Welcome back to the titan war! The time has come to end things. We are finally watching the final season of Attack on Titan, and I got a feeling that not everyone is making it out of this one alive. If you are new to our coverage, this is the part where I explain to you that I’ve never been what you’d call a regular anime watcher, but something about this strange and at times horrifying has never failed to captivate me. And now that all of our favorite characters have come back to us, it’s time to charge into Attack on Titan season 4, episode 7, “Assault.”
1. All we have is assault!
The titles of these episodes have been right on point! We open up in the middle of the battle that broke out in the previous episode, and by the credits, the end of the battle is nowhere in sight. It’s one of those episodes where we pick up the very second where we left off last time, only there was something we didn’t see. In this case that Piek is here as the Cart Titan with a mounted heavy machine gun. She was there last episode too of course, just slightly out of view. I have to give a lot of props to Attack on Titan for the excellent presentation of this whole fight. This is our billionth battle, we’re using a lot of the same tricks we’ve seen before, but I could barely catch my breath. I thought that this battle was in the bag, and that Paradis had is locked up for sure. With the arrival of Piek, the whole tide of the battle turns, and things suddenly feel very dire. Far from feeling cheap, this is a thrilling reversal of fortune.
2. Can’t stop, won’t stop
The combined skill of the Marleyan Warrior Titans is pretty formidable. The Warhammer Titan was pretty scary, but she was beaten last episode. And the Jaw Titan seemed like a chump. But working together, you can see a combined squad of these fleshy Gundam pilots can do some serious damage. In fact, the Warriors are so impressive that it serves a classic wrestling storytelling purpose- it sells us on Eren. He’s gotten seriously skilled at zapping in and out of his titan form and laying down egregious whoop-ass. The only Warrior who seems to be able to match his skills is his half brother Zeke. In his Beast Titan form, Zeke has got some serious moves. You get a feeling for the power levels on display here. The Cart and Jaw Titans can contend with the Paradis soldiers, but Eren beats them. Zeke and Eren are more or less evenly matched at this point. Reiner is probably at their level too (and more on him in a minute). If this was just a story of strength and skill, there’s no telling who would win. But it’s also a fight of psychology and mind games. These things are always decided by the pettiest of grievances, and Zeke wants revenge on Levi after the last time the faced each other. More the fool him, Levi is an unstoppable killing machine who could probably out web-sling Spider-Man. And he remembered to bring grenades.
It’s been so long since we’ve gotten to see our heroes (well OK, protagonists, they are doing more than a few war crimes) that it’s great to check in on their abilities. It’s been a long time in the story too, and it’s clear that Levi hasn’t missed a step but that his skills are best suited for the old world of humans vs zombie titans. Eren on the other hand is living up to his terrifying reputation. If he hadn’t been the hero of the show for the past three seasons, he’d be the scariest villain in all of fiction. Joker who? Darkseid is what exactly? Eren Yaeger is the guy who’d have me quaking in my boots.
3. Some forced cannibalism
Case in point: Eren using the Jaw Titan to chew up the War Hammer titan is an astounding new level of depravity. It is deeply disturbing and so weird I could never have come up with an idea like that on my own. I’ve got the heebie jeebies, but I appreciate the audacity. The whole goal in this fight (besides textually stated terrorism) is to acquire as many titans as possible. But the War Hammer Titan can encase herself in a crystal cocoon. But when Eren realizes that the Jaw Titan is hard and sharp enough to break through the titan hardening power, he decides to use him as a weapon. And this being Attack on Titan, the sequence is long and drawn out and features a lot of Porco crying and begging. This is the kind of grimdark shit I think Attack on Titan does really well. It’s not about reflecting the horrors of the real world; it’s coming up with the kind of fantastical situation that the creators of Saw would dream of. War has really turned all of these people into monsters, literally and figuratively. And Eren is done messing around. He’s taking his formative trauma from the first episode and inflicting it on a whole new generation across the sea.
Continued below4. Big mushroom boy
We reunited with Eren and Mikasa and Levi and Sasha and Jean and all the others. But there were two characters missing from the battle last week, and both of them entered with appropriate fanfare and thunder. The first is our tiniest lad turned biggest monster: the new Colossal Titan, Armin.
Armin has become a living nuclear bomb. I’m not the most qualified person to grasp all the subtleties of Japanese media grappling with nuclear bomb imagery, but it’s sure what we’re getting here. Armin even has a “I am become death, destroyer of worlds” moment as he looks down at his swathe of destruction from 60 meters up. I wish we got more a of chance to hear how the little guy is feeling, but a mighty display of his destructive might is enough to hold me over. I’d guess he’s not feeling great, but Armin is a freaky little killer. You never know.
And then there’s my main squeez and best friend: Hange Zoe! They are back and they are commanding a rockin’ airship. Way to truly embrace your destiny as an incredible dirtbag Final Fantasy mechanic, Hange. Again, we don’t get a deep insight into how they are feeling in the new status quo, but they are commanding the bridge of a destructive machine like a Klingon General, I think Hange Zoe is exactly where they wanted to be.
5. Broken reverie
And then there’s Reiner. The toughest fighter in this whole story is also vulnerable to his emotions and suddenly finding himself face to face with his deadly enemy Eren Yaeger has left him shaken. More than that. He’s injured and more or less comatose. Falco even goes so far to say that the only thing keeping him alive is his alleged will to live. Of course, this is after we are given a lot of reason to believe the opposite. Reiner seems pretty far along the path of self-annihilation, and I don’t think he’s likely to take a big risk to save people. He just wants to die.
On the other hand, Falco and Gabi are suffering the most traumatic day of their lives. For them this is episode one, and they are suffering the same way that Eren suffered when Reiner showed up and ruined his life. There’s only one person Falco and Gabi can trust at a time like this. They turn to their hero, Reiner. And their desperate cries as it turns out, is what Reiner needed to snap back to reality. I don’t think Reiner is grabbed by a spirit to help others, but if he fights there are only two possible outcomes. Either he kills Eren, and thus conquers his fears. Or he dies. And I think he’d be content with either outcome at this point. So he titans on up into his gigantic Brock Lesnar form and… to be continued! Wow, it took a little while to get going, but this season of Attack on Titan was worth the wait!
