How did you like that episode last time which was all types of messed up and told you that “racism and fascism are a damn bitch?” Well, we’ll still not done with the past stuff, as there’s plenty more to go from here, and I could use an old saying some cartoon fat guy said on this. Enough talking; it’s been a while since the last recap, so let’s get the final 2 going.
As Kruger is finishing off what’s left of the Marley soldiers, with Grisha telling us as he watches (or Eren and co. about this, who knows), Kruger gets out of his Titan and releases Grisha from his restraints. Grisha asks who he is, and we finally get a full name.
Yeah, real subtle. Anyway, since he has one of the Nine Titans, that makes him an Eldian. He got into the Public Security by way of a doctor who helped rig his blood results. He thinks Grisha did well in his plan to reclaim Eldia, even if it backfired immensely. Grisha wonders why he was the only one left alive/as is, especially since Dina had royal blood in her and could’ve use the Titan’s true power. In fact, if Kruger could become a Titan, why didn’t he save the rest earlier? Kruger drops to his knees, exhausted from using this power. He also sees Grisha’s cut-off hands and knows how many of his people’s fingers he cut off, as he did this for years, even to women and children, while turning them all into Titans, believing it to be for Eldia’s own sake.
Kruger knows that if the two didn’t meet at that airfield, Grisha may not have had all this hatred in him. That hatred is why Kruger chose him, since it reminded him of himself as a kid. Kruger reveals that his own dad was part of the royal family who stayed behind and formed a revolution against Marley, but they didn’t do a thing as Marley found out, and the people were burned alive. Kruger saw them burned alive as a young kid, peering out from a closet. That’s where his path of revenge started, and yet he ironically messed up his own people as he hid his identity, still thinking he’s that kid that is peeking out of the closet.
Grisha asks him what the final task is. Simple: Grisha is to infiltrate the walls after getting Kruger’s Titan and take back the Founding Titan. First, Grisha will have to eat Kruger and then do the same with the Founding Titan’s owner, but why can’t Kruger do this? His time is nearly up. People who get the power of the Nine Titans die after 13 years, and Kruger is on Year 13. It’s called “The Curse of Ymir” as that is how long Ymir lived for after awakening, and we cut back to Eren, with Armin writing this down. So basically Armin has 13 years left to live, while Eren has 8. Eren also tells us that if the person who has one of the Nine Titans dies before passing it on, an Eldian baby will inherit it before birth. It makes all of Ymir’s subjects connected in some way without seeing it, but as one inheritor said, they saw the paths that form a Titan and every memory that passes through said paths, with all of them leading to one coordinate: the Founding Titan, which all of Ymir’s subjects are connected to.
We cut back to Kruger who tells us that Ymir was a pawn of the devil under Marley but a miracle of god to the Eldians, with some thinking she could touch the source of all living matter. And yet, the truth of the world is that there are no truths, as anyone could become a god or devil if they believe so.
Back to why Dina wasn’t chosen: Kruger couldn’t pick her because of Marley, as it was actually better for her to become a man-eating giant than to become a slave to the enemy and giving birth to more of their soldiers for the rest of her life. So now, it’s time for Grisha to take over Kruger’s role, but he says he can’t. They point to Gross’s now eaten-up body, as Grisha wasn’t interested in him being eaten by Moé Titan. Gross’s screams were unbearable, and Grisha believes if this is his price for freedom, he wouldn’t have done it to begin with. Kruger tells Grisha to stand and fight for Eldia’s chance at freedom and dignity, but he won’t. Kruger takes out Grisha’s family photo to get him to act, which Grisha can’t look at now because, in Kruger’s words, Grisha has “no balls” to do this last mission. Grisha doesn’t care, since all he has left is his sins. That’s enough for Kruger, as that’s why he picked him. Sure, if Grisha didn’t go to the wall that day, his sister may not only be alive, but she may have lived a good life… but he did. This, with Kruger’s own sins, means they have to push forward until their actions are paid up, even after death. This makes Grisha look and take the photo back, marking his new beginning.
By the way, there are names given to the Nine Titans, like the Colossal, Female, etc. Kruger’s Titan, no matter the era, has pushed forward seeking freedom and fights for the sake of freedom. What is that Titan’s name? For its Japanese name in the subbed version, it’s the name of the show: “Shingeki no Kyojin.” You know what that means
But because some of you don’t like being weebs and/or hate subs, I guess I can put down the English version of it, and that is
Sorry if it’s not the exact name of the show in English. Moving on, you can see Eren doing the weird pose above, which Hange notices. He denies it, which gets Hange flustered and wanting to talk more about it. Levi lets him out of his cell, just saying that it’s a “phase” he’s in as a teen. The former part is why they’re here, as Zachery let them be released. It wouldn’t be wise keeping the people who beat the Armored and Colossal Titans locked up. Besides, Mikasa has lost some weight since she hasn’t eaten, but let’s literally ignore that since they got a meeting with the Survey Corps committee and Historia on what they found.
