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Last edited by Harleyquin on Sun Mar 13, 2022 8:58 pm; edited 1 time in total

#84

Hange's right. Who would have thought representatives of the different factions would be sitting down and eating stew in this episode when weeks before they would have attacked on sight? Turns out an existential threat is enough to unite even the most diametrically opposed viewpoints.

Jean has always been the most selfish and self-centred of the Scouts. Which is itself not a bad thing since most humans look out for themselves first before worrying about others. What sets him apart from Floch is his (reluctant) willingness to put even a bright future aside for doing what he thinks is the right thing. He's always been the most "human" of the ensemble because of this mix of character flaws and outstanding selling points.

As for Yelena, who would have thought she was just a charlatan? We've been brought along thinking she wanted to avenge her non-Marleyan homeland, turns out she's also a Marleyan fed up with her lot and who wanted to change it for something better. Outside of this series there are plenty of examples of people pretending to be someone else for personal gain, but I doubt any will match the consequences of her doing a Ripley (Global genocide or ethnic extinction).

I wondered why Pieck stayed in her Titan form the whole time, but then I remembered the previous arc when she went around on all fours. Turns out she really is used to being in Titan form rather than walking around on two legs.

If viewers are not sure what Reiner is talking about, you'll have to rewatch the previous seasons when Marco, Annie and Bertholdt sacrificed Marco during one of the Titan skirmishes. It's been referenced more than once across different seasons; Reiner finally getting the betrayal off his chest for the first time and getting a pummelling for it.

For a few weeks now we've had fairly sedate episodes featuring lots of talking and character exposition. Which is fine cost-wise and for the animators sanity after all the action scenes before that. But it looks like next week is either the end of that or the prelude to the last set of action scenes before this series stops airing for the quarter. No, I do not believe for one minute this "Final" Season is what it says as this story is nowhere near finished given the number of episodes to go. Only forward is a movie to clear up everything (not ideal) or "Final Season part 3" to do the series justice.

84:

STOP REMIND ME OF SASHA GODDAMMIT--

This episode is basically one big confession/reflection episode about them confronting their sins. Also, "what if all the enemies of the world can just sit down over stew and talk things out". I mean, this kind of analogy is of course grossly naive if you want to apply it to the real world; even after many attempts at world peace such as the UN and all kinds of conventions, there are still unrests throughout history. You can argue that maybe we live in the most peaceful time in human history (although this is a huge topic to discuss), but in the realm of AoT, this is where enemies have bury the hatchet, put their differences aside, and team up to fight a common threat.

And one more thing...

THIS IS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION!

#85

Unfortunately, Armin's gambler's luck had to run out at some point and it has now. They didn't have a lot of options to end this without bloodshed, but it turns out the one option they had wasn't really going to fly especially with Floch being the paranoid presumptive dictator he is.

The apology given is a watershed, since I wouldn't have expected the former commander of the Marleyan expeditionary force to do anything beyond temporary cooperation for the sake of his homeland. It is too late however, since all parties have long had blood on their hands and staining it further is going to make little difference.

It's been years since Annie in Titan form graced our screens. Although less powerful than her peers, a humanoid Titan with knowledge of the Scouts combat tactics is still crucial especially with the armour-piercing rockets in play. Pieck is sitting it out since the Cart really only does play a support role without equipment, but how the others would have liked Levi to be with them in combat. After all, that is the one person who has no misgivings on killing any who stand against him.

The one Titan who can't deploy is the one who was supposedly mortally wounded. We all know Armin's the Colossal Titan, yet he's never been able to deploy beyond the Marley Raid because of how devastating his transformation is. Good thing his regeneration allows him to survive anything bar a point-blank shot to the head, which was what he was risking had Conny not intervened. If he did transform, everything would have been for nought.

