Attack On Titan S3: Hero

Welcome, one and all, to my latest weekly episode review for Attack on Titan Season Three. Today, I’m looking at the episode Hero. This one was phenomenal, as the survivors threw everything into their respective battles. Let’s talk about each fight.

The Beast Titan

The episode opened up where we left off, with Erwin taking a direct hit. Throughout all of the slaughter, the Beast Titan actually said some interesting stuff. Sure, there was the expected stuff like how he viewed them all as pitiful. It’s his use of phrases like ‘game over’ and referring to his throws as ‘pitches’ that caught my attention though. They both seemed a little outside the setting for me and left me wondering if the world is actually linked to our own a little more closely than I thought.

Anyway, the Beast Titan is seemingly able to take down everyone. We do discover one survivor from the charge towards the end of the episode, but the focus here was on giving Levi a chance to strike. Zeke had been warned before that Levi was dangerous, but I got the impression that he didn’t truly believe it until the Captain got to work. He shredded the Beast Titan’s arm, then takes his eyes, and finally drops him to the floor with an attack on his ankle. With his foes grounded, Levi goes straight for the nape and pulls Zeke out, then rams his blade into his mouth. Levi tries to question him, but the Quadrupedal Titan appears and scoops Zeke up, leaving Levi to deal with a handful of remaining Titans.

This whole thing was over really quickly, but I’m really not opposed to that. Levi is super strong, and he works efficiently, so it makes sense that he made short work on the Beast Titan when he had a clear chance. Honestly, it was all very exciting.

The Armoured Titan

After Armin comes up with a plan for the Colossal Titan, he sends the remaining Scouts – Jean, Conny, Sasha, and Mikasa – out to tackle Reiner. They needed to keep him away from Armin, so set about instigating their own plan to kill Reiner once and for all. Initially, they try to just get his attention. When that fails though, Mikasa uses one of the last four Thunder Spears to bring him to his knees and declares that they have to kill him. Their plan to do so was simple: Jean distracts him, Sasha and Conny use their remaining Thunder Spears to blow his jaw off, and Mikasa uses her last one to blow his human body to pieces.

Throughout all of this, Reiner is very confused. The toll it’s taken on his body to regenerate like he has, has essentially wiped his memories of the last battle, so when the first Thunder Spear hits his ankle, he doesn’t know what’s going. Nevertheless, he remains dangerous. Jean’s distraction works, but Reiner is able to injure Sasha. That means that her Thunder Spear misses the mark, and so only half of his jaw is damaged.

Mikasa is ready to improvise and is prepared to use her own remaining Thunder Spear to attack. I’d presume she was intending to finish his jaw then use her blades to finish Reiner of, still via the mouth. Before she can do so though, Hange appears and user her own Thunder Spear to finish his jaw off. Mikasa dives in, shoots a Thunder Spear into his mouth, and it explodes.

The Colossal Titan

Though out of ideas last week, Armin notices that the Colossal Titan is skinnier this time, and theorizes that he’s using a lot of energy right now. He comes up with a plan, but we learn very quickly that it’ll take sacrifice, as he tells himself that he won’t get to see the sea after all if it goes well. When he speaks to Eren though, he tells him that the plan depends on how long he himself can hold on. He says that he’s not a hero, and he can’t die until he sees the sea, so he’ll have to back out if it gets too tough He tells him that he’s never lied to him, so trust him and stick to the plan until the end. Eren almost picks up on this being a lie, but things start to go wrong before he can question it, as he stumbles off the Wall and collapses.

Bertholdt realizes that Eren is probably concussed and can’t even stand on his own. He tries to swat Armin, but Armin dodges and starts heading straight for his face. Bertholdt uses his steam attack, but Armin holds on. It’s then that Bertholdt realizes that it may be a diversion, but he can’t figure out what for. So, he takes the logical approach and decides to end it all quickly. He turns up the heat and Armin fights to hang on as long as possible, but his body soon ignites and he’s sent to his death.

With the battle now won, Bertholdt looks down and gets ready to kill Eren, but sees only Eren’s Titan husk. The truth is finally revealed, Armin’s diversion was so that Eren could create a copy without him noticing. Before he can react, Eren uses his ODM Gear to come in behind Bertholdt and rip him out of the Colossal Titan body. In the aftermath, Eren drags Bertholdt across the rooftops to Armin’s charred remains and thinks back to a time when they were kids. Armin was upset after being bullied but was adamant that he never loses to the bullies, because he never runs. Eren says that Armin was more of a hero than anyone else, and the episode ends.

Going forward

So, there are a few things to come out of this episode that I’m assuming will start to be dealt with next week. Levi mentioned the Titan syringe that they have during his battle, and he had thought about bringing Erwin back to life to eat Zeke and steal the Beast Titan power. The thing is, they only have one syringe. Now that the battle is over, who will they use it to bring back? Erwin and Armin are the obvious choices, but picking between the two is going to be tough. Meanwhile, Levi is all now set on his course to kill the Beast Titan, just as he promised Erwin. I expect them to clash again before the story is over.

In terms of the others, that should really be the end of Reiner now, right? They can’t keep having him regenerate, and I’ll be incredibly disappointed if he manages to escape death again here. I expect them to have whoever gets the syringe to eat Bertholdt too, meaning that the Colossal Titan will then be on the hero side of things.

My guess is this: It would make sense for that to be Armin to become Colossal as it was his plan that won the day. So, I expect him to be resurrected and given that. Meanwhile, Erwin I think will have also survived and will get to see the Basement. That’s where he’ll bleed out and die.

As an interesting side note though, did you notice all three battles relied on diversions to work? I do wonder how long the Scouts will get away with using similar plans like that before the Titans figure it out. Still, a great episode overall.

 

So, those were my thoughts. But what about yourselves? Did you enjoy this episode? Do you agree or disagree with any of my observations? Let me know in the comments below.