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S3 #18

So viewers finally get to the point where they learn how and why Armin miraculously survived last week's sacrifice. Staying alive despite third-degree burns covering almost all of his body as well as a fall from a height which would kill just about anyone is closest to a deux ex machina miracle one could ever see in a work of fiction. Erwin remaining alive despite having part of his sides gouged out by rocks is slightly more believable, but he'd have died all the same from the blood loss without intervention. As for Hange, turns out it was a combination of good luck and quick thinking from her subordinate which allowed her to escape with the mere loss of an eye.

I don't envy Levi and the others for being forced to make a choice: there are two perfectly worthy candidates to use the syringe. To top it off, there's no time to make before both are lost. Just as well Erwin helped Levi out by still having the wits to actively refuse the shot, plus it seems Levi was eavesdropping on the three when the conversation about the sea was brought up.

I don't disagree with the War Chief's conclusion that the outcome was a draw. Both sides lost plenty but the survivors walk away with gains, no matter how small. For the humans, they have sealed up the wall which initially led to the loss of 1/3rd of humanity at its initial breach, plus they've learnt what the elder Jaegar was hiding in his basement (more on that next week) and have acquired another soldier capable of Titan transformation. Yes, it's meant losing almost the entire Scout corps plus the Commander in the process, but the Scouts finally have a tangible success to justify their continued existence.

As for the sentient Titans, they've lost Bertholdt permanently but retain Reiner and the War Chief as military assets (albeit crippled for the time being). Furthermore, they've learnt not to underestimate the humans having tasted the potency of the new weapon that is capable of literally bringing even the armoured Titan to his knees. If Reiner didn't lose his memory of getting bested by the Spears on the second occasion, he'll be wary of them if he faces off against his former compatriots again. As for the Beast Titan, he'll surely want revenge against Levi and won't be so careless again if they should fight each other.

On a final note, it looks like Armin's Titan form is smaller than Eren's. Eren is 6m tall when transformed, but Armin looks like he's just slightly taller than a Shiganshina house. If the classification from previous episodes is any guide, that means he's the smallest of the Titan builds at 3 to 4 metres. How much support he can provide Eren as a Titan is a matter for the future, but he probably won't be as effective since he's not as huge. Hopefully as the series goes on there'll be an opportunity to see them both in action side by side.

Harleyquin wrote:

On a final note, it looks like Armin's Titan form is smaller than Eren's. Eren is 6m tall when transformed, but Armin looks like he's just slightly taller than a Shiganshina house. If the classification from previous episodes is any guide, that means he's the smallest of the Titan builds at 3 to 4 metres. How much support he can provide Eren as a Titan is a matter for the future, but he probably won't be as effective since he's not as huge. Hopefully as the series goes on there'll be an opportunity to see them both in action side by side.

Unless, just as Eren gained powers from eating his father who ate who he did, the large size and steam power of the Colossal Titan may have been passed to Armin, so afterwards Armin could turn into another colossal?

What an impossible situation Levi was put in, having to make a choice between Erwin and Armin, that Erwin was the obvious choice, yet clear that Armin would also be a powerful asset. I guess partially coming down to that Erwin might not deserve the hell of what he has had to do.

Barely believe that after over 50 episodes we will find out what is in the basement.

As a counter-example, Ymir ate one of the party members of Reiner and Friends but didn't gain anything special besides regaining her sentience as a human. Eren earned the Coordinate powers from Christa's Sister, who in turn was the last descendant of the royal bloodline holding on to those powers. The War Chief said something strange a few weeks ago; how Reiner could be "deprived" of his armour and given to someone more worthy. If it implies something more than Reiner being eaten by another candidate, then it's not a given the Colossal's abilities will pass on to Armin. All in good time, I suppose. There's still air-time to hopefully showcase both of the Titans fighting together.

S3 #19

Armin's awake, but like Eren before him he's got no memory of what happened when he was transformed. Not only that, it looks like Bertholdt will haunt his dreams for the rest of his life. Unsurprisingly he's surprised and a little upset he was chosen over Erwin, but he's got to live with his second chance and the hopes of those who invested so much into choosing him. if Eren and Mikasa make it back alive to the capital, they will definitely face court-martial.

The scene of the four of them walking through the abandoned Shiganshina counts as one of the most powerful scenes in this quarter without relying on bombastic action or over-the-top music. It's lost on new viewers, but those who have followed this since the first episode will understand why the animators put so much care into animating the flashback scene and the occasional stops in various areas.

