Attack on Titan Episode 47 Review: Friends

The wonderful villain is gone, and with such a touching backstory. Rest in peace Kenny, you magnificent bastard.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 友人

Plot

As Kenny lies on the ground, dying, he recalls a memory of him being captured by Uri Reiss in his Titan form. Even though Kenny attempted to murder him, Uri was actually nice to him and begged his forgiveness for persecuting the Ackerman family all this time. Kenny then pledged loyalty to the royal family and years after he became the leader of Anti-Personnel Control Squad and tried to use his position in order to possess the power of a Titan. Kenny also remembers how he brought up his dead sister Kuchel’s son, Levi, teaching him the ways of surviving in the underground. As Levi stands in front of him, seeing him dying, Kenny explains to him why he has not injected himself with the serum and with his dying words he reveals that he is Kuchel’s brother, and then hands the package containing the serum to Levi. In the capital, Historia Reiss is crowned queen and everyone seems thrilled about it but at the same time we see the Beast Titan defeating Bertholt and Reiner and telling them to regain the Coordinate power.

Episode Highlights

Kenny was a dreamer: Yes, Kenny was portrayed as a bad guy, but he was much more than that. His story was all about a bad person who ended up becoming a murderer because of society. After witnessing the impact of Uri and Frieda who had the Founding Titan’s power, he believed that by getting his hands on it, he will as well become a good person. He didn’t want to die; he wanted power and therefore chased that dream his entire life but ended up giving it to his nephew. Kenny thought very little of himself and was stuck in his terrible past, unable to forgive himself so he was looking up to Uri and his power as some form of salvation. You would think that he gave up on his dream but in the end he finally managed to see the world through the eyes of his ideal human by doing something good.

Levi has been through a lot: We all knew that by now, but poor kid has been through some tough shit in his life. His mother was a prostitute and he saw her dying; he was raised to become a killer, and he probably thought that Kenny was his father all this time. Kenny revealing to him that he is his uncle must have given closure to Levi. Just imagine Kenny dying without Levi knowing the truth; he would be even more traumatized than before.

Historia and that smile: The scene of the whole crew hyping her to go and hit Levi was so funny to watch. After finding him and managing to punch him, Historia and the whole team is scared shitless of his reaction, but as it turns out, he smiles and thanks everyone for everything they have done so far. Such a precious moment.

Themes & Trivia

Historia & Levi: In the manga, the reason why Historia wants to get back at Levi so badly is way more justified and had so much more impact. In the original events, Historia and Eren were never really kidnapped by Rod, they were actually still in the Scouts when they learned that Historia is the true heir to the throne. Erwin then send orders that she is to become the Queen after the success of the coup d’état but Historia says that she is not ready for that, which makes Levi really angry. He gets really rough with her, grabs her by force in the air and starts to choke her, saying that she has to make a choice fast since they don’t have much time, which makes Historia submit. One more thing, it was not Mikasa but Reeves, the one that was killed by Kenny, who told Historia to hit him after she becomes the Queen. You can find the specified scenes of the manga here, here and here.

Information Available for Public Disclosure

Ackermann family: A family of warriors who once served the royal government. They began to be persecuted after distancing themselves from the royal family. The details are unknown, but some experience a mysterious ‘awakening’ and gain abilities exceeding a typical human’s.

Comments

Kenny’s story really got to me for some reason. Seeing him think that the power of the Titan granted people the privilege of being kind, is just so tragic. He wanted the Founding Titan, not because he wanted to rule all of humanity, but because he wanted to see if ‘Kenny the Ripper’ could turn into someone like Uri. But what makes his story even more tragic is the fact that even if he inherited that power he would not have been turned into a pacifist from the influence of the First King, he would still remain the same serial killer who abandoned his family.

The unavoidable truth of our world

The horrifying Beast Titan is back and shit is definitely going to get real from the next episode. I am really curious to see the association between him, Reiner and Bertholt.

NEXT TIME: Bystander