To me, this episode commits one of the cardinal sins in any tv show. That being Eren's special abilities on the evaluation machine
Instead of Eren sucking at first but actively trying to get better and the episode showing us that he doesn't back down from a fight or give up and in the end mastering the maching through sheer will and training (which would've been cliche but a billion times better than what we got), he is instead revealed to have been training on a broken machine, which is not only completely underwhelming for his character but makes no sense.
First of all, what is this meant to set up? That Eren is just special cus he's the author's self-insert Mary Sue character? There is no arc to Eren in this episode, he just so happens to be on a bad machine and is actually naturally gifted because even then he could balance on it for a bit. It's stupid and it's pathetic.
Second of all, how did no one notice the machine being broken? There are what, a hundred or more recruits in the army? Even if there are 50 there sure aren't 50 evaluation machines, therefore more people must've been on the machine that Eren was on and what, nobody noticed something wrong with it? Nobody noticed that the recruits on that specific machine just so happened to perform the worst? To me, this episode and the pilot established the show as one that does not care for plotholes and that is extremely underwhelming and definitely not "greatest anime of all time" worthy.
Instead of Eren sucking at first but actively trying to get better and the episode showing us that he doesn't back down from a fight or give up and in the end mastering the maching through sheer will and training (which would've been cliche but a billion times better than what we got), he is instead revealed to have been training on a broken machine, which is not only completely underwhelming for his character but makes no sense.
First of all, what is this meant to set up? That Eren is just special cus he's the author's self-insert Mary Sue character? There is no arc to Eren in this episode, he just so happens to be on a bad machine and is actually naturally gifted because even then he could balance on it for a bit. It's stupid and it's pathetic.
Second of all, how did no one notice the machine being broken? There are what, a hundred or more recruits in the army? Even if there are 50 there sure aren't 50 evaluation machines, therefore more people must've been on the machine that Eren was on and what, nobody noticed something wrong with it? Nobody noticed that the recruits on that specific machine just so happened to perform the worst? To me, this episode and the pilot established the show as one that does not care for plotholes and that is extremely underwhelming and definitely not "greatest anime of all time" worthy.