EREN IS BACK! Season Finale EXPLAINED | Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 28

what's going on people in this video we're breaking down the finale for part two of Attack on Titan season 4 in which Aaron finally shows up for the first time since the rumbling began during this episode we got flashbacks to various things that happened while the scouts were undercover in Liberia and today I'll be explaining everything including how mikas had the chance to stop Aaron wiping out Humanity before we get into it though don't forget to colossal smash that sub button so you don't miss future Attack on Titan breakdowns as part 3 is confirmed to be coming out in 2023 this poster for part 3 was released online soon after the episode aired in Japan and if I had to guess I reckon next year we'll get around eight or nine brand new episodes that will finish off the series for good I don't think there's going to be a part 4 for this season but I mean the way they've stretched it out over this many years who knows maybe they will be but I highly doubt I think part three really is the end anyhow getting back to episode 28 the title for this one was the dawn of humanity and it begins with a bird flying overhead even though it's only a small thing the bird appearing in this opening does have some significance as it directly relates to mikas narration in this narration she comments on how people seem to think Aaron has changed but in reality it's possible that he's been the same person ever since the beginning the reason this relates to the bird is because in Aaron's mind the walls were nothing more than a bird cage that took his freedom away which is why he hated the Titans even before his mother was eaten years later when he finally escaped the bird cage and ventured outside he realized that he still wasn't free since their enemies across the sea were just another bird cage restricting his freedom once again therefore by doing the rumbling this is his one chance to become truly free for the first time and it's why you could argue that his core motivations have never changed the CNN flashes back to a year earlier when the scouts were heading towards Mali by ship and for a bit of context I'm going to quickly explain what's happening during the time skip between seasons 3 and 4 the scouts were actively looking for alternatives to the rumbling because they didn't want to rely on it for their survival relying on the rumbling would mean the Historia and her descendants would need to become Royal but at Titans and to avoid that outcome hanji suggested they should travel to Mali by going through with this they could learn a lot more about the enemy and hopefully find a solution and that's why episode 28 follows directly on from this because this is their first time leaving the island they've literally never seen things like clowns or ice cream or cars which is why Hardy started waving at it like it was some kind of farm animal While most of the group was visibly excited to be here from the start of the episode Aaron had a depressed look on his face and often looked like he was indeed thought about something the main reason his mood was so terrible compared to everyone else was because he's realizing that all these people and everything around them will one day be wiped out because of him back when he kissed his story his hand he saw future memories of his full-scale rumbling but for a few years he let himself believe that this future might be avoidable Aaron had initially hoped that freedom could be achieved a different way but after trying and failing at this point he was 90 certain that the memories he saw were going to happen that's why he consistently had this vacant expression since he was processing the reality that he had no other option but to destroy everything he's currently looking at it's interesting when we contrast Aaron's gloomy expression with armin's excitement because from a young age they both had this dream to see what was out there but only one of them is burdened with this knowledge of the future now before we move on I thought it was worth mentioning the significance of Aaron and mikas's early interactions on two separate occasions he was in a complete trance thinking about the terrible things that he's going to do and both times Mikasa shows up to break him out of that thought process in my opinion this was foreshadowing for later in the episode when Mikasa had the chance to break him away from the reality where he does the rumbling in this one moment Aaron was willing to go down a completely different path but it all depended on how Mikasa responded to his question later in the video I'll explain exactly why this was the case but for now I just wanted to highlight these early interactions which was subtly laying the foundations for what was to come anyway soon afterwards Levi gets pickpocketed by a young Refugee who tries to steal his bag of coins if this boy's face looks familiar to you it's likely because he appeared very briefly in episode 19 during the many visions that Aaron saw as he entered the pause dimension in this flashback Levi grabs his hand to stop him running away with the money and the local Marlins in the area start to surround them given that malians aren't exactly the most tolerant people they start berating Ramsay not just for being a thief but also because he's an immigrant from another country this is evidenced by the fact that they start to discuss the various cruel ways that they'll punish him including throwing him into the sea or smashing off his hand it goes without saying that these type of brutal punishments are things they never consider doing if it was a fellow Marlin that was caught stealing but because Ramsay is an immigrant they view him as less than themselves in a similar way to how they view aliens one of the people in the crowd even mentions how Ramsay might be a subject of Emir which gets a reaction out of Sasha and a few other Scouts seeing the cruel way the boy would