Attack on Titan Episode 58 Review: Attack Titan

I was blown away by all the reveals that happened in this week’s episode of Attack on Titan. The Curse of Ymir and the short lifespan threat to anyone that holds the powers of the Nine Titans is finally explained to us. Also, it seems like all the Subjects of Ymir are connected by paths that lead to the same coordinates and can share even memories from different time periods. Mind blown.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 進撃の巨人

Plot

Kruger reveals to Grisha that his real name is Eren and that he is also a subject of Ymir that has infiltrated into the government to help restore Eldia. He also mentions that after thirteen years as a Titan, he will soon die, and that Grisha must become that Titan by eating him so he can inherit the powers of the Attack Titan. He then gives Grisha the mission of acquiring the power of the Founding Titan from the royal family to save Eldia. To do so, he must infiltrate their Walls and start a new family. Meanwhile, Eren, who seems to share the same memories as Kruger and his father is freed from prison along with Mikasa, and with the remaining Survey Corps he is taken to an audience with Queen Historia in Trost. Historia then reads Ymir’s letter and sees part of her memories but doesn’t let anyone else know about them. After explaining the contents of the three books found in Grisha’s basement, Hange warns that their enemies now include other humans besides the Titans. She states that although Eren has become the Founding Titan, he cannot use its full power because he is not of royal blood. At that point, Eren suddenly realizes that the Titan that killed Hannes and his mother was Dina and that if he touches a member of the royal family, he may be able to utilize the Founding Titan’s powers. At the end, we see a scene is of Kruger preparing to inject Grisha with the Titan serum, prior to sending him on his way to the walled city and saying that he has to ‘protect Armin and Mikasa’.

Episode Highlights

The Curse of Ymir and the Coordinate: Anyone who inherits the powers of one of the Nine Titans has only thirteen years to live. And if I got that correctly, if no one eats their powers straight away, one random Subject of Ymir baby inherits them when they are born and this is all because of those paths that seem to connect all of them together. So now, the Scouts and the rest of the people in that room seem to know everything that they should. The three books: Early Life of Grisha Yeager, The Extent of our Knowledge of Titans and their History, and Information about the World Behind the Walls, gave them all the info they need. What worries me is the missing information of the past couple of years that they are missing… How far ahead are their enemies at this point? Because I don’t think that their last hopes of retrieving the Founding Titan were only on Zeke’s, Reiner’s, Bertholdt’s, and Annie’s shoulders. And on that note, it seems that we are missing the identity of four more titans with super powers. Things are getting very interesting.

Fight against the World: The amount of foreshadowing that exists in Attack on Titan is just amazing. Basically Ymir was not lying when she told Eren that they are up against the actual world. How are they going to fight against the kingdom of Marley? Especially since their forces are so few, I can’t believe that from more than two hundred soldiers, only nine scouts are left. HOLD ON A SECOND. Nine scouts left and there are Nine Titans with extreme powers? ISAYAMA, WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING?

Connected through space and time? So Eren Kruger and Eren Yeager are weirdly connected through time and space? Is he sending his memories to the past and vice versa? Are their paths connected or something like that, or does he already know Mikasa and Armin from memories of the previous owner of the Attack Titan? This anime is going to get hella complicated and I can’t wait to see the genius of Isayama unraveling once more.

Themes & Trivia

Information Available for Public Disclosure

The Nine Titans: The true identity of Intelligent Titans stemming from a power exceeding human comprehension that sleeps in Subjects of Ymir. Said power is inherited along with memories through paths which transcend space and time. The ‘Coordinate’ where all the paths intersect is the Founding Titan.

The Number Thirteen: There is a very interesting post on Reddit that analyzes the math behind the series and is very interesting to read. But since some things mentioned there can be considered kind of spoiler(y) I am just going to leave the link here.

Comments

Am I the only one that got kind of emotional with Ymir’s letter? She openly declared her feelings for Historia and apparently she is also dying from the curse. God damn it, those two would make the best couple in anime history. Also, I died with Hange’s remarks over Eren’s chuuni moments. In case you are not familiar with this slang, you can read more about it here and see what I am talking about.

He’s in that ‘age’, I guess.

So the remaining Scouts with go outside the walls to see what they are up against. These last episodes have revealed so much that I am honestly scared of what will happen in the season’s finale.

NEXT TIME: To the Other Side of the Wall