This episode was A LOT but not in a bad way. So much happened in this episode but overall it felt like a good pace for how many things they put in it. So kudos to the team who were involved with this episode. But man, this episode was INTENSE. “Two Brothers” has so much meaning in this episode. Not only does it represent Eren and Zeke, but also Colt and Falco and even Porco and his brother. It demonstrates how much each pairs of brothers mean to each other and to what extent. However, it also shows that Colt/Falco and Marcel/Porco were foils to Zeke/Eren.
The first pair of brothers that are brought up are Marcel and Porco. While Porco got half of his head blown off from Eren’s attacks, he somehow is able to access his brother’s memories through Reiner’s touch. I’m a little confused at how they’re all able to access some memories, but I guess it’s all about paths and whatnot. But anyways, since Porco did not eat Marcel directly and instead had to eat Ymir to obtain the Jaw titan, he did not have access to his memories. So through Reiner, he was finally able to see what his brother did for him. It was definitely sad to see Porco tear up after finding out just how much Marcel cared for him that he would actively try and prevent him from becoming a warrior because he wanted him to live a long life.
And then there’s Colt and Falco who were the ones to absolutely break my heart this episode. As Zeke was just about to scream, Colt cries out for him to wait. Though it was interesting to note that Eren even asked for Zeke to wait before screaming as well, but more on that later. Through out this whole scene, we get a good grasp of just how much the two brothers mean to each other. Colt is desperate to save Falco while Falco wants Colt to get away to save himself. Even Zeke was able to see just how close the brothers were and probably punched everyone in the gut as soon as he goes “it’s a shame” because we KNOW Zeke is going to go through with his plan no matter what the sacrifices. It absolutely broke my heart that despite Falco about to transform into a titan, all the while desperately telling Colt to get away, Colt still held him close as if saying he’ll stay with him until the end. Which caused him to end up combusted from the titan transformation… Rest in peace, Colt.
The music during the scene where everyone turned was absolutely perfect. Along with the visuals of the characters looking hopeless towards their circumstances, I actually ended up tearing up. Falco, Nile, Pixis, all of these guys were the ones I cared about and seeing them end up with such a fate is heartbreaking. Not to mention just seeing the sheer quantity of how many Eldians ingested the wine was absolutely TERRIFYING. And man, the old track they used when the titans attacked was both nostalgic and again… terrifying. The OG attack on titan track was such a great callback in the worst way possible lol. I was kinda sad that the old OST tracks weren’t being used that much anymore, but it sure made an impact when they brought it back just for this moment.
The whole thing was just terrible as I felt myself going back and forth on who I was rooting for. Even when Armin thunder speared Piek, I felt torn about rooting for him since I did want them to take Eren down. Though I guess in this moment, I was rooting for Reiner the most as he was just doing his best to try and handle the situation with both Eren and Falco. Not to mention him wondering if he had to be the one to end Falco. Which is incredibly sad when you think about it, especially since he was the one to enact the attack on Paradis all in order to save Falco and Gabi. He even stopped his suicide in order to be there for them. They were the reason he was there now and for him to be forced to kill one of them is ironically tragic.
It gets even more tragic when he starts thinking about allowing Falco to eat him. Especially since it would fulfill their talk of Falco being the one to inherit the Armor and would be the way to bring Falco back as a human. Though sadly, it seems like fate had other plans as Porco ended up being the sacrifice instead. While I didn’t care too much about him while reading the manga, I started liking him a bit more while watching the anime… Though that could also be because of cough voice actor reasons >_>. But it was really sad to see him sacrifice himself in order to save Falco and not let his death be for nothing. Not to mention the irony of both brothers sacrificing themselves to save Reiner as well. It seems as if Porco was able to make peace with Reiner, even if he had to say one final jab at him. Rest in peace Porco.
But boy was that escape Eren did was smooth as heck. Trapping Reiner in hardening and just DIPPING out of the titan to reach Zeke. Though I think the most shocking part of the episode had to be the fact that Gabi ended up blowing Eren’s freaking head off with the titan rifle. I watched a bunch of people react to that moment and I couldn’t help but be amused at everyone’s reactions lol. I don’t think anyone expected that and I just love how the scene was done with still frames yet how the camera panned, it almost felt like a pop out book of some sorts. It was as if time was standing still in that moment. Which it probably was in a sense. Especially when Zeke was able to touch Eren’s head before he fully passed away. Which we were greeted by quite the trip to which it was fantastically depicted by MAPPA.
Ever since the final season started, we never really knew what Eren was thinking. We haven’t been allowed to see his headspace like we used to back in season 1-3. So it was definitely a different experience to not know what is going on in his head. Not to mention the rather horrible measures he went through to get to this point. Once Eren meets Zeke in this weird space like place where all the paths seem to converge, we finally get to see just what he was trying to accomplish. It was always weird to have Eren go along with Zeke’s plan of not letting Eldians have children. Especially since his catch phrase was always “I was born into this world.” So when it seemed as if he was free to do what he wanted, Eren revealed that he only used Zeke to get here. Which was foreshadowed by him dropping the ball in his flashback. Showing that he wasn’t actually on the same wave length as Zeke from the start. Everything that is shown has a reason in this series. Which is something I absolutely love.
Though it seems as if Zeke caught onto the fact that Eren’s true intentions as he triple crossed Eren’s double cross. Since it seems as if he caught on to Eren not catching the ball, making it so he ended up not fully trusting him. Seems as the distrust went both ways as they were planning on using each other. Unlike the two pairs of brothers beforehand, Zeke and Eren don’t have the trust and affection for each other. Though it’s most likely because they didn’t grow up with each other as the other pairs of brothers did. Instead of sacrificing themselves for the other, they ended up trying to use each other for their own gain.
It’s actually pretty interesting how the two ended up being the perfect loophole to getting access to Ymir’s power. Since Zeke never inherited the founder, he was never at the mercy of the old king’s ideals. And because Eren didn’t have royal blood, he never inherited the king’s will. But because Eren wasn’t of royal blood, Ymir just completely passed him by as it seems as if she’s “programmed” to only take orders from those with royal blood. Thus walking over to Zeke. While Zeke still cares for Eren, he seems to believe that their dad had brainwashed him and is willing to try and save him, even if Eren didn’t want him to. Which goes along with what Colt and Marcel did for their younger brothers: Doing something they believed would save their younger brothers, even if it may not have been what they wanted.
And thus, we are left on yet another cliffhanger of the two brothers touching for the first time. But MAN, SO MUCH happened and things don’t seem like they’ll be slowing down any time soon. This was such a well done episode, I can’t wait to see how the next part will be adapted because so far, they’ve been absolutely amazing with the visual storytelling.
