AOT - The Final Attack Part 3

Since you’ve already finished the show, I don’t know if you’ll see this and though it’s quite convenient that was Falco able to control his flight ability as quick as he did, we have also seen it happen multiple times in the show already but it’s easy to miss out on first watch. Example is Eren being able to master Titan hardening the moment he took the Armor serum in season 3. There’s also the point made by Reiner when Ymir ate Marcel and Bertold suggested going back to find her unconscious body but Reiner argued that Berthold was able to master his Titan abilities the moment he got them so Ymir might have done the same, meaning it’s rare but not uncommon for a Titan shifter to master their abilities the moment of acquisition, which is especially so when that person has been trained to receive that ability like Falco has. This is why your critic of the show doing some telling after showing is funny because there are things that are shown that anybody whose watching for the first time would completely forget or ignore and the show telling them would have made it easier to digest😅

I love seeing how clearly you care about your audience watching along with you. Seeing you DYING to watch the last segment and coming around to "no, because then the episode won't be there for all of you in the morning" legitimately made me tear up. 💙 I've loved getting to follow you through this journey. Thanks for bringing the rest of us along!

With regard to Falco it's also important to consider that he is a warrior candidate. So whereas the scouts with Eren has to learn from scratch how to use Eren's titan abilities, this was not really the case with Falco. He was groomed to be able to do this.

I love the denial phase you're in to accept that Eren is a villain. Not in the sense that he enjoys or reveals in this doing but still he is selfish, braising, stupid and violent. I love him as a character I don't think he is evil. He is incredible loyal, he loves and cares for those he's friends, but nonetheless still a villain. He did this because he wanted to, he was sad of the reality of the world, he's very much so a disappointed child that just had too much power.

theres a dvd version of the movies btw! sure its up online, and theres a big change in quality with them, in a rewatch you can check them out. Also theres a lot of media evolving some clues and things you could have not notice and things in the manga that the anime didnt put thoughts on, for example the first scene of first episode etc..

At the beginning of the chapter, we see the Founder Ymir setting some pigs free; this isn't a scene from the present, as you might have thought, but rather shows that she was the one who released the pig for which she was ultimately punished (the flashback scene with the dogs chasing her and the whole village pointing the finger at her). She is the one who yearns for freedom, just like Eren.

something about watching reiner finally show his true potential because he found something he was willing to fight for after jean calls him a scout (not a warrior) makes me sentimental ☹️☹️ especially since the armoured titan isn't an inherently weak titan, and reiner is NOT a bad shifter. the armoured titan needs someone with a tenacious spirit so since reiner was depressed and had no will to live, that showed in his fights and in how easy it was for his armour to come apart. his mental state affects the armours durability it seems the same goes for titan regeneration it seems that titan regeneration is linked to a person's mental state. not officially but there's definitely a pattern. armin gets shot in the mouth and chest on the port at paradis, but he heals surprisingly slowly. by that point he's spent FOUR YEARS questioning whether erwin should have been chosen instead, and this is also AFTER he literally tried sacrificing himself to save connie's mum. he doesn't exactly have a strong instinct for self preservation anymore. this becaomes super clear in his scene while unconscious and he's yelling at himself. why do you think he took so long to heal when he got shot? compare that to eren who every time he's injured, he's completely ibsessed with fighting and moving forward that he'll just regrow limbs like it's nothing because his determination is insane. and then theres the founder ymir. she's literally the source. if anyone could have survived a spear through the chest it should have been her. so why didn't she? by that point she's been through utter hell. and would later come to find out that that hell would continue for another 2000 years in the paths. even if it's not stated explicityly, it's not a huge leap to wonder whether regeneration and ability responds to the user's willpower. because throughout all of aot the mind and titan powers have been constantly intertwined. eren couldn't transform without a clear goal, memories are inherited through triggered emotions, i could go on

Yea you are right about some parts feeling rushed. Especially Falco flying particularly for me. However, I can overlook some plot conveniences due to how amazing everything else is. Also Falco aka (falcon) kinda some foreshadowing there. See some of the other comments for the flying explanations.

