Welcome back to World War Titan! The time has come to end things. We are finally watching the final season of Attack on Titan, divided up into three parts. And one way or the other, there’s no way of coming back from this one. 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 show has continued to captivate me. Attack on Titan blows up the world in season 4, episode 28, “The Dawn of Humanity.”
1. Romp Beyond the Walls
At every turn, this episode messed with expectations. And then it all ended up pretty much where it has to. But until then- it’s weird!
We start out austere. There’s no opening theme song, we’re mostly looking at calm oceans. But then, it gets kind of wacky. Mikasa, Armin, Hange Zoe, and all the others, have made it to Marley. And just look at their cute little disguises. Everyone has early 20th century suits and hats and bonnets and the like. Hange Zoe looks very smart in their suit. And the music gets wacky (and vaguely Celtic) and you ask yourself… Is this gonna be a romp?
We’ve got steamships! And old-timey cameras! And cars! The gang has never seen a car before. Connie is downright terrified of them, and Hange Zoe evidently thinks a car will become their best friend. I could have gone a whole episode like this. You half expect to see baby DiCaprio running down the pier screaming for Fabrizio. I was ready to guffaw when Sasha tried ice cream for the first time, but wait…
2. Not all is as it seems…
I was pretty sure I was looking at Levi, and he looks remarkably good for a guy who lost his most of his limbs and face. Oh yeah, and Sasha, she’s dead. But not here. And wait, Eren is here? We’re all still friends with Eren.
It’s likely I missed an offhand line dating where in the story these scenes take place. But honestly, the surreal element added to the emotions of seeing everyone together, happyish. The front half of this episode is what I assumed the beginning of season 4 was going to be like coming off of the season 3 finale. Instead, we skipped months past this point. But now seeing it feels completely different. Sasha’s happiness seems so much more precious and fleeting. And I hope Levi is enjoying those fingers while he’s got them.
3. Refugee Camp Jaeger Rager
The party at the refugee camp was the last time all of the characters were friends and had fun. Sort of a weird place to party it up. The gang runs into a family that looks Turkish or North African, and get invited to their dinner, sitting on mats on the floor. They all sip what looks like coffee and clearly is liquor, and soon everyone is singing and dancing and falling all over each other. Truly a cute scene.
There is something heavy being discussed- Mikasa’s hypothetical soulbond to Eren. This is the least interesting mystery of all time. If it exists, that undermines Mikasa as a character by giving all of her life’s motivation a supernatural cause. And if it’s not true, than why are we wasting our time? Mikasa sort of opaquely implies that she made the choice to see Eren as a brother and not a romantic partner at that party, and now she seems to regret that choice! That’s interesting! That’s way more interesting than what is actually being discussed.
Later, we see Zeke completely dismiss that notion. Mikasa protects Eren because she cares about him. Thank you. Never thought I’d be thanking the evil baseball monkey man, but war makes strange bedfellows.
4. Eldian Goodbye
The next morning, everyone has a hangover and Eren is gone. When we met him early in this season, that was after he literally poked out his eye and chopped off his hand for his cover story (and you better believe we got to see him doing it). And we also check in at moments when Eren was making important choices offscreen. We see that Yelena was always loyal to Eren; she was planning on betraying Zeke from go. And Floch knew a surprising amount of Eren’s plans, plans which came to fruition.
But the most interesting conversation is with Historia, who hasn’t gotten lines in a good long while. Eren was also telling her about his plans and she wasn’t cool with it, but they still treat each other with respect. Probably more respect than Eren deserves, but they’ve always had a weird friendship and I don’t hate it. Historia objects to the genocidal plans and I guess… assumed that Eern was not going to do them because she likes him? Bad bet for Historia. Her moment will come, I’m sure of that.
5. Landfall
Every ship and gun in the world are pointed at the Rumbling. I think they are going to need more ammo. This is supposed to be a last alliance between nations and of course it goes up in flames.
Seeing the Rumblers swimming, looks a goofy to me, but it’s not long before they make landfall and start stomping. It’s the steam you’ve gotta watch,, the titan steam is blasting all their flesh off of anyone who stands in their way. One unlucky soldier looks back and is dumbstruck. By what?
The camera tilts up. First we see the Rumbling, stomping their way out of the ocean. Then we see the huge column of steam, up to the heavens. And behind that is… I thought it was like, the thumbprint of god or something. Across the sky. But then we go up and up and up and up and up. This thing is tall, miles tall. And it’s a ribcage. And on top of that ribcage is Eren Jaeger’s head, the size of a naval destroyer. Kaiju bone demon Eren Jaeger has arrived at last.
See you next time folks!
