How the FINAL SEASON Mirrors Eren's Tribunal - Overanalyzing Attack on Titan & Retrospective

foreign unlike most episodes we've covered thus far the opening sequence of episode 14 doesn't function as recap or to reframe what we already know rather it is a direct follow-up to the ending sequence of the previous episode where we see the continued conversation between Irvin Aire and the Levi functionally it just sets up the proceeding Arc with it literally being cut off right after Levi says that Aaron is accepted into the scouts pretty clearly saying hey Aaron's a scout now so let us see what that means which also neatly brings us on to the second op of the series the name of which I will not try to pronounce but to almost complete the scene we just talked about the very first thing we see is the aot signature birds flying over the wall and seeing the expansive world that lies Beyond and even more importantly literally flashing an image of Annie's Titan immediately confirming that this is what we'll be sending our Targets on next unlike the first topi which was all about the struggles of humanity and the hunted become coming the hunters this one is immediately evoking a marching theme or even a national anthem [Music] both the overall tone of the music as well as the lyrics All stress the importance of Honor patriotism and strength much more so than the survival we saw in the first opening I think lines like we grip two steel Blades of Gloria sing the songs of Victory and have the Wings of Freedom on our back illustrate that national anthem type Vibe very well similarly this opening also features a lot of imagery where it is the soldiers drawing blood instead of being hunted by the Titans once again showing that with Aaron on their side the odds are now tipped in their favor and this might be me to truly over analyzing but I also find the bird imagery we get here quite curious like I already mentioned obviously Birds appear a lot in the series everything from the song literally titled birds in a cage to the birds that we see all representing freedom and everything in between but the thing is if memory serves me right it is always either a black or white bird never both in the same scene in this opening however we start with the white birds flying across the wall but end with the Wings of Freedom sprawling into both black and white birds before you get out your tinfoil clearly the obvious answer here is purely contrast right the Wings of Freedom have two colors so we need differently colored birds so them being black and white literally the Polar Opposites just make sense from an artistic point of view and if I had to bet my money on it I'd say it is about 95 just that especially in an opening that is meant to Hype you up rather than convey some extremely intricate story but then again this is Attack on Titan we're talking about right and birds are just about the most important symbol in the series so could this be some sort of representation of the diverging paths Aaron could have walked could it be a message of unity between Marley and parody As in the black bird showed up in Marley whereas the white perch shop in parody yet both are united in the Wings of Freedom feel free to chime in on this one unless it's spoilers of course anime only please but yeah very curious indeed and because I'm already over analyzing I also think that there's an argument to be made that the entire narrative in the opening is in many ways echoing the first season as a whole the opening begins with that marching music which I think speaks to the First Act of war that we saw with the Colossal the music then takes a darker turn with the lyrics speaking of how the enemy is cruel but the tale prevailed which I think describes the events of trust and how the walls were breached again but just as suddenly there's another turn in the opening which brings back those themes of triumph which I think speaks to Aaron's use of the Titan and how that ultimately saved trust I think the whole narrative nature in the openings is one that is actually present all throughout the series just like with the posters going from air and looking up at the destruction of the Titans to him being the destructor the openings to convey the entire story of the series with the final openings losing almost all of that initial national pride and patriotic nature and turning into very Bleak depictions of war and in a broader sense I also think that the use of German throughout the series is another very neat touch that you don't really see in anime much I do admit this might just be a case of me being from the EU so it's just a lot more familiar to me than Japanese but I think by occasionally mixing in an entirely new language it just adds another layer of contrast and complexity to do everything we're seeing as for the title of the episode can look into his eyes yet I think there are a couple ways of looking at this first off eye contact or Buys in general are often used to convey trust or deceits so in the context of this episode I think you can read it as The Wider Humanity not being able to trust Aaron just yet and so they cannot look into the eyes of someone they sort of wish to be killed conversely I think you can also tie this together with Mikasa in this episode as during Aaron's tribunal she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes as she admitted that he had indeed