#...depending on the company that is since he lives with gabi and falco | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 16 Review: Above and Below

https://ift.tt/3ctoeiI

This Attack on Titan review contains spoilers.

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 16

“There’s much to learn from an enemy.” “Including how to make more enemies.”

Attack on Titan treats the Titan serum as one of the most powerful substances that can pollute and transform somebody’s body, but this final (sort of) season proves that denial and egotism make an even more dangerous cocktail. There’s a simple scene between Yelena and Dot Pixis where the latter is forced into submission and almost seems to respect Yelena’s cold and calculated ability to double cross her own people in favor of the changing tide. Yelena chastises Pixis for his decision to not side with her, Zeke, and Eren sooner, but it’s really a conversation that’s applicable to everyone.

Yelena and Pixis’ discussion functions as an elegant microcosm to the larger debates that break out between every faction of characters whose beliefs become at odds with one another. Scrutiny isn’t always a bad thing and characters like Eren used to understand that. Yelena doesn’t know if she’s right. Nobody knows if they’re right. However, these characters have been pushed this far and committed so many sins that considering anything else would be sacrilege. Delusion has become the new religion because doubt is now a force that’s more destructive than bullets. “Above and Below” is not the very end of Attack on Titan, but it does close the book on a lot of its past and presents very changed teams for the upcoming final battle.

Much of the second half of this season has been focused on the many pieces of Zeke, Eren, and Yelena’s master plan. “Above and Below” puts it in plain sight and wants the severity of these actions to be out in the open. Everyone believes that this strategy involves reuniting Zeke and Eren to trigger the Rumbling, which is true, but Yelena hints at an even more grim solution that involves either Eldian euthanasia or sterilization to permanently remove them as a threat to the Founding Titan.

It’s a bleak endpoint for the series and the stakes have reached such a diabolical level that characters act as if their brains have overheated and nothing makes sense anymore. Jean is still in disbelief over the nature of Eren’s actions and it’s hard to tell if Armin is actually moved by Yelena’s impassioned speech regarding Zeke and Eren’s intentions or if he’s just lost it. Attack on Titan has reached a fascinating point where it’s hard to take anyone’s reactions at face value or consider if they’re part of a more intricate con, which is perhaps most prevalent in Gabi and Pieck’s encounter with Eren.

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episodes 14 and 15 Review

By Daniel Kurland

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 13 Review: Children of the Forest

By Daniel Kurland

This whole season has carefully juxtaposed the later stages of Eren’s journey with the first steps in Gabi’s adventure. Both characters are presented with many flaws, but it’s been a challenging process to put Attack on Titan’s previous baggage aside and attempt to accurately determine which of these characters is the lesser evil and “more right.” Gabi and Eren have extremely similar backgrounds, but these episodes have pitted them against each other and made a showdown feel inevitable. “Above and Below” creates a ton of tension when it forces Gabi into an unlikely alliance with Eren after he uses Falco’s life as collateral. These two reflections of the same image must work together and this becomes a more stressful exercise than if Eren and Gabi were locked in combat.

It’s also pretty perfect that during this pact Eren refers to Gabi as “the brat who killed Sasha.” Not only does this indicate that he might not even know Gabi’s name, but he so casually throws around Sasha’s death in a way that emphasizes just how hollow he’s become inside. Eren promises Gabi the safety of Falco if she works with him, but I wouldn’t have been surprised in the slightest if Eren just pulled out a gun and shot Gabi and Falco in the head after he gets what he wants.

It’s utterly crazy that in only a season’s worth of time it’s now very easy to picture Eren–the show’s protagonist–in this disaffected light. There have been frequent moments this season where Eren’s dark turn has reminded me of Walter White’s descent in Breaking Bad, but there’s a lot of overlap between the two of them as Eren presses his forehead against the barrel of Pieck’s gun and fearlessly taunts her to pull the trigger. This meek individual has turned into someone that’s now more frightening than the person with the loaded weapon.

Slices of Pieck’s backstory come forward during this hostage situation and it acts as another slick way to remind the audience that every player in this struggle is a real character with a life, family, and people that they care about. The enemies aren’t just mindless monsters anymore. Eren remains unphased, but his smug demeanor disappears when Pieck and company are the ones that pull off the surprise betrayal. Eren narrowly survives, but it shouldn’t be dismissed that these plucky kids nearly killed Eren and ended this whole thing.

Despite how you feel about Gabi, Pieck, or the Marleyans, it’s hard to deny the brilliant nature of this plan. It also allows some cathartic momentary justice for Porco Galliard and his Jaw Titan, who Eren used to kill the Warhammer Titan, but also nearly killed himself and tried to gruesomely disfigure. It’s inspiring to see all of these Marleyan fighters spring together when nearly everything else is left in disarray.

