Summer is long behind us, but the Multiversity Summer TV Binge continues! Although I’ve never been what you would call an anime person, I’m a huge fan of Attack on Titan. I first fell in love with the subtitled version of the show, so I thought it would be fun to revisit the dubbed version. Watch along with me, but be warned, here be spoilers!
1. The good commander
This episode is named for Commander Erwin Smith, but he actually doesn’t feel like the main subject, not in the same way previous episodes have focused in on certain characters. Nevertheless, he continues to shine here, as he has since he joined the cast. I want to take a moment to give big credit to J. Michael Tatum, who voices Erwin (or “Irvin” as the English voice actors pronounce it). Tatum gives the soft-faced Erwin a bassy, steely core, which fits the character nicely, much better than Matt Mercer’s cowboy drawl works for Levi (and I love Matt Mercer). We don’t learn anything new about Erwin here, but we continue to see him as a ruthless tactician who will do anything to win. It’s the reaction of the other characters that is interesting.
2. Mistrust in the ranks
The Scouts continue to perforate the Female Titan, who they believe to be a traitor within the ranks. A lot of Scouts are pissed off that they haven’t been let in on the greater strategy, but the shrewder soldiers see the need for this strategy. If there’s a mole in the ranks, sharing too much will tip them off. Jean figures this out, but is still cranky, and it takes the love of his life Armin to persuade him. Armin trusts Levi, and is heavily foreshadowed as a future leader. He even stands in front of an image of Dot Pixis, the other great commander we’ve met. Armin reiterates that ruthless intelligence is the most important trait for a leader to have, but adds that the best ones retain their humanity. He implies that Pixis, and Erwin are like this, and it’s clear that the list includes Armin himself.
3. Cornered prey
We see the Female Titan can crystallize her skin to form armor, which is gross but cool. That could describe the entire operation. Levi stands on her head, gently taunting her like a crazy person while Hange Zoe stands nearby taunting her like an even crazier person. When we zoom into the Female Titan’s passive face we can see that some of the spears she’s been shot with are stuck right in her eyes! Ew! That fact is made way worse by the way this show loves to animate eyes vibrating with emotion. Maybe I just don’t like eye stuff.
4. The summoning shriek
Then the Female Titan shows us another crazy superpower: she can summon other titans. Mike, who we’ve established has a weird dog nose, smells the titans coming, and every titan we’ve seen over the last couple of episodes swarm over the trapped Female Titan. Sasha says that the shriek is that of a cornered animal with nothing to lose, and that everyone should be terrified. Mikasa gives Sasha a dead-eyed stare and asks, “Have you ever seen me terrified of anything?” Sasha reasonably answers, “No, and I’m telling you this would be a good time to try it out.” These two need a spin off.
The swarm of titans descend of the Female Titan and eat her, brutally. Erwin has still been reticent to share his plans with anyone, even his trusted right hand Levi, but he sounds the retreat, there are just too many titans. No one knows precisely why, but everyone turns to head home.
5. The traitor among us
Then things get a little bit too self congratulatory. Soldiers bicker, and compliment each other, you can feel the relief at having survived another day. The Scouts tell Eren a story about Petra pissing her pants on her first mission. It’s cute. Too cute.
The next thing we see is one of the scariest images we’ve ever seen on the show. One of the Scouts is the human traitor, and they start cutting down the other Scouts with swords and ODM gear. After establishing the titans as the obvious threat, seeing human on human violence is just as shocking to us as it is to the characters on the show, who scatter and panic just in time for the cliffhanger.