attacked her I think it's just as simple as her wanting to hide that fact and because she still fears for Aaron's life looking into his eyes as she delivers the report which may Doom him is just too painful moving into the episode itself however we see just how differently the people of the walls are perceiving the unfolding events when we look at while seeing up the wealthiest people of the walls we essentially just hear disdain about the situation we hear them talking about how their supplies now might be taken and that their lavish lifestyle might be upset but when we cut to wall rows we see a much different picture first off instead of everyone reading out their newspapers like we see in wall Cena the people in Wild Rose all Stand Together reading out a single Paper this both speaks to the financial standing of these two groups as one is clearly able to afford much much more as well as the isolation their higher financial status brings later in the episode we'd see how the merchant strongly oppose many of the plans proposed by discounts whereas when we see the commoners they all cheer how Airlines Titan might be their savior all standing unified shoulder to shoulder and embracing hope class representation in the politics that brings will continue to be an important part of Attack on Titan so we'll touch on this a whole bunch more as we get later on as well but as of right now is just painting them as two drastically different sides which of course sets up the drama to follow low in Aaron's tribunal we then cut to the shot of scales and this Angelic fighter figure scales and Lady Justice are of course a near-universal depiction of the rule of law in the justice system in general so in that sense it's not much more than just subtly framing the rest of the episode to follow as again it would be all about Aaron's judgments however because this is over analyzing I also think you could talk about how the balance of power is now tipping and what that would mean for the rest of the series as we've been talking about for the past couple of episodes the appearance of Aaron's Titan and then the Battle of trust clearly convey how the tide of battle is turning in favor of parody or in other words leveling out the Titan Advantage that Marley had up until now and so with Aaron being cleared in this episode we'll see what a more even battle looks like and you know if I were to over analyze even more we have another very important lady in the series that is already massively tipped the balance of power huh like you know someone like Emir and you know clearing Aaron also means that while they're obviously unaware of it they also now possess the founders power and by extension set up everything to follow including the rumbling so you know maybe you could look past the obvious representation of Lady Justice and actually see this as a mirror okay yeah that is very much over analyzing and frankly makes very little sense cutting to some of the military police we see the same sentiment repeated many of them just want to get rid of Aaron and in their eyes there really is no two ways about it in many ways I think here too you could talk about how the military police which like we saw with Jean just live out their days in the inner wall are sort of conditioned to prefer the safer and More close to home bets while the scouts try to look at the bigger picture of things and think about how recapturing lost territories might benefit everyone in the long run in my mind I think this is just evoking the endless debates people have about domestic versus in International matters and how best to allocate resources between these two very important groups we'll touch on this in a second again so keep that in mind for now and a quick note before we move on I know this is super cringe and I seriously hate doing it but the last video got incorrectly age restricted and effectively killed in the algorithm and even after the Restriction was overturned it just wasn't getting pushed to people and I know that many of you watching these videos aren't subscribed to the channel so if you enjoyed the series and don't want to miss a future episode because YouTube has deemed you a child in need of protection do drop a subscription and hopefully that will solve the problem alright thanks a bunch back to the video we then cut to Irvine and pick sis walking Atop The Wall which again just like we've talked about in trust I think just conveys that the both of them are currently the only ones looking at the bigger picture and how to handle Aaron though importantly we hear that this entire meeting is off the Record and that technically they shouldn't even be meeting I think this scene is really interesting in how it portrays the two as pick Texas isn't the least bit concerned about formalities or anything like that even casually naming exactly with no title or anything something that catches Irvin off guard as he has to verify whether they're talking about the premiere of the three regiments I think the idea here is just to present them as very similar in that they are both strategists who try to look past the politics while also showcasing that they are still very very different in how they go about things Pixis is quite a bit more eccentric in how he carries himself while Irvin does very much still play by the book and that is exactly what we see in the final moments of their meaning