| 1 | [[quoteright:324:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b9869f1d_1742.png]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:324: SlasherSmile Incarnate.]] |
| 3 | ->''If I lose it all, slip and fall\ |
| 4 | I will never look away\ |
| 5 | If I lose it all, lose it all, lose it all\ |
| 6 | If I lose it all outside the Wall\ |
| 7 | Live to die another day\ |
| 8 | I don't want anything, I'm just here to...\ |
| 9 | '''BEWAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE!!!!''''' |
| 10 | -->-- '''[=SiM=]''', "The Rumbling" |
| 11 | |
| 12 | ''Attack on Titan'''s premise is a conflict between normal humans and enormous, man-eating Titans. Hajime Isayama plays up every PrimalFear of giants and being eaten by them to the hilt. Naturally, there's many cases of {{Squick}}, {{Gorn}}, and CruelAndUnusualDeath as characters find themselves being EatenAlive. |
| 13 | ---- |
| 14 | |
| 15 | !!Warning: Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies to these pages. Please proceed at your own risk. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[folder:In General]] |
| 20 | * The very premise mentioned above is quite disturbing. The only means of combat is a parkour-manoeuvring machine -- which can and does malfunction -- and a pair of katana, amplifying the terror of being close to a Titan. All it takes is a split-second of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and being [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe Half The Man You Used To Be ]] is the ''kindest'' fate that may befall you. |
| 21 | ** Those '''damn''' [[SlasherSmile ''grins'']] on the Titans' faces. Them looking stoned out of their gourds no matter what happens doesn't make them goofy, it only makes them unsettling, especially because they don't stop grinning ''even after [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction having pieces of their bodies hacked off]]''. |
| 22 | ** Titans themselves, even without the whole [[ImAHumanitarian eating people]] trait, almost always have varying degrees of BodyHorror. The lucky ones look a bit malnourished or have heads too big. Some others are clearly deformed beyond all reason. |
| 23 | ** The very concept of Titans, thought of from their point of view. It's one thing to look up at a Titan and think about how big it is. It's another thing entirely to think of yourself from a Titan's point of view and realize that you barely classify as an insect. |
| 24 | ** Titans, not just because the basic idea of a race of deformed-but-identifiably-human giants that eats people is terrifying, but because nothing about them makes any ''sense''. They derive no nutrition from eating humans because their digestive systems are vestigial, but they don't eat anything else, they regenerate at an alarming rate as long as one piece of their body stays intact, no one knows how (or if) they reproduce without sex organs, they're devastatingly fast, especially for such large, ponderous creatures, they don't respond to pain, and ''no one knows where the hell they came from''. |
| 25 | ** In general, the Titans are a little bit smaller in the manga. You'd think that would be of some comfort as far as fighting them might go, but... all it really means is that most of them ''have'' to bite you in half. |
| 26 | ** The fact that Titans are primarily diurnal is also quite terrifying. Though it's a justified case, since they seem to [[PowerOfTheSun extract most of their energy from the sun]], it's still very unsettling because you can see that the world isn't some crappy and desolate place, [[SceneryPorn but a beautiful]] [[GhibliHills one]]. The world itself isn't a bad one: the Titans make it bad. And the fact that a person's last sight before they get eaten are gorgeous snow capped mountains and rolling valleys is not only horrifying, but depressing. |
| 27 | ** Even during 100 years of peaceful living, the fact that these things just hung around the Walls like a bunch of vagrants is [[ParanoiaFuel creepy as hell.]] |
| 28 | ** In general, any time someone gets eaten by a Titan. The very idea of being EatenAlive is already terrifying enough, and the scenes are usually [[{{Gorn}} extremely gory]], too. |
| 29 | [[/folder]] |
| 30 | |
| 31 | [[folder:Fall of Shiganshina]] |
| 32 | !'''"To You, in 2000 Years: The Fall of Shiganshina, Part 1"''' |
| 33 | |
| 34 | * Eren's strange dream from the 1st Chapter of the manga was given a genuinely disturbing update for the anime: It begins with a peaceful view of a field of flowers complete with birds chirping in the background, and then [[SmashCut suddenly]] blood splashes over them. This is followed up by a slew of horrific images of Titans eating people, Titans appearing out of thin air by a windmill, a decapitated statue, a bunch of dead Survey Corps members in the forest, and ends with his [[DreamingOfThingsToCome mother being picked up by the Smiling Titan]]. After he wakes up, he couldn't remember what he dreamt about, but begins to cry without noticing. |
| 35 | * Just the astonishingly tense atmosphere as Armin ponders how their peace within the Walls is an illusion. It's the proverbial calm before the storm. And then the Colossal Titan comes a-knocking. And the world turns into Hell with a scene that will go down in Anime history for the sheer dread and awe inspired. |
| 36 | * The level of pure desperation Eren exudes as he tries to dig Carla out from under the beam his mother is trapped under. Uncaring of the splinters being driven under his nails, or that he's scraping all the skin off his palms until he bleeds. |
| 37 | * Hannes comes face-to-face with his first Titan. The page image's ''Smiling Titan''. Like any of us would be, he's struck cold with mortal terror and decides to flee with the children rather than risk his life fighting it. |
| 38 | * Carla's death. In the manga she's crushed in the Smiling Titan's grip, her innards vomiting out of her mouth before she's tossed head first down its gullet. Its teeth snapping shut on her legs, severing them. ''All as her son, Eren watches powerlessly, unable to tear his eyes away''. The anime censors this with an ironically ''worse'' death, where Carla has her spine snapped at the waist, like you or I would to a twig, then she's bitten in half upside-down - her life's blood falling like snow or flower petals down the street and scarring Eren for life. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | !'''"That Day: The Fall of Shiganshina, Part 2"''' |
| 41 | |
| 42 | * The scene where a woman tries to find safety in an alleyway, only to see a Titan staring directly down at her from above. Too frightened to move, it plucks her off the ground ''by the head'', and we listen to her terrified screams for mercy as her [[GoryDiscretionShot shoe falls into view of the camera]]. Her terrified pleas, all of them in vain are heartbreakingly disturbing, to say the least. |
| 43 | * The Armoured Titan. While not as large as the Colossal, it is equally terrifying. Cannon-fire is generally ineffective against regular Titans, but against this monster, [[NoSell it does absolutely nothing]]. |
| 44 | ** And then it smashes through the inner gate of Shiganishina, paving the way for the Titans to swarm into Wall Maria. |
| 45 | -->'''Hannes''': "[[HeroicBSOD This is the end.]]" |
| 46 | * Eren's dream about his father, Grisha's return to him after Carla's death. Only tragedy and suppressed memories of another horrific event was there that night. A guttering torch in the black of night, a syringe containing a clear serum and the key to the mysterious cellar back in his Titan-infested home city are all Eren can recall; as he wakes up to see his father has abandoned them. |
| 47 | * With Wall Maria abandoned, the survivors are forced to withdraw behind Wall Rose. During that period, an estimated 10,000 people were eaten. Even with that loss, humanity soon faced a hunger crisis. In desperation, a SuicideMission is made, conscripting young adults and seniors still capable of walking to retake the wall. '''Of the 250,000 sent, nearly 20% of the population... not even 200 survived.''' |
| 48 | -->'''Narrator''': "Although it wasn't much, their sacrifices did improve the food shortage situation for the rest of the population." |
| 49 | [[/folder]] |
| 50 | |
| 51 | [[folder:Humanity's Comeback]] |
| 52 | !'''"The Night of the Closing Ceremony: Humanity's Comeback, Part 2"''' |
| 53 | * The Colossal Titan reappears again after five years and breaks through Wall Rose enabling hordes of Titans to advance further into human territory. |
| 54 | ** Once again, it appears out of nowhere, [[HopeSpot right after Eren has delivered an internal monologue about Wall Rose's defenses being strong again]]. In the anime, it's so sudden that even the show itself takes a second to pause and show how shocked all the cadets present are. Eren can't even get out a word before it blows steam to knock them off the wall. |
| 55 | [[/folder]] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | [[folder:The Struggle for Trost]] |
| 58 | !'''"First Battle: The Struggle for Trost, Part 1"''' |
| 59 | * While battling the Colossal Titan, Eren realizes that ItCanThink, as shown when it targets the mounted cannons. This Titan is not like the others. |
| 60 | * The Titans eat for pleasure, and ''only'' for pleasure. Despite how they all have mouths full of horrifying teeth, ''chewing is optional''. It would almost look like they're playing with their food just to show off for the survivors... if their faces weren't such glazed-over masks of orgiastic bliss, completely ignoring everything but the struggling bodies going down their throats. |
| 61 | * Eren, Armin and the others head into live combat for the first time to provide support and are all secure in their abilities, even cracking jokes about how they won't exaggerate their kill-counts. Then they run across their first Aberrant Titan and everything goes to hell. |
| 62 | * One by one, Thomas, Mina and the others are picked off and killed by the Titans, dying in horrible ways. Eren loses [[AnArmAndALeg his left leg below the knee, then his left arm]] to them. As Armin sees this happening he can only collapse to his knees and watch in silence, despite his mind telling him to run he sits perfectly still as a Titan approaches and lifts him over its mouth to eat him. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | !'''"The World the Girl Saw: The Struggle for Trost, Part 2"''' |
| 65 | |
| 66 | * The scene where Hannah is trying to revive Franz might have flown over some heads in the anime [[GoryDiscretionShot thanks to the view]] (if you don't look too carefully at the scene, it makes it look like his lower half is still there). However, in the manga, it comes as quite a shock since it's smack-dab in the middle of the page and completely unhidden. |
| 67 | * If you do notice it, it is much more chilling in the anime by how slowly it sinks in. You see her trying to revive him, and then ask Armin for help. His refusal at first seems strange... then you see the blood... then notice Armin's expression as he refuses. It suddenly clicks, but you can't be too sure. You keep trying to see his lower half, but each camera angle shows exactly the same portion of his body as the one before. It can be a very stressful scene to watch. |
| 68 | * Mikasa's traumatic past, having to watch first her father and then her mother be slaughtered by the human-traffickers. At first she can't even comprehend her father has been stabbed in the heart. But when the other brings an axe down into her mother's clavicle and releases a damn ''torrential geyser'' of blood, causing her to twist and reach for her daughter in the throes of death before collapsing in a growing crimson pool. We see Mikasa's innocence ''die'', sheer incomprehension written across her face, before her eyes turn blank and she goes catatonic from the horror of it all. |
| 69 | * Although also awesome, Eren suddenly developing a predilection for calculated murder at his tender age is all manner of disturbing. He's ''nine'' when he butchers two grown men to save Mikasa. First luring them into a false sense of security by crying in the entrance of their hideout, pretending to be lost, and then he stabs the first guy right in the throat, mockingly thanking him for the lesson on how the world works before drawing it across and finishing him without a care. Then he just gives the [[TykeBomb creepiest]] [[DeathGlare stare]] to the other bandit, as he ''slowly closes the door!'' Then when the second bandit opens the door, Eren charges at him with the knife attached to the end of a broom like a spear and stabs him, then repeatedly stabs him to death while screaming at him that he deserves to die. |
| 70 | |
| 71 | !'''"Small Blade: The Struggle for Trost, Part 3" ''' |
| 72 | |
| 73 | * The chilling scene where we witness a group of soldiers trapped inside the military head-quarters of Trost with the Titans leering through the windows. This alone would be cause for terror, but what truly makes it extra unnerving is the way one of the soldiers cheerfully smiles as he loads a musket and [[AteHisGun stuffs the barrel]] [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled into his mouth.]] |
| 74 | * The ear piercing screams from the recruits getting devoured trying to save their friend. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | !'''"I Can Hear His Heartbeat: The Struggle for Trost, Part 4"''' |
| 77 | |
| 78 | * The need for the Cadets to let the Titans in the supply depot close to point-blank range of their muskets without their resolves breaking. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | !'''"Whereabouts of His Left Arm: The Struggle for Trost, Part 5"''' |
| 81 | |
| 82 | * We see how Eren got out of that Titan's stomach. But first, we see Eren being eaten alive. He falls into a damn lake of the Titan's digestive juices, where body-parts of ''dozens'' of fellow soldiers are floating. Someone else is even still alive and [[TearJerker mumbles a plea for her mother as she sinks into the boiling goop]]. Eren breaks down in anguish at his own helplessness, triggering his first Titan transformation, which bursts the Santa Titan apart to paint the streets red like Alien up to eleven. And the Rogue Titan stands up ''covered'' in steaming blood from head to toe. |
| 83 | * The cavernous and extremely red insides of the Titan that ate Eren (as opposed to the black-and-white of the manga) is absolutely ''Hellish''. It also illustrates the truly horrifying results of being eaten whole by a creature that has extremely high body temperature and doesn't actually have a working stomach: you are ''boiling in your comrades' blood''. |
| 84 | * Eren ''grinning'' in a really maniacal way, whispering about how he'll kill all the Titans, not even noticing that his best friend Armin has probably been listening to his MadnessMantra of "kill more" for the past few minutes with a horrified expression. |
| 85 | * That... THING that Eren created to stop him, Mikasa, and Armin from being killed by cannon fire, which can only be described as a giant skeleton with skinless flesh attached to half of the bones. |
| 86 | |
| 87 | !'''"Primal Desire: The Struggle for Trost, Part 9"''' |
| 88 | |
| 89 | * The piles of regurgitated, undigested limbs, and the fact that it is somebody's job to clean them up. The waste of so many lives for no apparent reason is bad enough, but every soldier who has to mop up Titan vomit can't ''not'' realise that they're elbow deep in what's likely to be their own future: a pile of anonymous body parts clogging the gutters. |
| 90 | * The aftermath of Marco's death. Not only is the way they portray his bisected body unusually grisly (with the realistically shrivelled back lips after a few days of decomposition), the monotone and fish-eyed method of addressing Jean as used by the female dead-counter is almost equally disturbing. |
| 91 | [[/folder]] |
| 92 | |
| 93 | [[folder:Eve of the Counterattack]] |
| 94 | !'''"Can't Look Into His Eyes Yet: Eve of the Counter-attack, Part 1"''' |
| 95 | |
| 96 | * It may all just be an act, but the NoHoldsBarredBeatdown that Levi gives Eren at his trial can be a little hard to watch. It doesn't help that the first blow knocked a tooth out and he didn't stop there. Granted, the tooth grew back, but still. |
| 97 | * The brutality of the beating was largely the goal from an in-universe perspective, too. People in the courtroom were starting to shout about how not only should Eren be executed and subsequently dissected, but Mikasa might also be a candidate for such treatment just to be on the safe side after a declaration that her role at age nine in killing the kidnappers who had taken her and ''murdered her parents'' cast doubt on both her and Eren's humanity. Levi savagely beats Eren and then calmly asks why the onlookers are so squeamish when they'd just been proposing a far more gruesome fate just moments earlier. |