I can already see how the series will end; most probably the stop Eren group will somehow pull off their raid and secure the flying boat but not without losses (one of the Titans most probably). All of the Jaegarists will die since I can't see them surrendering, even if Floch is somehow killed during the ensuing battle. That should leave enough material for a movie (not ideal) or Final Season part #3 which would have enough airtime to do the franchise animated justice. The bad news is if part #3 is the option taken it will take years before it sees the light of day. The change in studio has not hurt the series as far as quality is concerned, so if the creator is happy MAPPA will keep this to the very end.

85:

My friends and I talked the other day about when AoT is finally ending. Clearly there's no way the story is ending in the next two episodes. There's bound to be another part at least, or 1-2 movies. I'm just not sure which one exactly.

The scariest thing about watching this on Crunchyroll is reading the comments and seeing some people trying to justify the genocide of either side by the other.

#86

As expected, the raid succeeded but not without losses. However, I guessed wrong on who they had to sacrifice to continue their journey. It looked like the two Titans were going to be KIA, but the intervention of Falco and Keith Shadis bought enough time for an escape. The odds are still against the Eren pursuers, but they live to fight another day and they might still be wrong about the direction of Eren's horde.

All Titans are based roughly on their human models, but the transformation is usually significant enough for those not familiar with the base to not recognise the true identity of the transformed. Falco does not look anything like himself when he's transformed, so back in the first season when Annie first transformed the Scout brethren would at best think she resembled someone, but couldn't be definitively sure of her true identity. Pieck was right to be wary; turns out the first transformation for sentient Titans makes them more likely to go berserk. Which makes me wonder how many casualties were sustained when Armin had to experiment with his new powers since it would not have been easy to get him out before he started walking somewhere. Eren back in season 1 DID go berserk, and it took him a while to calm down.

A poignant moment between Keith Shadis and Theo Magath. The one thing which binds them is their role as instructors and the pride they have in seeing their charges develop their talents. Those two would otherwise never have worked together, but Magath's decision to destroy the ship guarantees there will be no pursuit from the leaderless Jaegerists. So it was the former who witnessed the escape from Shiganshina, at least that is answered before the series ends.

Next week is the last episode for this quarter before another long hiatus while the studio works on animating the rest of the source material. There's been more conversation in part 2 compared to part 1, but I'm not objecting since the animators can't produce quality action scenes week in and week out without burning out midway through and seeing the whole project disintegrate before its completion. I don't know how many changes were made during adaptation, but what I've seen so far has been compelling and entertaining and I'll be looking forward to whatever comes next, whenever that might be.

86:

I felt sad at the death of the two old dogs of Paradis and Marley, Shadis and Magath. Their deaths are analogous to giving themselves up for the children's future.

Final:

Nothing surprising or revealing in the final episode of part two of the final season. Yes, I was confused by how the episode started—I was wondering if it's another "is this a dream" cliché—but I should've guessed that it's a flashback. Made complete sense... why didn't I think of that. Plus, it tied some loose ends on other side issues i.e. Ackerman's blood.

It's a 9/10 for me. The score has been settled since the previous part of the season, and the score hasn't changed ever since. The presentation and build-up have been phenomenal, and I knew that the saga can't wrap up in this part. So it's revealed that the third (and apparently, final) part of the final season is scheduled for next year.

This should be epic. No one is expecting anything less than that.

#87 End (until 2023)

The first scene was a flashback, although it'll be difficult for viewers to figure out without prior warning. Those who don't remember should cast their minds back to the episode before, when Hange said two of the cities would be destroyed by the time the ship with the flying boat reached harbour. There was a brief screenshot of Jean and Connie with a stranger in a fez hat, that was what the flashback scene was tied to. After all, Sasha and Levi were still alive and able to walk respectively, so it wasn't some kind of alternate timeline in Eren's head.