As for the basement itself, they've finally found it and have almost certainly found what they spent so much men, resources and effort into. Erwin was right to question the official historical narrative, but if Eren's father was someone who came from outside the walls then the world is a much more complicated place than it was initially made out to be way back when the series first aired. Hopefully next week's flashback episode will explain more about the senior Jaegar's background and the sentient Titans who are so desperately trying to seize Eren for their own ends.

Yeah, the world is much more complicated than what everyone in the walls wanted to believe. It's easy to find real life parallels to this. Complexity can be tough to handle for people, scares them. Longing for a simpler world.

Season 3, Episode 20

Okay, that episode was a big deal. I think an interesting note that I had while watching was that I took note that one of the acquaintances working with Grisha looked lot like the Bearded Titan that tried to eat Armin before Eren saved him by throwing himself into the mouth, the guy with grey beard and bald head, and at the end of the episode he became it. The titan that the moustache guy tried to feed Grisha to before getting eaten by, was another one we saw apparently referred to as the peering titan, there was actually a good number of familiar faces. The most shocking though, is the revelation of the Smiling Titan, the one that killed Eren's mother, and was about to do so to him again years later before Hannes came in and was killed instead, was actually someone called Dina, Grisha's first wife, and who seems to be the mother of the beast titan.

But we do seem to have gotten some pieces of the big story of the world. Some point in the past, maybe thousands of years, someone called Ymir got the power of titans and created an empire, these people apparently called either child Ymir or Edlians. According to the other people, called Marley, they were big bad evils that enslaved everyone else, practicing eugenics and other bad things, with the Eldian empire running away, abandoning some of their people, to hide on Paradis, which is where the main story has been set. But this has been a history written by the victors, the Marley, to have the Eldians feels shame and hate those within the walls. And the Marley were also calling the island a penal colony, where they would turn the Eldians into titans that would hound humans inside the wall. The Titan shifters that have included Reiner, Annie and Bertholdt, have been under the impression of the those within the walls being their people that abandoned them to concentration camps, with a history where they were a sort of monstrous empire. Indeed, the ruler within the walls of Historia's family that inherited the coordinate has been set on keeping the truth a secret like some sort of shame. But considering the whole lies thing, it would not be surprising if these are lies set up to control those left behind to act how powers that be in Marley can use them.

One question is how could Marley have possibly defeated Eldia if Eldia had Titans under their power, that Eldia would then hide on the island, turning the titans it had into walls. After which presumably the Marley would continue to use the Eldia left to as punishment by turning them into titans. Which on a side note we learned the serum is spinal fluid from a titan, which Eren may have knowledge of as bargaining chip after being locked up. There seemed to be an implication that they got Titan shifters on their side, the likes that had the powers of the other Titan shifters, but how is that supposed to work if they treat all Edlians as evil?

The episode with lots of big revelations on the world at large. Turns out Eren and the other "besieged" humans are really the descendants of the master Titan race that first once ruled the world. There appear to be two competing narratives at work: the Marleyan one where the Titan progenitors grew arrogant and tyrannised the world before losing a big war against other Titans just under the century ago, and the Ymir one which claims they were overthrown by the Marleyan conquerors despite their significant achievements. Neither narrative appears to be completely truthful, so perhaps a future series will give a bigger picture to anime-only viewers.

Ymir (season 2 shapeshifter) must have been one of the Eldrians in the ghetto before she was transformed. Eating one of the sentient Titans by chance returned her to sanity, but with it she now has to take up the cause of the sentient Titans led by the Owl. Zeke (Beast Titan) is Eren's much older half-brother, who betrayed his parents but willingly served under the Marleyan army as a Titan. He's probably working for the Owl, but why did he tell Eren that their father had brainwashed them both when they were younger? His comment earlier in the series about the "armoured Titan" gift being transferable starts to make more sense if they have the Marleyan technology to serve as Titan soldiers who can listen to orders.

Grisha's first wife kept her promise after all, although the revelation of her true identity hits Eren really hard. Revenge was still served, but fate has a funny way of delivering irony.

The royal family which Historia is the last remaining descendant of has motives which remain inscrutable for now. If the Marleyans are right and seized control of 7 out of the 9 founding Titans, then the royal family and the ancestors of Mikasa and Levi must have been the two who fled to the island. The persecution of the Ackermans has parallels with the ghetto towns of the continent, since the ability to resist the mass brainwashing is power enough in its own right to be rightly feared and discriminated against.

Didn't recognise Mikasa initially in this episode. She's one of those who has a terrible case of bed hair and needs to wash it at least when she wakes up to look presentable.

