Barely recovered from our emotions, season 4 of The attack of the Titans follows with important revelations in its 9th episode. And it’s nice.
WARNING: attacking spoilers!
Eren practices battleship deadlift
ELDIAN STEERING
After the globally successful Eren attack and his evacuation which took a dramatic turn, the series changes scenery and returns to Paradise Island in episode 9, titled The mercenaries. To finally tell us what happened during these three years, the anime fragments its timeline a little more with a new flashback much more appreciable than the very dispensable one of episode 3. When we saw the exploration battalion land with brand new equipment, modern firearms and even an airship, we understood that the Eldians had meticulously prepared for the confrontation, although they found themselves forced to launch the offensive because of Eren, whose radical acts they did not condone.
If one suspected that their meteoric technological advance was not unrelated to the missing ships mentioned at the start of the season, the series is never so predictable and therefore hid a secret alliance between several mainlanders and the inhabitants of Paradise. New gray pieces therefore appear on the chessboard, in particular Jelena, an anti-mahrs who sees the Bestial as a God and Onyankopon, a foreigner forcibly recruited into the mahr army, who agree to collaborate with the islanders to overthrow their oppressor. and regain their freedom.
A New Better Enemy
A purely political and practical collaboration, which despite everything remains suspicious. The Mahr prisoners, who seem relatively free to move around, have not yet become trusted allies. As evidenced by the more than defiant reception of Commander Dot Pixis in a skillful staging that plays with the framing and the off-screen. They could therefore turn against them at any time if it turns out to their advantage, which also applies to Paradise, each thinking first of its own interests. After the fight, we dive back into the entire strategic, military and geopolitical dimension of the anime, which makes it possible to connect the last points of the plot and to realize a little more of its scale and the control of its construction.
But there are still several unanswered questions, especially for some characters. Gaby is more hateful than ever and determined to take revenge, Falco is washed away by events and should have a hard time positioning himself, while Reiner and her Spiked Battleship (we can’t wait to see in action) stand up like the last bulwark of the mahrs who seek a new legendary hero. The discovery of Heaven on Royal Blood and the use of the Original is also expected to return in the Eldian Final Plan, although Historia’s scheduled killing may cause the Exploration Battalion to worry. Eren, on the other hand, is determined to finish what he started and fight until “great earthworks“, which he only briefly mentions in the episode, but seems sufficiently meaningful like that.
If Mikasa cracks, it’s really bad luck
FROM PARADISE TO HELL
If the series has often tipped into fatalism to move towards a war that was thought inevitable, this episode is nevertheless loaded with optimism and idealism when it dwells on the past, when the islanders allowed themselves to once to consider the best before the worst. By collaborating peacefully with mahrs and anti-mahrs, while sympathizing with some of them, in particular the cook Nicolo, Armin and others thought they could avoid war.
The heir to the Colossal wanted to prove to their enemies that they were not a threat, which they eventually became in the eyes of the whole world after Teyber’s truthful speech and Eren’s attack. A passage to the irreversible act that defeated all the illusions of armistice and landed the battalion a little more, thus allowing to throw a new look at this event which marked the breaking point of the season. Armin however seems to continue to cling to this candid hope, clutching his seashell in his hands as he talks to Annie’s crystallized body, whom we hope to see again after all these years.
It is sure that it changes potatoes
It was expected that the final season of The attack of the Titans spares no one and reserves several heartbreaking and anti-heroic deaths. Episode 9 therefore allowed fans to console themselves a little with happy memories of the insatiable Sasha, killed by Gaby in the previous episode. An irresistible joie de vivre and appetite that did not leave Nicolo indifferent, romantic allusions being rare in this series where love has never been a priority for the characters.
This lightness of tone portrays so a more serene past, unfortunately threatened by a tyrannical Eren, and conversely a much more resigned present, in which Mikasa fights only for her survival and no longer by ideology. This contrast is also supported by the wan colors used for Sasha’s funeral and those warmer and crepuscular which soften the flashbacks and a few moments of respite. Returning to a more chatty and contemplative episode, the MAPPA studio also showed off its talents in animation, reducing 3D to the necessary and applying to heal the whole part in 2D.
Season 4 of The attack of the Titans has been broadcast on the Wakanim platform since December 6, 2020.
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