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 so now, let’s charge into Attack on Titan season 4, episode 5, “Declaration of War.”
1. Silent but deadly
There’s a storytelling trick you something see Attack on Titan bust out that you hardly ever see in anything else. I’m talking about the blasé reveal. Remember when we learned the identities of the Colossal and Armored Titans? That practically happened offscreen, in an aside. I had to double check just to make sure I wasn’t missing something, so understated was the bombshell. Well it’s happening again. The mysterious old veteran soldier, Krueger? That guy shared a name with Eren Yaeger’s namesake. And it turns out… it is Eren Yaeger!? What!? Just like that, electricity returns to the show. The showdown between Eren and Reiner crackled with the energy that the new characters couldn’t provide us with. I appreciate the time we spent with the Eldian conscripts but now it’s time to get into real final season stuff.
2. Heroic moms and dads
Last episode promised a trip to the theater, and that is sort of what we got. The confrontation between old enemies obviously stole the show, but yeah, there was a pretty expensive looking play too. We even got to check in with some of the audience members. I was a little shocked to meet the parents of the Warrior Trio. Mr. Leonhart, who always seemed like a bit of a bastard, is so sad now. He can’t quite bring himself to look at Ms. Braun, who is chilling. Her kid is the only one who lived after all. We also learn that Mr. Hoover died in his sleep, insisting he was so proud of his son’s sacrifice. Yikes. In all the hubbub, I’m glad we still took the time to see how the supporting cast of the supporting cast is doing. And being the show that this is, the answer is: not very well.
3. Not winning any Tonys
The play is pretty much just what you’d expect, Marley propaganda. Not to be a theater critic but, it’s more of a very expensive speech. Willy Tybur stood at the center of the stage and somewhat dramatically told the nation’s founding myth. Snore. I mean the effects were cool, the indulgent rich guy surrounded himself with fake-blood-spattered extras. The Marlyeans and dignitaries looked impressed, but Hamilton this is not.
Things sort of pick up when ‘ol Willy Tybur gets to rewriting history. In his new version of things, King Fritz and the Tyburs invented the hero Helos as a smokescreen. Then they mutually agreed that Fritz gets to retire to Paradis island. The entire thing is flimsy to me. It’s hard to have been the one telling the lie only to turn around, say something else, and promise that you’ll never lie again. But this new story rings true for people. They are riveted, emotional, and ready to throw down. ‘Ol Willy’s conclusion was that there was never anything wrong with Paradis when the rightful king ruled, but now Paradis follows a renegade psychopath. And speaking of…
4. Welcome back Eren
Wow, Reier is so scared of Eren. I love it. I was saying in earlier episodes that I appreciate how much compassion this story has for Reiner, the ostensible villain of the piece. He’s an emotional guy, and his experiences traumatized him. Here he is face to face with the guy who did a fair bit of that trauma. Eren was doing an undercover mission, just like Reiner did. The parallels build and build, Eren grew sympathetic to Falco, just like Reiner grew sympathetic to Eren. These two went on a strangely specific emotional journey. They have more in common with each other than they do with their own people. They aren’t going to find a better friend than they have in each other, and they are sworn enemies. This is, the good shit.
5. Public enemy #1
In Willy’s dramatic and expensive speech, he gets up to the part about the walls being created. We know this story now, King Fritz used the Titan power that Eren now possess, and used it to turn millions of titans into walls. And now, Willy warns, Eren could turn those wal.s back into titans. As he builds in drama, the old scary titan music comes back. A familiar leitmotif in a season that’s leaned heavily on new sounds. Only now it’s like, Eren’s theme music. He’s the new face of the enemy, the rebel who undermined Friz’s peace. Willy needs to build public sentiment against Eren.
Well, he doesn’t have to try all that hard. At the crescendo of his speech, of the music, of the whole thing, Eren transforms. He lunges towards Reiner, who looks doomed, and becomes his titan form in front of the whole world, who panics. Now that’s how you end an episode! After an interesting but sleepy first run of episode, this final season is finally ready to get started. For real!