Before that, we see the letter Present-day Ymir wanted to get to Historia, as she now reads it. We see Ymir writing this “love letter” with Reiner creepily watching her do so. She gets her payback on him for her being attacked in S2 with him delivering it. Anyway, she apologizes to Historia for picking them over her as Ymir doesn’t have long to live. She only has one regret: she couldn’t marry Historia. That’s it for the letter, but as Historia touches the last page, a bolt is sent through her, showing Ymir’s past that we all saw in S2 (which the chapter they’re highlighting here was where we saw her past… Yeah, don’t ask.) It goes back to the coordinate, which shows more of Ymir’s past and her getting a Titan power like how Historia nearly did with Eren’s power, which relates to the Founding Titan. Sure, Historia has no idea what happened, as both her and Hange think Ymir couldn’t write something as complex as a secret code, but nonetheless Historia still misses her big dummy, and she tries to hide her tears from them.
Levi and co. arrive as Eren, Mikasa and Armin address her as the new royalty, even if it hasn’t happened yet. Historia doesn’t like that she stayed behind as they fought, but they need to keep her alive. It still hasn’t sunk in to the main 3 what all has happened. The remaining Scouts give all they found and what happened in the battle in the courtroom, as all the people there are the only ones who know. We know that those 9 are the only ones who made it out of the 208 members. New Commander Hange tells all that happened, how the Titans aren’t the real enemies, and how the whole world at large hates them (showing the S2 flashback of Eren asking Ymir who the real enemy is). Basically, everyone here is the race of Ymir’s subjects, and they could rule the world someday, or the world will get rid of them.
The episode cuts back to Kruger and Grisha. Grisha thinks the King wouldn’t let the Founding Titan fall into Marley’s hands, but Kruger knows the King is a coward. The king’s own words were: “If Eldia is driven to sin once more, we perish as meant to be”, making a vow renouncing using the Founding Titan in wars to the royal family on the continent as he closed the walls. Plus, his “Titans will flatten the world” thing was just so Marley wouldn’t attack. In short, doing all this and taking their memories away from the truth makes the king not worthy of protecting his own people. So it was up to Grisha to find the Founding Titan, which he did, which goes to Eren now, in which that power is with Historia.
Now, the Founding Titan can only be used at full power when one with royal blood possesses it, but the king’s ideals take over said person, which just leads them back to Square One: that is “The King’s Vow”, and yet Eren could control Pure Titans once without royal blood. The only thing is that when Eren did it, he faced Titan Dina, who he remembers had royal blood in her. Eren figures it out right there, except he kind of stands up shouting in the courtroom with everyone looking at him awkwardly.
Zachery wants “Our Titan” to continue with what he just found out, but Eren passes it off as nothing, even though Hange can see the serious face on him. They pass it off as his teenage phase once more. Eren still hasn’t told Armin or Mikasa the Titan that ate his mom and Hannes was his dad’s ex-wife, because he knows now that if he touches a Titan who used to be of royal blood, he can control the Founding Titan’s power. However, if he told this, he wouldn’t know what the military would do to Historia. Armin knows Eren is hiding something.
For the last part, as Kruger is about to inject Grisha, he tells Grisha to have a family when he enters the walls, even if Grisha has Dina. Even though Grisha won’t remember this as he becomes a Titan, it’s not always the case. Even so, Kruger reluctantly tells him to do so, or else history will just repeat once more. It’s all to save Mikasa, Armin and everyone else, Kruger says. Grisha doesn’t know who those two are, and neither does Kruger, as he got a persons’ memories he doesn’t know of.
Overall, there wasn’t as much info and earth-shattering truth finding as there was with the last episode, but we still got to find out what the name of the show actually meant, how much time Eren has left, how he can control his power, and what it means going forward. It may not have been as big as the last episode, but it was still important info nonetheless. It still bothers me that we saw some of Ymir’s past in S2 for no reason at all, when it should’ve happened in this episode. Usually, WIT Studio has been pretty good at handling this show in how the chapters play out, but that scene happened 50 or so chapters beforehand, making things pretty confusing in the first place. Otherwise, that’s just a minor gripe on this episode that was just okay overall. It’s kind of a breather from what all happened before, so maybe you should enjoy it.
Well we are down to the last episode of this long, 2-cour season finally, and there will be something big and blue to see. And this time, there will be no Peter Griffin quotes on the last recap… unless you want a meme of him with this show, in which case, just Google it yourself.
Attack on Titan Season 3 is licensed by Funimation. Episodes can be seen on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Funimation. The dub version is airing Saturday at 11:30 PM ET on Toonami and Sundays on Funimation.