Who is it that we fight against?
Summary:
The cannon fires, and Eren’s half-titan form stops the cannon from killing himself, Mikasa and Armin. In order to protect his friends, Armin runs out of the dust of the crumbling titan form to confront Verman. Verman ignores his words and almost orders another round on them, but he is stopped by Dot Pixis. Pixis gives the three friends a chance to prove themselves, by asking if Eren can block the hole the in wall.
Impressions:
This is probably one of the slower (“slower” is relative in Attack on Titan terms) episodes, and it revolved entirely about the stand-off of the soldiers and the three friends. Eren shows that he has some control over his new form, even if he is seemingly ruled by instinct as a titan, and must “awaken” as a human in order to turn back. Though, humans are also ruled by instinct, and it is this point that Verman almost kills them for.
Armin takes the lead in this episode, as Mikasa and Eren have played their cards, and the only way he saw that they could stay together is if he reasoned with Verman. He takes off his gear and runs out of the settling dust, and sees the true fear in humans. As for what Armin said, it was very rational, but in this situation, even this did not stop Verman. This is the type of man that leads soldiers to their wasted deaths, seriously. Fear is as much of a killer in this show as titans, really.
ARMIN, GAR STATUS REACHED. You might not have killer sword skills or the reliance on guts that Eren has, but he can definitely hold his own. XD
I find that Dot Pixis is clearly not one of the stupid people in charge, but I wonder if he has other motivations. He is said to very eccentric, but I have to see if this shows up again later. I don’t find him odd at all, but from the looks of it, he is a lot older than most other soldiers (commanders tend to live longer because they’re usually giving orders from a safe location?). When he originally introduced, he is clearly very cozy with the city inner circle, and this means a lot more in terms of what will happen after. It would be impossible to hide the fact that a human turned into a titan from the rest of the populace, but the route he proposes give a little bit more help to Eren’s impossible situation. Eren is holding up surprisingly well, and it shows that he can operate under pressure. He just found out that he can turn into the thing that he hates the most, and despite this, he hasn’t lost his head.
From the looks of it, the troops are severely demoralized, and the higher ups are going to send more people to try and defend the new hole in the wall. I feel sad that is way they have to fight, and the immense pressure, the sureness of death for most of them.