| 98 | [[/folder]] |
| 99 | |
| 100 | [[folder:The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission]] |
| 101 | !'''"Female Titan: The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission, Part 1"''' |
| 102 | |
| 103 | * The Titan that chases Sasha's squad. Just... how it moves so fast on all fours like a great spider, hip to thigh joints bending in ways they just shouldn't. |
| 104 | * The [[MoreDeadlyThanTheMale Female Titan]] is absolutely terrifying, both in-universe and to the audience. Not only is her appearance pure FanDisservice and BodyHorror, with exposed muscle and bone over what SHOULD be an attractive female figure... but she shows just how utterly terrifying an [[ItCanThink intelligent]] Titan can be. She's incredibly fast, able to easily run down the soldiers' fastest horses, and relentlessly [[ImplacableMan chases down]] her prey while tearing through anyone in her path. |
| 105 | * It doesn't help that she racks up a massive body count, apparently wiping out the ENTIRE right flank of the Survey Corps, considered to be Humanity's strongest military division. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | !'''"Forest of Giant Trees: The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission, Part 2"''' |
| 108 | |
| 109 | * The way the Female Titan kills some of the Survey Corps members is downright cruel. Most of them get crushed underfoot or otherwise smashed by her limbs. Some less fortunate victims die an even less dignified death, varying from having their spinal column broken against a tree, to the upper half of their body grated and smeared out across a tree's surface and being spun around by their 3D Maneuver Gear's cable, reduced to a shower of blood due to the sheer force. To call her style merciless would be an understatement. |
| 110 | * One unlucky soldier arguably gets the worst of it. Ever twirl a yo-yo? That's what the Female Titan does to him, and the results are [[FreezeFrameBonus graphic, if brief.]] His spine is snapped in half, the force of him spinning is forcing all the blood out of his body, and if that's not enough to kill him, he's likely suffocating even before she decides to let go and send him rocketing off skyward. |
| 111 | * By the time it finally catches up to the Levi Squad, the cream of the crop, every last one of them except Levi himself is panicking. Even Eren himself is momentarily terrified. |
| 112 | |
| 113 | !'''"Bite: The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission, Part 3"''' |
| 114 | |
| 115 | * A flashback reveals that Eren, in the middle of having tea after failing to activate his Titan powers, they spontaneously activated and formed a fleshless arm and torso. It is part unnerving because it shows just how little Eren understands his own powers, and part because of how viciously the Levi Squad reacts to it. Then again, the mood doesn't last long as [[MoodWhiplash Hange charges in, practically squeeing at the sight]]. |
| 116 | |
| 117 | !'''"Erwin Smith: The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission, Part 4"''' |
| 118 | |
| 119 | * The series of deafeningly loud shrieks the Female Titan lets out are pretty damn unnerving. The massive wave of Titans that comes ravenously to her call? Even more so. |
| 120 | |
| 121 | %%!'''"Crushing Blow: The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission, Part 5"''' |
| 122 | [[/folder]] |
| 123 | |
| 124 | [[folder:Assault on Stohess]] |
| 125 | !'''"Smile: Assault on Stohess, Part 1"''' |
| 126 | |
| 127 | * Armin realizes Annie was the Female Titan all along. Mikasa drops all pretence and decides to kill her then and there. The Female Titan's reaction is to {{laugh|ing mad}} and start [[LuminescentBlush blushing]] with a [[SlasherSmile smile]]. The creepiness of this is aided and made even more surprising by the fact that she maintains a [[TheStoic stoic]] face throughout the rest of the anime, never smiling even once (until now). |
| 128 | |
| 129 | !'''"Mercy: Assault on Stohess, Part 2"''' |
| 130 | |
| 131 | * Eren desperately tearing into his hand with his teeth in an attempt to transform. His hand is gushing blood, his mouth stained, and those ''sounds'' he was making are ''awful'' to listen to, all gristle and sinew being gnawed on and snapping -- and bones scraped by teeth. |
| 132 | * And when he finally ''does'' turn into a Titan, it's part [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome awesome]] and part this. While [[HotBlooded Eren]] has lost control in anger before, here he goes ''absolutely apeshit'' with UnstoppableRage. His crazed, twisted facial expressions and the fact that he's covered in blood only make it worse. |
| 133 | |
| 134 | !'''"Wall: Assault on Stohess, Part 3"''' |
| 135 | |
| 136 | * Eren goes Guts-level berserk, restating his vow to kill all the Titans, complete with a voice that sounds like he borrowed it from the [[Franchise/{{Starcraft}} Zerg Overmind]] and a monstrously bloodthirsty grin that would make Alucard proud. |
| 137 | * The fight between Annie and Eren's Titans leads to the destruction of the city and the deaths of many civilians who are caught in the wake of the behemoths, including children! Worse, it's an insane Eren whose responsible for all this, all for his single-minded goal to kill the Female Titan, who is not only horrified by what he has done, but is also so terrified of him that she desperately tries to escape! |
| 138 | * '' '''[[VoiceOfTheLegion "I'LL DESTROY...! EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD!"]]''' '' |
| 139 | * The reveal of the Titans in the Walls. As a piece of the Wall broke off when the Female Titan was climbing it, Mikasa sees a very large eye. It's revealed to be part of an AncientConspiracy that only the top Wall worshippers and the royals knew, to subjugate the masses. |
| 140 | * And as terrifying as that concept is, even scarier are the questions it raises. Who put them in there? ''How'' did they get them in there? And most terrifying of all: Why? This is a revelation that [[WhamEpisode turned the entire series on its head,]] due to all the disturbing implications and questions it raises for the future. |
| 141 | [[/folder]] |
| 142 | |
| 143 | [[folder:Clash of The Titans]] |
| 144 | !'''"Beast Titan"''' |
| 145 | |
| 146 | * The titular Sasquatch himself is the definition of unsettling. It is the only Titan to look like an animal, giving us all that primal fear of an alpha predator. It is also the only Titan so far to clearly communicate with humans. Not to mention the disturbing implication that it has the ability to turn humans into Titans it can then control. |
| 147 | * Mike completely snapping when the Beast Titan looms over him and strikes up a conversation. As the big ape quickly susses out, he's "simply too frightened to formulate a response". And we all know we would be voiding ourselves and worse when confronted with an intelligent higher power to which we're just a large cockroach. |
| 148 | * The way it casually fed Mike to three mindless Titans chills the blood. The last we see of Mike is him getting torn apart and begging pathetically for his life. It's even worse in the anime, it ends with Mike being devoured in very, [[{{Gorn}} very graphic detail]]. Never before has a death been that cruel or brutal. |
| 149 | * "Ah. So you ''can'' speak." The Beast mutters drily as Mike's death throes are unleashed. The blasé, indifferent nature of his cruelty being somehow even worse than if he were relishing it. |
| 150 | * The ED to season 2: it shows masses of people being massacred by the Titans without any means to stop them. It is quite visceral in the details as well. [[SoundtrackDissonance The music playing makes it]] ''[[SoundtrackDissonance worse.]]'' |
| 151 | * That description alone doesn't do the Season 2 ED justice. Particular horrors to note scene by scene... |
| 152 | ** In the first scene, Titans, from 3-meters to ''Colossal Titans'', emerge from the sea and quickly overwhelm the soldiers posted on the battlements. |
| 153 | ** In the second scene, Titans start killing and eating civilians. What's particularly chilling is a smaller Titan can be observed with a body still in its mouth chasing fleeing civilians. The Colossal Titan can also be seen destroying buildings in the background. |
| 154 | ** In the third scene, numerous Titans of various sizes corner hundreds of civilians and a gruesome, visceral bloodbath starts. Something particular to note is that there is a ''child or baby'' at the very front of the crowd. |
| 155 | ** The fourth scene shows the aftermath as a Titan stuffs its cheeks full of civilians and is chewing on them as various Titans fight over the rest in the background as a Colossal Titan is standing over the horizon... |
| 156 | ** Another thing that makes this ED so horrifying is that we don't often see Mindless Titans rampaging across a city unopposed. The closest was the breach of Wall Maria at the start of the series. So imagine innumerable, nigh-invincible cannibalistic monsters appearing one day, quickly annihilating your cities defenses and then devouring men, women and children down to the last. And if that Colossal Titan in the background is any indication, there are also intelligent Titan Shifters running around too, probably making the slaughter that much easier. |
| 157 | ** Later on events in the manga and anime point to this being [[spoiler: a depiction of a horrific historical event named the Tragedy of Lago and its stated that that was not the only town or groups of people that were devoured to the last child by the Titans with ''nobody'' that could stop them. The soldiers in the ED? They were medieval knights and could do nothing to stop the Titans or the Shifters from killing them and the civillians.]] |
| 158 | |
| 159 | !'''"I'm Home"''' |
| 160 | |
| 161 | * The scene where a Titan casually holds a grown woman by her leg, slowly tearing pieces of flesh from it all the while she is still alive and her fear-stricken child sits in a corner, completely frozen. The quiet tension of the scene made it far worse than most occasions where people get swallowed whole or bitten in two. |
| 162 | |
| 163 | !'''"Southwestward"''' |
| 164 | |
| 165 | * [[TearJerker Somebody give Connie Springer a hug!]] Just put yourself in his shoes for a second. You visit your old home village that was destroyed by Titans. Bad enough already. But, then you find that the place makes no sense. There's no blood or corpses, so everyone must have run away, but the horses are still tethered in the stables, and everything is just quiet. Too quiet. And worst of all, there's a Titan with deformed limbs on your house, one that looks strangely like your mother... and ''it welcomes you back''. |
| 166 | |
| 167 | !'''"Soldier"''' |
| 168 | |
| 169 | * The Titan that confronts Reiner on the dark spiral staircase in Utgard Castle. You know the one. |
| 170 | * Nanaba’s death. Her fear of being eaten is so intense, she ''mentally regresses back to her abusive childhood and pleads for her father to stop''. It’s quite possibly one of the most realistic depictions of trauma in the show. |
| 171 | |
| 172 | !'''"Historia"''' |
| 173 | |
| 174 | * Ymir, aka the Dancing Titan, is smaller than the rest of the abnormal Titans, but looks far more feral and is much faster, like a rabid demonic animal. |
| 175 | * Reiner's crazed expression when he realises that Ymir was the one who devoured his friend. He then follows that up by slipping into a state where he could have unknowingly snapped Historia's leg in his grip even as he saved her from falling. Reiner's the man who makes even a cold TranquilFury look like blistering heat. |
| 176 | |
| 177 | !'''"Warrior"''' |
| 178 | |
| 179 | * The Colossal Titan and the Armoured Titan, responsible for countless deaths, were just kids. And even up to now their motives remain unknown. |
| 180 | * The way in which it is revealed is given an unusual lack of gravity through cuts and audio mixing that makes it look like casual background dialogue. You could have missed it -- just like the 104th did. |
| 181 | |
| 182 | !'''"Children"''' |
| 183 | |
| 184 | * Ymir mentions being a Titan for over ''60 years'', and that it felt like [[AndIMustScream one big nightmare.]] |
| 185 | |
| 186 | !'''"Charge"''' |
| 187 | |
| 188 | * Eren and Mikasa come face to face with ''the very same Titan that ate Carla five years ago'', complete with that familiar [[SlasherSmile toothy grin]]. |
| 189 | * Reiner chucking entire Titans at the Survey Corps in a desperate attempt to stop them is pretty unnerving, too. |
| 190 | * Mikasa rushes Bertholdt and just barely misses him due to taking cover on Reiner. Through his fingers she shoots him a horrifying glare and scares him half to death before Ymir intervenes again. |
| 191 | |
| 192 | !'''"Scream"''' |
| 193 | |
| 194 | * The Smiling Titan that ate Eren's mother returns, and the first thing it does is tear Hannes in half and eat him before going after Eren and Mikasa. The Survey Corps and the Military Police are being snapped up by the dozen, and Armin is frantically trying to protect Jean with only a single blade to raise in defense against approaching Titans. |
| 195 | * Expanding on Hannes' death, it's rather unsettling how he ''opens his eyes to look at Eren'' when the latter starts [[LaughingMad laughing]], apparently still having a bit of consciousness left even as he's ''torn in half.'' |
| 196 | * Eren has the ability to control normal Titans and if Reiner's thoughts are anything to go by... it would be one of the worst case scenarios. |
| 197 | * Considering the person thinking this is an ''enemy'', this comes off as an in-universe villainous version of NightmareFuel. After all, the Titan Shifters can't fight an endless swarm of normal Titans. And considering how much Eren despises them... |
| 198 | * The Titans invading Wall Rose are confirmed to have been the missing residents of Ragako village. Connie has lost every single person he knew growing up, as they were killed by the military after being turned into Titans. His mother has been taken into custody by the Survey Corps, and may exist only as a test subject for further experimentation. The photograph of his parents also reveals the Titan that Sasha fought off in her village was Mr. Springer. |
| 199 | * Armin and Erwin are the ''kings'' of nightmare fuel facial expressions, both Armin's grin in episode 11 of season 2 before he lies about Annie being tortured and Erwin's smile in episode 12, are both sanity-questioning and creepy, and the latter even freaks LEVI out! |
| 200 | ** The veterans of the Survey Corps realise that because Titans are humans transformed against their will, they have been experimenting on and killing ''innocent victims'' this entire time. Of course, the killing part could be interpreted [[MercyKill another way]]. |
| 201 | ** Normal Titans do not have a "pilot", as Shifters do. Instead, their bodies have been completely absorbed by the Titan form with only their spinal cord remaining. Titans can be killed through slicing out the nape of the neck because they are [[OffWithHisHead decapitating what remains of the human]]. |
| 202 | ** Anyone could become a Titan. ANYONE. It is unknown how the Beast Titan transformed the villagers, or if there are multiple methods to induce transformation. And it seems that most can never become human again, once changed. |
| 203 | ** The refugees from Wall Rose were forced into the ancient Underground cities beneath the Capital with only a week's worth of rations. They came within moments of open and violent rebellion, barely avoiding the Civil War that Pixis warned about early on in the series. Humanity is hanging on by a thread, one disaster away from slaughtering ''each other.'' |
| 204 | ** There's some pretty scary implication behind whoever the boss of Reiner, Annie and Bertholdt is. Imagine the mindset of people sending three ''kids'' to ''exterminate humanity''. Made worse when ''[[TheStoic Bertholdt]]'' confesses while crying that he genuinely cared for his comrades, but he's too scared ''not'' to follow orders, and Annie would rather seal herself away in crystal (possibly forever), than give up information. |
| 205 | ** A flashback in the Lost Girls Part 2 OVA, shows that Annie is being sent on that mission by ''her own terrified father''. Who apologises profusely but still insists that she love him even if it means making an enemy of the world. |
| 206 | [[/folder]] |
| 207 | |
| 208 | [[folder:The Uprising]] |
| 209 | !'''"Smoke Signal"''' |
| 210 | |
