Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season – 18

「騙し討ち」 (Damashi Uchi)
“Sneak Attack”

If you thought answers may be arriving swift and furious in SnK just because it’s the last (confirmed) season you will be happy to know you’re most definitely, indubitably, wrong. In the vaunted tradition of shounens past and present every development shall be dragged out, every new tidbit wrung from cold dead overplayed hands. Getting on to new matters? So next week. For this series more than others it’s all about the moment – and you’re damn right I’m laughing writing this because some of you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Following Marley’s grand attack on the redoubt of Paradis there isn’t really much to say this time around: Eren does a walk; Gabi learns of moral nuance; and Armin starts placing far too much trust in a man with a mission in mind. It quite exemplifies just where SnK is at this point, because for all the characters are what drive this story it’s conversely a story which has very much moved beyond simple personal desires. You can see this best with Falco and Gabi and the desperate belief that revealing Falco’s consumption of Zeke’s spinal fluid will quell the onslaught: one would expect under normal circumstances for Zeke to listen and hesitate, to make exceptions for those close to them in the heat of battle. As we all know at this stage though, matters have definitely moved beyond that point. What Eren and Zeke are after goes far beyond individual considerations now, they will do what they believe is required to see their objective through – and if a few people known to them must die for it to happen, then their sacrifice won’t be in vain. This is the land of the zealot where the only accepted currency is fealty to the cause.

Such a shift is something SnK’s original cast will have to come to grips with as well, for Armin and Misaka especially have yet to fully realize just how lost Eren has become. While easy to pin the reason for rationalizations like this on desperate desire on the part of close friends to make sense of Eren’s actions, part of it is also down to how this arc is going to wind up playing out. Simply put what we’re seeing going through Armin and Misaka is just the tip of the iceberg, there’s a whole swath of weird, confusing, and downright broken developments on the behalf of certain characters coming down the tracks which will leave anyone fortunate enough to have remained in the dark thus far questioning just what the hell is happening. While certainly spoiler-ish, it is I think appropriate to foreshadow this now before things really kick into gear and actual spoilers start flying because the amount to soon dissect will get voluminous.

SnK is on the precipice of blowing everything wide open, and it officially starts once Zeke and Eren can officially kick off their plan extraordinaire. Makes ya wonder just what trouble those two crazy kids are going to get into once they finally meet up doesn’t it?

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