Attack on Titan S3 (1st Cour Finale) – Episode 49 – “Night of the Battle to Retake the Wall”

This is it. The finale of Attack on Titan in 2018. There will be more to come from Eren and co. in 2019, but for now, we get a short breather before they get to the next arc in this series. I’ll get to what’s to come at the end of this. So for now, here’s the last recap until April or whenever that’s full of punches and craziness.

After a tiny recap, the committee of Erwin and co. have the syringe Kenny gave before he left us that they’re studying. Their technology can’t figure out what is in the bottle, but they assume it came from some human bodily fluid. The fluid vaporizing within contact with air doesn’t help much. Hange knows people who had far superior tech made this and can’t imagine the Reiss family having said tech. Pixis decides they will use it for taking back Wall Maria. But who to entrust it to. Erwin isn’t an option because of his broken body. They have to use a soldier who has the best odds at survival, and the best option is Levi. Erwin doesn’t know when, or what situation, they will have to use it for, so it’s up to Levi to decide when and who to use it on. He asks Erwin if his dream comes true, what will he do. Erwin doesn’t know, so Levi agrees to take the container. Levi mulls over this decision, as Zachery still wants to show his “art” to the public.

After the opening, Erwin gets all news on Eren’s dad, including him having the Power of the Titans and being in support of humanity and the Scouts. Knowing how he wanted to show Eren what’s in their basement, they ponder what is in that basement. Erwin thinks of his dad and thinks it’s something that can’t be said or that Grisha couldn’t say even if he wanted to. Erwin hope it’s the memories of the world the First King wiped away. They have all the prep done, and they can now find out what’s hiding in the Shiganshina basement, because searching for the truth is what Scouts do.

As everyone leaves, Levi stays behind to talk with Erwin. He asks what they’ll do when they retake Wall Maria. Simple: Eliminate the threats, as someone outside the walls wants the Titans to eat them. That answer also might be in the basement. Levi asked this because he knows Erwin might not live long enough with that broken body, especially if he goes on the battlefield. He wants Erwin to stay behind here, with Hange calling the shots. Levi argues over all of this, even going so far as to threaten Erwin if he goes.

Even so, as he thinks more of his dad, Erwin wants to be used as bait. The chain of command will still have Hange taking over if Erwin’s gone. He knows it will be dangerous, but this mission is important to humanity. If Erwin’s not out there, the chances of the mission’s success drop significantly. Even after all this, Levi wants him to stay behind because he thinks it’s best not only for humanity for Erwin to stay alive, but the enemy would hate it. And yet, even though Erwin agrees with Levi on this, as no wounded soldier like him should be on that battlefield, he wants to risk it all. He wants to learn the truth of the world for himself; it’s that important to Erwin, moreso than Levi breaking his legs or scoring a big victory for humanity. Levi sees he can’t stop Erwin, so he’s going to trust his friend’s judgement on this.

Since it’s the night before the big mission, the military decides to give the squads a big feast with 2 months worth of their food budget. All of it involves meat, a rare treat to have. As long as the public doesn’t find out, it’s good. So of course, everyone starts to go crazy for the meat. Especially a certain food-loving girl.

Jean takes said meat from Sasha. Bad move.

Even with Connie’s help, there’s no stopping her. Marlo thinks this is sad. Sasha doesn’t give a shit what he thinks.

Mikasa wants Connie to knock her out, but he kind of already did. Eventually, him and Eren tie Sasha down to a beam as she calms down. Connie can’t believe this is the same girl who offered to share her meat she took back when they were bright-eyed recruits. It flashes back to that before the Colossal Titan attacked them, as Eren can’t believe it’s only been 4 months since that attack happened. You’re not the only ones, Eren. But they’re now in Squad Levi and climbed ranks, so it’s all good as Sasha wakes up, still wanting meat.

Jean has a back-and-forth with Marlo over military experience, placement, effectiveness in battles and whatnot over trying not to become cannon fodder. He shouldn’t be a “suicidal maniac” like Eren. Eren doesn’t like this and calls Jean a chicken, and they then start to fight with both words and their fists. It’s a fun fist fight that has some good animation to show how hard the punches hit.