| 211 | * Eren's Titan form becoming smaller and malformed after repeated transformations in too quick a succession for Eren to handle. He becomes hideously emaciated from the waist down. Hip bones sticking out like a starvation victim. The flesh of his traps and other back muscles is stripped away until you can see Eren's real body attached to the Titan's neck with only his head and arms subsumed. Hange even notes in the manga that Eren might be permanently fusing with his Titan form before they manage to drag him out; but not this time without some grisly consequences. GoodThingYouCanHeal, Eren. |
| 212 | * The anime ups the BodyHorror of what were already gruesome black and white panels, with the nerve muscles becoming so much a part of Eren's face that his eyeballs have melted and sloughed out of his head. His lips, cheeks and nose are ripped off in the process of freeing him so that we can see his skull and even ''worse''... Eren's tongue has grown to the proportional length of his Titan's, lolling out of his mouth like a great red snake and his ears appear to be turning pointy... Just what the hell would he have become if left hooked up for too long? |
| 213 | ** It is implied that anyone staying in their Titan form long enough may lose themselves and revert to a mindless aberrant. Since Eren's intelligence degrades after he runs his Titan form for an unprecedented hour and a half, when he'd only used the power before in quick intense bursts of activity. He even loses memories of what he was even doing. |
| 214 | * Poor Nick having his finger nails torn out, (and a few teeth as well by the looks of it) with pliers before Djel and his compatriot tire of the priest's resilience and simply beat him to death with bare knuckles while he's tied up in a chair. When Hange comes on the scene they transparently and audaciously claim it was a robbery gone wrong. Not even bothering to put any real effort to hide the signs of torture on the body or even the fact that their hands are bruised from punching Nick until he stopped breathing. they've done this kind of wet-work before, to the point that it's ''routine''. |
| 215 | * Armin being [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty molested]] by a drooling thug while posing as [[DisguisedInDrag Historia]]'s BodyDouble. Armin's [[TearsOfFear terrified, humiliated]] expression and Jean having to look away only exacerbates the horror of the situation, in what might be played off as comedy in a different series. |
| 216 | * [[RedBaron Kenny the Ripper]], apparently slitting the throats of over a hundred Military Police members. His blood-drenched exploits propelling him to full-blown urban legend and eventually leading him to become the primary agent of the Crown's version of the NKVD. |
| 217 | * The Anti-Personnel ODM gear. We're seeing a weapon that's supposed to be used for killing Titans, now modified and used for the sake of killing humans. It's chilling to see it in action as the primitive exoskeleton is used to murder two members of Hange's squad with startling speed and accuracy, before they even knew what hit them. Levi himself is struck speechless for a few seconds when witnessing the damage their disposable sawn-off rounds can do to human beings. |
| 218 | * Nifa and Goggles undergoing surprise cranial readjustment. Read, everything above her jaw is shredded into red gloop from Kenny's shot, while Goggles has his own head split in two from the spray of metal, to topple into the street and splat-land at the feet of a mother and her child, who naturally screams bloody murder. |
| 219 | * The fact that Kenny doesn't even hesitate from opening fire on a man he fostered. For him, it is kill or be killed and he must have raised Levi with a similar Darwinian mind-set. |
| 220 | |
| 221 | !'''"Pain"''' |
| 222 | |
| 223 | * Fortunately for some, the anime adaption of the events covered below are rather toothless in comparison to the near {{Gorn}} of the source material. |
| 224 | ** Eren and Historia being confined and transported around in ''coffins'' would look pretty unnerving to anyone with the slightest case of claustrophobia. |
| 225 | ** The way Levi slaughters Kenny's Squad whenever he gets a chance. From impaling one in the throat. Slicing one's spinal cord and cutting a chunk out of another's medulla oblongata and seeing their faces spasm horrifically in death. To leaving another with his legs and buttocks dangling from a strip of flesh still connected to his waist after he reverse-grip cuts him across the abdomen. They also cut the kill Levi scores when he flings another blade clean through an MP's eye and nearly splits his head in two. |
| 226 | ** When Armin shoots the female MP, saving Jean's life. We get a clear panel of her bloody and clearly shattered skull from the impact of his bullet entering one temple and exiting the other in a welter of brain matter and bone chips. Worse still, Jean explains that the reason for his hesitation to kill her was that ''she'' was hesitating to kill ''him''. It may have been possible to talk her down, but of course no one could risk it. For readers upset with Jean for not just shooting her, it is an unsettling revelation to say the least. |
| 227 | ** The uncensored tortures Levi and Hange subject Djel to. From Hange crushing and ripping off his first finger nail, ''(after she's snapped the first joint of his finger by accident)'' and then going on to the other nine, to Levi breaking his nose by literally bending it out of shape with his bare hand. Hange also rips out one of Djel's molars with a pair of pliers and is even about to use a thumb-screw on whichever ''testicle'' he prefers to lose! |
| 228 | ** When Kenny cuts Reeves throat with what looks like a wicked skinning knife, he ''holds his head at an upwards angle like he's bleeding a goat or a pig''. To ensure every drop of his arterial blood gushes from his heart all the faster. The anime censors this in favour of us watching his pupils dilate massively in shock as his life leaves him, which can be just as creepy. |
| 229 | |
| 230 | !'''"Old Story"''' |
| 231 | |
| 232 | * The abusive neglect Historia's mother subjects her to. Ignoring your child is just about the ''worst'' psychological damage you can inflict on them. And it's further escalated in the scene where she bodily hurls a five or six year old Historia off her lap by the face, cracking the cartilage in her daughter's nose and making her bleed is nothing short of horrific in its understated mundane realism compared to the fantastical deaths in the series by Titan. And then, the first words she says to her progeny? |
| 233 | --> [[OffingTheOffspring "If only I had the courage... To kill this girl."]] |
| 234 | * With Alma crying when her daughter tries to interact with her, it's implied that this kind of upbringing is probably the ''best'' a royal bastard like Historia could expect to receive. With the alternatives likely being aborted before you're born, smothered in the crib, or, if no-one has the stomach to end her life: ''treated as if you don't exist''. |
| 235 | * Kenny and his Men in Black goons melting out of the darkness, sent by the Central Assembly to disappear Rod's little affair. Kenny even ironically refers to Alma as an {{Unperson}} before slitting her throat from ear-to-ear right in front of Historia and then how he ''[[WouldHurtAChild idly prepares to do the same to a ten year old little girl]]''. |
| 236 | * Rod saving Historia on a whim, only to have her shipped off to the Cadets to die on the front-lines and when he hears of Eren's power to use the Coordinate from the MP's that survived the rescue operation last Season; the opportunistic bastard seizes the pair of them. He starts laying the regret on thick, pouring poisoned honey in her ear to which an affection-starved girl like Historia is of course too receptive to notice that she is being blatantly emotionally manipulated. All while poor Eren trembles with fury and all-too-familiar helplessness. |
| 237 | |
| 238 | !'''"Trust"''' |
| 239 | |
| 240 | * Levi continues his career as an amateur torturer, kicking an MP in the face, before shoving his foot into his mouth and levering out two of his lower front teeth. He then proceeds to pop his right shoulder joint out of its socket with a half-nelson that doesn't go half way. He's in the process of taking the man's other arm, even stating that he has a lot more bones to break when the weeping MP breaks down and calls him a mad-man. |
| 241 | ** In the anime, Levi is completely morose as he dirties his hands and bluntly admits that he most likely is insane. In the manga, Levi, like a certain Lannister Patriarch, actually responds to this accusation by threatening to smile while quipping "maybe", and it is terrible to behold. |
| 242 | |
| 243 | !'''"Reply"''' |
| 244 | |
| 245 | * Zackly's out-of-nowhere reveal of being a remorseless and selfish human being that is only aligned with our heroes for his own gratification. Not to mention, that he deliberately kept up a facade of loyalty to the nobles to ensure they all believed him their unfailingly well-behaved dog. When in actuality he despised them with every fibre of his being and his capitulation to their foibles and demands his whole career has only festered his hatred until he's ironically as demented as they are; if not more so. |
| 246 | ** Zackly pointing at Erwin during this little extra speech as he addresses not only the Commander but also us, the readers, and making sure TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou as he gloatingly asks pointed rhetorical questions about whether you wanted to see justice done or to simply indulge until you feel uncomfortable? |
| 247 | -->'''Premiere Darius Zackly:''' I know you wanted to see their pitiful howling faces too! You wanted to see those hypocrites get what was coming to them! Of course, that display was more than I could have hoped for! Did you expect those grown-men to go out whimpering?! But the ''real'' fun is yet to come... After all, I've been thinking of ways to degrade and insult them for decades now!! |
| 248 | * The specialized Titan-Shifter restraints that Eren is placed in. With not only a horse-bit gag to stop him biting his lips or tongue, but enough chains to immobilize his waist and wrists, plus fetters around his ankles, placing his toes in a horribly uncomfortable position for an extended stay as he's forced into a thigh sit. Kenny's even had his arms pulled into a crucifix-hold and had wrappings to bind his fingers into useless mitts so that he can't scratch his palms with his nails to draw blood. |
| 249 | ** Towards the end of the mostly awesome Chapter 61, we get Rod Reiss's [[PsychoticSmirk creepy grin]]. It's especially jarring, since the only expressions we've seen him wearing so far are either grim seriousness or apologetic worry. Worse, this face is shown as he and Historia stand before a chained and bound Eren. Eren's position and the shot of Kenny sharpening a knife imply they are moments from doing ''something'' horrible -- and the Survey Corps aren't even close to finding him, having only vague clues to go on. |
| 250 | |
| 251 | !'''"Sin"''' |
| 252 | |
| 253 | * So it turns out that Eren's father didn't make him a Titan Shifter, the injection initially made Eren a ''regular mindless Titan'', and, hard as it is to believe, mindless!Titan Eren looks ''EVEN CREEPIER THAN THE SMILING TITAN.'' |
| 254 | * What happened after that is even worse. Eren's father was a Titan Shifter, and when he turned Eren into a Titan, he was promptly attacked and [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bitten in half]], granting Eren his Shifter powers. Eren immediately turns back to normal, and the first thing he sees is his father's mangled corpse. |
| 255 | ** The manga of course ups the gore-factor. With Grisha's legs twisted in the last spasms of life so violently that he loses a shoe; just as Carla did in the manga. We even see the giant god-damn teeth-mark shaped lacerations where his waist used to be. |
| 256 | * The... ''process'' of how the bloodline of the Walls turns from a human to a Titan and back again. Their bodies being subsumed into flesh, nerves and a spinal cord which is unidentifiable from the Titan's musculature. No wonder they lose short-term memories as their organs and minds are uploaded to the neural network on another plane of existence! |
| 257 | ** In the manga, Grisha and Freida's Titans look absolutely nightmarish. With Grisha's barbarian bearded, blood-soaked, lipless fury and Lovecraftian transformation panel making him look like the Devil himself. And Freida's triple limbus popping eyes of crazy, accompanied with a heart-shaped face and white-blond hair that makes her look disturbingly like a demented Titan version of Historia. |
| 258 | * Freida, in her Titan crying out in pain as Grisha rips her arm off. One of the Rogue Titan's overpowering abilities is quite clear against other Shifters, its berserker fury will shrug off all distraction from harm, while even the Original Titan feels agony. Annie and Reiner, being hardened Warriors had high pain-thresholds but obviously still suffered when the Corps or Eren managed to harm them. |
| 259 | * Grisha's absolutely ''brutal'' massacre of the Reiss family. As Frieda gorily loses her short-lived Titan vs Titan battle with him, he proceeds to flatten a twelve year-old Abel and a fourteen-year-old Dirk like flies as they helplessly run to aid their sister, then he stomps their mother to death ''while her ten-year-old daughter, Florian, is still clutched in her arms'' and finally squeezes the eldest son to death in his grip. It is horrifying and the fact that he murdered children like that without a thought but to eliminate their family completely is almost on par with the Shifter Trio's crimes. [[spoiler: Later revelations that Eren, our hero, practically forced his father's hands to massacre the Reiss family, ignoring Grisha's protests.]] |
| 260 | * The fact that Rod miraculously survived Grisha's rampage. The man seems to throw the rest of his family in Grisha's path and bolt for the hills. We even see Urklyn, his second-born, screaming and reaching for his father to help him as Grisha snatches him up. [[spoiler: Later revealed Grisha intentionally spared Rod Reiss due to Eren's orders.]] |
| 261 | * Darius Zackly's idea of Fine Art. The infamous and fabled 'Shit Machine' torture device that he subjects the deposed Central Assembly to. Not to mention the utter demented ''glee'' he showcases while feeding them their meals in reverse. It's straight out of Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. |
| 262 | |
| 263 | !'''"Wish"''' |
| 264 | |
| 265 | * The parallels with Rod preparing to inject Historia with the same concoction that transformed Eren, gently pushing her with the idea of "meeting" her kind half-sister through memories. It seems eerily manipulative and in a way Grisha's frantic and forceful methods towards Eren are preferable. |
| 266 | * Kenny revealing that his "dream" [[TheStarscream is to steal the power of the Titans that the Reiss family wields]]. Considering that Rod just explained the heights the wielders of the Founding Titan can reach in their abilities -- and from the dialogue of the Interior Squad loyal to him -- it is possible that Kenny is planning to use the power to reign like a god over mankind. The thought of those abilities in the hands of a man like that... brr... |
| 267 | * Kenny forcing Rod's mouth open, before sticking a knife down his throat and jiggling the blade about! Then notching Eren's forehead, causing a cascade of blood to weep over Eren's face. |
| 268 | * Eren's HeroicBSOD has him ready to give in entirely and let himself be devoured after witnessing his father's memories and knowing what the Coordinate can do in the right hands. Seeing the normally driven and HotBlooded Eren weeping encouragingly to Historia to eat him is ''chilling''. |
| 269 | ** In the manga, volume 16 ends with Historia seemingly crossing the point of no return by becoming a Titan. Even worse, the last shot of the rapidly growing Titan body bears a sinister resemblance to the Titan that wiped out Keith Shadis' squad at the beginning of the manga. That combined with Rod mentioning that he chose a "combat Titan" for Historia makes it clear a terrible battle is about to take place. |
| 270 | ** From the same chapter we get Frieda's completely unexpected NightmareFace as she rants and raves at a young Historia for daring to climb the fence around her farm. |
| 271 | ** The reason for it is also horrifying: she was suffering a SplitPersonalityTakeover thanks to the memories of the First King she inherited and it's implied that they sometimes overwhelm her own will. |
| 272 | * Rod's entire VillainousBreakdown, beginning with stoic shock as Historia destroys the syringe, before he snaps completely. A crazed expression distorting his features, passing beyond deranged to certifiable as he violently grabs Historia -- who he had up until now claimed to love -- and ending with him ''licking up the spilled Titan serum'' and going OneWingedAngel. |
