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 who knows maybe this is the one where our heroes manage to turn everything around? 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 kicks back into high gear with, season 4, episode 26, “Traitor.”
1. The mission is clear, we’re going over there
After all the talking and chatting and negotiating and navel gazing of the last episode, we needed something a little bit more exciting to get back on track. And seeing how few episodes are left in this part of the season, I think this is going to be the mission until the end. The objective: to steal the Azumabito flying boat, which is currently being held by the Jaegerists. We haven’t clearly established the state of air travel, but I’m guessing this is a lot more advanced than the airships Marley sent in for the battle. I think Final Fantasy rules apply. Air travel is available, but there’s one super cool airship that’s better than all the rest, and the party needs to steal that to be their mobile base of operations.
To get the vehicle in the air, the Eldian Avengers are going to need the help of the Azumabito engineers. That’s the delegation from the faux-Asian country Mikasa’s ancestors are from. And there’s one big problem- Floch has the engineers captive, and he is executing them one by one. Because of course he is.
2. Beefs: Squashed
It’s funny, after all the beef squashing in the last episode, everyone is pretty nice and a good team. Once we are past nationalistic politics, Jean, Connie, Reiner, Gaby, and Armin actually all have a great dynamic, really polite and cordial. Most of the surviving characters are decent communicators (better than Eren anyway) and it’s nice to see characters apologize, learn, and grow. It’s been pretty bleak for a while.
We even get a heartfelt apology from Magath, who was a real pill in the last episode. He brought up all of the ancient racial blood grudges, and now he really regrets. His apology is actually kind of a fantasy. It’s the apology you dream of getting after your drunk asshole uncle says some things he regrets at the dinner table. In real life that guy never apologizes, but Magath really shows he’s ready to live his life according to the principles of restorative justice. I’m honestly really moved by his change of heart.
3. Floch Talk
Floch is just one of the best villains this show has ever conjured. That’s because Floch is logical endpoint for this unsustainable culture of fascism and warfare. He is a perfect product of the system he came up in. He’s also the biggest dipshit on the show. That’s the point. Eren probably doesn’t even remember his name, but he’s stepped up as de facto head of state. Obviously it’s just been an endless parade of senseless violence and retribution. Characters like Erwin represent the best potential outcome under fascism. But the Erwins of the world die, and eventually are replaced by Flochs. I think the show is pretty clear about where it stands in that regard. Sometimes it’s very simple. “Genocide is wrong,” Hange Zoe once said.
4. Amin’s Gambit
OK, so the plan itself is a goddamn mess. Armin and Connie run down the dock where they encounter two of their old companions, Samuel and Daz. The plan is pretty simple. Armin runs in waving his arms yelling, “Quick the Cart and Armored are getting away! I’m totally on your side! We gotta get that flying boat in order, send out the mechanics!” (I’m paraphrasing a bit). Things go pear shaped pretty quickly. Floch is after all, a suspicious nut. I was expecting something to go wrong, but I wasn’t expecting the Azumabito engineers to wrestle away Floch’s gun and make a break for it.
And I definitely wasn’t expecting Armin to get shot in the face. Which he does! Once Samuel and Daz realize something is up, they take the shot and blow Armin’s teeth out a hole in his cheek. Armin’s deathwish is really becoming a bit of a problem, huh? The episode ends before Armin can transform into a titan and save himself, but Connie shoots his old pals in cold blood. He’s really been through something in the last week, and if his mission saving the world from Eren isn’t worth everything, why even go on?
5. Titans Together
We also see Annie and Reiner as titans wrecking Jaegerists together. It’s a very weird scenario. Last time Annie was fightin’ as a titan, she was kicking and slapping guys we liked. Reiner’s Armored Titan has always been on the wrong side of the fight from the perspective of the viewer. This is one of the only fights in the show where we are actually rooting for titans to kill lots of guys. On the one hand, that’s kind of freaky. On the other hand, it was really liberating seeing these Kaiju monsters wrecking little fascist twerps.
But that’s not all we’re going to see, because the episode ends with the fight only half resolved. How is Armin getting out of this one? How cool is this airship? We will find out all of this and more next time!
