Attack on Titan (manga)/Recap/S1/E01 To You, in 2000 Years -The Fall of Shiganshina, Part 1

""And just like that, everything changed. At that terrible moment, in our hearts, we knew... "home" was a pen... and humanity, cattle.""

- From the English dub

For over a century, humans have been living in settlements surrounded by three gigantic walls, which prevent the Titans, giant humanoid creatures who eat humans, from entering. Eren Jaeger, of the town called the Shiganshina District, wishes to see the outside world by joining the Scout Regiment, as he likens living in the cities to livestock. Despite this, his adopted sister Mikasa Ackermann and their mother Carla Jaeger are against him joining the Scouts. Even after seeing the Scouts return home with large casualties, Eren expresses his interest to join, which impresses his father Grisha Jaeger. After Eren and Mikasa rescue their friend Armin Arlelt from a group of delinquents due to his views that the walls will not protect them forever, the Colossal Titan suddenly appears and knocks down the gate to the Shiganshina District, which lies in the outer edge of Wall Maria, allowing smaller Titans to enter. As the town erupts into mass panic, Eren and Mikasa rush back to Carla, only to see her pinned under their collapsed house. Carla begs them to flee, but they refuse until city guard Hannes arrives and takes them away. Eren watches in horror as a Smiling Titan eats Carla.

(Copied from Wikipedia, "List of Attack on Titan episodes (season 1)")


 * I Will Only Slow You Down: Why insisted on being abandoned.
 * Parting Words Regret: wasn't well behaved before  died. Well the regret is apparent in the english dub. Its not as apparent, if its even there, in the japanese english-subtitled version.
 * Senseless Sacrifice: Moses' grieving mother, seeking comfort, begs/demands the commander of the scout regiment to tell her that her son was brave, and that his death meant something. The commander says that her son was brave, but his death was meaningless. The commander says that every injury, every death, that the scout regiment has ever suffered, was in vain, because in its entire history, it has accomplished nothing of value.
 * Take a Third Option: Subverted. begs Hannes to abandon her and to save the children. He then faces the Titan, thinking, at first he could kill it, and save the both the children and . But then he chickens out. And carries the children to safety. Although we have barely seen Titans fighting trained soldiers so far, based on the scene where the scout regiment returns, and that whole 'pushed us to the brink of extinction' thing, we know that Titans are exceedingly dangerous. Add to that he hasn't taken his job very seriously until the Titans finally breach the walls, which makes it safe to assume he hasn't really been keeping up his training. Later on Mikasa says that they would have died without him carrying them off. Further more it was revealed that the knowledge about Titans at that time was really lacking. So if Hannes tried to invoke this trope, meaning tried to defeat the Titan, it would be surprising if that wouldn't be throwing his life away, leading to the death of all involved (aside from the Titan).