Eren’s Genocide for Friendship

In my review of Episode 80, I mentioned that Eren wants to destroy the rest of the world beyond Paradis so that he can be free. That’s still true. But in this episode, we were also reminded that he’s not just doing this for his own freedom. He wants his friends to be free too.

And, possibly more importantly, he wants his friends to survive. With the power of the Founding Titan, Eren could easily threaten the rest of the world into leaving Paradis alone. He could even destroy their militaries as Gabi mentions.

However, there’s no guarantee that either of these will be 100% effective. Threatening the world could easily backfire. In fact, that’s exactly what happened in the past. Remember Paradis was originally safe because the king threatened the rest of the world if they attacked it.

These sorts of threats only serve to reinforce the idea that Paradis is dangerous and needs to be dealt with. So too would Eren destroying the militaries of the world. That would simply cause them to fight back using guerrilla warfare.

So, what’s the one way he can protect his friends, guaranteed? He can simply kill everyone beyond Paradis. To Eren, it doesn’t matter if he’s killing innocent people who have never hurt, or never even considered hurting, his friends.

All that matters to him is that those who are most important to him are safe. Everyone else is simply an afterthought. And as I’ve said before, this is one of the reasons I really like Attac on Titan. Yes, I have plenty of issues with how it ends. But I love Eren’s character arc throughout the entire series.

One of the most consistent things about the series that Isayama never appears to have retconned is Eren’s character.

Gabi the Hero

You know what? While I’m feeling in the mood to praise Attack on Titan, I think Gabi is a great character too. After Eren, Gabi probably has the next best character arc and development in the series. And that makes sense considering she’s the protagonist of the final season.

Eren is the protagonist of the first season. The supporting Scouts (Jean, Connie, and Sasha) are the protagonists of the second season. Levi is the protagonist of the third season. And the Marleyan Warriors (mostly Gabi) are the protagonists of the final season.

But, what is it that makes Gabi the second-best character in the series? It’s the fact that she’s basically the polar opposite of Eren. Look at Eren’s whole character arc and development. Gabi’s is the exact opposite.

Eren was raised in a peaceful society that was abruptly destroyed and thrown into war. He then became more and more radicalized as war consumed every part of his life. And now, he’s committing the largest genocide the world has ever seen — in the name of peace.

Gabi was raised to be a soldier from the start. She grew up in a society that was built on war and she always wanted to be a soldier in order to bring honor to her family. But once she saw the true horrors of war, and that the other side wasn’t made up of devils, she began to simply want a peaceful life.

At this stage of the anime, Gabi no longer wants to fight. She wants to rescue Falco and then run away. And, this transition is highlighted by Gabi being depicted as Sasha in this episode.

It shows that Gabi has transitioned from a bloodthirsty soldier into a protector.

Annie Who?

If you forgot Annie Leonhart existed, I don’t blame you. I almost think Isayama himself forgot about Annie until his editor brought her up. I say almost because Isayama has given us a little Annie content since she encased herself in hardening.

My guess is that he just didn’t know what to do with Annie’s character for most of the story. She played her role in the first season, and he didn’t have anything else for her to do after that. So, he placed Annie in a time capsule and left her there until he could think of another use for her.

Now, something you may be wondering is, “If Isayama didn’t know what to do with Annie, why not just kill her off at the end of the first season?” I have two theories for this, and they’re not mutually exclusive.

First, we have to remember that none of the main characters were killed off in the first season. This could be because Isayama was afraid to do that. He’s said in interviews before that he was concerned about how fans would react to their favorite characters dying.

Second, if Annie was killed off, the power of the Female Titan would arise in another character. Why is that an issue? Because the Female Titan is the most boring of the Nine. It’s just not an interesting Titan, and so he may have chosen to lock it away for that reason.

Think about it. What are the abilities of the Female Titan? Most notably, it’s female. That’s not really an ability, though. Other than that, it can call pure titans to it. But that’s not a great ability when you consider the Beast Titan can both create and control pure titans.

Annie and her Titan form were good as antagonists in the first season. But after that, there wasn’t really a place for them in the story.

Conclusion

What do you think of Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 Episode 81? Do you think there’s a better way for Eren to achieve his goals? What’s your opinion of Gabi’s character arc? And what role do you think Annie is going to play in this final part of the series? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Toma for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 82 is available now.

