Before I completely tear this horribly written episode apart, I gotta give credit where it's due. Wow, this is easily the best animated and directed episode of Season 4. The long shots, the blood, explosions, it was so epic yet it's so badly written it makes for the most frustrating experience ever. It still doesn't look amazing though. The hype is all there, got chills multiple moments, it's really goof, but it's still not as great as it could be, or as great as it was with WIT. There are a lot of mistakes in it, inconsistencies between shots, and the animation is pretty choppy in some scenes that are supposed to be smooth. Like last episode, this episode is very exciting, but if you think of it for more than 2 seconds it makes absolutely no sense, and it's even worse than the last despite how epic it feels. I know how this goes and I was literally screaming at my screen. Watching it all animated made me realize it's even worse than I thought. Like in the manga you only see brief moments, not what happens between them, so now having all that time we see even more nonsensical character decisions, insanely contrived action, and plot armor even battle shounen main characters would be jealous of. Anyways without further delay let's list all the issues this episode has:
-So in the middle of this war, Jean, Hange, Magath, etc. Are chilling planning stuff with the Azumabito people. If a Yeagerist happens to fly over them and shoot a thunder spear they're dead. Actually, they were spotted last episode, so why they didn't do it is beyond me. Does the boat plan even make sense? Cause to escape in the boat they have to kill all the Yeagerists or deal with them while being chased, which takes time, then get on the boat without everyone they need being killed, then ride on the boat safely, arrive at the hanger with everyone and all the materials, and set it up there... Like isn't that going to take pretty much the same time as setting up the plane here and be riskier?
-Just like the last example, the cart Titan, Yelena, Oyankapon, Levi, Gabi, and Falco are all together, walking through the battlefield, where a simple thunder spear could've killed them all if a single Yeagerist spots them. They sure are lucky! What about when they're going into the water, and coming out to breathe (cause there's no way they held their breath that long)? Of course it cuts to them when they arrive leaving the trip it took there off-screen cause it's totally unbelievable. Plus Connie and Armin were just chilling there doing nothing for half the episode. Connie then just gets back to killing Yeagerists after killing his childhood friend, so much remorse! No Yeagerists are at the boat, or in it? You know the literal thing you're guarding...?! The more I think of this episode the more the awful writing is made apparent, and the more I hate it. This fight's spatial awareness is terrible. It's almost like if characters teleport.
-I need a section just for Mikasa. Just wanted to say her character has sucked for a while, but even in the beginning she wasn't that great, she's only loved because she's "hot" and "cool" Her character devolves into, "Muh Ereh... Muh scarf..." There's potential to do interesting things with her like the slave mentality but that isn't explored. Remember the whole thing about her heritage and tattoo? What did that amount to? Anyways in this episode we see Mikasa literally dodge bullets! Absolutely 0 plot armor, but that aside, our "heroine" kills some Yeagerists, ties them together, and blows them up... Uh, why? To look cool with an explosion behind her and bloody rain? Yeah, she is our hero! Blatant proof there is no longer any care put into the logic and character of the show as long as it looks cool! There are no stakes left. Mikasa kills like a hundred Yeagerists, multiple at once, without a scratch! Maybe Mappa realized how evil the alliance is and decided to make them even more evil.
-The clearest display of the plot armor the alliance has is when Magath shoots multiple flying Yeagerists in a row, yet multiple Yeagerists shoot at groups of Azumabito people below them and miss every shot... heh.
-The worst and most egregious part: The Yeagerists literally shoot almost all their thunder spears, like dozens, at the cart Titan and they all miss. They all miss... Thunder spears only work if the main characters use them! Not only this, but they could've just shot all the thunder spears to the boat and it would've been over, why didn't they do that?! Floch literally says "It's all riding on this one shot" And I kept yelling at my screen, "Why did you waste all the other thunder spears earlier for literally nothing?! Why didn't you do this earlier?!" Literally 0 casualties from the alliance and they kill pretty much ALL the Yeagerists. Falco did more damage as the Titan than the Yeagerists (that was the only part I liked), seriously?! They literally turned all of the Yeagerists and Floch brain dead for this plot to work, and then killed him off. The only enjoyable character in this arc is gone... Gonna be tough to make it through this without you! R. I. P. Floch, you will be missed. At least he went off in the most epic way possible with the best animation in Season 4. (Btw of course he's a terrible human being, I'm just talking about the character writing and consistency. He's not a hypocrite like our supposed "heroes!") Also I appreciate Mappa not portraying the Yeagerists as cartoonishly evil like the manga.
-Let's not forget Gabi's aim-bot once again, where she not only shot a gun about her size to kill Eren and other characters, but now shoots and kills Floch, who's flying at full speed, while being on a boat. You know maybe it wouldn't be so egregious if the Yeagerists didn't miss every single shot...
