Manga: Attack on Titan Ch 50: Shout

For the love of God spoilers!

Considering that a month ago the anime was still rolling along, I almost forgot in the rush that the next chapter coming would be just as emotionally shocking probably as the end of the first season of Attack on Titan anime.

As the above title nicely sums up, the very Titan that 5 years ago shattered their world personally for Eren and Mikasa, has suddenly come back into their lives.  They are surrounded by chaos as Erwin gambled and lead a horde of Titans down on Reiner and Bertholdt.

The Recon Corps is being shredded but the Armored Titan is also not doing well.  Mikasa has recovered Eren but now faces the nightmare that started it all for them.

Almost poetically, Hans intervenes yet again to save Eren and Mikasa from the same Titan.  He shows his training has given him far more nerve than before, but as is always true away from the Walls or the giant trees, the 3D Gear is not as powerful against them.

Eren is begging Mikasa to untie him so he can save Hans and stop the monster he most personally wants to wipe from this earth.

Meanwhile, Christa (aka Historia) makes her choice about Ymir despite Connie's warning.  Instead of choosing sides between Titans and humanity, she simply chooses to fight beside Ymir.  Given all that has gone on between them and the harrowing journey thus far, I can see where she is coming from even if it seems foolish to her comrades.

Ymir herself questions her motives and chances, but then the horror of the chaos begins to emerge.  Erwin watches in pain and horror at the loss of his arm as his people are being ripped asunder.  The Armored Titan is weathering the storm and making his way back to Eren.

Eren and Mikasa once again watch as the Titan rips Hans in two, almost the reverse of the move it did to Eren's mother so long ago.  Feeling powerless and helpless, Eren rages at his unpredictable power as a Titan.

Mikasa sees how things will unfold and tells Eren a truth she never told him before it would seem.  She softens her eyes and thanks him from the bottom of her heart for wrapping her in his scarf those years ago and being by her side since.

A final wall falls in Eren's heart as he cries tears but instead of giving in, he does what we know Eren to do, rise to fight!  He will not let Mikasa go, even as Armin and Jean fight for their lives, Eren faces the Titan alone and as a human.

Suddenly, as he strikes what would normally be a pathetic blow, energy sparks in Ymir, Reiner, and Bertholdt as Eren seems to suddenly have a partial transformation around his face.  The Titans all around them suddenly converge and rip apart the one Eren faced.

Reiner rails against what has been revealed to the Recon Corps, but while Ymir confirms the frantic need to capture Eren is this new skill, it is not explained exactly what he did.  However Reiner implies that it was once in the possession of his group by his choice of words.

As all the Titans fight the enemy Eren selected, the rest of the humans are suddenly free and alive.  Even as Reiner turns as the Armored Titan, Eren threatens them and again the spark occurs and all the Titans turn as one horde at his command.

Erwin pulls his tattered forces together and with Eren they begin a retreat.  However, despite wanting to be with Christa, Ymir turns back as her own Titan form to save Bertholdt from being eaten and we are left with a deeper mystery.  What is Eren exactly?  He is more than just a human that can become a Titan and Reiner and the other Titan-humans know what it is and once possessed it.

First however is a glance at a young trio of Armin, Mikasa, and Eren play fighting with an intoxicated Hans from before Wall Maria fell.  Now that all the Titans we know of are revealed with one enemy left to learn about, what will next issue bring us?

As always this series is just amazing and even when you think it is all starting to come together, it reveals another layer!

Anime: Attack on Titan Ep 25 Season Finale: Raid on Stohess (3)

For the love of God there are spoilers and Manga comparison so if you have not read it but seen the show...not too bad.

Ok, so I am a bit late but with reason because I was fairly certain I was right but wanted to confirm.  As I suspected I knew where this was going to end for the season but I was surprised on many levels and will go with it now.

As we saw in the last episode, Eren found his reason to transform not in a new purpose, but his original one.  To kill all Titans in this world, to wipe them out until none remained.  The pure rage of that day 5 years ago saves him from bleeding to death and to transform into the 15 meter he is most familiar with.

The MPs watch on in shock as yet another Titan barrels through their area but attacks the Female Titan dead on, right into the growing church of the Wall.  The interrupted service is wiped out save the main priest we have seen before.

He at first is shocked by Titans at all than in almost fear he pleas for the Female Titan to stay away from the Wall, a departure from the almost fanatical defense they have used against the military or others talking about the Walls at all.

Meanwhile Commander Erwin is being held at gunpoint and being accused of being a traitor to the crown.  The above photo is an explicit example of what happens as Eren fights Annie and the devastation the wreak upon the defenseless humans.