as pix's ask servant whether he believes that there is a chance for them to save Aaron to which Irvin responds that no there really isn't but that he does have a proposal which we of course now know to be the complete Hail Mary they throw during the tribunal but I think the best part here is the extreme juxtaposition we see with Pixis as he casually laughs at Irvin talking about this Gamble and and just walks off all while the music is this uneasy pulse so again even when they're dealing with these sorts of matters pix's eccentricity very much holds and if you remember the whole Pixar sees things in people that others don't aspect which we've seen many times in trust I think you could also easily say that to pixus this is not a gamble at all and he's certain that Irvin will pull it off which is exactly why he's so nonchalant about this whole thing we then cut to make us an Armin who are talking about the supposed trial Aaron's supposed to have and of course once again Armin cuts through all of that and just blatantly says it is to decide whether Aaron lives or not I think this is just another scene to demonstrate that Armin is in the least bit disillusioned as to what is going on and is well aware that despite the recapture of trust with the help of Aaron's Titan many many people will still be terrified of the idea that they are now potentially using a Titan as a weapon and they're then called to deliver the testimonies and that is where we leave them for now we then cut to Aaron who is still chained up in the dungeon and just asking for water or just to go to the bathroom the guards on the other hand just tell him to shut up and call him a monster something that Aaron doesn't even disagree with and questioning who he even is himself and just like with the events of trust the super long-term parallels here are nuts in this case Aaron is locked up and as far as he's aware he is truly trapped on top of that P is also unsure of himself and is questioning his own sanity but then we cut to the next time he's locked up where he makes it explicitly clear that the only reason why he's here is because he wants to be just like we see in season 1 parody is afraid of the potential weapon that Aaron is only this time we are of course talking about the rumbling but unlike the first time where they could try to contain him here he is the one making the demands making it clear that with the Warhammer he could be out of here and no one could ever stop him also in this episode we see Aaron wondering about how everyone else is doing and what happened to them a far cry from what we see in the final season as Aaron would be purposely trying to get away from everyone and distancing himself from even his closest friends though a quick side note about the flashback one detail that I loved here is that Aaron's memories contain Marco someone we of course know to be dead I think this is just one of those small things that many people might have overlooked because in the continuity Marco is dead so for an animator working on the scene they simply might not have included him but in Universe Aaron is still unaware of his death and so he appears in his memories just like everyone else not sure if it is purposeful or just a happy little accident but I like the attention to detail though returning to the overanalyzing we see Aaron fearing that he'll be locked up forever which is of course his one fundamental fear that being a lack of Freedom again the final season we see the complete opposite of that where even while in this cage he's just talking about fighting and like I just mentioned makes it clear that he's not a prisoner so much as he's doing them a favor by just staying quiet and to finish off those many many parallels hanji then Pops in where in this episode she locks him up even more before they head off while in the final season she can help but just be fascinated by what Aaron means when he says fight fight because I don't want to go off on a three-hour tangent we'll leave that for when we get to the final season but point is the parallels between the first and final season are plentiful here and there are still probably countless more that I've just missed while Aaron's being escorted though we are introduced to this dude named Mikey who apparently sniffs everyone he meets now imma be honest with you to me this is one of those odd things from early Attack on Titan that really sticks out because judging by how cold and down to earth the series would be later on he does feel like a bit of a JoJo character that was written in because hey Shonen always has to have some quirky characters right I think there is a long debate you could have about how even characters like hanji were much more tuned down as we get later on and how all of it might have potentially just been isayama having to force these gimmicks in just to get the manga off the ground but I am neither educated enough to talk about that nor do I think it is entirely Irrelevant for the purposes of this series his death would ultimately be pretty tragic and maybe subconsciously this quirkiness of his also plays into that but yeah his introduction always seemed a little bit wacky to me compared to everything else in the series and before we move on to the tribunal the mid cards we get are just about that the court system of the walls and how the judgment is conducted in these special proceedings I