| 273 | * Historia's shoulder-flip-throw on Rod, from the sound of its impact and him crawling in the next scene, ''breaks his back and cripples him''. |
| 274 | * Rod's shifting is easily one of the creepiest transformations in the series. With a gigantic spinal cord and skull erupting out of the ether, hellish light glowing through his hollow eye sockets, staring soullessly straight at Eren and Historia. It doesn't help matters when we see that he is at least as large as the Colossal Titan and getting ''bigger''. |
| 275 | |
| 276 | !'''"Outside The Walls of Orvud"''' |
| 277 | |
| 278 | * Rod's mindless Titan form is bigger than the Colossal Titan, possesses an exposed rib-cage and freakishly over-sized torso compared to its arms and legs. Worst of all, it is an implacable juggernaut that is nigh-impossible to even approach due to the immense heat radiating from its body. Due to it being a Deviant type, this monster is seeking out densely populated areas and Hange theorizes that standard evacuation methods will only ''worsen'' the situation, as it will follow the fleeing humans all the way into the capital, ''destroying Wall Sina'' in order to get at them. |
| 279 | * Adding to the above horror is the way the Rod-Titan ''moves'' -- it drags its huge torso across the ground with its comparatively small arms and legs with its face digging into the earth, in a manner reminiscent of an insect. |
| 280 | * The anime manage the feat of making its movements even ''worse'' once revealing how it moves. Its torso compresses and elongate akin of a giant maggot, supported by the legs. A ribcage should ''never'' be moving like that, ever. |
| 281 | |
| 282 | !'''"Ruler of The Walls"''' |
| 283 | |
| 284 | * You know how the Colossal Titan first appeared? That image of it reaching its hand and head over the Wall that's become an icon of the series? In a disturbing sort of recreation or CallBack, Rod's Titan form has to use Wall Sina to drag himself upright as support, eventually ''towering'' over the Wall even at a squat he is ''twice'' as big as Bertholdt at 120 meters! |
| 285 | * Since Rod's Titan face was stuck in the ground as he dragged himself from the caverns to Orvud District, it results in the bone being scraped off, leaving a flapping nub of a tongue, gloopy, empty orbital lobes, exposed naval cavities and a cut-away of his brain. Since it dragged itself on its belly, the same thing has happened to its upper torso, exposing its spiked a hundred long ribcage and vestigial organs. The citizens take one look at this monstrosity and break into a full out riot of terror. |
| 286 | * The anime for once ups the grotesque by showing Rod having several holes punched in him from the cannon-fire, which is bound to trigger trypophobia in some viewers. When it stands up, its nose and eye holes weep blood and most of its guts spill out of its abdomen and drape over the wall, sweeping some Garrison troops clear off! |
| 287 | * Two brief scenes show that Rod's Titan's eyes were open and dementedly looking forward as he was crawling. Now remember that when he finally reaches the wall, his titan had no eyes left. ''[[EyeScream They were fully open even though they were being grinded down by the sheer friction]]''. |
| 288 | * Kenny's injuries after barely surviving the collapse of the Crystal Cavern aren't a pretty sight. |
| 289 | |
| 290 | !'''"Friends"''' |
| 291 | |
| 292 | * Kuchel's emaciated corpse, complete with the shrivelled, desiccated lips of a body that must have been a good week of decomposing. |
| 293 | * Levi's state as a young'un. His cheek-bones are sticking out sharply and his eyes are sunken in from starvation. |
| 294 | * The Beast Titan and the Armoured Titan fought. [[TheWorfEffect Reiner was curb-stomped]]. His armour is completely missing from half his face, and there are several punch marks along his body that look like craters while The Beast Titan doesn't even have a visible scratch. Reiner and Bertholdt are ''taking orders from this monkey boy''. We don't know what ''his'' end game is, but it can't be good, and he all but promises a horrible surprise for those who come to reclaim Wall Maria. |
| 295 | * The SeasonFinale caps off with the cast in high spirits and a strong HopeSpot of the return to Shiganshina, and the triumphant episode ending credits playing -- until it glitches out, on a drop of blood showing Levi saying something and then rewinds. Then it happens again, and the series briefly jumps into a quick roll of disturbing imagery, a scream, and a FlashForward. This preview of the ''end'' of the next arc starts with Levi covered in steaming Titan blood, blaming Eren and Mikasa for ''something'', as everything's gone to hell in a handbasket, and Mikasa's verging on murdering Levi, all next to a charred and burned human body. Even worse, the FreezeFrameBonus moments that pass by in the flash forward show the Beast Titan, various elements and a charred corpse, which both work as a method of {{Foreshadowing}}, and an effective method of a subtle JumpScare -- even for those that already know what's in store next arc. Some of the spoilers are even subtle spoilers for the ''manga''. ...And then the ending continues from where it left off, as if nothing ever happened. |
| 296 | [[/folder]] |
| 297 | |
| 298 | [[folder:Return to Shiganshina]] |
| 299 | !'''"The Town Where Everything Began"''' |
| 300 | |
| 301 | * That supposedly lethal attack from Levi? Reiner survives it. He gets a blade through both his spine and heart, but the Power of the Titans cannot be so easily slain by the weapons of man. Reiner's eyes fog over as if he were the living dead and the transformation wracks his body like some kind of demonic possession before his spine arcs so hard he creates a crater in the earth and the ghastly light issues from his mouth and eyes. |
| 302 | * Oh, sure the Survey Corps had a HopeSpot when Levi curb-stomps Reiner. Then the Beast Titan enters the fray. With ''scores'' of similarly sized Titans flanking him as they transform as one. |
| 303 | * All those Titans? The entire horizon behind Erwin lights up with a familiar lighting, cutting off their retreat. The implication? The Beast Titan has kidnapped a lot of people and turned them into Titans in an instant... Worse... They were all ''buried alive'' in a great semi-circle to entrap the Corps. Monkey boy has been planning this for a long time... |
| 304 | |
| 305 | !'''"Thunder Spears"''' |
| 306 | |
| 307 | * As Reiner notes, he very well ''should'' have died from Levi's blades. He then climbs the fucking Wall with the blade still in his neck before the muscle nucleus all Shifters rest in ''slowly and grisly pulls it out''. Like the helpful hand of a gelatinous ''living thing''. |
| 308 | |
| 309 | !'''"Descent"''' |
| 310 | |
| 311 | * Marco's murder at the hands of the Warrior trio for the crime of merely [[HeKnowsTooMuch being at the wrong place at the wrong time and overhearing things he shouldn't have.]] Its hard to tell what part of it is the worst, Marco's confusion and terror as he comes to the realization that the two comrades he fought alongside of are the very monsters who destroyed the Wall, the doomed hope on his face when he sees Annie come to his "rescue"... or Warrior Reiner's utter disdain for humanity as a [[FantasticRacism "filthy race"]]. Take your pick, but all of them are pretty chilling. |
| 312 | * The Beast Titan's known as '''warchief''' Zeke among the Titan Shifters, and he mentions that the people within the Walls have a [[GreaterScopeVillain "cursed history"]] that must be brought to an end. |
| 313 | * Zeke also discusses letting other children ''eat Reiner'' with the same air of parental patience you might use on a misbehaving child. Reiner and Bertholdt are visibly shaken by this. |
| 314 | * The WhamShot of Reiner's body ''missing half his head'' from the lower jaw up, while still stuck in his Titan's nape, is pretty nasty. What's worse is that this ''is still not enough'' to kill him outright. |
| 315 | * The matter-of-fact way Bertholdt confirms that the Warriors' goal is not only the Coordinate but the deaths of every man, woman, and child within the Walls, while assuring the 104th that they haven't done anything wrong, they [[NothingPersonal just have to die]]. It goes even further downhill when he transforms into the Colossal Titan, causing a mushroom-shaped eruption that may have ''annihilated Hange and her squad'' as well as countless other soldiers. |
| 316 | * Reiner, having transferred control of his bodily functions to his Titan's nervous system, allowing him to live through having his cerebellum blown to smithereens. Our last glimpse of him is with his head regenerating in tandem to the unholy beating heart of his Titan's nucleus, complete with his [[NauseaFuel fresh bulging brain and newly formed eyes peeking out from a mass of blood and steam.]] |
| 317 | |
| 318 | !'''"Perfect Game"''' |
| 319 | |
| 320 | * Zeke hurling crushed boulders at the Corps with alarming accuracy and speed, and how it's drawn makes it look as if he's breaking the sound barrier. What results is one of the biggest gore-fests in the manga yet, with body parts being splattered everywhere as they are being pulped hard enough to fill an entire block with pink mist, sending humanity into the direst straits yet. Zeke manages to make it worse by likening to his performance to baseball and quips on how he's aiming for a "perfect game". |
| 321 | * As if that weren't bad enough, Bertholdt ends up setting fire to the houses, then flinging the pieces to other houses to set the whole city of Shiganshina on fire. Him and Zeke end up forming a double-envelopment that traps everyone between their godly power. |
| 322 | ** The fact that Zeke both knows what baseball is and apparently winds up like a pitcher would suggests that human civilization still exists outside of the Walls. Given that the inhabitants of the Walls were the rich 1% who left behind the rest of humanity to die and that the First King was some sort of Titan Shifter with the Coordinate ability, you get the impression that there might be a ''very'' good reason why Zeke's people are so [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge hostile to the humans living within the Walls]]. |
| 323 | |
| 324 | !'''"Hero"''' |
| 325 | |
| 326 | * Zeke's inner monologue shows that while he pities his enemies to some extent, the only way he can massacre them without a care is by likening his wanton blood-shed to a game of baseball. And it's clear he freely indulges in sadism because of his own troubled childhood and can't help but glory in the overwhelming power his Titan offers. |
| 327 | * At first, you think the Cart Titan is a funny throwaway character that won't impact anything. Then you realise that without its presence, the Warriors couldn't have encircled the Corps, Zeke wouldn't have had a carrier to provide the ammunition he used and to add to all of that, it nearly bites Levi in half and definitely renders Erwin, Marlowe and everyone else's deaths moot by snatching away Zeke. |
| 328 | * Reiner's flayed face after his regeneration. Though it [[NightmareRetardant lessened somewhat]] by his resemblance to [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Handsome!Squidward]]. |
| 329 | * Bertholdt's highest level of steam propulsion turns his muscles into a glowing nuclear inferno and the gases into a hell-storm of heat. One that burns Armin's clothes and hair away before ''melting the flesh off his bones'' so that it flows like running candle-wax droplets. The censorship somehow made Armin being charred and desiccated ''even worse'' in the anime. |
| 330 | * Armin's body, or what's left of it, after he was roasted alive by the Colossal Titan. It's clear that his death was an agonizing one. |
| 331 | |
| 332 | !'''"Midnight Sun"''' |
| 333 | |
| 334 | * Mikasa's reaction when Levi initially chooses to save Erwin instead of Armin. She's more than ready to kill him for it, and the only reason she doesn't act right away is because she realises that he's been weakened. Considering that the scene early on when she's ready to attack Levi when he's beating Eren was played for laughs, it sheds new light on just how terrifying Mikasa can be if you mess with her friends. |
| 335 | * Bertholdt gets what Eren promised was coming to him, a death as excruciating as possible, being chewed up, one piece at a time, with his head going last, all while he's awake, aware of what's happening, and unable to do anything about it. |
| 336 | |
| 337 | !'''"The Basement"''' |
| 338 | |
| 339 | * TheReveal of the state of humanity. Civilization is thriving... as an [[CrapsaccharineWorld Orwellian nightmare]]. The population is divided by class, and absolute obedience and protocol is enforced with extreme prejudice, [[WouldHurtAChild that not even children are safe.]] |
| 340 | |
| 341 | !'''"That Day"''' |
| 342 | |
| 343 | * This is exemplified when curiosity gets the better of a young Grisha Jaeger and his little sister, Faye, to go outside their district without a permit so that they could see a Zeppelin land. Grisha is beaten by an officer under the promise that Faye is let go, [[EvenEvilHasStandards with the officer's partner even saying that he's going too far]]... except Faye never returned home. Instead, [[KillTheCutie her body is discovered washed up from a river]], [[BodyHorror blood pouring from her eyes and mouth and chunks of flesh missing from her arms and throat]]. |
| 344 | * Marley's history book retelling of the state of the world. The Eldians used the second generation of Titan Shifters to rule over the Marley people and it's mentioned that they 'forced them to breed' with them to produce more of their population -- they spent hundreds of years committing mass rape. Then the Marley managed to turn the tables and keep the remaining Eldians in a ghetto, and are able to kill children without fearing any consequences. It's one big cycle of horrific revenge. |
| 345 | * When Grice informs Grisha how Faye was murdered. Sgt. Major Gross sicced his sons' spitz dogs on her and they mauled her to death. ''She was eight years old''. |
| 346 | * The reason why Marley launched the campaign to destroy the Eldians behind the Walls isn't just unnerving, it's '''sickening''', with it's complete realism. What they want are the natural resources beneath Paradis, meaning they've made a bad situation even worse for thousands of innocent people for profit and technological dominance, subjecting Eldian's to not just horrific deaths but grueling years of fighting and paranoia to do so. It's all-too reminiscent of indigenous tribes being wiped out for the natural riches of their lands. |
| 347 | * Zeke betraying his parents to the authorities when they place far too much onus on his young shoulders. Really evoking the terror of being sold out by family that the NKVD or Stasi would encourage similarly among the more easily malleable youth. |
| 348 | ** Grisha's torture scene at the beginning of Chapter 87, with multiple panels focusing on his fingers being snipped off with shears. The anime compensates its censorship with the ''hideous'' sound of flesh and bone being sliced through and Grisha's shrieks of agony. |
| 349 | * The dry-dock of Paradis Island is lined with its own high wall, which is used as a makeshift execution site by the Marleyan government, but rather than outright killing people there, they are pushed off to make a soft landing in the sand below... just so the Titans can eat them alive. [[FromBadToWorse It gets worse.]] Grisha and his fellow revolutionaries are brought there and Grisha bears witness to all of his comrades being injected with Titan Serum, pushed off the wall, and transforming into Titans. What does this mean? ALL regular Titans shown in the series thus far were once Eldian people, punished by being Titanized at the outer Paradis wall (minus the ones transformed by the Beast Titan). |
| 350 | * Grisha's comrades are [[FateWorseThanDeath rightfully terrified of becoming Titans]], knowing they'll lose themselves. Moments later, we see them transform after being injected; Grisha calls out to them, but they no longer remember who they are and relentlessly pursue Grice across the dunes. |
| 351 | * The reveal that the Smiling Titan, the one that ate Carla and Hannes, whom Eren destroyed, was Grisha's former wife Dina. The Moe Titan is also revealed to have been one of Grisha's comrades, forcefully transformed in front of him and deliberately made to be a 3-4m class by being injected with only a small dosage of fluid. Going all the way back to the battle of Trost reveals that most of the major Titans there (such as the the one that eats Thomas, the one that bites Eren's leg off and the one that nearly devours Armin and does swallow Eren) were also comrades of Grisha. |
