Welcome back! Are you prepared?! Hunker behind these walls and smell that fascist smell. 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, has really grabbed my imagination and never let go. We are continuing on through the third season, as part of our 2020 Summer TV Binge. Let’s get into it! Buckle up your Omni-Directional Movement gear and lets swoop into Attack on Titan season 3, episode 14, ‘Thunder Spears.” Sorry, more like “THUNDER SPEARS!”
1. Fabulous Crystal Titan
There’s a quadruped titan here, and it brought a lot of baggage. When we last left our desperate protagonists, they realized that they had been led into a trap. This episode is the desperate fight to survive that trap closing. And you know what? It’s a great fight, it’s just not one that’s going to lend itself to deep meditation on the politics of this world. There’s lots of logistics, technology, and consideration given to superpowers and fighting techniques. Like, right away Reiner is using his crystal hardening powers to be even more armored. But Eren has learned the same trick from his wall-hardening mission. So despite being outnumbered and surrounded, you actually feel like maybe Eren has go this one.
2. Commander Erwin in command
The “deepest” part of this story is a peek into the psyche of Erwin Smith. That means a lot of moody asides where we are privy to Erwin’s inner monologue. That dude is troubled. He really lionized his dad, who was a simple schoolteacher. Now Erwin will stop at nothing in the pursuit of knowledge. He’s ready to die on the steps down to Eren’s basement if it means his questions will be answered. At one point, we see a vision of him (Erwin) standing on a mountain of the corpses of his fallen comrades. It’s supposed to be a metaphor. More or less. It feels pretty feasible. Erwin is not right in the head, and losing an arm hasn’t helped that any. I mean, he’s still a sharp tactical mind, but he wouldn’t be the first friend I call with romantic troubles.
3. Real kaiju action
The first half of this season was almost titan-free. It was about the politics, the human-on-human conflicts. The main antagonist was a serial killer named Kenny! And sure, we got the one big horrible titan towards the end of that story, but we got precious little ODM action, and even less big titan vs other big titan. Well that changes here. Eren and Reiner go at it and it is pretty great. You get to see all the stuff you’d get out of a fun Godzilla movie, which this show categorically isn’t. Big dudes knock bigger dudes into houses and through bridges. Stuff flies everywhere. It rules.
There’s also an extremely anime consideration of power levels. Eren now believes that he could take Annie in a straight fist fight. Reiner could never beat Annie ergo, Eren has the highest power levels. For a show that has such a carefully considered depiction of combat, that seems very silly. There are all sorts of ways a less skilled fighter could overcome a more skilled one. Eren may know a lot but he’s a naked elf, and Reiner is Iron Man meets Brock Lesnar.
4. Hange Zoe’s lazer brigade
Fortunately, Eren isn’t expected to win his fight alone. Hange Zoe has invented something, and that’s always exciting news. In this case it is the titular THUNDER SPEARS. Oh hell yeah. And it’s exactly what it sounds like- an electrified javelin that can pierce Reiner’s armor. In fact, as we learn from a patented Hange Zoe science flashback, the THUNDER SPEARS were developed specifically to fight Reiner. Which is pretty neat.
Again, I normally feel like this is the show that would revel in the shortcomings of new military tech, or else it would be very practical and not flashy at all. Nope. The THUNDER SPEARS are promptly jabbed into Reiner’s eyes, which looks like it hurts. Then into the back of his neck and when it comes to titans, well…
Continued below5. The many deaths of Reiner Braun
Reiner dies again. The last episode seemed to end with his death and here we are, so I’m not holding my breath. But it sure looked like the THUNDER SPEARS did their job. The crew is pretty broken up about it. At the last second, Connie and Sasha are hesitant to kill their old colleague. And, reasonable. He was a friend. But Jean is the best, and he reminds them that they’ve been ready to cross this line for a while. This isn’t their first attempt to kill Reiner so whatever emotional line they were supposed to cross, they should have already thought about it.
I’m sorry that my thoughts aren’t a bit more substantive, but I also am not sorry we got such an exciting, smashy episode. Maybe next time we can ruminate about the military industrial complex or the secrets of the universe. For now I leave you hoping you took as much satisfaction from watching Reiner get toasted (again) as I did!
