English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Assault”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Lara uses the last of her power imprison Eren’s Titan body, though he sees through that and makes a new one. He then uses Porco’s Jaw Titan as a nutcracker to kill Lara in her crystal shield, gulping up her blood and presumably taking the War Hammer Titans powers. The rest of the Scout Regiment continue their attack on Marley, with Armin using the Colossal Titan’s power to decimate the navy, Sasha and Jean killing the Pieck’s men and gravely wounding her, and Levi very quickly dropping Zeke. Meanwhile, Falco awakens from being protected by Reiner, who seems to be stuck in his Titan and not healing because he lacks the will to live after his talk with Eren. But with things looking lost, Falco and Gabi scream for him to wake up and protect them, forcing him to get back up against his wishes and his Armored Titan taking on a slightly different form to face Eren and save Porco.

OUR TAKE
The fun just doesn’t stop as the Marley arc approaches its climax. I’ve emotionally let go of the wasted potential of the War Hammer Titan, so all I really focused on there was the conspicuous CGI going on with Eren as he waited for that juicy power up fluid. But other than that, it’s just further fleshing out of the themes that have been on full display since the start of the season. Namely that we are seeing the events of the first episode play out on the side that caused that incident in the first place. We’re seeing characters who we saw as nearly undisputed heroes for three seasons kill swathes of other human beings, many of which did nothing wrong and are simply on the other side. When we see them do so, we know exactly what they’ve been through to get to this point, but now we’ve also learned and gained a connection (even if it is a considerably smaller one) to these Marley soldiers, and it hurts to see them suffer but is also understandable. Probably the best capstone to this is Armin getting to make use of Colossal Titan for the first time on screen, even evoking Bertholdt who (literally) kicked all of this off by kicking through the wall and crushing Eren’s mother.

Porco, Pieck, Gabi, and Falco aren’t nearly as fleshed out as the Scouts from Paradis, nor do they have the time to get that much fleshing out, but as this arc has been primarily from Reiner’s perspective, it only makes sense for it to end with him now showing the full reversal of the viewpoints and enter the fight as a hero defending his land against the feral looking Eren Yaeger, who is now the enemy of the world. This is the twisted fun house mirror we have ended up in after all of this time, which is only going to get weirder from here if what I’ve heard about the upcoming final arc is to be believed. And with Eren now in control of three Titan powers, one of which being unlimited hardening and FUCKING MIND CONTROL, who knows where his rock bottom view of humanity is going to lead him with all of that power. Also, why does Reiner’s Titan suddenly look so handsome? All this and more blood and viscera, next time on Titan Ball Z! And cut!