Attack on Titan – Episode 25

Hey guys it’s me. All caught up, just in time for this freakin’ finale. I’m excited. You guys excited? I guess everybody’s excited.

These last couple episodes have easily been my favorites of the series. Though Eren’s development still lags, I’m loving how they’re putting Armin and Jean’s character growth into practice, and the side characters of the Survey Corps are just extremely fun to see in action. Things are moving fairly quickly, they’re burning animation budget like nobody’s business, they’re bouncing effectively between flashbacks and action setpieces… just lots to love at the moment. I hope it finishes strong.

Episode 25

2:46 – Ohoho right, that was a church she just crashed into.  Gotta love this show’s sense of humor

3:02 – Faith #1 mason 

3:16 – Titan Butt 1, Faith 0 

3:42 – This is actually kinda clever.  Handily portrays how doctrine can become divorced from virtue or purpose – the walls are great because they keep out the titans, but worshipping the walls for this leads to incongruities like hoping the titan already inside the city doesn’t mess with your beloved walls

This scene is also a nice illustration of the show’s constant “complacency sure is great when you don’t have titans eating your face” refrain

4:23 – Jean and Armin trading character development tips.  These two have come a long way

5:11 – Business time 

7:13 – You can only kill so many civilians before it starts becoming really, really funny 

7:40 – Ahaha wow.  What is the most stark POSSIBLE way we could underline the fact that victory requires abandoning sentimentality? Fuck it, bring out the shell-shocked little girl. Maybe even give her a teddy bear or something

8:04 – Love this.  You think you can preach to me about responsibility? Try on my shoes, shithead

8:59 – Alright, yes, thanks again Armin.  I know, I said you were thematically hollow, I’m very happy with the theme you’ve picked. Jeez

9:54 – This character elaboration doesn’t speak well of her life expectancy 

10:17 – “Commander! Look at these readings!” “No, it can’t be. It’s-” “Berserker.” 

10:35 – Well that’s intense 

11:27 – Also intense 

12:16 – I think they’ve broken the intensity dial 

12:27 – You do not fuck with her man 

13:03 – Very few fucks given this episode 

14:21 – Wow. Best line 

15:01 – We Monogatari now . It’s actually a pretty nice, creepily told story. Baiting all these season 2 myst… wait, we still don’t fucking know what’s in the basement. Goddamnit, Titan

15:34 – Annie huge troll 

16:30 – Real badasses only talk past each other 

17:52 – Did you miss that whole “killed a titan spy in the inner guard” bit? 

18:09 – Also accomplished: Jean has joined the secret club 

19:22 – He’s got every right.  Eren’s still playing a sentimental game, even with all his power, when everyone else is willing to die or kill whenever necessary. Eren “kill em all” Jaeger has turned out to be the only one not cut out for soldierdom

19:55 – Hold the phone.  They did not mention hand-holding  in the description

20:35 – That’s a good question for the philosophers to ponder  after you make sure they don’t get eaten by titans

Sorry. I always have trouble with these “if sacrificing our emotions is necessary for victory, is it really worth it?” questions when my immediate response is, “yes, obviously, next question please”

20:48 – That is some graceful-ass imagery right there.  The geese in flight, which were first shown when Mikasa had her character-establishing “we all have to kill to survive” flashback with her family, contrasted against her “eat. survive” from after the initial episode’s titan attack. Titan gets like fifty points for that thematic hat trick alone

21:09 – Hell, it even works on the “we’re just rats in a cage” level Eren’s always going on about . That was an incredibly strong moment

22:24 – Yeah laugh it up Titan . Goddamn mysteries

And Done

OSHIT WALLS ARE TITANS aww fuck if I know. Great finale! Dramatic final battle, reasonable conclusion to the immediate conflicts, and goddamn if that near-ending shot didn’t tie some core themes together in a really graceful way. I had pretty major issues with this show during the Trost arc, and a few episodes in the second half suffered similarly, but this last act really showed off the show at its best. I’ll have to give more thought to how the show holds up as a full production, but I can easily say that was a fun and very worthwhile ride. Looking forward to the next one.