| 352 | * Gross' BreakingSpeech to Grisha is so eerily terrifying in his complete lack of regard for Eldian life; all because of the accident of their origin and history. He also does a ThousandYardStare directly at the viewer while he casually injects a restorationist in the spine and waxes lyrical on his extreme Darwinian StrawNihilist mindset. It's just chilling. |
| 353 | -->'''Sgt. Major Gross:''' You want to know why? ''[regarding the Eldian persecution]'' Because it's fun, why else? It's fun watching humans being devoured by monsters. Sure, there might be a few who don't want to see it. But most people like watching brutality. Think about it, we've been at peace since we were freed from Eldian rule. Decades of peace are great, but there's something missing. These days you hardly get to feel ''alive''. Do you wake up feeling like you might die today? I don't know how many people do... But the fact is, that's the natural mindset for all living things. But in a society that takes peace for granted, the people who think that way are ''abnormal''. Well, I'm different. We're all gonna die, but me, I'm prepared for when my day comes. And that's because I face the ''truth'' of this cruel world and try to understand it. You have to ''enjoy'' your education. And my sons learned something watching their dogs tear apart your sister. It ''built character''. |
| 354 | ** In a way the dub effectively toned down and normalized the speech; it's not "fun" to him, but "interesting", and some of the heavier context in his words were rephrased to be more like a hobby of seeing what happens rather than simply being a StrawNihilist, with the casual tone of the speech nailed down to a T. The result is sounding less like an overdramatic military fanatic against Eldians, and more like [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse anyone else]] that legitimately gives not one damn about the loss of Eldian life simply because that's how it goes, which works for his job and hobby alike -- he's probably even said these same words to other victims before. |
| 355 | ** Gross also finally meets his end by his very machinations shortly thereafter from Kruger pushing him into a space directly with the infamous [[FanNickname Kawaii Titan]]. At first he seems like he's in disbelief that Kruger just betrayed him or that he fell inside. [[OhCrap Then he freezes up upon noticing the Titan angrily glaring at him.]] The screams are as horrifying as they would be for any other Titan victim, and the worst part is that this is one of the few times in the series the reader/viewer may genuinely not be disturbed by them, or even ''celebrating it'' just because Gross was the biggest AssholeVictim in the franchise at this point, bar none. |
| 356 | |
| 357 | |
| 358 | !'''"The Attack Titan"''' |
| 359 | |
| 360 | * The Government meeting to discuss the information gained from Grisha's diaries. Namely, the top brass being ''eager'' to learn how to use the Coordinate so that they can unleash the Wall Titans on the world. We've reached a point where the leadership of '''both''' sides are prepared to cross the GodzillaThreshold and exterminate every last living soul on the opposing side. Since the entire world considers the Eldians their enemies, both sides are geared up to commit genocide. |
| 361 | |
| 362 | !'''"The Other Side of the Wall"''' |
| 363 | |
| 364 | * While everyone else, even [[TheStoic Mikasa]], celebrate killing all the Titans on Paradis Island and finally reaching the ocean, Eren doesn't even care, instead choosing to focus on his new goal of [[{{Revenge}} killing the Marleyans for everything they've done.]] By Chapter 92, it's obvious how much the rest of the world hate the Eldians, meaning even if he accomplishes that, it still won't be the end. It's starting to look like [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Eren will never be satisfied with just his vengeance.]] |
| 365 | * Even as the scouts are enjoying and discovering the beach and ocean for the first time, Armin especially, Eren was the only one who looks on forward, knowing that on the other side of the ocean, countless people and nations want to destroy the Eldians within the walls. Among the lot, Eren could only think about killing ALL their enemies, only then he can belive that they can truly be free. And with Eren out of the walls, he now has a target, Marley. |
| 366 | ** A youtube comment could describe this at best, with a hint of awesome and dread: |
| 367 | -->'''To Marleyans, your greatest enemy has awoken.''' |
| 368 | |
| 369 | [[/folder]] |
| 370 | |
| 371 | [[folder:The Truths of Marley]] |
| 372 | !'''"The Other Side of the Sea"''' |
| 373 | * When Gabi attempts her WoundedGazelleGambit, the soldiers watching her are willing to shoot an unarmed, half-clothed, limping girl out of the fear that she ''might'' be Eldian. It’s a subtle but chilling moment that hammers in just how dreaded and ''hated'' Eldians are by the world at large. |
| 374 | * We see how the Beast Titan uses his technique to turn the people in Connie's village into Titans. After injecting them with a bit of his spinal fluid, Zeke simply gives out a huge roar that turns the nearest Eldians into Titan. Zeke uses it on a group of Eldians that look either drugged or mentally ill, and has them transform while ''in mid-air as falling bombardments on a walled fortress'' and said fall killed 60 percent of them! |
| 375 | * The entire context of what transpired with the results of Marleyan government's dehumanization of Eldians not only treating them as demons but also as expendable with exception of the best in the Warrior program. It doesn't help said dehumanization spread all over the world with a Middle East Union soldier even cursing Falco and the others despite the former trying to keep him alive. |
| 376 | |
| 377 | !'''"Midnight Train'''' |
| 378 | * Reiner gives better insight regarding what happens when candidates for the Warrior program are even suspected of betrayal; They're not only kicked out of the Warrior program, they [[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure along with their entire family will be turned into mindless Titans]] as Cannon Fodder for future battles. TrappedInVillainy indeed... |
| 379 | * Reiner says all this to intimidate Falco into staying silent, when the latter starts openly criticizing the idea of Gabi inheriting the Armored Titan from Reiner. |
| 380 | * Falco notices a line of soldiers being escorted to a ghetto hospital, all badly wounded and traumatized by their ordeals. One of the Marleyan soldiers explains that they have spent the last few years digging trenches, and are now mentally broken. They have no families or friends, and therefore no one to miss them... |
| 381 | * The Braun family dinner is filled with subtle horror, demonstrating how mindlessly obedient they are in condemning the island "Demons" and offering up their own children to Marley's war machine. The family celebrates the thought of ''two'' of their children becoming Warriors, by one killing the other. And Reiner is forced to describe his former friends as monsters and demons to appease his family, who are visibly horrified when he fails to sufficiently demonize them. Gabi picks up on this and questions what Reiner meant by "different types of people", and is immediately subjected to her [[MyBelovedSmother aunt]] screaming about how everyone on the island is evil... while ''glaring'' across the table at Reiner. |
| 382 | ** On top of that, Gabi's aunt, and the expressions of the others, implies that, deep down, they know ''Reiner is right,'' but to acknowledge that, or even to ''not immediately deny'' that the Paradisians are anything more than monsters, brings the threat of Marley's police coming down on their entire family. It just goes to show how much of a grip of terror and propaganda Marley has on the Eldian populace. |
| 383 | |
| 384 | ! '''"The Door of Hope"''' |
| 385 | * Seeing Annie and Reiner, who at the time are preteens, arguing over whether to abandon their mission in the immediate aftermath of Marcel's death, not sure if their superiors will execute Reiner or all of them for their failure. Upon being violently beaten up and told to die by an enraged Annie, we witness the beginning of Reiner's SanitySlippage as he [[BreakTheCutie finally snaps]]: Tackling and choking Annie while [[ThatManIsDead declaring that he will become Marcel]] if that is what they need. Made worse by the fact that his face is [[NightmareFace completely covered in his own blood]]. |
| 386 | * The Fall of Wall Maria, seen from the other side of things. Reiner and Annie were nearly devoured by Titans, while Bertolt emerges from his Titan... and sees the Smiling Titan staring at him as it calmly walked past and into the city. |
| 387 | * The SoleSurvivor of a mountain village, telling the Warriors about how he abandoned his children to die. He ends up hanging himself, with the other refugees not even able to remember the name of his village or particularly caring about his death. There is the implication that the Warriors got him to talk about his village so they could create a believable backstory and then killed him, making it look like a suicide so they wouldn't be found out. |
| 388 | ** 12-year old Annie suggesting that she go into the city, and seduce a noble in order to get closer to the royal family. She claims she's joking, but it's also pointed out that only female refugees are allowed to go into the city. |
| 389 | * The SplashPanel of Reiner with a rifle in his mouth, preparing to kill himself. Even involving a character that has survived incredible violence, it's a horrifying image. |
| 390 | * Because WarIsHell, the veterans shown at the ghetto hospital are fairly horrifying in their own way. As Eren points out, none of them would have wanted to go to war if they'd known what would happen to them. Several amputees are seen, as well as several men that have clearly been driven insane by their experiences fighting in the trenches. Sadly TruthInTelevision, since it parallels the horror of veterans returning from the first World War maimed and broken. |
| 391 | |
| 392 | !'''"From One Hand to Another"''' |
| 393 | * Marley isn't the only country that has Eldian Internment Zones, as Udo is revealed to have moved to Marley after being accepted into the Warrior Program. He states that things are so bad in other countries, that Marley's treatment is considered ''good''. That's right, the horrors the audience has seen Marley subject the Eldian people to is considered "moderate" or even "humane" in comparison to how other countries treat them. |
| 394 | * During a fancy dinner party, the recruits are forced to serve the guests. Udo bumps into a foreign delegate and spills wine on her clothing. He remains frozen in terror when an official comes over, though the woman lies to defuse the situation and pretends nothing happened. Afterwards, she whispers a warning to him, reminding him that there's no way to know what they might have done to him. Even a "valued" Warrior Candidate could be taken off and killed (or worse) for stepping out of line, and the only thing that saved Udo was bumping into the one sympathetic guest at the party. |
| 395 | |
| 396 | !'''"Declaration of War"''' |
| 397 | * At the ceremony where Willy is declaring war on the "Demons of Paradis", Reiner finds that Eren is right underneath the stage and has a cut on his hand, meaning he can transform at any time. |
| 398 | * Even though Eren is TheHero of this story, the way he acts in front of Reiner and Falco is disturbing. His calm and collected demeanour is such a contrast to his raging bloodlust that it is actually [[DissonantSerenity MORE TERRIFYING]]. |
| 399 | * TheReveal that the "hero" who ended the Great Titan War was none other than King Carl Fritz. He not only made a pact with the Tybur family to end the war, but then he made a [[ActualPacifist vow of pacifism]] that would prevent all of his descendants from using his power against the Marleyans or anyone else ever again. Even if the Titans were to breach every Wall, ''whoever was King would let it happen.'' The King was so horrified by his people's actions that he believed it would be better if they never existed. |
| 400 | * There's a reason why Chapter 100 (episode 64) was anticipated to be "Grim Reminder 2.0": |
| 401 | ** Willy emotionally manipulates the audience into agreeing with full on ''genocide''. And even though he dies immediately afterwards, he [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning gets]] [[ThanatosGambit exactly]] [[WoundedGazelleWarcry what]] he wanted out of the ordeal. |
| 402 | ** It's after the speech that really solidifies the horror -- out of nowhere, just when the world leaders believe themselves secure and righteous in waging a war of extermination on the Eldians, Eren turns into the Attack Titan, bursts out of the building overlooking the conference and swats Tybur like a cockroach in front of thousands, murdering countless civilians (including children) along the way. It's in direct parallel to the Colossal Titan's first manga appearance all those years ago; instilling absolute mortal terror in the hearts of the people. |
| 403 | *** The anime makes the Attack Titan's appearance worse. His face already looks terrifying when it's bathed in the golden transformation glow, but it's one-upped by his glowing green eyes and sharper teeth. To the Marley audience, and we viewers, it conveys just how far Eren will go to exterminate anyone he deems an enemy. |
| 404 | *** Additionally, the English dub added something to the Attack Titan's roar, apart from deepening its voice. If one listens closely, it sounds like the human Eren is roaring along with the Attack Titan! |
| 405 | |
| 406 | !'''"The War Hammer Titan"''' |
| 407 | * Chapter 101 (episode 65) continues to parallel the carnage of the first issue. |
| 408 | * Eren's horrifying Titan version of BellyFlopCrushing, leaping from the stage and crushing the audience of military officials underneath his 15 meter body. |
| 409 | * The deaths of Sofia and Udo. The former is killed instantly when debris falls on her, leaving only a bloody mess with legs sticking out. The latter stands still too long, and is trampled to death when the audience stampedes out of the fairgrounds -- his body getting kicked around, his head practically rolling off his shoulders as multitudes of sprinting feet snap his neck like a twig and we later get a panel showing a chunk of his ''skull'' missing. |
| 410 | * Colt desperately trying to save his younger colleagues, only to be swept away by the panicked audience. He ends up stuck behind a large piece of rubble, cowering behind it to save himself and Gabi while the crowd stampedes around and even ''over'' them like tidal waves in their panic to escape Eren's rampage. It drives home just how harrowing being stuck in a frenzied crowd actually is. |
| 411 | * Gabi's horrified, broken expression as she watches the people around her devolve into animals unheeding of any ideology except survival. |
| 412 | ** The anime adaptation manages to make this ''even worse'', as we get to hear Gabi's ''bloodcurdling'' [[TheScream scream]] while we see said horrified expression. It is absolutely spine-chilling in [[Creator/AyaneSakura both]] [[Creator/LindsaySeidel languages]]. Listen for yourself [[https://youtu.be/QRdDeuD95pM here]]. |
| 413 | * All this while the Attack Titan shakes the earth, slaughtering Marleyans indiscriminately with that wild mane of hair shrouding his screaming skull face and truly living up to his name as a demon. He's like Kayako from the Grudge sized up to city-levelling proportions. |
| 414 | |
| 415 | !'''"Assault"''' |
| 416 | * Chapter 103 (episode 66) is a particularly shocking and gruesome chapter, even by the series' standards. |
| 417 | * Armin deploys his Titan in open war -- its initial detonation sends battleships flying into the sky. One can only guess at Armin's now truly colossal body-count. |
| 418 | * The defeat of the Panzer Unit is BloodierAndGorier, with the Cart Titan and her crew being blown to pieces. There's brain matter, [[EyeScream eye balls]], teeth, and chunks of unidentifiable flesh exploding all over the place in graphic detail. It doesn't help matters that Pieck is an EnsembleDarkhorse, and fills roughly half a panel with vomited blood before her eyes roll into the back of her head from her injuries. Said slaughter starts when [[ColdSniper Sasha]] shoots one of the unit members through the head. We get a good look of the lifeless body with the bullet hole in his head as the other members cry out for him. |
| 419 | ** This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPAR8ZI3NM8 scene]] from anime also does a good job of conveying the horrifying destruction, showing each of the Panzer unit get completly incinerated, even Pieck herself isn't spared. |
