“I’m going for a perfect game.”
What They Say:
“Savagery”
Armin and Mikasa speak with Eren, but are astounded by what he says. In the forest, Levi considers feeding the Beast Titan to someone new, but Zeke has other plans in mind.
“Sole Salvation”
A look into Zeke’s past shows his struggle to become a Warrior. His plans to end the suffering of all Eldians stems from a chance friendship made in his youth.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Is getting two episodes of Attack on Titan at once allowed? Can we really handle this? I watch a lot of series in binge form first, and of course there are many people who do that with Attack on Titan. In fact, I’ve shown the series to many new viewers in that form. But it’s something that I couldn’t even imagine doing myself, especially at this point in the series, especially as a reviewer. I’ve written a bare minimum of well over a thousand words per episode since beginning reviewing it in this final season, sometimes several thousands, and I still end up spending many nerdy discussions throughout the following week talking about each episode for longer. Every episode is so packed that getting two at once is honestly somewhat overwhelming.
The last time we got an episode, we were mostly treated to an emotional resolution of the fateful encounters of nearly all parties involved in Sasha’s life and death, but it also smoothly transitioned into the Jaegerists taking the crucial next step in their coup, and an emotionless Eren himself appearing for the dramatic meeting with his old friends. This was what Mikasa and Armin wanted – to understand Eren’s actions just as the audience wants – both to reconnect with their best friend and to save their nation. Eren hasn’t seemed like a receptive conversation partner once this season, and any hopes of him offering a heartfelt defense for his choices were dashed when he appeared with a self-inflicted injury, ready to transform into a Titan if anything didn’t go his way.
Becoming a Titan would’ve been a less brutal move than what actually happens. Even after everything that’s happened, and everything that happens in these two episodes, it’s not impossible to imagine that Eren has good intentions in mind. Each new revelation only confirms that Eren is deceiving everyone. When we learn of his apparent true plans, then, why should we believe that his allegiance to that plot is any more sincere? There are still other paths available to Eren, and it would make sense for him to keep them to himself, especially while trying to convince multiple parties that his goals align with theirs.
But even if Eren can somehow prove that his crimes were ultimately for the good of the world, there’s no forgiving the bitter vitriol he spits at his closest friends. The points he makes aren’t without merit. Armin’s recent interest in Annie seemed uncharacteristic given their earlier interactions, and Eren’s explanation adds up. Mikasa’s mysterious flash of the past also needed some sort of acknowledgment, and Eren offers one that ties into that original flashback of her past, what we’ve learned about the Ackermanns in the series, and even Mikasa’s most defining character trait.
Had Eren delivered this news with any of the compassion it warrants, or even as flatly as he’s said everything this season, it would be one thing. But he conjures up a sense of feeling for the first time in so long, and for the sole purpose of hurting these two who are willing to sacrifice everything to save him. Mikasa’s devotion to Eren has at times been a weakness for her character both within the story and from an analytical perspective, and Eren’s cold rationale behind it makes a lot of sense. But there’s no question that Mikasa is a good person who cares for her friends, and her love for Eren has always been genuine regardless of its origins. Eren breaking her heart so viciously paints him as a villain in the same light as the cackling Floch in the other room. Maybe it’s all an act. Maybe it’s all to save them. But that delivery is so viscerally hurtful that Armin acts for all of us when he breaks a 72-episode streak of levelheaded diplomacy to deliver the much-needed emotional response to Eren’s taunting.
Of course, Eren is no more merciful with Armin. For Mikasa, his words hurt more than anything. For Armin, it takes a multi-step process of breaking Mikasa down, forcing Armin to give in to rage, illustrating his inability to defend his loved ones, and showing an absolute lack of respect while beating him with equal parts cold dispassion and brutal viciousness. Eren clearly wants everyone to know that his beautiful friendship with these two is long over. Even if that’s solely to fool his true enemies, there’s no chance of coming away from this scene without some hatred toward Eren.
His Jaegerists continue on their ignoble crusade, recruiting the next batch of cadets and making Shadis their next victim in the process. We didn’t see Floch’s class of cadets go through training, but in addition to Floch’s inherent streak for moustache-twirling villainy that’s in short supply in this cast of highly complex characters, it’s easy to imagine that he bears a sense of bitter resentment toward the ruthless drill instructor. Even from his initial appearances in that role with Eren’s class, Shadis had some likable characteristics, but his flashback episode in the third season transformed him into an extremely empathetic character defined by an inferiority complex that made him give up on his ambitions.
While Eren’s attack on Armin was a very personal assault that we needed to feel in each blow to be fully affected by the situation, the largely similar scene with Shadis is tastefully cut away not only to avoid gratuity but to leave a different kind of impact by forcing our imaginations to fill in the horrible blanks. Floch seems determined to one-up Eren in unforgivable actions. While the next episode’s revelations of Eren’s latest alleged intentions are just as likely to be inaccurate as what Floch believes, it is some consolation to be fairly certain that the Jaeger these Jaegerists worship is strongly opposed to their ideal of renewed imperialism with him at the helm.
