Let me just say, after all the staggering financial windfall this franchise has generated off the goodwill of its fans, making them wait for (and then pay for, at least in theory) a movie to finish the story is a total dick move.  But that’s apparently the plan, as this seemingly endless odyssey isn’t going to end with this season after all.  There’s no reason it has to he done that way, it’s just a matter of greed.  But this is the way of anime blockbusters these days, I suppose.  I’ll be interested to see if Kimetsu no Yaiba (or even one of the next level titans – heh – like HeroAca or Haikyuu!!) go down the same road when their adaptations reach that point.

It’s rather deflating to think we were so close to the end, only to have that snatched away from us.  It paints the rest of this “final” season in a different light, even if the story itself isn’t directly effected.  That story continues down the path charted for it by last week’s plotquake, with Eren’s wall titans off on their rumbling junket and his friends he left behind in a daze.  As I predicted (though it was pretty obvious) this puts them – especially Armin – in the put up or shut up position.  If worldwide genocide isn’t the ultimate test of loyalty I don’t know what is.

Needless to say, it’s somewhat chilling to consider where Isayama might land as far as this side of the story is concerned.  Armin has fallen a long way from his former status as the standout character in Attack on Titan, but I have to have enough faith in him to believe at the very least he’ll still find this unacceptable.  Jean – generally one of the few thoughtful and self-aware cast members himself – does some impressive mental contortions trying to argue the “it’s too bad, but they brought it on themselves” side of the ledger.  As for Armin he’s mostly indecisive and dithering, at least for now (a recurring trend with him in big moments, as if Isayama is reminding us of how much he disdains what Armin represents).

Let’s aside the logistical illogic of Eren’s plan – I mean, scads of his own people live scattered around the world, mostly in dire circumstances, and he’s going to kill all them too.  The fact that Zeke’s titans go on a rampage means there’s not a lot of time to argue about the justification for genocide.  This is all rather reminiscent of the first season (it’s not the only throwback element of the episode), with Isayama’s subway drunk titans noshing on people and Eldian soldiers in ODM gear trying to fight them off, and Mikasa defying logic and the laws of physics.  So long, Commander Pixis – you weren’t the worst leader in SnK (which is a low bar I admit).

I guess the takeaway here is that Eren is unable to control Zeke’s titans or turn them back to humans, which rather calls into question his supposed absolute power over all things Ymir.  It’s Gabi who springs into action (I give her credit for displaying that rarest of AoT character attributes, growth) to save Falco, saving her Eldian step-sister in the process.  The problem is that Conny has kidnapped Falco in order to feed him to his mother, and his comrades have decided to let him d0 it.  Gabi may be annoying (though not as much as she was, that’s for sure) but she certainly won’t give up on Falco until there’s no hope left.  The question is whether she gets any help.

The big twist here, though, is the side-effect of Eren’s plan – in releasing the hardening that kept the wall titans in place, he’s released Annie too (I have no idea whether he’s aware of this, but guessing probably not).  One can’t help note the extreme interest Armin shows when he puts the pieces of Gabi’s Reiner story together – whether those two were actually in love was strictly a matter of projection, but there’s no question Armin took Annie’s loss harder than anyone – they had an interesting bond, that’s for certain.  The stuff with Annie and Armin was some of the most interesting in the entire series, so I can only regard her return (for the first time on-screen since what, somewhere in the 30’s?) as a welcome development.