Five Thoughts on Attack on Titan’s “Sound Argument”

1. Information Extraction

We open in the “present day,” shortly after Sasha’s death. Eren is crazy and in jail. Maybe I missed something, but I am actually not entirely clear as to why Eren has to be locked up. I mean, I could think of any number of reasons. I just want to know the specific reason. His prison scenes were the highlight of the episode, in no small part because of the presence of the legend, Hange Zoe themself. Hange walks in on Eren whispering “fight fight” into a mirror, and thinks that’s freaking hilarious. And you know what? They are right. “Why does it have to be fight fight?” Hange asks, “Are you having two fights?” Hange also loves his haircut. If anyone deserves to be trolled like this it’s the overly serious and definitively deadly Eren Yaeger.

It turns out that Eren is a terrifying prisoner. He has three titan powers, total control, and a bad attitude. He makes it clear that he could use those powers to escape prison at any point, and just to prove it he uses just a hint of his powers, growing visibly buff and taller. Grows those creepy pointy titanskin things around his eye too. Before Hange knows what is happening, Eren grabs them through the bars and roughs them up, just to make his angry point. Eren has never been the most stable or moral of heroes, but I’m starting to question how much longer we will even be able to call him a protagonist.

2. The New Old Shogunate

I forget exactly how they phrase it but, access to the sea has opened up the whole world to Paradis. It’s funny, we didn’t even know the island was called anything for most of three seasons and now the story is all about national pride, and their place in the world. This episode introduces another nation, the only friend to Paradis. It is a place called Hizuru, and it is so analogous to Japan, it causes me to ask some questions about this world. Like is this a post apocalypse? An alternate timeline? A whole secondary world? Mikasa has been identified as “Asian” in the past, does that specifically refer to her race? Does it imply a continent of origin? These sorts of questions rarely concern me, but Attack on Titan keeps bringing stuff like this up and I do wonder.

Also, surprise! Mikasa is a child of the Shogunate, the heir to their nation. She is not thrilled by the development. I never noticed that Mikasa constantly covers her wrist, but that’s to hide a royal tattoo, one that marks her as lost royalty. For the sake of drama, Mikasa makes a lot of sense as a lost princess. She’s such a soldier, all she knows is killing and protecting her comrades. Nothing about her makes me think she’s fit to lead, let alone rule. And she operates in a world where she does whatever the hell she wants. When someone tells her she must wear the raiments of her holy office, she’s gonna strip down to a sports bra, grab a gun, and hunt petty criminals for sport. This conflict is far from reaching its climax, but you can already see the writing on the wall.

3. The many friends of Zeke

Zeke has been making contacts all over the world. It was he who arranged for the Paradis-Hizuru alliance, and he seems pretty critical to the overall war efforts. I cannot overstate how untrustworthy Zeke is. His actual motivation remains a mystery, but we have never walked away from a scene where he seems on the level. He’s always asking after people, particularly Eren. When his interest is questioned, he always shifts away and mumbles, “Oh, don’t worry about it.” But then when we see him doing diplomacy he does a good job. Maybe too good a job?

Like, we learn that 3D-Maneuver Gear is powered by something called Iceburst stone, which can only be mined of Paradis island. And Hizuru wants access to resources and technology like that. Zeke seems happy to give it up for them but… it’s not really his to give away! This dude sold his family out to the secret police, and worked with Reiner to bring about the deaths of thousands. I admire that he’s proven himself useful to his former enemies, but it’s crazy that Levi or Mikasa don’t just shoot him in the head. When Zeke’s quadruple-cross betrayal happens, I will feel nothing more than a grim satisfaction for being so goddamn right.

4. Make More Eldians

The treaty between Hizuru and Paradis comes with a lot of ins and outs. The main idea is to build up the Paradis army until they are prepared with The Rumbling, which seems like a pretty dorky name for all the titans bursting from the walls and marching on the armies of the world. They also want to give Zeke’s Beast Titan powers to Historia and have her pop out as many babies as possible. It’s tough to see. This show started with our heroes as kids in a wider army. Now they are the heroes of this bloody war, but with a quick shift of politics, their own self autonomy is instantly thrown by the wayside. I know Dot Pixis is supposed to be a good leader, but the conversation between drunken Paradisian generals is not very encouraging. They seem like dicks who do not have the welfare of the people on their mind.

As for Historia, she wastes very little time. We leap ahead in time and she is hella preggers. Like knitting in a rocking chair on a porch, big belly pregnant. I feel like a second ago, she was a tiny little queen ruling over a military council. How quickly she is put out to pasture. Of course, not all is at it seems. Zeke’s timer is running out; you only get 13 years to live when you get titan shifter powers. And the politicians want Historia to take on the powers of the Beast Titan. But they have no idea how titan shifting and pregnancy would even work. So Historia is safe from horrifying powers and forced cannibalism. But for how long?

5. Who Will Rule?

And Zeke’s not the only titan shifter who is running out of time. Hell, he’s not even the only Yaeger. Who will inherit Eren’s titan powers when his time runs out? This debate serves as the climax of the episode, and ultimately the titular sound argument. It also, when considered against Eren’s confrontation with Hange, seems to be setting up the future conflict.

Mikasa is happy to take on grim responsibility, but she’s got diplomatic responsibility now. All she wants is to die for Eren, but it seems very unlikely that she will be allowed to. So Jean makes the case for himself and everything he says is right on: he is smarter and better than all his jabroni friends (I’m team Jean until the end). Of course, that opens him up to a frankly shocking bit of rhetoric from the dumbest member of the squad: Connie. Connie’s compelling case is that if Jean is really so great, putting a 13 year timer on his life is a waste. You want something talented enough to use the titan powers, but dumb enough that their death won’t damage the nation. And who combines stupidity with talent more than Connie? Maybe Sasha, and she says as much. And she’s probably right. But we all know how that works out- Sasha isn’t going to live that long. In the present, we can see how these developments are effecting Connie.

The ‘lil idiot is the only one who seems to be noticing what is so obvious to me: Eren is unhinged. Eren wants to be a good friend, but he’s too full of hatred and conviction to really be a full person. Connie remembers him laughing when Sasha died, and has no grace to give for that style of mourning. Connie has been through as much as anyone, and now he is starting to turn on Eren. I get why he’s so upset, and I’m starting to think he might try something stupid.