Attack on Titan

Episode 35

There were a lot of things I was expecting from this week's episode, but a major dose of lore and teasing at the true nature of the Titans were not at the top of my list. Based on some of the reactions I've seen from my friends and on Twitter, it seems that the information we got on Ymir's backstory this week came much sooner than it was given in the manga. While we technically didn't learn anything terribly concrete, the implications of this little glimpse into Ymir's past are monumental. While they're still tangled up in a maddeningly obtuse history, these are perhaps some of the most revelatory glimpses into the show's secrets we've gotten so far.

This is a difficult episode to describe conventionally, because it's split into two very distinct sections. The first and third acts of the episode follow the continuing exploits of Reiner and Bertholdt's kidnapping scheme, and they're definitely the more mixed portions of the episode. Ymir's dedication and devotion to Christa were endearing, but also err on the side of her very gray sense of morality. Her willingness to bargain Eren's fate back and forth like a poker chip proves that the well-being of her other comrades absolutely comes second to reuniting with Christa. In fact, reuniting with Christa seems to take precedence even over Christa's well-being – Ymir admits that she doesn't care if she's ruining Christa's future if it means they can be together. In the span of a few episodes, Ymir has become one of the most compelling characters in Attack on Titan, due to the complicated and powerful love she has for Christa.

Everything else about the chase through the woods was a bit less successful though, mostly because of some surprisingly lackluster direction. The use of the ODM gear is usually Attack on Titan's go-to source for exciting visuals, but this week the show made the bizarre decision to have almost all our characters' conversations take place while flitting through the trees at top speed. Instead of dynamically directing these conversations with realistic stops and starts to match with the frenetic navigation that using ODM gear requires, instead the characters are framed almost statically, the wires of their gear trailing off into nothingness as the janky CG background whips past them. The effect is bizarre and distracting, making the whole scene feel somewhat ridiculous. The actual content of the conversations is valuable, but the framing of is uncharacteristically low-rent and strange.

Those shortcomings are easily buoyed by the episode's second act, which is excellent all around. Even when you don't account for the tantalizing clues being dropped about the Titans and the world's history that we've never seen before, Ymir's extended flashback is just plain good storytelling. We learn that in a time at least seventy years before the present day, she was an orphan taken off the streets to function as the figurehead for some kind of cult that claimed “the blood of the king” flowed through her veins. Her life in that role goes swimmingly until some kind of police force comes to shut the operation down, with Ymir giving herself up in order to protect her followers. Most mysteriously, Ymir and some of her acolytes undergo a punishment that involves being injected with a familiar serum and thrown into the wildlands beyond their country, transformed into wandering Titans. It wasn't until sixty years of wandering the wilderness (and eating Reiner and Bertholdt's friend) that Ymir reclaimed her humanity and found her way into military service at Christa's side.

There's a lot to dissect about this sequence, both as a character piece for Ymir and in regard to what it tells us about the Titans themselves. What is this cult that Ymir was part of? Who did the military that opposed them serve? How and why did they choose to turn Ymir and her followers into Titans, and does it have anything to do with the king that Ymir was claiming to be descended from? There are more questions raised than answered here, and along with all the religious imagery filling this season's opening and ending sequences, the buried history of the Titans suddenly feels much more tangible. The show was going to have to start explaining things about the Titans eventually, and I'm very glad those answers are finally being doled out, even if it's still in piecemeal fashion.

That being said, I don't want to lose track of just how well this middle act works for Ymir as a character. She has been transformed from a mysterious and aloof Titan interloper to a tragic figure, a girl who was denied both her childhood and own identity in exchange for shelter, food, and a temporary purpose. When that was ripped away from her, she was trapped in a living nightmare of endless hunger and wandering. When she finally escapes this hellish prison, the lush visuals and Ymir's narration really sell the beauty of her awakening, finally making sense of the selfish, mysterious, and morally ambiguous woman Ymir has become. It isn't just that I want to know Ymir's story so I can solve the puzzle of AoT's plot – I want to see her personal story unfold because her character has become engrossing.

There are only a couple episodes left to go this season, and while I hate to see Attack on Titan go so soon, I'm glad it's been able to deliver so many consistently excellent episodes this year. Plus, if this episode is anything to go by, we might get more developments and revelations than we previously expected before all is said and done. We might not make it to that blasted basement, but I have faith that Attack on Titan will give us something to chew on before the season comes to a close.

Rating: A-

Attack on Titan is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.

James is an English teacher who has loved anime his entire life, and he spends way too much time on Twitter and his blog.