Although the episode is mostly tied to explanations of unanswered questions, I'm grateful the animators did answer them. Turns out Floch wasn't lying when he said Eren confided in him, but the circumstances of this confiding remain mysterious. We do not know if Floch was meant to be at the private meeting between Yelena and Eren, regardless Eren through his infinite knowledge found a use for Floch as he had never planned to follow Zeke's offer to begin with. Mikasa was right; Eren had never intended to bring harm to his fellow cadets, so Sasha's death on the blimp was something he probably didn't foresee and could nothing but regret as he probably couldn't have done more about it having take his course of action.

There was some hint that Historia knew what Eren was up to, which was proven in this episode. Turns out she was the one who raised the idea of getting pregnant so that she wouldn't continue to be a pawn under the control of others, which Eren agreed to as he knew he would hold all the cards eventually.

Eren's initial desire was to destroy all Titans (back in season 1). Now his aim to destroy everything not on the island, but has he really forgotten about his original desire even though he's the very thing he swore to destroy? His time is limited after all, but if he's really telling the truth about wanting his fellow Islanders to survive then there's got to be more to this than simple global genocide. His father said something interesting when he revealed Eren blocked his ability to see the final result of his scheme, which is interesting because all Assault Titans are privy to the gestalt yet can be blocked from it should the current holder desire it. Perhaps Eren is hiding something else beyond what we've already been shown.

Looks like it's not the movie option, but another season planned for next year. The franchise has done well to keep viewers hooked after over a decade, so more time to see it off in the best possible adaptation is the least it deserves.

So, we have to wait until 2023 for the finale of a series that started its final season in 2021? Kind of seems a bit like jumping the gun in saying a final season is presumably going to be 40 episodes long spread over 3 years,

I am just going to default to my rating of the first part, Good 7/10), It is staying steady and stuff is happening in the show that we waited for so long. But I also don't actually have a huge amount to say right now. Maybe because I prepared myself like a year ago that we were coming up to the end of the story, and now I am finding that we will have to wait 9 months for the show to return and end in a year.

#88-#89

What a way to maintain interest in a franchise that hasn't seen airtime for 11 months. In an hour, they've packed more content than what most series can do with double or triple the airtime. So much goes on in these two episodes, building on what has aired immediately before and what comes after this is going to be keenly anticipated (if it wasn't already).

So Eren has foreseen this part of the future as far back as the flashback episode aired immediately before this one. I'll give him one thing: he is remarkedly consistent when it comes to freedom and the giving of and taking away of it. If he's free to destroy the world now that he has won the power to do so, he is being very fair in not depriving his former islanders of the opportunity to use their freedom of action to stop him. It's still a tall order for the soldiers who have landed on him, but he is not mind-controlling nor stripping them of their abilities so it is still fair game. Reiner is probably right in that the burden is so immense it's best that his friends do stop him by force using whatever means necessary.

Although Eren is well aware of the implications of starting his genocidal march, it's at the start of the episode that viewers are made aware of what he sees in his memories. There are many horrible ways to die, but getting squashed to death by Titans or burnt alive by their heat and steam in close proximity rank really high on the list. The only thing which keeps Armin and the others going is that Eren hasn't finished walking to the ends of the earth and there are still people who can be saved. Although Annie has opted out, perhaps she and the other Beast Titan might still be able to contribute to help stop Eren.

Most of the action budget seems to have gone into Hange's last stand. Well done Floch, your stubborn refusal to die effectively killed Hange, who would have been an extra pair of hands desperately needed for the suicide mission to come. She certainly went out in the blaze of glory she's was keenly anticipating, but Hange has always had a screw loose which is why she's been so good at keeping everyone together up to this point. The last scene where she awakens in the "afterlife" is also significant for me, as it appears Erwin and the others are aware of what is going on (most likely through Eren) and are not opposing the mission to stop Eren's genocide.

If the "second half" airs later this year, is it going to be another one hour special like this special airing, or something longer? I can't imagine this state of affairs finishing in just an hour, unless the animators have miraculously figured out how to condense what is going to be a huge undertaking. If it's going to be another quarter-long season (to finally end properly this time round), then they should have enough airtime to finish the job properly. As it stands, they've already accomplished their aim of keeping people interested by airing this pre-emptively even though it could easily fit into the Autumn 2023 slot they've already booked.