Erwin's words are ignored up until he tells the MPs they are welcome to follow protocol so long as they take command of the situation and outlines the lines of communication.  His matter of fact appraisal and offer to accept death like this convinces the MPs at last.

Erwin is arrested but they finally deploy to save who they can.

Back to Eren and Annie, she is desperately fighting him, because now he is almost a possessed creature.  Despite massive damage and wounds, Eren keeps going.  He keeps pushing his Titan body far beyond limits it reached before.

The above image is after Annie smashed Eren into a wall as she tries to escape to Wall Sina and he rises yet again.  The whole battle Annie is flashing back to her younger self and an emotionally broken father begging her to endure and saying he does not deserve forgiveness for what he has done to her.  Presumably we can accept she has become like Eren at that point in her life and already learning to transform into a Titan.

What else he refers to seems again apparent, the operation of the Colossal, Armored, and Female Titans in destroying Wall Maria 5 years ago certainly makes them hated and enemies of humanity, but we still have no clue as to why.

Eren, now seeming exactly as monstrous as any Titan we have seen, savages the Female Titan by crushing her skull and inflicting serious wounds to the shock of the Scouting Legion.  Mikasa is held back by Hanji for fear that Eren is no longer himself.

We however get in inkling that Eren is still there, but now he seems just out of control and drunk on his Titan form.  Annie however is not done and finally gets free enough to begin climbing the wall.

Despite the loss of a leg to Eren, she seems about to escape until Mikasa slices her fingers apart and almost gently pushes her to fall.

Just when things seem to go their way, we see again flashbacks of Annie and her crying father begging her to not forgive him, but to do one thing....live, survive, and return.  Eren seems much more like the Titans that threaten all humanity as he rips aside the nape to expose the human Annie crying within as Eren declares he is free.

This crying girl seems to snap Eren out of his possessed state and Annie takes advantage one last time by initiating assimilation of Eren's Titan for something while Levi suddenly appears and cuts Eren out of his own Titan, chastising him for nearly eating Annie.

When all can look again, Annie is now encased in some kind of crystal that no sword can pierce, as Jean tries to do.  Eren is completely out of it as both Titan bodies evaporate behind them.

Erwin faces a private trial for his actions and his reasons behind it.  He defends the desperate and devastating actions with the simple truth that they revealed a Titan was already near them and that they need to find the rest of them.  They have the answers they seek and the survival of humanity has taken a step forward.

Eren awakes recovered far more than he believes he should be with Jean, Armin, and Mikasa.  They discuss that Eren's pause once again let Annie slip away but it is cut short for Armin and Jean to give their reports to the higher ups.

Eren admits a disturbing feeling of joy as the Titan this time even as he was injured but he no longer feels that way and Mikasa openly tells him she is happy he came back this time.  This reveals a possible reason more that Annie was after Eren, a danger that Eren could become lost in his Titan transformation and with how powerful he is he has to be taught how to avoid those dangers.

Armin and Jean discuss the former's point about giving up humanity to defend it.  Armin admits it is but one of many ways to defend them but for now it is the path to follow.  As they walk in the dusk of the day they glance to the ravaged Wall Sina and a VO begins with disturbing inclinations.

We see the remaining 104th Cadet Corps riding in plain clothes away from a country estate in fear as Armin's voice indicates difficult battles and truths to face before Humanity learns the Truth of what they are hiding from.

If you roll to the end of the credits you see the final revelation I was waiting for below.

Yea...that is a Colossal type Titan inside the Wall.  Meaning the Walls, all 3 of them, are chock full of them at unknown intervals.  That is where we are left for the first season of Attack on Titan.  Now I refer to the image below for my final bit.

As you can see it is a similar moment but very different.  Mikasa has still cut Annie down and she still transformed into a crystal, but the Colossal Titan is revealed to everyone at that moment.

Some interesting divergence I have yet to see in the manga I am curious if the creator is trying to let us see in the anime.  Eren does not seem to go out of control at all during the battle, plenty angry and similar mental conversation, but no sign of nearly Titan level of attack as they do to humans.

The injuries however are very similar and thus we might be seeing a reason for his faster recovery in the anime.  I have to stop the comparison here save to say the sequence of events has been changed a bit in regards to the trial and the Colossal within the Wall, but still on schedule overall.

I am curious how a few things that thus far have been dead even between the two will be resolved with these changes but the mysteries remain and at least another full 25 episodes can be taken out of released manga content.  Until next season, I will happily count down the days.