The rest of today’s Attack on Titan offering, more than an episode and a half, really, is all about Zeke. Although Eren has been making an excellent case for himself this season, Zeke has long been the most enigmatic character for someone so instrumental to every current plot thread. While he seemed like the only villain not conflicted about his choices, this assumption was turned on its head when we learned that his allegiance was a complete lie. Since then, though, his true motives, machinations, and abilities have been the subject of even greater debate than anything regarding Eren, at least among the characters in the series. Except when facing his potential death at Levi’s hands before revealing his treachery, he has never let emotions show on face or in his voice. Eren is learning a lot from him indeed.
It’s time for that to change. The military is ready to take action in response to the strings he appears to be pulling while calmly camping with Levi for a month. And Zeke Jaeger isn’t so sloppy as to let himself be treated as a captive in enemy territory without a flawless escape plan. Levi’s instincts were always right, even if they were rooted in a selfish desire to take revenge for Erwin, perhaps the surrogate master his Ackermann blood assigned him, and to atone for his initial failure in doing so. He just wasn’t able to account for Zeke’s insidious craftiness.
Nevertheless, Levi is forever a fan favorite for many reasons. Even if he doesn’t inspire a sense of attraction in one sense, his battle prowess has always been a highlight of the action in this series. As with the scene of Shadis, much of the violence is off screen, but its impact is felt more powerfully by Levi’s surprise reemergence from Zeke’s perspective, similarly because of what the audience has to imagine he went through in the process. Levi is a nearly flawless killing machine, something he acknowledges with painful irony here, but he wouldn’t be half as great of a character if he was as unaffected by it as his usual disposition would imply. He’s a deeply sympathetic character because he has always displayed an extremely sincere compassion for his comrades, from Erwin down to those he coldly belittles.
The CG Beast Titan still isn’t my favorite representation of the character, but he exists largely as a platform for Levi’s indignant frenzy here, and the result is still thoroughly effective. There’s a certain twisted schadenfreude to be gleaned from seeing Levi covered in blood after slicing apart an enemy, but again, that’s not the reason this sequence resonates. It’s not because of Levi’s violence but because of what Zeke just put him through, and how much that tore Levi apart the same way he now tears apart this opponent for the third time in the past 20 episodes. This savage assault may be in his Ackermann blood, but there’s aching emotion behind his every action.
More importantly than anything Zeke does, though, is why he does it. That means another flashback, this time to some familiar sights from Grisha’s famous flashback. Something that’s been especially fascinating about Attack on Titan is its use of subjectivity in storytelling. There’s not always a consistent protagonist throughout different scenes or episodes, and for flashbacks in particular, there’s usually one perspective that colors the interpretation. For Grisha’s flashback, this was even more extreme than usual, because the cast was fully dependent on how he portrayed his experiences in writing, without anyone else from that setting to corroborate any potential biases. Some elements were pretty unambiguous in their morality, but there was a very deliberate agenda conveyed by a narrator perhaps somewhat unreliable due to his investment in one side of the conflict.
Zeke’s flashback offers a drastically different view on some of the same events, even if it doesn’t prove any of his actions righteous or even justifiable. What it conveys, though, is that Zeke was a victim of his own circumstances, just as has been the case for nearly everyone for whom the concepts of “good” and “bad” are far outdated. His conclusion may have been the most misguided we’ve heard yet, but the main takeaway is that he was a child thrown in the middle of a world of adults obsessed with their agendas and forcing him to carry their ambitions without any regard for his humanity. Grisha may have been fighting for a better cause than his son, but in sharp contrast to his own self-aggrandizing portrayal, Zeke’s memories depict him as a terrible father, one who assaults his son with brainwashing-countering brainwashing, unrealistic pressure, and heartbreaking disappointment. Both versions of Grisha are likely accurate aspects of his personality exaggerated through highly biased filters of their respective narrators.
While Grisha was doing what he thought was right, though, his son wasn’t a bundle of pure evil that existed in spite of his best efforts. Had he shown a degree of love, warmth, and understanding appropriate for a parent, maybe Zeke’s ethics wouldn’t have ended up so horribly twisted. Instead, Zeke seeks out that love in the father figure he comes across, his Beast Titan predecessor who couldn’t fit the expectation of Marley’s Beast Titan Warrior any less. Like everyone else, he soon proves himself to be a highly flawed individual both through his recommendations to Zeke to save himself and for his tacit support for Zeke’s radical concept for salvation. Oh, and his fatherly actions are the source of Zeke’s baseball motif that you may remember from his joyous massacre of nearly every Scout.
Zeke wouldn’t be a main antagonist worth his role in this final season if his past wasn’t at least as complicated as this, so it’s extremely valuable to learn it now. The reveal of his real plan is monumental, especially as Eren’s own allegiance continues to be a mystery, and we end on an emotional, explosive cliffhanger to lead up into the final episode of this first section of the final season. The possibility that moment introduces is potentially more shocking than anything else this week.
In Summary:
Getting two episodes of Attack on Titan at once, the two immediately preceding a season finale that will surely be the last before the series finale no less, is a lot to take in at once. But when both episodes are this close to perfection, something that only Attack on Titan can so consistently deliver, it’s just a reminder of how lucky we are to have this series right now. This is a spectacular blend of intense emotion, harrowing terror, exhilarating action, fascinating plot revelation, and captivating character investment. What I’m hoping for most from next week isn’t anything about the episode but for a date for the rest of the story. One week off was already hard enough.
Episode 73 Grade: A+
Episode 74 Grade: A+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, Funimation, VRV, Hulu