be treated Levi picks him up and makes up a flimsy excuse about how the refugee didn't technically steal anything because the money belongs to his older sister who is apparently Sasha although nobody believed that it's used it at least gave the group some time to run away and eventually they managed to Escape From the Mob that was surrounding them by the time they arrived in the secluded area everyone was exhausted but sitting on top of these ruins was Ramsay who'd stolen the money for the second time today as he cried tears of happiness the captain decides to let it go since that money was just given to him by the asthma Beto the scene ends with Aaron staring in Randy's Direction with a blank expression on his face and not for the first time Mikasa realizes that something isn't quite right with him moving on the group then arrives at hisru's estate and kyum explains to them about the improvements in blood testing Tech we already knew from Kruger's backstory that blood tests were used to determine if people were subjects of Emir and kyomi reveals that this Tech has got an even better making it easier to find aldians who've escaped from the internment zones the reason the Ambassador was telling them this was to make it clear how difficult it will be for parodies to form any sort of friendly relations with other nations because their people are being systematically discriminated against all over the planet despite that Armin and hanji were still willing to work to find this peaceful solution since historia's future depends on them finding this alternative the Commander goes on to explain that the next day there's a political Forum in which an association called the subjects of emea protection group will be giving a speech judging from their title it sounded like they might be willing to cooperate with parodies but at this stage of the episode the scouts didn't know what the group actually believed the plan was to listen into their speech and if they sounded friendly then the island would try to make contact and let this group know that their intention is to make peace this was pretty much their final hope of finding a diplomatic solution because if they couldn't make allies with this Association then the chance of them making allies with anyone else is virtually non-existent after that Mikasa notices that Aaron left while kyomi was talking and after everyone goes to look for him she finds him by himself outside this refugee camp although she didn't see it he was crying before she arrived and this is proof that right now Aaron is mentally at his lowest point and is questioning whether the rumbling is something he wants to do remember when he spoke to Reiner earlier this season he revealed that he used to think everyone in Mali was an enemy but it was once he crossed the sea that he realized that they were all the same while there are bad people here who discriminate against aldians there are also good people here too who don't deserve to be trampled this is something Aaron only understood once he got here and it's why for this one single moment he was willing to abandon everything and run away with Mikasa as she approaches him he goes on to explain that these refugees are similar to The eldians in that one day their regular lives were taken away from them and now they have no freedom following her a brief pause Aaron turns to mikasan asks her why she cares so much about him from the very first episode it's been obvious that she loves him in a couple different ways she loves him in the sense that it's her responsibility to keep him safe almost like a parent but at the same time she does love him in a romantic way as well this has been demonstrated on many separate occasions some more obvious than others but for the most part Aaron has rarely demonstrated any romantic feelings back that's not to say he doesn't have these feelings but rather he's terrible at showing it and up until this point he's treated her more like a sister than a potential girlfriend in this sequence though he asks her the question because he wants to see if she'll reveal how she feels about him and in his mind if she admitted her love then he was willing to abandon everything rambling all these innocent people is something that he wasn't 100 ready to do yet and he preferred to spend his remaining four years with Mikasa regardless of what happens to the island however when it came down to it she was afraid to tell him how she really feels and if you've ever been in a remotely similar situation then you can empathize with with why she didn't tell him the truth keep in mind that in this scene both of them are still teenagers and so confessing your feelings is embarrassing is risky in case the other person doesn't feel the same way and she was kind of happy with the way their relationship already was for a decade they've been best friends so to add romance to that equation will have unknown consequences and cause me because it didn't have that long to think she played the safest option and told him that she sees him as family as an audience we can tell this wasn't her true feelings as she was visibly blushing while staring into his eyes but at the end of the day she just wasn't ready to say how she felt for that reason she couldn't give Aaron the way out that he was looking for and From This Moment onwards the future he saw became set in stone the rest of the scouts that arrive is Ramsay's grandfather invites him inside the tent and throughout the night they have a pretty great time drinking together having fun and eventually passing out these festivities were the one time Aaron had a smile on his face as it was the last night he spent with his friends before abandoning them to go undercover in Mali as a side note in episode 27 John himself had a flashback to this same night when he realized that it was impossible to save these refugees from the rumbling the next day the scouts attend the speech from that pro-elden political group in hopes of forming