It’s impressive how focused Attack on Titan’s season finale is and there are major threads from the past few episodes that are left unresolved. I can’t imagine how someone that believed that this was the anime’s very final episode would feel around the halfway point when “Above and Below’s” leisurely pace is established and it’s clear that nothing is really getting resolved here. It’s a surprisingly subdued finale and it’s telling that the episode’s priority is to make the ideologies of the different sides of this war crystal clear.

Major characters are shelved to the background and material that seems like it would have been the focus of this episode, like if Levi and Zeke are still alive, gets brushed aside. Even larger questions remain unresolved such as whether Falco is effected by the small amount of Zeke’s spinal fluid that he inadvertently ingests. This season teases the return of Annie as well as Historia’s pregnancy, but these exciting storylines now feel slightly hollow with no payoff. Some of these developments may have worked better if they were held off on entirely until the next batch of episodes.

“Above and Below” makes a lot of decisions that a season finale shouldn’t do and in many ways it feels more like a regular episode that only tells a fraction of its story and is dependent on the episode that follows. With what’s covered in this finale it wouldn’t have been impossible to deliver a version of this episode where some of Reiner and Marley’s attack against Eren actually happens. “Above and Below” pointedly concludes just as chaos breaks out and it intentionally leaves the first strike of this war for the final final batch of episodes. What this speaks towards is how these sixteen “final” episodes really act as more of an extended prologue for what will really be the concluding installments of this incredible series.

This bait and switch isn’t a problem, but there are likely many people that blindly went into this season with every expectation that it’s the ending, only to figure out the hard way that this isn’t the case. This could sour some viewing experiences, either for this finale or the season as a whole, especially since Part 2 isn’t coming out for practically an entire year.

It’s not dissimilar to the understandable outrage that some people experienced towards Final Fantasy VII Remake when they learned that it’s part one of a series and doesn’t cover the full story. It wouldn’t have been difficult to add Part 1 to the new Final Fantasy game, but it’d be even easier to have added it to Attack on Titan: The Final Season. If anything, showing that this final season requires two sections to be fully covered would create greater anticipation for the epic story that’s being told.

It’s a minor complaint against an exceptional season of television and one that will become irrelevant after all of the episodes are released. The structure of this season’s release doesn’t rob these episodes of their layered storytelling, stunning point of view work, and the emotional gut punch that’s accompanied the transformation of the series’ beloved characters.

“Above and Below” is an unusually direct installment and at one point Pieck asks Gabi, “Are we Marleyan? Or are we Eldian?” This question will be more important than ever as Attack on Titan heads into Part 2 of its Final Season, yet the audience already seems to understand that there is no difference between the two. These are all just people that want to have futures full of possibilities and families and friends that can thrive rather than live in fear.

This may seem like a glib oversimplification to a very busy season of television, but the conflict has literally built to a point where the embrace of two brothers will cause catastrophic danger. Hugs and handshakes are now tools of destruction and the situation between Eren and Zeke becomes metonymic for all of humanity. Reconciliation is impossible and there’s an overpowering feeling that Attack on Titan can only end in complete annihilation.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The War for Paradis begins in Winter 2022!

The post Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 16 Review: Above and Below appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2PC6vMW

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes

aion-rsa · 4 years

Text

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 2 Review: Midnight Train

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Attack on Titan review contains spoilers.

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 2

“You’ve achieved great things.”

“No, not yet.”

Fringe is a television series about an unstable rift between two alternate Earths where the survival of one depends on the destruction of the other. The characters on these opposing Earths both view themselves as the heroes because by nature the very existence of the other Earth makes it the “enemy.” Neither side functions as a villain, but this necessity for survival demands that they’re both viewed in this light anyway. The alternative is to accept that the other side deserves to exist more. It’s a fascinating question to have the audience consider, but Attack on Titan pushes this challenging paradigm to an even more ambitious place with how its fourth season presents the rest of its story. “Midnight Train” adds another satisfying layer to this larger question as the final season’s narrative develops.

Nobody wants to become irrelevant and people will do extreme things to avoid that from happening, especially when their very existence is questioned. What’s already an extremely rewarding aspect of Attack on Titan’s final season is that it explains the motivations that have driven characters like Reiner and Zeke in a way that makes their past actions against Eren and company a lot more understandable. “History is told from the point of view of the winners,” is an overused adage, but this season powerfully demonstrates the significance of perspective. Attack on Titan’s season 4 has the audience spend time with characters who have been previously introduced as villains, only to make them reconsider if that label is truly accurate.

