It’s already beginning to happen with Gabi.Īfter five episodes of setup, “The War Hammer Titan” is largely just the explosive payoff. This symmetry has been present in Attack on Titan for a while now and is even explicit in this season’s marketing materials and poster, but that doesn’t weaken how powerful it is to picture a relative of Udo or Sophia stare up at Eren’s Attack Titan somewhere and scream that they’ll “destroy every last one of them!” as the cycle repeats itself. Eren’s officially reached a point where he’s no different than the monsters that killed his mother and put him on this path in the first place.

It reflects how he’s become more hardened and it’s honestly fascinating.Įren kills dozens of people in this episode while he’s in his Titan form and as far as we know he kickstarts just as many revenge origin stories from the suffering survivors. Eren is motivated and involved with what at least has been presented as a good cause (but at this point, who really knows), but his drive appears to have reached a point where the goal justifies massive casualties, which is an attitude that’s absolutely new for Eren. There’s a moment later on where a quiet opportunity for reflection turns into a chance to chastise Eren for his reckless disregard for innocent civilian lives, which includes the death of children. Attack on Titan wants the audience to recognize that there are people behind the lives lost in Eren’s decision. “The War Hammer Titan” intentionally lingers on terrified faces and the bodies of corpses that needlessly lose their lives as collateral damage.

Aot season 4 episode 5