10 Second Anime - Shingeki no Kyojin S3 - Episode 48

Historia and Eren make progress with rebuilding the Walls and Titan Defenses. Eren visits Sadies, who has knowledge of his father's past.

Episode 48 - "Bystander"

Hmm.

Poor Keith Sadies. He carried a torch for Eren's mom all these years, which solved the mystery of who was sabotaging Eren's equipment during training camp. Sadies wanted to wash him out so he could live on as some kind of memento of Carla and his friend Grisha.

Sadies was also the answer to the last remaining question of how Eren got back to the city after he ate his father. Of course, as only a "bystander," he couldn't know if Grisha really lost all his memories, or if he was like Ymir and suddenly woke from being a Titan for many years after ingesting a Titan Power. Can a Titan hold more than one? Questions, questions, we have still so many.

I also found it interesting that Sadies called Grisha's admiration of the Scout Regiment a "curse" on him. That yearning to be free of the Walls definitely ran through the crazy Scouts who took the fight to the Titans, but Grisha tied that spirit to being "special" or "chosen." Sadies realized after many years of failure and defeat that he wasn't either of those things. Carla presented the counterargument that everyone is inherently "special" just by being born into this world, but it sounds more like the current Western regard for treating everyone as geniuses instead of just defending inalienable human rights. We're still struggling with that concept 400 years after the dawn of Enlightenment philosophy.

Heh.

Historia was raised on a farm, so now Queen Historia is the Cattle-Farming Goddess. More like "Your Mom," with all the scolding she's good at. Careful, dudes, she might headbutt you.

As I thought, the underground stuff with Kenny and Levi was important because Levi now sits where Kenny does and Historia wants to take care of orphans like she was. Although she was never an orphan, she still felt like one.

Oh ho. Hands off my Eren, says Mikasa!

Two months have passed, and Eren is getting pretty good at this hardening crystal stuff. Plus, that glowing ore in the cavern is being used to light the underground ghettos. That's quick progress.

Hange, never change. She loves her new Titan killing toy. Eren needs time to heal up from fatigue of using Titan powers, though. But this is a big deal. Eren plugged up the hole in Trost. Now they have to fix the gate at Shinganshina, where this all started.

Conny still hopes they can turn his mom back from a Titan. Maybe. It's obvious that the Beast Titan didn't just line up everyone in the village to inject them with serum. It seemed almost like a gas attack.

Marlo has joined the Scouts, but Hitch didn't go with him. He and Eren seem oblivious to why a woman would object to putting a man into more danger. Everyone gets to call Marlo dumb except Eren.

Oh, so now Eren recognizes Keith Sadies. It's understandable because Sadies left for the training grounds while Eren was still a child and he changed his look so much during those five years before Eren, Mikasa, and Armin showed up.

Sadies says it hasn't even been a year since they passed boot camp. I dunno, it felt like four of five years to me...

Grisha just showed up 20 years ago outside the Walls? Did he really lose all his memories? Or was there just a gap in time? The first thing he asked the Scouts was what they were doing outside the Walls (never mind him). All he claimed to remember was his name and that he was a doctor. Grisha appeared to be an intelligent Titan too, when he went to steal the Founding Titan's power. Questions and mysteries...

So both Hannes and Sadies let Grisha go without charging him. Who knows what would have happened if the royals had found out about this mysterious man? It tugs at the heart strings a little to see how much both Hannes and Sadies cared for the Jaegers and Armin.

Aw. Sadies always liked Carla the waitress. Eren's mom was hot!

Even back then, everyone knew Erwin, Levi, and Hanges were talented Scouts.

And so, Sadies really was a bystander. He gave Eren just enough information (and the audience) to really want to get into that basement again.

Next time, season hiatus episode? Stuff is going to happen at that Shinganshina gate.