Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「子供達」 (Kodomo tachi)
“Children”
As the Scouts give chase, Ymir makes her wishes known and uses her unclear affiliations to take Christa away in exchange for continuing to go with our traitorous Titan duo. For the most part, the episode throws away the focus from Reiner, Bertholdt, and Eren in favor of more Ymir, and count me in as someone who’s definitely more satisfied when things focus on the latter rather than the former. At the very least, the motivations for Ymir’s actions are clear—especially with the additional flashback we get this week—and everything she’s doing at this point is a straight forward representation of who she is, how much Christa means to her, and how she’s willing to push things towards a potentially unfavorable endgame just to get some additional time with her. The revelation that she remembers nothing about what she did to Marcel also seems to hint at how she had no control of herself when she (first?) transformed to her Titan form years prior, potentially explaining why she hasn’t transformed since and providing a satisfactory backstory that makes a huge difference when compared to the other transformable Human Titans.
Needless to say however—with Hannes and Co. readying their fangs in hot pursuit—I don’t hold any hopes for their meeting leading to a fairy tale ending that let’s them both stay together safely, meaning that next week will likely be an emotional reunion and separation. The question is whether or not she’ll play a large part in the Scouts’ mission to recover Eren, and it’s certainly not hard to see where a discussion with Christa would cause her to assist rather than impede, potentially giving her one true last hurrah. Alternatively, the desire to preserve her time with Christa no matter the cost could realistically flip things to the other potential scenario, and it’d certainly be interesting to see how things would work out in an all-out fight involving all the transformable Titans, Erwin, Mikasa, and the rest of the Scouts.
Either way, my continued irritation at Reiner and Bertholdt’s aside, perhaps the most important thing this week isn’t so much everything with Ymir, but rather the very brief mention of something called “The Coordinate” as the main reason behind their attempted abduction of Eren and seemingly any other human capable of transforming into Titans. The term itself isn’t elaborated upon, but for the sake of some future musings, it’s very curious they would use that specific term to represent someone their looking for, especially given that the word coordinate could refer to someone or something that either organizes, arranges, or brings everything together, and the mathematical take on it could use coordinates to refer to a starting or ending point.
Given the focus on Titans origins, hometowns, and the obvious hint that Connie’s mother is likely the Titan in his hometown, it’s becoming more and more obvious that the Titan phenomenon itself may have been caused by someone or something—potentially someone who dabbled in research of the more nefarious sort—and that it could potentially be spread (or triggered?) via some unknown means. Putting two and two together hints at a search for the origins of this phenomenon, and it gets pretty interesting if you consider that their motives may not necessarily be a negative thing in regards to the grand scheme of things, even if there’s still likely nothing that could possibly excuse Reiner and Bertholdt’s destruction of the wall last season and the deaths they caused. The ends don’t always justify the means after all. It’s just a pity that due to various things ending up the way they have, we’re probably years off from seeing what those ends really are from the anime-only standpoint. Contrary to what it may seem though, for all my criticisms, I’m still quite the fan of the series regardless. I’m just lamenting a little bit that years down the line, the pacing here in this arc will likely be what pulls the series (at least the animated version of it) down a bit impressions wise when it’s all said and done.
Author’s Note: Once again, please refrain from spoilers of the source material past what’s been covered so far. Use spoiler tags if you absolutely need to mention something that wasn’t explicitly shown/covered, as there is a zero tolerance policy in effect and comments with spoilers will be immediately deleted and bans handed out where necessary.
Preview
 |
 |
 |
Historia isn’t a lesbian, what is the anime team doing !?
Yamir is interested romantically in Historia (in both the manga and the anime) but i doubt Historia thinks of her the same way (in either version of the story), maybe she sees her like a big sister or a very close friend, i don’t see much diff between Historia’s portrayal here and in the manga so not sure what you are getting worked over? Yamir for sure is 100% a lesbian in both the anime and the manga, they never said Historia is.
Show Spoiler ▼
Nope and she never will because Historia canonically isn’t one.
Well, I wasn’t expecting them to have Ymir’s flashback this season. Several eps ago in the comments I mentioned that people should watch the OVA – Attack on Titan – “Ilse’s Notebook: Record of a Fallen Soldier”, and now I have to double down on that. You may just recognize a familiar face now.
Are you suggesting that Show Spoiler ▼
from this episode?
It was yes. If you look at Ymir’s flashback in the manga Show Spoiler ▼
I really liked how they did the flashback for Ymir here. I didn’t care too much for her and Kirsta in the manga and I thought they definitely did a better job of developing her character for anime viewers.
