I think Season 3 of Attack on Titan might as well be called: the season of the most magnificent fight scenes. The attacks on the titans are for real this season, but they’re not even attacking titans. Now it’s just ‘attack on each other but it’s fine and it’s amazing’. I can’t get over the first 10 minutes of the episode and the strategy, poise, elegance, animation, and sheer badass of the fight scenes. I feel as if I’m really lucky to see so many poignant animations and fight scenes. I could talk all day about how amazing it is to see people who can fight on such equal footing.
Kenny and Levi steal the show for most of this, but watching Hange actually be bested was shocking. I knew she couldn’t be dead because, spoilers, but if you don’t know spoilers it was nervewracking. My recommendations for the first part of the episode is to watch it first without subtitles, without sound, and then watch it again. The animation so beautifully conveyed the theme and lines of action that I was engaged from beginning to end.
Aside from the fight scene is the conclusion of the current drama. Historia is told the truth: she must eat Eren in order to control the power and ‘return’ her sister’s memories to existence inside of her. However this means she has to eat a friend. Historia argues with Kenny, who had desired to become King himself, and defends the actions of her father. Historia yearns to recapture something that is beyond her reach. But in the end I found myself enamored with Historia’s choice and her thoughts. What did this lost princess, who could finally regain something she never truly had, think in the face of her lifes most important decisions?
Historia thinks of Ymir. And Historia chooses Ymir and her memories of her. I was so proud. To me there was nothing more enamoring to this story than the love between Historia and Ymir. The conclusion of their ‘relationship’ was one of the reasons I was unhappy with what this show would eventually become. But here, in this moment, Ymir and Historia had a real conclusion. There was nothing more satisfying than the look on Historia’s fathers face. In the end, Historia had to live a life she could be proud of.
And I am proud of the character she became. What better conclusion can there be than fight scenes and perfect inspirational character arcs? I’m so pleased. Yaaas.
Oki
Good of Historia to realize just in time, if that power was in the Reiss family for centuries, then why the plight and tragedy went on for so long….while Eren, the current holder, is actually trying to end the same plight.