You should definitely watch all the ovas, specially “no regrets” which talk about how levi got into the scouts, there is also one on annie , how she was in the MP, planning for that raid on the scouts in s1, also one for mikasa armin and eren, mainly on mikasa, which is also interesting, would love to see your reactions on the levi and mikasa one

When it comes to Mikasa -- Eren is her reason for living. Everything she did, she did for Eren, at least up until she started doubting herself and her relationship to Eren in S4. That's when we finally see her trying to detach herself from Eren, by not wearing the scarf he gave her for example. I know you never really clocked the romance between them, but if you had watched the series knowing it was canonical, i'm sure it would have been super apparent that in almost every scene she is either thinking of eren, protecting eren, trying to get closer to eren, talking to someone else about eren, etc. -- not because she is some "mindless slave programmed to protect her host", but simply because she's in love with him. When you really understand just how much she loves him, you realize just how impossible an ask it is for her to kill Eren. Also -- some others in the comment section explained really well how Falco's titan is able to mimic beast qualities even though he ate the jaw titan (Especially Gta Lover's comment). You should check them out! And just an FYI -- this was Falco's second transformation. Also you should give watching Armin's scene (and some other iconic scenes to come) in dub a try after you finish the movie -- would love to hear your thoughts!

the whole montage after armin's scene of the rumbling taking place in various areas of the world, and then the decision to switch to black and white and make the mother and her child the only thing your eyes are drawn to has to be one of my top 5 favourite scenes of aot. the whole montage strips away every ideology everyone's been arguing about for four seasons the crowd catches the baby instead of letting it fall, theyre all about to be crushed anyway and they know they're only seconds from death, but their first instinct is to still save the infant☹️☹️ it's such a tiny act of humanity in the middle of complete annihilation almost brings me to tears everytime i watch it i will never fully understand how some people can watch these scene, watch all of aot, multiple times even and STILL argue that eren was in the right 😭😭

i'd argue that armin's scene in dub is better than in japanese 😭 maybe i'm a little biased because i started watching it in dubbed but i've seen aot in both at LEAST twice each and i still think armins eng va does a brilliant job in that scene you should give it a listen it's genuinely really good

