Attack on Titan The Final Season Part 3.  Chapter 1.  Schedule A, Form 03-01.  Installment 001, Section Alpha.

There’s always been a kind of “Groundhog Day” quality to Shingeki no Kyoujin, even before it got caught in this chronic hysteresis of a “final” season  (for the record, the first “final season” premiered in 2020).  The Trost nightmare will live on in every viewer’s mind.  And that was all the worse because it was early days yet, before the skeptics like me were eventually put off by the pacing and the horrifying historical subtext and the glorification of fascism.  Everything was new and awe-inspiring, and all of a sudden we were stuck in the middle of a 10-hour colonoscopy.

Now, more or less a decade later, part of me just wants it to be over for the sake of being over.  Part of me just says “by Goc, I’ve soldiered on for this long and I’m not giving AoT the satisfaction of beating me.”  But yet another part actually does want to see how all this turns out – how Isayama extracts himself from the narrative cul-de-sac he’s written himself into.  And while it’s pretty clear how he feels about certain things (ick), to know once and for all which side of this final conflict he comes down on (and whether he picks a side at all – and if he doesn’t, that in itself is picking a side).

To me it’s kind of a given that you have to look past all the ways this series has become allegorically disturbing if you’re going to stick with it.  In that context the easiest thing is to look at this as a black and white issue – Eren and his genocide on one side, saving the world but sacrificing the Eldian culture on the other.  In practice people like Mikasa and Armin are trying to have it both ways, but to me that’s a luxury they can’t afford.  If genocide isn’t enough to make you pick a side, what is?  Given all the people who’ve died – at their hands, at Eren’s hands – who the hell cares whether Eren dies or not?  He’s forfeited the right to have anyone give a shit about his existence.  Just kill the fucker.

To be fair, Eren himself seems to have accepted this even if Armin and Mikasa (and even second circle types like Jean and Connie) have not.  Of course one could argue that his summoning them for chats over and over is a sign that he really hasn’t accepted it, but he talks the talk.  Apparently a lot of the franchise’s fans take Eren’s side in this whole thing, but to me that’s beyond ridiculous.  There are no grey areas here – genocide is genocide.  Of course in terms of sleuthing out Isayama’s own feelings on the matter, an author who can find grey areas in the Holocaust seems capable of anything.

As an episodic anime (a double-episodic one if you like) Kanketsu-hen was very good – some of the better Shingeki in a good long while.  It looked very nice and had lots of the epic moments this series made its reputation on.  I really enjoyed the Armin-Annie interactions – it’s been clear to me that those two were a thing pretty much from the start.  I like that Armin didn’t judge Annie for opting out of this fight –  she’s certainly been through enough – but then, it was very much in-character for him.  By default, pretty much, any episode that has more Armin and Annie and less Eren is likely to benefit from it, as they’re two of the more interesting and relatable members of the cast.

In other news, we had plenty of named-character deaths too.  Floch bit it (about time) in classic style, going all-out for the final solution.  Hange (who got the funniest moment of the episode in the “creepy” exchange with Pieck) got to go out in a literal blaze of glory, surrounded by titans, which is exactly how she wanted it to happen.  I could have done without the epilogue to that, above and beyond the PTSD of seeing Erwin again – it was heavy-handed and the emotions would have run deeper if it had been left to the imagination (a mistake this series often makes).  But it was still a fun swan song for Hange.

Hange’s decision to put Armin in charge was probably inevitable (though cursing him with Levi was a cruel move).  Armin was always destined for that role, though my favorite Armin role here was his reaction to “Got any ideas?”  This poor kid is so damn sick of that question by now – that’s a lot of pressure.  It’s a nice dramatic scenario here, with the mismatched former enemies all together in a kind of ragtag salvation squad up against the former MC.  But in the end I can’t help but think that Armin and Mikasa are going to have to make the hard decision they’re trying to dodge.  And if they aren’t forced to, in all honesty I’m going to feel cheated.