Attack on Titan: Episode 16 Above and Beyond

+ For readers/watchers who have already watched the episode (spoilers) (assumptions)

"There’s much to learn from an enemy.”

“Including how to make more enemies.”

The Titan serum can change any human into a titan. Scary right? We first learned of this earlier in the season when we saw Marleyans change prisoners into Titans and send them off towards Paradis island.

The many bits of Zeke, Eren, and Yelena's master plan have occupied most of the second half of this season. “Above and Below” brings it out in the open and wants the gravity of these acts to be known. Everyone assumes that reuniting Zeke and Eren would trigger the Rumbling, which is right, but Yelena suggests an even more dreadful solution that includes either El or Zeke - Eldian euthanasia or sterilization to permanently remove them as a threat to the Founding Titan.

The show has come to a tragic ending, with the stakes having risen to such a diabolical level that the characters behave as if their brains have overheated and nothing makes sense anymore. Jean is still perplexed by Eren's behavior, and it's difficult to say if Armin is moved by Yelena's powerful speech about Zeke and Eren's motivations or whether he's simply lost it.

Attack on Titan has progressed to the point that it's difficult to accept anyone's reactions at face value or consider if they're part of a larger scam, as shown by Gabi and Pieck's experience with Eren.

But the ending of Final Season part 1 makes it clear that violence is not the solution. This was clearly evident when Sasha's parents talk about how we are stuck in the forest.

When Pieck, another Eldian warrior in the Marleyan military, infiltrates Paradis and briefly tricks Eren into thinking she’s turning to his side, Gabi is shocked at the thought of a mentor joining the Eldian devils. But Pieck immediately explains that no matter what they do, no matter how much they try to please the Marleyan authorities, they’ll never be anything other than “Subjects of Ymir” (another name for Eldian). Gabi may think that she’s found some successes by pleasing Marley, but it will never be enough because their power as a nation depends on using Eldians as a military force. In episode 10 we learn that Zeke became a double agent for Eldia and offered Eren and company a plan to save Eldia forever: wielding the power of the Titans as both a weapon of mass destruction and a bargaining chip to keep other nations at bay. Eren briefly went along with the plan, but eventually decided against it because he thought of it as only a temporary fix, rather than a solution.

So now the question arises - what is Eren's plan now? To save his people by wiping them out. He believes the best way to really "free" their race... is by finishing it.

At first, Eren’s reckless behavior was meant to be a good trait. He was a hero who put his loved ones before him always - a throwback to him sacrificing himself for Armin and getting his arm and leg chomped off. Final Season’s Eren is different, and it seems like he may just be too deep in his own endless pursuit of vengeance against a replaceable and vague entity that he simply cannot stop himself. He has become a slave to his beliefs. He has become his worse nightmare.

If the Final Season part 1 finale made anything clear, is that every character in Attack on Titan is too far deep in their own vision of justice to even consider an alternative.

Get ready for the last part 2 season guys. It's going to be hard.

Tune in next week for Top 10 animes of all time. S-tier animes coming in hard.