Next episode's title coincidentally shares the same word as the series itself. Taking this episode's revelations into context, it now has another meaning besides the oft-recognised "Titans are continually attacking the besieged humans behind their giant walls" trope. If the Titan in this case is singular rather than plural, then the "Titan of Invasion" has special significance which should hopefully be made clear before the end of the adaptation. Grisha's story up to him starting a new family has not yet run its course, and I'm curious to see how he regained his hands to do medical work in his new life.

S3 #21

An episode combining the flashback from last week with events moving along in the present. Zero action whatsoever, since the season is petering out and all of the big plot points have to be put in place before whatever future adaptation takes place.

The Owl put Grisha Jaeger on the spot, but it really appears he had no choice since the price for being the vessel of one of the Nine Titans is a vastly shortened lifespan. As much as Grisha hated being the one left alive, even he admitted the alternative of letting his first wife fall into the hands of their oppressors was never an option to be considered. The Owl's last point also hurt: if Grisha had never left the ghetto on a whim taking his sister with him he would most likely have spent a quiet life taking over his father's clinic and starting a family within it.

Going back to the present, Eren has spent most of his time in jail reflecting on the diaries and the enormity of what it represents. At present, he has the powers of the "Titan of Invasion" (which his father inherited from the Owl) and potential mastery of the founding Titan's powers (thanks to his father eating Historia's older sister) if the contact with his mother's killer was what he thinks it was. Eren is now the only person in the series who realises the significance of the Titan who killed his birth mother, but he's absolutely terrified of what that means and will need to talk to someone about this eventually. Armin might figure it out since he's the smart one, but do they need to tell Historia since it's important to her as well?

That last offhand comment from the Owl was the biggest surprise of the episode. Even he had no idea what he said and casually wondered whose memories it was. I doubt there'll be an answer to that mystery before the end of the adaptation unfortunately.

Got to say I did a double take when the Owl suddenly said to fight for people like Armin and Mikasa, which seems a little funny in how his name was also Eren and likely the main character's namesake. Pretty interesting that the memory thing works forward in time also.

S3 #22

This episode marks a temporary end to the adaptation and it'll be over a year before what's left of the source material is adapted and the saga told in its entirety. As expected, Eren and the others get to see the ocean, but the price they've paid and the knowledge of what's out there has completely changed the dynamic for the people within the walls and the raison d'etre of the Scouts.

Historia's act of defiance has turned out to be more significant and beyond the expectations of anime-only viewers: When the Owl asked Grisha to start a family within the walls to break the cycle, did he think the royal family within the walls would end up doing the same after Grisha's intervention? Now that the link between the royal family and the coordinate is broken, something big will happen as the restraining force that had kept the people within the walls fearful for so long has now been removed.

The Scout with the survivor's guilt put it bluntly to Eren and the others, however with the change in circumstances was it such a loss for Erwin to have been sacrificed? Yes, the people within the walls needed someone of his calibre to lead the military struggle to come, but instead of sentient Titan enemies what they have to face are regular humans who happen to be oppressing a minority with the ability to transform. If the opponent is just human, it doesn't need to be Erwin who has to take command: even someone like Pixis could be put in command and not bring about the extermination of those within the walls.

It won't help Eren and the others that the rest of the military community will treat them as pariahs going forward, but they'd be foolish to plot to have the duo killed before the external threat is taken care of.

As always, the end of an adaptation brings up interesting questions on what's to come. First off, Eren's big secret from the previous episode hasn't been revealed. However his behaviour is so odd someone is going to ask him about it or deduce what's really going on in his head. If Historia goes from figurehead to actual field commander (due to the requirement she be present for Eren's coordinate powers to fully manifest), what will happen to those inside the Walls if they do go to war with an Empire that's running on early 20th-century technology and augmented with Titan slaves?

When the Scouts finally reached the execution spot, where did all of the Eldrian soldiers disappear to? Did the Owl's rebellion reach the ears of the Eldrian command, forcing them to abandon the policy? Or did Zeke's report to the Eldrian military force a change in plans? Just one Titan was encountered and it was a cripple incapable of eating anyone in its current state, so what about the rest of the able-bodied Ymir ghetto residents forced to transform into Titans?

The final ED credits animation and what comes after it is a tantalising hint of what's to come, but anyone who's really impatient might as well look up the source material since it's certain that has to finish first before the animated adaptation can be seen through to the end. Looks like the anti-personnel weaponry first seen when Kenny and gang took on the Scouts is going to see more action if it's a war between Eldria and the Wall inhabitants.