| 420 | * Jean committing himself to a final attack on the downed Pieck, only for Falco to throw himself into his line of fire to protect her. Jean promised Armin and Levi all the way back in the Uprising Arc that he wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger next time but he's likely damned either way; if he does then he'll snuff out the last vestiges of his humanity, if he doesn't -- then his own life could be forfeit. Cemented with the closing author caption of: ''When will this cycle of tragedy ever cease?!'' |
| 421 | * We finally see Armin's Titan up close, with its gaunt, skull-like face, exposed ribs and spinal column, stomping across the ruins of the docks it just destroyed. Both it and Armin look mournful and traumatized at the sight of a recently-deceased child trapped under the rubble with tears in their eyes, the only sign of the life that had been there just minutes before. |
| 422 | * Eren finally manages to crack through the Warhammer's crystal... by jamming her into Porco's jaws and forcing them shut, slowly cracking her open like a nut and holding her above his mouth so that the resulting spray of blood and spinal fluid will pour into his own mouth. The look on her face, and the sight of her body as it fractures apart along with the crystal, is chilling, [[AintTooProudToBeg combined with Porco pleading for Eren to stop whatever he's about to do]]. Then, right after making Porco kill his own ally, he tries to eat Porco too and is just barely stopped. Again, Eren shows not only a lack of remorse for these brutal killings but a lack of any emotion at all. |
| 423 | |
| 424 | !'''"Assassin's Bullet"''' |
| 425 | * Sasha's death is horrifyingly swift, sudden, and out of ''absolutely nowhere''. It goes to show AnyoneCanDie, and that absolutely no one is safe. |
| 426 | * We see the extent of how brainwashed the well-meaning Gabi has been by the Marleyan Regime. Falco is utterly powerless to keep his love from going on a suicide mission, who resolves to either kill all of the "bad" Eldians or die trying. Even after being captured and beaten she is utterly ''rabid'' with hatred in the face of the Eldians of Paradis, threatening to curse and kill them all on behalf of the "true Eldians", horrifying even Falco. Her recent personal tragedy and a lifetime of stigma has twisted her into exactly what Reiner was trying to prevent her from becoming. |
| 427 | [[/folder]] |
| 428 | |
| 429 | [[folder:War For Paradis]] |
| 430 | * Chapter 108: |
| 431 | ** You know things are going to shit when ''Connie'' of all people can pull off a DeathGlare frightening enough to stop Mikasa in her tracks as they discuss Eren's motivations. |
| 432 | ** Eren is shown to be so uncaring and apathetic towards Sasha's death, that even his sworn friends have slowly begun to turn on him. Eren's bland attitude towards his murder of innocent people, children and even the death of one of ''his comrades'', for whom once upon a time he would have gone on a rampage for, is cementing that perhaps Eren's mind is compromised by the memories of past holders and he cares for nothing and no-one besides his mission. |
| 433 | ** Worse: [[WeUsedToBeFriends Connie, Jean and even]] ''[[TrueCompanions Armin]]'' are all considering his death if it's confirmed that he wishes to commit further war crimes. |
| 434 | * Chapter 109: |
| 435 | ** When Kaya, one of the people who took in Gabi and Falco, reveals she knows they're from Marley, Gabi immediately grabs a pitchfork and tries to murder her. Prior to this Gabi rants that Kaya is evil and her people deserve everything they get for the crimes of their ancestors centuries ago. |
| 436 | ** Four years ago, Kaya's village was attacked by a three meter Titan. Kaya and her mother couldn't flee due to her mother's injured leg. Kaya hid and was ForcedToWatch as her mother was eaten alive, telling Gabi that her mother only stopped screaming after her throat was too damaged to continue. Despite it happening before that attack on Marley and neither having ever known of the other country, Gabi ''still'' insists that Kaya's mother deserved what happened just for being an Eldian. |
| 437 | |
| 438 | * Chapter 110: |
| 439 | ** We are finally shown the means by which Zeke transformed the people of Ragako village into Titans. He, Pieck and at least three Marleyan soldiers flooded the entire hamlet with a gas that was comprised of mere drops of Zeke's vapourised spinal fluid amongst a heavy blanketing chemical agent. Like the war-fodder we saw him use in the middle-east, this biological attack caused paralysis and mental deprivation, leaving them helpless until Zeke used his version of the Coordinate Scream to make them transform all at once. Worse, he explains that inhalation of even the tiniest atomic particles of his spinal fluid allowed him to "lock on" to each of their personal Paths, meaning that even had the victims been removed from the area, he could send the Titan Power through the invisible Pathways and transform them no matter how far they fled. Zeke's cold and clinical explanation of the logistics and mechanics of this kind of experiment cause Levi to state that even if he is operating with the best interests of the Eldians at heart, he clearly has zero regard for individual human lives. |
| 440 | ** When Mikasa demands of Zackly what will happen to Eren after he refused to answer any of the military's questions, he glances at the fabled, the legendary, the unrivalled Shit Machine bondage chair that he has had brought up to his personal office! When Armin asks what's it doing here and Zackly says not to worry about it as he had it brought up here because there's no room in the storage room. But both Mikasa and Armin know why it's ''really'' here. |
| 441 | ** Zeke, Yelena, Floch and who knows how many others seem to have already made a cult of personality around the salvation Eren's existence promises. It's implied that the fresh recruits of the Survey Corps smuggled an explosive device into Zackly's "art-piece" in order to assassinate him for daring to consider the replacement of their hero. His bisected carcass being blasted out of HQ is a gory enough sight, the fact that said bomb could have killed Mikasa if she'd ignored Armin's advice to not listen in at the door is another chilling reminder that Eren doesn't give a damn about collateral damage. |
| 442 | ** The DarkReprise of "dedicate your hearts!" by the crowd as they take pleasure in Zackly's demise; promising the return of the Eldian Empire when in actuality everything is going to shit within the government. |
| 443 | ** This chapter firmly emphasises the violent wedge that has been driven between Eren's rebelling faction and the Old Guard including all of Eren's original comrades. This is highlighted by Eren's determined and villainous demeanour after he has escaped his cell and meets up with his followers, barely reacting when Floch hands him a coat while casually mentioning that their infiltrators have just outright assassinated Zackly, Paradis's ''Head of Government''. |
| 444 | |
| 445 | * Chapter 111: |
| 446 | ** Nikolo being so overcome with rage that he plans to have Gabi executed with a knife right in front of the Blause family in order to exact revenge for Sasha's death. He even hands Sasha's father a butcherer's knife so he can do the honours on the spot. Despite what Gabi has done, seeing a child essentially being put up for execution is chilling enough. To top it all off, when Mr. Blause voices his unwillingness to kill Gabi in order to end the cycle of revenge, Kaya charges Gabi from behind with a knife of her own. Doubles as a tearjerker, as both sides have lost people dear to them due to the actions of each other or each other's allies, which justifies the intense emotions from both sides. |
| 447 | ** The wine that Nikolo was acting so zealously protective over? It has been laced with ''Zeke's spinal fluid'' and has apparently been served to a host of higher ups from the Survey Corps military. What this means? Anyone who has drunk the wine is now at the mercy of Zeke, a mere shout away from being transformed into mindless Titans, ones that Zeke can control as he sees fit no less. It adds another horrifying chapter to Zeke's unknown plans and his methods of going about them. |
| 448 | |
| 449 | * Chapter 112: |
| 450 | ** Eren's merciless and cold demeanour when faced with Armin and Mikasa. The latter two think they may stand some chance to get through to Eren, but the former makes sure to let his now former friends know he has broken with them, calling Mikasa a slave by means of her Ackerman heritage (see below) and Armin soft and useless. It's all capped off by Eren declaring he's always hated Mikasa for being the way she is, before beating Armin up. |
| 451 | ** Eren reveals to Armin and Mikasa that the latter, as an Ackerman, is essentially a glorified slave. Members of the Ackerman family were originally designed to protect a host, originally the King of Eldia. Should an Ackerman recognise someone as their "host", they will receive heightened physical abilities and all the combat experiences of previous Ackerman members through an invisible path, much like how the power of the Titans is transferred. Suddenly, Levi's devotion to Erwin and Kenny's devotion to Uri make more sense. |
| 452 | ** Levi thinks he has Zeke cornered, with the latter stuck in a forest guarded by him and a squad of armed soldiers, meaning that even as the Beast Titan he wouldn't stand a chance if the attempted to fight his way out. Unbeknownst to Levi, all of the soldiers with him have been laced with Zeke's spinal fluid through the contaminated wine and when the latter suddenly runs away and shouts, Levi realises his miscalculation. Cue a number of panels showing the nasty transformation sequence, with bright light and fluids bursting out of the soldiers' eyes and orifices, followed by Titans falling all around Levi. |
| 453 | *** In a cruel twist of irony, this also marks the first time when we see members of the military of Paradis, wearing their anti-Titan gear, turned into Titans on-panel. |
| 454 | ** An snapshot of the past shows how horrifying Zeke's ability to turn Eldians drugged with his spinal fluid into Titans can be. 10 years before the current events Marley snuck hundreds of drugged Eldians into a enemy country's capital. The result was 100s of Titans suddenly appearing out of nowhere during a calm evening to destroy everything and kill defenceless men, women, and children. This tactic was likely used a lot to terrorize enemy nations during past wars. |
| 455 | |
| 456 | * Chapter 113: The aptly-named "Violence". |
| 457 | ** All across Paradis, the various people that were served tainted wine experience a brief "jolt" when Zeke uses his Scream. While it isn't able to transform them into Titans, it demonstrates that the remaining commanding officers and named veterans (besides Hange and Levi) have been poisoned. Falco, Pixis, Nile, and Anya have all consumed the tainted wine at some point and could be turned into Titans if Zeke gets near them. |
| 458 | ** Levi's entire squad-turned-Titans surrounding him, while he muses on the past and seemingly gives up. |
| 459 | ** Floch conscripting the 109th Cadet Corps into the Yeager Faction, ordering them to beat Instructor Shadis within an inch of his life to prove their loyalty to the new regime. |
| 460 | ** Levi's rampage and battle against Zeke are this, if only because of the sheer brutality displayed by both parties. When sending Titans to attack him fails, the Beast Titan begins tearing Levi's transformed subordinates to pieces and throws them. Levi ends the battle by firing multiple Thunder Spears into the Beast Titan, blowing Zeke to pieces with his limbs gone and intestines falling out, knocking Zeke out in the process. Zeke awakens some time later with a Thunder Spear lodged in his stomach and Levi casually slicing his legs off to ensure he doesn't attempt to escape again. |
| 461 | |
| 462 | * Chapter 114: |
| 463 | ** The chapter ends with Zeke intentionally setting off the Thunder Spear, causing an explosion and blowing Levi away. If one or both of the men aren't dead, then Levi's definitely going to be unable to fight again. |
| 464 | ** We also get more examples of how bad the propaganda is for both the Eldians and the Marleyans: |
| 465 | *** First a Marleyan cleaner meets the Yeager family on a roof and as soon as he realizes they are Eldian he throws his bucket of water on them and calls for their extermination and on their way home they are jeered at by the people. |
| 466 | *** We see Grisha propagandizing Zeke in much the same ways as his grandparents. It amounts to if they said we did something bad its a lie because we are too good to do something like that. |
| 467 | *** We learn that Tom once lied about his Eldian heritage and married a Marleyan woman and had a son with her. After she discovered that he was Eldian, she killed their son and then herself. |
| 468 | ** One of the lessons Zeke and the audience learns during the chapter is the history of Lago, a Marleyan city that was destroyed by Titans. Most likely the inspiration for the terrifying second ED listed earlier on this page. This is a world where Titans coming out of nowhere to eat entire cities at the whim of Eldian Kings was just ''life'' for people for hundreds of years. |
| 469 | ** And we finally discover Zeke's real plan. To use the power of the Founding Titan to make all Eldians sterile to prevent any more Eldians from suffering. |
| 470 | |
| 471 | !"'''Judgment'''" |
| 472 | * Marley launches a deadly surprise attack on Shiganshina, with Marley's three remaining Warriors leading the charge and hundreds of soldiers and artillery equipment dropping in to raise hell. Shiganshina once again faces destruction and Eren is almost entirely alone against a small, yet still powerful army. |
| 473 | * Eren, despite his skill in combat and the War Hammer Titan's incredible power, is still going 1v3 against Reiner, Porco, and Pieck. For the first time in a long time, he's fighting without the support of his friends or the more skilled members of the Survey Corps, and while he holds out incredibly well, it's probably the most difficult fight he's fought yet. |
| 474 | * Nearly 500 Yeagerist soldiers fly out to support Eren, but are mercilessly gunned down both by grounded Marleyan infantry, and from the sky by the airships. Despite the damage the Survey Corps' assault on Liberio did to Marley's military, Marley still boasts a vast and well-armed force and provide a chilling reminder of how outgunned Paradis really is against them. |
| 475 | * Eren very nearly gets done in by the Warriors. Between Porco's swift, agile, and relentless attacks, Reiner's overwhelming strength and durability, and Pieck and Maggath shooting the Attack Titan's brains out with a '''FREAKING GUSTAV CANNON FROM THE TOP OF THE WALL''', Eren is finally overwhelmed and Reiner comes within a hair's breadth of eating him. |
| 476 | * Eren's infamous UnstoppableRage returns as he grabs the Armoured Titan's mouth and rips Reiner's head apart from the inside out with ''one hand'', all the while he and his Titan scare everyone in the city into silence with a [[MightyRoar roar to pierce the heavens]]. Both his human body and his Titan look so monstrous, you suddenly completely understand why Marley and the rest of the world are so afraid of him and desperate to wrest the Founding Titan from him. |
| 477 | |
| 478 | !"'''Sneak Attack'''" |
| 479 | * Eren finally has enough of Porco and beats him to within an inch of his life. When Porco climbs out of his Titan after exhausting its healing potential, he's still missing a chunk of his skull and face. |
| 480 | * The pressure burst of Magath's cannon shell has ''scooped'' Zeke's spine, the back of his ribs and his buttocks away in the perfect edge of a circle. Later, Zeke drags himself free of his nape almost in the exact state he was a few chapters ago, missing a good three-quarters of his whole body. |
| 481 | * Zeke screams, turning much of the Corps into Titans on the spot. |
| 482 | * Colt's last moments are pure horror as he realizes his little brother is getting Titanized and desperately clings to him. Which results in Falco's transformation burning Colt to a crisp, blowing his limbs off and gouging a crevice into his chest. |
| 483 | * [[UncannyValley Falco's Titan form is spectacularly disturbing]], even for the Titans' standard. It looks like a bipedal, half-human faced, tortoise without its shell and has [[NightmareFace ''nothing'']] between its nose and its upper jaw, which are lipless to boot. |
| 484 | * Zeke's twisted expression of utter anguish as he watches Eren be decapitated by an AP-round and the haunted, surprised look on Eren's face as his head spins eerily through the air. |
| 485 | |
| 486 | !"'''Memories of the Future'''" |
