In truth, by now it's obvious to anyone paying attention that the ratings momentum for the 'Attack on Titan' has become unstoppable.
Looking at the current situation, Xingtong TV's earlier little tricks seem laughable. Sure, tens of millions might not be much for a major station like Xingtong TV, but having the most-watched drama in all of Great Zhou airing on your channel is far more meaningful than that amount of money.
But only if the money is well spent. Last night, their secondary primetime drama's viewership was crushed below 1%. Across all of Great Zhou's stations, only Yunteng TV has a combined share of over 10%; all others are seeing 1% or even 0.1% or lower. This is the kind of damage a phenomenon-level drama can inflict on its competitors.
Xingtong TV's higher-ups, realizing the tide couldn't be turned, quietly pulled back all their popular shows from Saturday primetime to their original slots.
But Jing Yu isn't that easy to deal with. He may seem indifferent most of the time, but he holds grudges — and he clearly remembered this one.
During this period, the first wave of promotions for 'Gundam SEED' began, though Jing Yu intentionally withheld the exact airing date. This made things tricky for many TV stations in Great Zhou. Still, with 'Ultraman Tiga' wrapping up in the next two or three weeks — and since it airs during the golden slot on Sunday nights — most assumed that 'Gundam SEED' would be its successor, and thus avoided programming anything around Sunday 8 PM.
Of course, the six major stations also assumed this would be the case.
While Jing Yu may be an unbeatable force in the TV industry now, even he can only put out one or two series per quarter. One episode a week, an hour per series — two or three shows would only take up a few hours total.
So fine, Jing Yu gets those two or three hours. We won't fight him for them.
As such, the big stations all released their own flagship shows' broadcast schedules.
This included Xingtong TV.
Saturday at 8 PM — that was the agreed-upon time between Xingtong TV and the other five major stations.
While 'Ultraman Tiga' was ending soon, 'Attack on Titan' would clearly continue into the next quarter, likely keeping its 11 PM slot. And then there was 'GundamSEED', rumored to have a massive 400 million yuan budget, expected to air on Sunday at 8 PM. Naturally, everyone tried to avoid going head-to-head with these two.
However, once Xingtong TV released its schedule…
Bluestar Media & Film immediately reacted, officially confirming on its website that 'Gundam SEED' would also air on Saturday at 8 PM.
"What is this? Is Bluestar trying to break the unspoken rules?!"
Xingtong TV execs were stunned.
The drama industry in Great Zhou has long been led by the big six, with Yunteng TV now joining — but Yunteng TV is essentially Jing Yu.
Small stations don't matter. The big ones usually just avoid direct conflict.
Yunteng TV, Xingtong TV, Imperial Capital TV, Huanshi TV — these four dominate the best time slots throughout the week. The remaining two grab whatever's left. This system has held for years. Even though Jing Yu's works often smash 10% in ratings, the rest could still do okay by not clashing directly.
But now? Jing Yu clearly had better time slots, like the Sunday 8 PM slot after 'Ultraman Tiga' — why go head-on with Xingtong TV?
Just a bit of thinking made it clear: this was payback for Xingtong TV's underhanded moves this quarter.
Despite Jing Yu's immense popularity and strength, he's always played fair — even sparing thought for his peers. He put the 'Attack on Titan' in the late-night slot on purpose, fearing it would otherwise crush everything else airing at prime time. He didn't want to become the industry's villain. In a way, he was showing mercy.
But Xingtong TV's tactics crossed the line. No wonder Jing Yu retaliated.
The moment Bluestar Media confirmed the 'Gundam SEED' time slot, Xingtong TV panicked. The next day, they changed their own flagship drama to Sunday at 10 PM.
Jing Yu responded even faster. Within two hours, he issued a new statement — 'Gundam SEED' would now air Sunday at 8 PM, directly following 'Ultraman Tiga'.
The broadcast schedule of the chess match between Bluestar Media and Xingtong TV stunned the entire industry.
Jing Yu was strong, yes, but Xingtong TV had been one of the top three powerhouses for 20 years — when had anyone dared challenge them like this?
Now, they realized Bluestar Media meant business. Unlike their throwaway drama meant to disrupt the 'Attack on Titan', Xingtong TV's upcoming flagship drama had a 130 million yuan investment, plus it was meant to launch several new stars from partner companies. If this flopped, it would hurt more than just ratings.
Xingtong TV quickly reached out to Bluestar Media and Jing Yu himself — but got no meaningful reply.
Jing Yu didn't say, "I'm getting back at you," either. All he said was that this was a "routine scheduling adjustment."
Eventually, a few of Jing Yu's old industry friends reached out to Cheng Lie, and he reluctantly approached Jing Yu.
In the end, the result: 'Gundam SEED' officially took the Sunday 8 PM slot following 'Ultraman Tiga', while Xingtong TV's flagship got bumped to a very awkward Thursday 8 PM slot.
With Jing Yu's current standing, he had no fear of offending Xingtong TV. In fact, not reacting would likely lead to more such incidents in the future.
Though a newcomer, Jing Yu had always respected the industry's unspoken rules — each station sticks to a slot and avoids clashing. They'd all kept that up for years, until Xingtong TV broke it.
Now the industry understands Jing Yu's personality well.
He's fine with fair competition — he won't mind if you outperform him. But if you want to fight dirty and drag both sides down? Jing Yu won't back down. He'll go all in.