It makes Show Spoiler ▼
Despite this episode raising more questions, I still found it immensely satisfying! It feels like we’re finally getting closer to the crux of this conspiracy, and the conversation between Bertholdt and Ymir seemed almost…tender?
So it seems the cultists belong to some walled country. The question is whether it’s within Wall Maria, or a separate nation altogether? Judging by the uniforms of the soldiers, and how they were exiling people by titan shifting them, I’d bet it may very well be Reiner’s country or a different one altogether.
Another question is the significance of the King’s blood. Is that the key to titan shifting and, hence, immortality? What separates a regular titan from someone like Ymir, who regained her humanity after sixty years?
I’d also really like to know what Reiner and Co were doing looking so placid, seemingly knee-deep in Titan territory? Do they normally have a means of warding off Titans? Could one of their Titan forms (Marcel?) command Titans to stay away?
Well to put you at ease, Show Spoiler ▼
I just want that we have a sneak peak of Erwin showing some of his abilities against Reiner.
Everyone seems to to be missing the real question here which is WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K ???
https://randomc.net/image/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin%20-%2035%20-%2005.jpg
In all of this seriousness, I find Eren punching Reiner with his handless arms pretty funny :p
heh yeah that whole sequence where they were talking and that was going on in the background was kind of amusing.
What I said last time: talking; flashbacks.
Nice of them to double down.
Oh no Hannes, don’t go off and death flagging yourself like that!
Did they reveal more of Ymir’s past in the anime at this point in the story in the manga? Felt a bit spoilery.
Yeah, that flashback was supposed to happen much later in the story, but they chose to push it ahead to accentuate that Yamir dedicated portion of the episode, it does reveal some stuff before they are supposed to be revealed but i think people won’t make sense of what’s exactly going on until the awaited big reveal comes later.
Definitely getting more and more Claymore-like vibes as more is getting revealed.
Show Spoiler ▼
The anime will neatly wrap up Ymir’s characterization this season compared to what the manga did letting their readers wait for a few years to know what happened to her and where did she came from.
‘The Coordinate’ gave me immediate flashback to ‘Coordinators’ in Gundam SEED 8P
This episode shoved even more mysteries in the face of the viewer and the hint at life outside of the walls was very satisfying – after all, the ‘world’ we see through the eyes of Team Eren may be incomplete or even not representative of the human society at this point in time.
So apparently if Titans eat people they regain the ability of shifting back into humans but forget such an act :O Apparently that’s true for all of them, after all Reiner and Bertholdt were wondering about the fact that Erin also didn’t remember such a fact, which means that Erin was once a Titan until he eventually ate someone and went back into human form.
I have this theory that Titans are man-made, for a long time, and this episode only fortified it.
Maybe Reiner’s and Ymir’s country of origin was once infected with the Titan “virus”.
Maybe the original idea was to turn people into Titans so they would wreck havoc in said nation.
Maybe they realised that after being turned into Titans they would only be able to return to human form after consuming someone else.
Maybe every Titan is a person from this nation, expelled from there and striving for some human flesh; and if you have to eat someone, who better than a dweller from the nation that brought such horror upon you and your country.
In a way, every Titan would be a victim searching for salvation, decades after a war that created such powerful abominations… That would be quite the twist. Titans are no the monsters, they are victims! Well worked this would be an idea that could deliver…
Or maybe this is all a product of my imagination and I’m way off! Probably the latter xD
Oh well, i will tell you something, it won’t ruin the story for you but i’ll mark it as a spoiler just in case,Show Spoiler ▼
Ehh, as someone who hasn’t read the manga at all (but has been semi spoiled here and there with some random facts), I find the pacing and developments leading to the revelations quite good. Probably also since I just watched the S2 10 episodes in one go rather than weekly.
I don’t find Ymir’s story/reasoning as touching and empathetic but like it was mentioned, it’s straightforward and makes sense. Reiner’s situation I think is quite a real phenomenon with long-term double agents irl and to be honest I found this whole season to be real heart-breaking because of Reiner and Berth… I really liked Reiner cri. I already knew their identities (spoiled) but the reveal this season was so jarring and unsettling, it’s just sad, like when Reiner was talking about Bertholdt’s crush, Reiner trying to recruit Christa “for her sake” as if they’re decent people, as if they’re still “normal” peeps… which they may be depending on the perspective maybe but STILL. So. Sad. </3
But best line for me this season was props to Eren to Bertholdt: "I'm talking to you, you damn lackey" – words never rang truer to me for lols.