Despite what the cliffhanger from the last episode may have suggested, Eren's rogue titan form going...rogue...again isn't quite the problem that you'd think it would be. It does seem to signify the failure of the plan, but all hope isn't lost yet.
Mikasa does make a valiant effort to make "Eren" see reason and gain some measure of control back, at least enough to attack the titans and not the humans like he did before, but it doesn't work. On the plus side, her position and rogue-titan's attempted attack results in said titan knocking himself out by punching himself in the face. Personally, I found that rather hilarious. I'd love to say that it was the highlight of the episode, but this one delivers quite a lot. I suppose it will have to settle for being a highlight, as opposed to the highlight.
In the aftermath, not only do we get some solid action, as the troops try to fend off the horde of titans that they have drawn; but we also get some tense drama, as characters decide what to do with Eren.
Some want to abandon him, seeing as his titan form isn't the table turning weapon that they thought it was. They're not wrong, but it does seem like they're forgetting that Eren's human body is still in there somewhere. Even if he never changes into that form again, he's still a capable soldier.
Others argue that, despite the shortcomings, it's still the best weapon they have and their only hope of ultimately winning the war.
Both sides raise valid points and it makes the scenes that much more engaging and thought provoking as a result.
Speaking of engaging, Armin's role in the plot proves to be another highlight. He doesn't bring any tactical advantage to the table this time, but he does make an attempt to remove Eren's body from the titan husk.
Some blind surgery is involved, as Armin has to guesstimate where Eren is before plunging his blades into the beast's back, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. We see that Eren is in some sort of drugged, dream-like state. His memories of the real world are fading and, as far as he's concerned, he's reunited with his family.
It leads to a nice internal struggle that acts as a counter-balance to the chaotic external struggle going on with the titans. Big, epic action beats are nice, don't get me wrong; but adding this brings some emotional weight to the proceedings that makes it a much more memorable episode.
You could argue that it wasn't given enough time. It doesn't take a whole lot for Armin to start to snap Eren out of it and we don't see much of the dream world, but I thought they did a good job with what they had. While making this plot point the focus of the episode would have likely paid dividends in the emotional resonance department, there was a strong risk that it would hurt the show's pacing. At least here, we get a fairly decent balance of both.
I quite liked this episode. Like this week's episode of "Dragon Ball Super", it provided a nice balance of everything. It was well paced, the plot moved along nicely, and there was plenty to enjoy on both the action and character front.
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