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’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.

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.

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.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Toma for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 81 is available now.

What Did They Do to My Boy?

Allow me to preface this review of Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 Episode 79 by saying that I’m a fan of Attack on Titan. But that doesn’t mean I should have to blindly say everything about the series is good. That’s far from the truth.

Look, I know I’ve made fun of the direction the story takes towards the end of the manga (we’re getting there in the anime). And I know there have been a lot of people online who made fun of the animation in prior seasons of the anime.

But can we just all agree to make fun of the art in this latest episode? I don’t know if a bunch of amateur artists were working on this episode, but it felt like Eren was extremely off-model for about half of the shots he was in. He looked like an alien at times.

I’m not going to put those shots in this review because I generally like to include nice-looking images. However, I think a lot of scenes in this episode lost their impact because of the way Eren looked in them. It was honestly distracting.

And, yes, I realize there were specific spots in which the characters were supposed to be off-model. Those aren’t the parts I’m talking about. I’m talking about when Eren’s just standing there and he looks like he would fit in The Promised Neverland 2nd Season.

Eren’s appearance will probably be cleaned up for the Bluray release of the season. But, still. I’d rather the season be delayed for another 3 months and air with better quality control.

The Attack Titan

We already knew about the existence of the Attack Titan. Eren currently has three Titans within him: The Attack, Founding, and Warhammer Titans. He’s always had the Attack and Founding Titans ever since he first received the power of the Titans from his father.

And I believe we first learned of the Attack Titan the first time we saw Grisha slaughter the royal family back in Season 3 (I think). At that point, we knew Grisha had a Titan and he obtained the Founding Titan.

However, it’s not until this episode that we learned what the Attack Titan’s true power is. Each of the Titans has a special power, with most of their powers being relatively obvious. For example, the Armored Titan’s ability is just that it has the best defenses of the Nine Titans.

So, what is the Attack Titan’s ability? Well, it’s twofold. First, the Attack Titan can’t be effectively controlled by outside sources. This includes the royal family and the curse of Ymir. Second, it allows its users to see the memories of its future users. It’s that second ability that we really care about.

When Eren touched Historia’s hand a while back, he was able to see a glimpse into his own future (don’t question how). He then used this knowledge to allow his father to see cherry-picked portions of his own memories so that he could influence his father.

This is a fairly cool concept if you don’t think about it too much. But if you do think about it too much, you’ll realize that we’ve ended up in a time travel paradox.

Eren is only able to influence his father using his own memories because Zeke takes him into their father’s memories via Paths. But, Zeke only takes Eren into their father’s memories because of what Eren has achieved thanks to influencing their father’s memories.

You can’t have it both ways.

You Either Die a Hero…

Ever since the start of the Final Season, Eren has been the antagonist of the series rather than the protagonist. That’s one of the reasons I like Attack on Titan so much. Eren has amazing character development throughout the whole thing. I love his transition into being an antagonist.

Okay, so you could probably still make an argument for Eren not being a true antagonist. But, think about his position right now. The Marleyans are against him. The Paradis Eldians are against him. And now even Zeke, the leader of the Yeagerists, is against him.

Eren has made enemies of everyone (except his closest friends who still want to save him). And on top of that, Eren has repeatedly shown that he’s not interested in peace or working with anyone else. He’s not afraid to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal.

But, what is Eren’s goal at this point? It’s the same that it’s always been. All Eren wants is to be free. He killed the human traffickers as a child because they threatened his freedom. And he joined the Survey Corp. so that he could kill the titans and be free from their oppression.

I brought this up in a recent review, I’m not sure if it was for Episode 78, but when Eren reached the ocean for the first time, he also mentioned freedom. He asked if they’d be free if they killed all their enemies across the ocean.

And then, when Eren brought the war to Marley’s home soil, he was simply following through. Eren wants and has always wanted freedom. But his chosen path to freedom has always involved killing those who stand in his way, which is how he became the person he is now.

Conclusion

What do you think of Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 Episode 79? Were you as put off by Eren being off-model so much in this episode as I was? Are you willing to overlook the Attack Titan’s time-travel paradox? And at what point would you say Eren crossed the line to become the antagonist? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Toma for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 80 is available now.