some kind of Alliance but as the speech continues they quickly realize that that's not gonna happen to put it simply this organization is seeking to defend the rights of displaced aliens all around the globe with an example being people like Annie's dad who were taken away from their home countries his argument is that these refugees have nothing to do with the alien Empire and shouldn't be punished for those crimes as it's the Devils on the island who the world should hate following this logic there was no hope of the scouts ever coming to an agreement with this type of group and as a result this was the day that Aaron walked away from them despite hanji's best efforts there was no peaceful solution to defend parodies and so Aaron Left Behind letters for his friends telling them that he was trusting everything to Zeke as we now know he was only pretending to follow Zeke so that he could Rumble the entire planet instead but he wasn't going to put that in a letter for obvious reasons the next time Mikasa saw him was during the attack on Liberia after he massacred tons of innocent civilians and this helps to give context to why she was so upset when she finally saw him again in the narration present-day Mikasa wonders if all these things were destined to happen from the start or if things might have turned out differently if she'd chosen another answer on the day that Aaron asked her the all-important question the episode then moves on to Aaron's perspective in the clouds as his massive founding Titan continues to charge ahead during his narration he begins to wonder where this story started as it's possible it began with the dream he had under that tree in Chicago or maybe it began 2000 years ago where one of these pigs managed to escape eventually leading to yamir becoming the first Titan alternatively the story might have begun when he was born or as he said in the previous episode maybe Grisha is the one who started everything however in the narration he comes to accept that it doesn't matter where this all began because the fact is the story isn't even over yet even at this late stage all the characters of some kind of future waiting for them ahead regardless of whether it's good or bad and this narration is early acknowledging that there's more they have to go through before they reach the end point things then flash back nearly a year ago when Jelena first told them about Zeke's euthanization plan flock is the one who enabled this meeting to happen which is why he was listening in and she goes on to explain that the tainted wine was consumed by high-ranking people in the military this is how flock knew all about the wine well before anyone else and he was able to use that to their advantage when the Yeagers made their move to take over some time after this the two Scouts that had a meeting of their own in which Aaron told him how they should pretend to follow Zeke's plan flock was initially confused about what pretending to follow the plan would achieve and this is when we switch over to a different flashback which partially answers the question in this other flashback we see Aaron talking to Historia before the scouts leave to visit Mali and he warns her that the military police are planning to turn her into a Titan to be specific the MPS wanted to make sure that she is Zeke as soon as he steps on the island and Historia was more than willing to go along with that plan as long as it remained necessary for the island survival for Aaron though he wasn't prepared for her to make this sacrifice and so he was willing to pretend to follow Zeke's plan because it might lead to a future where she and the rest of his friends can live full lives this is when the scene switches back to flock and it shows us the moment when Aaron spells out his plan for Global genocide by betraying Zeke this massacre will become possible and it's interesting to take a look at Aaron's facial expression as he says this during this moment he clearly has a lot of anger and conviction inside him which is a huge address to how he felt when he physically arrived in Mali and saw the things that he'd actually be destroying moving back to Historia after telling her his intention to do the rambling she begins to freak out but despite her hesitation he's ultimately able to convince her to stay quiet about the whole thing Aaron needs historious cooperation for his rumbling plan to work because if she didn't help him then Zeke would have been eaten as soon as he got to the island it was specifically because she volunteered to get pregnant that the Yeagers had the time they needed to overthrow the existing government but the question then becomes why would she do this in one sense Aaron Historia are very similar people in that they were both willing to sacrifice the world for someone they care about in season 3 Historia had a chance to eat Aaron and inherit the founding Titan and she was told that by doing this she'd have the power to save Humanity from the pure Titans Aaron believed this was true as well which is why he asked her to kill him but in the end she rejected that power and saved his life even though it meant that humans in the walls might be wiped out by the Titans in the present day Aaron is now essentially repaying the favor by sack sacrificing Humanity itself so that his story can survive but it was only possible because of her cooperation the episode flashes forward to the Jaeger Brothers conversation in Mali and this is the third time you've seen this conversation but every time we do see it we learn something new this time around Zeke is playing catch by himself while teasing his younger brother as he confirms that mikas's love for Aaron is out of her own free will and not because of Any Ackerman DNA for whatever reason Aaron theorized that her desire to protect him was somehow related to him Awakening her power but as it turns out that has nothing to do with it and the headache she gets are completely unrelated in spite of that Aaron still