Being largely free of historical allegory and Gabi is like having  couple of huge sandbags cut loose as far as a Shingeki no Kyoujin episode is concerned.  Add almost no Eren and it’s a hat trick.  Everything feels lighter when this series just focuses on the core plot, and since it’s pretty ponderous by its very nature, Attack on Titan isn’t good at carrying extra weight.  Unsurprising then that this was one of the better episodes in a while, though far from perfect.

It isn’t necessarily surprising that we’re seeing Eren transition into full-on terrorist.  That’s something you could always sense in his character, drives as he was by rage and self-pity and tending to see the world in black-and-white.  As such I can definitely see Eren taking that character path.  What’s less believable for me is that he could be at the center of so many Byzantine machinations, because that’s something that you could never sense in Eren.  He just doesn’t have this in him – he’s not smart, subtle, or patient enough.  And no amount of maturation would bridge that gap.  Armin I could see (though there are other reasons he wouldn’t walk this path) but not Eren.

That leaves us to speculate just how much of this comes from Eren, and how much he himself is a tool of Zeke and/or Yelena.  Eren isn’t acting like a puppet but if he isn’t capable of thinking round corners this way, it suggests that it’s Zeke at the very least who’s pulling the strings.  He’s the clever one in the family to be sure, and things do seem to be mostly dancing to his tune so far.  Yelena is as even more of a mystery, someone who doesn’t seem to let anyone in on what she’s really thinking, even her comrades.  She has the air of the pure zealot about her, and her abilities and personality would seem to overlap with Zeke pretty effectively.

I certainly shed no tears for Zachary – that twisted sociopath isn’t someone I’ll miss.  But assassinating your own leader is a pretty big statement of intent, and at the very least it seems Eren was in on all this.  The “Jaegerists” seem to have the military’s nuts in a vice (though that was a rather pathetic and scraggly mob that showed up at HQ).  Jaegerists is a convenient term since it encompasses both Eren and Zeke, both of whom seem central to the quasi-religious nature of their supporters.  They’ve taken on the air of doomsday cultists now – and that may end up being not too far from the truth.

If you set aside the politics and just focus on the story and characters, probably the most disappointing element of this season for me is seeing Armin reduced to an ineffectual sidebar.  He was always the smartest and most forward-thinking of the main group.  It’s never been less than obvious that Isayama holds idealism in utter contempt so Armin’s being snuffed out is fair game, I suppose.  But Armin has been punchless as a strategist altogether – his intelligence has basically had no impact on the story.  It makes me wonder what the point of his arc was altogether, though there’s still time for that to reveal itself before the end of the season (though I’m not counting on it, I am hoping).