What do you know – the plot actually moved in Shingeki no Kyoujin, and all it took was 5 eps without Eren, Mikasa or titans to do it.
I must confess, I’ve probably not been this engaged with Attack on Titan since sometime back in the first season, when the euphoric buzz of that unforgettable ride was still fresh. All of the reasons why I soured on it are still valid, but so are the reasons I was never quite able to quit it – and it’s the latter that seem to be in the ascendancy this season, I’m not getting everything I want by any means (I pretty much knew Erwin wasn’t going to actually die, but how sweet it would have been to see him dangle) but overall, I think I’m kind of back.
I won’t say the events at Erwin’s sham trial were in any sense surprising, but it was still well-played. That both sides were going through the motions was obvious, and as soon as Dumbass made his speech about Wall Rose being breached, the nature of his plan hove clearly into view. Indeed, the most interesting part of this for me was seeing soldiers going around explaining that “military rule is not what we want” in the aftermath – almost as if Isayama were trying to head off the charge that military rule was exactly what he endorses here (which of course, it is). Coup d’état “for the good of the nation” are a romantic notion for nationalists, and my suspicion is that this really boils down to the military installing a figurehead more palatable to them than the Interior’s figurehead.
There’s a kind of self-psychoanalysis that seems to be creeping through in the writing here, clearly seen in scenes like the wagon conversation between Erwin and Zachary (been so long since we’ve seen him I had to look him up to remember we had). Zachary’s honesty about his motivation (while no doubt overstated) immediately makes him more likeable than the warring factions in this fight, who make pretense at waging it for selfless reasons. Nationalism as political philosophy thrives on simplistic solutions – both the public’s attraction to them, and the undying belief among the perpetrators that they surely exist. Sometimes on some level some of them seem to realize it’s all bullshit but can’t bring themselves to face that, and I kind of get the sense that’s where Isayama is (or at least was when he was writing this arc).
In practical terms, the deck chairs on the Titanic may have been switched but for the Survey Corps, things have certainly changed. They can literally come in from the wilderness now, but there’s still the matter of finding Eren and Historia. To that end Hange (as usual) has found some leads, connecting things back to the chapel where Lord Reiss’ family was massacred five years earlier on that fateful night. There’s a sort of Knights Templar vibe to this whole chapel thing that I quite like, and it seems (though I won’t be lured in by that mirage again until the moment it’s undeniable) that some actual answers may be close at-hand.
As usual, it’s Armin who asks the question any sensible person should be asking. Just who, in fact, did Eren eat to gain his powers and when did it happen exactly? Either he ate somebody or (and this is certainly possible) the whole thing is a bogus story. But one way or another it’s clearly tied into where the mythology is headed next, with what happened at (or under) that mysterious chapel a key to it. And even if the preview hadn’t confirmed it, the writing was pretty clear on the wall that the matter of Eren’s father was finally about to be become relevant to the story again.
Passa
August 21, 2018 at 5:32 amI haven’t watched any episodes of this series since season 1. Between the too long delay and getting wind of no end in sight for the manga, I lost interest.
However, I do find your reviews of each episode interesting. I might decide to just binge it all when it’s finally done.
Whenever that is…
Guardian Enzo
August 21, 2018 at 5:41 amMaybe Abe gets his way and implements all Isayama’s fascist wet dreams, and he sees no need to continue the series. Until then, I suspect he keeps cashing the checks.
blargnobia
August 21, 2018 at 11:35 am“(I pretty much knew Erwin wasn’t going to actually die, but how sweet it would have been to see him dangle)”
As nice as it would be to have him die, I feel like if the government executed Erwin, Isayama would’ve turned it into Mel Gibson’s death scene from Braveheart.
Rasu
August 21, 2018 at 2:13 pmI already have read the manga, so I knew what what0s going to happen,
(I didn’t read the rest of this comment but it sounded spoilery from the first, so I bumped it way down just in case – Enzo)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I watched all at once, the previous season withouth waiting the same amount of time that many people did, trying to avoid spoilers which was obviously and indeed very difficult (the good thing is that what those lead my imagination into thing was by far more interesting than what they in reality were in the end, sad thing that even some dj writers are more capable and imaginative in some aspects of that world), and, withouth the hype and the repent of haven’t being able to watch the show when I really wanted to, back then when it first aired, when its summary attracted me, the final truth is that after watched and read all seasons, OAD’s and manga that were available… I may say is so dissapointing, I didn’t in fact lose an opportunity to wacth a classic in its bloom as I thought I was, in fact, I wasn’t losing anything, and yeah, I read the manga because after sharing this thought with someone less hypped and more objective than a fanboy, that person recommended me to read the manga because “the side characters were more interesting and better developed than the dumb plot, world and annoying MC…, and that that was what made special this series”… what a joke, what a lie, I just ended more and more dissapointed at this show and at all the excitment around it, I even feel like I wasted my time in something that was just popular but “meh!” and less impressive than how it was portrayed at the end of the day, again…, I was even dissapointed at those ” weird and mad” characters people claimed they were and were so freaked out about, they weren’t anything like that, in fact they were the normal ones, and those protrayed as intelligent aren’t as smart as everyone said, even this arc isn’t the big deal neither as proufound and smartly executed as it appealed to be…
I wrote all of this just to say this: this show made me feel nothing, not even in action scenes or sad scenes, the only moment that made me feel bad was this tiny panel with the fake king, he was just a poor old and (as pointed) senile man who didn’t know what what’s happening, I perceive him so vulnerable, so innocent, more than Imyr in her flashback story, because he isn’t mentally ok and she was (she even choose to keep the lie when she undestood the truth about her situation, so I didn’t feel sorry for her since she choose), this solely moment as dumb as it may sound, is the only one that struck my hearth and made feel sorry for him, pity him, I felt he didn’t deserve the same fate the rest of those men had, he was just an ignorant old man with mental issues that made him need the same or even more care that a child deserve, that kind of sad old man, he didn’t had to be judged as them (or that’s what I understood when he said “you, senile old man” and the guy answered what he answered, and seemingly being as constantly absent-minded as sometimes happens with some cronic Alzheimer patients after suffering terrible damage on many sites of their brains, an effect of the massive lost of conections, a lost of their selves, and that alone is so horrible), maybe it wasn’t the case, but since the story never ever mentioned a thing beside that or his destiny after or before… I couldn’t know more, there’s no more information, it didn’t matter, just the big “coup” to make Erwin seem so “smart” and “heroic” (which to me wasn’t the case, there are better ways to write things like that and as far as it goes, Isayama isn’t a tremendously super writer, but nowadays it doesn’t matter to become a bestseller, right?), so yeah, my comment was just about to say how this less than 2 minutes scene was the only one that struck me in all AoT.
I won’t spoil you, but you’ll be rewarded, at that point I felt the same towards that character lots of people loved and amired (I feel so dissapointed and betrayed in so many things with this show, I don’t expect a thing, and yeah, even so, as contradictory and masochist as it sound, I still watch it, even after losing faith on it that one day “it will surprise me and surpass my expectatives”, I already acepted that’s just a pipe dream)
GC
August 21, 2018 at 6:06 pmIt boggles my mind that people can still do selfish and foolish stuff inside the walls (schemes and such like trying to arrest/execute all the scouts) when giant man eating monsters are outside the walls and can breach those walls at any minute. To quote Ron Weasley “you need to sort your priorities”.
Simone
August 22, 2018 at 5:47 pmNot so weird, since everyone has their own reasons and ideas about what the monsters want and what hand guides them. Consider also that, whatever secret is known to the Walls Cult, the government knows it too. So their actions can make more sense in view of the information they alone know.