And on that day humanity received a grim reminder – of how awesome Attack on Titan is! Welcome back to the Multiversity Summer TV Binge! A lot of people wanna talk about the Titan War this week, and you’re here, so you must be one of them. This episode takes us into the recent past and the torturous present. Join me as we dive, swoop, and swing our way through Attack on Titan season three. Let’s see what happens in the third episode: “Old Story.”
1. The fascist elephant in the room
Polygon just published a story with the headline “The fascist subtext of Attack on Titan can’t go overlooked.” It’s got a lot of spoilers for later in the series, but the ideas are fairly easy to understand and indeed, I try to make it a point not to overlook all the fascism in Attack on Titan in these recaps. But this is an episode about divine rule, secret monarchies, and bloodline destiny, so it’s probably a good time to pause to have a specific conversation.
Fascism gets thrown around a lot of the time when what we really mean is authoritarianism, so I think it’s worth questioning whether or not Attack on Titan is really a fascist text. The answer is indisputably yes. There are a few important elements of fascism. There needs to be an authoritarian ruler: check. Attack on Titan features both a monarchy and a shadow monarchy behind the throne. Fascism tends to be right wing: check. We’re looking at a society where loyal military service is revered as the greatest life lived. And very importantly, fascism creates scapegoats, enemies real or (more often) imagined, and rallies the people behind the strong right wing leader in opposition of this enemy. Check. Big check. That’s the titans.
Whether or not Attack on Titan the anime cartoon television program discusses fascism is obvious. But is it endorsing fascism? That’s a little trickier. The personal politics of Attack on Titan creator Hajime Isayama seem to run right wing. It seems that the affable character of Dot Pixis is based on Japanese general Akiyama Yoshifuru, a hero in Japan considered to be a war criminal by many folks outside of Japan. But I’ve always gotten the vibe that the show is critical of the politics of its manga source material. This is a bleak world, where people have gravitated towards fascism to feel safe. But it does not make them happy. And I’d argue that the unhappiness of its characters under fascist rule is one of the strongest central themes of the show.
Time will tell if the story wraps this theme up in a satisfactory way. But in the meantime, I freaking love this violent cartoon, and I’m interested in continuing to read it through an anti-fascist lens. If I’m being honest though, the show could probably be read both pro and anti fascist, but I’d rather read it is anti. And I encourage fans to do the same.
2. Historia, Historia
This is the big backstory episode of Christoria, who we first met as Christa Lentz, but we now know is really Historia Reiss. She grew up on an idyllic farm where her mother aggressively neglected her, to ludicrous extremes. Historia figured that this was the normal way children lived until she learned to read and found stories about mothers who weren’t insane abusers. This gave her pause.
It was only after Eren’s hometown was invaded by titans that Historia met her dad Rod. He showed up with his throat-cutting squad and was a super creeper. He allowed Historia’s mom to be murdered by non other than Kenny the Ripper. In her last moments, Historia’s mom gave some conflicting reports as to whether or not she was Historia’s real mom, but it is certain that she hated the kid. Whatever. She’s dead now, and she seemed to have zero redeeming qualities.
3. Torture trilogy part three
I don’t know if this is going to be the end of the “Hange Zoe turtures some dudes” saga, but it’s been playing out for three episodes now. This time, said dudes realize they’ve been had. They fight each other but eventually break down into tears. I guess they were really loyal to the king after all?
Continued belowThis is where changing the focus from cosmic mysteries and a war against an inhuman threat gets a little rough and yeah, a little fascist. Because I really like seeing Hange and Levi outsmarting their enemies, and doing whatever it takes buuuuuuut…. it’s a lot of torture. Against fellow humans. We’ve shifted from a war to a conspiracy, and there’s echos of contemporary right wing creeps in that. In the context of the show, Hange and Levi and all the rest of them are right, but I can’t help but shake the feeling that Hange Zoe would be the kind of person who would harass shooting victims on Twitter, and that sucks, because I love Hange Zoe as a mad scientist fighting regenerating giant zombies.
4. Talking ’bout a revolution
Meanwhile, Dot Pixis has a covert meeting with Erwin. The two of them have weirdly great chemistry. Cheating on Levi, Erwin? Oh, and we also learn about Erwin’s backstory, and how much respect he had for his father, who was a schoolteacher. All of this is so obvious, it almost doesn’t feel worth mentioning. I think that’s literally the backstory of the dude from All Quiet on the Western Front. I see what’s going on here.
Erwin’s teacher dad was like, “Look son, you can’t trust the lies the government feeds us. Our king is a wizard, and he cast a curse making us all forget our real history. That’s a totally normal theory to hold, but THE MAN can’t handle the truth, so I will be dead in a mysterious accident by the end of the day.” And he was.
All of that leads Erwin and Pixis to decide to have themselves a little coup. A military coup. Those always go off without a hitch, right?
5. Outlaw country
Well what happens when one group knows the truth about an oppressive regime? The cops show up. We end the episode with Erwin in jail, Hange Zoe as the new leader of the scouts, and all the characters we care about hiding out in the woods. Well, all of them except for Eren and Historia, who are still in the custody of Rod Reiss. Historia is very much being groomed from the dark side, and Eren is in kinky bondage, which is actually just a Thursday for him. Oh and Keeeeennnnny the Ripper is still at large. And Sasha hears footsteps in the woods… to be continued!? Damn.