In the end, the 'Attack on Titan' ratings weren't affected. The competitor pulled out of prime time, and the 'Attack on Titan' continued in a quieter slot. A 1% dip in viewership was inevitable, but after some talking from Cheng Lie and others, Jing Yu let it slide.
A few days later, the newest season of 'Attack on Titan' resumed.
But this episode was heavy on dialogue and jumped ahead in the plot, leaving many viewers confused.
The main trio sought help from their old comrade Annie in the trainee corps — but things quickly went sideways. Annie acted strangely, then suddenly snapped, becoming disturbingly intense.
Then… she transformed.
Right in front of them, Annie became the same Female Titan who nearly captured Eren, slaughtered Levi's squad (except Levi), and drenched the Survey Corps in blood.
This plot twist…
Watching it in reverse, you start to notice all the hints.
Like how Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt looked horrified when Eren first transformed…
Or their heartfelt talk one night with Eren, saying, "We want to go back to our home — the one we can never return to…"
Or how, during the Titan attack, named characters were shown fighting — including Potato Girl — but not the trio. And when Eren sealed the wall, all three looked deeply unsettled.
In hindsight, the clues were everywhere. Their behavior, emotions, and lines — everything fit. But it was the audience and the protagonist who misunderstood them.
So when Annie transformed, and that epic soundtrack hit, fans had chills all over.
How could that be?
She trained with them for years… Was she their friend?
Who would have guessed?
The episode ended with Eren, filled with rage, transforming into a Titan and battling Annie in a brutal showdown.
This episode pulled an average of 14.56% viewership.
But the real frenzy started after, in online theory discussions.
"I give up. I can't predict this show anymore."
"The enemy was right beside them all along… classic hidden-in-plain-sight."
"Wait, could the Colossal and Armored Titans also be nearby?"
"Maybe they're working with Annie?"
"I bet Potato Girl is the Colossal. She's always eating!"
"Please, she's a girl! The Colossal Titan's clearly a muscle giant — probably a dude. Besides, she was on the wall with Eren during the invasion."
"Could it be the Survey Corps commander?"
"No way. He's shown deep internal conflict and leadership. If he were a Titan, that'd be a split personality arc."
"What if it's Eren's dad? He vanished in Episode 1, and we've heard nothing since."
"We need to think outside the box. The creator only revealed Annie's identity — he hasn't said the other Titans are allies. They could be enemies. Don't let him trick you — he loves misleading viewers."
"True. Everyone's a suspect except the obviously innocent ones. Reiner and Bertholdt talked about their 'hometown' emotionally. No way that's fake. Armin and Mikasa are safe, too. But the rest? Total suspect pool."
"Honestly… maybe the real identities of the Colossal and Armored Titans haven't even appeared yet."
After this episode of 'Attack on Titan' aired, a massive debate erupted within the fanbase — all about who the Armored Titan and the Colossal Titan really were.
The fan enthusiasm was strikingly similar to how, in Jing Yu's previous life, 'One Piece' fans used to obsess over who Gin really was.
Whenever Oda introduced a mysterious figure, the fanbase's knee-jerk reaction was always the same:
"It must be Gin!"
Things like 'Imu-sama is Gin', 'Green Bull is Gin', 'Sanji's clone is Gin' — in short, 'Rocks is Gin' — as long as there was a yet-to-be-revealed character, guessing "it's Gin" first was never wrong.
The current situation with 'Attack on Titan' was quite similar.
Realistically speaking, despite 'Attack on Titan' having over ten million viewers, the total number of named characters who had appeared so far barely reached a hundred. So, posts guessing Reiner and Bertolt were the Titans definitely existed.
But the posters themselves were mostly just joking, like tossing out guesses for fun. If you asked them to provide concrete evidence or detailed reasoning, they'd have no idea either.
When it came to planting foreshadowing and executing plot twists, the 'Attack on Titan' original story was absolutely top-tier.
The moment when the identities of the three major Titans were finally revealed? Utterly shocking.
And yet — the foreshadowing had been there all along. It was just that the viewers hadn't noticed it.
That's what made it so brilliant.
By the time episode twelve of 'Attack on Titan' wrapped up, it was already mid-December.
As the winter season approached its end, all the networks began promoting their next-quarter lineups.
Jing Yu's side was no exception — the teaser for 'Gundam SEED' dropped.
And then…
The 'Attack on Titan' discussions that had dominated the industry for three months were suddenly replaced — half the posts now talked about 'Gundam SEED'.
Why?
Because it was jaw-droppingly epic.
Hiring top stars for a drama doesn't guarantee quality. We've all seen those mega-budget fantasy series with cheap VFX.
But 'Gundam SEED' was different. Its 400 million yuan budget was real.
And most of the cast were rookie actors signed by the company, paid standard rates. Jing Yu didn't splurge on salaries just because the budget was high.
As a result, 90%+ of the budget went into actual filming and special effects.
What fans saw in the 'Gundam SEED' teaser was the space epic of their dreams:
Explosions in the dark, silent void, high-speed mecha duels, shattering space cruisers…
And yes — a hint of romance (though you can't really tell how tragic it'll be yet).
Just these visuals alone made the fans go wild.
"This is a whole tier above 'Evangelion', right?"
"And the Gundams? Way cooler-looking than the EVA units."