went back to the island and told me because they're a bunch of lies because in his mind it was better for her to stay away from him and live a full life than for her to be involved in his rumbling plan we then proceed to get a flashback within a flashback as Aaron can be seen in the trenches in the Middle East by this point he had infiltrated the Malian Army and was among the soldiers who were sent to fight the Mideast Alliance and in this scene he demonstrates just how strong his conviction really is with no choice left but to follow this path he agonizingly soars off his own leg with a knife so that his what injuries seem more realistic without these injuries he likely wouldn't have been allowed to stay at this Hospital in Mali so it had to be done if he was going to follow through with this after soaring off his leg he then plunges a bullet into his left eye partially blinding himself in the process and honestly I'm not sure which of these is worse if I had to choose I think I'd go with the leg soaring option just because I don't think I could do this even if the world depended on it but at the same time it is a quicker option anyhow the flashbacks progressed so one of Ramsey getting beaten up in an alley by some of the merchants but admittedly it's hard to tell what's happening here without looking at the manga panel of this exact same moment over the narration Aaron then reiterates to Zeke how he wants his friends to live happy lives as the anime shows us this final flashback in which the scouts had a meal together the night before they retook wilmaria in this image both Marlow and Commander Evan were killed by Zeke the next day which makes it kind of ironic that this image appears on screen as Aaron is telling his brother how he wanted them to live happy lives regardless episode 28 finally returns to the present day immediately after this as this massive Fleet of Warships from all around the globe has gathered to stop the rumbling these ships are the biggest and best the humanity has to offer and due to the nature of the thread a ton of countries have joined together to make this happen as the steam from the Titans rapidly approaches this guy gives the order to Fire and surprisingly it seemed like these weapons were actually working the first wave of Titans was chopped to Pieces by these cannons as their body parts began seeking lower into to the water however with barely any time to think a new wave of Titan swims through the madness and was heading straight towards the ships the fundamental issue here is that even if every one of these cannons was guaranteed to kill a Titan the fact is that there were thousands if not millions of them within the walls so humanity is simply way too outnumbered in this situation one of the best sequences of the episode came straight after this with the Titans quickly swimming underneath the ships and as they did that the steam they produced was so intense that it literally melted the people on board the force then caused these warships to be catapulted into the air in a scene that was reminiscent of Almond's colossal attack on Liberia this time though the amount of ships destroyed was on a much larger scale and as they exploded into the ocean it created a sort of light show for everyone watching on the shore most of the soldiers that abandoned their positions to run into the City and as some of them turned around they get to see Aaron's enormous bony shifter emerging from the smoke this imagery of him leading the rumbling was heavily foreshadowed during the opening for part two and in this scene one soldier screams in horror declaring that this is the attack Titan we then get a close-up of his new Titan face and generally speaking it is similar to his regular shifter appearance with the key difference being that he has lips where he didn't used to and his hair is now significantly longer and less human looking while Aaron marches forward he channels the anger he fell on the day his mother got eaten Because by dehumanizing the enemy it makes it easier for him to kill them throughout this video we've established that Aaron knows that humans are all the same no matter which side of the wall he's on so the reason he thinks back to this rage is because it's helping him to push forward and do what needs to be done in that Spirit he mentions how he's going to wipe out every loss one of them from the world and this is a call back to when he said the same thing about the Titans after she died part 2 then ends with an aerial shot of the rumbling wiping out an entire city and the final shot of this episode is one of the time stomping on the camera which is identical to what we've seen in the opening for part two anyway people that was my breakdown for the finale of part two of the final season I want to thank you all for sticking with me for these first two parts I really appreciate all the comments week to week and of course I will be doing these reviews when part three returns next year in the meantime I'll be continuing my series on what if Aaron got the Colossal Titan and doing other videos for both Attack on Titan and a couple other series too for the next few weeks though I'm going to the US and likely won't be uploading again until I get home so be sure to turn on notifications so you don't miss my next upload when I come back until the next one peace out

Channel: Turtle Quirk

Views: 764,186

Keywords: Attack on Titan, eren, AOT, Attack on Titan the final season, Attack on Titan season 4, aot s4 episode 28, memories of the future, historia, beast titan, zeke, zeke’s plan, eren zeke, levi zeke, eren’s plan, mikasa, Titan, titan shifter, hizuru, future memories, Zeke jaeger, new titan, Yelena, pieck, AOT s4, AOT season 4, levi vs the beast titan, shingeki no kyojin, eren season 4, jaegerists, eren war, aot part 2, final season part 2, falco titan, part 2 finale, dawn of humanity

Id: E_nroHGrWaI

Length: 18min 48sec (1128 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 04 2022