| 487 | * The revelation and confirmation that for some reason or another, the wielder of the Attack Titan can see both past ''and'' future wielder memories. Kruger could only vaguely access this ability, but throughout this same chapter we learn that both Grisha and Eren have had a larger amount of access to it. Particularly Eren, who has finally revealed that he's come full circle on his ProtagonistJourneyToVillain by ''manipulating'' this ability to cause Grisha to do horrible things and set up Eren's younger self to become the Attack Titan in the future. Grisha never wanted to kill the royal family -- ''Eren drove his own father to do it.'' He was always there at pivotal moments, exploiting his being stuck in a state of near-death at this point in the story to make Grisha take the 'right path'. And no one, not even himself, was any the wiser until he kissed Historia's hand and saw his own future memories. |
| 488 | * Grisha breaking down in front of Zeke and revealing that not only is he horrified at what Eren's become, but has also seen Eren's future memories. Something bad happens, so bad that Grisha ''begs Zeke to stop him'', implying that whatever Eren has in store could be the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. |
| 489 | |
| 490 | !"'''From You, 2000 Years Ago'''" |
| 491 | * Chapter 122 is Attack on Titan x Junji Ito. The First King Fritz of child Ymir's memories and his tyrannical rulership over his tribe. After a bloody conquest, he orders his slaves' tongues to be cut out, threatens said slaves with the gouging of one of their eyes to make them reveal [[DisproportionateRetribution who set a single pig free]], and when he learns that the culprit was a little girl, he "frees" her into the woods, where his men hunt her with hounds and skewer her leg and upper back with arrows. |
| 492 | * "The Source of All Organic Matter", a primordial life root inspired by the dragon Níðhöggr and the ''Hallucigenia'' worm, that's neither plant nor amoeba, binding itself to Ymir's nervous system and turning her into a sixty meter Titan abomination with twisted tree-root ribs winding away from her abdomen. What's chilling is that there is no explanation on what it actually is or what its origins are. But it appears that all life on earth has started from this EldritchAbomination. |
| 493 | * The fact that after all this horror, Ymir decides to continue serving the king even when she has acquired the power of a PhysicalGod and could easily kill him. |
| 494 | * Maria, Rose, and Sina are Ymir's daughters by rape and are forced by their father to consume their mother's dismembered corpse. |
| 495 | * As Eren tries to get through to Ymir and convince her of the veracity of her own free-will, Zeke suffers a VillainousBreakdown that makes all his others ''pale'' in comparison. Ranting wildly that she ''has'' to obey him, looking more and more like the 1st king as he slobbers and screams, unhinged, now that his brother has not only accomplished the BeyondTheImpossible act of stopping Ymir from walking to the Coordinate but that she must also be actively listening to him, a fellow subject! |
| 496 | * The long anticipated "Rumbling" being initiated is every bit as terrifying as one would expect. As the Paradis and Marleyan forces are fighting, the Walls surrounding Shiganshina fracture and break apart, awakening ''hundreds'' of Colossus-sized Titans. All the while ''an ethereal nervous system, perhaps the originator organism of the Titans, bursts out of Eren's severed spinal column and reattaches to his head'' and he begins to transform into what is likely a new huge Titan form, thanks to the Ouroboros spine that snakes on forever; his glowing effulgent eye-sockets ''fixed'' on Gabi. |
| 497 | ** The anime adaptation animates the full transformation, with the titan writhing like a snake. But just before that happens, the pathogen attaches itself to Eren's head and the light in his eyes return as he ''looks straight into the camera.'' |
| 498 | * [[GreaterScopeVillain The First King Fritz.]] He ''started off'' as a cruel and brutal barbarian warlord, a slaver, a rapist, and a DomesticAbuser and [[AbusiveParents abusive father]]. After Ymir came into contact with The Source of all Organic Matter, he used her power to create the Eldian Empire. Yes, this man is ''directly responsible'' for setting the events of the series into motion: the creation of the Titans, the conquest of Marley, all the wars and genocides over the course of 1,700 years. All the reasons for Eldians being so hated across the world can be traced back to him. And he's barely even a footnote in world history. |
| 499 | ** It's heavily implied he was the inspiration for the Devil of All Earth in Marlyean Mythology and it's very easy to see why. Hearing the stories and seeing his cruelty toward Ymir, it makes one shudder to think just how horrible living under his reign must've been. |
| 500 | [[/folder]] |
| 501 | |
| 502 | [[folder:Ragnarök]] |
| 503 | !"'''From You, 2000 Years Ago'''" |
| 504 | * Chapter 123 mostly seems to be summarizing how Eren and the Survey Corps managed to get onto Marley, seeing another world for the first time and all the wonder yet social horror it brings to the forefront. But the entire time, Eren seems to be disturbed or lost in thought, already thinking of his plans and trying to cement just what he should do with his ideology for the betterment of Eldians. We finally get the answer: '''[[FinalSolution slaughter all humans outside Paradis]]''', fighting the ''entirety of the world'' with his Titan army and the powers of the Founder to save the Eldians after countless years of torment since Ymir's pain with intent on genocide against everything alive outside of Paradis. Not just the Marleyans, either: Eldian, Marleyan, other countries, ''[[OmnicidalManiac anything]]'', possibly expanded beyond humanity itself. And if the future is set in stone and Grisha really did see what would happen, '''he'll succeed to some degree.''' |
| 505 | * And in the midst of all of this, not only can Eren mentally contact every single Eldian on an unprecedented level, but he's stuck in what may be a still-forming Titan that is upwards to several times taller than a ''Colossal'', looking more like a massive bridge of bones as big as skyscrapers than anything else. |
| 506 | * Even Yelena is looking shaken by what she is witnessing, all the while unsure of Zeke's fate. With Zeke seemingly down for the count, all their plans have accomplished was helping Eren towards the genocide of the entire world, having greatly underestimated his determination to end the war waged upon the Eldians, even if it means the extinction of the rest of humanity to accomplish it. |
| 507 | ** Especially chilling is how the people of the Walls had for over a century assumed themselves to be the last survivors of the human race in the wake of the Titan threat. Should Eren succeed, they will indeed be the last ones standing while the world beyond burns. |
| 508 | * Beyond the contents of his message, Eren's telepathic speech to the Eldian people has horrific implications for the world beyond Paradis. Eren can communicate with the all of Ymir's subjects... as in EVERY SUBJECT OF YMIR ON EARTH. People in internment zones across the globe, some who probably don't even know what's going on on Paradis, are suddenly being told out of absolutely nowhere by a mystery being that he is going to destroy the world and wipe out all life in it. Children, elderly, hospitalized patients, people of all walks of life suddenly told they are doomed to die. And if you think Eldians in internment zones have something be afraid of, think of all the people who may not even know that they are Eldians. Families of people like Tom Xaver, who faked his medical records to hide his Eldian traits, are now being outed as [[FantasticRacism 'children of the devil']], and have to contend with that realization on top of the knowledge that the world is ending. And as for those who did know they were Eldians or have friends and family who aren't Eldian, they will be put through hell long before Eren's Titans can reach them. Previously loving families will be torn apart, lifelong friends will try to kill each other, businesses, civil services, and government agencies destroyed from within. Riots and violent protests, last effort attacks upon the cruel governments and populations that persecute Eldians, FinalSolution-style massacres meant to wipe out as many subjects of Ymir as possible before the end comes... ApocalypseAnarchy ensues basically. Eren has likely set off a chain reaction of death, destruction, misery, and terror across the world and the Wall Titans haven't even crossed the ocean yet. |
| 509 | * [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ch123.jpg The final panel]] reveals the face of Eren's new Titan form, [[NightmareFace and it doesn't disappoint]], looking like an evil monster wearing raw, pure hatred on its face, clearly showing him as a VillainProtagonist. |
| 510 | ** The anime makes this entire scene worse by adding a VHS static filter that slowly develops to reveal Eren's Founding Titan face, which makes him look like [[Literature/TheRing Sadako]], of all things. [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou On top of this, watching the scene on a television can make it look like he hacked your screen and is counting you as a future victim]]. |
| 511 | * While it pales in comparison to the oncoming apocalypse, the peace conference is also this. Yet again, we are reminded how terrible the world outside the Walls is when those in the room who begin loudly calling for the holocaust of all life on Paradis are considered Eldian ''sympathizers''. |
| 512 | |
| 513 | !"'''Thaw'''" |
| 514 | * Chapter 124 reminds us that while the Wall Titans pose an apocalyptic threat, the Pure Titans are a much more intimate horror. In a scene reminiscent of Trost, the Yeagerists quickly find themselves surrounded by the monsters of their own creation, powerless to do anything but hide as the Titans scale the fort. Things are worse on the ground: a recently [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie Titanized]] Nile pursues the Braus family and Kaya and very nearly kills the latter if not for some very risky plays on Gabi's part. |
| 515 | |
| 516 | !"'''Sunset'''" |
| 517 | * Chapter 125 deals with the chaos in Paradis after the Walls are destroyed. Many citizens living near the Walls are either killed or injured. The Yeagerists claim these deaths as sacrifices for the greater good of the Eldians, leading to riots. |
| 518 | ** Annie reveals that she never saw any value in life. The Warrior Program had convinced her that after crossing Marleyan borders, killing civilians and soldiers was legitimate, because it would atone for the sin of being born an Eldian. |
| 519 | ** Annie was abandoned as an illegitimate baby by her Marleyan family after discovering that she was a Subject of Ymir and was adopted by her current father Mr. Leonhart. Initially, he saw Annie as a ticket to an easy life and subjected her to TrainingFromHell. Before Annie left for her mission, Mr. Leonhart regretted his actions and begged her to abandon the mission. |
| 520 | ** The Subjects of Ymir in Liberio have a MassOhCrap upon listening to Eren's announcement and plead with the Marleyan officials to let them leave. The Marleyans refuse to believe this and prepare to open fire on them. |
| 521 | ** Armin slips into a HeroicBSOD with all the chaos ensuing around him, and vents it on poor Mikasa. Reiterating that he believes Erwin should have lived instead; as he would have never suffered such an outburst. |
| 522 | ** Falco thanks Connie for saving him, ignorant that Connie plans to feed him to his Titanized mother in Ragako... |
| 523 | ** Floch using the JoinOrDie tactic on the Marleyan conscripts. His devotion towards Eren has reached fanatical levels, casually blowing an indignant volunteer's head apart with a point blank Mauser shot that mutilates his victim's face into a horizontally split ruin. |
| 524 | ** Levi and Hange are alive but Levi is still in a [[BandageMummy critical condition]] from the blast of the Thunder Spear. |
| 525 | |
| 526 | !"'''Traitor'''" |
| 527 | * In Chapter 128, it has become apparent to the newly-formed Paradis/Marley alliance that the Colossal Titans and Eren with them have already reached Marley's northeastern shore, ''barely two days after they emerged from the Walls''. As Hange muses, it is highly likely that Eren has laid waste to much of Marley and that there remains no time for the rest of the world. If Eren and the Rumbling are to be stopped from exterminating the outside world, it has to be '''now'''. |
| 528 | |
| 529 | !"'''Retrospective'''" |
| 530 | * In Chapter 129, Hange notes that the Wall Titans are faster than the Survey Corps horses, which are specifically bred to be able to outrun Titans. Hange then predicts the Rumbling can destroy the entire continent in about 4 days. The alliance really is running out of time fast... |
| 531 | * The Yeagerists give the Alliance one hell of a fight, by using the Thunder Spears '''against them.''' Even though the Titan shifters can take on these {{Mook}}s, it's not like they cannot come up with creative strategies or take considerable damage to at least try to escape. The scariest part about the entire battle? It took a last-minute first-time transformation from Falco ''and'' the sacrifice of Theo Magath and Keith Shadis for the protagonists to escape. |
| 532 | * In the anime, Mikasa slaughters the Yeagerists in a variety of creative and unnecessarily brutal methods, which shows just how much working against Eren and fighting her former comrades messes up her psyche. |
| 533 | |
| 534 | !"'''The Dawn of Humanity'''" |
| 535 | * Chapter 130 finally shows Eren's point of view following the initiation of the Rumbling. |
| 536 | ** Eren's flashback where he reflects on events leading up to the Rumbling and his decision to go through with. A part of it shows him being upfront with Historia about his plan to wipe out all life outside of the walls. Historia is distraught and begs him not to do it by stating that many innocent people will die as she likens said people to Eren's own mother, whose death sent Eren down his path of revenge against Titans and later the entire world. Eren's answer? That he's aware, but the only way to get rid of the endless cycle of hatred is to simply bury all that hatred, civilisations and all. |
| 537 | ** Back in the present day, an apocalyptic scene unfolds as an entire allied countries fleet gathers in front of Marley's coast to form a line of defense against the Rumbling. A captain onboard notes that if a fleet like this can't stop the Rumbling, nothing will. As the ships fire simultaneously, a zoomed out image of the Rumbling approaching the mainland is shown, and the wide, steaming wall nearing the coast looks like a pyroclastic volcano wave of enormous proportions. |
| 538 | ** The Wall Titans can ''swim''. A particular panel shows the giant silhouette of a Titan swimming right under a ship, like a giant sea-monster, before the crew onboard is seared alive by the massive amount of steam the Titan produces.[[note]] In the anime, they are literally burned to a crisp![[/note]] In what follows, the entire fleet is easily wiped out as the Titans force their way through and get up. A truly horrifying sight shows the second line of defense, soldiers with cannons on the docks, as the enormous, black shapes of the Titans emerge from the wall of steam. Many soldiers run upon witnessing this, but it will doubtlessly be in vain. |
| 539 | ** And then Eren appears, right behind the wall of Titans. His Founding Titan form is finally seen in full view and it looks like a grotesquely oversized and elongated ribcage so vast he himself actually ''crawls forward on each rib'' like a titanic centipede. From its tip hangs a smaller (through still massive) ribcage, with gangly arms and Eren's monstrous Titan head, complete with long, stringy black hair. |
| 540 | ** The chapter ends with a quick flashback to young Eren's horrified face as he witnessed his mother being eaten. A final panel shows Eren's humongous Titan and his Titan army making landfall and beginning the massacre of all life on earth, accompanied by a line of narrator's text that echoes the same words Eren spoke before he transformed in Liberio, killing many innocent civilians, much like he is about to do now. |
| 541 | --->'''Young Eren:''' ''I'll destroy them!'' ''[[IronicEcho Every last one of those animals that's in this world!]]'' |
| 542 | --->'''Narrator:''' ''Without stopping once, he kept moving forward.'' |
| 543 | ** The worst part is that all this happened while Hange and her group were still journeying to the port on Paradis. Which means that by the time they reach Odiha and ''then'' take a flight, Eren has already ravaged roughly half of the Marleyan continent. It is too late to stop the Attack Titan. |
