Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 Episode 80

Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 Episode 80

Ymir’s Origins

As you probably know, the title of Episode 80, “To You, 2,000 Years Ago” is a direct reference to the title of Episode 1, “To You, 2,000 Years in the Future.” I’m not going to discuss that at all, though, because I’m sure you can easily find other people who already have.

Moving on, Episode 80 strays from the manga slightly. It starts by finishing off Chapter 121, then covers all of Chapter 122, and finally skips the first half of Chapter 123 and finishes the rest of the chapter.

Now, that change doesn’t really affect much. I think it was primarily done to flow better in anime format. So, I’m expecting the skipped content to be included later on. Maybe not within the next episode, but soon.

Ymir being betrayed by her fellow slaves from the anime series Attack on Titan: The Final Season Episode 80
Ymir being betrayed by her fellow slaves

Ymir’s backstory is the basis for everything in the whole series. She’s the original Titan and it’s her descendants who now wield their power. And, this is the first time in the series that we get to see her true history.

Ymir’s village was destroyed, she had her tongue cut out, she was taken as a slave for King Fritz, and then she was betrayed by her fellow slaves. After this point, she was set loose to be hunted for sport and it’s then that she comes in contact with “the worm.”

This is how she gained the power of the Titans. She then returned to King Fritz and was forced to bear his children so that he could create an army of Titans loyal to him. Ymir’s three children are Maria, Rose, and Sina, after which the walls of Paradis were named.

Death and Curse

As we saw, Ymir didn’t live a very long life after having her children. She sacrificed herself to protect King Fritz from a spear. Also, while the legend of the spear-bearing hero Helos who slew the “devil” to protect the world is fictional, it may have been in part inspired by Ymir’s death.

But, how did a simple spear manage to slay Ymir? As King Fritz states in this episode, he knows that a mere spear isn’t enough to kill her. Well, we know Titan-shifters can essentially choose to die after suffering mortal wounds.

Think back to all the times when Reiner suffered massive damage to his body and almost chose to stop fighting. If he didn’t have Gabi and Falco to protect, we very well may have seen Reiner die to an injury that he would normally have been able to recover from by using his Titan powers.

Titan-shifters can heal their physical wounds. But as we learned from Reiner, they still have emotional trauma that can’t be healed.

Ymir sacrificing herself to protect King Fritz from the anime series Attack on Titan: The Final Season Episode 80
Ymir sacrificing herself to protect King Fritz

Anyway, after Ymir dies, King Fritz forces his daughters to consume her body so that they’ll inherit her power. In case you’re wondering, this scene is more graphic in the manga.

I guess the eating of other Titan-shifters makes sense if the power comes from the worm in Ymir’s spine. But, there’s still some missing information here. We’ve been told that if one of the Nine Titans dies without being eaten, its power is transferred to a newly born Eldian.

How does that work?

There’s clearly something to this whole eating thing. We’ve seen throughout the series that Titan powers are transferred that way. But we’ve never actually seen the spontaneous onset of Titan powers in a random Eldian.

Oh, and if all three of her daughters ate her body, which one inherited Ymir’s Founding Titan? Leave your theory in the comments (I don’t think it’s ever stated).

The Rumbling Begins

The beginning of the rumbling is the part the anime skips to. There’s some other stuff between Ymir’s backstory and this part in the manga. But, yeah, the rumbling is a thing now. That’s exciting.

We also got to see Eren’s Founding Titan form briefly in this episode when he’s addressing the Eldians via the Coordinate (pictured below). That shot is the final panel of Chapter 123. And, in case you’re wondering, I’m still mad that the anime gave Eren glowing green eyes to represent his Founding Titan power.

In fact, it’s actually the cover of the volume that begins with the very next chapter to be adapted that features the colored version of Eren in the manga with silver eyes. I still stand by my statement that this is what Eren should have looked like in the anime.

Eren sending a message to the subjects of Ymir as the Founding Titan from the anime series Attack on Titan: The Final Season Episode 80
Eren sending a message to the subjects of Ymir as the Founding Titan

My complaint aside, Armin pretty quickly figured out that Eren doesn’t plan to use the rumbling to simply stop Marley and their allies. And Eren confirmed as much in his message to all Eldians when he said that he was going to destroy every living thing outside Paradis.

So, let’s just dissect Eren’s plan for a moment. He wants to kill everyone living outside of Paradis so that the Eldians can finally live in peace. That makes sense in a twisted, genocidal way. But what about after he accomplishes that?

After Eren’s plan is fulfilled, the power of the titans will still exist. And as the Eldians spread across the freshly-purged world, they’re going to split into various factions. Those factions will then, undoubtedly, use the power of the Titans to wage war amongst each other.

So what will Eren have really accomplished here?

Conclusion

What do you think about Attack on Titan: The Final Season Episode 80? What are your first impressions of “the worm” that infected Ymir? Did you like her backstory? And what future do you think Eren saw that he’s fighting to reach? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 81 is available now.

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