This could come across as hackneyed and stilted, but it’s able to work so well because Attack on Titan doesn’t repeatedly tell the audience that these new characters are heroes. Instead, it simply lets the audience spend time with them and see that they’re as human and empathetic as anyone from out of Shiganshina District and within the Walls. It comes down to its confidence in its characters, which isn’t going to work for everyone, but it’s so much better than presenting these individuals in a manufactured way. One of the most effective scenes in the episode involves Reiner recounting his undercover work in Shiganshina to his family. He describes acts between Survey Corps members that were previously playful moments in the series, yet he speaks about them with growing contempt as if they’re sub-human species who defy reason.

“The Other Side of the Sea” is a strong introduction to Attack on Titan’s reverse half, but “Midnight Train” properly shows what these characters care about and why they deserve to have it. These thought provoking parallels get underlined even more with how this episode puts Zeke Jaeger in the spotlight. Zeke is essentially the series’ bizarro version of Eren, right down to how they both want to get redemption for the acts of their father, Grisha, albeit over very different things.

“Midnight Train” really lights a fire under the idea of how important it is for these Marleyan forces to obtain the Founding Titan. This proposal leads to plenty of action, but it also opens up some gripping questions that are able to examine the full world of Attack on Titan in a way that previously wasn’t possible. There’s a debate where Zeke and other high-ranking Marleyan officials lament that their army has focused on their strength coming from Titans rather than the development of conventional weapons and artillery. Eldia hasn’t avoided Titans, but they’ve made technology their priority in such a way where their continued advancements have even started to surpass the skills of Titans and make them look like an inefficient weapon in comparison. In theory the Founding Titan will solve this and give “Titan warfare” the advantage that it’s lacking against modern technology.

Titans have always been treated like ultimate tools of destruction and when Eren is revealed to be one it’s viewed as a turning point for the Survey Corps. “Midnight Train” argues that such a preoccupation on Titans is a waste of time and not the direction that the world is moving in. It’s a new idea for the audience to consider and it oddly equates Titans to a dying piece of technology not unlike VCRs. It’s as if the Founding Titan is the hardware advancement that will allow Blu-Ray to surpass HD-DVD.

All of this can boil down to the need to survive, which has been present from the anime’s start, but it’s another way in which this new season asks the viewer to question the tenets of this universe and deconstruct it through a fresh context. The multi-step plan of deception that Zeke orchestrates as Marley’s last gambit shows off the intricate politics of this world and their manipulation of society. This is fundamental to the series, but it hasn’t really been focused on since the look into the Reiss family. Zeke is forced to take larger risks with the allies that he banks on, but it’s a welcome change of pace for an episode to put so much focus on the strategy behind a battle and not the battle itself.

It appears that the first few episodes of this season will revolve around the efforts of Falco, Gabi, Udo, and others as they fight to inherit Reiner’s Armored Titan ability. This is an exciting storyline to function as an introduction since it immediately shows these characters at their most cutthroat. This is a lot of fun and it’s nice that this “contest” takes its time and isn’t resolved in a single episode so it’s allowed to have more of this feeling of a bizarro version of The Apprentice.

What’s kind of brilliant about this is that the audience is ostensibly put in a similar position to the Marleyan officials that will decide who’s worthy to become the next Armored Titan. The audience knows that Eren and his team are out to acquire the Founding Titan and that’s also identified as the larger goal of these new Marleyan characters. This presentation style forces the audience to inherently side with one set of characters more than the other so when everyone does eventually come together the series has already built stakes that are complex and personal.

Falco also raises some interesting counterpoints to the Titan argument, such as how it’s just as much of a death sentence as it is an honor. He’s bullied into submission for this dissent, but it’s another valid point made against Titans. Alternatively, “Midnight Train” also has a real interest in the memory transfer concept of Titan inheritance. It addresses new fears and imperfections in the area. In the past Titan consumption has been looked at as a way to gain additional power, but here it’s viewed more as a way to access or transfer dead information and live forever, so to speak.

It’s also worth pointing out that “Midnight Train” is directed by Daisuke Tokudo, who hasn’t helmed an episode of the anime since Attack on Titan’s very first season. “Midnight Train” certainly matches the action of last week’s premiere, but it’s somewhat fitting for the series to return to some of the first season’s creative staff as the anime concludes with this parallel piece of storytelling. These new episodes do feel like the show’s first season in many respects. It’s unclear if more of Attack on Titan’s former staff will return for the show’s swan song, but it’s a nice way to bring back some former experts and a source of stability, especially when the anime’s animation studio has changed.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“Midnight Train” gives a better picture of the scope of Attack on Titan’s final season and why the show’s world has such depth to it. It does an even better job with Falco, Gabi, Porco, and the rest of the new characters, but its work with older supporting figures like Zeke and Reiner is even more exciting in certain ways. Character, story, and animation all remain at a high standard. The pacing in “Midnight Train” remains at a comfortable speed that lets this new world breathe, but it also doesn’t feel like it drags its feet.

The post Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 2 Review: Midnight Train appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2KjU2ec

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

1 note · View note