Alright, i have to get this off my chest now, but before you continue reading I’ll let you all know that this contains heavy spoiler, so please only continue if you have read the manga/seen all episodes of SnK until now.
I don’t know, but you may feel the same, but I honestly have no clue what awaits us in the next episodes of SnK. The series slowly comes to an end as we are currently at epsiode 22 and it ends with 25, so we have not even 3 weeks more to go and I can’t think of a way it could possibly end.
The manga is currently at volume 11, but the latest episodes happenings correlates to chapter 31 at the end of volume 7, and I don’t know how long Hajime Isayama is going to continue the manga. Things got hot, but from what we know about Snk, we can’t possibly say what Isayama intends to do, how long he is going to prolong the secret behind the titans and with what he is going to surprise or shock us again.
Episode 22 didn’t really help the series to catch up to the manga (which does not mean it wasn’t a “good” heartshattering episode, don’t get me wrong). I just can not imagine what they are possibly going to do to catch up to the manga, end the series with only 3 episodes left and get us a “satisfying” revelation, whatever that means, because in 4 weeks the manga isn’t going to progress much further or can possibly just come to an end.
Also what is bothering me is this:
(from episode 2, after Eren starts a ruckus when they hand out food to the people who escaped the titan attack)
In the manga, these scenes do not exist. The panels in chapter 02 skip from the armored titan breaching the wall to where the recruits have completed their military training and our main characters (aka 104. trainee squad) are introduced. We didn’t get to see kid versions of Annie, Reiner and Bertholdt there.
I’d like to consider exactly the following fact at this point:
I don’t know how it is with Bertholdt and Reiner (and Annie) exactly, but Ymir was trapped in her titan form for 60 years, wandering around outside the wall.
Even so she looks like everyone else, a “regular” teen, probably because of the titan’s healing abilities. Considering that, we can’t say for sure how old Reiner and Bertholdt truly are and if they really were kids or “kids” at the time the wall was destroyed in the anime by the colossal and armored titan, who happen to be exactly the two of them in the manga. But we know that Ymir mentioned something like “stealing her titan powers” and wandering around for 60 years after that and eating one of Reiner and Bertholdts friends. We know about Annie’s father from the manga and it was similar to the flashback Eren had (regardless of both father’s motives), so we know that she was a kid back then with regular parents and she maybe only started to transform from that time on. So what we know is, that apparently the body does not age when in titan form. The only question left is what about Reiner and Bertholdt?
Would Bertholdt and Reiner have been able to control their titan bodies at such a young and fragile age in the anime? (We didn’t see Annie when they first attacked in the anime, anyways they speculate she was the one who lured the other titans to come into the city at that time, but in the manga there is also the monkey looking titan who climbed up the wall and called out for the others.) We don’t know the truth about them, but I doubt that. I would rather say that they were already “grown up” as they attacked together because of the fact that they made the decision after a certain time of experiencing the terror around them and tried to pull the others with them, such as Annie (who was forced by her father to hate humanity) and now Ymir (who has her own inentions or was maybe a part of their original group a long time ago before she turned into a titan in the manga) (Also having in mind that their intention wasn’t exactly bad). I don’t know how much the titan form affected their bodies in their kid years, but what we know from Eren is, that his growth wasn’t affected until now, but he also didn’t know about his titan shifter abilities until just a little ago. Annie also grew up just normal, although she mastered her abilities way before then (she covered her neck out of reflex when she fought Eren at their combat training, so she had experience I guess?)
So what I’m trying to say is.. is the anime going to take another direction? It’s really confusing not knowing what happened to Reiner and Bertholdt before they were attacking for the first time, but we know that they originally didn’t want to kill people (see Bertholdts statement above), so their intention was “kind of” good, they just tried to life a peaceful life. I would also like to link to this post at that point, because I think that’s exactly what Reiner and especially Bertholdt are struggling with right now in the manga (“Is it worth preserving humanity? Continue? Stop what we’re doing?” (This is kind of what’s going through Bertholdts mind in these scenes:)
He doesnn’t want to do cruel things to who he considered his friends during the time he thought was “enjoyable” , but he also knows they can’t just stop, because they “can’t be forgiven” for what they’ve done and begs for someone to understand.
Anyways.. My biggest concern right now is if it’s really going to end after these 3 episodes that are left by picking out the most important parts and somehow rush it to the end without the official ending of the manga? Or if they are doing a different ending without Bertholdt and Reiner being involved with the colossal and armored titan considering the theories I made up just now? Or if there is going to be an open end and a second season after the manga has progressed to a certain point where they can dare to make a proper ending?
I don’t know what you guys think, but I’d be really upset if the anime gets some half assed ending after such an amazing show just because it got too much material to fit into 3 episodes/the manga hasn’t ended yet. This is just some thoughts that collided in my brain, it’s only “theories” and speculation from the differencies of manga and anime, so please don’t take it seriously! I just like to analyze things and make up theories and I thought maybe you have something to add/say to this?
I don’t know if someone even read all that, but if you did, thanks for reading what’s been going through my mind since episode 21 and me catching up to the latest update of the manga.
