Season 3 of Attack on Titan continues after it’s months of hiatus not with a whisper but with a bang.
As they head to Shiganshina to plug up the walls and take back the area for humanity, there is a lot going on. Eren is nervous if he can really pull this off, Armin is reflecting on everything that has led up to this point, Reiner and Bertholdt and a mysterious third outside source working together with them hiding and biding their time.
The scouts head into the area and move to the back of the wall and plug out the hole there using Eren’s Titan powers. Though there is clearly something mysterious going on, they have met zero opposition and there aren’t even random titans in the area. It’s too quiet and that makes everyone uneasy.
Because of his sharp wit and skill for critical thinking, Armin is given a position of power to command soldiers to help him search for the enemy.
This poor boy. It’s so clear that he’s still young, while he is immensely intelligent, he freezes up and honestly isn’t sure what to do with his new position of power at first. He quickly fills the shoes and has the soldiers under his command searching the area, but something doesn’t feel right to him. Is it really so easy? Can they really apply normal logic to this situation. The Titans and by extension, the Titan shifters have always acted in a way that they could not predict.
Which leads Armin to remember the Titan in the wall that they found before.
So he orders the soldiers under his command to check the walls for a place to hide. However, since the Titan in the wall is a secret only known to a few. It’s hard for him to explain why he wants them to do such a thing. That’s where Erwin steps in, like a complete boss and tells these guys something that no soldier should have to be reminded of.
“Respect the chain of command.”
Erwin halts the mission to plug up the walls until they can get a better sense of where the enemy is hiding. They begin checking down the wall, eventually a hollow space is found and from that hallow space comes Reiner. He stabs the person who found the hollow space, killing them instantly. Unfortunately for our heroes, when Levi flies down and shoves a blade right through Reiner’s neck. It’s not enough to kill him, Reiner hits the ground and titan shifts into the armored titan.
Crashes of lighting shoot down all around them and they find themselves surounded by multiple normal titans and the beast Titan.
The beast titan takes a giant boulder and throws it at the wall, it hits the hole and seals off the exit so the horses can not get in or out. Essentially cutting off any form of escape for the scouting unit. It’s a standoff, humanity vs the Titans. Here at the place where the series began.
This was a fantastic episode to re-start the series with. It has some beautiful character moments, in particular for Armin and plenty of action to get your blood pumping. The tension in the air is just right to hook you back into what is happening and despite not watching for a refresher, it does a fairly good job of reminding you of the events that have led up to this moment.
I have already seen a lot of hype around the new opening and if I have to be honest? Yeah, it has some good moments and the animation goes above and beyond as always. However, I just can’t say it’s personally one of my favorites. Maybe it will grow on me but for now.
I’m gonna say it’s decent and leave it at that.
I can’t wait to see where the rest of this season takes us.