Falco’s Jaws

I’ll say it. The manga did Falco being turned into a titan better than the anime did. I know people are going to say how great this episode of the anime was. But in reality, the manga did it all better.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s actually get into the scene of Falco being turned into a titan. Despite all the other stuff that happened in the episode, I think this is the most interesting.

As we can tell from Falco’s appearance, he’s not your average titan. He has a very distinct profile that reminds me of a featherless chicken. But, the most defining feature of his titan form is the mouth. What a nice set of chompers he has there.

While it might not be much foreshadowing, I do think Falco’s distinct mouth was supposed to be foreshadowing. Why? Because Falco is going to be the next holder of the Jaw Titan. He ate Galliard, the current holder of the Jaw Titan. So that makes him the next Jaw Titan.

If Falco had eaten Reiner, he would become the next Armored Titan. It’s as simple as that, and I think we all understand how this works by now. But, what makes this interesting is that Falco isn’t really sided with any one faction currently.

He’s not fighting for Marley anymore. He’s not with the Yeagerists. And he’s not with the Paradis Island Alliance either. For now, at least, I’d say that Falco is the only neutral Titan shifter in this conflict. The Yeagerists “technically” have four (not really anymore), Marley has two, Paradis has one, and Annie is still sealed away.

The Best Cliffhanger, Ruined

In my review of Episode 77, I mentioned that this week’s episode should end where I think the first part of the Final Season should have ended. That didn’t happen. When I wrote that, I was expecting Episode 78 to end where Chapter 119 did. Instead, Episode 78 ended halfway through Chapter 120.

The fact that we got that far in this episode is a good sign for maybe finishing the series within this season of the anime. However, it also means the episode didn’t conclude with Eren being decapitated.

In the manga, Chapter 119 ends with the panel of Eren’s head flying off his body. We don’t see that Zeke catches it until the following chapter. It was a great cliffhanger in the manga, so just imagine how crazy that would have been as a cliffhanger in the anime. I think they really missed out by not finishing the first cour of this season like that.

But, what’s worse than not using Eren’s decapitation as a cour-ending cliffhanger is not even using it as a cliffhanger at all. Okay, sure, we still don’t know what Eren’s ultimate fate is in the anime. However, I don’t think you can say his decapitation was used as a cliffhanger in any way.

I know it’s going to be an unpopular opinion — as anything critical of the Attack on Titan anime is — but I genuinely think the way this scene was used ruined it. If you have a defense for why it’s okay to place this scene in the middle of an episode, I’d love to hear it.

I’m sure there are some who will try to defend it. After all, there were plenty of people willing to do extreme mental gymnastics to convince themselves the end of the Attack on Titan manga was good too (it wasn’t).

Unraveling the Paths

From what I remember, we’ve seen the inside of Paths in the previous cour of the final season. It’s basically a world inside the minds of the Titan shifters that connects them all to the Founder Ymir. I don’t believe any of that is new information.

Before we entered Paths in this episode, there was another small piece of foreshadowing. In the flashback of when Zeke and Eren first met, Zeke tosses a baseball to Eren which he drops. This was foreshadowing how Eren was going to betray Zeke.

Within Paths, we saw this betrayal play out. Eren declares that he only went along with Zeke’s plan to use him. But then, Zeke reveals that he actually doesn’t need Eren to use the power of the Founding Titan. As long as the two of them came in contact, Zeke can use Eren’s Founding Titan power — or so he claims.

If you thought that was a bit of an odd development, you’re not alone. From this point on, there are going to be a lot of strange developments throughout the series. And, in fact, one of them already happened earlier in the anime than it did in the manga.

In Episode 77, there was some dialogue added to “tie up” a plotline earlier than in the manga. I won’t say what it is just yet in case the anime does more with it. But in the manga, this plotline was left around for longer and then turned out to be nothing. The anime “fixed” it by cutting it short.

I’m curious to see if this happens with more of the random developments that happened in the manga. Obviously, this whole thing with Eren and Zeke in Paths is major enough to not be retconned. But I think Eren saying “I was just using you” to Zeke only for Zeke to respond with “I knew you were using me so I was actually using you” is pretty lame.

Conclusion

What do you think of Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 Episode 78? Did you think Falco would become the Armored Titan? Should Eren’s decapitation have been an episode-ending cliffhanger? And do you know what plotline was snuffed out early in the previous episode? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Toma for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 79 is available now.