don't think there's anything too foreshadowing here or anything as everything it talks about regarding the importance of politics and this horror deal is exactly exactly what we see so with that let us get into the court hearing itself for the first part of this whole deal we follow Aaron hoop has literally no idea what's going on and as we'd see later in this episode it is also confirmed that Aaron remembers nothing of what happened before he got his Titan under control and this is something that I actually really enjoyed from a realism point of view because Aaron does genuinely believe he is completely harmless to them and only did what he did to protect himself and his friends so yes he wouldn't try to put up any Grand fight or anything he believes that all of this is just a misunderstanding that needs to be talked out and that is all and on top of that he just talked to Levi and Irvin two people who he believes to be in high Authority in the military so I think it's totally understandable that he's just dumbfounded more than anything else here we then get into the statements where Nile of the military police says that he should be disposed of immediately saying that while he does acknowledge his usefulness and Trust the military police believe they should extract everything they know from him and just write him off as a heroic sacrifice for Humanity and in my mind it is this very moment where Irvin and Levi realize they've won this is super important so hold that out for a minute we then see priest's Nick speak up and blabber on about how Aaron's undermining the sanctity of the walls and whatnot what I love here though is how we cut to Aaron's inner monologue as he says five years ago no one listened to him but now he seems to have supports like you know I am not saying this is social commentary or anything but it's almost as if people in times of Crisis lose their ability to make rational decisions and turn to random completely unfounded beliefs that fit their worldview okay jokes that are not really jokes asides just like we saw in the mid cards as much as the priest is just throwing out completely random nonsense what matters here is that he has political Sway and so they can't just write him and his followers off though finally Irvin speaks up proposing that they use Aaron to retake while Mario and that is it he puts it as bluntly as possible and does not elaborate at all so first off he is just a giga Chad but number two I think this is a case of him not revealing his hand too early just like you learned in school when doing time constrained presentations you don't necessarily have to explain everything rather you say something that naturally poses a question which is when you elaborate on it on your own terms and I think this is exactly what Irvin is doing here the more he says right now the more doubt he might create so instead he simply says a blunt promise and only answers direct questions and right away we also see pix's jump in saying that yes trust gates are indeed plugged and won't be moving anytime soon to which Irvin responds by immediately laying out a plan proving to everyone in the room that unlike everyone we've heard so far he's put a lot more thought into to this and as the merchants Once Again Begin yelling out that recapturing while Mario is pointless because again remember that they are the wealthiest of society so this sort of mission would just mean that the resources are now less concentrated in while Cena Levi steps in to deliver the home run if you will obviously the Levi archetype is purposely used to do the whole the quietest person's words usually speak the loudest which is exactly what we see he begins by dunking on the merchants saying that by weep he just means his fellow Rich fat friends but then saying that the lack of land is literally killing them just like we already heard with Pixis the priest then starts spewing nonsense again and once again we cut to Armin thinking that their beliefs have slowed any and all progress so once again just adding extra layers of complexity to the politics within the walls it's not just rich and poor strong and weak militarian civilian but also this church angle which complicates matters even further and obviously that would be a huge deal at the end of the season after everyone's opening statements Zachary then turns to Aaron simply asking him if he can serve the military to which Aaron clearly responds that yes yes he can though hearing this the military police Got Back by saying that Baron is not to be trusted as he attacked Mikasa and we also see Mikasa immediately try to hide the scar we talked about the implications of it last time and now it becomes this permanent reminder of how Aaron's rage almost killed her so I always thought that it actually becoming an explicit plot point was really cool from a realism point of view and that is exactly what we see as Rico tells Mika said that covering up Aaron's Outburst might prove even more detrimental obviously watching the series it's easy for us to say that wait surely Aaron is extremely valuable and a great asset for Humanity and all that but try to put yourself in such a situation no matter how potentially useful he might be his powers are clearly still very very volatile fearing him and understanding the value of him are not mutually exclusive in this case which again I think is just a great Showcase of