Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 16 Prepares Fans for a Dark Ending

After eight years, four seasons and hundreds and hundreds of dead characters, The attack of the Titans is finally in its final phase. The final episode of Season 4, which began on Sunday, promised a dark and bloody conflict to book a dark and bloody show. The show is now slated to end after the manga ends in April, with Final season part 2 due during the next winter season.

Last season The attack of the Titans viewers learned that our main characters were not the last remnants of humanity, but a small group of Eldians – a race vilified both for their ability to transform into man-eating titans, but also for a long history of conquests and alleged atrocities against other nations. Attack on Titan Final Season doubles its complicated and difficult appropriation of true Asian history by shifting perspective to the people who have subjugated our heroes for the past eight years. The Antagonists are now complicated and even likable characters with justifiable morals, while the series recognizes that our heroes may not be so heroic anymore.

The attack of the Titans started off as a survival show and has grown into a show rooted in morals and ideology. Reiner, the guy who started the events of the show by breaking down the walls of the city where our protagonists lived, was tricked into believing that his enrollment in the Titan Warrior program would reunite his shattered family; Zeke grew up with the weight of an entire resistance movement on his shoulders. At the same time, the series transformed its own protagonist into a figure difficult to convince: Eren went from a child with bright eyes swearing revenge on the insane creatures who killed his mother to the murder of men, women and men. of innocent children in episode 6 of this season. Now he plans to euthanize the entire Eldian race.

Image: Funimation

Although these characters have done horrific acts, The attack of the Titans spent a lot of time in the first part of the Final season illustrating a world that not only accepts these atrocities, but encourages them. Gabi, a character who instantly brought out strong opinions among fans after killing fan favorite Sasha Braus in Episode 8, has spent the second half of the season spouting propaganda lines about Eldian devils and trying to prove she was a “good” Eldian she being on Paradis Island without a single Marleyan officer in sight. As a candidate to replace Reiner as the next Armored Titan, she raised her family’s social status to “Honorary Marleyans”, allowing them to occasionally leave their internment camp, as well as obtain health care and other vague advantages. Gabi even earned the sincere respect of some Marleyan soldiers and officers, who otherwise would never even look her in the eye.

Likewise, Eren has followed a path of violence and destruction since the start of the show. He eliminated the Titans from his household and even cleaned out the government of those who were hiding the truth of the world from the people. At this point, violence and death have become a sunk cost for the characters in The attack of the Titans, and they have no reason to believe that violence will not serve them now.

But the end of Final season the first part clearly shows that violence is not a permanent solution. When Pieck, another Eldian warrior in the Marleyan army, infiltrates Paradise and briefly tricks Eren into believing she is turning to his side, Gabi is shocked at the idea of ​​a mentor joining the Eldian demons. But Pieck immediately explains that no matter what they do, no matter how hard they try to please the Marleyan authorities, they will never be anything other than “Subjects of Ymir” (another name for Eldian). Gabi may think that she has found success in making Marley happy, but that will never be enough as their power as a nation depends on using the Eldians as a military force. In Episode 10, we learn that Zeke has become a double agent for Eldia and has proposed to Eren and his company a plan to save Eldia forever: to use the power of the Titans both as a weapon of mass destruction and as a a bargaining chip to keep other nations at bay. Eren briefly agreed to the plan, but ultimately decided against it because he only saw it as a temporary fix, rather than a fix.

Image: Funimation

His new solution, or rather the addendum to the previous plan, uses the power of the Titans so that no Eldian can ever have children. Yelena, a fanatic Zeke follower who believes he and Eren are the equivalent of the gods, sees this as the solution to problems around the world. If the Eldians cannot have children, she argues to Mikasa, Armin, Jean and Connie, there is no reason for Marley or other nations to invade. All the suffering caused by Marley using the Titans as weapons of war will gradually disappear, and the Eldians will be free to live the rest of their lives in peace.

Of course, it doesn’t take long before other characters discover flaws in the plane. Jean points out that the euthanasia effort will only leave the elderly able to defend Eldia against an attack that will inevitably come because nations are dizzy to invade other nations. While speaking to Gabi, Pieck also acknowledges that the Titans’ time will soon end due to technological advancements in warfare, which means Marley will likely want to slaughter all Eldians when they are no longer of use to them.

By “both sides” – the central conflict of The attack of the Titans, and asking audiences to view Eren as a monster while also sympathizing with characters like Gabi and Zeke, the series finds itself on an even more nihilistic path than suggested by its initial premise. If Reiner, Zeke, and Eren are victims of circumstance rather than motivated war criminals and mass murderers, then the blame becomes a more complicated game, as any indescribable act of violence is justified by someone’s logic.

So far, the series has mostly avoided ambiguity by making it clear that the characters are making their own choices for themselves, rather than for a higher purpose. Back in Episode 5, Reiner confesses to Eren that he didn’t destroy the Shiganshina District Wall because of his duty to Marley or because he wanted to save the world, but because he was a selfish little boy who wanted people to respect him. At this point, Eren recognized Reiner as an equal, and said he was also doing what he did because he had always “come forward”, throwing himself head first into danger because it was is what he does.

But neither Eren nor Reiner can be as masters of their own fate as they claim. At first, Eren’s reckless behavior was meant to be a good trait, a sign of a protagonist hero who genuinely cared about his loved ones so much that he disregarded his own safety. Final seasonEren is different, and it seems like he may be too deep in his own endless pursuit of revenge against a replaceable, vague entity that he just can’t stop.

If the Final season the final part 1 made something clear, is that every character in The attack of the Titans is too deeply rooted in their own vision of justice to even consider an alternative. Before this is all over, the sunk cost error will lead to a violent, ugly, and very deadly finale this upcoming winter season.