-So not a single Yeagerists kills or injures one of our main characters at all in the entire episode, and they all get on the boat safely. The only person left behind is Magath. Heh, they really think Magath can hold back all the Yeagerists that are left? Magath hides behind this metal beam (I think?) with holes in it being shot at by multiple Yeagerists and of course all the bullets hit the beam instead of him. Our 10th Deus Ex Machina arrives this episode, Shadis who conveniently (and inexplicably) blew up the Yeagerist reinforcements. Shadis and Magath talk out in the open and the Yeagerists conveniently stop shooting. Like how can you defend this? This is so bad, it makes no sense, what happened?!
-This episode skips showing a lot of stuff, especially characters getting places, like Shadis and Magath getting on the other yeagerist ship, which happens off-screen because there's no logical explanation of how they could've gotten in undetected to the exact room they need to be in to blow up the ship. By the way, Shadis didn't even have to die, but okay. Don't let his "sad" monologue distract you from the fact he's a forced Deus Ex Machina! I'm still wrapping my head around how they expect us to believe the events of this episode.
-A lot of people will defend the lack of stakes with what happens to Magath and Shadis. Sure, they die, but it wasn't even by Yeagerists, it was by their own choice to blow up the ship with them. Shadis is a very minor character I almost forgot. Magath is easily the least important character out of the alliance members. The stakes and logic are gone, this show has become a joke.
-Finally, let's end off this list with the post-credit scene. So all the characters got away without a scratch. Annie suddenly gets emotions, and it feels so out of character. How are the other people sympathizing? She's led to believe her father is dying anyways, you know the only reason she's doing any of this, so why is she gonna help them when she's basically a sociopath? Again these people are enemies who have been killing each other! I still can't believe the only drama we get between them is the dumb campfire episode. Seriously now how are they gonna catch up to Eren and stop him? If Marley and Liberio are destroyed too why are they fighting? Let's say hypothetically with whatever convenient Deus Ex Machina crap writing they use to somehow beat Eren, most of the world would be destroyed, and the Eldiands would once again be seen as the villains, and so they'll once again be hated, killed, etc. The world will still be at war, then Eren's plan, while of course horrible, would've been pointless. Yeah sure you save people, that will probably start killing each other! Eren's plan is not right, but logically speaking once it's begun, and has gone this far, stopping him will just make things worse. Anyways I'm done.
This episode is just horribly written, I can't take it. I might've quit the show here if I didn't know the next episode will be some quality flashbacks. I hope so hard that Part 3 of this season, or the movie that ends off this series is an anime original because it's about to somehow get even worse. Honestly I was gonna give this episode a 3, but this is one of the angriest I've been at a show ever, and people are praising this with a 9.6/10?! It gets one extra star for the visuals (forgot to mention the music was also good), but the storyline and characters have been completely ruined in this final arc. This is beyond badly written. It's simply embarrassing and sad how a show I would've once considered to be a great has become this bad. I wouldn't say it's a bad season overall, thankfully the first part and the beginning of this part was still really good, but after the rumbling, apart from a couple of episodes, this arc is truly terrible and indefensible. It doesn't ruin the show for me, but I can no longer call AOT great if they don't fix it.
(Reposting for like the 4th time cause it keeps getting deleted.)
-So in the middle of this war, Jean, Hange, Magath, etc. Are chilling planning stuff with the Azumabito people. If a Yeagerist happens to fly over them and shoot a thunder spear they're dead. Actually, they were spotted last episode, so why they didn't do it is beyond me. Does the boat plan even make sense? Cause to escape in the boat they have to kill all the Yeagerists or deal with them while being chased, which takes time, then get on the boat without everyone they need being killed, then ride on the boat safely, arrive at the hanger with everyone and all the materials, and set it up there... Like isn't that going to take pretty much the same time as setting up the plane here and be riskier?
-Just like the last example, the cart Titan, Yelena, Oyankapon, Levi, Gabi, and Falco are all together, walking through the battlefield, where a simple thunder spear could've killed them all if a single Yeagerist spots them. They sure are lucky! What about when they're going into the water, and coming out to breathe (cause there's no way they held their breath that long)? Of course it cuts to them when they arrive leaving the trip it took there off-screen cause it's totally unbelievable. Plus Connie and Armin were just chilling there doing nothing for half the episode. Connie then just gets back to killing Yeagerists after killing his childhood friend, so much remorse! No Yeagerists are at the boat, or in it? You know the literal thing you're guarding...?! The more I think of this episode the more the awful writing is made apparent, and the more I hate it. This fight's spatial awareness is terrible. It's almost like if characters teleport.
-I need a section just for Mikasa. Just wanted to say her character has sucked for a while, but even in the beginning she wasn't that great, she's only loved because she's "hot" and "cool" Her character devolves into, "Muh Ereh... Muh scarf..." There's potential to do interesting things with her like the slave mentality but that isn't explored. Remember the whole thing about her heritage and tattoo? What did that amount to? Anyways in this episode we see Mikasa literally dodge bullets! Absolutely 0 plot armor, but that aside, our "heroine" kills some Yeagerists, ties them together, and blows them up... Uh, why? To look cool with an explosion behind her and bloody rain? Yeah, she is our hero! Blatant proof there is no longer any care put into the logic and character of the show as long as it looks cool! There are no stakes left. Mikasa kills like a hundred Yeagerists, multiple at once, without a scratch! Maybe Mappa realized how evil the alliance is and decided to make them even more evil.