how Attack on Titan set itself apart from the usual genre tropes where Aaron's ability would be immediately embraced though from Aaron's point of view we once again see him questioning his own actions which is when we see Armin confirm that yes Aaron does indeed have no recollection of what happened memory loss in general is understandably a huge No-No for many people including myself but I think it's mostly fine in this case as it's not really the main thing moving the story along or even having any major impact on it to be honest if anything is just there for the sake of dramatization as Aaron's cluelessness just adds to the overall uneasiness of the situation Migos then says that Aaron protected her twice in Titan form to which the military police respond by saying that that emotions are clearly clouding our judgments referencing what happened way back in the cabin I've mentioned it a million times but again if there's anything that will shake the usually completely Stone Cold and emotionally distant Mikasa it is Aaron so when she's called out here is just another reminder that we are now in a much higher league and these people couldn't care less how powerful she is or what he means to her to them Mikasa is just another Soldier trying to protect what is potentially a ticking time bomb and to top it all off the people then call out Mikasa directly saying that for all they know she too might be a Titan first off I do think this is some neat foreshadowing toward the female Titan secondly the music in the scene is so good and those guitar riffs in the background remind me of Death Note for some reason but the rest of the track is also just so so good but number three we've talked about the whole Ackerman bloodline and their potential links to Amir and all of that before so if we do ever find out that they are in fact something like humans possessing the strength of Titans or something this is another one of those scenes that will just seem funny in hindsight but now that Mikasa has been called out Aaron's emotions finally boil over and he screams at them to stop remember that everyone in this room has literally zero clue about house power works so obviously they are very much shook because who knows maybe if he gets angry he'll just pop his Titan form and annihilate them before anyone could bat an eye but he then starts saying that none of them have any idea what they're talking about and that's when we hear another voice of Aaron now you are watching over analyzing Attack on Titan so you certainly expected this but on initial viewing you just take it to be your typical anime MC asking where does this bravery come from right but is it really because if we listen to the rest of a speech saying how can you afford not to let those with power fights doesn't that just so happen to line up with the final season Aaron where he says just that we have the power of the rumbling soap how can we not use it to ensure our safety and just like the final season where he goes off on his own realizing that no one wants to help him here too he just blatantly calls everyone a coward and that's steam swirling around him the focus on his eye everything here seems awfully sus to me and I do think there's a case to be made that future Aaron Shenanigans are afoots and this may actually be a case of him protecting Mikasa because again she is a monster at combat so if she is suddenly called out as a conspirator and a Titan herself who knows what might happen right certainly interesting to think about if you ask me but then we get into the most memeed and probably best part of this episode as Levi casually walks up to Aaron and just starts beating him and this is what I mentioned before with Aaron and Levi's observation this is their trump card the military police said that they would dissect him but as Levi begins beating him they are scared out of their mind so he asks just that how do you expect to dissect him if you are afraid he'll transform I can kill him but can you he even goes as far as to build Aaron up saying that he alone took down 20 Titans but again he keeps beating him showcasing that unlike them he is not the least bit shaken by what might happen here so effectively what he does here is bluntly tell them and more importantly show them no one except me can keep him under control and he doesn't mention it but everyone knows that he he was fired upon by cannons and not only did he survive even his friends got away without so much as a scratch right and Pinos full well that the people here know of a status they know of his combat abilities and so they play exactly that Titan or no Titan he is the only one capable of killing Aaron and to further cement that point he explicitly says that yeah it's a shame but there really is no other alternative if he does anything fishy I will kill him and that is that but at the same time we have to remember that as much as this may just seem cool remember that this is actually just a gamble a smart gamble sure but keep in mind that neither Irvin nor Levi or even Aaron know how his powers work he could have actually transformed here and now so this is exactly that a All or Nothing play by Irvin which just happened to work out and that is When Irvin speaks again detailing the upcoming mission and saying that Levi will be personally responsible for him and with them more than proving or at least convincing them that