Along with some funny faces as they get punched.

Armin asks Mikasa if it’s fine that they do this, and she actually thinks it is. Both Eren and Jean are out of it and want someone to stop them before they vomit out the meat they ate. Finally, someone does break them up. It’s Levi, as he wrecks the hell outta them and tells everyone to go to sleep for being so rowdy. Everyone leaves the feast except for Sasha, who’s still tied to the beam.

As Eren recovers from the fight outside, he has a talk with Mikasa and Armin. He’s glad he met with Keith, as he knows what is to be done now. He also thinks of what he couldn’t change with himself. He did get jealous of Mikasa and Levi for how strong they are, but he knows that they alone aren’t much as they are as a unit. Being strong and working together is the best option since everyone is different. This makes Armin flash back to him being a scared boy, as Eren and Mikasa help him. It then makes the 3 think they see Hannes still alive on the street they’re on, but it’s another person who looks like him. They hope re-taking Wall Maria and making their enemies pay will bring them back to the good ol’ days, even if everything has changed. Armin still wants to see the sea, the “big salt lake that even merchants couldn’t get all the salt from.” He wants to see all that’s outside the walls that was described. It’s why he joined the Scouts: to prove this is all real. Eren promises Armin they will see the sea. As they all have fun over this, Levi is sitting on a street corner nearby, listening to all of this.

The morning comes, and the Scouts prepare to move out. As they do, Flegel told everyone about this, as he and the citizens wish them luck in taking back Wall Maria while also thanking them for saving their city. Levi doesn’t like all of this, but Connie, Sasha and Jean revel in it all. It’s then that some realize the Scouts may have never gotten this type of send off before. Erwin smiles, raises his fist high, and yells to the excitement of the crowd. The operation to take back Wall Maria has begun, as every Squad member gets outside the walls on their horses and move out. They are ready for the fight, as are Reiner and Bertholdt, who are waiting at the wall.

It is when the ending credits roll with Linked Horizon playing, that it all seems like a normal ending. However, in the middle of it, we start to see a bunch of quick things that will happen in the next arc (Don’t blink, or you will literally miss it all), and it flashes forward in time of the aftermath of the battle. Eren and Mikasa are both crying, and Levi is covered in blood. Not that he’s dead, but his body is just soaked in blood from fighting. Asking what the two are doing, Levi then smacks the ever-living shit outta Eren, causing Mikasa to attack Levi, sword to his neck. It ends there, as the ending credits roll on, leaving everyone on said cliffhanger until the Spring.

This episode was basically a set-up to what’s to come on the 2nd cour and the next big arc to come. It was fun to see the Eren/Jean fight get animated, as well as Sasha going full-out crazy for that meat. It was also nice to see Erwin in full resolve, as he knows he’s going to risk it all on the line for whatever is in that basement. But mostly, this is basically a breather for what’s to come, as those 30 seconds in the ending credits tell you all you need to know for what’s in store (Which is going to be interesting to see how Funi/Toonami handles that last part. They definitely can’t cut the ED down there.) Reading the manga already for this, I can’t tell you how hyped I am to see this get animated. This was one of my favorite arcs in the series and is definitely worth the 6 month wait to see all of that get animated. For those of you who complained about the lack of action, and/or the lack of Titans in this set, don’t worry. There’s gonna be plenty of Titans coming, plenty of big fights ahead, tons of blood, and tons of mayhem. There also might be some baseball that’s somehow involved. Plus, at the end of it all, we should finally be able to see what was hiding in that basement for all this time. Yes, get hyped for this arc. Attack on Titan’s 2nd cour for Season 3 should be as fun as any anime that will come out in Spring 2019, and boy, there are some big names coming with it. Either you will have to wait for this to arrive, or you can go and read the manga and see how it all unfolds. This will be fun to cover when I get back to it. See you again in the Spring for the Battle of Shiganshina.

Attack on Titan Season 3 is licensed by Funimation. Episodes can be seen on both Crunchyroll and Funimation. The dub version can be seen Saturdays at Midnight ET on Toonami.

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