English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Assassin’s Bullet”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Reiner confronts Eren, seemingly ready to take him down, but when the fight ends in one blow, it becomes clear it was only to get Porco away. With that, Eren decides to leave with Mikasa. Shocked and enraged that the enemy is getting away, Gabi grabs a rifle and chases after their airship. Falco tries to stop her, telling her what he heard about Eren’s village being attacked just like theirs, but Gabi couldn’t care less about why people she loved had to die, shooting down one of the Scouts (apparently formerly a member of the Garrison) and using his ODM gear to fly up to the airship, though Falco follows. There, she sneaks on and shoots Sasha next. She quickly bleeds out and dies to Jean and Connie’s horror.

The kids are beaten senseless and taken to see who really planned this: Zeke, who survived Levi’s “attack” and has secretly been working with the Eldians for years, surprising Gabi and Falco who thought he had died and they were avenging him. We also learn that this attack may not be entirely what the plan was, as Eren apparently came to Marley on his own, only sending word after he’d arrived through the letters, and was banking on the Scouts coming to rescue him like they always had. Zeke thinks they should be happy with the result, having not only gotten Eren and his two Titan powers back, but also grabbing a third on top of snagging Zeke, who is both the Beast Titan and of royal blood, meaning they can make use of the Founding Titan’s powers. However, it was not without cost.

OUR TAKE

Attack on Titan’s dub goes on a brief two week break due to the constraints of the blizzard that gripped Texas, where Funimation is located, but it’s oddly good timing considering this is the effective end of this penultimate arc to the series. Technically there’s still one more episode, but now is where the primary focus leaves Marley and goes back to Paradis. And it’s a fitting end to this part, with both sides of the conflict now greatly explored and seeing likely every possible angle for this conflict, from those who seek bloodthirsty vengeance, those who are hesitant to kill their enemies, and those pulling the strings from behind the scenes to achieve a greater purpose. Both Marley and Eldia have these in spades, effectively showing the horrors of war and the impact it has on many characters we’ve gained connections to and set the stage for the final battle to come.

Though obviously we have to address the gun-totting elephant in the room, that being Gabi’s killing of Sasha. And boy howdy, were people calling for Gabi’s head after this episode first aired, which is easy to understand. Sasha is a character we’ve been following since nearly the beginning of the series, being one of main supporting characters among the Cadet Corps kids and acting as an easy source of comic relief with her constant obsession with eating. Thankfully her character wasn’t just about eating, as she got some much needed development during the second season when we saw her hometown and met her father while also giving her an awesome moment saving a kid from a Titan. But after that, she fell back into the background as the plot and characters relevant to it took focus. And then we had a four year time-skip and a few episodes before everyone started to show up again, meaning this Sasha has had a lot experiences we haven’t seen (at least not yet, as there seem to be some flashbacks coming up about what happened during the time-skip).

Basically what I’m saying is that Sasha’s death didn’t hit as hard as I think it was supposed to. Yes, it served the purpose of both showing that people still underestimate Gabi because of her youth, which has deadly results, but it also shows that this operation to save Eren yet again had major sacrifices for both sides, not just Marley being completely wrecked. Except that I feel like there would have been at least a couple better choices that would have hit a lot harder. You can’t kill off any of the Titans just yet, but Jean had a few moments to establish his character again, as did Connie, so either of them would have probably gotten me in the feels with their deaths. I will certainly miss Sasha, but she needed a bit more to her for that death to really impact like it could have. Similarly, I will ALSO miss this show for the next two weeks before we enter the second…half? Quarter? Third? Of this final season.