unlike everyone else in the room they are capable of containing whatever Aaron throws at them their plan is accepted and one last thing to mention with the court scene I have zero artistic background whatsoever but I am 99 certain that the painting we see on the ceiling just has to reference some piece of art the closest I could find is the Battle of angiari I guess a lost painting of Da Vinci which could also coincide with air and losing his memories but I'm not exactly sure that it is in fact referencing that if anyone has a better guess feel free to throw that in the comments in the last scenes of this episode are just to tell us that all of this was in fact just theatrics because I remember that on initial viewing up to this point we've only seen Irvin and Levi for like all of 10 minutes so obviously the series doesn't want us to actually think that Levi just beat him up for the funsies and we we also see them all say that they have each other's respect and that everything is groovy and the very last thing is of course the Callback to the two Thief I knocked out as hanji unveils it saying that she grabbed it for research and it's then that Aaron's healing ability is very much set in stone as his tooth has already regrown ants just like with the op we also get a new ending for the second core I am extremely biased here because this sort of music is right up my alley but I absolutely love this one I love myself some Over the Top guitar riff so I could listen to this one for hours in fact I have it is on my main Spotify playlist as for the visuals this one isn't as foreshadowing as season 2 but there is still some interesting stuff in this one the ending starts with what seems to be a female character dropping a walnut I think the easier interpretation here is that this is either Amir who created them or the church which will try to hide them and the Walnut itself is the walls just like the Walnut rolling past them the rumbling would obviously be a huge part for everyone involved and just like we'd see at the end of the season the outer shell would indeed be broken and we'd see the true foundation of the walls also full transparency I could talk about the Walnut for another half an hour and how it symbolizes different things in many different cultures but I think that is better left for another day and also this scene of humanoid figures standing side by side is also likely referencing the Titans within the walls there's also the way the soldiers are standing with bear salt being the only of the Marley Squad to face the wall that is detailing the history of the Titans revealing help unlike Reiner and Annie who are still dedicated to the goals of Marley bear child's waivers without a clear guide just like we'd see in season 2 and of course all the odm scenes of them running across Aaron's arm and all that are just pure eye candy so yeah nothing super foreshadowing but in hindsight the two sides of the war the whole Titans within the walls and all of that can be drawn from this one pretty easily but with that that is episode 14. we're back to solo episodes but there it is now that we're into 2023 the final final Final this time for real final season should wrap up the series so I hope you're excited for the many many over-analyzing episodes to follow unless they announce a movie which I've been expecting for like the past two years hello this is editing kurodo and yeah this was recorded before the announcement but they did kind of exactly what I've been memeing about for like the last year and yes the final final part will actually be two parts I guess that does put the movie Theory to bed I think I really hope so but hey at least both of them are coming supposedly in 2023 so they're still not to be excited about alright back to past kurodo all that said next time planning for the Expedition beyond the walls is in full swing so I hope to see you then as we continue over analyzing Attack on Titan and that's the video yeah I've gotten myself into a real pickle with these double uploads and it's been super rough but nothing is stopping the attack on Titan train with the one piece series now nearing completion I do hope to try to up the pace of these somewhat so hopefully we'll be trotting toward the end of the season relatively quickly from here on out no promises yet though the bonus Last of Us videos are really taking their toll but anyway with that I want to say a massive thank you to our current patrons and YouTube members who allow me to produce even more of these for you all without you there be a whole lot less of my rambling so seriously thank you thank you other than that I want to say thank you very much for watching I hope you have a great day and hopefully I'll see you in the next one bye bye

Channel: Korotos Mystery Shack

Views: 70,949

Keywords: Koroto's, Mystery, Shack, Korotos, Koroto, attack on titan, shingeki no kyojin, AoT, Foreshadowing, overanalyzing aot, overanalyzing attack on titan, attack on titan retrospective, attack on titan analysis, attack on titan final season, episode 14, attack on titan season 1, aot overanalysis, attack on titan overanalysis, SnK overanalyzing, snk overanalysis, overanalysing aot, Eren Tribunal, levi kicks eren meme, attack on titan season 4, aot season 4, aot season 1, aot 114

Id: SeN9PSf2VLM

Length: 31min 27sec (1887 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 04 2023