I don’t care who started it. I’ll finish it.
What They Say:
“Children of the Forest”
Gabi and Falco seek out a fellow Marleyan who’s surprised to see Warrior candidates. The truth of what happened at Ragako may shed some light on Zeke’s secret plans.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Everybody loved Sasha. She never tried to make anyone love her. She was just being herself, and by all measures, she was a silly goof. But that oblivious earnestness only added to her endearing sincerity, and she charmed everyone in her own universe just as much as the audience. Without trying to get anyone on her side, Nicolo, Kaya, and her Cadet classmates turned Scout comrades (particularly Jean and most of all Conny), all loved and now mourn her just as deeply as her actual family.
So of course we know what Attack on Titan has to do. It wasn’t enough to simply have this bundle of lovability killed by a character who was becoming her closest counterpart in this season. Now it goes a step further and places that character smack-dab in the middle of all these people who loved Sasha more than anyone. The ironies reach a perfect storm thanks to each participant falling just short of realizing the connection. Now that all the pieces are in place, though, Gabi herself proudly declares it to the one person she was sure would commend her for it.
From that moment, we know this fragile peace is going to fall apart. Nicolo connects the dots. Falco isn’t far behind. Only Gabi, in her naïveté that might be affectionate in the style of Sasha were she not bragging about killing none other than Sasha, is too blinded by her faith in the dichotomy between Marley and Paradis to imagine that this captive Marleyan soldier could actually sympathize with an island devil. She believes Nicolo to be a victim of Stockholm syndrome, and there may be some truth to that, just in regard to Nicolo’s confused allegiance in general rather than his love for Sasha which is pure and boundary-breaking. On the other hand, Gabi is the true victim of this phenomenon, having internalized Marley’s Eldian persecution rhetoric deeply enough to be filled with so much self-loathing rage.
Falco is perhaps a less interesting character than Gabi because he seems to lack any of the flaws that make her so complicated, but he’s certainly more likable, and that’s a dangerous position for an Attack on Titan character. Gabi’s warped values are so entrenched in her sense of identity that it will take drastic actions for her to break past them. She’s proven stubborn enough to deflect some rather damning arguments, but actions speak louder than words, and this scenario has been laid out not only for dramatic tension but to provide her with a harrowing trial to challenge those beliefs more than ever. Finding empathy in the other is ultimately the purpose of all of her interactions on Paradis to date, but seeing Falco willing to sacrifice himself, even if he hopefully remains recoverable, is another valuable lesson to force Gabi to look beyond her selfish denial.
Continuing the ironic parallels, the moment Nicolo follows his blind instinct to attack Gabi and Falco’s quick wit inspires him to leap to her defense, Nicolo recognizes a kindred spirit in Falco. He may want Gabi dead with all his heart, but Falco’s action shakes him, and he’s conflicted about how to treat the boy that became the unintentional victim. Nicolo can’t help but see the same love as he felt for Sasha, and he has to battle the same empathetic dilemma as Gabi once he’s able to see that he could be inflicting the same sorrow on this sweet boy willing to sacrifice himself without thinking for the girl he loves.
Indeed, as Gabi points out, Sasha was hardly any more innocent, no matter how much she was loved by all parties. She may have been an adorably ravenous potato girl to us, and it’s just as accurate that that was both the most common and the truest aspect of her personality. But just as Gabi was a fun kid with plenty of likable character traits until Eren launched his assault, war never fails to remind us of what it means to be a soldier, or a Warrior. Gabi is a victim of subjugation and indoctrination, yes, but she also watched her allies become the very literal victims of Sasha’s killing shots when their home was suddenly invaded by the Scouts we hold so dear. Gabi has a lot of demons to work out, second only to Eren, but there are no saints in this story. Humans are all flawed, and war is the most vivid canvas to expose that.
Of all people, the one to acknowledge Sasha’s sins and refuse to take revenge is her own father. For the first time in this flurry of heightened emotions, Mr. Braus decides that someone needs to finally take a stand and be an adult to break the cycle of pointless murder. He gives a beautiful speech that eloquently encapsulates Sasha’s path in life, laments the tragedies inherent to it, and constructs a metaphor depicting the scope of the world that she’d experienced as an extension of the forest from her humble beginnings. The title “Children of the Forest” may seem slightly misleading given the eventual destination of the giant forest that neither faction of the Scouts makes it to in this episode, but it was worth spending an episode in a restaurant for a poignant resignation from a mourning but merciful father.
We’re not deprived of that forest of giant trees entirely, though. Every relatively disparate plot thread has been tied together in some way by Zeke’s plan, so it’s a given that we touch a bit on that both in the context of the main restaurant story and some scenes of Zeke and his keeper. We’ve found ourselves in a fascinating position regarding Zeke’s character wherein he can literally give us an exposition dump and we have no idea how much of it to believe. Before the next big development shatters the extremely brief peace in the restaurant, Nicolo reveals the sabotage he had been ordered to carry out, which only prompts the anti-Jaegerists to immediately doubt Zeke’s claims even more.
For someone as dangerous and volatile as Zeke, Levi was the obvious choice to be his guard. The fact that he despises Zeke so much and has never trusted him is a good characteristic to have toward someone so capable of causing wanton destruction. Zeke has been playing the loyal ally since the shocking revelation aboard the airship, but Levi surely only recognizes more suspicion in that tranquility. As he ruminates on his countless decisions to save Eren and how mistaken those actions may prove to be depending on Eren’s upcoming choices, a brilliantly directed sequence projects flashbacks from throughout the series onto each of the giant trees that surround the contemplative Levi.
As is Attack on Titan tradition, the moment we drop our guard after tensions cool in the restaurant, we’re blindsided by an appearance so abrupt that it warrants a double take. Maybe these events have started to make Gabi think. Maybe these island devils aren’t all as evil as she’s been led to believe. But none of that changes her singularly profound disdain for one individual who destroyed her life in an instant, and as soon as her murderous obsession is compared with his, she finds herself right next to the greatest villain she’s ever known. This series has nonchalant shock down to a science.
If Eren is finally ready to talk to his old friends, we may be inching closer to learning what he really has in mind, and whether there’s any chance for redemption from his character. He hasn’t seemed particularly eager to reveal anything for quite some time, though, so we may continue to be strung along until he executes whatever his full plan may be. Even if he still has some benevolent intentions, though, Floch is becoming the purest villain we’ve had in quite some time. Forgiveness is the theme of the week, but Floch is probably better off being deceived and maybe sacrificed by someone else.
In Summary:
Before the grand convergence around Zeke can occur, a more personal convergence of Sasha’s various loved ones occurs around Gabi, and it plays out just about as disastrously as expected. The intensity of grief and vengefulness play with the continually complex weaving of parallels and dramatic irony that come to a head when Sasha’s father lays out the mutual hypocrisy in a speech comprised of sorrow and pain in equal parts to grace and restraint. This poignant resolution quickly leads to another captivatingly directed and scored cliffhanger. If this level of intensity ever went away, it sure is back now.
Grade: A+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, Funimation, VRV, Hulu