Fighting for Eren

To start off this review of Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 Episode 77, I want to go over how far we are into the series and what’s left to come. Assuming the anime follows the manga through to the end, it’s probably not going to end this season.

I believe this episode covered chapter 120 of the manga out of 139 chapters. And since I’ve heard this season is only set for 12 episodes, that would imply it’s not going to conclude the manga. So, naturally, a movie to finish off the series would make the most sense.

However, it’s entirely possible that the anime will diverge from the manga’s ending. And it’s also possible that this season ends up being more like 16 or 17 episodes. That seems less likely, though.

Now, as for the content within this episode, we saw the Paradis Island Alliance (I think that’s what I named them in the previous review) decide to save Eren. They’re not joining the Yeagerists, because they don’t believe in the euthanasia plan, though.

Their thinking, mainly Armin’s, is that Eren is only pretending to go along with the Yeagerists because he has no other choice. But, once he gets the chance, Eren will break free from the Yeagerists and do something else. what that something else is, we don’t know.

But, Armin does seem to have an idea based on the flashback we got from when he, Eren, and Mikasa reached the ocean for the first time. Back then, Eren asked if they’d be free if all their enemies across the ocean were killed.

This implies that rather than castrating all Eldians, Eren is actually going to use the power of the Founding Titan to kill all non-Eldians.

Gabi’s Realization

In the previous episode review, I pointed out how Pieck’s words about not trusting Marley but instead trusting her comrades resonated with Gabi. Episode 77 saw Gabi fully come to the realization that Marley isn’t on the side of justice.

Of course, I’d argue that the Eldians aren’t on the side of justice either. This is a war in which neither side is really justified. At one point I’d say the Eldians were. But once Eren decided to attack Marley and slaughter its citizens, he kind of threw away his moral high ground.

Still, Gabi now realizes that those on both sides are just human. The Eldians are no more devils than the Marleyans are. And, while she’d realized this earlier, I think the scene in this episode in which she broke down illustrates what made her finally come to this realization.

I don’t remember her name, but Sasha’s adopted sister (I think all the children were adopted) says she hates Gabi and wishes she could kill her. That line is very significant because it shows to Gabi that Paradis Eldians have feelings just like she does. They aren’t monsters.

Yes, those feelings are of malice and murder, sure. But that girl wasn’t always that way. Initially, she wanted to befriend and help Gabi and Falco. It was Gabi’s actions that hurt her and turned her into the hateful person she is.

This is why Gabi now understands the viewpoint of the Paradis Eldians. Just as she hurt that girl and made her want revenge, Marley hurt the people of Paradis and made them want (need) to seek revenge.

Zeke Downed

The big cliffhanger at the end of this episode was Zeke (the Beast Titan) getting shot off the wall by General Magath. But, it reminded me that we’re coming up on the cliffhanger that I originally thought would conclude the first part of the Final Season.

The next episode’s cliffhanger is where I would have chosen to break the Final Season in half. I don’t consider that a spoiler. Every Attack on Titan episode ends in a cliffhanger. But the one next week just makes for a better stopping point than the one we actually got as the stopping point.

I’m curious as to how the choice was made on where to break the season in half. The decision clearly wasn’t made based on the best spot for a break. Even this cliffhanger with Zeke getting shot down would have been a better breakpoint because it’s memorable. I don’t remember how the first cour of the season ended.

Anyway, Zeke’s been shot down but we know he isn’t dead. Yes, his would is extreme. However, this isn’t the first time he’s received a wound that should have killed him and yet survived. He was blown in half by Levi (right, that’s how the first cour ended).

We also saw that General Magath even recognized that his shot missed its target by a bit. But, Zeke’s not really in fighting condition anymore. He’s vulnerable and won’t be able to move for quite some time.

Killing Zeke isn’t really a good option for Marley because his power would just be reborn in a new Eldian. So the best option would be for Reiner or Galliard to eat him. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Eren is in better shape right now than either of them — and he wields multiple Titans.

Conclusion

What do you think of Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 Episode 77? Should the series end with this part of the season? Or would you like to see a movie ending? And what do you think is going to become of Zeke? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Toma for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 78 is available now.