English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “The Door of Hope”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Reiner remembers his upbringing as the bastard son of an absent Marleyan father and a propaganda driven Eldian mother. He was chosen to be part of the next batch of Warriors to take over Marley’s Titans, with him taking the Armored Titan, along with Annie, who became the Female Titan, Marcel as the Jaw Titan, Zeke as the Beast Titan, Pieck as the Cart Titan, and Bertholdt as the Colossal Titan. Though one of their peers is peeved by this, Marcel’s brother Porco, who knows that Reiner wasn’t worthy but got picked anyway. Marcel later admits that he built up Reiner to the higher ups so that they’d pick him instead of Porco in order to keep Porco safe, making Reiner a sacrificial lamb. Reiner also finds his dad during a parade for him and the other Warriors, though he doesn’t want anything to do with Reiner.

And so, they head out to Paradis for their mission to claim the Founding Titan, but things turn south fast as Marcel is eaten by a Pure Titan, who later turns out to be Ymir and takes the Jaw Titan for herself. Annie panics and thinks they should go back, even beating Reiner to a pulp, but he fights back and says he’ll take Marcel’s place as the leader if he needs to. They then breach Wall Maria, letting Titans loose in Shiganshina before infiltrating the population, joining the Training Corps and eventually the Scouts. And the rest is history.

In the present day, Reiner is driven to suicide over his many failures and fractured identity, but stops when he’s reminded he needs to look after the other Warriors. Meanwhile, Falco meets up with one of the injured soldiers, a man with long hair, who pontificates on why people enter war and what it does to them. Though unknown to Falco, this man is actually Eren Yaeger.

OUR TAKE

As with the past couple episodes, this one is about establishing the parallels between the two sides to continue blurring the lines between Marley and those who we’ve been following on Paradis. There some obvious differences between the two, such as how Titans are practically celebrated on Marley versus previously being an existential nightmare over there, as well as the rampant propaganda and clear scientific advancements, but the point is to humanize the Marleyans as simply people on the side they believe is right. As Eren (who makes a chilling reappearance to the story after his absence) points out, war is a hell that permanently scars everyone involved, and while some are forced into it by certain circumstances, it impacts everyone. So while this tactic for the story it does accomplish this goal, it also underscores how malevolent Marley’s actions have truly been, knowing what the attack by the Colossal Titan wrought upon everyone within the walls. What seem like unfeeling devils to them or also flesh and blood people who they have recklessly killed and harmed for their goals.

Knowing this, we then have Reiner as the focal point to both bring all of these points together, as well as finally reveal details that were only ever briefly hinted at in the early seasons about his past with Bertholdt and Annie. Out of that four kid team he came in on, Marcel died due to his inaction (his Jaw Titan going to Porco anyway, making that plan to keep him safe moot), Annie is still imprisoned on the island, and Bertholdt is also dead, with his highly valuable Colossal Titan now serving the enemy. And yet, despite his many failures and attempts to make himself into a person he’s not, Reiner has survived, even if he doesn’t have very long left. The second season touched on this a bit by revealing that his personality was broken into the “Soldier”, whom we now see was meant to emulate Marcel as the big brother and leader for his squad mates, and the “Warrior” who was the real, fury and inadequacy driven child that he’s always actually been. So really, is it any wonder the guy wants to die? Well, he may soon get his wish, as next episode seems to be heading towards a reunion between him and Eren, as well as another parallel to throw on the pile. Things are soon coming to a head, which is pretty fitting for the show’s final season.