It’s not shown explicitly but I believe Marley had a specific Golden Rule which was not to mix the Nine Titans since they were like walking nuclear codes in the eyes of the military so they were trying to keep them individually separated so they didn’t make a shifter from the spinal fluid as Annie also mentions mixing Titan fluids can lead to unpleasant and unpredictable mutations. Btw this is not introduced just know. It’s a bit more fleshed out in manga, but even in anime, we see female Titan is able to harden its body, we see it can use scream to attract titans, be able to crystalise her body like war hammer Titan ( she’s just the best at manifesting these, like all titans have some traits, that’s hers) and we see in s3 uprising arc where Eren is feeling useless and can’t harden, then he finds a bottle of spinal fluid which has “armored fluid” written on it, and after that scene you can see how easy it was to harden and crystallise, it shows that some of the spinal fluids of other titans, especially armored are used with all the Titan, like beast Titan can also harden )it’s because of armored Titan fluid). Porco shield is from war hammer Titan)So Annie saying “My Female Titan is particularly good at absorbing characteristics of others... I was made to drink all kinds of things.” because her chemical adaptability was unique to the Female Titan solely. Look at the way they profile the traits of each of the Nine Titans, they’re completely separate in terms of their traits and usages, which shows they wouldn’t be mixed. Beast Titan: “The same as ever, a bit larger than other Titans... but its true value is discovered in Zeke's hands. His throwing ability makes it a terrifying weapon of mass destruction.” Armored Titan: “Specializes in hardening. Armed with a shield that can break through any wall, it is the shield of Marley” Jaw Titan: “An assault unit. Small, but its speed is unmatched, and its powerful claws and jaws can crush almost anything” Cart Titan: “Boasts incredible endurance, making it perfect for long missions. It can be fitted with specialized weaponry for versatile tactics” They all “specialise” in something so making hybrids wouldn’t make much sense for them but they had all few modifications like hardening. So to answer Falco only drank it by accident because of Niccolo’s wine being spiked, they saw each Titan as a specialised tool like the Jaw was used for agility, the Armored served as the shield and the beast was long-range artillery so they didn’t really need to complicate things by feeding Zeke’s spinal fluid to a potential Jaw candidate, they only wanted predictable military assets. So Falco is essentially a hybrid Titan because he possesses the bird qualities because he was filled with Zeke’s spinal fluid as well as having the initial Jaw agility. The reason he’s able to fly is because some beast Titan in past could fly before Marley got their hold on them… because beast Titan is like an animal, Zeke got the “monkey” and Falco got the “bird”, Tom ksaver is a Ram. And the same his name is “Falco” is a cool detail. The Beast Titan’s appearance and abilities change drastically depending on its inheritor, often taking the form of various animals such as rabbits, snakes, and birds. By ingesting Zeke's spinal fluid, Falco's subsequent transformations absorbed these animalistic, avian characteristics. Zeke can’t fly because that’s not his beast, all beast titans manifest differently, we know this because we see Tom Ksaver as a Ram and Zeke as a Monkey. Falcos beast is a Falcon, so when he mimicked the ability, he was able to grow wings. The appearance of a titan is based on the willpower of the shifter. Falco's willpower was to be free like a bird as seen in S4E1. Hence, it is only fair that Falco takes the form of a bird. Zeke's spinal fluid may have given him the ability to look more like an animal along with the power of the Jaw. It's sensical. Also I work say, he’s a bit too good, you could even say a prodigy like Bertholdt. Tho Flying is likely not that hard, I mean, he's literally a bird. As for his skill in flying, he was flying for at least a few hours along the trade winds to reach Salta. And Marley warriors are trained a lot more to use titans. He’s done one transformation in liberio, this was the second.

haha the armin scene is actually one of my favourites in the dub! it might also just be whatever captions you’re using that’s making me feel this way but absolutely love that youre going back and watching it in dub!

funny you bring up dub in that specific Armin moment cause the English Vas performance in that exact scene landed them a voice acting award nomination. It was so popular it trended on tiktok.

This was Falco's second transformation, the first one was in the port and he did struggle there! Also, appreciate the sacrifice of getting this to us instead of just watching on

Whats interesting is I think Falco had dreams of flying before he had his titan in episode 1 of season 4

I think Falco‘s ability to fly isn’t fully explained in the anime, but, essentially, as other comment pointed out, Falco is a unique case of obtaining Titan power: he originally consumed Zeke’s spinal fluid, which gives him characteristics of a Beast Titan. Beast Titan, as shown in the fight, always ends up being some sort of animal: monkey, okapi, snake, crocodile, moose, etc. However, the Titan Falco fully consumed is Jaw. The combination of two spinal fluids gave birth to Falco‘s ability to technically have „two titans“. He is still a jaw but with animalistic nature. During his first transformation, even you noticed in your reaction, that he resembles a bird (Falco-Falcon). So, I do think they could have handled it slightly better in the anime but Im not super mad for describing it this way, considering how much information we are getting in the finale.

when are you thinking the final part will be up?

Theres a very limited sample pool of how titans work so it can get a bit muddy. My theory (which I’ve seen echoed online) is that because zekes spinal fluid was used to transform falco he is manifesting beast like qualities. I’ve also seen some people say that since zeke is functionally no longer alive (hes apart of the founding titan) Falco has also inherited part of the beast titan. Its not well forecast in the show but thats the logic I’ve seen for his flying titan atleast.

The 9 titans powers are always passed down through the spinal fluid. So when Falco ingested Zeke’s spinal fluid then ate Jaw titan, he gained both some memories and beast titan traits along with the jaw titan.

You are in for the end of a great era