English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Hero”

I can be your hero, baby.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Erwin is struck by one of the incoming rocks flung by Zeke, the Beast Titan, followed soon after by Marlo, but the remaining scouts press on. What he doesn’t realize is that this is a diversion set to distract him from Levi, who has made his way across the other Titans and forcibly pulls Zeke out by the nape. Unable to transform again until his body heals, he’s at Levi’s mercy, who plans to feed him to whoever they give the Titan serum so that the Scouts gain the Beast Titan’s powers. But before he can do that, the Cart Titan retrieves Zeke and carries him into the walls, with Levi in hot pursuit. Their attack may have finally defeated the Beast Titan for now, but at great cost.

Inside the walls, Armin realizes that Bertholdt’s Colossal Titan is slowly losing body mass and theorizes that his Titan form is unstable, comparing it to Eren’s ability to transform only a few times. He then tells the rest of the group to go after Reiner while he gives Eren his own plan to stop Bertholdt. Whatever that plan is seems to get screwed up from the start, as Eren stumbles and falls onto the ground, but Armin persists and uses his gear to cling to the Colossal Titan body, even once Bertholdt turns up the heat and cooks him alive. But just like Zeke, Reiner doesn’t notice the true purpose of this plan until it’s too late, as Eren’s Titan body is actually a crystal dummy that distracted him until Eren could sneak up and yank Bertholdt out.

Reiner also doesn’t face much better odds, being brought down by the remaining Thunder Spears and a surprise return from Hange, allowing Misaka to blow him out of his Titan body too. But despite these victories, they must face the sacrifices that were made, as Armin’s charred body lies before Eren inches away from death.

OUR TAKE

This is the turning point in the battle, with almost every major Titan opponent falling to one of the Scouts’ plans. Of note is that all three of the plans were made by either Erwin or Armin, the two geniuses of the group who are both shown here to be willing to put their lives in the face of certain death in order to finish their respective missions. It just so happens that Erwin’s situation called for him to take down Zeke with several people including himself to give Levi an opening, while Armin managed to make plans that took down both Reiner and Bertholdt without costing any further casualties expect for possibly himself…though it’s hard to say whether or not it would have worked without Hange’s sudden reappearance, which Armin couldn’t have planned for. The kid is definitely a genius, but he doesn’t get all the credit here.

That said, this week was definitely Armin’s time to shine, as he reclaims command, uncovers new details about enemy abilities, and quarterbacks his remaining team to victory on the fly. He has always undervalued his own life compared to his more conventionally useful friends, Eren and Mikasa, seeing them as more of a hero than he is, thus why he is willing to let himself die so as to not slow them down. He has his own ambitions, obviously, like seeing the ocean and learning more about the world outside of the walls, but he’s definitely more focused on serving the bigger mission that serves others over something that serves him. He’s a bit different than Erwin has been in his own balancing of priorities (at least up until recently), which is going to be important in the next few episodes. The past few have been highlighting these two for a specific reason that will become clear soon.

But for now, it looks like the fighting has reached its climax, at least in this battle. Their enemies are either captured or in retreat, but at the cost of most of their remaining forces. For the moment, it looks like the Scouts have achieved a true, unambiguous victory, which is pretty rare for them. Despite this, the remaining half of the season is where the hard part comes in as both sides begin to pick up the pieces and see where they can go forward. And it’s looking like there are still major sacrifices left to happen.