Welcome back! Are you prepared?! Assuredly, you are not. We are beyond the walls now, there is nowhere to hide. It’s time for another episode of Attack on Titan. This is the part where I let you know that I am very much not a regular anime watcher but that this strange and at times horrifying show continues to captivate me. We are continuing on through the third season, as part of our 2020 Summer TV Binge and beyond. Let’s get into it! Buckle up your Omni-Directional Movement gear. Lets swoop into Attack on Titan season 3, episode 20, “That Day.”
1. The future, long ago
Cars? Cobblestones? 20th century architecture? Is this a sudden flash forward? No, these are the days of Grisha Yaeger’s youth. He comes from a far away land that is markedly more advanced than anything we’ve seen on this show so far. He and his sister are sneaking out to take a look at a brand new miraculous invention- an airship. It’s the kind of situation to young scamps might get themselves into. Hell, it’s the exact kind of thing a young Eren and Armin would do.
Unfortunately, this modern looking society is even more fascistic than the one we are used to. Grisha and his sister are apparently Eldians, and Eldians without armbands are “sent to their paradise” (more on that later). There is strict control over what sorts of people are allowed to go where. For this crime, Grisha’s sister is torn apart and fed to dogs. Holy shit! The Nazi Germany imagery is not subtle- from the armbands to the Ghettos to the casual way which the authority commits heinous crimes. And here I was thinking this show was obvious in its imagery before.
2. The story of everything
It is at this point that the plot of this flashback slows down, and we learn the story of… well of the whole entire world. This is the origin of the titans, the conflicts, of everything. I scrawled it furiously as it was being spoken and here is my understanding. The story:
1,920 years ago, the Eldian progenitor Fritz Ymir made a contract with the Devil of All Earth and obtained the Power of the Titans. What the hell is the Devil of All Earth? Don’t worry about it! Upon her death, Ymir’s spirit was split into the nine titans, presumably the powers of the titan shifters we have met. This is somehwat similar to a lot of mythology (particularly Norse, where the name Ymir comes from) where an ancient giant is killed and from his remains the world is formed. The nine Eldian Titans conquered the nation of Marley and ruled over the whole continent. The Eldian oppression lasted for around 1,700 years until rebels from Marley managed to seize control of seven of nine of the Titans. 80 years ago, the Eldian King built three great walls on the island of Paradis.
You got that? Eldians have titan powers. Marley was once conquered, but became the oppressors. Paradis is an island where the entire show has taken place up until this point. This is the backstory which has been kept from us for so long at least… this is the backstory as it is told in the Marley history books. I appreciate that the script goes out of its way to mention that fact in a couple of places. What is true, what is propaganda, and what is myth? We will probably never know for sure.
3. Boot-licking Yaeger
OK back to the the main plot. Grisha’s sister just got torn about by dogs. Grandfather Yaeger has lost his daughter, so he immediately descends into manic boot-licking Stockholm syndrome, desperately teaching his son of their sins as Eldians. Young Grisha is disgusted, so he joined a group of Eldian rebels who wanted to restore the empire of his ancestors. That’s where he met Dina Fritz, a descendant of the royal Eldians and keeper of secret titan knowledge. The Eldian king of Paradis abandoned most of his people and took with him the power of the founding titan, which could control all the other titans. (That’s Rod Reis and Christa/Historia and their whole family) Grisha’s passion for the cause wins him the love of Dina, and together they have a son… Zeke! That’s right, the Beast Titan is Eren’s brother!! The photo discovered in the last episode? That was of Grisha, his wife Dina, and their son Zeke… Grisha’s first family!
4. Raise a glass to freedom
Grisha intends to raise Zeke to be the leader of the revolution, but he ends up repeating the same mistakes his father made in assuming you can just tell your kids what to believe. To say it all goes wrong is an understatement. Zeke sells out his own parents to Marley, and becomes a loyal agent of the oppressors. Marleyan punishment is being injected with titan juice and thrown into a desert at the edge of Paradis island. Those mindless titans that surround the walls? Transformed Eldians, trapped there by Marley. In her final moments, Dina swears to Grisha that they will reunite, but then it is too late, she is transformed into a titan… the same titan who ate Eren’s mom! She found them after all!
…and then Eren wakes up. This has been his dream, his memory. I don’t know what exactly brought it on, but now he is living through his father’s experiences and piecing together everything he needs to know to… embrace his destiny I guess.
5. The court of owl
In the final moments of the episode, Grisha is rescued from execution by one of the Marley soldiers. It turns out, the same man who beat him as a boy is the Owl, an Eldian agent working within Marley. The Owl’s motivations are not yet explained, but after listening to a long and disgusting rant by his commanding officer, he throws him to the titans and then slashes his hand and becomes a titan. But not just any titan. This is Eren’s titan! The final shots of the episode are the elf-eared monster that will one day be part of the protagonist of the show just wrecking a squad of faux-Nazi soldiers. Then we get hit with the “to be continued.”
I complained in the last episode that it was all buildup and no payoff. This was the kind of payoff I wanted to see! This was exciting, excellent! I guess that’s a risk you get with serialized storytelling. It makes sense to take a slow beat every once in a while for the pacing of the greater story. I don’t feel sheepish per se, but I concede that the slow buildup payed off in a major way. Another fact of the matter is that this story does not seem to be over. Next week we will see the final chapter of the life of Grisha Yaeger.
