Shingeki no Kyojin - The Final Season - Episode 72 - 10 Second Anime

Armin and Mikasa discover a disturbing plot involving a popular wine when Falco and Gabi visit Nicolo’s restaurant.

#72 – “Children of the Forest”

Hmm.

One of the few things Shingeki no Kyojin did well in foreshadowing and establishing plot development was showing all the Marleyan red wine the military officers and Zeke’s Scout guards drank. There was something suspicious about how Marleyans like Nicolo insisted the military brass drink it and how Zeke’s gaze shifted around his makeshift prison looking at which of the soldiers drank it.

There are two things to note about Zeke’s involvement with making the wine. The first is that Yelena came to Paradis with crates full of wine bottles one year after Zeke left it, retrieving only the Armored Titan and the Jaw Titan. He left behind the Colossal Titan and the Female Titan, and he failed his mission to procure the Founding Titan. He had a year to fill those wine bottles with his spinal fluid, but there’s still a question of whether he did that regularly so he could turn his ghetto Eldians into Titan bombs during the Marleyan conquests and Yelena stole those bottles on her own. Author Isayama doesn’t appear to have any nuance left in his writing for this time skip part of Shingeki no Kyojin, so I’ll just assume Yelena and Zeke were in super cahoots this whole time.

Proving the cahoots is how Zeke lied to Levi about how he turns his Beast Titan spinal fluid into gas, which is how he claims he turned villages of Paradis Eldians into Titans the last time he was on the island. He lied through omission, saying that Eldians froze before he used Coordinate power. We know there was no paralysis by how scared Nicolo was that Falco had even the tiniest bit of wine inside his mouth.

The other thing to note is how much Eren knows about Zeke’s plot. As a narrative device, it’s a neat way to get Paradis Scouts fighting pure Titans again with the Walls. It’s sad that the only good thing about the animation this season is when the CGI director from Wit Studios came over to MAPPA just to do this specific animation for the final season of Shingeki no Kyojin. We know that Eren can see the future memories of the Attacking Titan but it’s not clear he’s ever told anyone that. Also, it’s not clear that Zeke knows Eren has the Attacking Titan Power either. Yelena visited with Eren and he almost immediately left Paradis to go to Marley. How long was he there? This timeline is so confusing because the anime adaptation isn’t cleaning up Isayama’s art and plot construction. All we needed is one brief scene showing how Armin and Mikasa grew a wedge of distrust for Eren’s motives. Well, at least we’ll get to see Scouts flying around cutting up Titans again. That’s something.

Heh.

Zeke claims he used his spinal fluid turned into gas to make Eldians turn into Titans. Shades of WWI chemical warfare. This is where we saw Conny’s mother as a Titan. MAPPA uses the manga page instead of the superior Wit Studio version. Sigh. But it’s lies.

I’m calling Sasha’s family the Brauses since that’s “official” subtitle translations and it’s more Germanic than Blouse. They’ve arrived with Gabi and Falco at Nicolo’s fancy restaurant. Falco is such a nice kid. He’s sensitive to how Nicolo and Sasha could have been in love. Suddenly Hange and the main crew are here. Nicolo doesn’t want any of them touching that wine! He knows it’s harmful stuff. Nicolo tries to feign prejudice, but he’s not a good actor.

Gabi and Falco see an opening to talk to Nicolo. This is when Nicolo finds out Gabi killed Sasha. Oh man, Falco is so good! He picked up on Nicolo’s emotional change immediately. Such a good kid. He’s like Eren and Armin mashed together when they were twelve years old. And he took the hit from Nicolo too! Falco’s character is the only good thing past the time skip. Oh, I guess Eren’s abs are okay too… Yeah, punch that little bitch in the face! That was so satisfying.

Ho. Now Mr. Braus knows who killed his daughter. Mr. Braus knows the value of life as a hunter. There’s no value in revenge for doing things that people need to do. Whoa! Kaya almost got Gabi! Mikasa is too fast. Aha! Now Hange knows about the wine and Zeke’s spinal fluid. Anyone who drinks it and hears Zeke’s yell will turn into a Pure Titan.

This is so dumb. Levi would not turn on Eren like this. He’d catch him, put him in a room with Armin, and then listen to them argue before letting him go. The time skip version of Levi is another character who only looks like the original. Nicolo spills the beans about Yelena telling him to serve the Marleyan wine to high-ranking military brass. Zeke’s little lie about Eldians freezing up after ingesting the spinal fluid was the key to the long con.

And just like that, here’s Eren. What the hell. Why are Eren’s insurgents here? Were they tracking down Hange’s location and they ended up here for maximum drama? Ah. The other Marleyan informed Floch where Hange was. Floch knew about the wine and the spinal fluid. Does this mean Eren did too? We’ll find out next time.