Chapter 330: The Season Two Finale
Late December arrived.
Attack on Titan Season Two, Episode Eleven aired.
The plot of the episode revolved around the Survey Corps in pursuit of Reiner’s group, who were still carrying Eren and had now swallowed Krista whole into Ymir’s Titan mouth, holding her there as they fled toward the wall.
This episode contained Commander Erwin’s most famous single moment.
A Titan drawn by Reiner had bitten into Erwin’s arm and lifted his entire body into the air. His arm in the creature’s mouth, his body swinging in the sky above the charging horses and soldiers below, Erwin raised his remaining free arm and shouted.
"Advance."
Prior to this episode, Erwin’s characterisation had been primarily strategic. The brilliant commander who moved people on a board. After this episode, every viewer’s sense of who Erwin was changed immediately and completely.
The man who issued orders that sent soldiers to their deaths had just demonstrated that he would not exempt himself from those same orders. His arm was in a Titan’s mouth and he used his remaining arm to tell his people to keep moving.
The passionate response to this moment generated fan numbers that rivalled the episode six reaction.
After the eleventh episode concluded, the entire second season’s dramatic tension had been compressed into the final episode. Every unresolved confrontation, every captured character, every question that had been building since the season began: all of it would arrive in Episode Twelve.
The popularity of Attack on Titan reached its highest single-week point since the premiere.
"How will the final episode’s plot develop? Will Eren be taken to Reiner’s homeland and the perspective shift to that new territory?"
"Opening a new map?"
"I cannot figure out what happens. But if Eren is taken away, it means the Survey Corps’s entire operation has failed significantly."
"Why does Reiner want to take Eren specifically? There must be a purpose. Something about humans who can transform into Titans must make Eren valuable to them."
"From the earlier plot: Ymir regained consciousness as a Titan because she ate the youth who was in Reiner’s group, who presumably had Titan transformation ability.
Reiner and Bertholdt and Annie all have conscious Titan forms. The common factor is having consumed someone with transformation ability. From this: can we infer that a mindless Titan who eats a person with transformation ability can regain consciousness? Is that the mechanism?"
"Not sure. Maybe it is just Ymir who works that way, and others have different transformation methods."
"How is that possible? If that is how one gains transformation abilities, then how can Eren transform? Eren has been human since the first episode. He has not transformed into any Titan before becoming one himself, nor has he eaten any human with transformation ability.
Do not talk nonsense. These are all false hooks thrown out by Shirogane-sensei to mislead our thinking. Do not fall for it."
"Why does this anime have so many layers of foreshadowing and so many secrets? I just wanted to watch a lighthearted passionate battle anime. But the further I watch, the more complicated it becomes. And now my appetite is completely whetted and I cannot escape. Sigh."
"You will get used to it. Our Attack on Titan situation is still relatively comfortable. What about the One-Punch Man world? And the Demon Slayer world is even more uncomfortable. Five years of waiting for the ending across just a few films."
"Shirogane-sensei’s creative speed is considered fast by any standard."
"I think Eren will genuinely be captured by Reiner and the others. Then Season Three will begin with Eren in Reiner’s homeland."
"Sigh. Everything can wait until Episode Twelve in a few days."
"Stop discussing Attack on Titan for a moment. Has everyone seen it? Shirogane-sensei’s girlfriend Miyu Yukishiro’s new manga, Reincarnation. The first Chapter in the latest journal issue came out two days ago and it is genuinely good. If the serialisation runs long enough, I think it will explode."
"Of course I have seen it. The first Chapter is interesting."
"Shirogane-sensei repeatedly recommended Miyu Yukishiro’s manga on various occasions before. I was slightly annoyed at first. Then I read it and I genuinely think it is good. There is a gap compared to Shirogane-sensei, but compared to other manga on the market, the plot, panelling, and art are all excellent."
"Miyu Yukishiro was already a celebrated genius shojo mangaka under Hoshimori Group before any of this. It is just that after Shirogane-sensei rose to his current position, the word genius in Japan’s manga industry now refers exclusively to him, and everyone else has been relocated to the category of ordinarily talented.
If Shirogane-sensei did not exist in Japan, Miyu Yukishiro would probably be the leading figure among young mangakas of this era."
"After I finished the Attack on Titan manga volume I went straight to Reincarnation. I also voted for it in the journal rankings."
"Feeling slightly melancholic. The second season of Attack on Titan has only one episode remaining."
"What is there to be melancholic about? It stops for two weeks. In January, a little over half a month later, Season Three continues.
You should be happy, not melancholic. With any other animation studio, producing from Season One to Season Three for a property of Attack on Titan’s popularity would take at least ten years. You would not even be able to think about it."
"This is the specific advantage of Shirogane-sensei’s operation. His works have divine cliffhangers at every turn, but the plot also moves forward at genuine speed.
When following it weekly it feels like it is dragging. But when you watch the reruns on Ion TV all at once, watching multiple episodes in sequence, the plot feels tight and densely constructed."
"My brother is exactly like this. I recommended Attack on Titan to him. He watched the evening reruns on Ion TV every day last month, one episode per day, finished the entire first season in one continuous run, and never once said the pacing was slow."
"Your brother cannot be allowed to do that. You have to manage his viewing schedule. One episode per week, properly. One episode per day is not acceptable."
"I genuinely envy the new Japan anime fans. They have eyes that have not yet seen Shirogane-sensei’s works. Sigh."
In the late autumn season, in the days before the Attack on Titan Season Two finale, prediction and plot speculation threads were appearing endlessly across every platform.
Some guesses were accurate in their broad shape but not in the specific details. Others were completely wrong in directions that introduced elements the series would never have considered. A few touched the truth without knowing they had.
Time moved forward regardless, step by step, until it reached the final Thursday of late December: the day of the Attack on Titan Season Two finale.
..
STones 💎
