For a while, at least back around 2017, Titan was not the most popular show in the world to praise. It was considered a show with surface level appeal for new viewers, but ultimately much too shallow to be anything that will stand the test of time.
While that still very well could be the case, fast forward to 2022 and Attack on Titan takes up nearly half of IMBD’s top 50 tv episodes of all time. It’s right up there with Breaking Bad and Clone Wars in terms of this praise. Obviously these are just ratings, not some sort of definitive proof, but seeing that at least made me do a double take considering the show’s reputation not too long ago. So what changed? Heavy spoilers up to the end of season 4 so far from here on.
In many ways, it simply looped back to it’s original message. Hange says something along these lines herself in the season 4 part 2 finale, saying “You could say this expedition takes us back to our original mission.” And she’s right. The scouts have always been about not fearing the unknown, and delving headfirst into it.
Despite the fact that the story essentially takes place in a different time period now, with far more advanced technology than we started out with, it’s still about all the same ideas. This entire scene at the port is very important for that reason. It stands out because in a bleak season 4 full of massacre after massacre, it’s just fun. The scouts react to a car for the first time, try ice cream for the first time, and in one of my favorite clips so far Levi encounters a clown.
Of course, in classic AoT style the bubble bursts without hesitation. A pickpocket is suspected of being a Subject of Ymir, and the nice townspeople they were just having fun with show their true colors. Things turn sour, and everyone escapes, but the memory sticks with the gang. There is hope for the islanders, as a political advocacy group is speaking the next day for Subjects of Ymir.
Before that though, the group is invited to eat and drink with a local refugee group that doesn’t even speak the same language as them. They party, switch hats, laugh, and have fun until they’re throwing up in the morning. You get the feeling that maybe, just maybe, there’s a way to solve this situation without bloodshed.
Once again, this hope is squashed brutally. When I say the series looped back to its original message, this is what I mean. The feeling of complete powerlessness while watching this sticks with me to no end. The scouts sit there in hiding, listening to the man argue about how Eren’s people are still devils, it’s just the remaining interbred leftovers around the world who deserve sympathy.
In other words, this is an incremental push forward at a time when radical change is needed for our heroes to survive.
This all culminates in the rumbling scene. It’s the very feeling of powerlessness Eren felt in episode one taken to an extreme, all the hatred he felt towards a world that rejected him spit back out onto it. The army takes its shots, but they’re pointless in the face of over a hundred colossal titans. It sounds cheesy to say, but I have to think What is going through these random one off nameless character’s heads right now? It reminds me of a gif I saw once where there’s a tsunami coming, and while everyone else is running away, one family simply accepts it and lets the wave wash over them. It’s like, what else are you supposed to do in the face of overwhelming power other than accept it? Of course, Attack on Titan contests this idea with the character of Eren, who would rather genocide the world than let it kill him. But I just wanted to focus on this powerlessness. It’s not a situation I find relatable per say, being in the face of death that is, but I do hate feeling like I have the courage but not the strength to get what I want done. And that’s something you can only understand in this context if you are hated.
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