English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Savagery”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Eren sits Armin and Mikasa down to basically tell them that he never really liked them and that they’re both being manipulated; Armin by Bertholdt’s memories causing him to have feelings for Annie and Mikasa by her Ackerman genes forcing her to be loyal and protective of Eren. He then takes them to Shiganshina where everything started as his meet up point with Zeke. Flock and the other Jaegerists take Hange to the Cadet training area and have radicalized cadets beat up Commandant Shadis as a sign of loyalty. Meanwhile, Zeke attempts his escape, using his scream to turn all of Levi’s men who drank the wine with his spinal fluid into Titans, both as a trap to corner Levi (who avoided drinking) into killing his men and as a distraction so that Zeke can get away. Unfortunately, this buys him very little time, as Levi mercilessly (or mercifully?) cuts down all of the Titans easily before mortally wounding Zeke and putting Thunder Spear in his gut to keep him from moving.

OUR TAKE

Well, things are certainly back to being eventful now, with our first reappearance of Pure Titans since the season premiere, and the first time they’ve been an actual threat on their own since mid Season 3, though briefly. It really does show how far things have come as the threats have evolved from simply facing these ugly faced monstrosities as just unknown enemies to seeing allies become them in an instant and then knowingly having to kill them. One wonders why Levi didn’t try to keep one alive so that they could then eat Zeke and then he would at least get back one of his men, but maybe there just wasn’t enough time to have any restraint. But then keeping Zeke alive, even while having a missile in his stomach, is pretty dangerous, as we know many Scouts and MPs have drank the wine, as seen when so many reacted to his scream, including Falco who barely had a drop. Levi may have proven he can always corner Zeke whenever he needs to, this being the second or third time he’s literally ripped him out of the Beast Titan body, but when he can keep turning everyone around Levi into enemies, it may not even be worth keeping him alive.

The Jaegerists (yeah, I know I misspelled it last time, this show has like a bunch of potential spellings for this stuff so can you blame me?) continue to take over Eldia with great haste as Eren puts together the pieces to meet up with Zeke and begin his plans, which may or may not be separate from what the Jaegerists actually want. For the moment, he definitely wants to at least put up the front that he is working with them as their leader, since they all worship him as their savior, but it seems like he has something else in mind. This Ol Yeller “I never liked you anyway” moment with Armin and Mikasa seemed more performative than anything, as it looked to be mainly about frazzling two of the oppositions greatest assets by saying things that would only hurt if they came from Eren directly. How true his claims are would be at least a bit suspect.

We have seen that memories from previous and even future Titan owners do seem to impact those who gain that specific power, though whether or not that’s why Armin seems to be gaining feelings for Annie is up in the air. His claim about Mikasa is a bit more questionable since Eren has never had royal blood and didn’t have the Founding Titan in him when he saved Mikasa from those kidnappers when they were kids, but it makes her question herself so mission accomplished. And with only two episodes left in this section of the final season, it’s hard to say what will be more intense, the talking or the fighting.