English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Guides”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Tensions begin to boil over in Paradis as the plot that led Eren to Marley. Yelena admits her involvement in that, but says that it was mainly to get back at Marley. Things get worse when Premier Zachary is killed by bombs placed in his special torture chair shortly after beginning to look for potential replacements for Eren’s Titan powers. The killers are revealed to be the group including Flock and the other supporters of Eren, named by the Military Police as Yaegerists. Among them are several Scouts, leading to suspicion on Misaka, Armin, Hange, and the rest.

This explosion seemed to be a signal for Eren to finally escape his cell, after which he joins up with the Yaegerists to find Zeke. Not wanting anymore senseless deaths searching for moles, Pixis takes command and suggests that all branches of the military surrender and discuss terms with the radicals, seeing as they also just want to use the Rumbling to defend the country. However, that may be too late, as Pieck has already infiltrated Paradis, while Gabi and Falco go to a fancy restaurant with the Brauses to see Nicola.

OUR TAKE
Well, we’ve had a bit of peace, but now things begin to hit the fan again. The Yaeger movement has made its move, Eren has decided to finally stop choosing to be locked up, Marley is trying to one up Eren’s one upping of their previous infiltration, and the two Marlean runaways are on a crash course with yet another person who will want to kill them for killing Sasha. All of this is due to pay off in the final quarter of this half of the final season. Yep, that’s right, as many including myself expected, they weren’t actually going to cram everything into sixteen episodes and call it a day, but will instead have a “season finale” before going on break one more time and adapt the remaining chapters next Winter. Seems pretty goddamn anti-climactic describing it like that, especially after all the hype up about this being the final season…which it technically still is, just taking a little longer to finish than expected.

Anyway, this episode is mainly about the actions of the Yaegerists and the government trying to catch its breath. Zachary was just the right amount of established and expendable to jump start the pacing, showing that this new faction is out for blood to get their demands. It also places more of magnifying glass on the remaining loyal scouts, who are even starting to turn on each other, with Connie thinking that Mikasa may be working with Eren even when the explosion nearly killed her and Armin too. And yet this is why Pixis’ first suggestion in command is surprising, as he blames this death not on the Yaegerists themselves, but on a lack of communication and understanding on their part. With Marley and the rest of the world sharpening their blades to come kill them, he realizes that infighting is only going to make things worse for both sides and wants to take whatever steps are necessary to get everyone to calm down and be on the same page. We’ll see how well that turns out.

In fact, with all the commotion, I didn’t notice until the very end that this episode was entirely focused on Eldian people and allies, up until I was reminded of Gabi, Falco, and Pieck. This ends up being pretty fitting, as the events of infighting here prove to be a major distraction from the incoming threat that has just arrived at their doorstep again. We enter the final quarter next week.