10 Second Anime - Shingeki no Kyojin S3 - Episode 59 [END]

The Walled Kingdom regroups and rebuilds after the Shiganshina operation. Armin and the Scouts reach the Sea, while Eren worries about the enemy that lies beyond it. Season Finale.

Episode 59 - "The Other Side of the Wall"

Meh.

We did not need to see Floch open his stupid yap about Armin getting the Colossus Titan at the expense of Erwin's life. Levi did the right thing in honoring his friend's final wish. Self-acknowledged fodder should stay quiet.

Another disappointing thing, although I won't know for sure until it actually happens in the plot, is how the author of the manga always blasts Chekhov's Gun in the most obvious way. He has never put a twist on anything he has foreshadowed, so that's why I'm annoyed at how the possible future rift between Eren and the Wall Eldians is being established. Eren worries that the military will want to turn Historia into a Titan just so Eren can use the Founding Titan's power to control Pure Titans. Like, can't they find some other royal? There were plenty on the continent across the strait from Paradis. Or, maybe just being in contact with a royal descendant is enough? But, nah. It's royal Titans or bust for this author. Perhaps that's why Eren insisted on touching the stray Titan the Scouts found on their way to the coast. This ties into my last meh moment.

Time skip. That's lazy writing. Some of the best manga series in the last 20 years have used this device, but it's still lazy. An author can stuff a whole bunch of surprise flashbacks in between the scenes of the past and the future present. I acknowledge that writing a serial story presents challenges, but can we get away from this worn out convention?

Hmm.

I am really pleased about that scene where Eren touched Historia's hand during the medal ceremony. First, we learned those bolo ties Erwin and some of the other generals wore were not just a part of their uniform. They were actually symbols of bravery and service. 59 episodes into this show, and we finally learned that the fake king must have thought Erwin and Pixis were hot shit at some point. Now we can look at all the other military types to see whether we should pay attention to their opinion or not, instead of just deferring to siding with our favorite characters.

Second, knowing how Eren's touch reacted with the Dina Titan from the flashback last episode, and then seeing how the medal winners had to hold and kiss Historia's hand, there was a lot of anticipation with what was going to happen with Eren. Did not disappoint! Eren's recollection from Grisha's memories at how the King's Ideal took over the sympathetic Frieda was all we needed to see for why the Founding Titan needs to be kept away from the royal bloodline at all cost. If they ever get it back, they're going to stuff Eldians back inside the Walls and brainwash them again.

The last thing I picked up on was how the Attack Titan only showed three people in its line of succession. Again, this author just loves going pew-pew with Chekhov's Gun, so I'm thinking that the Attack Titan power was lost at some point during or immediately after the Great Titan War, and that it was born into a random Eldian, perhaps a couple of times before Eren Kruger gained it. The end of this Act breaks open a much larger story, dealing with the past in how Marley won those other Titan Powers, and the future, with how Eren may end up being an independent agent for a future peace. We'll have to wait until next year to see this final story.

Heh.

Big question - do we tell the people they're all Titans, Subjects of Ymir, and the whole world is their enemy? Yes, says Historia, since they're just returning the knowledge they should have had from 100 years ago.

Ah. These newspaper guys again. Hange is bashful to take a compliment, but Levi says just write a story about how great we are, then. That Levi!

Aw. Hitch loved Marlo back. Somebody else will have to tousle that sex hair of hers.

Shut up, Floch. This guy is going to be a splinter of resentment inside the military.

Levi overhearing this conversation about Armin and the Sea is a coda moment to when he heard the kids talking about the world outside the Walls before they left for Shiganshina.

Eren is starting to see the bigger picture of what "freedom" beyond the Walls will look like. They've only just started to fight for their freedom.

This is a nice flashback to when Grisha took the Founding Titan away from the royal bloodline. Rage faces all the way around.

Time skip. Refugees are going back to their hometowns after Wall Maria got plugged back up. Zeke never came back to make more Titans, and the Scouts have cleared up all the rest.

Eren's hair has grown out.

The Scouts encounter only one Pure Titan, who crawled to its final location. They didn't even bother to kill it, because they were trees growing in its old path. It was stuck there for years. Eren touched it and called it a "patriot." So, he can see their memories when he touches a Pure Titan now? A lot can happen during a time skip to bail a mangaka out.

Armin is excited to see birds he's never seen before.

And there's the Walled Pier. Excellent use of CG.

These guys are the first of the Wall People to see the Ocean in a hundred years.

Ha! Levi still a neat freak. He tells Hange not to touch "that thing, it could be poisonous."

Armin is so happy his books were right. And just where did the young Armin get those heretical books anyway? Erwin's story isn't over yet, I presume.

On the other side of the Sea is freedom, but there are also enemies. Eren wonders if killing those enemies means they can finally have freedom, which obviously means he doesn't want that to be the answer. His memories contain the horrors of the world after the Eldians lost too, so you can tell Eren is being set up to find a third way.

Ha! Hange went straight for the sea cucumbers!

Pivotal scenes for the "final" season in 2020 - Eren is haunted by memories of the past, while Armin is inspired by his sea shell for the future. This is the same kind of dichotomy Levi face when choosing between Erwin and Armin to be revived. Levi put his hopes into the guy who has hopes for the future. Where will that place Eren in the upcoming story? What's coming next is going to be drama!

Final Thoughts.

So, here we are, at the end of the third season, and I still didn't get a Titan Dinosaur! What a gyp! Alright, I shouldn't be too surprised, because all those illustrations of the history of the Titan civilization were in the credit sequences way back in the first season and in the second season too. We didn't see them in context until 6 years and two years later. I think I can wait another year to see a rampaging zoo of Titans.

I don't have much to add except for my running question for this story - why now? Why did the Titan Powers attack five, now 6 years ago? Well, this third season gave a bunch of reasons for why. They claimed they needed the energy reserves underneath Paradis Island, which is absurd, but that's good propaganda. The infiltrators needed to get the Founding Titan, which is understandable if they were going to invade an island full of Titans and didn't want them being used as weapons against them. There may be actual reasons the Marley government has too.

But, we still don't have the "now" part of the question. And that's twice, because Zeke the Beast Titan came five years later, and Reiner and Bertholdt didn't seem to know him. Things I've got a good handle on are where all the Titans came from, and perhaps no new Titans came in after Kruger rampaged and gave his Attack Titan to Grisha. When nobody came back, I'm sure the Marleyans had to be extra cautious that the King of the Walls hadn't changed his 80 year old policy. There's 15 years worth of Marleyan stuff we don't know about because Grisha successfully integrated in Paradis Island. And then there's 5 years after that, for when the original recon crew didn't report in either.

So, like I mentioned above, this story has cracked wide open. We need to know what happened in Marley after that last batch of Eldians were sent to "paradise" and the crew never returned home. We heard about this Eldian recruitment for the 7 Titans, but why did it take 15 years before a reconnaissance team entered Paradis? There's so much to cover now, because there's a whole other side to this conflict we never knew about. We are going to have to learn about how the other 7 Titan Powers work, especially the Beast Titan, since he seemed to be able to order Titans around like the Founding Titan can. There's lots of fun questions to answer.

We don't know how many seasons the "final" season is going to have, but if the same studio and directors keep doing the same thing, we are in for a good time. And since we know "Attack on Titan" is a terrible English version for the the name of this show, will it be called "Attack Titan" from now on? Probably not... 2020 will seem like a long time before we get the next installment.