Attack on Titan The Final Season Part 2

Episode 82

“What's so wrong with submission?”

This week, in “Sunset”, there is a scene that sees Armin at an all-time low, where he snaps at Mikasa after she tries to ask him for any direction that can get them out of this mess. Where do they go? What do they do about Eren? “I don't know!” Armin screams. “What can we do, anyway?! Hange and the captain might be dead! Floch might point a barrel at our heads! What's more, Annie might be awake now! The military has fallen apart! It's chaos! Oh yeah. Historia might be in danger. The volunteers, the Azumabaito, and Nicolo are at risk, too. I don't have time to think about the bleak Eren situation! Can't you see that?!” I don't know if I could sum up the current state of things better if I tried.

I really appreciate how Attack on Titan has taken the last few episodes to really dig into the other reality of war, the version that doesn't often get taught in the history books or glorified in big-budget movies, even though it might be more reflective of what it's truly like to live through that kind of chaos and bloodshed. “Sunset”, like “Thaw” before it, is an episode that is completely removed from Eren's perspective, and instead focuses on the continuing ramifications of his Apocalypse-in-Progress. Needless to say, things are as dire as they've ever been. Whatever Eren thinks the results of his Rumbling might mean for the threats that come from outside of Paradis, “Sunset” makes it abundantly clear that killing the world isn't going to mean a damned thing if Paradis crumbles from the inside-out as well.

Annie's return to the fray may be a little underwhelming for anyone who was wanting her to instantly get back into the action, but her lengthy dialogue with Hitch is perfectly appropriate for where Attack on Titan is with its story right now. It turns out that she was half-conscious for all of those years that Hitch and Armin spent idly chatting to her hardened cocoon, so she is a lot more caught up on current events than we might have expected. That also means that she's had plenty of time to think about her role in the ongoing destruction of the entire planet, and she's come to a similar conclusion that a lot of our heroes have. She was raised to find value only in violence and glory for the state, though there is love for her adoptive father in Annie's heart, buried as it is beneath years of abuse and brutal training. She no longer believes that anything she's done is justifiable, or even forgivable, but she values the life of her father more than the rest of the world put together. She'd do it all again if she had to, Annie tells Hitch, and Hitch doesn't pass judgement. There's not a whole lot of that left to go around these days.

The irony, of course, is that the Rumbling is what leads directly to the death of Annie's father back in Marley this week, and it is easy to see how Annie holds at least some of the blame (at least, insofar as the word “blame” can even apply to any one individual in the bloody mess that this war has become). The utter chaos that Eren has let loose upon the world isn't just causing mass hysteria across the sea, either. Who knows how many civilians have been crushed by the destruction of the walls? Worse still, the Jeagerists' coup is ensuring that the blood will continue to flow so long as anyone dares defy the will of Floch and his cronies. Shadis' men have to consider whether it is worth pointlessly dying in a rebellion that they cannot win, or if it is better to go along with the Fascists for now and hope that they can stage a revolt from within when the time is right. Jean can only sit in helpless shock as Floch claims that Eren trusted him with the truth of his plan, over any of Eren's true friends, and it's heartbreaking to see him genuinely consider just giving up and going along with the madness himself. In the Jeagerists' new world order, submission is something to be valued, not vilified, so long as they are the ones who are getting their boots licked.

These are the terrible realities of wars both real and imagined that are not especially fun to watch, but it is vital that we don't just replace them with the more convenient and reassuring versions of history that don't challenge us or force us to consider the harder truths that these characters have had to face. War is fought by heroes and cowards alike, by geniuses and incompetent fools, and a lot of the time the people making the most important decisions of all are either too scared or too tired to think straight.

It's really something to see Armin finally begin to crack under the pressure, and you can't help but empathize with his exhausted frustration. His only plan is to try and help Gabi save Falco, because that might at least get the other Nine Titans in line once the rest of the world is nothing but ash. It's a shot in the dark to try and secure a future for the surviving Eldians that doesn't just devolve into them all rehashing the last 2,000 years of war amongst themselves, and the best thing that Armin can come up with is, “I'll tell Conny that maybe his mom should stay as an upside-down Titan.” Later, after he blows up at Mikasa, he admits that he has come to the conclusion that it was a mistake to save his life over Erwin's. The most awful thing, as a viewer, is that it is hard to argue definitely whether Armin isn't right.

Then again, Attack on Titan is a work of entertainment, after all. It is a story, and it borrows as much from media's fantastical war epics as it has the more grounded explorations of wartime suffering and destruction. In this world, just as Eren has turned himself into a monster of impossible size and power, there also really are the kind of larger-than-life heroes that can change the tide of battle in a single thunderous moment. Things might be darker than they've ever been, and the end of all things may well and truly be impossible to stop at this point, but that doesn't mean that you just submit.

Just ask the bandaged man being towed around the woods by the wandering one-eyed soldier that Pieck and Magath run into. Levi Ackermann is a warrior that is simply too stubborn to die, and while his survival might not be enough to save the world from ruin, it's one more scrap of hope to cling to, and for now, that might just be enough.

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Attack on Titan The Final Season Part 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.