88-89:

That was an epic opening to the new season. The show is clearly pulling no punches. I love how the show is setting itself up to be "this is it, there's no turning back". Quite a bummer to see spoiler[Hange biting the dust] but it's amazing to see how Armin is set up to be the main spearhead to stop the Rumbling. First Commander Erwin, and now this?

We know Annie isn't gonna sit back and watch the world burn. She's gonna be back at the battlefield one way or another.

#90-End

It's a sign how ridiculously stacked the current season is that the long-awaited official finale for this long-running franchise is far more muted and low-key than the hype it generated earlier this year. The announcement turned a few heads, but nothing like March. That said, it's a fitting finale after all the lead-up to it, although it seems the welcome was overstayed having teased viewers one too many times.

The highlight is of course the great battle of Heaven and Earth. The last hurrah for the animators as the vicious Titan on Titan battles which have been the hallmark of this series get centre stage for most of the airtime as Armin, Mikasa and the other ragtag pursuers of Eren's apocalypse finally engage with the behemoth. Plenty of twists and turns as is the usual fare for this franchise, with the final deciding blow coming not from brute force, but from Armin's favoured approach of negotiation. Without the help from the previous representatives of the Nine Titans, the suicide mission would have ended just like that even without the Deus Ex Machina of Annie arriving with reinforcements to join the fray.

Although the adaptation did its best to fill in anime-only viewers on what was going on behind the scenes, I confess I was completely stumped when the final episode opened the way it did. I had no idea what was going on for almost the entirety of that sequence, until Eren revealed what he did and entrusted Armin and the others with what future he could leave behind from all of the carnage. One of the lessons the series was trying to impart turned out to be a simple one: too much power in one person is an awful way to solve problems, no matter how skilled or intelligent that individual is. The only difference is the magnitude of the consequences of such a decision; since Eren admits he's a nihilistic idiot the outcome is what no one in this long-running story really wanted. At least Eren achieved his long-held aim of ridding Titans from the world permanently, absurd price paid notwithstanding.

The epilogue effectively ended up the way Historia predicted it would be: although Paradis island survived an initial reprisal from the rest of the world human nature lending itself to conflict eventually destroyed the island long after Mikasa and the other members passed on. Although the island's annihilation was postponed several centuries than it should have been, at least it wasn't due to Eren's Rumbling destroying everyone else with it. There was also that last ray of hope as well as the island wasn't completely abandoned, although I have no idea if this is the anime-only original the creator was asked to prepare specifically for this adaptation. Whether Eren and Armin watching on from hell would have agreed with the outcome is debatable, but they allowed their compatriots and a few of the descendants a few centuries of peace.

Will this franchise go down in history as one of the behemoths of its genre? If it's still discussed 5-15 years from now, then it will be. It's been a VERY long ride, but one I'm happy to have seen to the end since that first episode over a decade ago.

It feels unreal that it is finally over if I am honest. I half expect final season: for realsies this time to pop up. It is for that very reason that I kind of stopped caring about the series, at some point things just take too long and it indeed does not help that so many good anime air each season.

Okay, so the explanation was either that Eren was an idiot that didn't know what he was doing in the face of so much power and a desire to end it all. Or Eren was forced into a situation of being made to believe that the only way to have peace for the island's people and world was for Ymir to see that Mikasa could kill Eren despite loving him so that Ymir could stop being controlled by her own love for the evil king that had her keep monsters in the world.

Does feel like a genocide of 80 percent of humanity was really worth that. In general by stories end, I didn't know how much I could care when a lot of the principle cast were just straight up monsters. Like Reiner, who it kept feeling like it wanted me to care about, but the dude was straight up responsible for all those deaths at the start of the series.

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