-The clearest display of the plot armor the alliance has is when Magath shoots multiple flying Yeagerists in a row, yet multiple Yeagerists shoot at groups of Azumabito people below them and miss every shot... heh.
-The worst and most egregious part: The Yeagerists literally shoot almost all their thunder spears, like dozens, at the cart Titan and they all miss. They all miss... Thunder spears only work if the main characters use them! Not only this, but they could've just shot all the thunder spears to the boat and it would've been over, why didn't they do that?! Floch literally says "It's all riding on this one shot" And I kept yelling at my screen, "Why did you waste all the other thunder spears earlier for literally nothing?! Why didn't you do this earlier?!" Literally 0 casualties from the alliance and they kill pretty much ALL the Yeagerists. Falco did more damage as the Titan than the Yeagerists (that was the only part I liked), seriously?! They literally turned all of the Yeagerists and Floch brain dead for this plot to work, and then killed him off. The only enjoyable character in this arc is gone... Gonna be tough to make it through this without you! R. I. P. Floch, you will be missed. At least he went off in the most epic way possible with the best animation in Season 4. (Btw of course he's a terrible human being, I'm just talking about the character writing and consistency. He's not a hypocrite like our supposed "heroes!") Also I appreciate Mappa not portraying the Yeagerists as cartoonishly evil like the manga.
-Let's not forget Gabi's aim-bot once again, where she not only shot a gun about her size to kill Eren and other characters, but now shoots and kills Floch, who's flying at full speed, while being on a boat. You know maybe it wouldn't be so egregious if the Yeagerists didn't miss every single shot...
-So not a single Yeagerists kills or injures one of our main characters at all in the entire episode, and they all get on the boat safely. The only person left behind is Magath. Heh, they really think Magath can hold back all the Yeagerists that are left? Magath hides behind this metal beam (I think?) with holes in it being shot at by multiple Yeagerists and of course all the bullets hit the beam instead of him. Our 10th Deus Ex Machina arrives this episode, Shadis who conveniently (and inexplicably) blew up the Yeagerist reinforcements. Shadis and Magath talk out in the open and the Yeagerists conveniently stop shooting. Like how can you defend this? This is so bad, it makes no sense, what happened?!
-This episode skips showing a lot of stuff, especially characters getting places, like Shadis and Magath getting on the other yeagerist ship, which happens off-screen because there's no logical explanation of how they could've gotten in undetected to the exact room they need to be in to blow up the ship. By the way, Shadis didn't even have to die, but okay. Don't let his "sad" monologue distract you from the fact he's a forced Deus Ex Machina! I'm still wrapping my head around how they expect us to believe the events of this episode.
-A lot of people will defend the lack of stakes with what happens to Magath and Shadis. Sure, they die, but it wasn't even by Yeagerists, it was by their own choice to blow up the ship with them. Shadis is a very minor character I almost forgot. Magath is easily the least important character out of the alliance members. The stakes and logic are gone, this show has become a joke.
-Finally, let's end off this list with the post-credit scene. So all the characters got away without a scratch. Annie suddenly gets emotions, and it feels so out of character. How are the other people sympathizing? She's led to believe her father is dying anyways, you know the only reason she's doing any of this, so why is she gonna help them when she's basically a sociopath? Again these people are enemies who have been killing each other! I still can't believe the only drama we get between them is the dumb campfire episode. Seriously now how are they gonna catch up to Eren and stop him? If Marley and Liberio are destroyed too why are they fighting? Let's say hypothetically with whatever convenient Deus Ex Machina crap writing they use to somehow beat Eren, most of the world would be destroyed, and the Eldiands would once again be seen as the villains, and so they'll once again be hated, killed, etc. The world will still be at war, then Eren's plan, while of course horrible, would've been pointless. Yeah sure you save people, that will probably start killing each other! Eren's plan is not right, but logically speaking once it's begun, and has gone this far, stopping him will just make things worse. Anyways I'm done.
This episode is just horribly written, I can't take it. I might've quit the show here if I didn't know the next episode will be some quality flashbacks. I hope so hard that Part 3 of this season, or the movie that ends off this series is an anime original because it's about to somehow get even worse. Honestly I was gonna give this episode a 3, but this is one of the angriest I've been at a show ever, and people are praising this with a 9.6/10?! It gets one extra star for the visuals (forgot to mention the music was also good), but the storyline and characters have been completely ruined in this final arc. This is beyond badly written. It's simply embarrassing and sad how a show I would've once considered to be a great has become this bad. I wouldn't say it's a bad season overall, thankfully the first part and the beginning of this part was still really good, but after the rumbling, apart from a couple of episodes, this arc is truly terrible and indefensible. It doesn't ruin the show for me, but I can no longer call AOT great if they don't fix it.
(Reposting for like the 4th time cause it keeps getting deleted.)