| 544 | ** The anime makes it even more terrifying with the dark reprise of ətˈæk 0N tάɪtn. The piano plays at uneven intervals, drums beat at a frenetic pace and the strings at time sound like high-pitched screams. The dub even goes an extra step by having audio of the soldiers losing their nerves and yelling in panic as they run for the hills. The episode ends with a Colossal Titan about to step on the camera, almost as if we, the viewers, were its next victim. |
| 545 | |
| 546 | !"'''The Final Chapters'''" |
| 547 | * ''The human race's extinction has begun.'' Chapter 131 shows Eren's army beginning to ravage the land. Among the first victims are two young boys, Ramzi and Halil (the former being the boy from the refugee camp) whom the Titans crush and keep walking on like they just stepped on a bug and paid no attention. And the expression on Ramzi’s face as the Titan's foot was about to crush him... to say "scared" would be a complete understatement to the little one's horror. |
| 548 | ** The anime makes Ramzi’s death even more unpleasant because it’s animated in slow-motion. We get to see the face of little boy, despairing over the sight of his friend’s crushed head as well as his own fate, gradually get flattened underfoot (complete with teeth falling out), with the sequence topped off with a just-barely covered GoryDiscretionShot. |
| 549 | ** The music overlapping this is fittingly titled "An Ordinary Day". Because it was, for anyone who didn't know the titans were coming. The music shifting from calm to chaotic and despairing as the world quickly collapses. |
| 550 | ** What really solidifies the despair of this chapter was that was really was ''no escape'' from the Colossal Titans' path, as some of them have begun to ''walk on top of the mountains'' as if it was a small slope. Some embrace their loved ones in their final moments while others try to run and escape as the Titans are literally on top of them. Millions of people, innocent or guilty, Marleyans or Eldians, every man, woman, and child is not spared from this slaughter and Eren isn't stopping at Marley. And he will not stop until ''every living thing'' outside Paradis is turned into dust and rubble. |
| 551 | ** The aftermath of the Colossal Titan's march is no less horrific. A large bustling city is indeed reduced to nothing but rubble and dust with only a few ruined buildings barely standing to show. The trees, vegetation, and animals were all wiped out as well. This is only the beginning of Eren's destructive rampage against the entire world. |
| 552 | ** At the end of the chapter, we get a glimpse of Eren inside his Titan unconscious and... it's rather disturbing. The last time we saw him, his head got blown off and a long spinal cord came out of his body to reattach it. The problem? All you can see is his head with only his spine ''sticking out'' as if he were a giraffe. Makes you wonder if he's even alive while in control of the Founding Titan in the first place. |
| 553 | ** In the midst of the heinous carnage, [[DissonantSerenity Eren's consciousness experiences it as if he were a child again]], [[HappyPlace floating above the clouds]], truly [[ArcWords free]]. Armin, who can see Eren in this state through the "paths", is understandably appalled. |
| 554 | ** Just before Ramzi is crushed, he sees (...hallucinates?) Ymir Fritz herself off in the distance, watching indiscriminately in a manner that is [[ShoutOut eerily reminiscent]] of the "Rei apparition" from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. |
| 555 | ** Some time after Eren had rescued Ramzi from being punished, the latter lost his right hand as punishment. |
| 556 | ** After the Rumbling had commenced, the Marleyan authorities fled '''''[[HumansAreTheRealMonsters without even notifying refugees]]''''' about the incoming Titans. |
| 557 | ** The anime adds additional scenes of the apocalypse, including a man committing suicide, people attacking each other over whatever vehicles they can use before they are crushed anyway, people burning to the steam or being crushed by debris before the titans get to them, and revealing that Eren's grandparents were jailed and left behind by Marley, leaving them to only embrace each other while they "pay for their sins." |
| 558 | |
| 559 | * Chapter 132: |
| 560 | ** Floch's arrival spells an immediate MoodWhiplash after a brief respite. The crawling sound effect on the page followed by the panel of [[OhCrap Onyankopon noticing Floch in the corner of his eye]] before the latter opens fire on the alliance is chilling. |
| 561 | *** He also demonstrates a level of competence that single-handedly screws over the alliance. Rather than take down any one human target, he opts to shoot the flying boat to ensure the Rumbling goes unopposed. |
| 562 | ** Hange's brutal death of being burned alive after killing four of the Wall Titans in order to stall for time. You can practically see her flesh melting off her bones, it's so hot! |
| 563 | *** The anime has her become completely immolated, combusting so much from the Colossal Titan's steam that her ODM gear ''explodes''. In addition, we get a spit-second shot of her first person view, where her vision is ''literally'' burning away. |
| 564 | |
| 565 | * Chapter 133: |
| 566 | ** Eren abruptly drags the Alliance into the Paths Realm and makes it clear that no, there is no negotiation or debate possible. The Rumbling will not cease, and nothing short of death will deter him from his course. The only reason the Shifters still have their powers, the only reason they even stand a shadow of a fighting chance is ''because he allows it.'' |
| 567 | *** The implication is that Eren has heard every thought in the Alliance's heads about stopping him and he could've done this at any time. Such is Eren's godlike control over Eldians. |
| 568 | ** Seeing Child!Eren stand imposingly along with Ymir Fritz is very unsettling as many fans feel this scene is reminiscent of the Grady Twins from ''Literature/TheShining''. |
| 569 | ** Ymir Fritz herself appears as very threatening and distant compared to the cute young girl that Eren saw back in Chapter 122. |
| 570 | |
| 571 | * Chapter 134: |
| 572 | ** Historia is about to give birth and she's weeping both from the agony of her contractions and likely how at that very moment nearly 2 billion souls are being eradicated for her sake. |
| 573 | ** We are shown more gory carnage of every race on Earth being crushed underfoot in gruesome fashion. Great swathes of humanity being pressed to death together as one in the very act of gargantuan feet coming down, the unimaginable pressure beginning to crunch bone and rupture organs into unrecognisable pulp. |
| 574 | ** The squalling infant that will soon be trampled by either man's stampede or the Titan's march. Even if it is spared that, they will fall from the cliff into the sea. It's a potent and striking scene meant to symbolise that for this panicked mob of humanity: abandon -- all -- hope. |
| 575 | ** Eren utilising a dead-eyed replica of Zeke's Beast Titan like a toy to wipe out the last air-fleet in the world. His super-sonic projectiles igniting hydrogen fuel and burning the Marleyan soldiers to death in their cabins. |
| 576 | ** For the first time in the series, there is no ambiguity about Eren's intentions towards his now former friends. He tries to swat them out of the sky with his own power, if not his own hands; cutting his ties with them definitively. |
| 577 | |
| 578 | * Chapter 135: |
| 579 | ** As it turns out, the bizarre replica of Zeke's Beast represents only a ''fraction'' of the Founding Titan's capabilities. Within minutes of the Alliance touching down on Eren's spine, he creates DOZENS of fully-functional [[FromBadToWorse clones of previous generations of the Nine Titans]] that nearly annihilate the group. |
| 580 | ** Several of the past Titan Shifters invoke BodyHorror in a number of ways. One Warhammer being almost alien-like, several Jaws Titans looking absolutely horrific with its signature jaws, a Female Titan that looks flayed, another past shifter looking like ComicBook/TheThing, an Armored Titan with its plating resembling that of a reptilian, and so many more. The worst part is they are working intelligently in unison and seem to all have their own respective individual expressions of a Shifter power. The hope of winning here seems to be miniscule. |
| 581 | ** It's implied that not only did Ymir bring back many generations of past Titan Shifters, but judging by Armin's brief vision of Bertolt standing over him and crying before his own Titan tried to kill Reiner, she's controlling them against their will, even after death... |
| 582 | * Chapter 136: |
| 583 | ** Gabi's recount of Eren's transformation into the Founding Titan implies that when he was decapitated, his spine or something similar to a ''Hallucigenia'' worm ''leaped out of his disembodied corpse'' to attach itself to his head. Gabi speculates that it is in fact the power of the Titans, aka the organism that gave Ymir Fritz her Titan powers, and destroying it may be their only chance at stopping Eren. |
| 584 | ** Even when faced with the Rumbling and possible complete extinction of humanity, the Eldians and Marleyans are still at each other's throats, ready to gun each other down. The last we see is the [[BolivianArmyEnding sound of gunshots]] that even Jean can hear. |
| 585 | |
| 586 | * Chapter 137: |
| 587 | ** With the help of previous Titan Shifters keeping the other Shifter clones busy, Jean finally manages to detonate the explosives around Eren's Titan's neck, cleanly decapitating him. As speculated by Gabi, the act causes the mysterious spine organism to burst from the Titan's neck. However, it has scaled up quite a bit, appearing as a gargantuan, branching tendril. |
| 588 | ** Armin once more utilises his Colossal Titan transformation in an attempt to kill, this time in an attempt to end Eren's life. His expression prior to transforming reveals hesitation and horror over having to be the one to do it. One can imagine the sheer mental trauma Armin must have suffered since gaining the Colossal Titan, having killed hundreds of people during the Liberio raid and now finding himself making an attempt on one of his closest friend's life. |
| 589 | |
| 590 | * Chapter 138: |
| 591 | ** After it seems to be over, Eren and "the source of all organic matter" make one last attempt to continue the rumbling. |
| 592 | ** Eren has survived the explosion and has emerged as a long-haired titan that is as large as the Colossal Titan. |
| 593 | ** The organism has also survived and releases a gas into the survivors that is just like the gas used in Ragako Village. Levi quickly figures out what is going on and makes the shifters and Ackermans who are immune to the titanization flee to safety as all the normal Eldian humans, including Jean, Connie, Gabi and the parents of the Warriors are all turned into mindless Titans that attack Reiner, Annie and Pieck to save the organism. |
| 594 | *** Connie's Mindless Titan is probably the most disturbing of the lot; the skin has been peeled from his upper lip to reveal the muscle underneath and massive gashes essentially leave him ''[[FacialHorror missing his cheeks]]'', and he now matches Reiner's Armored Titan in height, snapping and biting in his face with a vacant-eyed DeathGlare. |
| 595 | ** The fact that the said titanization happens immediately after the secretary Muller and the rest of the Marleyans decide to fire their ammunition to the air and stop persecuting the Eldians. Moments after that said Eldians turn into flesh-eating monsters (though thankfully they don't go feast on the humans this time), likely making the Marleyans believe that their FantasticRacism was ''the rational position'' on this problem after all. The Eldians pose a threat by their very existence, even if they don't intend to. |
| 596 | ** The sight of Mikasa kissing Eren's decapitated head is pretty disturbing despite it also being a TearJerker moment. Worse still, Ymir Fritz is standing right behind her, watching. Admittedly, the latter part was mitigated a bit when you realized that she's actually [[WhenSheSmiles smiling]] at them. |
| 597 | |
| 598 | * Chapter 139: |
| 599 | ** The absolute change that comes over Secretary Muller. This man was one of the few Marleyans, let alone one in a position of power, who admitted the mistakes and atrocities committed by Marley and seemed to genuinely wish for a better path forward. Now he harshly interrupts the tearful reunion between the former Titan shifters and their cured family and friends by aiming guns at everyone and clearly ready to massacre a crowd of defenseless people. Not only has the deeply etched hatred and fear of Eldians come surging back to the surface, the situation [[CallBack echoes the fear and anger shown by Kitz Woermann towards Eren long ago]]. And once again, if it were not for Armin's quick thinking, everyone would have died right then and there on the spot. |
| 600 | ** Despite stopping Eren, ''eighty percent of the world's population still died''. It's going to take a very long time for the world to recover from the Rumbling. |
| 601 | *** In the anime, the reveal is even worse. Eren tells it to Armin after showing him the state of the flattened world. Only it's not just covered in massive footprints. [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-ISC5-XIAAb2pr?format=jpg&name=large It's a sea of blood, of all his victims.]] A haunting sight to say the least. |
| 602 | ** Three years later, the Jaegerists are revealed to have boosted their power by taking near total control of Paradis' government and forming a large military force, ready to fight whatever is left of the world if it ever retaliates for the Rumbling. |
| 603 | |
| 604 | * Chapter 139.5 |
| 605 | ** As the world recovers from the Rumbling, technology progresses as well. Which unfortunately means so does weaponry. Paradis is obliterated in the war generations later. |
| 606 | ** The nightmare may yet begin all over again when, many years later, the tree Eren's head is buried in grows into the same tree Ymir found all those centuries ago and a boy hiking in the woods with his dog comes across it. |
| 607 | ** In an existential way; nothing was answered in the end. It's never revealed what the organism that granted Ymir the Titan Powers was or where it came from. Nor was an ultimate peace achieved. For all the sacrifices our protagonists went through, they maybe bought one or two generations of peace in a story that spanned centuries. |
| 608 | |
| 609 | [[/folder]] |
| 610 | |
| 611 | [[folder:Misc]] |
| 612 | * A prequel comic shows a cult opening one of the outer gates seventy years before the events of the main series and a lone Titan gets in, killing a couple dozen people, maybe more. Not only is the Titan much fatter than usual, but the uniforms and equipment of two soldiers who respond to the situation heavily imply that 3D Manoeuvrer Gear hasn't been invented yet... meaning if the Titan hadn't been lured out by people sacrificing themselves, it could have very well have been impossible to stop. And that's without getting into how he swallowed a pregnant woman whole, and how the baby survived his mother's remains being thrown back up. |
| 613 | ** Let's not forget that said chapter opens with a severed head falling from the sky, complete with a zoom in on the [[ThousandYardStare deadened expression]] and plenty of blood. |
| 614 | * The opening for the Final Season, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TolbTZXDjI My War]]", avoids spoilers or depicting the upcoming arcs in favor of showing the unadulterated horrors of war. There's no awesome action scenes or adrenaline-building hype, just chaotic death and destruction. The visuals are chalk-white, with only colors in the visuals are the rainbow palettes of the various explosions that devastate the land. The imagery of the mushroom cloud explosions, birds falling from the sky, people shattering and falling apart from the blasts, and the [[GrayRainOfDepression rain that follows]] is reminiscent of the aftermaths of atom bombs, all set to a disharmonic chorus and lyrics lamenting the destruction caused by "the final war", "my war." Ironically, much like Season 3's first opening, the Titans themselves are absent until the very end, where we see them embedded like statues among a mountain of dust and rubble. |
| 615 | [[/folder]] |
| 616 | |
| 617 | ---- |
| 618 | ->''On that day, mankind received a grim reminder: we lived in fear of the NightmareFuel and were [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife disgraced to browse in these cages called tabs]].'' |
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