Well, there was never any question of the ad nauseam part with Shingeki no Kyoujin – this show was always going to continue. The whole “Final Season” thing was more of an affectation than a descriptor, though the continuation starting next winter might possibly be the real conclusion. The manga is ending in a couple of weeks so the timing would just about work out I think, though when a property is as massive as Attack on Titan it will pretty much get as many episodes as it needs to finish the story, even if that means oddball season lengths like this one.
There wasn’t a whole lot added to the mix until the final few moments of this episode – it was mostly posturing and speech-making in classic Iseyama fashion. I do wonder about Armin’s reaction to Yelena’s soliloquy, though. It would be nice to think he was playing her, but Armin has been so lobotomized by the writing that it’s not impossible it could have been genuine. Yelena’s description of Zeke’s (incredibly offensive to anyone who studied history) euthanization plan wasn’t new information, but to hear it spelled out so bluntly reiterates just what a misguided plot twist it is.
What’s striking here at the end of this season is just how little of it was really necessary to the plot. Striking but perhaps not surprising, as AoT has been a God-tier time-waster all the way back to the Trost days. As a season-ender this was pretty anti-climactic for the most part – no confirmation that Levi is dead (I wish) or alive, no real confrontations. Pieck and Glliard’s arrival is the most significant plot mover, the irony here being the “lies” Pieck told to fool Eren probably being the most honest thing to happen anywhere in the episode.
I’m still not sure even now just what I want to happen in the “final” final season (apart from Levi being dead). I mean, the whole Zeke-rumbling-sterilization thing is such an allegorical horror show that it’s impossible to abjectly pull for it if you aren’t the sort who thought the Axis were the good guys. But who do I care about saving, exactly? Marley is awful, the Paradis authorities are awful, Armin has been reduced to a sad shell of himself and Mikasa was never a real character to begin with. In a sense Shingeki is an acid test – what happens if you have a story with a final showdown between forces you uniformly want to see defeated and destroyed?
As always, it’s that curiosity factor that keeps me going. All the MAPPA-bashing (which was eminently predictable) aside, Shingeki no Kyoujin can still deliver big shock-and-awe moments as well as any show out there, and this turn of plot is so bizarre than it’s impossible (for me at least) not to be morbidly fascinated by how it’s eventually resolved. That said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to be a little relieved when this series finally ends and anime is free of it once and for all. There’s a soul-destroying quality to it that always make me feel like the universe is a tiny bit diminished because it ever existed.
probably.moe
March 29, 2021 at 3:26 pmWhat’s been fascinating to me is watching all the theorists on the manga side find deep meanings and thematic connections throughout both the manga and anime and form complex theories around them. All for Iseyama to just to take the simplest route each time and for every one of them to turn out to be false.
It will be interesting to see what fills the gap when it finally does end – and if that will be any less soul-destroying.
sonicsenryaku
March 30, 2021 at 9:05 amTo be fair, there have been quite a few theories postulated by fans that have been right on the money. Either way, I’ve found this season of Attack of Titan to be the strongest of any of the seasons prior. The improvement in Isayama’s writing is plenty evident by this point of the story (despite some of his mainstay writing weaknesses) and quite frankly, I find some of the criticism lobed at this season to be downright tone deaf, simply because of how easy it is to disprove those criticisms empirically by watching the show, properly drawing conclusions from the events of the story and how they connect to the characters’ actions and motivations. What was once an anime that i thought was simply good to very good (season’s 1 and 2 were 6.5 and 7 out of 10’s respectively for me; season 3 was a 7.5 out of 10) has now become quite great. I’d rate season 4 like an 8.5 out of 10 (if i feel more positive about it upon a rewatch, I might even go ahead and give it a 9), perhaps it could even be a strong 9 if the second half of season 4 sticks the landing.
Chaty
March 29, 2021 at 10:48 pmSomething tells me the fanboy lness of AOT will different once the last chapter out. People calling a masterpiece( it’s the highest on mal I think) will be disappointed when the ending ultimately isn’t as “complex” as they wanted it to be
Harry
March 30, 2021 at 7:59 amHave you watched the OVAs
Red
March 30, 2021 at 12:47 pmThe odd episode count might be to reach the overall episode count of 75 and I suspect the 2nd half might be stretched into 2-cours to reach the milestone 100 episodes though I think one cour should suffice, having caught up to the manga, but then this a mainstream hit so… we’ll get what we’ll get.
Miyu Fan
March 30, 2021 at 8:06 pmAh Enzo you just really made me realize this season is really a time waster, especially with all that military army takeover. Honestly I was on board for the euthanisation plan because it is the simplest plan to get rid of the Titans, I just wish that all the self loathing part being removed and the series addressed the horror of how a race needs to be wiped out for the good of humanity. Because at this point AoT seemed to be evasive on calling what the euthanisation plan truly is, a total genocide on Eldians and not just ‘wiping away the Titans’.
Guardian Enzo
March 30, 2021 at 11:21 pmAnd in addition to being unbelievably offensive given the obvious real-world allusions, this plan is also incredibly stupid. Seriously.
Miyu Fan
March 31, 2021 at 9:20 amWell it did come from Zeke and Eren who have death fetish and filled with hatred, so I kinda accept it that both of them thought the euthanisation plan was a ‘brilliant’ idea (no it’s not). Now if AoT had left the plan to Hange and Armin, we will get a great plan filled with hope for the future, but we all know Isayama loves the fatalist route so much that he won’t consider an alternative to the euthanisation plan. All must be doom and gloomn in AoT.
blargnobia
March 31, 2021 at 4:47 amThe only thing I liked about this episode is when Eren got mad when Pieke pointed at him. This season has made Eren seem a lot smarter than he should be, and it was nice to see him taken down a peg. (Why he’d trust someone who just shot one of his subordinates is beyond me.)
“As always, it’s that curiosity factor that keeps me going. … There’s a soul-destroying quality to it that always make me feel like the universe is a tiny bit diminished because it ever existed.”
I have nothing to add to this–I just thought it was really well-put. AoT is a slow-motion car wreck, and we can’t help but gape at it. As always, thank you for covering this monstrosity, Enzo.