This season started late but finishes roughly the same time as other series airing this quarter. Short on the episode count, but a lot has been squeezed in to compensate. It's been an entertaining tale with many questions answered, but the final denouement is yet to come and hopefully it will not disappoint.

Season 3 (Part 2), Episode 22 (11) (Episode 59)

Reaching the ocean is the end to a big journey from the first episode, although it also set up the start of a further conflict. At the very least for the safety of the people they cannot let the empire keep putting titans into their kingdom, for its future safety they need to prevent an attack on their, and to help their outside brethren they will need to stop the empire from abusing the people in the empire's land. It would seem the clear answer will be to have talks with the empire to build a truce, but they will have to be able to find a way to force them to have those talks, which will probably mean a lot of bloodshed. They will have to be on the offensive. It is an interesting addition that apparently Grisha tried to reason with the king inside of Historia's elder sister before what happened, so she was not just some passive person who was attacked, but refused Grisha's plea to help the people., and put Grisha in the rage that he did what he did.

It has been a very good season, even if it has been a bit continuous on a single story with not much room to breather. How it handled itself and passed out long awaited answers in a satisfying manner, makes me feel that this second half of season 3 was better than the first. I give it a rating of Excellent (9/10). Looks like we will probably be in the endgame when the next season comes along.

Last edited by Tony K. on Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:56 pm; edited 1 time in total

Episode 60 (S04E01): Beyond the Ocean

Anyway, S3 ended with Eren and gang getting outside the Wall and to the ocean. S4 starts with.. I don't know what this is. Is it a dream sequence allegory, a time jump, more memories, or something else? I've seen each season once, and I'm not reading the manga, as I don't want it to spoil the anime.

From what we're given, though, I'm hoping this will still give us a satisfying, conclusive, and complete (filler-free) adaptation that sticks to all the source material, unlike most other shounen anime series that usually don't get that. The transition from Wit to MAPPA looks good, so far; way better than poor One-Punch Man going from Madhouse to J.C. Staff.

Through subsequent seasons, I've been rating the show Excellent (9/10), with the expectation that once all is said and done, I'll probably bump it all to Masterpiece (10/10). The show has so much action, a good mix of intrigue, and is dramatically epic. When it first came out, I was comparing it to Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, saying that it's one of those franchises that has lots of gory and tragic deaths, but as long as you keep certain core characters alive, it's enough to keep driving the plot to an endpoint.

I felt kind of stupid for mistaking Falco for a younger Reinar, that the story was happening some time after the previous season rather than a history.

As brutal as the series has been, I don't think it has ever felt so human against human, how despite how cool it looks this whole war thing is the worst.

S4 #1

So there are two discussion threads for this series. Somehow the administrators forgot this one existed and have bumped up the five year old dead thread rather than this one for further discussion. Not my problem, I'll just continue where I left off and see what the administrators decide to do with parallel discussions.

Initially I thought this happened in the past. The final preparations for the decisive battle to end a long war, plus the "Eldrian warrior candidates" are discussing the succession of the Beast and Armoured Titans. However, I'm immediately proven wrong during the parachute sequence as it shows a visibly older Reiner together with Zeke. The Marley plan to take the hilltop fortress works, but they have paid a heavy price as it appears Reiner is KIA (this time for good).

The newspapers reporting the victory back in the Marley city do not mention one of their key Titans was lost during the assault. The narrator is right: humans have finally found a method to decisively counter the Titans and the window of opportunity for Marleyan military hegemony is closing fast.

As an action setpiece, this is very well done. A lot of talk has been bandied about regarding the change in studio, however with action scenes like this I don't see the existing fanbase up in arms and laying siege to the new animators' studio demanding quality improvements. The colour palette is slightly different, but the quality of the output is unquestioned.

For the story itself, this series does not care about catering to the casual viewer. Those watching this are reminded there were 59 episodes prior to this one, so catch up or find something online with a decent synopsis or be completely lost at what's going on. The scene is set with Eren and company set to face off against an empire which combines world war one trench tactics with tactical deployment of Titans as shock troops and disposable cannon fodder.

Harleyquin wrote:

So there are two discussion threads for this series. Somehow the administrators forgot this one existed and have bumped up the five year old dead thread rather than this one for further discussion.

I could've sworn there was already a separate thread, but I guess I missed it while looking through pages of backlog.

Fortunately, when you merge threads, it puts everything in chronological order. I'll just have to go back and mark where seasons 2 and 3 discussions start, then index them at the front.

Thanks for bumping it!

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