was Annie wrecking the Survey Corps, R.I.P. Petra